A strange time to be writing about Christmas and New Year

As gunfire resounds around the city, it seems strange to be writing about Christmas and New Year celebrations, but as we are stuck on the compound under a 24hr curfew I have no excuses to put off writing this blog anymore.  Unrest has broken out again in Jos and things are unsettled but I am safe.  I will right more about what happens after things have calmed down and I have had a chance to process things.   But, now here’s what I got up to over Christmas and New Year.

Happy New Year by the way.  My second Christmas in Jos is over and I had a really great time.

The run up to Christmas felt just like last year, not like Christmas at all.  It was made slightly better by the Christmas music that I was able to buy when I was at home in September but without the cold weather and the Salvation Army band playing in the shopping centre it still doesn’t feel right.  My spirits were buoyed though when we found out that Evangel was giving us the day off on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  That meant I could join in with some of the events others on the compound were doing.

The first event was on the 22^nd Dec and that was a Nativity play out at Gyero village where City Ministries has one of its Care centres.  Lisa, who works with City ministries, had come up with the idea of the children from the ministry putting on a traditional Nativity play for the Gyero villagers, to act as an outreach.  Both Lisa and Karis worked very hard getting things to together and then on the evening of the 22^nd Dec the play was performed.  It went really well and there were a lot of people from the village there watching.  A few of us not involved in City Ministries went to watch as well and it was great fun, but typically African as we had to light the stage with handheld torches and sit on wooden benches or the floor.  The children did really well and the play was a great success.   Afterwards Dustin used his video equipment to show some films which attracted even more people.  As it was now after dark we had to stay at Gyero overnight.  So Dustin, Andreas and I slept in the Library at the Gyero Care centre and then at 6 o’clock, Tabea and I made our way along the rough dirt road back to Jos to work at the hospital.

That was our last day of work before Christmas and when I returned it was nice to be able to begin to relax.  I relaxed, but wasn’t able to rest though, as Dustin came to my door and said ‘Fancy an adventure’.  I have learnt to be careful when Dustin says something like that, so I made sure I found out quite how much of an adventure it was going to be before I agreed.  When I heard that it involved driving a 4×4 down the Gyero road I was definitely up for it and then when I heard the reason it sounded like even more fun.  We needed to get the 40 boys from the Gyero Care centre to Jos for a sleepover at one of the mission compounds.  The bus that was supposed to collect them was broken down so the next best option was Raye’s and Dustin’s 4×4s.  So we headed out of Jos and to Gyero down the rough dirt track to the care centre.  Thankfully when we got there we found another mini bus already there so that made things a little easier but I still had 15 boys in the car with me for the trip back.  Although the road is bumpy the car was not jumping around as much with all the boys in there, but we made it along the road and then headed to Mountain View compound where we would be staying the night.   That night after cooking for the 50 people there we watched Elf the Christmas film.  It seemed that the Nigerian boys didn’t really get the film as much at the Batures who were there.  It’s amazing how much we build up Christmas in the UK and US.  After the film all the boys got out their blankets and pillows and covered the living room floor as they went to sleep for the night.

The next day we did a number of different activities with the boys including games, card making, cookie decorating and other sports.  They seemed to have a great time and I enjoyed it too.  I haven’t had a chance to do youth work since I have been here in Jos and I had forgotten how much fun it is.  After lunch it was then time to take the boys back out to Gyero.  The bus was still not fixed so we had 40 boys and just the two 4×4s to transport them.  If I was in the UK I wouldn’t even think about it being a possibility but somehow we managed to fit 20 boys with all their bedding and other containers in each truck and with just about enough room to drive the car safely we headed off for Gyero.  There were 4 in the back with another 4 sitting on their laps, then 10 in the boot and finally 2 in the front passenger seat.  Dustin’s truck was so full up that he had to have one of the boys on his lap as he was driving.  It would just never happen in the UK but being here in Nigeria it seemed somehow almost normal!!  We got them back to Gyero and then returned back to Jos for a rest.

After having a shower and gathering a few things together 5 of us (me Lisa, Karis, Ruth and Emma-Louise) then headed back out to Gyero to spend the night there again.  Unfortunately, this time we had to take my car and so with 5 adults and all their stuff to stay overnight the road to Gyero was an interesting drive.  I slowly crept along the road and avoided the biggest holes and bumps but still managed to bottom out 7 times before we got to the Care Centre.

The boys were pleased to see us again and after we had dumped all our things in the rooms and eaten a quick meal we headed to Gyero Church for the Christmas Eve service.  It was supposed to start at 7pm but didn’t get going until about 8.  It was a really lively service with loud music and very energetic dancing from the children and others in the congregation.  However, it wasn’t quite lively enough for Lisa, who after a week of busyness preparing for the Nativity play and other events managed to fall asleep during the service.  I managed to stay awake thanks to the hard concrete bench I was sitting on and the lively music that didn’t allow me to sit still.  Some of the boys also found the events of the last few days taking their toll and they fell asleep leaning on to my lap.  The service went on and there were special numbers, dramas and even a cultural display of different tribes’ traditional clothing and food.  I thought that the service would end up being a midnight service, but it eventually came to an end at about 11.45pm.  We then headed back to our rooms but Ruth and a number of others from the congregation remained at the church dancing until past 1am!!

After a good but short night’s sleep it was Christmas Day morning.  Unfortunately I didn’t wake up to a sack of presents at the end of my bed but it was nice to have the peace and quiet of the village atmosphere.  We did get to wrap up presents for the boys though, ready to distribute later in the day.  After having a quick breakfast and realising that I hadn’t thought to bring any smart clothes for the Christmas morning service we headed back over to the Gyero ECWA Church.  The small church was packed with people in their new Christmas clothes so I felt a bit under dressed but we were still given special seats up at the front.  It was a lively sermon but being mostly in Hausa it was difficult to understand.  There was lively worship again and the Women’s Fellowship and Youth Fellowship did a good job when they presented their special numbers.

After the service we then went around the different houses in the Care Centre to distribute the presents for the boys and the children of the Care Centre staff.  It was nice to be able to share presents and see how even such small gifts were so much appreciated.  Finally we went to Rev. Ayuba’s house to greet and we were provided with a small lunch there as well.  Then we had to say our goodbyes and start on the road back to Jos.

As we headed out of the village I was determined to get along the road with less scrapes on the underside of my car than on the way there.  So I negotiated around the dips and bumps and managed to get to the main road with only 6 bottom-outs this time!!  I think I need to take my car for a service sometime soon!!  We headed back to Challenge to quickly have a shower and change before we then headed to the Camiola’s (a missionary family) who had invited all the singles to their place for Christmas day.  We arrived around 1pm and the remnants of brunch were still available.  Then after playing a few games and chatting we were treated to the main meal.  They had cooked a huge ham and they had all the trimmings.  It was so nice my mouth is watering even just writing about it now.  I am not sure I have had better ham anywhere, let alone Nigeria where it is difficult to come by.  So, after eating far too much we settled down for a few more games , I managed to well and truly lose Risk (I am not sure I like that game) and then we headed home.  It had been a great few days and although it didn’t feel like Christmas to start with, it did now.

I then had Boxing Day and the Sunday after to rest which was nice and then it was back to work on Monday morning.  The outpatient’s clinic was not too busy with a lot of people having travelled out of Jos for the Christmas and New Year period.  I was kept busy though by other management work.  I had to make sure we were able to purchase some new equipment before the end of the year.  I had got a quote from a company in Lagos and so just had to submit it to the hospital management for approval and then buy the other things from the Jos market.  Things did not run completely smoothly and we went right down to the line.  On New Year’s Eve I was planning to leave work at about 1 pm so we could travel down to Kagoro to celebrate New Year there.  However, at 12.30 I was still waiting for the money to be released from the finance department.  It was eventually released and so I rushed down to the market and the shop I was buying the exercise bike from and after trying my best to barter the price of the voltage stabiliser down we eventually got back to the hospital by about 1.15.  I then rushed home and collected my things and thankfully Raye was willing to wait behind for me and then we started the journey down to Kagoro.

Kagoro is about 1 and a half hours from Jos in southern Kaduna state.  There is an ECWA seminary there that some of the SIM missionaries work at and there is also a City Ministries Care centre there.  We were going to stay at the Care centre, celebrate New Year’s Eve there and then go into Kagoro town to the New Year’s Day cultural festival.  We arrived in Kagoro in good time and were able to rest in the shade before the rest of the group arrived.  We then had two choices, we could go to visit a Fulani (a tribal group in West Africa) camp or go with some of the City Ministries staff to take a couple of the girls who live at the Gyero Care Centre back to their families to spend New year with them.  I was initially keen to go to the Fulani camp, but then I heard they needed someone to drive Raye’s 4×4 to take the girls home.  Suddenly I felt a need to change my mind and I quickly volunteered to drive the truck.  So off we went to drop the girls off and greet their families and once we had done that we had to go to the market to get some provisions for our dinner and breakfast.  We went into Kafanchan market and parked the car.  The market had a really lively atmosphere to it.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it just seemed more relaxed and fun than the market in Jos.  We wandered through the market trying to keep our distance from our Nigerian friend who was buying the food, just in case the price suddenly got inflated when they saw white people!!  As I was walking past one stall someone shouted ’Hello Doctor’.  I have got used to people calling me doctor at the hospital and have given up correcting people, so I just thought it was someone who just guessed I was a doctor, but when I turned round I was greeted by a wide smile from the mother of one of my patients I have been treating in the hospital.  We greeted and wished each other a Happy New year and then I carried on through the market.  I knew that people came from a long distance to visit Evangel Hospital but it was very strange to see someone I know this far away from Jos.  After a while we had got all the food we needed but we still needed some charcoal to cook on and some firewood for the bonfire.  We went down to the area where we could get it and realised that it might be a good idea to bring the car a little closer.  So I went to collect the car and negotiated my way through the busy market streets back down to the firewood sellers.  We then had the job of wedging all the wood in the boot of the truck.  It took a while, but we eventually did it, with only a few bits sticking out through the open back window!!

We then headed back to the Care centre.  When we arrived back Dustin had already started the film show so we sat down and watched ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’.  The children from the Care Centre were there and also a number from the village as well.  It began to get quite cold, but thankfully I was being kept warm by the three little girls who were using me as a climbing frame.  After the film finished and we had eaten the food which had been prepared for us we then moved over to the campfire.  We sat around the fire keeping ourselves warm and then we started to sing songs, and then we started dancing around the fire.  It was a really amazing experience, a truly African experience.  The time passed by and then before we knew it , it was midnight and time to welcome in the New Year.  After New Year we quickly made our way to the ECWA church behind the care centre for the end of the service.  There was only a short time left but it was long enough for a group of white people to be noticed and asked to introduce ourselves at the front of the church.  We were all a bit reluctant to speak but thankfully Karis agreed to go and introduce us all.  Karis is usually never stuck for words to say but for some reason tonight was different.  When she got to the front of the church she found that most words had escaped her and after mumbling something about the campfire we had been sitting around she looked to the pastor waiting for some questions but they didn’t come so she just said ‘Shi ke nan’ (I think that is awful spelling) which is Hausa for ‘That is it’ and then she pretty much ran off the stage.  She is still trying to live that down, but it might be a while before we let her forget it, but at least she was willing to get up there I guess!!

So after the service we all gradually made our way to bed.  It was 2.30am and I was sleeping happily when suddenly I was aware of some noise.  Then I realised it was my phone ringing so I scrabbled around to find it before it woke everyone else up.  Then it stopped.  A little while later it rang again so I quickly reached to answer it.  On the other end of the phone was a familiar voice – it was Steve who had been out in Nigeria until just before Christmas but was now back in the UK.  He was surprised to hear me not the most awake and wondered why I was in bed just after midnight on New Year’s Eve.  I was a bit confused and told him it was actually 2.30 and I was in bed.  Then he was a bit confused.  For some reason, despite having lived here for nearly 4 months, he thought Nigeria was an hour behind England rather than an hour ahead so he thought I would have just finished celebrating New Year.  I gently explained this to him as best I could in a whispered voice, wished him a Happy New Year and then tried to get back to sleep.  It was good to hear from Steve, but may have been better at a different time!

The next morning, or later that morning more to the point, we were due to go to the Kagoro Cultural Festival.  We eventually managed to get everyone up and out of bed and then we made our way into Kagoro town.  The first event of the day was a parade through the town.  We managed to become part of this parade as we drove along the road in Kagoro, but we were travelling in the opposite direction so this meant we had to drive off to the side of the road.  The parade consisted of many people shouting and cheering, some wearing different outfits and others carrying various objects and pretending they were film cameras.  There were even some men dressed up as women.  A lot of the people also seemed a little, if not a lot, worse for wear from drinking too much palm wine the night before and that morning.  We saw a number of people slumped on the street and others staggering along the road with a bottle in their hand.  When people saw a car full of white people they got very excited and would come up to the windows and shout and smile and surround the car.  It was an amazing atmosphere, although some people in our group found it a little intimidating.  As we drove on we saw some of the chiefs in all their regalia, riding heavily decorated horses.  They looked very impressive.  We eventually made it into Kagoro town, parked our vehicles at the ECWA Seminary and then walked to the festival arena.  When we got there we were directed to some special seats behind some of the ‘big’ men (dignitaries and politicians etc) from where we were able to watch the proceedings.  Unfortunately the proceedings took a little while to get started and then for the morning it consisted of a number of speeches that were difficult to hear.  Then there were some cultural dances which were bright and energetic but they didn’t last long at all.  The afternoon programme was due to be more cultural dance and we would have loved to stay there for them, but the programme was running late and by the time they would likely start we would have needed to head home.  So we decided that we would make our move now.  So we headed out of the arena, back to our cars and then back to the Kagoro Care Centre.  After packing our stuff and having a quick lunch we then headed back to Jos.

With the Christmas and New Year celebrations over, it was now time for me to think about the upcoming SIM Nigeria Spiritual Life Conference for which I was organising the Youth programme.  The team from Stonebriar Community Church in Texas were arriving on 3^rd January so early on Sunday morning I headed down to Abuja with the SIM driver to collect the team.  They arrived safely and we headed back to Jos.  The next 2 days we spent visiting some of the different ministries around Jos before on Wednesday heading out to Miango Rest Home (the SIM conference Centre) to prepare for the conference.  The conference went well and the team from Stonebriar did a great job with the Youth.  The adult programme was really good as well with Charles and Hilary Price being our speakers for the main sessions.  We also had times of fun playing Commando (which involved running around in the dark throwing water balloons at ‘evil mutant aliens’ and trying to collect secret microchips) – it was great fun.  We also did other games and had times of worship.  The conference was a really spiritually enriching time but it was a little tiring too making sure that everything was running smoothly.  But, I think it was all worth the effort and hopefully the youth especially, have gained something form the activities that they did.

So after the conference it was back to work again and things were running smoothly.  It was a little bit busy at times but Atinuke (our Nigerian physiotherapist) was back from Lagos and Tabea was there as well so we had the staff to cope with it.  Then it came to this week and things have got a bit more ‘interesting’.  There have been riots in Jos again, but as I said at the beginning I will write more about this later.  However, I would really appreciate your prayers for the situation in Jos and I will keep you updated as I can.

A cat, a pig, a turkey, then three kittens… oh and another pig

It has once again been a while since I have posted a blog but this time it is not for lack of things to write about but more that I have been too busy doing things to have time to write one.  I’ll get to the menagerie of animals later, but before they all turned up I did some other things.

4×4 Adventure to Farin Ruwa

At the beginning of November a group of us went on a trip to Farin Ruwa – that is White Water Falls in English.  It is a big waterfall about 2 hours away from Jos.  We had been there once before, but the trip was spoiled by rain and the fact we had to trek for a couple of hours to get to the waterfall because the road was too bad for our vehicle.  This time we were prepared though and we had two 4×4 vehicles that could get us all the way to the entrance to the falls.  I was lucky enough to be asked to drive one of the 4×4s so once we turned off the tarred road the adventure really began.  We made our way along the dirt track which got steadily worse as we went along.  We had to negiotiate big dips and gulleys, cross through three rivers, make our way up steep rocky inclines and then after a few more tricky manoeuvres we eventually made it to the waterfall.  It was great fun and an off-road experience that I would have had to pay a large amount of money to do at home.  The waterfall was spectacular and we spent our time taking photos and films and then I threw caution to the wind and went swimming in the water for a while.  We were planning on camping there the night but then an unusual late rain started to fall so we decided that a night of sitting in our separate tents wouldn’t be that much fun so we headed back to Jos.  The next day I found an itchy rash across my stomach and I regretted having decided to swim.  The most likely culprit was the Bilharzia parasite that lives in fresh water here in Nigeria.  It gets in your skin and then multiplies in your liver and spreads through the rest of the body in the blood.  Lovely!!  It‘s too late to worry now though and I just need to make sure I take the required medication six weeks later to ward off any major ill effects.

More VIP treatment at Abuja National Stadium

A couple of weeks after the trip to Farin Ruwa a few of us made another trip.  This time we headed to Abuja to watch the final of the Under 17 Football World Cup.  I was a little reluctant to go initially after my previous experience, but Lisa eventually persuaded me and we headed down with Dan and Holly.  There was another group of friends from Jos going as well and they had a real reason to go, they were Swiss and the final was being played between Switzerland and Nigeria.  We made it down to Abuja safely and after getting stopped by the Police again at a junction in Abuja somehow Dan managed to turn the situation in our favour and got the Policeman to direct us to the hotel we were going to to pick up our tickets.  Once we had our free VIP tickets worth 7500 Naira (£30) we made our way to the Stadium.  Getting in was much easier this time, it is amazing what an official VIP sticker can do, and we were able to drive right into the stadium with minimal hassle.  We had great seats in the VIP area just below where the Vice president of Nigeria and the President of FIFA were sitting.  The match got started but the majority of the fans did not have much to shout about as Nigeria blew most of their chances with wild and over ambitious shots on goal.  Steve, who is from England, couldn’t decide who to support so he had a Swiss shirt and a Nigerian shirt and he was going to wear the shirt of the team that was winning.  After a while he decided to wear the Swiss shirt; as there were only 100 or so Swiss fans  in the stadium he realised that he would have a better chance of getting on TV if he wore the Swiss shirt!!  He got his wish as well as when the Swiss team managed to score and win the game 1-0 all the cameras were focused on the celebrating Swiss fans.  We then watched the trophy presentation before heading out of the stadium and for a quick meal at an Indian restaurant in Abuja.  After this I returned to the Guesthouse where we were staying as I had to get up very early the next day to get back to Jos for work.  Because of this I missed out on going to the after party celebration with the Swiss team at the Hilton hotel.  The Swiss people we knew were invited by the team and it seemed to be an open invitation so everybody went.  It sounded like it was great fun and they even got to hold the World Cup trophy.  I was a little disappointed not to have been there but when they got back to the guesthouse at about 1.30 and I had to get up at 4.30 the next morning for a 3 hour drive I think I made the right decision.

Now to the animals!!

The first animal we had on the compound has been with us for a while.  It is a cat that was ‘dashed’ (given for free) to Lisa by a Nigerian friend.  She was a little reluctant to have it but she didn’t have much of a choice and after a while it turned out to be good at keeping the rodents at bay.  The cat gradually got more adventurous as it grew and then, presumably in its adolescence, discovered ‘boys’.  Well I think it was more one Boy in particular that discovered her and then preceded to work his charms or more like persistence on her until he was able to have his wicked way with her!!  (As witnessed by one by Holly)  Since then there has been a number of searches on the internet to find out what and when we should expect thing to happen.  So as the cat has grown we have been waiting expectantly for some new arrivals.  More on that later.

I mentioned briefly at the end of my last blog about the second animal on the compound, the pig that Dustin used in a prank on Lisa.  Well, the pig has given us all a lot of entertainment since then.  The initial problem was where to keep the pig.  We started having it tied to a tree, but this was never going to be a long term solution and besides, it soon managed to wriggle free and roam around the whole compound.  This lead to the first farcical scene of five or so Batures trying to catch one pig.  We really had no idea what we were doing and even with the best intentions when we were faced with an angry little pig charging at us most of us got scared and chickened out of trying to grab it.  We eventually managed to subdue it by throwing a blanket over it and then guiding it back to the rope to tie it up again.  Unfortunately it soon got loose again and so spent a few days roaming free on the compound.  This made for some strange sounds on the compound as whilst I sat in the morning doing my bible study I would hear gentle oinking as the pig wandered past below my window.

We had to come up with a plan B and so George and Dustin set about building a pen for the pig.  At first look it seemed to be pretty good, by our standards anyway, but what do we know.  As soon as the pig was in the pen he set about sniffing out the weak points in the enclosure and before we had even finished taking the first photos, the pig had escaped.  Plan C was needed so we reinforced the bottom of the fence so he could not burrow under it.  It looked good, but lasted about 20 minutes and out the pig escaped again, this time through the middle of the fence.  Plan D: sturdier fencing and blankets to cover it.  ‘I think we’ve got it’ said George again.  Wrong!!  We hadn’t bargained for the agility of the pig and after a little while of scoping out the area, with one running leap, over the top of the fence he went.

We thought we had it sorted with Plan E, but then as Dustin and Andreas were standing talking outside the compound one day they looked down the road and in the middle of the busy junction right outside our compound there were three of our compound guards ushering our pig back towards the compound.  Somehow it had escaped again and then managed to get out of the main compound gate as well.

Things were getting serious now and we were running out of ideas and resources.  We ran through our head the idea of just killing it and solving the problem, but the thought of even more bacon and pork later in the year dissuaded us from that idea.  So we had to come up with more ideas.  Plan F, Plan G, Plan H… we lost count in the end but eventually we managed to cobble together a pen that was effective at keeping the pig at bay.

The Nigerians around the compound were probably a little disappointed at this as they took a lot of amusement out of watching us Batures trying to catch the pig.  Like I said earlier, we really didn’t know what we were doing and the few times that a Nigerian helped us to catch the pig they had it rounded up and back in the pen in just a few minutes.  I guess these are just things we don’t have any exposure to back at home.

So, after a while the pig settled in and we were able to source a good supply of ground corn to feed it.  We also managed to work a way of letting it roam around George’s garden so it could stretch its legs a bit more to keep him healthy and more importantly the meat good!!  We were struggling to find a name for the pig and all the obvious ones came to mind Babe, Charlotte etc but then we came up with the idea of Naman Ester.  It was originally going to be Naman Christmas but we realised that he wouldn’t be big enough by then – Naman Ester is Hausa for Easter Meat!!!  I don’t know if that is the official name, but I like it and it helps to keep things in focus so we don’t get too attached to it for when it comes to slaughter time.  I just keep thinking of bacon sandwiches…MMMM.

A few weeks later we had another new arrival on the compound.  George had made a trip to Gombe State in North-East Nigeria to visit some church plants he has been involved in there.  During the trip he made a visit to the Mai (or Chief) of Tangale.  The chief is very supportive of the work that George has done in the area and before he left the Mai gave George a turkey.  So after it had been tied down and put in a cardboard box for transport George brought it back to Challenge and added to our Challenge farm.  It was quite a big bird which was exciting, now we really had some Naman Christmas.  It was really funny to see it wandering around George’s garden and making its loud Gobbling noises.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a respecter of early morning lie-ins and the noise that it made began to become a problem.  So yesterday George had had enough.  The bird had to go.  This was the first event of our animal action packed day.

I am usually at work during the day, but unfortunately (or fortunately, I can’t decide) I was unwell so had come home from work early.  When I got back the turkey was already dead.  I then went into Lisa’s to ask her something and when I saw her cat I thought she was behaving a little strangely (the cat that is).  I asked Lisa if this was normal and when we saw strange looking stuff coming out of one end of the cat we knew something was about to happen.  We quickly got together a basket and things to fill it to make a nice soft place for the kittens to be born.  However the cat wasn’t too keen on getting in the basket, she preferred to wander around the room and try to get outside whilst Lisa followed her around trying to cover up anything that would get spoiled if a kitten was delivered on it.  We then waited around and the cat was quiet for a bit and then made noises, then would be quiet again followed by more noise a while later.  We guessed these were the contractions starting.  We waited a bit more wondering what we were going to be faced with and then we saw the first sign of things to come, an extra tail appeared at the back end of the cat!  After a while longer and some strange and strained manoeuvres by the cat we started to see the rest of the body and eventually the whole of kitten was out.  However, the umbilical cord was still attached and the cat was not very effective at removing it.  In one comedy scene the cat was standing up and trying to reach round to bite the cord but instead ended up spinning round in circles (like a dog chasing its tail) with the kitten flying round with it taking its first bungee jump on the umbilical cord!!  It took Lisa grabbing the cat to stop it spinning before it was able to work out how to reach round and bite the cord free.  So we now had another member of the Challenge Compound community.

Whilst all this was happening we heard squeals from outside, but these were different squeals to the pig that we knew.  The sound marked the arrival of our next compound neighbour – another pig.  Dustin has been getting into the farming lark and so he had bought a new pig, this time a female.  He has the plan of having more births on the compound I think.  So the pig was put in the pen along with Naman Ester and they began to get acquainted.  This seemed to involve Naman Ester pushing the new pig around a bit but after a while they settled down and seemed to become best of friends.  That wasn’t the last of the action in the pig pen though.  Then we had a visit from the vet to administer some vaccinations to both the pigs.  This led to more squealing from the pigs and much laughter from those who were ‘helping’.

Now back to the cat.  With one kitten successfully delivered the cat was having a little rest but it was not long before, having found a nice place to hide under the sofa, another new arrival started to emerge.  This time was much quicker and it was out and detached before we noticed and this time without any whirligig spinning!!  Then, maybe five minutes later, the third, and what turned out to be final, kitten arrived.  The kittens started to make cute little meaows which reassured us that they were still alive but seemed to freak the cat out a bit.  She didn’t seem to know what to do and just sat looking from kitten to kitten.  The kittens seemed to know what to do though and they were making their way to the cat to have their first meal.  The cat did not help with this though as she sat on her stomach leaving the kittens to suckle unsuccessfully on the side and legs of the cat.  After a while we decided we needed to help with things and being careful not to touch the kittens we ushered them closer to the cat and then they managed to find their way to the correct location in order to get a well earned meal.

We could all now sit back and relax.  That was until it was time to give the pig its eyes drops!!!   The vet had prescribed some eye drops for an infection that Naman Ester had and told us we had to give it twice a day for 7 days.  Sounds simple…doesn’t it??!!  Thankfully Steve and Dustin were feeling up for the challenge and Steve did an amazing of job holding down Naman whilst Dustin squirted the required amount if medication into the eyes.  The pig was going mad and squealing like something we had never heard.  It wasn’t working completely so we had to resort to both Dustin and Steve holding the pig whilst I administered the eye drops.  We got at least a few drops in and then that was it.  We then just had to usher the new pig back into the pen – in all the commotion the pig had made a bolt for it and crashed through the small gap where we had not closed the gate fully.  Thankfully chasing the pig was not too difficult this time, we must be getting better at it, and it was soon back in the pen.  Now we could rest.

So the last few weeks have been interesting with a definite finale of activity yesterday.  We now have a cat, two pigs, 3 kittens and a Turkey (dead and soon to be gone after our Christmas party tomorrow – Yum Yum) on the compound, oh and don’t forget the 10 SIM missionaries as well!!!  It’s fun living in Africa!!

I’ll try to put up a gallery of photos soon!!

Survived Lagos!!

Wow!!  This is the longest gap I have had since writing a blog update.  Things have been a bit busy here and outside of that nothing much blog-worthy has happened.  I made it back from the UK safely and soon settled in to life here again.  Then things started to get busy as I had to plan a trip to Lagos.

Lagos is renowned as one of the busiest cities in Nigeria, if not the whole of Africa.  My last and only previous experience of Lagos was during my trip, after Christmas last year, to Ghana; and that wasn’t the best experience (see ‘Ghana – Must Go!!’ page for details).  In fact I only spent about 12 hours there in total and that felt like enough.  So I wasn’t cherishing the thought of having to spend 4 days there in order to attend the Nigerian Society of Physiotherapy (NSP) Conference.

Deborah, the head of department, is pregnant and so was unable to make the trip to Lagos.  This meant that I was asked to go instead.  Despite my reservations about spending time in Lagos I felt it would be a good for someone  from the department to go and it would probably be helpful for me to be able to understand some more about Physiotherapy in Nigeria.  So I agreed.

Now I had to plan the trip.  After experiencing the coach journey to Lagos once before I decided that although more expensive, flying would be a better idea.  It was probably also safer as I would be travelling on my own and it would mean I could spend less time in Lagos.  So I got the flights booked and liaised with Kulthoum from the conference organising committee who was very helpful in arranging accommodation and allaying my fears about getting stranded alone in the chaos of Lagos.

The conference ran from 27^th-31^st October so on Tuesday 27^th I headed to Jos Airport and made my way to Lagos.  When I arrived I was met by Kulthoum who took me to LASUTH (Lagos State University Teaching Hospital) and then after to my hotel.  This was when I got my first experience of Lagos traffic.  I don’t know how far we travelled, but not very far and it took us about 1 and a half hours to get to the hotel.  The plan was for me to check-in, have a shower and then head back to the cocktail reception at LASUTH for 6pm.  But, when we eventually made it to the hotel it was already 5.45 and so I thought it probably would be best just to check-in and then leave otherwise the welcome cocktail reception would be over before we made it back.  When I thought about it afterwards, I should have had a shower as in effect now we had just spent more than 2 hours just to drop my suitcase in my hotel room.  Anyway, we made it to the reception by 6.45 and then after a few drinks and a chat with some of the other delegates I headed back to the hotel, this time getting there in about 45 minutes.

The next day was the presentation of scientific papers at LASUTH.  We had to leave by 7 and it took about 30 minutes to get to there.  After a day of different lectures we finished at about 6pm and then it was back to the hotel.  Again it took about 30 minutes to get back.

Thursday was the big celebration day and opening Ceremony.  This was the 50^th Anniversary of the founding of the Nigerian Society of Physiotherapy so a big event had been planned.  It was to be held at the National Arts Theatre and the Governor of Lagos State was due to be there.  The hall was decorated in the NSP colours and there were people from whole the history of physiotherapy in Nigeria, including the first ever African physiotherapist.  The event went well with typical Nigerian time keeping but we did finish on time at least.  I managed to get back to hotel by 6pm so I enjoyed a relaxed evening making the most of the TV in my room, not that there was a huge range of channels, but it was TV!!

Friday was scheduled for the NSP AGM in the morning, then time in the afternoon to go on a tour of the tourist sights of Lagos and then a celebration meal at the Sheraton hotel at 6.  Well, once again we were working on Nigerian time and the AGM didn’t start until about 11.30 and I left the AGM at about 6.15!!!! after I had been sworn in as an Official member of the NSP.  I then had to rush back to the hotel to get changed and then make it to the Sheraton.  Unfortunately, thanks to, you’ve guessed it, Lagos traffic I didn’t get there until about 8.30 and by then a lot of the food was gone, but there was still enough to fill myself up.  Then I was dragged up onto the dance floor by one of the Fellows of the NSP.  I usually quite like a bit of a dance but when everyone is looking at the only white man in the room and all the cameras (including the TV ones) are pointing at you it is difficult to feel completely comfortable.  But everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves so I just smiled and got on with it.  I don’t know if my dancing moves made it to the TV that night, perhaps it’s best I don’t think about it!!!

So that was the end of the conference.  I made it back to my hotel, packed my things and then early the next morning I headed to the airport.  My flight wasn’t until 11.55 but in Lagos on the last Saturday of the month there is street cleaning between 7-10am and all the roads are closed.  This meant I had to get to the airport before the shut-down so I ended up arriving at 6.45.  I could have waited until afterwards, but after experiencing the Lagos traffic I thought it was too much of a risk to try and get there in time!!  So, I waited around and then eventually boarded the flight and made it back to Jos by 2pm.  Home at last!!!

So what was so bad about Lagos?  Well, it was not as bad as I thought and probably could never have been.

The conference was well organised despite the typical Nigerian timings and it gave me a valuable insight into Physiotherapy in Nigeria.  So it was definitely worth the trip to Lagos.

The weather was hot and humid as I had expected, but it turned out that rather than being hot and sweaty all of the time I actually wished I had brought some warmer clothes.  Everywhere I went the air conditioning was on its lowest setting and at times I was on the verge of shivering!!  So that was a nice surprise.

The food at the hotel was excellent and that provided at the conference was good too.  So I didn’t go hungry.

The traffic.  Now this is where I start to sound more negative.  There is so much to say about the traffic, mainly because there is just so much traffic.  It’s chaotic!!  I don’t know how people manage to live in Lagos for any length of time, it would drive me mad – literally.  There is no way you can plan your schedule accurately because you have no way to telling how long it will take you to travel from one place to another.  The times I travelled from my hotel to LASUTH it took anywhere from 25 minutes to almost two hours.  It was so frustrating.  Sometimes it seemed like there was no reason for the traffic apart from the sheer number of cars crammed in to such a small place.  Sometimes the traffic was just caused by the fact that all the cars had to slow down to negotiate the huge craters in the middle of the road at certain places.  Other times it was that a junction that should probably have just two lanes had been made to have four lanes by all the cars squeezing through trying to get to where they wanted to go.  It seems to me that there is no solution to the problem, unless they knocked the whole city down and started again, or just banned all cars completely.  What made me really laugh though, was when I realised that a lot of the motorbikes had their handlebars bent upwards, I guess so that they could squeeze through even smaller gaps than they usually do!!  But that wasn’t as funny as when I saw people getting into a taxi bus.  Apparently, the taxis don’t stop to pick up customers and so whenever they slow down enough the would-be passengers have to sprint across the road and dive in the open door before the taxi has moved on.  There is then the comedy scene of everyone in the taxi trying to reposition themselves so they are actually sitting somewhere near a seat and are somewhat upright.  I am so glad I didn’t have to do that.  Thankfully Kulthoum arranged for Ifeanyi (a physio student from Lagos who was attending the conference) to help me with my transportation.  He arranged for a private taxi to pick him up from his flat before coming to pick me up from my hotel to go to the conference and then the opposite on the way back.  This was such a blessing as it made travel much more straightforward for me, apart from the traffic that is and there’s nothing you can do about that.    Although Jos can be busy at times, it has been a joy travelling on the roads here in the last week, I have got to work in less than 15 minutes every day!!

So as I said, it was definitely worth the trip to Lagos but the traffic just put a downer on the whole experience.  Would I go again?  It will need to be a good reason and I might see if my budget stretches to flights around Lagos as well as to it!!!

Back in Jos, work has been quite busy.  Deborah is now on maternity leave which leaves me as Acting Head of Department and having to deal with all the paperwork and procedures etc.  What fun!!  I think it will take me while to get used to.  Hopefully I will be able to get my head around it all so I can work on some service development things as well.

On Challenge compound we have a new resident.  He/She is yet to be named but suggestions include Wilbur, Babe, Bacon and my personal favourite Naman Christmas (Christmas meat in Hausa).  We have a pig on the compound.  It was all part of a prank that Dustin played on Lisa when she got back from a visit to the UK.  She got back to her flat to find a pig inside.  Apparently thanks to the tiredness from the flight her reaction was not all that spectacular so Dustin was disappointed.  But I am still happy.  We have a pig to eat all our food scraps and then we get bacon, pork and Ham for Christmas (well maybe Easter as its only a little thing at the moment!!)

So, life goes on here with its typical mix of normality (well that’s what it has become for me) and the odd strange occurrences.  I don’t know what my next blog will be about. We will just have to wait and see.

Tear gas, shots fired and over 70,000 unhappy Nigerians

The tear gas was real, but thankfully the only shots fired were on the pitch during the Nigeria vs Tunisia World Cup qualifier match at Abuja on Sunday night.   Unfortunately, after a 2-2 draw Nigeria are left with just a very slim chance of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, hence the 70,000+ unhappy Nigerians!!

I was thinking the other day that I should write another Blog update, but then I thought that actually nothing particularly interesting has happened recently so I haven’t had anything to write about.  However, after an eventful trip down to the National Stadium in Abuja I now have some stories worth sharing.

We found out on Friday night that another of the missionaries in Jos had some spare tickets for the Nigeria vs Tunisia match and wondered if we wanted to go.  So after deliberating over whether to spend the extortionate amount of 500 Naira (approximately £2) to get in to watch an international football match – it didn’t take long to decide!!! – we made plans for the trip to Abuja.

Victor, a Nigerian who works for City ministries, agreed to drive us down there and we left Jos at 11am on Sunday morning to get to Abuja for the 5pm kick-off.  We made good progress and despite some very heavy, and very Nigerian traffic (we were very pleased to have Victor to negotiate/force his way through the mass of cars moving in all directions – some even doing u-turns and driving down the wrong side of a motorway!!) we made it to the centre of Abuja.  We were due to meet the other missionaries with our tickets at the Hilton hotel.  The roads of Abuja actually have some working traffic lights and then sporadically at other junctions there are police controlling traffic.  We were heading to the hotel and as we approached one junction wondering whether the traffic lights were working, whether there was a policeman there or whether we should just negotiate the traffic on our own we just about saw a single policeman in the middle of the three lane junction raise his hand for us to stop.  Unfortunately, Victor didn’t see him until too late and by the time he had braked the car stopped in the middle of the junction.  Thankfully the traffic in the other direction had not started moving, but the policeman was not very happy.  He ran over to our car and told Victor to pull over.  Then, from nowhere four other policemen appeared and all wanted to join in the interrogation.  They went through the usual asking for papers, licence etc and wanted an explanation for Victor’s driving.  It was difficult to know what to say and how to put our point across.  It is pretty difficult to see one small policeman in the middle of a three lane wide junction when you are driving round a city you are not used to.  Anyway, it didn’t really matter what we said, they were set on ‘booking’ Victor for dangerous driving.  We managed to phone Carston the other missionary we were supposed to meet and after a bit of negotiation we agreed to meet them along with the policemen (who piled into the back of our car!!) at the Hilton.  Once we got there we met with Carston and his family and Carston took up our case with the policemen.  After about 10 minutes of negotiations they came to a settlement.  We paid the police a 4000 Naira ‘fine’ and then we could go on our way.  The less said about that the better!!!

So, we were finally on our way to the stadium.  The traffic was pretty busy and we were guided to a motorway slip road where we were told by the police we could park our cars!!!  As we got out of the cars and started to walk we were greeted by various Nigerians who were very pleased to see that we were supporting Nigeria.  I was even interviewed by someone for a newspaper.  So I may have even appeared in print somewhere by now.  Unfortunately, my predicted result was wrong so I hope I didn’t make the cut.

Crowds and Tear Gas

Anyway, we had about a 10 minute walk to the stadium – well, it would have been 10 minutes had there not been large crowds of people and police firing tear gas!!!  This was a particularly bad turn of events given that Carston had his three boys with him, the oldest being about 7 years old.  Once the tear gas had cleared we made our way to one of the gates.  Carston went to speak to the man behind the gate and he was told we needed to go to a different gate with the tickets we had.  This didn’t please Carston as the other gate was the other side of a cloud of tear gas.  He asked the gate guard, did he really want to make his children walk through the tear gas?!  This seemed to persuade the guard and he took our tickets and reluctantly let us through along with a number of other Nigerians who surged forward when the gate was opened.  We then walked up towards the stadium along a path that was down wind of the cloud of tear gas!!  It is not a pleasant feeling to have your throat and eyes stinging with the irritation of the tear gas but we had to press on and covering our mouth and nose with whatever we could find we made it to a second gate.

Tear Gas

When we arrived there were just a few people at the gate but the numbers quickly grew and we soon found ourselves in a crush of people jostling and shouting at the gate guards to let them in.  The guards were insisting on people having tickets, but we didn’t have ours – they were still with the guard on the first gate.  The crowd was getting more agitated and then as the crowd continued to grow they decided to take things into their own hands.  Well more precisely, the fence into their own hands as they clambered over it!!!  This lead to the guards on the gate giving up their protests and the gate swung open and we could go through.  Unfortunately, we found out that in the melee both Carston and Victor had had their wallet stolen and Karis her phone.  I was glad that I had made a point of keeping my hands in my pockets when we were in the crowd.

We were then in the stadium, but with no tickets and thanks to the large numbers of others without tickets, there were no spare seats either.  All the seats were full and each of the steps leading down to the front of the stadium were occupied by five or six people sitting down and that is not mentioning the rest of the people standing in any other available gap that had a view of the pitch.  The stadium has an official capacity of 65,000, but there must have been more like 70,000 if not 75-80,000 people in there.  As we were considering our options a well dressed Nigerian lady spoke to Carston and asked what tickets we had, he explained our problem and she expressed her concern that it would not be safe for the children to be in the main stand.  She told us to follow her.  We didn’t know where we were going, but we followed anyway and then she made her way to a small door at the back of the stadium.  We followed her through the door and then found ourselves in one of the private executive boxes where she told us to take a seat.  In the box there was food and drink, comfortable seats with a great view of the pitch and even one of the cleanest toilets I’ve seen in Nigeria.  We sat down, not believing our good fortune, but after a while we were ushered out of the box as the people who were supposed to be there had arrived.  But it wasn’t long before we made our way into another box that was exactly the same, but with a slightly better view of the pitch!!  We made ourselves comfortable, which wasn’t difficult, and then got ready for the match to begin.

Match Underway

The match got off to a slow start but then the crowd went wild after Nigeria scored the first goal.  The celebrations didn’t last long though as before the crowd had stopped cheering and sat down Tunisia equalised.  With only about 50 Tunisia fans in the stadium and the rest Nigerians the stadium was particularly quiet for a while.  Then half time came and there was a rest from the action on the pitch.  Instead our attention was drawn to the action in the crowd.  It was interesting to see how people could move out of their seats and up the stairs to the toilets or wherever they wanted to go with 6 people sitting on each step.  In fact they couldn’t really move at all and so this lead to more pushing, shoving and shouting, then some raised tempers, then more pushing and shoving and then throwing of water over people to calm them down – it had the opposite effect.  All this was quite amusing to watch in a way, but only because we were safe in our own little executive box, with our own drinks and our own toilet.  I tried my best not to look smug!!

So the match went on and the crowd got a little louder and then they were rewarded for their support as Nigeria scored again.  The crowd went wild again and this time the celebrations could go on for a bit longer.

Crowd Celebrating

The clock ticked past the 90 minute mark and Nigeria were winning 2-1.  But thanks to some more very lazy defending the Tunisian team managed to equalise with only a few minutes left.  So the game finished 2-2 and leaves Nigeria hoping that Tunisia lose their remaining games and Nigeria win theirs.

So, the game was over and we had to think about leaving the stadium.  What adventures would this bring we wondered.  Then one of the Nigerian men in the box with us told us to wait for a while as there were too many people outside and we wouldn’t be able to get his car easily.  So after about 20 minutes or so we went out the back door and were lead to an air conditioned mini bus which we piled into and we were driven off to where we had parked our cars.  Although the cars were not far away, it took quite a while to get there as we had to drive around the whole stadium with loads of traffic everywhere.  But we didn’t mind too much as the air conditioning was good and we were still in a state of unbelief at the unexpected VIP treatment we were receiving.  We got to our cars, thanked the driver very much and then made our own way through the traffic jams to eventually reach the guest house where we were staying for the night.

Next morning we got up early and left the guest house at 6am and after an uneventful return journey we were back in Jos by 9.30.  It is amazing how much you can fit into 22 and a half hours really!!!

The rest of the week so far has been pretty uneventful, apart from the new Nigerian physiotherapist starting work at Evangel.  The rest of my time has been taken up by preparing for my trip back to the UK next week.  But before I do that I will be travelling to Steyr in Bauchi State for the weekend.  This should be fun as there is a group of us going from Jos and we are planning to visit Yankari National Park and maybe a Giraffe Park as well, not to mention swimming and playing games.  I might write a blog about what I get up to, but I probably won’t have time before I travel home.  So, my next blog may be written from the UK, which will be strange, but having said that I will probably be too busy eating food, using 24hr electricity and catching up with friends and family at home to have time to write a blog!!!  So ‘Sai wata rana’ or ‘until sometime’.

One year gone and two dead chickens

It’s hard to believe, but I have now been in Nigeria for a year!!  Time has flown by and it seems like a long time in some ways but very short in others.  It feels like I have done a lot but also that there is still a lot to do.  It is strange to think that around this time next year I will be leaving Nigeria to return back to the UK.  (I found it interesting that as I was writing the last sentence I initially used the word home, but then I changed it to ‘the UK’.  When I thought about this I realised that although the UK is and will always be my true home, Jos, Nigeria now definitely feels like home as well.)

I decided that it might be good to read through my blogs from the last year to remind of the things I have done.  But when I saw how much I had written I decided that might take too much time (now I know how you all feel!!) so I looked at all the titles instead to see what sort of story of the year that gives.  I have done some interesting things and written some hopefully interesting blogs.  I hope you have enjoyed reading my blogs and thank you to those of you who have left comments.  I hope to continue with the blog for the next year at least and hopefully it will be a good record of my time here in Nigeria.

Right, enough with the nostalgia, onto the two dead chickens!!!

Warning!!  Two chickens were harmed in the writing of this blog so if you are squeamish or an ardent vegetarian you may want to stop reading here.

There is a great group of young single missionaries here in Jos and we have a really good time socialising together.  We have meals together, play sport, have worship sessions, go on trips and play silly games with some unfortunate forfeits (more on that later!!).  The missionary community is a vital part of missionary life here as although we are all keen to engage in the Nigerian culture and get to know the Nigerian people and to serve our local community, at times, this can be hard and tiring work.  It really helps to be able to relax and unwind with people who are facing the same struggles as you and who can understand what you may be feeling.  This then enables you to throw yourself into your work with renewed energy.

Recently we have been playing a game called Farkle.  It is basically a dice game where you have to reach a certain score and the way we have played it is that the person in the group who is the last to reach the score has to do a forfeit.  So far I had managed to avoid the forfeit but last time I wasn’t so lucky.  The forfeit was to kill, pluck, gut, prepare and cook a chicken for everyone to eat.  When I first heard the forfeit I didn’t think it was too bad, in fact it was actually something that I wanted to do at some point before I left Nigeria.  So as we were playing the game I was able to take more risks than the other players, they didn’t really pay off and I ended up losing.  We played the game on Friday night and the slaughter was scheduled for Saturday lunchtime.  So, after the game I headed home and consulted my ever faithful source of knowledge – the internet!!  It is surprising the number of links that come up when you Google ‘How do I kill and gut a chicken’.  As ever, some were more helpful than others but I did find a good site with written instructions and pictures, which I was thankfully able to print out as there was NEPA at the time.  Although I was sort of looking forward to killing the chicken I was concerned about attempting and not managing it and having a half dead chicken.  That lead to a restless night as in my head I repeated the neck wringing technique over and over again to make sure that I put the chicken through as little stress as possible.  Eventually the morning came and the worst part of the forfeit – having to get up early so I had time to go down to the market to buy the chickens.  I recruited my Nigerian friend, Monday, to come with me to make sure we got two good chickens and at a good price.  So at the market we went to the chicken sellers who have pairs of chickens laying on the floor with their legs tied to each other.  It was early morning and obviously feeding time for the chickens as the stall holders were forcing big lumps of what looked to me like mud, but I guess it was some sort of grain feed, down the throats of the immobile chicken.  They didn’t seem to mind too much, but I guess they didn’t have much choice!!  I had decided I would buy two chickens as one chicken probably wouldn’t be enough for the group of us and also that way I could see a demonstration of the slaughtering technique performed first by Monday before I had to do the deadly deed myself.  So Monday bartered for the chickens and got two apparently big birds for a good price.  I then carried them by the feet along the street and put them into the boot of my car.  We then took Florence and Mathilda (those were the names I gave them) off to play Frisbee.  The two birds were not that great at Frisbee so they just stayed on the sidelines, probably wondering what the day ahead had in store for them.

When the game finished it was time for the slaughter to begin.  We made our way over to Kari’s house and made the preparations.  Monday took Florence and prepared everything.  He wanted a knife and I assumed he was going for a clean cut to chop the head off in one go.  But apparently that is not the best way to do it and so he proceeded to slowly cut through the neck of the chicken catching the blood in the pre-prepared hole he had dug in the ground.  Most of us watching were not too happy with this method of slaughter as it was obvious the chicken wasn’t dead for quite a while after the first cut had been made, but eventually the job was done and Florence was no more.  Now it was time for Mathilda to meet her maker and it was my job to send her on her way.  I read through the instructions once again.  I was definitely not going to do it the way Monday had showed us so I readied myself for the neck breaking technique.  As I said earlier, my main concern was that I wouldn’t do a good job and the chicken would be left only half dead, so I gritted my teeth and readied myself for the execution.

I was given a five second countdown and then in one rapid movement I pulled the head away from the body and as explained in the instructions heard and felt the click of the neck as it dislocated.  I was able to relax as I was certain Mathilda was dead and had suffered as little as possible.  To onlookers Mathilda looked far from dead though as her wings flapped furiously with the reflex reactions that accompany the disconnection of the brain from the spinal cord.  Unfortunately, we were unable to see what running round like a headless chicken actually looks like as due to the way they had been kept in the market, neither Florence nor Mathilda were able to run before they were dead let alone after!!

So, now the two birds were dead it was time to pluck the feathers.  This involved dunking them in a bowl of almost boiling water and then pulling the feathers out by hand.  This was pretty easy except for the heat and despite a few rather embarrassing girly yelps as too much water went on my hands we managed to clear the skin.  It was surprising how quickly the chickens went from looking like dead animals to a piece of meat.

Now we had to move onto the gutting part.  I was a little concerned about this as I didn’t want to go through the whole process and then spoil the meat by getting guts all over it.  But thankfully Monday knew how to do this as well and he was able to talk me through the process.  We did it in a different way to what I expected.  We first used a knife to cut off the wings and legs and then we were just left with the main body and the guts.  We cut it open and being careful not to disrupt the gall bladder (which would have ruined the meat) we removed all the organs.

Eventually after about 2 hours we were finished and the meat was ready for the barbeque.  The meat tasted pretty good.  However, the foot that I ate wasn’t that great – I guess it is probably not really classed as meat though, more like skin and bone so it is probably not surprising.  Karis and Kari shared one the heads between them, I’m not sure that was too good either!!

The whole process was interesting, fun and essential if you want to eat meat.  Having said that, it was a little worrying that I enjoyed killing an animal so much, but I guess the whole process is just part of life that most of us from the developed world don’t really have reason to experience.  It was a long process though and despite it being cheaper to buy the chicken alive and go through the whole process of killing and gutting etc I am not sure it is worth the cost saving.  However, the process made me more appreciative of where my food comes from.    It made me realise the way in which God has created this world and given us different plants and animals that we can eat as food.  When we just go to the supermarket and take what we want off the shelves and quickly cook and eat it, it is easy to be oblivious to what has gone on before and to forget how that food was provided in the first place.

So, I think I will leave killing and preparing chickens to someone else in the future, but I wonder what other new experiences I will have in the year to come.  Keep reading the blog to find out!!

In prison with son of a New York Mafia boss

I have done quite a few strange things since being here but this one to me sounds the strangest.  The Sunday before last I was escorted by uniformed men through the gates of the biggest prison in Jos along with the son of a New York Mafia boss.  Thankfully, it wasn’t that I had been caught on the streets after the 11pm curfew and had been arrested and thankfully, the son of the mafia boss was actually John, one of the other SIM missionaries!!!  So it wasn’t as dramatic as it may have seemed, but still not something I thought I would be doing on a sunny Sunday afternoon the week before last.

We were visiting the prison with a number of other missionaries as part of a City Ministries team.  City Ministries is an organisation set up by some SIM missionaries originally to care for street children, but now it is run jointly by ECWA (Evangelical Church of West Africa) and SIM and along with a large amount of work with street children and children at risk they do evangelistic outreaches.  I guess maybe this should have been called an inreach rather than an outreach, but anyway, whatever you call it the plan was that we would go into the prison have a short church service and then John (the Mafia boss’ son) would give his testimony of how he became a Christian.

We met outside the prison, left our mobile phones in the car and then went through the main gate.  There we waited whilst everything was sorted out.  We were supposed to be given ID badges but then the prison guards realised that actually there were not any white prisoners in custody so the only ID most of the team needed was the colour of our skin.  It was interesting to find out that at one point there had been an English man in the prison.  I didn’t find out why he was there but I did think that he would probably have really regretted whatever he had done after he had spent some time there!!!  So the Nigerians in our group were given ID badges and then we waited as the guards prepared for us to enter the main prison compound.  As we were waiting we looked at the whiteboard that showed the number of prisoners within the prison at that time.  The prison is supposed to be able to hold over 1000 inmates but at the moment there were around 500.  On the board the inmates were broken down into the different categories.  The largest number was made up of people awaiting trial and then there were a number of sentenced criminals, some ‘lifers’ and then over 100 ‘CC’s.  When I asked what CC meant I was shocked to find out that it stands for Condemned Criminal, so basically those on Death Row!!  What was even more shocking was that, despite the separation of prisoners on the whiteboard, there didn’t seem to be any segregation of the actual prisoners themselves.  So in the main courtyard of the prison it seemed that people who could have been innocent and were just awaiting trial to prove this were mixing with those who had been convicted of some of the worst crimes and were awaiting the death sentence!!

If there was no separation in the courtyard there was definitely no separation in the small chapel within the prison.  The seats were soon filled with inmates keen to come to worship God, or in the very least interested to see what all these Batures were doing here and what they had to say.  We started with some worship songs with the inmates singing with great enthusiasm and the drummers marking the beat with typical African gusto.  Although I couldn’t really work out what they were singing but I did my best to join in and at least La’d along.  Then Ray, the team leader, introduced John to the congregation.  As I said, there was really no segregation within the chapel so much so that the inmate translating what was said into Hausa was one of the Condemned Criminals.

John gave a really powerful testimony of how he had grown up as the son of a New York mafia boss and the lifestyle that went with that.  He then told about how after his dad had been arrested and put in prison his life changed.  He ended up going to church although to start with the main reason was because there were good looking girls there, but after going to a Billy Graham event he gave his life to Christ and became a Christian.  He then told of how he struggled through Bible college, which he didn’t think he was ready for and how he was helped by his now wife to make it through to the end.  He finished by saying how he had come to be in Nigeria working as a missionary.

It was an amazing story of how God called this man from a background like he had to be a missionary in Nigeria.  It seemed to me that this story struck a chord with some of those in the congregation and it was amazing to me to hear of the great ways in which God works.

A great light show

During the week after the visit to the prison we had some more interesting weather.  Nothing was quite like the hail storms that we had before but the lightning storm was pretty impressive.  I am told that Jos has the greatest number of lightning strikes per square kilometre anywhere in the world; it’s apparently due to the high levels of tin in the soil.  As I watched the atmospheric light show I wasn’t disappointed, but I did get round to wondering how photographers get those amazing pictures of lightning.  I then decided, why not give it a go myself.  So I got my camera and tripod out and after a lot of clicking and adjustment (and a lot of black pictures!!) I managed to get some shots I was pleased with.  See what you think of them.

The ironic thing is that this blog may have been sent out a bit earlier had the satellite dish that we get our internet connection through not been hit by lightning a few days ago.  Although it makes for some good pictures, lightning is pretty dangerous stuff, as I can tell from news I read in the BBC website about the boys in the UK who were struck by lightning.

Farmer Matthew??

This last weekend was not quite as exciting, although it was tiring.  The Youth Fellowship at ECWA Seminary Church, of which I am part, are trying to raise funds as their account is empty and so they are offering their services for domestic and non domestic work.  This Saturday we were given the task of clearing one of the missionary’s gardens and doing some farming.  I wasn’t too keen on joining in as the work was supposed to start at 7.30am.  However, I managed to motivate myself to forego my Saturday lie-in and game of Ultimate Frisbee and was actually the first one there.  I met the Youth Pastor and we headed to the house where we were doing the work.  The rest of the Youth gradually arrived and we were then instructed as to what needed to be done.  The pastor advised everyone to do what they were happy doing and he particularly emphasised this to me.  People in Nigeria are always amazed and concerned when batures do any type of manual work as if it something we have never done before.  To be fair though, there probably aren’t many batures in Nigeria who do actually do manual work; most can afford to get someone else to do it, so perhaps it is a fair assumption.  Despite wanting to prove that I could work as hard as anyone else I did draw the line at doing the farming which involves using possibly the worst posture possible for manual work.  I just couldn’t get out of my physio frame of mind.  But in retrospect I think I made the right decision as I ached enough the day after as it was.  I did try using the cutlass to cut the grass but I obviously wasn’t getting the technique right or was just being a wimp as I didn’t seem to be as effective as everyone else.  It took me about three swings of the blade before I cut the grass that they cut in one go; perhaps the blade I was using was just blunt?!?!  So anyway, I soon took my leave from that task and took up the more familiar (if any sort of gardening is familiar to me!!) task of raking and clearing the large amounts of grass cuttings.  We kept on going for about 4 hours and then the task was completed.  Although my perfectionist inclinations made me feel like there was more we could do I was definitely happy to call it a day, especially as we got to enjoy some Jolof rice for lunch with chocolate cake for desert provided by the missionary whose garden we were working in.  It was a good morning’s work and it was good to be able to feel more a part of the Youth fellowship.

In the evening we had a meal together on the compound to say ‘Goodbye’ to Andrew who left on Sunday and ‘Hello’ to Karis who arrived last Friday.  The, literal, fruits of my labour during the day were appreciated there as my contribution to the meal was a fruit salad containing the mangoes and lemons that I was able to collect from the garden we had cleared in the morning.  God has an amazing way of providing things at just the right time.

The rest of life goes on

NEPA has continued to be unreliable recently and particularly so at times.  We have had a couple of days with only about an hour of power which doesn’t really keep the fridge cold.  I fact, on some mornings when it has been a little chilly I get the feeling that inside the fridge is warmer than outside.  However, I haven’t got food poisoning yet so it can’t be that bad.

The poor NEPA is making me a bit more productive in the afternoons though.  I have started taking my computer to work with me and in the afternoons I have been able to work well on that, preparing more training sessions for Tabari the therapy assistant.  I have found I work much better with the fewer distractions at work and without the ever-so inviting bed that is just behind me when I work on the computer at home.  So, things are going well at work with the caseload as up and down as ever.  We have noticed recently that we have had quite a few more patients referred to us from JUTH (Jos University Teaching Hospital), the local Federal hospital, as they are in the process of moving to a new site on the outskirts of Jos.  Most people don’t want to or aren’t able to travel that far so they request to be referred to us instead.  It is good for us though and brings more money into the hospital.

So life goes on here.  It is July already.  I guess my next update may be on my 1-year anniversary of life in Jos!!!

The Apprentice Nigeria and some wild weather

Question:  What can you get in return for twelve 25kg sacks of salt, 4 boxes of laundry soap, 4 boxes of body soap, 4 boxes of body cream, 2 Gerry cans of Palm oil, 1 Gerry can of soya oil, one length of material oh and don’t forget 2 goats and 10,000 Naira?

Answer: very nearly nothing if you’re not careful!!

Last Sunday I had another Nigerian cultural experience.  Tabari, the therapy assistant at work, is in the process of trying to get married and this Sunday was the day that a group of his friends had to go to Elizabeth’s (his prospective wife) village to pay the bride price.  Tabari asked me to go along and I was keen to support him and to experience a different but very important aspect of Nigerian culture.

We met at Tabari’s house at 9 am and the rest of his friends and family gradually assembled (on Nigerian time).  We then started to load the required goods into the van we were going to travel in.  These goods had been requested by Elizabeth’s family at a previous meeting some months ago and since then Tabari had been gradually purchasing the necessary items as he had the money to do so.

The van was soon laden down, with the goats tied up under one of the back seats and other things loaded into the boot.  We were ready to head off to the village some 1 and a half hours away.  I had to drive my car as well, which concerned me a little as I did not have a spare tyre ; I am waiting for a new one to be delivered after a previous puncture.  However, the van didn’t have a spare either so it was best to have two vehicles in case one of us got a puncture.  In order to be prepared, before I left home I had put 5,000 Naira in my wallet just in case I needed to buy  a new tyre during our travels.

We got to the village in the Southern part of Kaduna State in good time and located the house of the father of the bride and sat down outside under a tree.  We were welcomed, given the local Kunun to drink and then the proceedings got under way.  The villagers gathered around and the village heads took their seats in the circle of chairs.  The van was unloaded and the items placed in the middle of the circle.  Then Tabari’s uncle introduced himself and explained the items that had been brought.  He then sat down and it was the village heads’ turn to speak.  They inspected the items and then made their response.

Now, all these speeches were made in Hausa so I didn’t really have any idea as to what was going on but I could tell from the body language and the odd words of English that were spoken that something was not quite right.  It seemed there was something missing.  Apparently we had forgotten the gallon of Kerosene.  Tabari’s Uncle had to admit that this was an oversight on our part and apologised.  But the discussions weren’t over – the rest of the villagers who were standing around were then invited to explain their views of the goods we had brought.  They put forward their points and some got quite animated and aggressive as they spoke.  As before, I didn’t really know what they were saying but I could tell that they were not happy and that they had some more demands.  What I could work out was that the gallon of Kerosene was now 2 Gerry cans and there was also a request for 3 crates of minerals (soft drinks), two crates of Maltina (another soft drink).  I found out a little later that some had been asking for beer and cigarettes as well.  After some more verbal exchanges we were then told that if we couldn’t supply the necessary items we could give them the equivalent money instead.  So the villagers worked out the price and said we needed to provide about 8,000 Naira.

The group of Tabari’s friends and relatives then moved to the side and in hushed tones discussed what they should do.  I joined them as they were discussing the importance of finishing the negotiations today as it would be expensive to travel back another time.  So they then suggested that each person contribute in order that we could give the necessary money.  I thankfully still had the 5,000 Naira tyre money in my wallet so offered this to help seal the deal.  They gratefully took the money and then discussed how they should play the negotiations.  The plan was not to offer all the money as if we did the price would likely be raised again.  So they decided to offer 5,000 Naira and beg that this be accepted.  The plan seemed to work and the village heads accepted the deal.

Then, to loud, high pitched warbling shouts from the women Elizabeth was brought out of her house.  There was some more talking that I did not understand but it was later explained to me.  The 10,000 Naira bride price had to be paid and Tabari’s Uncle gave this to the chief who then passed this to Elizabeth.  As she accepted this, she was accepting Tabari’s request to marry her and the money was then handed to one of her Uncles.  The deal was sealed.  We had got what we had come for and Tabari had a wife (traditionally anyway, there still needs to be the official wedding)!!!

After this we went to the bride’s house and were given rice and chicken to eat.  Then a lady came with some Nunu in a big calabash on her head.  One of the others in the group bought some and asked if I wanted to try it.  I was a bit reluctant as the Nunu, I think, is made from sour milk which had been in this bowl on the persons head for who knows how long and there were flies all around it.  However, not wishing to cause offence I tried some and it didn’t taste too bad, a bit like yoghurt really.  As I told him this he then ordered another bowl for me.  I was a bit concerned again but just prayed that I wouldn’t get any ill effect from it.  I had about a quarter of what was in the bowl and then asked if the person sitting next to me would like to help me finish it as although I was enjoying it, I might regret it later!!  He was happy to take it off me and I thankfully didn’t have any untoward symptoms afterwards.

As I was sitting there during the proceedings the thought came to me that the whole thing was like one of the tasks the contestants have to complete on the game show The Apprentice.  First a certain list of items had to be bought for as little as possible, then they had to be transported to a particular place at a particular time and then high powered negotiations had to take place in order for someone not to be told ‘You’re fired’.  Thankfully, the village head, the Nigerian Sir Alan, didn’t utter those dreaded words but instead said ‘You’re married’!!   It was a great experience and even better that we had accomplished what we had set out to do.

Wild Weather

As I said in my last blog the rainy season is here.  It is raining at least every other day but last week the weather was particularly wild.  On Tuesday dark clouds gathered above Jos and then the rain started to fall.  It got heavier and heavier.  I was inside my flat and then I heard what sounded like stones being thrown onto the roof.  I went to investigate to check what was going on and I saw it was actually hail.  This continued to get heavier and heavier and as it did the noise became immense.  The pea sized lumps of ice were crashing into the zinc roof of the compound and my ears were ringing with the sound.  It was amazing.

The next day I was on my way home from work and the rain started again.  I had to go to the market quickly on my way home and just about managed not to get completely soaked before I had finished and was in my car again heading back to the Challenge compound.  As I drove, the rain got heavier and then the hail started again.  I managed to make it to the compound car park but then had to sit in the car for ten minutes until the weather calmed down a little and I could make a dash for it.  As I sat in the car the marble sized hail crashed down making my car into a drum kit.  It was even more amazing.  I love weather; I love the power of it.  There is nothing you can do to compete with weather like that, you just have to admit defeat and take shelter where you can.  Unfortunately with weather like this you can’t guarantee your shelter will be strong enough.  Here is a photo of the shelter at the front of the offices next to our compound.  It was just demolished by the hail!!

As I was sitting in my car I had nothing better to do but get my phone out and film what it was like.  I also got a smug phone call from Andrew one of the other compound residents asking why I wasn’t coming in.  Take a look at the video and I think you will see why!!!

From Nigeria Hail

Here is a video of the hail from the previous day when I was safely in my flat.

From Nigeria Hail

It’s been a while

So there’s quite a bit to catch up on!!

Firstly, the rainy season is here at last.  We can say goodbye to continuous layers of dust on every available surface and hello to getting totally drenched if you take a walk outside at the wrong time of day.  The rains actually started back on 4^th April (I forgot to say in my last update) which is apparently very early.  We then had rain on an off every few days until the last couple of weeks when it has rained more steadily.  Having said that it hasn’t rained for the last three days which means it is feeling very hot and sticky at the moment.  Unfortunately the lull in the rain coincided with us having problems with our water supply.  Our outside tanks were empty and we were not getting any mains water and the bore hole pump didn’t work.  This meant we were relying on the rainwater which didn’t come.  So we had few days of once daily toilet flushing (lovely when it is hot and sticky!!!) bucket baths and no clothes washing.  The plus side was that it gave me an excuse not to do the washing up after dinner, but unfortunately I got to the stage where I needed to wash something so I could eat off it.  Anyway, the tanks are full again now but we are not sure if the pump to get the water from tanks outside to the tanks inside is working so our problems may not be over.

Water was not the only thing there was a problem with last week.  There must have been a problem with NEPA as well because we had four days with an almost continuous electricity supply.  I didn’t say it was a bad problem but something must have been out of order for us to be that lucky.  After the first day I was bracing myself for a full day without power the next day but it just continued.  But, as with the water, things soon got back to normal and the NEPA is back to its usual consistently inconsistent self.  Oh well, it was good while it lasted!!

If I thought poor NEPA and water supply was frustrating, a poor or non-existent petrol supply was even more frustrating.  Recently there have been severe fuel shortages in Jos and most of Nigeria.  This was down to a strike by petrol tanker drivers which basically stopped the flow of petrol from the South where it is produced to the North.  This lead to queues stretching down the streets, round the corner and continuing on with up to 75 cars sitting in line.  This might not be too bad in the UK where it might go down quite quickly with 10 petrol pumps available, but when there is only one pump available and even then hundreds of achabas (motorbike taxis) infiltrating the queue, it can take quite a while.  However the worst part of it is that because the supply is so scarce you can’t guarantee that there will be any fuel left when you get to the front of the line!!  So, I tried to make my tank of fuel last as long as possible but it got to the stage when I had no choice but to join one of the slow moving fuel lines.  Well I say I had no choice, but that is not strictly true.  As the problem is so bad there is a thriving petrol black market where you can get fuel without the long wait.  The trouble is you have to pay for the service and instead of paying 65 Naira (32p) per litre you can be charged up to 120 Naira (60p) per litre.  I know I probably shouldn’t make too much of a fuss about this as even at this inflated price it is still far cheaper than in the UK but it is the principle of it I don’t like.  There is also the fact that you can never be sure what you are putting into your tank when you buy from the black market as you have no idea how much water they have added to try and make a bit more money.  So, anyway as I said, I had no choice but to join the fuel queue.  I found out that they were selling petrol at the station around the corner the Saturday before last so I got myself organised with food, drink, reading material and my MP3 player.  I then went and joined the end of the queue.  I read my book, ate some food, had a drink (but not too much – I didn’t want to have to leave the queue for a toilet break!!) and gradually moved forward.  After about an hour and a half the queue suddenly moved very quickly, great I thought and then I realised to my annoyance that the reason for this was that the petrol was finished.  Doh!!!  I begrudgingly left the queue and went in search of another one, I joined what I thought was the back and sat in line.  Then I was told I wasn’t actually at the back and had to move.  This was enough to break my resolve so I gave up and headed home empty tanked.

A couple of days went by and then I decided to try again and so after work I found a queue, took my lunch with me and sat doing some much needed reading and research (there were some good points to this waiting around).  Two hours went by and a slowly crept forward.  I had nearly made it to the road on which the petrol station was but then I got the same seriously annoying message – The fuel is finished.  Not again I thought.  So, disappointedly I left the queue and headed home once again.

Another couple of days went by, and a few more walks home from work as I didn’t have enough petrol to drive there, and I resolved to try again.  I decided to walk around to the petrol stations nearby and see if there was a queue.  The first one I tried had a queue so I quickly returned home, picked up the car and joined the queue.  I had a good feeling about this, especially as after an hour or so the petrol station was in sight and there was even a tanker parked ready to empty it’s load into the station’s tanks.  Two and a half hours down and I could literally smell the fuel.  There were just two cars in front of me and then I would have my fuel.  And they surely can’t run out as they have a full tanker there.  Then, to my horror I got that message again – the fuel is finished!!!!  How can it be finished there is a whole tanker of it there, but there was no persuading the station worker’s, the fuel was finished and wouldn’t be available again until tomorrow morning.  So I trudged back to my car and left the queue once more empty tanked.

The next morning for some reason I woke up early and unsurprisingly all that started going through my head was – I wonder what time the petrol station opens.  I lay in bed contemplating this for half an hour before I persuaded myself to get out of bed, have an early breakfast and brave the fuel queue once more.  I wanted there to be a bit of a queue as that would mean they were selling fuel but unfortunately there was quite a lot of queue when I got there so at 6.30 am I joined the queue.  I was frustrated with myself as if had I just got up straight away rather than lying in bed contemplating what to do I probably would have been much further up the line.  Anyway, I decided I was going to be here for the long haul.  Surely they couldn’t run out, there weren’t enough cars in front of me to use up a tanker full of fuel, were there?  I knew my first patient at the hospital was due at 9am so I had two and a half hours to get fuel and then to the hospital.  As the time approached 8.30 things were not looking good.  I was not near the front of the line at all.  I decided the patient would probably be late anyway so gave myself until 9.30.  When it reached 9.15 I still hadn’t made it to the front of the queue so I phoned the hospital to see if the patients had arrived – thankfully they hadn’t so I had more time to wait.

As I sat in the queue I saw how the fuel black market functions.  A man was standing on the corner of the road with a few Gerry cans.  Then a bike drove up next to him, he opened the tank and then proceeded to siphon the fuel into the Gerry cans.  Then the bike went off and a while later it returned, opened the petrol tank and the same procedure was followed.  In the time that they were in my view this happened three times and I assume it continues to happen as long as there is fuel at the station.  I couldn’t decide whether to admire their entrepreneurial skill or be annoyed that they were taking fuel that I should have.  These were not the only people who were not playing completely by the rules.  Despite the very ordered (for Nigeria) queue there was the odd person who tried to chance their arm at pushing in.  Thankfully they didn’t get very far though.  There is still an Army presence here (left over from the riots in November) and thankfully things have quietened down in Jos enough that they could be called on to sort out those who had pushed into the queue.  One man tried to push in front of me and despite me hooting my horn he refused to move.  I was going to say something but decided rather than making myself stand out more than I do already I would leave to it the Nigerians to sort out.  I didn’t have to wait long before those behind me were telling him what for and then the nearby soldier was called upon to eject him from the queue.  I think the soldier would be kept busy all day!!

Eventually at about 10am the queue in front of me moved quickly and I was nearly there, would I fit in the forecourt before the gates were closed?  Yes I did.  I was in.  The petrol pumps were in sight.  There were just a few cars and loads of achabas between me and the pump.  Surely I was guaranteed fuel now?  I slowly crept forward and then eventually at 10.15 I opened my petrol tank and the attendant asked me what seemed like a stupid question – ‘How much do you want?’  Without hesitation I answered ’Fill it up!’  I was there; I was getting fuel at last.  It was such a great feeling to have a tank of fuel and a great weight was lifted off my shoulders.  I hadn’t realised how stressed I had become by the need for fuel until I didn’t need it anymore.  It was great.  So I headed off to work to find that none of my patients had turned up so I hadn’t kept anyone waiting.  I wondered if they were all sitting in a fuel queue somewhere!!

So, I don’t know whether this story says more about my perseverance or my stinginess!!  I’ll let you decide!!  All I know is I have petrol and I have not spent more than I needed to, in money anyway!!!  Thankfully it looks like the problems have subsided now as I have passed a number of petrol stations with queues of only four or so cars outside.  Hopefully I won’t have to go through that again.

Now, onto other things.  A few weeks ago I went on a fantastic trip to a place called Donkin Hills to visit some EMS missionaries.  I have written an account of what the trip was like but as usual I got a bit carried away with the length of it so I have put it as a separate page in order not to bore you any more than I have already.  You can read the story at another time if you want to.  You can find it by following the link on the right hand side of this page.

That’s about all that has been going on here.  Work is going well with the number of patients going up and down from day to day as usual.  The number of missionaries here will soon be going down drastically as it comes to the end of the Hillcrest school term and a number of people are going on Home assignment.  There will be just one SIM doctor left at Evangel and numerous other people will be away for at the summer, if not longer.  Worst of all, the Fretheim’s are going to be away so that means I will have to cook for myself on a Friday night rather than going round to theirs for the weekly Fretheim Friday meal.  It will be strange to see what it is like with fewer people here.  At least there will be less people to use up the petrol supplies!!!

Mosquito bite World Record!!!!

As I write this blog update I am fighting hard to resist the overwhelming urge to vigorously scratch almost every part of my body. There are red itchy swellings up and down my arms, across my back and scattered across my various other body parts. I have become victim to what feels like the world’s most thorough display of the blood sucking antics of the world’s most dangerous insect. If they actually bothered to monitor this I am sure I would be in with a good chance of making my way into the Guinness Book of Records for the most mosquito bites received in one night when only your hands and face are uncovered!!!

But anyway, more on that later.

Unfortunately, my hopes at the end of my last blog were not to be fulfilled as work has been pretty hectic recently. Gay Lynn is still away on holiday and Deborah is still not back at work. So for the last 2 weeks it has been just me and Tabari the therapy assistant running the therapy department. I have had to do my best to cover both the inpatient and outpatient caseload and try to get home before dark. Thankfully in the first week a lot of the outpatients didn’t turn up but I had no such luck last week. But, I have survived and then had the long Easter weekend to rest.

We had a great service at Seminary Church on Good Friday morning and then in the afternoon I just relaxed reading the newspaper that I had been given by Lisa’s parents who have come to visit her from the UK. It was great to read an English newspaper and try and do the crossword.

On Saturday I played Ultimate Frisbee in the morning for the first time in a long time. It was great to get back playing again although my lungs did hurt a bit during the game and the rest of my body afterwards. I then did a bit of shopping, went to Youth Fellowship and then Saturday was gone.

On Sunday we had another great service at Seminary Church and in the afternoon I spent my time preparing my outfit for the Animal Kingdom surprise birthday party for Dana!!! The idea was that everyone turn up dressed as an animal so after much thought I decided to dress as a Baboon. My main reason for this was that I thought that a red and a blue plastic bag blown up and tied together might look something like the behind of one of these hairy creatures. So I managed to get the rest of the costume together including tail and stick-on ears and I was pleased with the outcome – despite that fact that I could not wear it for long as it included a waterproof jacket with hood underneath a thick woollen jumper, not good for Africa!! It was a good job I didn’t wear the costume to travel to Hillcrest as when I walked into a classroom right where Dana was the surprise could really have been blown. Rene managed to talk her way out of it though and the surprise was on. We had a great time at eating, dancing and playing games, all with an animal theme. Because the curfew is still in place we all slept over at Hillcrest and this is when I experienced more of the Animal Kingdom than I wanted to.

Recently there have been a lot of mosquitoes around everywhere. I have taken to carefully checking the inside of my mosquito net each night before I go to sleep but sometimes it doesn’t make a difference. It is more difficult when the NEPA is not on so on a couple of occasions when the power came on the in the middle of the night I turned the light on, got up and had a killing spree, finishing off all the little creatures I could find inside and outside my net. Unfortunately I have found that mosquitoes are much faster and more difficult to catch before they have had a taste of me and are laden down with a mouthful of my blood. So, I usually end up splattering not only mosquito but also my own blood over my hands as I execute them!! Anyway, if I thought the week had been bad I was in for a shock on Sunday night.

We were sleeping in one of the rooms at Hillcrest and I knew there were a few mosquitoes about so I took the sensible precautions. In the absence of a net I thought I would sleep with my clothes on so that as much skin as possible would be covered. I had my trousers tucked into my socks and my long sleeved top zipped up to the chin. I then covered my head with a blanket and wrapped my hands in a tee-shirt. No skin was left uncovered. As I lay there trying to get to sleep my caution was justified as soon around my ears was the incessant buzzing of mosquitoes hunting their prey. I made a few swats to my head in an attempt to kill some but more (or the same one I don’t really know) kept on coming. I eventually managed to get to sleep for some short periods and then it was time to get up. As I went about packing my things away I began to be aware of some itching on my body. I could understand the odd mosquito getting through my defences around my head so the couple on my chin didn’t annoy me too much. But then when I counted the 2,3,4,5…10 bites on my arms which had been covered all night I was a bit frustrated. As the day went on I began to itch in other places and after having a shower I inspected my back to find more than 15 across my shoulder blades alone!!!! What do these mosquitoes have, I thought, stainless steel jaws? So at a rough estimate I must have over 30 mosquito bites across my body, all received in one night. If that’s not an Animal Kingdom experience I don’t know what is!!!!

So, I spent most of Monday nursing my itching body and getting some well needed rest after a sleepless night. In the evening, thankfully my mind was taken off the urge to scratch by attending a Bollywood night at Hillcrest. Lisa’s dad (who is here visiting Lisa from the UK) is Indian and so he had offered to cook a curry. So Lisa organised a Bollywood night with dancing and food. It was a great night with fantastic food, some dubious dance moves on my part and then a Bollywood film. Thankfully my mind was less focused on my bites after all of that.

It was back to work today and things were thankfully a little more controlled. Gay Lynn is back at work on Thursday (I hope) and Deborah is apparently getting better. So hopefully I will have some time to think this week and get on with some of the other things I need to do – like scratching!!!

Clean behind ears, eating well

I hope that was the verdict that my parents had after they visited me for 2 weeks.  I don’t think that was the only reason they came to visit though.

So my parents have been here to visit me in Nigeria and here is the proof.  A rather boring photo of us standing outside my compound but it proves they were here.

I drove down to Abuja on Sunday 8^th March with Michael from the SIM office to show me the way to Abuja and then to the guesthouse we were staying at.  It was a pretty uneventful journey apart from getting a crack in the windscreen from a stray stone as I was overtaking one of the numerous slow moving lorries on the roads.  Overtaking is something you have to get good at driving on the roads here as there are so many slow moving vehicles that it would take you days to get anywhere if you didn’t overtake.  Having said that, some people seem in such a rush that they overtake in the most stupid and dangerous places imaginable.  Going up a hill on a bend in the dark seems to be the perfect place for an overtaking manoeuvre to some people.  Anyway, thankfully we got there in one piece and found the guesthouse after a brief stop to get something to eat.

This was the first night I have slept off of the Plateau and the difference in climate was noticeable.  It is much more humid in Abuja and despite the fan being on full power it was pretty difficult to get to sleep.  Anyway I eventually managed to drop off and after only a short while it was time to get up, have a shower to change the layer of sweat on my body and leave for the airport.  We got there at about 5.30 and the plane had arrived so we waited and eventually my parents emerged from the gates pushing a trolley full of all 4 of their cases.  They had made it here and through all the customs checks without anything being lost or confiscated.  Great!!

We went out to the car and Michael somehow managed to fit all the luggage into the boot and then we were off.  Michael drove this time so that I could talk to my parents and take in some of the scenery.  We managed to make good progress through Abuja as it was a public holiday so the traffic was minimal.  We then were fortunate enough to have a convoy with their sirens wailing and lights flashing pull out in front of us.  They moved along the road and all the cars moved out their way, so Michael got in behind them and pretended we were the third car in the convoy and we managed to get through what traffic there was very easily.  They seemed to be heading to Jos so we were able to follow them most of the way until they stopped off for some food.  We got to Jos by about 11am and I showed my parents where they would be staying.  Then we all rested for the afternoon.

Tuesday was our first day of planned activities.  First we went to Evangel hospital and did a tour there.  Then we went to Hillcrest to meet Rachel Harley (another missionary from our home church) and had lunch (Suya (barbecued meat), Massa, fried potato, fried plantain, Kose and a number of other Nigerian foods).  Then we went to meet Rachel’s class.  After Hillcrest we went back home and then headed out to the market.  The sights, sounds and smells are pretty different to the UK but they managed without being too overwhelmed.

Wednesday we went to look at the craft markets in the morning to get some ideas of things they might want to buy.  Then we headed to Gidan Bege one of the City Ministries care centres.  We looked around there and sat in on the women’s clinic that was running.  I was able to give some physiotherapy advice to some of the patients and it was great to see some of the other work being done my SIM in Jos.  We also met some of the boys who were staying there and talked to some of the widows who are part of the sewing skills ministry.  Then we waited for quite a while for a bus to come to pick us up and take us and some of the workers to Blind Town in Bukuru.  Workers go out each week to this area which is one of the most deprived areas around Jos.  We went and met some of the people living in their little shacks and were able to help the workers with distributing medication after they had had their blood pressure checked.

Thursday was another busy day and we were met my Titus (my Hausa teacher) at nine o’clock and he travelled with us out to the other side of Lamingo to visit an EMS (the missionary arm of ECWA) missionary family.  We were welcomed into their home and introduced then we went to visit the chief of the area and then visited to church which at present looks more like a corrugated iron shed.  We then had an impromptu tour around Jos with Titus as we visited JETS (Jos ECWA Theological Seminary), ECWA Staff School and other parts of Jos that I have not been around.   We then headed back home for a rest.

Friday we had a relatively early start as we were being picked up my Matthew Harley at 8am.  He took us out to TCNN (Theological College of Northern Nigeria) where he works and gave us a tour around there.   We also met some of the students he teaches language development or something like that to.  They had all just been on assignments in different parts of Nigeria developing written forms of language that at present are only spoken.  It was amazing to hear the stories of what they have been doing.  We then went round to Matthew and Rachel’s for lunch before returning home for another rest.  In the evening we all went to the Fretheim’s for the usual Friday night meal.

Saturday, the day of a trip outside of Jos, the day of the safari, the day my Dad had been looking forward to.  We had to leave as early as the curfew allowed so we were up by 4.30 to be ready to leave at 6am.  Unfortunately, my mum had not been well over night and was not sure if she would be able to go.  It turned out she would not make it and this meant that my Dad didn’t want to come either as it would mean leaving my mum on her own.  As I had arranged for a bus to take us and a number of other people my Dad managed to persuade me that I should go rather than him so I left my parents at home and left for Yankari National Park.  We had a great day and were able to see elephants, monkeys, antelope and other animals.  In the afternoon we spend time swimming in the Wikki Warm Springs before we headed back to Jos before dark.  It was a great but was spoiled a bit by the fact that I couldn’t share it with my parents.

Sunday and thankfully my mum was feeling better so we went out for their first and only experience of a Nigerian church service.  It was good service and they seemed to enjoy it.  Afterwards we went out for a meal with Matthew and Rachel Harley and then we came home for, you guessed it, another rest.

So they had been here a week and survived.  We were now planning our most ambitious trip of the 2 weeks, a trip to Kano in Northern Nigeria.  I woke up on Monday and felt ok but as the morning went on I began to feel more and more tired and unwell.  I got the stage where I had to decide that we couldn’t go to Kano today and I had to retreat to my bed.  I spent most the day there and hoped that I would be better the next day and we would be able to go to Kano.  Tuesday came and went and I still didn’t feel sufficiently well to make the 4 hours drive to Kano so we came to the decision to cancel the trip.  By Wednesday I was feeling a little better but not significantly.  If I didn’t eat anything I felt fine but as soon as I ate something I felt tired and washed out and had to retreat to bed.   Eventually I got some antibiotics from the SIM nurse and after taking them on Wednesday night I felt better on Thursday morning.  We were back on track.  So much for the itinerary!!!

Thursday morning we headed out to Miango, a village about 45 minutes away from Jos.  We had a short walk down to a waterfall, which as it is dry season didn’t really have much water falling at all, but it was good to see some of the countryside.  We then went to Miango Rest Home the SIM retreat and conference centre.  We had a look around the grounds there and ate our lunch in the shade.  We then headed to Gyero a nearby village that has a City Ministries Care centre.  I managed to negotiate my car along the very rough road only bottoming out once on the way there.  We were shown around the care centre and Nicky (another SIM Missionary from the UK) explained the work that they do there.  We then headed back along the track, bottoming out once again, but making it to the main road and into Jos safely.

Friday was a free day and all we had planned was to get the last bits of craft items that they wanted.  My mum didn’t enjoy this too much as she didn’t like the bartering and was too easily sucked in by the sad looking eyes of the seller as they played their part in the pantomime that is bartering.  We managed to get the things we wanted though.  We also had to book some accommodation for the trip back to Abuja.  I had been trying in vain all week to find the telephone numbers of places to stay in Abuja and then to find somewhere that actually had space for us.  Eventually I managed to get us a place in the Sharon Ultimate Hotel which was more expensive than I had hoped but I was just pleased to get anywhere at that point.

Saturday was my parents last day in Jos and we were heading to Abuja.  I had decided that I would try my hand at driving to Abuja without anyone to give me directions.  I asked Andrew (another Short term missionary from the US) to come with us so I wouldn’t be driving home on my own.  We left Jos at about 1.15pm and made it to Abuja and the hotel (after a few detours around Abuja) by about 5.30pm.  I was surprised how I had remembered the way without too many problems.  We settled in and then headed out to find somewhere to eat.  We had a map and tried to find a couple of places but they didn’t seem to be in the right place so we decided we would just go to the Sheraton hotel and see if the restaurants there were not too expensive.  We found an Italian restaurant and the process were OK so we had a meal there and then headed back to our own hotel.   In the rooms we had satellite TV and so I took the chance to watch some football highlights and was especially pleased to see Tottenham beat Chelsea 1-0.

After a restless night sleeping on the floor (as there was only one bed for me and Andrew to share) I was pleased to be able to get up.  We headed to the Airport and managed to find it without any problems.  Then, before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye.  My parents walked through to the check-in area and I was not allowed so we said our goodbyes accompanied by the inevitable motherly tears and then they were gone.  Andrew and I decided not to waste any time hanging around Abuja so we headed back to Jos.  The journey was mainly uneventful except for a very close shave with an out of control van.  There were a more slow moving lorries on the road so people were making more unwise overtaking manoeuvres.  On this occasion there was van coming in the opposite direction so the only choice it had was to go off the road.  In an attempt to get back on the tarmac the van was heading sideways down the road and I thought it was going to spin right across and into us.  I broke as hard as I could and sounded my horn (I don’t know what that was going to do!!)  but thankfully, the driver somehow regained control and was able to stay on the road.  I definitely got the feeling that someone was looking after us at that moment.   We made it to Jos by 12pm and then it was time for a rest.

The 2 weeks were great and despite the illnesses limiting our trips outside of Jos we managed to see and do quite a few things.  It is nice for my parents to have a better understanding of what life is like for me here in Jos and I am looking forward to talking to them on Skype and not having to explain things so much.

The last week has been good.  I have been able to get back to work and into the swing of things again.  At the moment the compound is very quiet with most the other occupants away.  I have a few things to catch up on though and work is going to be busy as Gay Lynn is away and Deborah is off sick.  Hopefully things won’t be too hectic next week.