Day 166 (Monday 18th July)
I have been trying to get hold of a set of youth bibles for Gidan Bege for a number of weeks, and woke up to a text from the Mission Africa ministry bookshop called ACTS saying they haven’t been able to get hold of them. They said they had some others to show me which may be good alternatives so I headed out to the bookshop which is in the middle of nowhere and possibly the most inconvenient location ever coming from Jos. They had five different bibles, and one of them was really really cool. The cover is denim and made to look like a pair of jeans. It’s a youth bible, and in the Contemporary English Version which is really good for ministry kids, many of whom are struggling with their English. I was amazed that they were cheaper than the bibles I had wanted because they are produced by the Nigerian Bible Society and not western imports. Because I work for Mission Africa I spoke with the manager who gave me a good price, and said I could buy any other books at cost price which is a 20% discount of prices already a fraction of those in the UK in many cases. I’m glad my luggage allowance is 69kg on the way home!
I took the bibles to Gidan Bege, and greeted Joseph the Nigerian Centre Manager I am really close to. We brought all the boys into his house and showed them their new bibles (they didn’t have bibles before). We played a game with them which I remember from my childhood where you say a verse and the first one to find it wins. The boy who did the best is going to have a meal with Joseph and his family which is a huge luxury for them, and I thought a lovely idea.
Day 167 (Tuesday 19th July)
Today I travelled out to Gyero for the last day of school. It was a very very strange feeling. I spent the day wafting between classes distracting the teachers and children (it’s not like anyone wants to learn anything on the last day of school, I remember always doing nothing on the last day when I was at school). The thing that amazes me here is that all the kids love school and really want to learn, it’s so different from UK schools. I discovered that teacher Lonz’s new pet lizard can grow to massive sizes, and eat animals such as rabbits. I have no idea how he managed to catch it, he is still determined to have a pet monkey which I did my best to dissuade him from. I also spent time playing with Sunday’s two year old daughter Grace. They have a game in the playground I assume comes from the US. It’s a pole, with a ball on a long bit of string attached. A bit like swing ball, except the ball is football sized. I played with Grace, and she proved Nigerian kids are tougher than ours because she didn’t flinch when it hit her in the head.
When I got home I received a phone call with some very sad news. Vicky, the wife of Transition House centre manager Alex had just died an hour after giving birth to their first child. The baby girl has survived. It’s hard to know what to say in these situations. They had been trying to have a baby for nine years, and had suffered a number of miscarriages. A few years ago Vicky was the only survivor in a car crash which killed nine people. Her and her husband both overcame illness in the last couple of years they thought would take their lives. For an hour after the birth all was well and everyone was celebrating the blessing of their first child.
Day 168 (Wednesday 20th July)
Today all the ministry programs were rightly cancelled. I spent the day hanging around at home, we were unsure whether the funeral would be today or tomorrow. I was warned it could happen very last minute.
In the evening I had my debrief with Lynsey. It was a bit of a reminder that it’s nearly time for me to come home and everything is coming to an end. The only things I have left to do are the prize giving ceremony which was due to happen today, and a big handover to the person taking over from me who I am assured arrives next week on Monday.
I was due to be going to Yankari tomorrow which is the hot springs and game reserve. It got cancelled due to some security issues over the last couple of days. I received a text at 10pm telling me the prize giving is tomorrow morning, and I’m arranging it. One of the biggest things I have had to overcome here is the way communication happens and plans are made. I’m used to an environment where if I’m organising something I have a bit more of a say, if a time is arranged it is kept, and if a decision is made that involves something I’m responsible for I’m not the last person to find out. It is good to be tested though, and I have learnt so much from the way of doing things here.
Latest is funeral will be Friday.
Day 169 (Thursday 21st July)
I got a lift to Gyero and checked with the Nigerian leader of the Gyero ministry how he wanted the prize giving to work, he said whatever I want. I ruhed around trying to work out which children the teachers wanted to give prizes to for behaviour and effort. It was harder because some of the teachers weren’t around because they hadn’t been told about the prize giving. Apparently the school were only told this morning, which put the teachers in a bad mood with me. I did try and explain I only found out the night before and wasn’t the one who set the time. So I while I rushed round trying to figure things out teacher Lonz and head teacher Sunday gathered all the children and entertained them. We had a few baturis in attendance, including the Mission Africa team of girls, and other missionaries. The children sung for them, and did some funny crazy dancing.
When everyone eventually arrived who needed to be there, and the prizes turned up I gathered everyone for the prize giving. I managed one of my better blags which was a completely unprepared and very short speech. I gave the prizes out and the only hic-up was trying to give one of the girls two. I had been given the same name twice for different awards and forgot to check. I asked the teachers if anything wanted to say anything to their students (I had pre warned them) and they all kept silent. A couple of the students said some lovely things. I found out the reason the teachers wouldn’t speak is they were sulking about the lack of organisation. Lonz saved the day for me and said a few words. The ceremony ended with them singing the national anthem which was really cute. Apparently it went well according to the Baturis. I was told not to worry about the teachers by the Nigerian ministry leader.
I took loads of pictures!
I went to the swimming pool with Lynsey, but the weather changed from glorious sun to rain rain rain. We ended up in the bar rather than by the pool. We went to town to do some food shopping. I bought some steak for the bbq we are going to tomorrow which only cost ₦1400KG (£5.50). I didn’t realise how cheap steak is here, otherwise I’d have bought it more often. When I got home I made a honey, sesame, chilli, garlic kinda marinade for my steak. I picked up my Nigerian driving licence which has only taken since February to get. I wonder what the UK police would think if I handed it over to them and pretended to be Nigerian?
I was told the funeral is now Saturday 9am.
Day 170 (Friday 22nd July)
Today was another nothing day. I went to the Fretheims in the evening for a bbq closely guarding my steak. International bbq protocol applied and the men stood round the bbq, while the women sat inside and weren’t allowed close. When it came to eating my steak I realised there were no knives so I looked a bit like a cave man eating it especially as I cooked it rare. One of the girls wasn’t impressed and I managed to find a knife. I think it was all that cooking on open fire which brought me back to cave man routes (no personal belief implied‼!)
Day 171 (Saturday 23rd July)
Today was the day of the funeral, which was held at ECWA Bishara 2 church which is where I went when I initially arrived in Nigeria. The church was chosen due to its size, and was still packed.
The service was more of a celebration than we would typically have in the UK, and was different in every conceivable way. Rather than making sombre observations I will highlight the key differences (it’s easier that way).
Dress: Unlike the UK, everyone doesn’t turn up in a black suit. The typical mourning colour is white, but I didn’t see much. There was a variety of brightly coloured Nigerian outfits worn by the woman, and casual shirts worn by the men. The City Ministries staff were all asked to wear their ‘uniform’ which is a green t-shirt given out recently. I didn’t get one and was happy to blend in to the background wearing a Nigerian shirt with black trousers and shoes. The husband Alex wore the outfit Vicky apparently made him wear at their wedding which was tounching.
Hearse: As we arrived at the church the coffin arrived. The ‘hearse’ was a clapped out ambulance from eastern Europe, wich once would have been bright red, but was not more rusty. It had a siren which they had going, but didn’t really work and was hard to hear. In the back was a man laying down next to the coffin trying to hold it in place, and driving in front was a car with a man almost fully out the window filming the procession.
Program: When you sit down funeral programs are handed along the line, but there are not enough to go round so you share. It has a numbered order of service, pictures, and testimonies from the friends and family. The program looks like something you would buy at the theatre in the UK. While we are sat through the beginning of the service I get a tap on my shoulder from the random lady behind me, and she passes me the following note:
(click to enlarge)
Guests: There is a man sat next to us who is obviously uncomfortable in his outfit and spends the service adjusting his gentleman parts. The person in front decides she needs a pen so disrupts uncomfortable man to ask the person sitting behind him for a pen.
Length: The service lasted three hours, most people arrived an hour earlier than that to travel with the body to the church, and then attended the burial service after the church service.
Music: There was more music than the average Nigerian church service with presentation songs from various choirs and bands linked to the church we were in, and Vicky’s church. As a general rule in Nigeria the choirs are excellent and the bands contain the singers who didn’t fit vocally with the choir. One of the band songs had a backing track taken from the £9.99 keyboard which sounded like a children’s tv theme tune. The tinny pa system probably didn’t do it justice.
Sermon: Most of the service was in English with a bit of Hausa mixed in. There were two notable and slightly unfortunate exceptions which were the sermon, and the notices at the end when they gave the details of the burial. The preacher didn’t speak the sermon, rather he shouted it. I’m not completely sure what he said, but from what I could gather he was preaching a bit of a gospel message. He was saying that we never know when the end of our life will come, and do we know what will happen if we die suddenly. I think this is a very important thing for us to think in our own lives. At the end of the sermon about twenty people responded to the message.
So that’s my observations from a Nigerian funeral. It was a very sad day, but interesting to see the way a very different culture deals with death. Before I came to Nigeria I had no idea I would attend two funerals, and witness two seemingly tragic wastes of life.
Very nice recap, Neil. Also, excellent photoshop/lightroom skills.
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