Arrived @ Nigeria!

Hello Travellers!
I am Célestine, one of the Management Assistants , and I look forward to keeping you informed about our trip!

Yesterday we arrived at Nigeria and this was really a culture shock!
I never went to such a country before so I couldn’t imagine what is was to see the children playing on the street or even beg for money.

Once arrived at the hotel and after I unpacked my bags, I could enjoy my free time between the meetings and get to know more about this beautiful country.
Nigeria is located in western Africa and the land borders are Benin, Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Abuja is the capital of this country and we are planned to visit this city within 3 days.
Nigeria is densely populated with 170 123 740 inhabitants. On the streets and in the shops, there are people everywhere. This country has the highest population increase of Africa which I have fear for because now the streets are already crowded with people.

The name of the country comes from Niger which is the longest river in Nigeria.
Nigeria has a varied lanscape with a lot of mountains and hills located mostly in the East. The highest point of the country is the Chappal Waddi with an altitude of 2419m. When we were driving from the airport to our hotel, we saw the beautiful mountain already looming in the horizon. This is the first picture I took during our trip!

Chappal Waddi

Now something about the weather.
Nigeria has a tropical climate. On the coast it rains throughout the year, but inland there are two seasons. At this time, the rainy season is in the country, so actually when it is winter in our country, you can enjoy the summer in Nigeria. When we arrived at the airport, I immediately looked up the weather forecast on the internet and it seemed that we could enjoy the nice weather although the rainy season just began

In the evening, there was a meeting to point out the crime of this country to me and my colleagues and to ensure our safety. There are high levels of violent street crime in the south of the country. Our travel agent said that we cannot go out by night on our own. We always have to follow all available security advice and avoid carrying large amounts of cash and don’t wear valuable watches or jewellery.
After the meeting I could not sleep, so I read the newspaper and there were two articles that caught my interest and that scared me a little bit: “French family kidnapped in Cameroon” and “Bombs strike bus station in Nigeria”. At least 20 people were killed due to an Islamist insurgency. I will definitely be on my guard during the trip! 

Today we will visit some important places, so my travelling companions will keep you posted on how we experienced everything in Nigeria! 

Célestine 


Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria
- http://www.nigeriaworld.com/

3 relevant real-life examples:
- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/world/africa/suicide-bombers-strike-bus-depot-in-nigeria.html?ref=nigeria&_r=0
- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/world/africa/seven-members-of-french-family-kidnapped-in-cameroon.html?ref=nigeria
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2332459