Ain't no partay like a Lagos partay

The last few days have been a complete whirlwind! Friday the TEF interns attended the Lagos Business School (LBS :)) Africa Conference titled "Breeding African Lions" where speakers like Mr. Dangote and Tony Elumelu spoke of the unique challenges of entrepreneurship in Africa. Jet lag set in pretty early for all of us and every one was nodding off most of the day.

Saturday on the other hand was absolutely inspiring! We spent the day at the HH headquarters hearing from host company CEOs and motivational speakers like Adewali Ajadi. It is so crazy to be in Nigeria and hear the word Africa so much more than the word Nigeria. Countries on this continent are just so much more united and integrated than others around the world (except everyone here ignores South Africa obviously). I guess if you have a small local market, you have to think big! It's also amazing how much pride they have in their culture and practices. Wali insisted on bringing Africa to the world instead of the other way around. Why shouldn't Africans wear traditional clothes to work instead of suits in the sweltering heat and wouldn't it make sense to take afternoon siestas when people are unproductive anyway? Apparently years ago some Italian farmer decided that the weather was perfect for growing tomatoes and decided to teach Ugandan farmers to grow them. Within months he had a flourishing farm of tomatoes and within days it was trampled and eaten by a herd of rhinos. What did the locals have to say? DUH! We knew that would happen? Why do you think we didn't grow tomatoes? Good story...

Saturday night was balls to the wall insane! The 15 MBA interns decided to spend one incredible night partying it up before heading off to their respective host countries for the summer. I barely remember the night but we started at Rhapsody, drove by Liquid and ended at Sip. We were pretty insular in our interactions and didn't really meet an locals - but 15 US based MBA students tend to take over most places. I do remember that the women are beautiful but unfriendly and the men are friendly but arrogant. Ain't no partay like a Lagos partay fo sho...