OK, I'm posting this really late so some of these aren't terribly new, but here in Calabar 'tigs dey happen-o!' While most outgoing governors here are busy planning to leave the country, there is some nontrivial stuff being unveiled as Mr Duke prepares to leave office. Well done! [View Full Entry]

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Linus Ita is an incredibly determined person. I certainly did not meet him by chance. This strongly built man with steadfast demeanor was attending every meeting related to renewable energy he could, committed to figuring out how to bring it to his un-electrified village. He had been doing so long before I came to this country. In 1998, Linus founded a community-based conservation society to promote practices that increase the quality of life in his village while preserving the rainforest that surrounded and sustained it. In this manner, they had implemented sustainable methods of organic farming and trades such as beekeeping [View Full Entry]

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It's been hard to give an update for a while as things are quickly changing: The project I was supposed to be involved with got caught up in World Bank bureaucracy. So I've been settling in nicely, meeting a lot of interesting people, and doing an eclectic collection of things while waiting for a new project to hopefully come about. One of those things being installing a solar system in my office which One Sky generously donated when they closed their office. If all goes well, we'll be opening up Calabar's first solar internet cafe soon! Here are a couple incredibly [View Full Entry]

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My first two weeks back in Nigeria were not spent in Nigeria. They were spent in Abuja - which functions as both the capital and the antithesis of Nigeria. Shiny, freshly painted buildings and perfectly manicured grounds stretch out in front of sidewalks and perfectly paved highways - all of which are not really found anywhere else in Nigeria. This is, in part, a result of its synthetic beginnings: In order to ease North-South tensions, a capital was created in the literal center of the country. Over the past thirty years, it has been constructed from scratch to be the showcase [View Full Entry]

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Note: The auction is now closed, but please consider supporting the Council for Renewable Energy in Nigeria directly: http://www.renewablenigeria.org/donate Dear family, friends, and renewable energy enthusiasts, Recently, I've been given the opportunity to return to Calabar, Nigeria for two years. I will be working as a volunteer through VSO Canada for CREN. CREN is an emerging network working to connect renewable energy stakeholders in Nigeria. I am looking forward to learning from the people there and supporting their projects! I am also looking forward to sharing with you what I learn during this time, while keeping up with what is going [View Full Entry]

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Energy from the sun. Such a ubiquitous, inexhaustible power source, I took it for granted that, with the right technology, it would be accessible to all. My Renewable Energy Programmer internship with One Sky in Nigeria gave me the opportunity to realize that most power issues with solar had little to do with electricity. Importation problems, lack of local knowledge, and ownership issues played a much greater factor in the (non)functioning of the solar (PV) systems. I visited three organizations that had PV systems installed a few years ago to learn from their successes and setbacks, before I worked on installing [View Full Entry]

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So my new hometown of Calabar, Nigeria is a ridiculously wussy section of a country “only for the most masochistic of travelers” (thanks for nothing Lonely Planet). Calabar is the calm capital city/town of Cross River state. Right next door to the Niger Delta oil wells, this relatively conflict-free state is governed by Donald Duke, an ambitious and universally adored governor who shines against the corruption-soaked backdrop of Nigerian politics. But this relative serenity isn’t necessarily obvious at first glance. Bars and security gates stand before most windows and doors. Jagged glass and barbed wire sit atop many fences. The buildings [View Full Entry]

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Compilation of some of the phemoninal individuals I got to know here: [View Full Entry]

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Call me a nerd (I do it all the time!), but I found the infrastructure here one of the most fascinating things about Nigeria. Particularly when I was sitting in the dark with no electricity at all (ie most nights). It also made me realize how little I knew/thought about the North American grid system. Luckily, my brilliant electrical engineer of a boyfriend and many people here tirelessly worked on quenching my ignorance - for both countries. [View Full Entry]

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The day after Xmas, Calbar held its first ever holiday parade. I got a little camera happy and also took a number of movies, which give a fuller representation of the festive atmosphere. Just right-click on the link to download. Movie List (Left Click to download) These masquerade (or Ekpas) who often frequent the Calabar streets even when there isn’t a carnival going on, “scaring” people into giving them 20 Niria (~20 cents) The drumming and dancing of a group from Northern Cross River State. The energy of the parade participants was amazing. These people had been marching for 2-3 hours [View Full Entry]

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