On the way to the school, I had had an idea for the presentation I would give on "Doing business in Nigeria" at a teambuilding I was going on in Norway the following week; to make it more interesting, I thought I would take pictures of the offices of the different companies/institutions which we deal with and superimpose them on a map of Ikoyi and Victoria Island.
While I was in the school, I asked Mr Morha, one of the Statoil drivers, to drive round and take the pictures since I did not have time. I took a picture of the "1004 flats" (accommodation for government employees before they moved to Abuja) next to the school to show him how it worked. Unfortunately, we when he asked the security guard at one of NNPC's offices if he could take a picture he got the camera confiscated. He called me, but no amount of arguing on the phone would get it back. I did not have time to go there and see him in person so I would have to go through the official channels.
As it turned out, it caused quite a stir. The security people dreamed up conspiracy theories about why I would photograph the "1004 flats" and then NNPC's buildings and there was a long hand-written report attached to the camera when I saw it again. They also complained officially to Statoil about the breach of protocol. I did not get my camera back for a month and only then after writing a formal apology and much grovelling! What a fuss!
That evening we were invited out to Chevron to celebrate Halloween (and a very belated 40th birthday for Peter Grootelaar). The dinner was a Dieter and Diane Letsch's house and it was amazing how much trouble they had gone to. The invitation was a work of art in itself and the house was decked from tip to toe (and I mean it literally) in Halloween decorations. There were lots of Halloween cocktails and red wine (blood, of course...) with the meal.During dinner and afterwards, when we were all suitably drunk, we played party games which were great fun.
Jeremy
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