Ogugu Day 71-79

Ogugu First Few Days

Day 71 – 74 (Thursday 14^th – Sunday 17^th April)

I got up bright and early for the long trip to Ogugu in Kogi State. The heat hit us as soon as we left the plateau (the name of the state and the reason for the cooler weather in Jos). On the way we stopped at Mr Biggs which we also have in Jos and is Nigerian style fast food place. I realised why we never go there and have been warned against it. Firstly they don’t serve chips which is a complete fail, second it costs loads, and third it’s not that nice. Lesson learnt!

We arrived in Ogugu after a 10 and a half hour drive. Having gone via Kagoro to pick up the resources we had left behind and to see the boys briefly. When we arrived we were greeted by Will, Mel and Lynz (I will cal her Lynz to not get confused with the other Lynsey). They had made posters with pictures of us all on, put balloons up and written a song to welcome us. It was really cute and cool. I have met them all before, I was on orientation with Will and Lynz, and met Mel at the England and Wales conference in London. It is really rural here, and crazy hot. I just checked bbc weather and its 37C and 78% humidity but feels hotter than that!

My first night I didn’t sleep much because it was so hot, but I’m getting used to it. We spent the first few days planning for the holiday bible club next (Easter) week. We are running a holiday club for 100 children in a nearby village called Efante. There are eight of us, and 6 interpreters, so will be challenging.

On Friday we had the amazing idea of joining the locals we had seen bathing in the river. We were told that the water is fine as long as you don’t drink it. Ali and I stood on the edge contemplating the brown water, but very excited at the prospect of cooling down. I splashed her a little expecting her to move away, but she didn’t so I did it a bit more. It ended up with all the Nigerian kids thinking it was a great game and trying to drown us! We had great fun, and it was SO refreshing! We went back and did it again the next day. Here we get called enefu the Igala word rather than baturi, the Hausa word. It’s really hard not being able to speak Hausa here, I keep making the mistake of speaking Hausa then realising they don’t understand. Asabe who lives with the guys here and works for Mission Africa is from Jos and speaks Hausa so I try and speak as much as possible to her in Hausa. The second time we went swimming the kids all asked us to sing to them so we sung a Hausa song called Ni Zan Je which means we must go. They loved it, and then sung us an Igala song. Walking home through the village dripping wet was funny, and got us more funny looks than usual.

We have had great times in the evenings chilling, chatting, and playing silly games.

I am sharing a double bed with Will, it’s ok we have our own sheets! On Sunday morning at 4am I was woken up by Will saying “look at the lightning, isn’t it cool!” I grunted at him and went back to sleep. I woke up at 6 because it was pouring with rain tropical style. It was actually cool ish. We didn’t go to church because Nigerians don’t go out in torrential rain. I listened to a sermon from home which was really good. Will was given a live chicken to say thank you for preaching in a service, so we spent a good while debating who was going to kill it. Ali was up for the challenge, but couldn’t do it because the knife wasn’t sharp enough. In the end we let a Nigerian do it, and we were later presented with a plucked and chopped up chicken complete with head. Mel who is a veggie, cooked it head and all (it’s a delicacy). It had no meat on it, but it was lovely to have meat. She made chips which were lush!

Holiday Bible Club

Day 75 – 79 (Monday 18^th – Friday 22^nd April)

This was a crazy energy sucking but amazing week. Having only had a few days together as a team to draw the details together we were praying everything would come together. It was very challenging with the language barrier, but it went extremely well. We had great fun, and very few hiccups. The kids stole a lot of our pens which was sad, and we had to stop them doing craft, but that was the only real issue. The village had wanted to send hundreds of kids to our program so we had to tell them to pick 100, they were there for good behaviour etc. I’m glad we didn’t have their naughty ones! We did the Easter weeks theme, each day with a different part of the story. We did puppets with scripts we wrote, I was one of the puppets each day. We did songs, games, a bible talk, quiz and had a cool points system. I was in charge of the points and my team won, I genuinely didn’t rig it though! On the last day we had an Easter egg hunt with paper Easter eggs (we can’t get chocolate here!) I did one of the bible talks on ‘who is Jesus’ which went ok. I also did some crazy leading from the front.

Away from the bible club (which has taken up most of my time and thinking) there is little to talk about. We heard some really sad news from Kagoro (where I was before coming to Ogugu). There has been lots of trouble in the area, fighting and burning of houses etc. The huge market we shopped at has been burnt to the ground, and the people there are all fine, but have been pretty scared. We have also heard of planned violence for the final elections in Jos, we are praying that nothing happens and Jos is peaceful. We are praying for rain because Nigerians (including the violent ones) don't go out. Last time there was big trouble in Jos it was stopped by rain. We believe God is in control of Jos, and the situation!

The plan now the bible club is over is to relax a little bit :)

Jos Break Day 67 - 70

We ended up staying in Jos a couple of days longer than expected to give Lynsey and Abi plenty of time to recover. This is my update for those days.

Day 67 (Sunday 10^th April)

I was woken up early to be told Abi is poorly and that we were leaving a bit earlier than expected. Luka picked us up and took us all back to Jos.

When I got home the first thing I did was have a shower and feel normal, it was amazing! I got a call from Katie saying loads of people are going swimming at a local hotel. It was amazing after three hot weeks in Kagoro!

I spent the evening with Phil from Hillcrest, we chilled out, had much needed man time and played Rock Band Hero. I played the drums which was entertaining, I needed Jon Caws to show me how its done, but I played my heart out in honour of him!

Day 68 (Monday 11^th April)

Today I had my first car incident (minor bump) in Nigeria, don’t worry mum it was fine, not my fault, and my car was fine. I was driving the girls to town and the guy behind drove into us. I think the tow bar did a good job of protecting us, we kinda kept going because we were hot and grumpy. I left the girls eating in the Net Cafe because they wanted girly time, and went off shopping on my own. I was looking for things for Gyero.

I had a strange afternoon, I will leave it there, and then chilled out with Phil in the evening again.

Day 69 (Tuesday 12^th April)

I drove to town again and did some shopping for Gyero. I had lunch at the Net Cafe, a meat pie, and pistachio ice cream, how I’ve missed Jos food!

I had a meeting with Lynsey and Ricky which went well, Ricky and Angie took me out for dinner to Kingsbite which was really nice. Noah was well behaved for a 1 year old, and very cute.

Day 70 (Wednesday 13^th April)

Today was very quiet and I didn’t leave my compound. I wanted to visit Gyero and Gidan Bege, but the schools are on holiday so there wasn’t much point. I spent my time working from home doing exciting things such as preparing a sample lesson plan for the teachers.

Sorry that this has been a boring blog update, I’ll try and make my next one on Ogugu more interesting :) My phone number until the 2^nd May is +2347057632333 When I get back to Jos on the 2^nd May my number will return to +2348136835300.

If any of you want to send me any post I have added my address to the left hand side of my blog. I haven’t received anything and the others are getting refugee style packages and letters!

Kagoro Day 48 - 66

We have come back to Jos for a couple of days which means I am able to update my blog. I will be leaving Jos early Tuesday morning to travel the eight hour journey to Kogi State.

Kagoro Week 1

Day 48-51 (Tuesday 22^nd – Friday 25^th March)

I’m going to lump these together a bit because my internet and time is limited while I’m away.

We left Jos Tuesday morning in a bus with Luka driving. We stopped on the way for food, and I tried some dog from a man by the side of the road. It was a bit chewy, spicy, and a little like pork. I quite liked it, but only had a tiny bit because there were flies everywhere and didn’t want to catch something.

When we got to Kagoro we were introduced to Sunday who runs the centre, and to the twenty two boys. It is really hot, and will take a while to get used to it. It is a world away from Jos, really rural. The centre is small, and I feel very cooped up because we’re all in such a small area. I haven’t had to worry about the bucket toilets too much, I think my body has gone in to shut down and knows it’s going back to the luxury of Jos on Friday. The showers are lovely, we have put a plastic chair in it so you can sit there and pour cold water over yourself. There are no locks on the toilets or showers so you have to make sure you knock!

The first evening we joined the boys for their devotional time. They all looked at me and I was like why are they all staring at me, apparently they wanted me to lead it. I had a two second “I have no idea what to do” panic and then launched into Philippians 4v13 and it all seemed to go ok. Apparently they want me to lead it every night.

The food is amazing here, we are being cooked for lunch and dinner and have had things like red stew, potato stew, jellof rice.

The sleep is not so good, it is really hard to sleep when it’s so hot. We have power until 11 on a generator which means I can have a fan 2cm from my face until then, but after that it returns to boiling hot so there is little point.

The first week has been spent getting to know the boys, playing games with them, helping them with homework a little, and on Thursday involved a big water fight which was a treat for them because water is precious. On Thursday we braved the heat and went to Kafan Chan market. There was a man following Ali around so she grabbed my hand to get rid of him. This would be normal in the UK, but here even married couples don’t hold hands in public so it got quite a lot of laughter from those with us and the Nigerians in the market.

We watched a film projected on the side of a building and the whole village turned out. It was Ants, I don’t know if they understood it, but it was good fun.

We headed back to Jos on Friday for a weekend break. It is so nice to be back and have proper showers and not so much heat! I went to the Fretheim’s with Lynsey which was really quiet because most people are away this weekend. After we went to Barcardi to chill and chat.

Weekend in Jos

Day 52 – 54 (Saturday 26^th – Sunday 27^th March)

I made the most of my weekend back in Jos by hanging out with people I’m not going to see for a while, eating lots of food, and chilling out. On Saturday Lynsey and I went to town to try and find some resources for Kagoro, we spent ages trying to find flash cards and couldn’t find them anywhere. We went to the net cafe for lunch and had meat pies, chips and a cinnamon ice cream which was lush. In the evening Lynsey and I went to Barcardi to chat about Kagoro, and planning and life etc. We played Uno and Bananagrams which got us some funny looks from the locals, but it helped us switch off. When it came to leave we couldn’t get Lynsey’s car to work. There is something dodgy with the alarm/immobiliser which allows it to be locked but not unlocked. It took us half an hour which meant we were home a little after the 10pm curfew. I sweet talked my guards in Hausa which seemed to work a treat!

On Sunday I decided to try a different church because up until now I really haven’t felt settled. I decided to try Jets which is an ECWA church held at a seminary (bible college). I drove to Challenge compound which is where Katie and Fiona live and went with them. The service was amazing, as soon as I walked in I felt at home, and the whole place feels really alive. I had to do the new person thing which at Jets involves standing up with the microphone and introducing myself. It’s something I’m getting used to but think I’ve had enough of doing it! The sermon was on Battle of the Flesh; the battle between worldly and spiritual desires. It was really relevant, and the Nigerian pastor wasn’t scared to talk about taboo subjects openly which is unusual for Nigeria. He spoke mainly from Galatians 5v16-21. There were some songs from back home as well which I really enjoyed. After church I went for lunch at the Net Cafe again with Katie and Fiona. We spent the afternoon looking at pictures, Katie is from New Zealand so it was great to see pictures from where I went travelling. Fiona is from London, but went to uni in Southampton. In the evening I went to Hillcrtest to hang out with Phil. It was great to see him, and I’ll really miss him when I’m away. He fixed my laptop for me so the internet now works, although I won’t really have it over the next five weeks. Something to do with the DNS server, which sounds technical.

Kagoro Week 2

Day 54 – 60 (Monday 28^th March – Sunday 3^rd April)

We headed back to Kagoro on Monday morning from the ‘luxury’ of Jos. When I say we, it was only Ali, Bethan and I. Abi was unwell, and Lynsey stayed in Jos because she needed to sort out some things. I went for a walk by myself from Kagoro to have some alone time, and to take some pictures. Everyone I passed wanted to stop and chat with me because they aren’t used to seeing Baturis, and are really friendly. When they saw that I have a camera they all wanted to have their picture taken. I spent some time chilling under a mango tree which seemed like the appropriate African thing to do, and was quite relaxing apart from the solid ground and sharp stones and sticks I had to remove from myself after. We spent the evening in complete darkness because the generator was broken.

On Tuesday we went on a walk with the boys through a couple of villages to the bottom of the mountains on the edge of Kagoro. It was great to be walking through rural Nigeria, meeting the locals, and seeing the impressive mountains. I took loads more pictures, I can only put a few on here because it takes so long, but I’ll show them off when I’m home.

On Wednesday we were taken to the Kagoro immigration office to tell them we’re here. They were quite scary and asked us lots of questions about exactly why we’re here and what we’re doing. There was a very funny moment when the man asked us what our jobs are in Jos. Ali and I told the man that we’re teachers, and then Bethan said she’s a fashion designer. The man looked her up and down and said “you don’t look fashionable”. I had to try and contain my fits of giggles because it was meant to be serious time. They wanted documents we didn’t have with us and they didn’t need, but eventually they sent us away with their blessing. For dinner we had egusi soup and pounded rice which sound and look disgusting, but are really nice. Egusi soup is spicy and contains spinach, tomato, melon seeds and other stuff.

Thursday Bethan spent the day getting her hair braided. Lots of rallies drove past us demonstrating for the elections on Saturday, they were impressive to see and very noisy!

On Friday Lynsey came back with Abi who was much better. I had a letter from Joy which made my day! Lynsey brought a guitar with her and we spent the afternoon singing which was good fun. I’m trying to learn Hausa songs and doing very badly.

On Saturday I got another letter, this one from Gaz. Kagoro had a strange atmosphere because it was election day and no movement was allowed. We found out half way through the day that the election has been postponed until Monday because they didn’t distribute enough voting cards. In the afternoon I went with Lonz who is a teacher I know from Gyero (it’s his class I’ve been teaching) to visit his adoptive parents. One of their sons died recently in a car accident, he was 26 the same age as me and we went to pay our respects. I wore a kaftan to look smart. It was a strange thing to do, something I haven’t done before, but very worthwhile. They really appreciated me visiting them, and we had a great chat about all sorts, and I was asked to share some words with them. In the evening Ali and Abi led the devotion which gave me a break from doing it.

On Sunday I had been here for two months, doesn’t seem possible! We went to a local church where the service was completely in Hausa. It meant we understood nothing, it was really long, the seats uncomfortable, and really hot. We had to stand up and introduce ourselves, but they probably didn’t understand us because we did it in English. For lunch we had red stew which had been prepared by the boys and was quite gritty, but yummy all the same. After the boys from here had a football match against another village. They did really well and won 4-3.

Kagoro Week 3

Day 61 – 66 (Monday 4^th – Saturday 9^th April)

There has been little of note this week, so I’m going to write this week slightly differently, as more of a reflection on Kagoro. I will start with a couple of significant things though:

On Wednesday we went for dinner with the Colvins, an Irish couple who work for SIM. They cooked us lasagne and lemon drizzle cake. It was AMAZING!

On Friday we went to Pastor Iste Fanus’s house for dinner, it was great to have a proper Nigerian meal with a Nigerian family. We had red stew and rice, it was really spicy but really good.

Lynsey is poorly and has gone back to Jos to recover. We will travel on our own to Ugugu. Abi has also been unwell, but is recovering well.

So for my reflection:

Showers

Bucket showers sound terrible, but when it’s really hot they are amazing. There’s something awesome about sitting in a tin shack with no lock on the door, on an old garden chair trying to work out the most economical way to wash all of you with one bucket of water. It’s a balancing act, because you really want to pour some water in to another bucket and stick your feet in it, but if you do that is there enough water to wash the shampoo out of your hair etc. I’m so glad I cut my hair really short before I arrived and I’m not a girl! The girls have all braided their hair now which means they never wash it, yuk! Apparently it cleans it’s self of some such rubbish!

Toilets

Toilets are also a tin shack with no lock. You do get an actual toilet to sit on which is luxury, the boys just have a hole in the ground. There is no running water, so you have to use a bucket or three of water to flush it after which comes from the borehole. Toilet roll is always an issue and we always run out and blame each other. Nigerians don’t seem to use it so we have to provide our own and never buy enough.

Electricity

We get four hours of electricity a day if we’re lucky courtesy of the generator if it’s working. If it’s not working we spend the evening using torches, there are no candles, we probably could have bought some but none of us thought.

Food

Food is 100% Nigerian, generally spicy, and extremely good. We aren’t eating the same food as the boys, it’s being cooked for us. For some reason it is costing more than we spend in Jos, still haven’t figured out why, but it is really nice. We have eaten things like egusi soup and pounded rice, red strew, jellof rice and good old Indomie.

Water

As I said earlier there is no running water, and it has to be pumped by hand from the borehole. This would have been great exercise, but the boys generally come running to our aid when they see a bucket in our hand and do it for us.

Washing

Although I would like to think I am pretty house trained having looked after myself for a number of years, God didn’t bless me with the gift of hand washing in a bucket. Travel wash is as useful as a chocolate teapot in my opinion, luckily the boys come to my aid and help. It feels a bit like child labour, but they love doing things for us, and really appreciate us being here.

Termites

My room has been infested with termites, like millions of them who are trying to build a home. The boys keep spraying them and sweeping them out but they won’t go. I was told to send chickens in to eat them, but one of them has diarrhoea and did it all over my room. I wasn’t happy!