Mana Shah - Facilitator

Day 1 of the carnival had boosted our curiosity, eagerness and energy to catch the main parade. After walking around for a while, we finally settled in the media stand which was perched up on wooden beams to offer a good view of the parade and it was right opposite the judges point so we got to witness the best dance performances. Donald Duke-the creator of the Carnival led one of the bands and the crowd went absolutely crazy when he and his wife made their appearance! After catching the morning three-hour parade, I somehow still had some reserve energy and after some refreshments, I accompanied Roy to the Stadium where all the bands were returning after their tour of the city. They performed one last time in the stadium and this time I was right in the front on the tracks and I got excellent frontal views of the entire parade.

Donald Duke -the former governor of Cross River State started the annual Calabar Christmas Carnival in 2000 which has surely put Calabar on the international map of carnivals! The entire month of December is lined up with exciting activities including live concerts, shows, youth development programs etc . The street parades are on 26 December (Kids) and 27 December (adults). The parade starts from one point and walks around the major roads across the city and heads back to the National Stadium. Eager and often undisciplined crowds line up on both sides of the road and other clearer viewing spots (we saw some on back of a billboard). Five bands compete for the best choreography, costume, music etc and of course the overall best band trophy! Each band has about 10-12 sections of different costumes. The overall theme of 2008 carnival was sustaining the earth's treasures. There are 3-4 adjudication points where the bands are at their best to impress the judges. Luckily for u...

Drill monkeys are short tailed rainforest monkeys that survive only in a handful of places one among which is the Cross River State and are one of Africa's most endangered primates being hunted for bushmeat! We visited two conservation initiatives Cercopan (www.cercopan.org) and Pandrillus (www.pandrillus.org). Both organizations have a captive facilitates in Calabar and much larger forested areas few hours north of Calabar. Having made up our minds to wake up in a forest on Christmas Day, we headed up to Afi Drill Ranch on 24th morning. After five hours in a taxi and wahalla with our taxi driver over how much we owed him, we completed the final leg of our journey on a "machine" (what they call bikes here) meandering through a uphill and downhill muddy road. The Ranch is home to about thirty gorillas, chimps and drill monkeys and other forest animals including mongooses, parrots, pigs, eagles and others I didnt know about. The ranch has a shared full equipped cook...

Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, is a pleasant, laid back town set on top of a hill, overlooking the Cross river. It was a major port town in the East and approximately a third of the slaves were transported out of Africa through here. It is the home of the Efik people , Efik also being the language they speak here. Parts of the city house beautiful colonial buildings which were shipped frame by frame from Europe. The host family we were staying with--their house was shipped from Germany! It is also home to the 19th century Scottish Missionary, Mary Slessor who is known to be the champion for abolition of inhumane traditional practices like the killing of twins! You see her tomb in the photo below. We passed by one of the oldest churches in the region, the Duke Town Church built in 1904. Cross River state is also home to the best conservation initiatives in captive breeding of primates, one species of which is actually found only in this region in the entire world. Also ...

I am finally back in Lagos after a 14-day road trip across Southern and Eastern Nigeria. Among other things, the highlights of my trip are: watching my perfect sun set in Nigeria and getting in on camera! hit by a chimp in what he thought was a throw-catch game (luckily for me it was squishy coco-yam and not a stone!) waking up in the middle of lush green forest on christmas day finally getting to eat whole roasted fish like the one I scrumptiously enjoyed in Abuja when I first arrived in Nigeria drinking fresh palm wine (like our toddy in Kerala) watching a Nigerian hip hop artist-Tuface-live in concert staying with lovely host families who showered us with their warmth, food and protective care an excellent view of the entire Calabar christmas carnival (called Africa's biggest street party!) eating a three-course buffet dinner at a top hotel for FREE managing to squeeze in work with two GIVE member organizations