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Booking a flight when the international airport and land borders closed is difficult. We had to wait until the US Embassy announced repatriation flights. At the end of June, the US Embassy released a list of flights through mid-July that included a July 11 flight to Amsterdam on KLM. We initially tried to book the flight out of Johannesburg but was too late. By the time I could talk to Sheila about… Read More
Wow! 2019 was a very busy and challenging year! It is ending very similarly to the way it began…extremely busy and a bit unsettled! It started in the heat of the Nigerian election season. There was not much time after getting back from the US after Christmas to rest before jumping directly into Nigeria’s over the top election process. Less than a month after getting back to Abuja, over 60 foreign delegates… Read More
What is worst then having an early morning flight? Arriving at the airport before it opens! In our last day in Croatia, we were punished with a 6:20am flight. We decided to get an early start and get to the airport two and a half hours before our flight. When we arrived at the airport at 4:00am there was a crowd of people sitting outside the airport. I told Sheila that I… Read More
I always like to tell people that when I arrived in Abuja, I was only supposed to be here for nine months. I was sent to Nigeria to fill a crucial vacancy in our Nigeria office as the country prepared for the 2015 General Elections. 1,825 days later, I am still in Nigeria and I have grown a lot (including the few pounds added to my waist line). When I woke up… Read More
June 4, 2017 was the date of our first wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that it’s been a year. It feels like just yesterday we were arriving in Abuja settling into our new life as husband and wife. But 365 days later and ten countries visited during our first year of marriage, we are moving into year two of #Shentell. We wanted to share our wedding video to celebrate our… Read More
I’m sure you know the rest. But I’m not sure how taking off all my clothes will make the situation better in Nigeria. It will probably provide some relief from the heat but make me more susceptible to Malaria and other mosquito borne diseases. These are difficult times in Nigeria!…The President of Nigeria was recently out of the country recuperating from illness in London (he returned to Nigeria over the weekend but… Read More
Well hello friends! It’s me! I’m once again stuck in a Nigerian airport. I actually thought that I would have a smooth flight to Lagos to attend a program in Ibadan, Nigeria. But if you have ever read any of my blog posts, then you know that flights in Nigeria are notorious for being late, delayed and often times canceled. The state of the largest carrier was (is) in such a bad… Read More
It’s been hard waking up since getting back to Nigeria. Maybe I am still trying to shake jet lag or maybe I just miss being in the United States (mixture of both). For two weeks, Sheila and I crisscrossed Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland visiting family and catching up with friends. It was a whirlwind tour for Sheila as it was her first trip to the US and… Read More
Well, it seems that the Turkish Airlines baggage issue continued and eventually came to head when frustrated passengers stormed the runway and blocked a Turkish Airlines aircraft from departing Abuja on December 20. After arriving in Abuja and not being able to locate their bags, the passengers overran airport staff and stormed out on the tarmac to surround the Turkish Airlines plane waiting to take off later that night. One frustrated passenger… Read More
After four months of adjusting to Nigeria’s unforgiving culture and it’s often chaotic ability of accomplishing a task, I departed on Wednesday night for a well deserve three week leave. It has been one frustration situation after another! I have had to raise my voice numerous times (which is something I do not enjoy doing), my external hard drive meet an untimely death at the hands of a colleague (I was informed… Read More
A FREDAY in AFRICA! 