ICT trainings with CITAD
One of the main parts of the work I am doing in Nigeria is ICT trainings with different NGOs. The first group I started doing trainings with was CITAD – the Center for Information Technology and Development, which is a Kano-based organization run by Y.Z. Ya’u (you can Google him to find his weekly column he writes on ICT in Kano). CITAD has a variety of different programs, but their current focus is on providing free or almost free trainings in a variety of basic computer skills to those who would not be able to afford similar trainings at for-profit institutions. 
They also do similar trainings all over Northern Nigeria, sometimes showing computers to those who had never seen one before, and Y.Z. serves as a focal point for IT in the NGO sector in Kano, helping national and international parties get connected with the right groups.
My trainings at CITAD covered the basics of a wide variety of topics. Together with GIIP’s Associate Director Adam Thompson, we covered topics such as Online Tools, Research and Storage, WordPress and Blogging, Data Analysis with Excel, Digital Storytelling, and a few others. My goal for most of the trainings was to show what was possible with tools already available, like Excel (Microsoft Corp. is one of CITAD’s major funders), or with free tools available online. Because internet access is so rare and expensive, many people are not up to date on all of the great Web 2.0 tools out there. Keeping up in the States is hard enough, but with the internet available in Kano it’s almost impossible.
Some of the trainings people were very interested in – especially the Introduction to Solar Power training we did with some equipment we brought from the States – but others were less relevant just due to the infrastructure issues in Nigeria. Things like a fiber optic cable off the coast of Benin being cut and causing us to lose our connection at CITAD in Kano are impossible to plan for, and the second WordPress training had to be canceled because of this. It is hard to balance between what would be incredibly useful to use, and what would actually be possible with the available resources. You simply can’t rely on having a consistent internet connection in Nigeria.
Working with CITAD was really great though, it actually reminds me a lot of GIIP. Most of the staff that conducts the trainings are in college (or would be if the strike wasn’t going on) or are recent graduates, and got most of their training from CITAD or similar groups. I am sure GIIP and CITAD will continue to work together in the future, and hopefully we can help them take advantage of Nigeria’s slowly improving internet infrastructure. They work on a wide variety of projects, and I think they would be a great group to train to keep GIIP project implementations running smoothly when no GIIPers are around.
To Kaduna and back
Last week Adam and I went with Evelyn to Kaduna, where she will be staying for most of the summe. We had some important meetings arranged along the way there and in Kaduna, but we also used it as a chance to see Nigeria outside of the chaos of Kano.
The first thing I noticed about the countryside is how incredibly flat it is. I am told at one point this was a forest, buton the whole trip we never really saw more trees in one place than you can see here.
There were lots of villages like this one along the entire ~200km trip. Huge power lines (that you can barely make out in this photo) were also always present in the distance. I was very surprised that this infrastructure was in such good condition, considering it is so rarely used. Nigerians have learned not to rely on the power grid, and even radio relay towers had generators running them.
The lack of power, and the bad condition of the roads, throughout Nigeria seems to be the main problem for most businesses, increasing expenses up and down the line. Northern Nigeria gets more sunlight than anywhere else in the world though, so they are sure to benefit from advances in solar technology if there are people willing to invest in it.
The okada drivers were also always present on the highway, and everyone seemed to be trying to make the most of the limited number of vehicles travelling long distances. Not to say the roads are clear, but for a country with 5 times the population of Cali and only twice the size there were not very many cars on the road.
About halfway to Kaduna, we stopped at the Makarfi campus of the Shehu Idris College of Heal Sciences and Technology. I will be working with Shehu Makarfi (loosely translated means he is an Islamic Scholar or Professor of Makarfi, his given name slips my mind), the provost of this campus, later this summer. We had a chance to briefly meet with him in Kaduna, but his deputy provost showed us around the Makarfi campus. I can’t say it was much different than I expected, but the campus buildings were in surprisingly good condition. It was nice to be given a brief tour and see what the staff here is working with. 
The staff here seems to have big plans for the future, but it was a little frustrating trying to figure out the difference between what they really wanted to do and what was actually possible given the available resources. They had one computer lab of about 20 computers sharing 1 VSAT connection, and every computer was being used. They also had another computer lab that had not yet been networked, but they plan for it to be used solely by the Health Information Management program. The best part of the tour was seeing students hard at work, making the most of the available resources. A great majority of the students were female, which was also good to see since everywhere else I have been seems to be dominated by males.
I am going to be working more with this campus this weekend hopefully, and I plan to design a website for them since they currently do not have one. Adam and Evelyn will also be doing a workshop on OpenMRS, an electronic medical records system supported by the World Health Organization.
Leaving Makarfi, the stark contrast between the college campus and how most Nigerians live was made very clear. This picture was taken from a bridge in Zaria, which is about halfway between Kano and Kaduna.
As always, this is probably already much longer than your attention span. You can go see all of the photos from this trip to Kaduna, and where I will be uploading photos in the future, here.
smog in Kano
The smog in Kano can be pretty insane; it took a few days to realize that it was even smog and not clouds since I have never seen smog so thick. It is the rainy season, but even on clear days you can only see blue skies when looking straight up.
PHCA, formerly NEPA, the state-owned power company, has not provided any power to Kano in ~7 days. The whole city runs on generators, and there appears to be no environmental regulation (or at least no enforcement of it) regarding cars, motorcycles, or generators.
Getting to work
But first, a few pictures I managed to upload from last weekend.
Traveling on Okada is the cheapest way to get around Kano, with prices ranging from 20 to 100 Naira ($1 = ~150 Naira) depending on how far you are going and how well you can bargain ( and getting on one in front of our hotel seems to double the price)
But in true Kano fashion, Abdul and his family offered up their horses to let us travel around the old city in style.
Riding horses through tight corridors in between houses and on 4 lane roads with loud, honking cars and bikes driving past was quite an experience, but 3 baturi riding horses around the old city with using traditional Hausa saddles caused a commotion that couldn’t be typical, even in the old city. Our entourage kept growing, and an incredible amount of children seemed to come out of nowhere to wave and shout “baturi” or simply “hello” wherever we went.
As fun and exciting as Kano is, I have managed to meet with Y.Z. of CITAD to try and see what we can feasibly accomplish this summer. I also met with Judith and others at dRPC, but they have been very busy so we will be meeting again soon to try and coordinate all of the different projects and events that will be going on this summer.
Our meeting with Y.Z. went very well, and I was glad to hear that CITAD shared some of my goals and training ideas for this summer. A few other members of CITAD also had some great ideas that I have been researching possible solutions and curriculum for.
The English language does not have words to describe…
Or ‘you never know who you might be sitting next to on an airplane’
In my preperation for this trip, I was often told that there weren’t words available in the English language to prepare me for what I was about to experience. Instead, I was told to focus on preparing myself for the work I will have to do and learning the history of the Hausa people to make my transition into working in Kano as easy as possible. I expected the cultural transition to be an experience of its own, but due to the friendliness of every Nigerian I have met, a willingness to experience all of Kano, and a little bit of dumb luck, these last 5 days have already been filled with enough exciting adventures to last an entire summer.
The benefits of a little luck and the friendliness of Nigerians started before we even arrived in Nigeria, on the flight from Amsterdam to Abuja (where we stopped before heading to Kano). Evelyn Castle ( who is blogging on her project and experiences at evelynlcastle.wordpress.com/ ) was told to switch seats for some reason, and ended up sitting next to a very nice Kano man named Abdul. Adam ( whose blog is at infoactivist.net ) and I met Abdul on the way off the plane, and during our short layover Abdul and one of his friend’s from Geneva gave us our first real introduction to Nigeria. We exchanged numbers and promised to get in touch with each other after we all got settled.
I expected to have a few relaxing days in Kano before finalizing the plans for our different projects, but Abdul was incredibly welcoming and took it upon himself to show us around the city. After just having a day to get cell phones and adjusted to the 8 hour time difference, he picked us up and we went out to lunch at one of the many Lebanese restauraunts around Kano. From there we decided to go to the old city and visit Abdul’s uncle, but by then our driver had already left. In Kano in this situation there was only one real solution: Abdul hailed down a group of okada, or motorcycles, and after some haggling over the price we each hopped on the back of one and were off to the old city.
This is where words begin to lose their effectiveness.
Bikes turned out to be very useful, because not only are paved roads uncommon, but in the old city they were a rarity. This did not stop there from being an incredible amount of cars, motorcycles, horses, and people on the smallest of roads. We managed to maneuver our way through the old city’s walls (Kano is said to be the oldest city on West Africa, and the wall looks it) to Abdul’s uncle’s house, right by some very sad looking horses. After meeting many of Abdul’s relatives, and being follwed, stared at, and having ‘bature’ called out to us by some of the cutest little kids I have ever seen, we went and saw Abdul’s uncle’s much healther looking horses. Before leaving, Abdul promised that we would return the next day to ride the horses around the old city.
We still had some more of the old city to see. We again hailed down some okada and rode to Kurmi Market, a market that has been in the same place since the 15th century. After walking around the densely packed (if there were two words to describe Kano, these might be them) market and intense negotiations over the prices of various African crafts, we were almost done for the day. We stopped by Abdul’s house, met his incredibly welcoming family, discussed our plans for Kano and the current state of Nigeria before finally heading back to our hotel.
And this has gotten really long, but that was only day 2. Abdul was not done showing us an amazing time in Kano, but in between adventuring around the city we have managed to meet with Judith, Christopher, and others at dRPC and Y.Z. at CITAD. I now have a much better picture of how I will be able to work with both of these organizations, but a more detailed description of that and of our horse riding adventure through the old city of Kano will have to wait until next time.
(and pictures / video will have to wait until I am able to get a faster internet connection)
About this blog…
From June 24 to September 10, I will be living and working in Kano, Nigeria. I will working with dRPC (http://www.drpc-ng.org/), the development Research and Projects Center, and CITAD (http://www.citad.org/), the Center for Information Technology and Development, as well as some of the LDM fellows in Nigeria. LDM stands for the Leadership and Development for Mobilizing Reproductive Health, and is a program under the International Health Program (IHP). Along with Adam Thompson and Evelyn Castle, I will be helping out on a variety of programs, teaching technology training sessions, and doing research on different aspects of using information and communications technology for development (ICT4D).
This project will try to build upon work done by Scott Reed and Adam Thompson last summer. Hopefully my documentation of this summer will be able to help future GIIP interns in creating and following through on their own projects in Nigeria. GIIP is the Global Information and Internship Program at UC Santa Cruz, and its mission is very similar to that of this summer internship – to help increase the effectiveness and capacity of civil scoiety groups through the use of information and communications technology.
I will try to update this blog at least semi-regularly, and hopefully even give you some pictures and video of Kano. So far I have just been getting settled into the Tahir Guest Palace, getting a phone (hit me up if you can afford it – 08033674975, country code 234 and drop the first 0), and trying to plan out the next 11 weeks. I already have some interesting stories, but I will save that for next time.
