Dele Babalola

I was born in northern Nigeria in 1961; schooled in Nigeria up to University level and graduated as a medical doctor in 1986. I practiced medicine until when I left Nigeria in 1995 for greener pastures. I could not obtain visa for the USA or Britain or Canada since I was perceived as an economic refugee! I therefore creatively decided to try my luck in the West Indies before continuing to the United States. I took advantage of the geographical knowledge that our planet is a sphere. No matter where you started if you kept moving in a circumference you should be able to arrive at the starting point . I therefore exited Nigeria in December , 1995, bitter winter in the Northern Hemisphere. This was my first time of jetting out of Nigeria on an international trip. I journeyed by road to the Republic of Benin next door, boarded my Aeroflot flight for Moscow via Malta Island on the Mediterranean. After 2 bitter nights in Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport (named for the Russian Poet Alexander Pushkin) continued my journey through Shannon Airport in Ireland , en route to Jose Marti International Airport in Havana , Castro's Cuba. I survived three weeks of privation in Cuba before gaining entry to Kingston , Jamaica. I sojourned and worked in Kingston for about 1.5 years before moving onto Barbados where I would live and practice medicine and write from

1997 -2006.Living in the Caribbean was an unforgettable experience in many ways. My family joined me in Barbados and in 2006, the opportunity arose to further relocate to Wellington in New Zealand and then to Perth ,Australia, since 2012.