I'm Back!

Hi! I’m back! Since my last post in 2015, it seems that blogging has really fallen out of fashion…everybody who’s anybody now has their own podcast…or at least a Youtube/TikTok channel. At first I thought it might be fun to experiment with a new medium while here*…but I fell back on trusty blogging because...

1. I’m a bit of a long-winded story-teller and there’s no telling how long a vlog/recording would take…at least with writing, it’s a bit easier for me to go back and edit out my most meandering points
2. As much as others seem to love my “deep”, “powerful”, “raspy” and “porn star” (real quotes) voice – I could not actually imagine having to listen to recordings of it to post updates, or to put myself at risk of getting ridiculed for vocal fry.
3. As the biggest proponent of podcasts since Tatiana introduced me to Start Up…even I can admit that sometimes (read: subway, toilets), it’s easier to read something than listen to it. I want y’all to be engaged. So I hope you’re ready for a long toilet break.

 *Where’s the “here”? Ah right – “here” is Lagos, Nigeria. (pronounced Lay-gos...I think) The largest city in Sub-Saharan Africa, and home of your local Nigerian prince. I will update you once I find him. I will be here for a year doing a rotation with my company (which most of you know or work at…and if you don’t know, it’s easy to find, but in the pretense of keeping this a personal blog…I won’t mention by name). And just to precept** your questions -- Tejas is staying in NYC for the year but he and I are still happily engaged. Welcome to 2020 relationships. Love you babe *eye googly emoji*

I actually...don't have a picture of me in Nigeria yet...so here's a picture of me at the UN a few days before leaving!

So buckle up and get ready to read about life in a city of 16M people without a true public transportation system, with pollution worse than Beijing, with regular blackouts, with 10%+ inflation and with inequality…oh…um…only 8 spots worse than the US***…

…that all happens to be a country that prides itself on entrepeneurship and hard work...that is at the heart of Africa’s start up and tech scene (Yabacon Valley or Silicon Lagoon), one of the top oil producers in the world, and home to Africa's richest man. A lot going on. A lot of frustrations. A lot of opportunities. Certainly a lot of material to write about (assuming I have the time).

So air quality isn't ALWAYS worse than Beijing. But on the day that it felt particularly smoggy so I decided to check...well then it was most definitely worse than Beijing.

**This word apparently doesn’t mean what I think it means. But I can’t find the word that I mean to use here. What is the word that you use to “intercept” a question and like answer it before being asked? Hmmmm.

***Wait a second…can we talk about how a country with 25% unemployment and 50% of people living in extreme poverty – the highest rates in the world – is only 8 spots below the US on the GINI Index? Like yes…I expected it to be much worse than the US. But c’mon America. Maybe this of all things could be a wake-up call?