The latest from Matt

The entrance into the Nigeria airport (Lagos, I assume)




The Ride to ????

This is an email from Matt

Yeah it was pretty crazy I guess. They shipped everyone up to Lagos so they were recounting the event to us. I guess the rebels blocked in the convoy by killing the guards then just came by and shot up every car. And no, I didn't send that to mom. Also did you hear about the clash up in the city of Jos? We didn't get too much activity here except for a couple of marches.

I arrived in Escravos today finally. Its a lot better here because they provide all my meals and we don't have to drive to work every day. I am still no closer to flying then I was in Utah. The government here takes forever for everything. I had a funny experience to get on the plane to get here. The ticket agent told me that I needed to pay him 5000 Naira ($47ish) to get on the plane because the rates went up from the time my company bought my ticket till today. Obviously that didn't go over so well with me so we had a conversation about it. He told me I couldn't get on the plane so that was the end of that. So I walked about 3 feet over and got a "boarding pass"(a hotel door key-like piece of plastic) from the guy standing right next to him, gave the first guy my goodbyes and away I went.

Every one here is looking to get tipped or bribed because it is close to Christmas. Luckily most of them take no for an answer but there are a few persistant ones. These people are borderline bi-polar. They will go from a church gathering to an all out brawl in the matter of minutes. Its funny to watch. The most interesting part of the day is the 30 min drive to work every day. The roads are crazy because they don't have stop signs or traffic signals. Also the road system was designed by the british but when Nigeria got it's independence they decided to drive on the right side of the road. So the result is that you have to drive 5-6 miles out of the way to get on the freeway and the off and on ramps become 180 degree turns. Its crazy.

I only have a few photos because I got in trouble with the security for having my camera out in view of the people. I guess he didn't want any extra attention getting drawn to us. I only managed to get a picture of the entrance to the airport and a portion of our drive to work. This is in the better part of town where you don't have to worry so much about security.

Well I had better get back to studying. Checkrides in two aircraft coming in a week so I'm hitting the books.

This is an email they received from the company he works for

This morning the 0615 hrs convoy from Eket to QIT experienced a situation that resulted in two of our colleagues sustaining injuries from gunfire targeted at the convoy.
The injured personnel Tony Yusuf Adams and Ilya Madaki were taken to QIT facility where initial medical treatment was carried out. Subsequently both Tony and Ilya were airlifted to SOS clinic in Port Harcourt for further treatment, Ilya has now been released whilst Tony while stable will require further surgery. Our thoughts are obviously with Tony at this moment and we pray for a speedy and full recovery.
All other personnel have been accounted for and are now in lockdown in the various Eket facilities. Flight operations have been suspended from QIT until a full review of the security situation as been completed.

Senior management in Redhill have been fully briefed on the situation and are offering full support to all involved. Lagos management are also in contact with MPN management regarding the situation and formulating forward action plans.
On behalf of the WASBU management team, I thank all for their support, notably the team in Eket who have performed a sterling job under very difficult circumstances.