Making the move

The who, what, where, when, why of our move to Lagos, Nigeria.

Let me first say, I have been moving to Lagos for months. And no, not just because of the logistical headaches of visas and shipping our apartment across the world. But now that I’m here and getting settled, I figured I’d start writing a bit about our life here. You know, for the fans.

Who: Me, my husband Dave, and AB Inbev.

This is our first expat experience, so for those of you who are also unfamiliar with how it works, here’s how it went for us: Dave was offered the opportunity to interview for a few roles inside of AB Inbev that were based in Africa (one in Johannesburg, and one in Lagos). Honestly, when he first brought the options to me, in my head I was 100% sure that there was no way I was letting us move to Lagos. But, trying to be a supportive partner, I told him that he should interview for both. In the end, he was offered a combination role, based in Lagos, combining two jobs into one: the CFO of the West African business, and the Head of Treasury for the whole Africa zone. Great deal for AB Inbev, huh?!

What: New York to Nigeria.

So, we decided to move.

Where: Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria.

Deep dive of Lagos (pronounced Lay-gos) is still to come, but we are living on Banana Island, which is a peninsula shaped like a banana, off of the neighborhood called Ikoyi. It’s a very protected, very wealthy enclave in Lagos, inhabited by both expats and wealthy Nigerians. It’s 100% residential, which allows us to walk around outside, but definitely separated from what feels like the “actual” city.

When: December, January, February, March.

As I said, this “move” really took place over a number of months for me, delayed by moving logistics, visa processes, and a ski month I had planned with my sister Martha and friend Elliott.

My friends are amazing, and as such, they put up with the many many times that it seemed like it might be the last time I was in NYC. There was the empty-apartment party where everyone came over to sit on the floor, eat pizza, and ended up doing segway obstacle course races through my whole apartment. Then there were goodbye dinners, and drinks, and coffees. There was the ski month! Which was completely epic and a great way to spend time with Martha before moving away. There was the couple of weeks I spent with my sister Kate, brother in law Michael, and 3 month old niece Jane, another really special time. It was a whole goodbye tour, so I figure I have to last a least a couple years here in Nigeria :)

I finally arrived on March 25, 2023.

Why: Because the world is too big to live in one place forever.

In the end, we made the decision because we had been looking for an opportunity to live abroad, and we decided to jump on the opportunity given to us, even if it wasn’t the one we expected. Or the easiest one. Or the safest one.

I will also say that I felt real loss as I left New York, despite having chosen the move. It’s cliche to say that it’s hard to leave the things you know behind, but it is hard. I’d built a real community in New York over 10 years of living there and I knew how it worked. I had my crew, knew the tech scene, knew how to find that feeling of the perfect song playing as you get off at Union Square, ready to take on the city.

But in the end, for me, it felt like there was too much world out there to live only in the US forever. I want to deeply understand a new experience, city, continent, and culture. So here we go.