Lagos Day 5: Kind of a tech

 This morning I woke up to a pounding rainstorm.  The hotel was leaking in a few places as I went down to breakfast.  After working for a few hours in my room to wait for the rain to pass, Kate came to meet us at the hotel and we all went to the theatre.  The hotel lobby is decorating for Christmas!

The venue is Glover Memorial Hall, on Lagos Island far SE of where we've been staying in Ikeja.  As we got off the highway, a man started running alongside the car, asking us for money. Lagos Island is one of the ritzier sections of Lagos, but the industrialness of the city and the poverty of so many of its citizens are apparent even here.  

Glover Memorial Hall is sort of diamond-shaped, with a balcony, a stage that sits 5' off the floor, and an orchestra that is all portable stacking chairs.  

We arrived at noon expecting to set up the projector, handle sound, and get right into tech. Unfortunately, the venue staff got started late and was not ready for us at noon. So, we did what we could, but didn't get started working until 5.30 or so.  The booth has big fan and an exterior door for ventilation, but they were both loud, so I kept the fan off and the door shut during tech (perpetually damp).

Once, halfway through the work-through, the theatre quickly powered down the venue to switch from generator power to municipal power.  The company continued on like it was nbd, since it was nbd - the power goes off for a few seconds at a time all the time in Lagos!  But then, at 7pm, the power shut off and stayed off.  Apparently, the venue staff were upset that we were still working way after our 4pm cut-off. I get that, but also, they came in late and cost us productivity time during our scheduled time.  So, everyone in the theatre who wasn't on-stage turned their iphone flashlights on, and the company continued their work-through in the flashlit room.

After we finished the work-through, Kate, Bryan, and I headed to Freedom Park for dinner. The park is a monument to Nigerian culture that is built on the grounds of a colonial prison.  The food was good; we took a cab ride home to get some rest!