I don’t normally post on Sundays, but when you’ve had a Friday as good as mine, you just can’t hold a post till the next Thursday!
Friday the 4th of December started off super early, myself and my good friend Toyosi were on the road to Lagos before some of you had entered REM sleep (yes it’s a medical reference, google is your friend) and we arrived at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers just in time for the commencement of the 19th Biennial Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria (MWAN) Lagos branch conference. As medical students we got a very generous discount on our registration fee, which for full medical doctors stood at 10,000 Naira – but this did not stop the respectable medical women from turning up in their beautiful regalia for the event.
The hall was filled with several brilliant female doctors, both young and old; the sight was inspiring. Medical students, House Officers, Registrars, Consultants, Managing Directors, all came together to review the progress of the association in its attempts at making a difference in Lagos state, listen to informative presentations such as UNCHR’s profound presentation on Internally Displaced Persons, as well as to officially swear-in the new MWAN-Lagos president, Dr. Modupe Abiola, and her executives.
It wasn’t all serious as we also took presentations from SaladMaster, which is a company that sells kitchen equipment which enhances healthier cooking methods, who gave us free tasty salads that were made live using their equipment and raw vegetables only – no salad cream – instead the presenter used the skin of a lemon to give juice to the salad, and it was nice!
Speaking of food, courtesy of the Sheraton we were provided with a lovely three course meal – buffet style!
The conference ended after 5pm with lots of dancing and merriment and I seized the opportunity to rub shoulders with the Great People of Lagos – you never know when such paths will cross again – one must take charge of their future is my belief!
After a bit of fun we began making our way to the next part of our amazing Friday – The Experience 10!
Transport to the venue was hectic – thank God for BRT lanes, we got to Tafewa Balewa Square at around 6.30pm and began the hustle for seats – the crowd was enormous! After what felt like forever (but in fact was just 15 minutes of crowd pressure) we scored sweet seats and gave ourselves a hi-five because it indeed is an achievement to get a seat so close to The Experience’s starting time of 7pm – yes it really is that patronised!
For those of you who, for whatever reason, do not know what The Experience is, it is basically the largest annual gospel concert in the whole of Nigeria. With a steady average attendance of over 700,000 people year in year out, it is safe to say that the Experience is a massively successful event. This year’s line up included: Sammie Okposo, Frank Edwards,Micah Stampley, Don Moen, Kim Burrell, Donnie Mcklurkin, Jessica Reedy, Sonnie Badu, Midnight Crew, Mike Aremu, Hezekiah Walker and Chioma Jesus – just look at that line up! Some of Gospel music’s greatest musicians all in one place – and we got it all for free! Praising and worshipping God at its peak!
There were also performances by comedians such as Ali Baba, Akpororo and Chigurl – all of which were hilarious! Some pastors also came to spread the Word and prayer points such as KICC’s Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo and Daystar’s Pastor Paul Adeyemi. The program went from 7pm to 5am the next day and the crowd was super hyped from start to finish!
The staging was awesome – lights especially! I can’t forget the flying camera that kept entertaining those of us seated higher up, which were able to produce breathtaking photos of the audience so kudos to the Media team at the Experience!
All in all, I had an amazing Friday, December 4th.
