1/8 – Another new month, another step closer towards going home (sad times). On the brighter side of things, it was the final Purpose Driven Youth and we had loads of things planned. The program was to take place in Onicha-Igo (this is the place where we had turned up before and no one was around). Since I had the summer team at my disposal we decided to add more activities, specifically concentrating on life skills. Each summer team member led a new seminar (e.g. team work seminar). By the afternoon there were well over 100 young people in the church so I’m thankful for the extra hands because those sorts of numbers usually cause chaos!
When we got home there was only one can of sprite left! What a disaster! Only one way to decide who gets the can; an epic game of family fortunes, oh and who wins it...ME!
2/8 – We were at our usual hang out this Sunday morning and the service was fine and we all enjoyed dancing during the offering time (a long line of awkward white movers). Come 9.30 we were ready to leave when the pastor invited a ‘stranger’ to speak about an upcoming conference. Now, this guy spoke very quickly and loudly so I didn’t really catch a lot of what he said, but he was basically recruiting people to look after the foreign visitors who were coming to preach at the conference. He referred to a ‘paramilitary protocol’ and suggested that lots of big Americans wanted him to go to the USA just because he had previously helped look after visitors. What a load of tosh!
Unfortunately the Holley Memorial girls had to leave back to the hospital, so it was another sad moments and another realisation of my impending home time. We had to cheer ourselves up by watching High School Musical 3!
3/8 – With the orphan’s party only a day away, we (the Ogugu boys and the summer team) headed up to Sam ‘the expert’ and Joy’s compound – the party venue – to set up everything ready for tomorrow. After arriving to find the venue well cleared up I headed off with Rueben to sort out some music equipment. Again, it’s quite amazing what you can acquire in Ogugu if you know the right people; not only did we get some big speakers but we also managed to get an amp, mixer for rent as well. DJ time! The only thing left was to buy some Igala/Nigerian music CDs, which you can find anywhere on the road because it is always being blared out during the night.
In the afternoon, the older football boys and I took the short trip to Okpo to play Agala FC. The match was tough, as was the oppositions tackling (one of my defenders was pulled off with an injury after a harsh collision). After going 1-0 down, the referee failed to recognise the linesman’s (sounds very professional I know but it was actually a branch) flag and allowed the opposition to score a blatant offside goal. Unfortunately that’s the way the game ended, but the performance was good and it was good preparation for the tournament on the 8th.
4/8 – Before the fun of the orphans party, I had to attend to picking up my large order from Ankpa. I had previously put an order in for 15 pairs of football boots, a prize for the winners of the upcoming football tournament.
Today was one of the most enjoyable days of my 6 months; around 60 children from the orphans list came along to the party we had organised. I was in charge of musical statues, using the music equipment; mixing up some Nigerian music with some less well known western music! There was also face painting (for the adults as well), other competitions and food and drinks. We also celebrated little Josh and Goodness’ recent birthdays by cutting and sharing cake. The day was really fun and it was also nice to give out gifts to the children (buckets, soap and other wash things).
Not all of today was happy and good fun. Today is the last full day the summer team and Chris Banks have in Ogugu before they head to Abuja and then onto the UK. This occasion was marked by Reverend Okpanachi and Reverend Okoli coming over to share chicken, rice and stew and taking lots of snaps!
5/8 – Today was the ‘beginning of the end’ because the summer team and Banksy were leaving Ogugu. The emotion was too much for some; Becki’s sister Jane broke down in tears and couldn’t stop crying! What’s more sad is that I have less than 3 weeks left in Nigeria. Still I have lots of things left to do including the football tournament and more HIV awareness within different church denominations. I’m also very busy putting together a new schedule for Callum, the new gapper who is arriving early September. This has been really good news because we have someone else to take over what we have started.
6/8 – After the emotional goodbyes, it was time to turn my attention to the football tournament. Since I had a couple more weeks in Ogugu (and a lot less busy without a summer team to organise) I thought it would be a good idea to hold a football tournament for the different areas in the Ogugu superintendence. By this time there was already a buzz around the village with players getting very excited and talk of teams putting in extra practise for the big occasion.
As I alluded to before, I’m also working on a schedule for Callum. What was most difficult (but turned out to be a blessing) coming to Ogugu was the lack of structure in the day, especially when the schools were on strike. Kogi State willing however, Callum should arrive with schools up and running. I have therefore organised the following goals for him; to get the Donegore centre library up and running (which I am in the middle of setting up), taking the Purpose Driven Youth program into different schools and working with Reverend Ameh at a school in Adupi.
7/8 – Since the summer team and Holley Memorial girls have left, life in Ogugu has slowed down and become a lot quieter recently. Most schools are on holiday now so a lot of children have travelled back to their home villages. This has caused the number of children around Ogugu central to drop considerably.
This gave me time in the morning to compile my HIV/AIDS presentation which I am supposed to be giving to the different denominations in the area. This 6 months has showed me how important it is to spread information and awareness to avoid the spread of HIV rather than just wait to have to treat it. It’s shocking how ignorant there is about an epidemic which is right on many people’s doorsteps. The way the church is responding as well is largely not good enough; this issue needs to be addressed. The stigma attached to people suffering from AIDs is still there, even in the church, and it needs to be replaced by loving and caring attitudes.
In the afternoon, I was in the centre starting to organise the book for the library. Mark and Elaine are donating a shed load of their old book, including lots of bibles, which is something the locals are dying to get hold of. After a meeting a few days ago, we all decided that the centre should move away from just being a medical centre but also provide a community feel. This will certainly go towards taking away the stigma that surrounds visiting a ‘HIV clinic/centre’.
8/8 – I had to be prepared today to face some stress; organising a football tournament in the UK is hard enough let alone in Ogugu. Thankfully all the teams had arrived early and I was happy to see lots of football players ready to get going by 10 o’clock. There was only one team missing, but fear not, my team were on stand-by to replace any team who were not present (something I was expecting).
After only an hours delay, the game got under way with Ogugu Central (otherwise known as Ubele Bombers) taking on Unyi-Ogugu. Ogugu Central are definitely tournament favourites because they play against lots of teams from around Kogi state whilst other teams in this tournament only play smaller village teams. Ogugu central won 3-0. My team (Shining Star FC) played Amiriwa and played brilliantly. They drew the first game and won the second to go through to the quarters. They then won that match on penalties to set up a semi final with the tournament favourites.
I was really pleased with the quality of play from Shining Star but they weren’t quite good enough against Ubele and went out in the Semis. The final will be held tomorrow with Ubele playing Amiriwa.
9/8 – I must have eaten something dodgy because I was on the toilet all night last night! I generally felt rough after no sleep so I stayed in bed for most of the day. I needed to recover enough for the afternoon because it was the final of the football tournament between Ogugu Central and Amiriwa. Of course my allegiance is towards my home village of Ogugu Central, but the away team definitely had the tag of underdogs which gave me a reason to the support them to.
The first half was very even and there was evidence of quality from both teams. Unfortunately the second half became a walk over for Ogugu Central who ended the match winning 3-0. The team took 10 pairs of football boots as a prize but Amiriwa went home with 5 pairs as a consolation prize. The crowds for the final were huge and everyone is very excited about a bigger and better tournament next year.
10/8 – After the excitement of the football tournament, it was back to the centre to work on the library. Mark and Elaine were kind enough to leave loads and loads of books before the left for Jos and with these books we can open the library with around 100 books. A lot of people over the 6 months have asked us for bibles. It would be great to buy everyone a bible but that isn’t financially possible so the library will be a good place for people to hang out and read the bible and other books. We also want to encourage locals to be looking after the library and taking part in how the centre is run.
Today was my last lesson with RCM inside the classroom and I also managed to fit in a good session at football late in the afternoon.
11/8 – Today was a very slow day; as a lot of children are away there is little to do. I’ve now sorted all the library books into alphabetical order and according to whether they are fiction, non fiction or Christian literature. The only remaining program left for me is speaking at Holy Ghost fire Church about HIV. I had planned to speak at other churches but they didn’t respond to my queries, you have to roll with the punches.
12/8 – I’m devoting my blog space today to a boy named Fidelis. He’s 12 years old and he’s just come back from schooling in a nearby town. I first heard about him when Andrew from the summer team spent some time talking to him and bought back a hat. This hat was one of the craft materials from the holiday club, the idea is that you decorate the hat yourself. This hat, however, was no ordinary hat. Fidelis had written this on it: ‘Wish you a nice stay here and a safe trip back home. You are enviable people giving no time to racism as your ancestors did a long time ago… BRAVO!!! (Fidelis – Nigeria 09).’
Today I got a chance to meet him and he’s by far the most intelligent child I have ever met, Nigerian or otherwise! He loves talking about Gordon Brown being a bad Prime Minister. Where does he get all this stuff from?
13/8 – Today was the last lesson as RCM as the school was breaking up for its holiday. It was quite funny because I turned up and the teachers were lounging outside as the entire school ran around like crazy. Amongst all this there was an inter primary school football match which I ended up running around in. So, it wasn’t really a structured P.E. lesson, but we all got to run around and it was nice jumping around with the kids for the last time!
14/8 – Today I was speaking at Holy Ghost Fire Church (the Pastor is called Emmanuel, he is always smiling and he is the happiest guy I have ever met, it’s infectious) doing a HIV awareness program. Not only was it a simple awareness program but we hope to set up a HIV support group within the church with Callum (the new gapper). It’s important to set up links and relationships so there is a position of trust which we can use to encourage the church to act against the spread of HIV.
The talk went really well and I’m starting to get the hang of speaking in a Nigerian way. The congregation seemed very responsive; I just hope they get excited about doing their part.
The last few days - Since all my programs have finished, I’ve decided to record the remaining notable events in a more condensed summary!
Before leaving Nigeria I was able to enjoy the beginning of the football season springing back into life, and boy did I enjoy it; Arsenal getting off to a flying start with a 6-1 win over Everton and an important 2-0 win away to Celtic in the Champions league Qualifiers.
Another interesting experience during my last few days was meeting Brian from the USA and his wife from Venezuela. They were in ‘town’ for the annual Calabite conference in Okpo. What was most interesting was that another white person was in Ogugu who had no link to Advance or Mission Africa.
After meeting the couple in our house, he spoke at the English service at U.E.C. and packed in lots of Amens and waving of hands; not my preferred style but it certainly went down well with the congregation.
The following days were spent relaxing, visiting people and saying goodbye. I took the short trip to say goodbye to Auntie Rose for the last time. I really hope she is alive when I next visit Nigeria, unfortunately the TB has become resistant to the first strain of drugs and she cannot get the second strain anywhere in Nigeria. She has been getting better recently but I pray that her faith increases throughout this time. She has been a big inspiration to me!
One of the nicest moments for me during the last few days was the send off I was given by my footballers. They prepared a ‘love-feast’ of drinks and biscuits, which for me just symbolises the generosity of Nigerians. They had also written speeches and bought presents for me; such kindness will stay in my mind for a long time.
We (Myself, Zongo and Ryan) left Ogugu on Thursday and arrived in Abuja safely ready for the Saturday morning flight. The one remaining thing to do was to visit the craft village with my remaining 4000 naira. I purchased a cool bongo and was dashed (given free) a wallet and a necklace! We also needed to get pizza because Ryan was going back to a land where no one has heard of it!
So, as I write these last few words I’m safely waiting at gate C2 of Abuja International Airport ready to fly back home (sniff sniff). I can’t wait to return to Nigeria, hopefully next year at some point. I’ve got unfinished business! This country is so amazing in many ways; the people are so generous with the little they have and they display so much faith in God, not being afraid to ask him for what they need. The culture is vibrant and so fascinating. There’s some awesome scenery and the weather is great!
In other ways however, this country is flawed; it’s the eight fastest growing economy in the world and yet I’ve lived in a place where people live with barely anything. I don’t want to finish my writing on a bad note though! Up Nigeria For Life! And up Ogugu For Life! Thanks to everyone who has supported me in different ways and Thanks to God!!
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Friday, 11 September 2009
19th - 31st July
19/7 – With the prospect of a 5 hour church service coming up, we decided to travel to Holley Memorial Hospital to visit Campbell. Thankfully he had recovered well over night and his blood sugars were getting back to normal. He will stay under the supervision of the medical electives for a couple more days.
What’s more saddening though is that Billy and Linda left us today to go back to the UK, this is the last time we will see them in Nigeria, so this is a massive thank you to the Abwa crew for being complete legends! We spent the rest of the day with HMH girls playing games.
On the way home the car decided to spin out of control and we narrowly avoided hitting a tree. Once we got home (in one piece) the team had their first experience of Ogusi soup, yum!
20/7 – After sending the Summer team to have their first experience of working in a Nigeria school (they took over my bible class with primary 6) I got to work transforming the centre in an Exodus/Egyptian wonderland. Of course it was with the help of Banksy who painted giant pyramids and made some very cool palm trees. I’m really looking forward to the next week, it should be such fun.
21/7 – Today was the start of ‘The Great Escape’ holiday bible club (wittingly named because of the Exodus theme). The plan was to have the 93 orphans who had all be given written invitations. With this being Nigeria, hardly any of them turned up, so we decided to just take the first 100 children who arrived, this (as we found out later) would be to our peril.
He children loved the songs; jumping up and down and shouting as loud as possible is right up their street. They were also fascinated by the puppets. Despite the change of plans the groups were split easily into the relevant age groups. From there, the kids did craft, games and worksheets. This is were things started to get a bit chaotic; more children turned up and orphans began to arrive and were left out so things became a bit stressful.
Tomorrow we will only have orphans, no matter how few. I am also introducing a coloured elastic band wearing system (inspired by Reading Festival).
22/7 – After the chaos of yesterdays moving around class rooms, the wristband system was introduced (red bands for over 15s etc). Unfortunately this wasn’t really the problem. Once we moved into different rooms to do group activities other children were interested and do not understand the concept of invite only ha ha! Tomorrow we will keep everything in and just outside the centre; its really important for us to be placing all our attention on having fun with the orphans and not trying to shoo away other children.
23/7 – As the holiday club was up and running (quite smoothly by now) we had time in the morning to attend the graduation at St Theresa Primary school. Graduation is a big event in these parts; the children from nursery dress up to graduate to primary school and the primary 6 year children do the same. We were told the ceremony would be over by 12, however, mass was only finishing by that time so we didn’t get to see the really good bits!
About 40 orphans came to the club today which was a great number because we could keep them in the centre (avoiding a lot of chaos with other children). The children love the songs; they’re learning the words really quickly and shouting them out with aplomb! The local volunteers are even beginning to loosen up and jump around with the children. This to me is the best part as Nigerian adults are usually so strict and ‘adult’ around children. This experience for the children will have a big effect on them when they turn into adults!
24/7 – As well as an awesome day at the holiday club, the children had another new experience; during sports outreach we introduced the rugby ball! The lads found it hard to grasp the concept of throwing the ball backwards, but I was pleased that so many of the children wanted to learn how to play properly. They certainly loved the idea of dragging people to the ground and jumping all over each other.
25/7 – As it was market day we decided to take a group trip onto the main road to see if we could get the summer team kitted out with some traditional clothing. Sam’s relative Faith has just learnt how to tailor so she offered to do it for the girls, the boys also found some cloth at ‘mama Jay Jay’s shop’. I also went to the guy who sells football shirts and placed an order for the new Arsenal 3rd strip (since they are only a tenner a pop!). Come 1.30 we were ready for the last day of the holiday bible club. A really lovely moment today was giving out gifts and prizes to the orphans. It was also really great to see the volunteers having a great time with the kids on the last day!
26/7 – This Sunday we had been invited to the nearby U.E.C. church that Elder Rueben attends. It was the official welcoming of the new Pastor; he attended my pastors training and he also spoke at our U.E.C. church, and he spoke with a lot of sense! Unfortunately it wasn’t the incoming pastor that was speaking this morning but an evangelist from afar! The service lasted 3 and a half hours, at least the food at the end was good.
After returning home, we got the bat, ball and stumps out and had a jolly good game of cricket! This of course drew lots of attention and within minutes there were swarms of children. It was nice that both girls and boys joined in. We played for hours on end and the children really enjoyed lobbing balls at each other!
27/7 – With the medical outreach fast approaching it was time to transform the centre from a children’s holiday club venue into a medical centre.
After tidying up the centre – removing pyramids and taking down palm trees – it was time to return to the football field. It was a week since I had coached the senior team because I had been busy with the holiday club and sports outreach. The boys were pleased to see me back and we hit up some big training!
28/7 – Today was the start of the medical outreach, so I was handing over responsibilities to Mel and the Holley Memorial Girls. Today was devoted to doing eye tests and giving out glasses. We knew the demand for glasses would be high in a place like Ogugu, but when we rolled up at 7.30am and there were already 200 people waiting outside, we got a bit worried!
Thankfully Reverend Okoli had been waiting at the centre with early arrivals to take their names and put them in order of their arrival time. This, I believed, would stop any chaos. How I was wrong. Someone (mentioning no names) decided to wreck the system by letting people in ahead. As you can imagine, this created a storm, and before you could say retina, we were physically pushing people out of the door.
After a typically chaotic start, the girls managed to get through 140 patients and give out 106 pairs of glasses. All the credit has to go to those girls, well done! The summer team also did a great job entertaining the crowds with songs and dramas.
In the afternoon my junior team took to the field to play a group of boys from Emenega (near Unyi-Ogugu) and earned themselves a 2-2 draw.
29/7 – Another day, another long queue of inpatient punters waiting for an eye test. Thankfully most of yesterday’s crowds had been satisfied so the numbers were significantly lower! After sorting the crowds out, we set to work entertaining the vast sums. Our efforts were aided by my purchase of a mega-phone from a local shop (although I never thought such a purchase was possible in a place like this). I took the opportunity to do a open air sermon, Nigerian style!!
The football session today was very short as it was one of the hottest days I could remember! So after bathing off all the sweat, the group played a few games. The best game involved picking up a cereal box with your teeth!
30/7 – Summer time is truly here! Today we were up at Faith Gospel Nursery and Primary school for graduation ceremony. We were invited by Sam and Joy because their youngest son – Joshua – was going from nursery to primary. The ceremony was really good fun, with lots of dancing and singing. The best part of the show was the drama that the children put on (It was all in Igala, but it looked funny and the costumes were brilliant).
We’re getting very used to being introduced now as part of the honorary guest list!
31/7 – It’s the last day of August and it’s hitting home how close it is until I leave Ogugu and return to the UK. I’m obviously excited about seeing everyone at home but I know I am really going to miss everyone (Nigerian and Non-Nigerian) I have met here.
I was in Ankpa today looking for socca (football boots) to give as a prize for the winner of the organised football tournament coming up on the 8th August. I was also with Jay Jay who wants to do a post graduate degree in the UK; although he is only in his first year of university in Nigeria, I though it would be good to research the possibilities with him at the internet café.
In the afternoon I was invited to play for Ugbele FC against Okpo FC. I managed to get in one half before my legs gave way. It’s hard keeping up with fully grown Nigerian men, but I was pleased with my performance in midfield and I even managed to test the keeper once.
What’s more saddening though is that Billy and Linda left us today to go back to the UK, this is the last time we will see them in Nigeria, so this is a massive thank you to the Abwa crew for being complete legends! We spent the rest of the day with HMH girls playing games.
On the way home the car decided to spin out of control and we narrowly avoided hitting a tree. Once we got home (in one piece) the team had their first experience of Ogusi soup, yum!
20/7 – After sending the Summer team to have their first experience of working in a Nigeria school (they took over my bible class with primary 6) I got to work transforming the centre in an Exodus/Egyptian wonderland. Of course it was with the help of Banksy who painted giant pyramids and made some very cool palm trees. I’m really looking forward to the next week, it should be such fun.
21/7 – Today was the start of ‘The Great Escape’ holiday bible club (wittingly named because of the Exodus theme). The plan was to have the 93 orphans who had all be given written invitations. With this being Nigeria, hardly any of them turned up, so we decided to just take the first 100 children who arrived, this (as we found out later) would be to our peril.
He children loved the songs; jumping up and down and shouting as loud as possible is right up their street. They were also fascinated by the puppets. Despite the change of plans the groups were split easily into the relevant age groups. From there, the kids did craft, games and worksheets. This is were things started to get a bit chaotic; more children turned up and orphans began to arrive and were left out so things became a bit stressful.
Tomorrow we will only have orphans, no matter how few. I am also introducing a coloured elastic band wearing system (inspired by Reading Festival).
22/7 – After the chaos of yesterdays moving around class rooms, the wristband system was introduced (red bands for over 15s etc). Unfortunately this wasn’t really the problem. Once we moved into different rooms to do group activities other children were interested and do not understand the concept of invite only ha ha! Tomorrow we will keep everything in and just outside the centre; its really important for us to be placing all our attention on having fun with the orphans and not trying to shoo away other children.
23/7 – As the holiday club was up and running (quite smoothly by now) we had time in the morning to attend the graduation at St Theresa Primary school. Graduation is a big event in these parts; the children from nursery dress up to graduate to primary school and the primary 6 year children do the same. We were told the ceremony would be over by 12, however, mass was only finishing by that time so we didn’t get to see the really good bits!
About 40 orphans came to the club today which was a great number because we could keep them in the centre (avoiding a lot of chaos with other children). The children love the songs; they’re learning the words really quickly and shouting them out with aplomb! The local volunteers are even beginning to loosen up and jump around with the children. This to me is the best part as Nigerian adults are usually so strict and ‘adult’ around children. This experience for the children will have a big effect on them when they turn into adults!
24/7 – As well as an awesome day at the holiday club, the children had another new experience; during sports outreach we introduced the rugby ball! The lads found it hard to grasp the concept of throwing the ball backwards, but I was pleased that so many of the children wanted to learn how to play properly. They certainly loved the idea of dragging people to the ground and jumping all over each other.
25/7 – As it was market day we decided to take a group trip onto the main road to see if we could get the summer team kitted out with some traditional clothing. Sam’s relative Faith has just learnt how to tailor so she offered to do it for the girls, the boys also found some cloth at ‘mama Jay Jay’s shop’. I also went to the guy who sells football shirts and placed an order for the new Arsenal 3rd strip (since they are only a tenner a pop!). Come 1.30 we were ready for the last day of the holiday bible club. A really lovely moment today was giving out gifts and prizes to the orphans. It was also really great to see the volunteers having a great time with the kids on the last day!
26/7 – This Sunday we had been invited to the nearby U.E.C. church that Elder Rueben attends. It was the official welcoming of the new Pastor; he attended my pastors training and he also spoke at our U.E.C. church, and he spoke with a lot of sense! Unfortunately it wasn’t the incoming pastor that was speaking this morning but an evangelist from afar! The service lasted 3 and a half hours, at least the food at the end was good.
After returning home, we got the bat, ball and stumps out and had a jolly good game of cricket! This of course drew lots of attention and within minutes there were swarms of children. It was nice that both girls and boys joined in. We played for hours on end and the children really enjoyed lobbing balls at each other!
27/7 – With the medical outreach fast approaching it was time to transform the centre from a children’s holiday club venue into a medical centre.
After tidying up the centre – removing pyramids and taking down palm trees – it was time to return to the football field. It was a week since I had coached the senior team because I had been busy with the holiday club and sports outreach. The boys were pleased to see me back and we hit up some big training!
28/7 – Today was the start of the medical outreach, so I was handing over responsibilities to Mel and the Holley Memorial Girls. Today was devoted to doing eye tests and giving out glasses. We knew the demand for glasses would be high in a place like Ogugu, but when we rolled up at 7.30am and there were already 200 people waiting outside, we got a bit worried!
Thankfully Reverend Okoli had been waiting at the centre with early arrivals to take their names and put them in order of their arrival time. This, I believed, would stop any chaos. How I was wrong. Someone (mentioning no names) decided to wreck the system by letting people in ahead. As you can imagine, this created a storm, and before you could say retina, we were physically pushing people out of the door.
After a typically chaotic start, the girls managed to get through 140 patients and give out 106 pairs of glasses. All the credit has to go to those girls, well done! The summer team also did a great job entertaining the crowds with songs and dramas.
In the afternoon my junior team took to the field to play a group of boys from Emenega (near Unyi-Ogugu) and earned themselves a 2-2 draw.
29/7 – Another day, another long queue of inpatient punters waiting for an eye test. Thankfully most of yesterday’s crowds had been satisfied so the numbers were significantly lower! After sorting the crowds out, we set to work entertaining the vast sums. Our efforts were aided by my purchase of a mega-phone from a local shop (although I never thought such a purchase was possible in a place like this). I took the opportunity to do a open air sermon, Nigerian style!!
The football session today was very short as it was one of the hottest days I could remember! So after bathing off all the sweat, the group played a few games. The best game involved picking up a cereal box with your teeth!
30/7 – Summer time is truly here! Today we were up at Faith Gospel Nursery and Primary school for graduation ceremony. We were invited by Sam and Joy because their youngest son – Joshua – was going from nursery to primary. The ceremony was really good fun, with lots of dancing and singing. The best part of the show was the drama that the children put on (It was all in Igala, but it looked funny and the costumes were brilliant).
We’re getting very used to being introduced now as part of the honorary guest list!
31/7 – It’s the last day of August and it’s hitting home how close it is until I leave Ogugu and return to the UK. I’m obviously excited about seeing everyone at home but I know I am really going to miss everyone (Nigerian and Non-Nigerian) I have met here.
I was in Ankpa today looking for socca (football boots) to give as a prize for the winner of the organised football tournament coming up on the 8th August. I was also with Jay Jay who wants to do a post graduate degree in the UK; although he is only in his first year of university in Nigeria, I though it would be good to research the possibilities with him at the internet café.
In the afternoon I was invited to play for Ugbele FC against Okpo FC. I managed to get in one half before my legs gave way. It’s hard keeping up with fully grown Nigerian men, but I was pleased with my performance in midfield and I even managed to test the keeper once.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
18th July
18/7 - The summer teams first proper cultural experience in Ogugu was meeting the Ochogu (Chief) of Ogugu. Unlike our first visit back in February, the Chief was alone in his 'Palace' but he was happy to see us all the same. He thanked us for bringing more enefu to Ogugu land. We stayed chatting, giving thanks speeches and exchanging gifts for about 20 minutes before heading back home in the scorching heat. The Chief gave us some Colla-nut, which is the mark of great respect in Ogugu. 'Colla-nut brings life.'
The team then relaxed for the rest of the day and got settled in and used to the heat whilst i had another local volunteer meeting for the holiday club. Unfortunately Campbell began to feel ill because of his diabetes, so we sent him off to Holley Memorial to be in the capable hands of the 'white angels' (the 4 medical electives).
The team then relaxed for the rest of the day and got settled in and used to the heat whilst i had another local volunteer meeting for the holiday club. Unfortunately Campbell began to feel ill because of his diabetes, so we sent him off to Holley Memorial to be in the capable hands of the 'white angels' (the 4 medical electives).
Saturday, 15 August 2009
28th June - 17th July (more to come when im back in the good old UK)
28/6 – Now, in Nigeria, church actually starts half an hour after the scheduled start (because no one turns up on time), but when we arrived at UEC at 8 and there were not even any church leaders there, we became a bit suspicious. Only then were we informed that it was a English/Igala joint service starting at 9am (which is the kind of service that lasts until well past lunch time). We decided instead to head to Becki’s church Faith Gospel Centre for a bit more of a crazy African service. This meant Mel went from Free Church of Scotland where they only sing psalms to bending low and screaming HALELUJAH!
The rest of Sunday was fairly ordinary; playing cards and reading.
29/6 – After the usual Monday morning boredom of writing reports and typing letter (yawn), it was off to RCM primary school to do another class. For me, Mondays are bible classes and Thursdays are P.E. classes. The benefit of the schools not running for a while was that I could develop a good African accent before being thrown into the deep end. Good behavior and understanding from the children is my reward!
After lunch I continued visiting the young footballers, completing the fantasy football team competition with all of them (the player who matches the most amount of players to my fantasy team wins a prize), although its surprising how few player some of the boys know for such an avid footballing place such as Ogugu.
30/6 – Preparation for the Holiday Club (starting on the 21st July) is really starting to come along! If all goes well I should have all my volunteers training planned and ready to do in a couple of days.
Another success story for the day is my visits to the houses of my football teams. The fantasy football competition has given me a really good chance to spend time with the boys and speak to them one on one. I was also able to enjoy a day off from coaching since the inter-schools football championships was being held; LGA Secondary School taking on QIC Secondary School.
1/7 – Market day is starting to become a real social occasion; I can’t walk down the (one) road without someone calling me over or getting into a conversation (even if I don’t know who they are). Market day also involves something highly African, today for example there were a group of people marching a guy around and around the market. Becki explained that the man was being publicly humiliated for attempting to steal a goat.
This afternoon I attempted to gather all the holiday club volunteers for training and preparation. Unfortunately only 6 or 7 turned up, but considering its market day I’m not too disappointed. TIA (This Is Africa). The last duty of the day was football practise, getting preparation in for the match against Adupi.
2/7 – Today I took my first P.E. lesson at RCM primary with the year 6 class. We did a warm up and I taught the children some important stretches. We spent most of the hour playing some fun games. As I had expected, the children are much harder to handle when outside and very excited.
As soon as you could shout ‘big match’ 2.30 had rolled around and the boys (who I refer to as Duncans Destroyers FC) were ready to move to Adupi. We managed to cram 18 guys into the car for the 20 minute journey. The match was full of incident; we were awarded a penalty after two minutes which was converted but due to some defensive mishaps we found ourselves 3-1 down soon after.
Once I had delivered my inspirational team talk and made a couple of tactical changes, the boys came out much stronger and scored the second goal very quickly. With minutes to go we were denied a blatant penalty. The game ended at 3-2, but we were not ashamed, finishing the game much stronger than Adupi.
3/7 – It seems as if we British Ogugu residents are in our element; the rainy season is upon us and whilst Nigerians are cowering in the comfort of their homes we are out splashing around in puddles with the children. Along with getting very wet I also managed to finish holiday club preparation by doing bible worksheets and the puppet show. I feel like a little kid again, I can’t wait for the 21st!
Rain was not entirely welcomed because training had to be cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch.
4/7 – Since there was no PDY programme this Saturday we decided to travel to Ankpa to get some fruit (since the only fruit you can get in Ogugu is Orange) and visit the internet café. We managed to leave a little bit later than planned because Chris got himself locked in his own room! We eventually got out of the house and into a crammed taxi, what is so great about Nigeria is that you can have a decent friendly conversation with a completely random person, rather than looking around awkwardly and hoping that no one will talk to you.
After Ankpa, a holiday club meeting followed, and as promised the number of volunteers doubled (even if most of them were very late).
5/7 – The holiday club is beginning to pick up speed; I know have 15 or 16 names signed up to volunteer and today I made an announcement to well over 300 people in church so I’m expecting that number to increase.
Sundays are often a time of relaxation, and today was no different until a girl named Helen came to visit. She’s a student of nursing at a Kogi State University and she’s back in Ogugu on break. She invited me to see her house (which is a usual custom) but this turned into going to a graduation party with a lot of people I didn’t know and then eating some very, very hot peppe soup. Our famous music star Pierre was even at the party as the MC; he was sporting a lovely bright yellow jacket, with matching belt, shoes and even handkerchief!
6/7 – Well I never really thought I’d be spending my birthday in a place like Ogugu! I didn’t make a big fuss over it (since Nigerians don’t either) so my day was normal; working at the computer place to get all the holiday club stuff ready and then going to RCM for my one hour session with the year 6 class. This afternoon I took the junior team for an extended practise because they have a match tomorrow (still struggling with their behaviour ha ha). The birthday celebrations involved an epic game of cards and boiled tins of condensed milk!!
7/7 – I was slightly anxious today about the impending junior match. They have not had a match since the last disaster and since then their progress has not come close to the senior teams. Still, the Clasti Boys came to our field (as usual over an hour late) for a friendly match. I’ve become accustomed to the junior way of playing football (hit and hope to put it lightly). The score reflected the lack of rhythm in the game, the Clasti Boys going away with a 4-2 victory.
8/7 – Amazing, for N 2700 (just over £10) I got myself 30 exercise books, 30 pens, 30 pencils, 30 rubbers, 30 rulers and 30 sharpeners, better than WHSmiths any day! All these things are going to the football boys to help them with their school studies.
In the evening we welcomed the arrival of three more enefu; Linda and her uncle David (a politician) and Auntie Anne (a teacher). Billy will be joining us next week.
9/7 – The summer team’s arrival is getting closer and closer so Linda decided it was about time to delegate some responsibilities to us. I was already prepared to be leading the week of the holiday bible club, however I did not expect to be in charge of the summer team for the whole 3 weeks (as Billy and Linda are going back to the UK), still I do love a challenge! My new role involves getting to the airport in Abuja to welcome the summer team, making sure their stay is a happy one and generally making sure everything gets done.
The population of white people in Ogugu rose again today from 8 to 12 people as the 4 medical students from Holey Memorial Hospital landed in for the weekend. They will be coming back later on to help us with the medical outreach.
10/7 – Life as a Mission Africa is not always big adventures and stories to tell… It rained today, so we all stayed in and played card games!
11/7 – The plan for today was to run the last Purpose Driven Youth Program in our own U.E.C headquarters, Ogugu Central. Unfortunately, like the incident with Unicha-Igo, the head pastor failed to inform any of the youth so no one turned up. I was disappointed because the HMH girls were around to help with HIV testing. We have re-scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but there won’t be time for testing.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing; in the evening we went up to Sams compound (where everyone else is staying) for a sugary feast and to play Frog on a Log! (Coming to Barnet, and the world, very soon).
12/7 – As planned, after church we ran the reduced PDY program. The program ran as normal except for the removal of testing and the chair-ball tournament due to lack of time. The church felt a bit bad for not informing anyone so they let us run their generator which was a bonus; that enabled me to make a few more snazzy presentations!
13/7 – Since I am supposed to be in charge of the 3 week summer team program, I am technically in charge during the medical outreach in the second week. I thought it would be wise to sit in on the medical people’s meeting. I felt a bit like Joey from Friends in the episode where the guy tries to sell him encyclopedias (but you’ll only understand me if you like Friends).
As it was Monday, I was needed at RCM to teach my R.E. lesson (although being in Africa, it’s less politically correct so I can just say bible class), then soon after lunch the 4 girls (Helen, Ashley, Alison and Kate) left to go back to the hospital.
In the afternoon, I went to the tailors to get my kaftan measured (long African suit) that the church are buying for us. I then had coaching with the older boys who have their second game on Wednesday.
14/7 – As much as I love living in a secluded place like Ogugu, one thing that really annoys me is having NO INTERNET! I have to travel all of 45 minutes to Ankpa just to send an email. I had no choice but to get a taxi and do that today. Rarely here does anything pass without issue or excitement, and today was no different. On the return journey, the driver was stopped at the roadside and next thing I know I was sitting in the transport commissioner’s office asking what on earth was going on! After getting no answers I stormed out. Thankfully Zongo was also in Ankpa and so gave me a lift home. By the time I was home it was gone 3pm so I missed football with the juniors (I guess one day won’t hurt).
15/7 – The summer team are arriving in 2 days time! Linda asked me to accompany Zongo up to Abuja to meet the team. We decided that it was best to travel tomorrow so I could get everything for the holiday club finished. I managed to finish the bible worksheets, which are looking really good.
In the afternoon, Duncan’s Destroyers took the short trip to Emonyoku to play their second match against the local team there. The opening 20 minutes were very tense and we were largely on the back foot, but for the rest of the game we controlled and made the most chances. This pressure was rewarded when we scored from a long range free kick half way through the second half. This made the lads very happy!
16/7 – As the journey to Abuja is very long (around 6 hours) me and Zongo thought early progress was the best idea, so we left Ogugu around 7 am. Our journey was obviously well timed because a new road had just been opened which shaved off 30 minutes from our journey; combine this with little traffic and we had a journey from Ogugu to Abuja in record time. Our one and only hitch was when some Kogi State ‘nail boys’ (boys who try and con you into thinking they work for the government) try to suggest that we owe them money because we have a sticker on the car.
Once we got to Abuja it was time to hit the sack, since we were getting up at 4.30am to pick the Scots up.
17/7 – If only I were wearing my Dreamcast Arsenal shirt! I and Billy were waiting at the airport and who pops up, none other than former Arsenal legend Kanu! He gave a quick glance and smile before being ushered out by his large entourage. I’m sure that even if I had asked him to stop for a photo, I probably would have been pushed away by the big guys standing around him.
Fortunately we were waiting for people more important that Kanu and finally (probably because of the British polite practice to let other people push in front of you at customs) the summer team emerged last from the doors. The guy’s names are Campbell, Andrew, Jenny, Joan and Kirsty.
After another smooth 6 hour journey, we were welcome by traditional dancers and flowers for the girls (not too many complaints from Campbell and Andrew).
The rest of Sunday was fairly ordinary; playing cards and reading.
29/6 – After the usual Monday morning boredom of writing reports and typing letter (yawn), it was off to RCM primary school to do another class. For me, Mondays are bible classes and Thursdays are P.E. classes. The benefit of the schools not running for a while was that I could develop a good African accent before being thrown into the deep end. Good behavior and understanding from the children is my reward!
After lunch I continued visiting the young footballers, completing the fantasy football team competition with all of them (the player who matches the most amount of players to my fantasy team wins a prize), although its surprising how few player some of the boys know for such an avid footballing place such as Ogugu.
30/6 – Preparation for the Holiday Club (starting on the 21st July) is really starting to come along! If all goes well I should have all my volunteers training planned and ready to do in a couple of days.
Another success story for the day is my visits to the houses of my football teams. The fantasy football competition has given me a really good chance to spend time with the boys and speak to them one on one. I was also able to enjoy a day off from coaching since the inter-schools football championships was being held; LGA Secondary School taking on QIC Secondary School.
1/7 – Market day is starting to become a real social occasion; I can’t walk down the (one) road without someone calling me over or getting into a conversation (even if I don’t know who they are). Market day also involves something highly African, today for example there were a group of people marching a guy around and around the market. Becki explained that the man was being publicly humiliated for attempting to steal a goat.
This afternoon I attempted to gather all the holiday club volunteers for training and preparation. Unfortunately only 6 or 7 turned up, but considering its market day I’m not too disappointed. TIA (This Is Africa). The last duty of the day was football practise, getting preparation in for the match against Adupi.
2/7 – Today I took my first P.E. lesson at RCM primary with the year 6 class. We did a warm up and I taught the children some important stretches. We spent most of the hour playing some fun games. As I had expected, the children are much harder to handle when outside and very excited.
As soon as you could shout ‘big match’ 2.30 had rolled around and the boys (who I refer to as Duncans Destroyers FC) were ready to move to Adupi. We managed to cram 18 guys into the car for the 20 minute journey. The match was full of incident; we were awarded a penalty after two minutes which was converted but due to some defensive mishaps we found ourselves 3-1 down soon after.
Once I had delivered my inspirational team talk and made a couple of tactical changes, the boys came out much stronger and scored the second goal very quickly. With minutes to go we were denied a blatant penalty. The game ended at 3-2, but we were not ashamed, finishing the game much stronger than Adupi.
3/7 – It seems as if we British Ogugu residents are in our element; the rainy season is upon us and whilst Nigerians are cowering in the comfort of their homes we are out splashing around in puddles with the children. Along with getting very wet I also managed to finish holiday club preparation by doing bible worksheets and the puppet show. I feel like a little kid again, I can’t wait for the 21st!
Rain was not entirely welcomed because training had to be cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch.
4/7 – Since there was no PDY programme this Saturday we decided to travel to Ankpa to get some fruit (since the only fruit you can get in Ogugu is Orange) and visit the internet café. We managed to leave a little bit later than planned because Chris got himself locked in his own room! We eventually got out of the house and into a crammed taxi, what is so great about Nigeria is that you can have a decent friendly conversation with a completely random person, rather than looking around awkwardly and hoping that no one will talk to you.
After Ankpa, a holiday club meeting followed, and as promised the number of volunteers doubled (even if most of them were very late).
5/7 – The holiday club is beginning to pick up speed; I know have 15 or 16 names signed up to volunteer and today I made an announcement to well over 300 people in church so I’m expecting that number to increase.
Sundays are often a time of relaxation, and today was no different until a girl named Helen came to visit. She’s a student of nursing at a Kogi State University and she’s back in Ogugu on break. She invited me to see her house (which is a usual custom) but this turned into going to a graduation party with a lot of people I didn’t know and then eating some very, very hot peppe soup. Our famous music star Pierre was even at the party as the MC; he was sporting a lovely bright yellow jacket, with matching belt, shoes and even handkerchief!
6/7 – Well I never really thought I’d be spending my birthday in a place like Ogugu! I didn’t make a big fuss over it (since Nigerians don’t either) so my day was normal; working at the computer place to get all the holiday club stuff ready and then going to RCM for my one hour session with the year 6 class. This afternoon I took the junior team for an extended practise because they have a match tomorrow (still struggling with their behaviour ha ha). The birthday celebrations involved an epic game of cards and boiled tins of condensed milk!!
7/7 – I was slightly anxious today about the impending junior match. They have not had a match since the last disaster and since then their progress has not come close to the senior teams. Still, the Clasti Boys came to our field (as usual over an hour late) for a friendly match. I’ve become accustomed to the junior way of playing football (hit and hope to put it lightly). The score reflected the lack of rhythm in the game, the Clasti Boys going away with a 4-2 victory.
8/7 – Amazing, for N 2700 (just over £10) I got myself 30 exercise books, 30 pens, 30 pencils, 30 rubbers, 30 rulers and 30 sharpeners, better than WHSmiths any day! All these things are going to the football boys to help them with their school studies.
In the evening we welcomed the arrival of three more enefu; Linda and her uncle David (a politician) and Auntie Anne (a teacher). Billy will be joining us next week.
9/7 – The summer team’s arrival is getting closer and closer so Linda decided it was about time to delegate some responsibilities to us. I was already prepared to be leading the week of the holiday bible club, however I did not expect to be in charge of the summer team for the whole 3 weeks (as Billy and Linda are going back to the UK), still I do love a challenge! My new role involves getting to the airport in Abuja to welcome the summer team, making sure their stay is a happy one and generally making sure everything gets done.
The population of white people in Ogugu rose again today from 8 to 12 people as the 4 medical students from Holey Memorial Hospital landed in for the weekend. They will be coming back later on to help us with the medical outreach.
10/7 – Life as a Mission Africa is not always big adventures and stories to tell… It rained today, so we all stayed in and played card games!
11/7 – The plan for today was to run the last Purpose Driven Youth Program in our own U.E.C headquarters, Ogugu Central. Unfortunately, like the incident with Unicha-Igo, the head pastor failed to inform any of the youth so no one turned up. I was disappointed because the HMH girls were around to help with HIV testing. We have re-scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but there won’t be time for testing.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing; in the evening we went up to Sams compound (where everyone else is staying) for a sugary feast and to play Frog on a Log! (Coming to Barnet, and the world, very soon).
12/7 – As planned, after church we ran the reduced PDY program. The program ran as normal except for the removal of testing and the chair-ball tournament due to lack of time. The church felt a bit bad for not informing anyone so they let us run their generator which was a bonus; that enabled me to make a few more snazzy presentations!
13/7 – Since I am supposed to be in charge of the 3 week summer team program, I am technically in charge during the medical outreach in the second week. I thought it would be wise to sit in on the medical people’s meeting. I felt a bit like Joey from Friends in the episode where the guy tries to sell him encyclopedias (but you’ll only understand me if you like Friends).
As it was Monday, I was needed at RCM to teach my R.E. lesson (although being in Africa, it’s less politically correct so I can just say bible class), then soon after lunch the 4 girls (Helen, Ashley, Alison and Kate) left to go back to the hospital.
In the afternoon, I went to the tailors to get my kaftan measured (long African suit) that the church are buying for us. I then had coaching with the older boys who have their second game on Wednesday.
14/7 – As much as I love living in a secluded place like Ogugu, one thing that really annoys me is having NO INTERNET! I have to travel all of 45 minutes to Ankpa just to send an email. I had no choice but to get a taxi and do that today. Rarely here does anything pass without issue or excitement, and today was no different. On the return journey, the driver was stopped at the roadside and next thing I know I was sitting in the transport commissioner’s office asking what on earth was going on! After getting no answers I stormed out. Thankfully Zongo was also in Ankpa and so gave me a lift home. By the time I was home it was gone 3pm so I missed football with the juniors (I guess one day won’t hurt).
15/7 – The summer team are arriving in 2 days time! Linda asked me to accompany Zongo up to Abuja to meet the team. We decided that it was best to travel tomorrow so I could get everything for the holiday club finished. I managed to finish the bible worksheets, which are looking really good.
In the afternoon, Duncan’s Destroyers took the short trip to Emonyoku to play their second match against the local team there. The opening 20 minutes were very tense and we were largely on the back foot, but for the rest of the game we controlled and made the most chances. This pressure was rewarded when we scored from a long range free kick half way through the second half. This made the lads very happy!
16/7 – As the journey to Abuja is very long (around 6 hours) me and Zongo thought early progress was the best idea, so we left Ogugu around 7 am. Our journey was obviously well timed because a new road had just been opened which shaved off 30 minutes from our journey; combine this with little traffic and we had a journey from Ogugu to Abuja in record time. Our one and only hitch was when some Kogi State ‘nail boys’ (boys who try and con you into thinking they work for the government) try to suggest that we owe them money because we have a sticker on the car.
Once we got to Abuja it was time to hit the sack, since we were getting up at 4.30am to pick the Scots up.
17/7 – If only I were wearing my Dreamcast Arsenal shirt! I and Billy were waiting at the airport and who pops up, none other than former Arsenal legend Kanu! He gave a quick glance and smile before being ushered out by his large entourage. I’m sure that even if I had asked him to stop for a photo, I probably would have been pushed away by the big guys standing around him.
Fortunately we were waiting for people more important that Kanu and finally (probably because of the British polite practice to let other people push in front of you at customs) the summer team emerged last from the doors. The guy’s names are Campbell, Andrew, Jenny, Joan and Kirsty.
After another smooth 6 hour journey, we were welcome by traditional dancers and flowers for the girls (not too many complaints from Campbell and Andrew).
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21st - 27th June
21/6 – For this Sundays service, we made the short trip to (the other) Adupi, the home of our regular visitor Reverend Ameh. He often sees us at home to ask us when we are coming to ‘his side’ so we decided to grant him his wish this time around. He requested that one us us do the sermon so I took the opportunity to use more of my resources from the Pastors Training. The sermon was looking at worship, which became particularly poignant since the service opened by prayer and blessing for the purchase of two new fancy offering boxes!
After the service, we had lunch at Ameh’s house before visiting the original birth place of Sam (the expert – he fixes any problem we have in Ogugu) before travelling home. Later on in the day, we were greeted by shouts and screams from a large crowd; a snake had appeared on the side of the house. Nigerians don’t like snakes! In fact they wanted to kill it, furthermore, they believe the snake is the symbolism of Satan! The boys couldn’t understand why I was going so close to it and not killing it.
22/6 – After a mad rush to prepare worksheets, we were very pleased to be on our way to RCM primary school for our first lesson since the teachers had returned from their strike. I will be taking the year 6 class twice a week in R.E and P.E. which should be good fun. The good news is the children are very well behaved in the classroom (although we will see how they are on the sports field)!
In the afternoon, I went off to visit my footballers in their homes. It is nice to see their families and get an idea of how they are doing in school and other things. Our evening’s entertainment came in the form of our driver Zongo! After coming down to bring Susanna and Kirsty, Zongo went on his usual tirade of how Becki (the house help) should have married him instead of some stranger in Lagos! Zongo is a legend and I hope to hook him up with an Igalan princess before I leave Nigeria!
23/6 – My day started early today; 6:45 to be precise… I know by African standards that is almost halfway through the day, but for most of us, 8 am is a reasonable waking time (well for me anyway). Unfortunately for me and Ryan sleeping outside, Reverend Ameh was unaware of the cultural difference. He is clearly also unaware that lying on your bed with your eyes closed usually means you are trying to sleep! Other than that, there is not much worth noting for today except more holiday club preparation and football training in a tropical rainstorm!
24/6 – These next couple of weeks are set to be days full of preparation; getting ready for the holiday club and the orphans party. So since everyone is at school, I took the opportunity to do some paper work (whoopee!) including writing some reports for Saturdays PDY programme.
The plan for the rest of my 2 months is to be seeing my football boys in their homes in the afternoons, today’s visits were Ernest Justin and Thank God (although he wasn’t there, but I was met by his slightly crazy elder sister). As part of my programme I will now be coaching both my junior and senior team every day. The senior team is fast becoming attractive to new players having seen a game they recently played in.
25/6 – Today has been a frustrating day; firstly an old woman threatened to kill me because I wouldn’t give her money, although now I look back on it, I laugh! However, I’m not so impressed by the amount of grief I receive when two of the footballers threaten to beat each other! On a more positive note though, my lessons at RCM are going well and we hope to start in the other schools very soon.
26/6 – Most noteworthy moment of the day: The safe arrival of Chris from Abuja, bringing with him Mel, who is nurse from Derbyshire who is now at bible college in Glasgow. He’ll be working at the centre for 2 months; working with Elder Rueben and leading the medical outreach in July. Another exciting bit of news, I will be coaching my first senior team match in two weeks!
27/6 – Another Saturday meant another Purpose Driven Youth programme. Fortunately the length of our journeys over the weeks has been decreasing, which is important as the rainy season is setting in (making the roads a nightmare). Todays destination was Unyi-Ogugu, which means First Ogugu or House Ogugu (which we discovered receives the brunt of the rain during this time of the year).
The mornings programme was as good as it has ever been! The HIV quiz was well participated in and the gender balance exercise activity was brilliantly understood and participated in. This kind of activity is vital because before my explanations, I often hear boys saying girls are lesser and below men. The afternoon was slightly spoiled by the torrential rain, however, after last week I had a plan B. Since there were fewer young people, the workshops inside were manageable without splitting the group in two. They really seemed to enjoy themselves, even to the point of wanting a group snap!
After the service, we had lunch at Ameh’s house before visiting the original birth place of Sam (the expert – he fixes any problem we have in Ogugu) before travelling home. Later on in the day, we were greeted by shouts and screams from a large crowd; a snake had appeared on the side of the house. Nigerians don’t like snakes! In fact they wanted to kill it, furthermore, they believe the snake is the symbolism of Satan! The boys couldn’t understand why I was going so close to it and not killing it.
22/6 – After a mad rush to prepare worksheets, we were very pleased to be on our way to RCM primary school for our first lesson since the teachers had returned from their strike. I will be taking the year 6 class twice a week in R.E and P.E. which should be good fun. The good news is the children are very well behaved in the classroom (although we will see how they are on the sports field)!
In the afternoon, I went off to visit my footballers in their homes. It is nice to see their families and get an idea of how they are doing in school and other things. Our evening’s entertainment came in the form of our driver Zongo! After coming down to bring Susanna and Kirsty, Zongo went on his usual tirade of how Becki (the house help) should have married him instead of some stranger in Lagos! Zongo is a legend and I hope to hook him up with an Igalan princess before I leave Nigeria!
23/6 – My day started early today; 6:45 to be precise… I know by African standards that is almost halfway through the day, but for most of us, 8 am is a reasonable waking time (well for me anyway). Unfortunately for me and Ryan sleeping outside, Reverend Ameh was unaware of the cultural difference. He is clearly also unaware that lying on your bed with your eyes closed usually means you are trying to sleep! Other than that, there is not much worth noting for today except more holiday club preparation and football training in a tropical rainstorm!
24/6 – These next couple of weeks are set to be days full of preparation; getting ready for the holiday club and the orphans party. So since everyone is at school, I took the opportunity to do some paper work (whoopee!) including writing some reports for Saturdays PDY programme.
The plan for the rest of my 2 months is to be seeing my football boys in their homes in the afternoons, today’s visits were Ernest Justin and Thank God (although he wasn’t there, but I was met by his slightly crazy elder sister). As part of my programme I will now be coaching both my junior and senior team every day. The senior team is fast becoming attractive to new players having seen a game they recently played in.
25/6 – Today has been a frustrating day; firstly an old woman threatened to kill me because I wouldn’t give her money, although now I look back on it, I laugh! However, I’m not so impressed by the amount of grief I receive when two of the footballers threaten to beat each other! On a more positive note though, my lessons at RCM are going well and we hope to start in the other schools very soon.
26/6 – Most noteworthy moment of the day: The safe arrival of Chris from Abuja, bringing with him Mel, who is nurse from Derbyshire who is now at bible college in Glasgow. He’ll be working at the centre for 2 months; working with Elder Rueben and leading the medical outreach in July. Another exciting bit of news, I will be coaching my first senior team match in two weeks!
27/6 – Another Saturday meant another Purpose Driven Youth programme. Fortunately the length of our journeys over the weeks has been decreasing, which is important as the rainy season is setting in (making the roads a nightmare). Todays destination was Unyi-Ogugu, which means First Ogugu or House Ogugu (which we discovered receives the brunt of the rain during this time of the year).
The mornings programme was as good as it has ever been! The HIV quiz was well participated in and the gender balance exercise activity was brilliantly understood and participated in. This kind of activity is vital because before my explanations, I often hear boys saying girls are lesser and below men. The afternoon was slightly spoiled by the torrential rain, however, after last week I had a plan B. Since there were fewer young people, the workshops inside were manageable without splitting the group in two. They really seemed to enjoy themselves, even to the point of wanting a group snap!
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
6th - 20th June
6/6 – Since we had originally thought the match was today, we didn’t really have much to do. I managed to get some more pictures up on facebook. Chris’ girlfriend Susanna also arrived in from the airport; she is going to be staying for 3 weeks.
7/6 – Finally the big match day had arrived; Nigeria vs Kenya in a vital World Cup Qualifier. Nigeria had made a bad start to the campaign with a surprising draw against Mozambique so a win was vital (Kenya had lost to Tunisia in the opening game). Emmanuel, Micah, Debbie and Ellie had bought an extra 12 supporters with them as well! We were hyped up and ready. We arrived in plenty of time for a typically African 1 hour delay before the match kicked off at 5pm.
Other than a second half appearance from former Arsenal legend Kanu, the big names did not appear (Yobo, Martins, Mikel). The Nigerians ran out 3-0 winners; after scoring in the opening 5 minutes, the result was never in doubt, but they will have to improve if they want to beat Tunisia in a couple of weeks time.
8/6 – Our short stay in Abuja was finished and since Zongo had to take a few of the Jos crew back early, it gave me the opportunity to ride public transport back to Jos. Lets just say I’m very thankful it was only a 4 our journey!
After settling ourselves back in Jos, myself, Emmanuel, Ellie, Debbie, Susanna, Chris, Trevor and Lisa (Lisa lives with Debbie and Ellie, working for SIM) went for a walk up Sherry Hills. Now I thought it would be a brisk easy walk, this was not the case. The experience turned into a full rock climb and I managed to hurt my knee on the way up! Unfortunately Ryan was so ill in Abuja that he couldn’t make it to Jos and had to stay with Billy and Linda.
9/6 – My job before coming out to Nigeria was a playowkrer with disabled children; therefore I was happy to visit Open Doors today! This is the only school in Nigeria that specialises in educating special needs students. After a tour of the centre, I was left in one of the classrooms during playtime, I had an amazing time chillin’ with the kids!
After lunch, I traveled with Emmanuel to help coach one of the football teams he works with (the boys were definitely better behaved than the lads back in Ogugu). We then went straight to Hillcrest School to play football and ultimate Frisbee on what turned out to be a seriously water logged pitch. The Frisbee was truly ultimate as I got a bloody nose! In the evening we indulged in some fatty western food at Net Café, but I am missing my Ogusi soup.
10/6 – Since, technically, this time in Jos is a holiday. I decided to spend my morning lying on the sofa and watching friends (and then falling asleep for some time). Ellie and Debbie then came to pick me up to go to EMS (a school that they both work at) to have a wee look round. While they took the girls class, I took the boys for some (what else) football! In the evening we went to a farewell party for some of the American missionaries who were leaving.
11/6 – For our last time in Jos we took a short trip to Giden Bege (the place where street children go to live and get educated etc) to visit the boys whilst they did their maths class. Before we left we bought some potatoes (since you can’t buy them in Ogugu). We had dreamt of receiving a really nice car from Mission Africa (as Pippa was being ‘taken in’), however, we were given Liam and Colletes old car (and I mean old). As soon as Zongo arrived, we hit the road to pick Ryan and Kirsty up before going back to Ogugu tomorrow.
12/6 – Yay! It’s brilliant to be back in Ogugu after a couple of weeks (although the car journey with 6 people and luggage was not so comfortable)! Unsurprisingly we were greeted by about 6 million children as we pulled up outside the house. We introduced the children to Susanna and Kirsty before hitting the sack. No rest for the wicked; got a Purpose Driven Youth programme tomorrow.
13/6 – Ok, so maybe its not entirely great to be back in Ogugu. As planned we arrived in Onichu-Igo (our destination for Purpose Driven Youth) at 10.30am only to find there was no one there! Looking on the bright side, this is the first time such a problem has occurred and the journey was not too far (and only a little bumpy). Unfortunately there was no Plan-B for the day, so I read a lot and went and practiced with the football team. Of course, an empty Saturday would not be the same without a few games of cards.
14/6 – Today’s church service was brilliant! The head pastor from Rueben’s church (another U.E.C) spoke and was actually really funny, challenging and spoke a lot of sense. I returned home very happy. It really seems like someone has prepared for us coming back to Ogugu; good sermons and NEPA (Nigerian electricity) was on almost all day! England also won in the cricket, which I got to watch because of my special relationship with the guy who runs the football shack!!
15/6 – Myself and Linda have decided that the July holiday club is going to be for the 93 orphans who are on the sponsor list. Leaving it open to all children could potentially leave us looking after a thousand children every day (and that is no understatement) and registration is not one of Nigeria’s strong points. I designed some invitations today which Ryan will give to every orphan and then finished preparation for this weeks pastors training which I am running. My relaxation was playing football in the afternoon, if you call running around after a ball in the blazing heat relaxing!
16/6 – I was required to travel to Ankpa with Rueben in the morning in my attempt to secure a projector for the pastors training (4 months ago I didn’t think such a thing here was possible). Rueben is a well known man and has some good contacts so we found someone who runs movies on a projector who was kind enough to lend it to us free of charge. I then spent the rest of the day finishing preparation, I even had to miss football (I know what you’re thinking, It must be serious).
17/7 – Today was the big day, the first day of my pastors training. Things could not have started any worse; After going all the way to Ankpa (again) to pick up the man and his projector, he discovered that he had forgotten the cable (ahhhh), I took decisive action and told him I would not use the projector tomorrow. Instead I printed off the handouts (since the church was paying for it). Things seemed to get worse as the generator refused to work, leaving me with no laptop to work from (and no fans, no fans with shirt = bad).
Thankfully this is where the bad times finished. 40 pastors turned up and listened very well. I was able to flex my Igala and even got a couple of laughs from the jokes I told (I’m starting to get what makes a Nigerian laugh). What’s more important is that the central message sunk in… Being a pastor requires humility and service to those who are in need. The Ogugu Area Conference chairman (my good neighbour Rev Okponachi) even suggested I help the churches in the area set up a committee for giving funds and collections to the poor. That’s a big thing here! So today I am as happy as Larry!
18/6 – In celebration of the children being back at school, we took time to visit the various schools in the area. This was in order to use our skills in English, P.E. and (some people’s) maths to teach the children. I had planned to be doing my second day of training but it was postponed. I had the afternoon off, which I enjoyed by watching Brazil beat USA 3-0 in the confederations cup.
19/6 – Going away to Jos was really what I needed, it gave me time to relax and also to get really excited about coming back to Ogugu. Everything is going really well at the moment (especially when you consider what happened when we first got here). In one day, we rounded up 20 volunteers for the holiday club. I, however, cannot take the credit for this. The applaud must go to Esther, a primary school teacher who has put herself forward to help us with translation, the orphans work and anything else she can do for us. Another success of the day was the football training. Usually the boys just want to play a game, but today we did a warm up and stretches. They even liked the idea of me coming to visit them in their houses! Things are looking up.
20/6 – After the events of last Saturday, I was determined to make sure the Amiriwa PDY was a success. The day didn’t get off to the best start, we were given more watered down fuel which messed the engine up. My last resort was to take my big with me and go with Rueben on his motorbike. I have to say, the ride along the beaten dirt track was a lot of fun. Our destination today is the most remote area in all of Ogugu; Amiriwa gets no national electricity whatsoever and no mobile signal at all! Despite this, the young people’s HIV knowledge was good! The programme was a success, the only mishap was the rain that spoiled the afternoons handball tournament.
7/6 – Finally the big match day had arrived; Nigeria vs Kenya in a vital World Cup Qualifier. Nigeria had made a bad start to the campaign with a surprising draw against Mozambique so a win was vital (Kenya had lost to Tunisia in the opening game). Emmanuel, Micah, Debbie and Ellie had bought an extra 12 supporters with them as well! We were hyped up and ready. We arrived in plenty of time for a typically African 1 hour delay before the match kicked off at 5pm.
Other than a second half appearance from former Arsenal legend Kanu, the big names did not appear (Yobo, Martins, Mikel). The Nigerians ran out 3-0 winners; after scoring in the opening 5 minutes, the result was never in doubt, but they will have to improve if they want to beat Tunisia in a couple of weeks time.
8/6 – Our short stay in Abuja was finished and since Zongo had to take a few of the Jos crew back early, it gave me the opportunity to ride public transport back to Jos. Lets just say I’m very thankful it was only a 4 our journey!
After settling ourselves back in Jos, myself, Emmanuel, Ellie, Debbie, Susanna, Chris, Trevor and Lisa (Lisa lives with Debbie and Ellie, working for SIM) went for a walk up Sherry Hills. Now I thought it would be a brisk easy walk, this was not the case. The experience turned into a full rock climb and I managed to hurt my knee on the way up! Unfortunately Ryan was so ill in Abuja that he couldn’t make it to Jos and had to stay with Billy and Linda.
9/6 – My job before coming out to Nigeria was a playowkrer with disabled children; therefore I was happy to visit Open Doors today! This is the only school in Nigeria that specialises in educating special needs students. After a tour of the centre, I was left in one of the classrooms during playtime, I had an amazing time chillin’ with the kids!
After lunch, I traveled with Emmanuel to help coach one of the football teams he works with (the boys were definitely better behaved than the lads back in Ogugu). We then went straight to Hillcrest School to play football and ultimate Frisbee on what turned out to be a seriously water logged pitch. The Frisbee was truly ultimate as I got a bloody nose! In the evening we indulged in some fatty western food at Net Café, but I am missing my Ogusi soup.
10/6 – Since, technically, this time in Jos is a holiday. I decided to spend my morning lying on the sofa and watching friends (and then falling asleep for some time). Ellie and Debbie then came to pick me up to go to EMS (a school that they both work at) to have a wee look round. While they took the girls class, I took the boys for some (what else) football! In the evening we went to a farewell party for some of the American missionaries who were leaving.
11/6 – For our last time in Jos we took a short trip to Giden Bege (the place where street children go to live and get educated etc) to visit the boys whilst they did their maths class. Before we left we bought some potatoes (since you can’t buy them in Ogugu). We had dreamt of receiving a really nice car from Mission Africa (as Pippa was being ‘taken in’), however, we were given Liam and Colletes old car (and I mean old). As soon as Zongo arrived, we hit the road to pick Ryan and Kirsty up before going back to Ogugu tomorrow.
12/6 – Yay! It’s brilliant to be back in Ogugu after a couple of weeks (although the car journey with 6 people and luggage was not so comfortable)! Unsurprisingly we were greeted by about 6 million children as we pulled up outside the house. We introduced the children to Susanna and Kirsty before hitting the sack. No rest for the wicked; got a Purpose Driven Youth programme tomorrow.
13/6 – Ok, so maybe its not entirely great to be back in Ogugu. As planned we arrived in Onichu-Igo (our destination for Purpose Driven Youth) at 10.30am only to find there was no one there! Looking on the bright side, this is the first time such a problem has occurred and the journey was not too far (and only a little bumpy). Unfortunately there was no Plan-B for the day, so I read a lot and went and practiced with the football team. Of course, an empty Saturday would not be the same without a few games of cards.
14/6 – Today’s church service was brilliant! The head pastor from Rueben’s church (another U.E.C) spoke and was actually really funny, challenging and spoke a lot of sense. I returned home very happy. It really seems like someone has prepared for us coming back to Ogugu; good sermons and NEPA (Nigerian electricity) was on almost all day! England also won in the cricket, which I got to watch because of my special relationship with the guy who runs the football shack!!
15/6 – Myself and Linda have decided that the July holiday club is going to be for the 93 orphans who are on the sponsor list. Leaving it open to all children could potentially leave us looking after a thousand children every day (and that is no understatement) and registration is not one of Nigeria’s strong points. I designed some invitations today which Ryan will give to every orphan and then finished preparation for this weeks pastors training which I am running. My relaxation was playing football in the afternoon, if you call running around after a ball in the blazing heat relaxing!
16/6 – I was required to travel to Ankpa with Rueben in the morning in my attempt to secure a projector for the pastors training (4 months ago I didn’t think such a thing here was possible). Rueben is a well known man and has some good contacts so we found someone who runs movies on a projector who was kind enough to lend it to us free of charge. I then spent the rest of the day finishing preparation, I even had to miss football (I know what you’re thinking, It must be serious).
17/7 – Today was the big day, the first day of my pastors training. Things could not have started any worse; After going all the way to Ankpa (again) to pick up the man and his projector, he discovered that he had forgotten the cable (ahhhh), I took decisive action and told him I would not use the projector tomorrow. Instead I printed off the handouts (since the church was paying for it). Things seemed to get worse as the generator refused to work, leaving me with no laptop to work from (and no fans, no fans with shirt = bad).
Thankfully this is where the bad times finished. 40 pastors turned up and listened very well. I was able to flex my Igala and even got a couple of laughs from the jokes I told (I’m starting to get what makes a Nigerian laugh). What’s more important is that the central message sunk in… Being a pastor requires humility and service to those who are in need. The Ogugu Area Conference chairman (my good neighbour Rev Okponachi) even suggested I help the churches in the area set up a committee for giving funds and collections to the poor. That’s a big thing here! So today I am as happy as Larry!
18/6 – In celebration of the children being back at school, we took time to visit the various schools in the area. This was in order to use our skills in English, P.E. and (some people’s) maths to teach the children. I had planned to be doing my second day of training but it was postponed. I had the afternoon off, which I enjoyed by watching Brazil beat USA 3-0 in the confederations cup.
19/6 – Going away to Jos was really what I needed, it gave me time to relax and also to get really excited about coming back to Ogugu. Everything is going really well at the moment (especially when you consider what happened when we first got here). In one day, we rounded up 20 volunteers for the holiday club. I, however, cannot take the credit for this. The applaud must go to Esther, a primary school teacher who has put herself forward to help us with translation, the orphans work and anything else she can do for us. Another success of the day was the football training. Usually the boys just want to play a game, but today we did a warm up and stretches. They even liked the idea of me coming to visit them in their houses! Things are looking up.
20/6 – After the events of last Saturday, I was determined to make sure the Amiriwa PDY was a success. The day didn’t get off to the best start, we were given more watered down fuel which messed the engine up. My last resort was to take my big with me and go with Rueben on his motorbike. I have to say, the ride along the beaten dirt track was a lot of fun. Our destination today is the most remote area in all of Ogugu; Amiriwa gets no national electricity whatsoever and no mobile signal at all! Despite this, the young people’s HIV knowledge was good! The programme was a success, the only mishap was the rain that spoiled the afternoons handball tournament.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
2nd - 6th June
Sorry about the major delay, i've been so busy that i've only been able to write the blog at the internet cafe, leaving me with not much time... So the next 3 months are going to come in dribs and drabs
2/6 – As I had promised everyone, I got up at 5.30 to watch the sun rise over beautiful Miango. Getting up at this kind of time makes you really feel like a true African! After breakfast we had worship and a talk from Mission Africa Chairman Paul Bailie (who looks a lot like my dad, weird). Then after a break we listened to the presentation of other Mission Africa members (ours is tomorrow).
In the evening we had a chance to ask Paul some questions (like where is our living money!), unsurprisingly not much light was shed. Oh the joys of living in Nigiera!
3/6 – I thought today would be good to put some prayer requests up (I realise writing this in July is a bit late, but they still matter). Firstly, there are 3 people who really need prayer; Eleojo has had a brain tumour for 5 years and its pushing her eye out; thankfully she has received the money to get an operation, but finding a good doctor is a challenge. Secondly, Rose; what a lady! She’s got TB and is really ill, but is so kind and generous to us! Thirdly, Henry. He is such a young boy, and he has already lost his parents to HIV. Henry has no transmitted HIV too and desperately needs love and care shown. Prayer for the church is needed too; some of their theology is strange and unbiblical, so we are trying our best to spread the truth!!! Finally, more gapers or a long term placement to Ogugu would be amazing. Some of our work would be wasted if no one is left to continue!
4/6 – In the morning we shared communion and we as a group are feeling more and more that times like this should be a remembrance of why we are here; to refresh ourselves in order to get back to Ogugu and get stuck in with our mission! A lot of great things in history have started because of one incident (take the civil rights movement); Christianity is the same thing, Jesus’ death on the cross was and still is a sign for what we are called to do (mind blowing isn’t it).
5/6 – Today we were sad to day goodbye to Miango (and civilization)! Leaving the compound gates truly reinforced the class and wealth divide in Nigeria (need is say more?). Before heading to Abuja, we stopped of at Zongo’s (the one and only driver) family house and then went down the road to see the house he is building (he truly is a man for every job). Zongo is just a complete legend but cannot find a wife. He has set his eyes on a wife in Ogugu, so one of my aims before leaving is to see Zongo hooked up! Since we are in Abuja to watch Kenya vs Nigeria (World Cup qualifier), I thought I would make up a few Nigeria songs…
- (in the tune of Vinadaloo) Me and me mum, me dad and me gran, we come from Ogugu, Me and me mum, me dad and me gran, with a bucket of hot red stew!!
- He’s quick, he’s black, he snuffs out the attack, MIKEL, MIKEL!
2/6 – As I had promised everyone, I got up at 5.30 to watch the sun rise over beautiful Miango. Getting up at this kind of time makes you really feel like a true African! After breakfast we had worship and a talk from Mission Africa Chairman Paul Bailie (who looks a lot like my dad, weird). Then after a break we listened to the presentation of other Mission Africa members (ours is tomorrow).
In the evening we had a chance to ask Paul some questions (like where is our living money!), unsurprisingly not much light was shed. Oh the joys of living in Nigiera!
3/6 – I thought today would be good to put some prayer requests up (I realise writing this in July is a bit late, but they still matter). Firstly, there are 3 people who really need prayer; Eleojo has had a brain tumour for 5 years and its pushing her eye out; thankfully she has received the money to get an operation, but finding a good doctor is a challenge. Secondly, Rose; what a lady! She’s got TB and is really ill, but is so kind and generous to us! Thirdly, Henry. He is such a young boy, and he has already lost his parents to HIV. Henry has no transmitted HIV too and desperately needs love and care shown. Prayer for the church is needed too; some of their theology is strange and unbiblical, so we are trying our best to spread the truth!!! Finally, more gapers or a long term placement to Ogugu would be amazing. Some of our work would be wasted if no one is left to continue!
4/6 – In the morning we shared communion and we as a group are feeling more and more that times like this should be a remembrance of why we are here; to refresh ourselves in order to get back to Ogugu and get stuck in with our mission! A lot of great things in history have started because of one incident (take the civil rights movement); Christianity is the same thing, Jesus’ death on the cross was and still is a sign for what we are called to do (mind blowing isn’t it).
5/6 – Today we were sad to day goodbye to Miango (and civilization)! Leaving the compound gates truly reinforced the class and wealth divide in Nigeria (need is say more?). Before heading to Abuja, we stopped of at Zongo’s (the one and only driver) family house and then went down the road to see the house he is building (he truly is a man for every job). Zongo is just a complete legend but cannot find a wife. He has set his eyes on a wife in Ogugu, so one of my aims before leaving is to see Zongo hooked up! Since we are in Abuja to watch Kenya vs Nigeria (World Cup qualifier), I thought I would make up a few Nigeria songs…
- (in the tune of Vinadaloo) Me and me mum, me dad and me gran, we come from Ogugu, Me and me mum, me dad and me gran, with a bucket of hot red stew!!
- He’s quick, he’s black, he snuffs out the attack, MIKEL, MIKEL!
Friday, 26 June 2009
hello
I'm really just writing to let everyone know (through the power of the blog) that i am still alive. I haven't written on here for a while because of the lack of internet oppurtunities, and unfortunately i forgot to bring my blog book with me to write up! (whoops)
You should (but who knows, the internet is just so poor here) see a picture of myself and Victor. Victor is 13 and wants to become a doctor, he asked if i could help him with a textbook, so i decided to oblige since he says he wants to share it with his friends.
Next time i get to Ankpa, i will remember the blog notes and let you know about the stuff i have been doing. The next month is gonna be really busy with the holiday club and orphans party (and organising the summer team). So your prayers and thoughts are really needed!
You should (but who knows, the internet is just so poor here) see a picture of myself and Victor. Victor is 13 and wants to become a doctor, he asked if i could help him with a textbook, so i decided to oblige since he says he wants to share it with his friends.
Next time i get to Ankpa, i will remember the blog notes and let you know about the stuff i have been doing. The next month is gonna be really busy with the holiday club and orphans party (and organising the summer team). So your prayers and thoughts are really needed!
Saturday, 6 June 2009
26/5 - This morning i actually woke up cold! The heavy rain in the evenings are starting to cause reduced temperatures in the morning. The heat does however, continue to rise to over 30 degrees in the day time, so it's not quite like back home yet. Myself and Ryan started the day by taking a young boy (accompanied by his uncle) to the hospital. Henry is an orphan living with HIV and needs everyones prayers! The hospitals are also on strike so the situation is not easy to cope with.
Fortunately because of the Circle of Hope scheme, children like Henry can be sponsored enough to go to school, eat well and get drugs and other medicine.
27/5 - Today was children day all accross the world (or so i was told) and Ogugu was not going to miss out on the fun! After a loud band parade, the children of all the schools (and many spectators, including esteemed guests such as the chief) congregated outside the palace for dance and songs. We did not plan to attend the celebrations, but there were 3 seats prepared for us as we arrived un-expectedly. It is really amazing (and a bit worrying) how some of those children can move! As the children marched back i did attempt to show my moves. My attempts were received with laughter (probably at me).
28/5 - Today a team from Holley Memorial Hospital cam to the centre to carry out eye tests for locals. Since news spreads so quickly here, there well over a hundred people waiting for a test (some had arrived 3 hours early to guarentee a check up, something very un-African). By now i expected to be in Abuja for team meetings with Billy and Linda etc, so i haven't scheduled much work to do. Timothy (the guy who invited me to speak at the last youth conference) did come and visit in order to propose speaking at an event that could attract 1000 people!!
In the afternoon, myself and Chris went to visit Rose. She is doing very well considering her situation and she sounded like the TB was not getting on top of her too much. We bought her bread, milk, eggs etc from the market. She thanked us loads and maintained that our presence in Ogugu alone was enough to satisfy here. Her faith and kindness is a constant reminder and inspiration.
29/5 - Today i haven't been feeling too well (AWW), thankfully, its the only time in my three months that i haven't been able to do my activities because of poor health! After sleeping for most of the morning, i walked to the market in the afternoon and ended up sitting with Lemon for a few hours; Lemon is the town joker really, he is so funny! i also made friends with Isaac and Matthew.
30/5 - It seems that no matter what i do, i cannot get away from the C word...Chelsea. I travel to another continent, almost 3000 miles to live in Nigeria. I even chose to live in a place no one has ever heard of, and still, when THEY win the F.A. Cup, i get people in THAT shirt coming round telling me how great THEY are. On a more serious note, i do have a pastors training programme coming up on the 17th and 18th June, so your prayers for preperation and delivery would be appreciated.
31/5 - As the Mission Africa conference starts tomorrow, we started the long journey to Jos with Zongo in the morning. The journey was good and Pippa held up for the whole 7 hours! The only rough part of the journey was after eating Mr Biggs (100 times worse than McDonalds!). We arrived in Jos mid-afternoon, only to find out that Pippa was being taken away from us (sad times), lets just hope they don't put her down.
1/6 - The weeks conference is being held in Miango (about an hour away from the centre of Jos). As Sid (another Mission Africa person) described it 'if yoe've been living in the bush, being in Miango is like dying and going to heaven!' He isn't wrong you know; internet, almost 24-hour electricity, basketball courts, tennis courts, BACON! It just doesn't get any better than this...Unfortunately, its not all play for us; we have to produce a presentation to prove we have been working hard in Ogugu!!!
Fortunately because of the Circle of Hope scheme, children like Henry can be sponsored enough to go to school, eat well and get drugs and other medicine.
27/5 - Today was children day all accross the world (or so i was told) and Ogugu was not going to miss out on the fun! After a loud band parade, the children of all the schools (and many spectators, including esteemed guests such as the chief) congregated outside the palace for dance and songs. We did not plan to attend the celebrations, but there were 3 seats prepared for us as we arrived un-expectedly. It is really amazing (and a bit worrying) how some of those children can move! As the children marched back i did attempt to show my moves. My attempts were received with laughter (probably at me).
28/5 - Today a team from Holley Memorial Hospital cam to the centre to carry out eye tests for locals. Since news spreads so quickly here, there well over a hundred people waiting for a test (some had arrived 3 hours early to guarentee a check up, something very un-African). By now i expected to be in Abuja for team meetings with Billy and Linda etc, so i haven't scheduled much work to do. Timothy (the guy who invited me to speak at the last youth conference) did come and visit in order to propose speaking at an event that could attract 1000 people!!
In the afternoon, myself and Chris went to visit Rose. She is doing very well considering her situation and she sounded like the TB was not getting on top of her too much. We bought her bread, milk, eggs etc from the market. She thanked us loads and maintained that our presence in Ogugu alone was enough to satisfy here. Her faith and kindness is a constant reminder and inspiration.
29/5 - Today i haven't been feeling too well (AWW), thankfully, its the only time in my three months that i haven't been able to do my activities because of poor health! After sleeping for most of the morning, i walked to the market in the afternoon and ended up sitting with Lemon for a few hours; Lemon is the town joker really, he is so funny! i also made friends with Isaac and Matthew.
30/5 - It seems that no matter what i do, i cannot get away from the C word...Chelsea. I travel to another continent, almost 3000 miles to live in Nigeria. I even chose to live in a place no one has ever heard of, and still, when THEY win the F.A. Cup, i get people in THAT shirt coming round telling me how great THEY are. On a more serious note, i do have a pastors training programme coming up on the 17th and 18th June, so your prayers for preperation and delivery would be appreciated.
31/5 - As the Mission Africa conference starts tomorrow, we started the long journey to Jos with Zongo in the morning. The journey was good and Pippa held up for the whole 7 hours! The only rough part of the journey was after eating Mr Biggs (100 times worse than McDonalds!). We arrived in Jos mid-afternoon, only to find out that Pippa was being taken away from us (sad times), lets just hope they don't put her down.
1/6 - The weeks conference is being held in Miango (about an hour away from the centre of Jos). As Sid (another Mission Africa person) described it 'if yoe've been living in the bush, being in Miango is like dying and going to heaven!' He isn't wrong you know; internet, almost 24-hour electricity, basketball courts, tennis courts, BACON! It just doesn't get any better than this...Unfortunately, its not all play for us; we have to produce a presentation to prove we have been working hard in Ogugu!!!
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
10th - 25th May (half way through)
10/5 – Today we made the short trip to Amiriwa superintendence (one of the 6 areas I will be visiting again for the Purpose Driven Youth programme). We were accompanied by Rueben, innocence (the guy who runs the computer at the UEC office) and Dali (who is the DIY man!). We were travelling for the induction of another reverend (although, by the look on the guys face, you would think it was more like a funeral). The service was much shorter than the last induction, to our delight. Reverend Ameh spoke this time around, and at first I feared the worst. To my surprise (and to my embarrassment at how easily I judged) he was awesome!
11/5 – I felt that since it was not very long till the first PDY programme, I had better crack on with planning. The idea of the programme is to teach the young people of Ogugu healthy living and certain life skills that will help them to avoid the risks of HIV (short term by being healthy and by helping to create knowledge and economic prosperity in the long term). The morning was based around finding out about the extent of HIV knowledge in the area and the afternoon would comprise of different workshops and a footy tournament. The first programme will be a bit of a tester as I don’t really know what is right and wrong. Other than planning this, I had a bible study with the football boys and it went quite well (despite the fact that they were itching to play ball instead).
12/5 – Since Liam and Collette were leaving today, it was our last chance to go and see them. We also needed to collect the furniture that was going from their house to our house. Ryan went in the truck whilst myself and Chris took the car (as two of the locals were travelling with us). All was going fine and dandy until the road safety officers stopped us; usually they would say hello and try and get some money out of us, before we told them we were missionaries. Unfortunately today our wing mirror had broken off and the break light had stopped working. To add to our troubles Chris didn’t have his driver’s licence and this gave the officers some cause for concern. I got slightly worried when they asked me to step out of the car (especially since I had been a bit lippy).
After everyone had calmed down, we were resigned to the fact that a fine was inevitable, however, one of the officers had heard about our work and pleaded his boss to let us off, Halelujah.
13/5 – Before they left, Liam and Collette gave us some pancake mixture from ASDA! We had egg and pancake for breakfast, a nice change. I spent most of the morning at the computer office preparing for Saturday. I managed to find time to have a meeting with elder Rueben (who refers to me as pastor or coache) to get some things translated for the Purpose Driven Youth programme.
In the afternoon, after a nice nap, I went up the road (dirt track to be more precise) to lead a football coaching session with another local team. What they didn’t know was that I am here to WHIP THEM INTO SHAPE!
14/5 – Since none of us were very busy this morning, we thought it would be good to make the short walk to the market. The big market comes every 5 days where loads of people come to sell from other villages. The streets become rammed with buyers and sellers. You can buy almost anything, even Arsenal posters! I was in the market to buy a pair of flip slops (they sell them here for the equivalent price of 50p). We also bought a juicy pineapple, only to be given 2 more by a visitor later.
As usual football consumed the main part of my afternoon along with some playtime with the smaller children.
15/5 – Recently I have been feeling as if things are starting to slow down; whilst my football activities are always high in numbers, some of the other activities are suffering (as much as I like playing football, it is not the only thing I want to be doing!). To combat this I made a big effort with planning tomorrows PDY programme and then spend more time just playing with the children, and it is always much more rewarding when you make an effort.
Living in Ogugu can sometimes be very tiring since you always have to be doubly switched on to keep up with the language/accent/cultural differences. Plus, you’d think the kids are constantly plugged into a mains plug; they never run out of energy.
16/5 – Today was the first of my 6 Purpose Driven Youth programmes. As rainy season is shortly on its way, we felt it was best to travel the furthest distance to Ofabo first (meaning we would guarantee getting there!). The morning programme consisted of a HIV/AIDs quiz, which we reviewed with the young people afterwards. I'm now going to use this quiz as data to give to Billy and Linda.
After lunch, the group split into two groups; those who wanted to do the football tournament, and those who wanted to do the HIV workshops inside.
17/5 – Having been to church (early as usual) the main activity of the day was to visit Becki’s (our house help) family in a nearby village. We met her mother who fed us even more; my stomach was literally bursting after two big meals. We also met her younger sister Jane and her younger brother Abah. Of course there were the other people who were probably part of the extended family and those who just wanted to see the enefu (white people). We then took a short walk through her village, which mainly consisted of trees and bushes!
When we got home, myself and Chris attempted to make a biscuit pudding thing from the recipe book Collette gave us. Although the base was ok, the recipe for ‘mock’ cream was slightly misleading.
18/5 – Since the church in Ofabo were so happy for our visit on Saturday, they gave us egg, biscuits and oranges! We thought it was only right to enjoy them all in the morning! After I was well filled, I set off to do the enjoyable task of converting the quiz from Saturday in statistics! It was really amazing how poorly educated some of the young people were in regards to HIV; for example most of the participants thought that you could transmit HIV by sitting on the same toilet seat as someone with HIV!
Another few cultural gems: nawa = I go come! This saying in itself doesn’t make sense to the average white person, however, if an Igalan says im coming, it actually means they are going. If you want to ask how their morning/afternoon/evening is you add aha at the end (e.g. oladuaha = how is morning?). Thrirdly, if someone says ‘you don’t go bring the ball!’ they are actually asking you to bring the ball. HOW SILLY!
19/5 – I just thank God every day that I have become fully accustomed to the Nigeria culture because in true African style, we were told our visa was going to expire with only 4 days notice! We were told to send our passport photos from Ogugu to Jos immediately. Now, taking into account that Ogugu is in the middle of nowhere this was not going to be an easy task. In the end we had to send someone to Mekerdy (a 2 hour trip), he then gave the photos to someone on a bus going from Benin state to Jos.
The reason why we needed to do this was because our original visa only lasted 3 months so we needed to get them renewed. Of course it was too easy for the mission to get the Jos team to collect the photos from us WHEN THEY WERE HERE A MONTH AGO!
20/5 – The main point of interest for today was the safe arrival of Billy and Linda from Abuja. They are spending 3 days here to do a marriage seminar in the church. They did, however, bring 3 more people with them; firstly Catherine, who is doing a 6 week placement in the Still Waters office. Mark and Elaine also came down with them. Mark and Elaine run a similar HIV project near the border of Cameroon. Amazingly, since Mark is Welsh, he too had visited and experienced the wonders of Llangranog.
21/5 – To my encouragement, the football boys had asked for an early morning training session! Unfortunately only 3 turned up (not surprisingly). The good news was that breakfast was ready as soon as training was over. A lot of the day was spent lazing around with the locals of our age, which is always nice since most of the time we are being worn out by children. It is also important to build strong relationships with them in order to help them understand the concept of playing with children.
In the afternoon we all attended day 1 of Billy and Linda’s marriage seminar. Interestingly most of the women turned up without their husbands. They did promise to drag them along for tomorrow’s session. Another piece of good news is that rumours are circulating that the teachers are coming back to work soon!
22/5 – With Linda and Billy being here we decided to continue with our usual Friday morning meetings with elder Rueben. Firstly Linda informed us of when other people are arriving in Ogugu. The most important date for me is the summer team arriving in mid July (its important since I am in charge of one of the weeks they are staying).
I then had the opportunity to pitch my ideas for the holiday club, Linda was very pleased. The next phase is to find local volunteers. With Mark and Elaine’s help, we then amended tomorrows Purpose Driven Youth programme to include a talk by Mark and some counselling and testing at the end.
After lunch Elaine took us to the centre to do some mock counselling. It was really good to have someone with such experience teaching us; especially in regards to counselling someone who has reacted positive to the test.
23/5 – Another Saturday meant another Purpose Driven Youth programme, but this time with a few changes; instead of a football tournament we would have a handball tournament. This was in order to encourage more girls to participate (which was handy since the games came straight after the gender equality talk). As Mark and Elaine had journeyed with us to Adupi, I asked them to lead the afternoons HIV orientated lessons. The day then culminated in counselling and testing those who wanted it. Thankfully everyone who was tested reacted negative. One of the most encouraging things about the work so far is seeing the faces of those who have been told the good news.
24/5 – Before Billy, Linda and Catherine left us, they joined us for church at UEC. Unfortunately the run of good sermons that we had heard at UEC had ended today; this mornings sermon was particularly rubbish.
Once everyone had scoffed their fried eggs and bread, the group headed off back to Abuja with Zongo. Mark and Elaine, on the other hand, had decided to stay for another night since they were planning on moving their ministry to Ogugu permanently in August.
In the evening, Elaine made boiled yam and red stew for us which was lovely! I was surprised how well the three of us got on with Mark and Elaine, and by the end of the night I didn't want them to leave. They're both such a good laugh, yet so serious when it comes to helping people living with HIV.
More good news, the teachers are going back to work tomorrow!
25/5 – It was very strange today going out in the morning and there being no children waiting to play; school is back for most children after the teachers agreed on a pay rise. This left us with nothing to do in the morning, so I got cracking with more work on statistics! YAY! We will, at some point this week, be meeting with head teachers to discuss how to get involved with teaching in the school. To add to the boredom, it rained all afternoon so I couldn’t do my football coaching!
11/5 – I felt that since it was not very long till the first PDY programme, I had better crack on with planning. The idea of the programme is to teach the young people of Ogugu healthy living and certain life skills that will help them to avoid the risks of HIV (short term by being healthy and by helping to create knowledge and economic prosperity in the long term). The morning was based around finding out about the extent of HIV knowledge in the area and the afternoon would comprise of different workshops and a footy tournament. The first programme will be a bit of a tester as I don’t really know what is right and wrong. Other than planning this, I had a bible study with the football boys and it went quite well (despite the fact that they were itching to play ball instead).
12/5 – Since Liam and Collette were leaving today, it was our last chance to go and see them. We also needed to collect the furniture that was going from their house to our house. Ryan went in the truck whilst myself and Chris took the car (as two of the locals were travelling with us). All was going fine and dandy until the road safety officers stopped us; usually they would say hello and try and get some money out of us, before we told them we were missionaries. Unfortunately today our wing mirror had broken off and the break light had stopped working. To add to our troubles Chris didn’t have his driver’s licence and this gave the officers some cause for concern. I got slightly worried when they asked me to step out of the car (especially since I had been a bit lippy).
After everyone had calmed down, we were resigned to the fact that a fine was inevitable, however, one of the officers had heard about our work and pleaded his boss to let us off, Halelujah.
13/5 – Before they left, Liam and Collette gave us some pancake mixture from ASDA! We had egg and pancake for breakfast, a nice change. I spent most of the morning at the computer office preparing for Saturday. I managed to find time to have a meeting with elder Rueben (who refers to me as pastor or coache) to get some things translated for the Purpose Driven Youth programme.
In the afternoon, after a nice nap, I went up the road (dirt track to be more precise) to lead a football coaching session with another local team. What they didn’t know was that I am here to WHIP THEM INTO SHAPE!
14/5 – Since none of us were very busy this morning, we thought it would be good to make the short walk to the market. The big market comes every 5 days where loads of people come to sell from other villages. The streets become rammed with buyers and sellers. You can buy almost anything, even Arsenal posters! I was in the market to buy a pair of flip slops (they sell them here for the equivalent price of 50p). We also bought a juicy pineapple, only to be given 2 more by a visitor later.
As usual football consumed the main part of my afternoon along with some playtime with the smaller children.
15/5 – Recently I have been feeling as if things are starting to slow down; whilst my football activities are always high in numbers, some of the other activities are suffering (as much as I like playing football, it is not the only thing I want to be doing!). To combat this I made a big effort with planning tomorrows PDY programme and then spend more time just playing with the children, and it is always much more rewarding when you make an effort.
Living in Ogugu can sometimes be very tiring since you always have to be doubly switched on to keep up with the language/accent/cultural differences. Plus, you’d think the kids are constantly plugged into a mains plug; they never run out of energy.
16/5 – Today was the first of my 6 Purpose Driven Youth programmes. As rainy season is shortly on its way, we felt it was best to travel the furthest distance to Ofabo first (meaning we would guarantee getting there!). The morning programme consisted of a HIV/AIDs quiz, which we reviewed with the young people afterwards. I'm now going to use this quiz as data to give to Billy and Linda.
After lunch, the group split into two groups; those who wanted to do the football tournament, and those who wanted to do the HIV workshops inside.
17/5 – Having been to church (early as usual) the main activity of the day was to visit Becki’s (our house help) family in a nearby village. We met her mother who fed us even more; my stomach was literally bursting after two big meals. We also met her younger sister Jane and her younger brother Abah. Of course there were the other people who were probably part of the extended family and those who just wanted to see the enefu (white people). We then took a short walk through her village, which mainly consisted of trees and bushes!
When we got home, myself and Chris attempted to make a biscuit pudding thing from the recipe book Collette gave us. Although the base was ok, the recipe for ‘mock’ cream was slightly misleading.
18/5 – Since the church in Ofabo were so happy for our visit on Saturday, they gave us egg, biscuits and oranges! We thought it was only right to enjoy them all in the morning! After I was well filled, I set off to do the enjoyable task of converting the quiz from Saturday in statistics! It was really amazing how poorly educated some of the young people were in regards to HIV; for example most of the participants thought that you could transmit HIV by sitting on the same toilet seat as someone with HIV!
Another few cultural gems: nawa = I go come! This saying in itself doesn’t make sense to the average white person, however, if an Igalan says im coming, it actually means they are going. If you want to ask how their morning/afternoon/evening is you add aha at the end (e.g. oladuaha = how is morning?). Thrirdly, if someone says ‘you don’t go bring the ball!’ they are actually asking you to bring the ball. HOW SILLY!
19/5 – I just thank God every day that I have become fully accustomed to the Nigeria culture because in true African style, we were told our visa was going to expire with only 4 days notice! We were told to send our passport photos from Ogugu to Jos immediately. Now, taking into account that Ogugu is in the middle of nowhere this was not going to be an easy task. In the end we had to send someone to Mekerdy (a 2 hour trip), he then gave the photos to someone on a bus going from Benin state to Jos.
The reason why we needed to do this was because our original visa only lasted 3 months so we needed to get them renewed. Of course it was too easy for the mission to get the Jos team to collect the photos from us WHEN THEY WERE HERE A MONTH AGO!
20/5 – The main point of interest for today was the safe arrival of Billy and Linda from Abuja. They are spending 3 days here to do a marriage seminar in the church. They did, however, bring 3 more people with them; firstly Catherine, who is doing a 6 week placement in the Still Waters office. Mark and Elaine also came down with them. Mark and Elaine run a similar HIV project near the border of Cameroon. Amazingly, since Mark is Welsh, he too had visited and experienced the wonders of Llangranog.
21/5 – To my encouragement, the football boys had asked for an early morning training session! Unfortunately only 3 turned up (not surprisingly). The good news was that breakfast was ready as soon as training was over. A lot of the day was spent lazing around with the locals of our age, which is always nice since most of the time we are being worn out by children. It is also important to build strong relationships with them in order to help them understand the concept of playing with children.
In the afternoon we all attended day 1 of Billy and Linda’s marriage seminar. Interestingly most of the women turned up without their husbands. They did promise to drag them along for tomorrow’s session. Another piece of good news is that rumours are circulating that the teachers are coming back to work soon!
22/5 – With Linda and Billy being here we decided to continue with our usual Friday morning meetings with elder Rueben. Firstly Linda informed us of when other people are arriving in Ogugu. The most important date for me is the summer team arriving in mid July (its important since I am in charge of one of the weeks they are staying).
I then had the opportunity to pitch my ideas for the holiday club, Linda was very pleased. The next phase is to find local volunteers. With Mark and Elaine’s help, we then amended tomorrows Purpose Driven Youth programme to include a talk by Mark and some counselling and testing at the end.
After lunch Elaine took us to the centre to do some mock counselling. It was really good to have someone with such experience teaching us; especially in regards to counselling someone who has reacted positive to the test.
23/5 – Another Saturday meant another Purpose Driven Youth programme, but this time with a few changes; instead of a football tournament we would have a handball tournament. This was in order to encourage more girls to participate (which was handy since the games came straight after the gender equality talk). As Mark and Elaine had journeyed with us to Adupi, I asked them to lead the afternoons HIV orientated lessons. The day then culminated in counselling and testing those who wanted it. Thankfully everyone who was tested reacted negative. One of the most encouraging things about the work so far is seeing the faces of those who have been told the good news.
24/5 – Before Billy, Linda and Catherine left us, they joined us for church at UEC. Unfortunately the run of good sermons that we had heard at UEC had ended today; this mornings sermon was particularly rubbish.
Once everyone had scoffed their fried eggs and bread, the group headed off back to Abuja with Zongo. Mark and Elaine, on the other hand, had decided to stay for another night since they were planning on moving their ministry to Ogugu permanently in August.
In the evening, Elaine made boiled yam and red stew for us which was lovely! I was surprised how well the three of us got on with Mark and Elaine, and by the end of the night I didn't want them to leave. They're both such a good laugh, yet so serious when it comes to helping people living with HIV.
More good news, the teachers are going back to work tomorrow!
25/5 – It was very strange today going out in the morning and there being no children waiting to play; school is back for most children after the teachers agreed on a pay rise. This left us with nothing to do in the morning, so I got cracking with more work on statistics! YAY! We will, at some point this week, be meeting with head teachers to discuss how to get involved with teaching in the school. To add to the boredom, it rained all afternoon so I couldn’t do my football coaching!
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
2nd - 9th May (apologies for the missed day)
2/5 – The early starts on Sunday mornings are starting to take their toll; getting up at 7 in the morning is not exactly my idea of a perfect Sabbath day. Thankfully the sermon was actually quite refreshing (you can hardly go wrong with the subject freedom). We got home to find the national grid electricity was working well enough to power the fridge (a little bit).
After a late breakfast and a major napping session we went to visit Rose. She is the elderly lady who used to look after Billy and Linda, she now suffers from TB. It’s incredibly touching how generous she is despite her troubles (she was even apologetic for not having anything to give us). We also learnt that she is no longer able leave the house, so every Sunday we are going to give her a church service, UK style!
3/5 – Today was the day to finally begin planning the activities that I have been put in charge of. It is less than two weeks before the first Purpose Driven Youth programme, so myself, Rueben and Reverend Okponachi met to discuss publicity for the 6 area conferences. I also began planning the summer holiday club, I am starting early because organising volunteers is hard enough at home, let alone in Ogugu. I was also supposed to coach another team in Ogugu but the session was rained off.
4/5 – Today I woke bright and early after a good nights sleep. The day began with an early meeting with Rueben to discuss writing the invitation letters to the churches for the Purpose Driven Youth programme. The rest of the day I spent doing boring planning, so nothing too much to say today.
5/5 – It was very strange to wake up to rain and feeling a bit cold. Since Becki arrived late, I was not woken up until 9 (a very long lie in by Nigerian standards). The first duty of the day was rubbish collection; thankfully the lure of sweets drew in the help of some young assistance.
Wednesdays are generally very free for me, so I used the opportunity to continue planning the holiday club and write some bible studies for the older guys (every Friday we will be looking at a different characteristic of God). Later on in the day I went to coach the other team; the session went well and they even asked me to come back on Friday.
6/5 – missed out for some reason, and I cant remember what happenend. Awa
7/5 – I spent the morning in the center with Chris putting the finishing touches to the child friendly room (the center is where people come to get tested for HIV and receive free counseling). A local boy named soldier (I don’t know if that is his real name) also helped. He is always eager to help but his clumsiness meant we had to do an extra coat of paint (he didn’t see the problem in wiping his hands on the walls with different coloured paint).
I spent the afternoon doing training with my football boys and then just generally avin a bubble. Happy 50th dad!
8/5 – Like most days of this week, the morning was devoted to planning the holiday club. It is suprising how much you can get done when you are the only person in charge! The week will focus on the exodus (the club will be named ‘the great escape’). We had then planned to visit Liam and Collete for a proper goodbye (they are leaving to go back home on Tuesday). Unfortunately a tire went flat and then the petrol station filled our car with mostly water, which messed up the car big time. The evening culminated in the car fan exploding, poor Pippa!
9/5 – This Saturday has been unlike most Saturdays. Firstly I had agreed to speak at the Ogugu youth conference held by UEC. The talk went well and the turnout was good despite the fact that last nights events went on into the early hours of this morning (keeping us awake because they thought everyone in Ogugu needed to hear it on loudspeaker). We were then planning on going to Eka (a 2 hour drive) to visit some of the missionaries but Pippa continued to fall apart. Once she was fixed we decided to go to Ankpa to get some internet.
The ride home from Ankpa was epic! We had to drive through a tropical rainstorm with dodgy windscreen wipers. Along the way we managed to reverse into another car and then into a ditch (luckily no one cared in the first incident and in the middle of no where, there were 8 or 9 passers by to help us push Pippa out of the ditch). We then returned home to find the replacement tire from yesterday was flat, oh dear!
After a late breakfast and a major napping session we went to visit Rose. She is the elderly lady who used to look after Billy and Linda, she now suffers from TB. It’s incredibly touching how generous she is despite her troubles (she was even apologetic for not having anything to give us). We also learnt that she is no longer able leave the house, so every Sunday we are going to give her a church service, UK style!
3/5 – Today was the day to finally begin planning the activities that I have been put in charge of. It is less than two weeks before the first Purpose Driven Youth programme, so myself, Rueben and Reverend Okponachi met to discuss publicity for the 6 area conferences. I also began planning the summer holiday club, I am starting early because organising volunteers is hard enough at home, let alone in Ogugu. I was also supposed to coach another team in Ogugu but the session was rained off.
4/5 – Today I woke bright and early after a good nights sleep. The day began with an early meeting with Rueben to discuss writing the invitation letters to the churches for the Purpose Driven Youth programme. The rest of the day I spent doing boring planning, so nothing too much to say today.
5/5 – It was very strange to wake up to rain and feeling a bit cold. Since Becki arrived late, I was not woken up until 9 (a very long lie in by Nigerian standards). The first duty of the day was rubbish collection; thankfully the lure of sweets drew in the help of some young assistance.
Wednesdays are generally very free for me, so I used the opportunity to continue planning the holiday club and write some bible studies for the older guys (every Friday we will be looking at a different characteristic of God). Later on in the day I went to coach the other team; the session went well and they even asked me to come back on Friday.
6/5 – missed out for some reason, and I cant remember what happenend. Awa
7/5 – I spent the morning in the center with Chris putting the finishing touches to the child friendly room (the center is where people come to get tested for HIV and receive free counseling). A local boy named soldier (I don’t know if that is his real name) also helped. He is always eager to help but his clumsiness meant we had to do an extra coat of paint (he didn’t see the problem in wiping his hands on the walls with different coloured paint).
I spent the afternoon doing training with my football boys and then just generally avin a bubble. Happy 50th dad!
8/5 – Like most days of this week, the morning was devoted to planning the holiday club. It is suprising how much you can get done when you are the only person in charge! The week will focus on the exodus (the club will be named ‘the great escape’). We had then planned to visit Liam and Collete for a proper goodbye (they are leaving to go back home on Tuesday). Unfortunately a tire went flat and then the petrol station filled our car with mostly water, which messed up the car big time. The evening culminated in the car fan exploding, poor Pippa!
9/5 – This Saturday has been unlike most Saturdays. Firstly I had agreed to speak at the Ogugu youth conference held by UEC. The talk went well and the turnout was good despite the fact that last nights events went on into the early hours of this morning (keeping us awake because they thought everyone in Ogugu needed to hear it on loudspeaker). We were then planning on going to Eka (a 2 hour drive) to visit some of the missionaries but Pippa continued to fall apart. Once she was fixed we decided to go to Ankpa to get some internet.
The ride home from Ankpa was epic! We had to drive through a tropical rainstorm with dodgy windscreen wipers. Along the way we managed to reverse into another car and then into a ditch (luckily no one cared in the first incident and in the middle of no where, there were 8 or 9 passers by to help us push Pippa out of the ditch). We then returned home to find the replacement tire from yesterday was flat, oh dear!
Saturday, 2 May 2009
8th April - 1st May (apologies for the delay)
8/4 – As usual, there were plenty of boys at football training; I don’t think I will have to worry about that for the rest of my stay here. There have been so many turning up that I have had to split them into two team (I think I will call one team Chris’ Crushers United and the other Duncan’s Destroyers FC). I decided to take the big step today of training with the senior men’s team in Ogugu, having been invited a few days ago. The session was hard work because unsurprisingly most Africans are fitter than I am, but technically they’re not great, so I will be looking to exploit that area of weakness in the weeks to come.
9/4 – Today was our last day of activities before heading back to Abuja for a well earned break (and hopefully some better internet connection). There was enough time in the day to fit in some football before Zongo (the driver!!) came down from Josh to take us to Billy and Linda (we’re taking Pippa so this was not a job for the average white man).
10/4 – Happy Good Friday everyone (although it’s not really supposed to be that happy). Most of the journey up to Abuja was fine, oh wait, we did have to sit through a 4 hour traffic jam. Now I know we have all probably experienced such annoyance before, but at least back home you know there has been a crash or some road works. In this instance, no road works, no crash, just police officers (and who knows, they could have just been men in costume) doing pointless road checks! When we did finally make it to Abuja, we were warmly welcomed by Billy and Linda with burgers followed by juicy pineapple.
This was also my first time of meeting Linda, and she is just brilliant; a proper good laugh and it is clear to see that her and Billy and made for each other. We plan to head up to Jos for the wedding in a few days and then go back to Ogugu with Ellie, Debbie and Emmanuel.
11/4 – Today has been a really good day! We started of by hitting the market down town to buy our material for our African clothing. We then went to the tailors to get ourselves measured. After another hearty lunch we headed to the zoo to see some ‘wild’ life. The most stunning part of the zoo is most definitely the scenes of Aso rock behind.
After seeing some cheeky monkeys and a giraffe we went to the supermarket to get some icecream and stock up on western food (cheddar cheese yay!). The day was topped of by a visit to AJs pizzeria. Abuja and Ogugu are certainly worlds apart.
12/4 – Happy Easter Sunday everyone. Despite the obvious celebrations being in order, we left church (early) still dissatisfied by the leadership and ethics of UEC church; in fairness, the reverends sermon was not that outrageous (in comparison to Ogugu), it would be better described as uninspiring and irrelevant. The problem is Nigeria’s obsession with spiritual curses and the apparent grip Satan has on their lives. It’s hard to understand why the masses just accept such false teachings and do not even look at the scripture for guidance.
The rest of the day, however, was much more pleasing; Linda cooked roast dinner (not as good as mums though, obviously) and we also went to visit the new hotel which has opened nearby. The hotel is a symbol of Nigeria’s wealth and it would certainly not look out of place in London (the restaurant even serves bacon and sausages for breakfast!) but unfortunately it’s also a sign of the wealth divide between the rich and the poor in the country.
13/4 – I must be slowly turning into a real African; I’m going to bed late and waking up really early. Our morning was spent gorging on high speed internet access at the hotel, it even allowed us to put pictures on facebook, result! The rest of the day was spent doing what Billy does best, eating chicken and playing scrabble.
14/4 – Our excitement could not be contained, for today was the day we picked up our African clothes (pictures to come soon). Mine was made from a lovely green material, if I could, I would wear it all the time! I might even wear it on nights out when I’m at uni! We plan to travel to Jos tomorrow, praying for a good journey.
15/4 – Today was obviously not the right day for travelling! Myself, Billy, Chris and Ryan set off in one car, whilst Linda and Tehna (Billy’s nephew) went in the other car (the journey time is around 3 – 4 hours). All was going smoothly until the radiator pump in our car blew up! The bad situation became worse when the monsoon weather hit. A mechanic then turned up out of the blue to fix another car that had broken down nearby, but left with Billy’s money and never returned! By this time, Linda, myself and Chris had left in the other car (after it too had broken down temporarily). Despite a terrible attempt at journeying to Jos, we lived to fight another day!
16/4 – After the events of yesterday, waking up to clear blue skies seemed like the go ahead for journey attempt two. This time around we made it to Jos with no hitches, only stopping once to take some snapshots of the stunning Plateua scenery. We arrived later afternoon where we were met by Sid and Jean Garland. They have been in Nigeria for 23 years writing books about preventing and treating HIV/AIDS. Sid is an Arsenal fan, so naturally I felt a deep and rich respect for him straight away. We also met Trevor, the Canadian who is working in Jos for 2 years.
17/4 – Today we got a wee tour of Jos. Firstly Emmanuel took us to a village called Gero to help out with a children’s football tournament. We then headed to Hillcrest; an international school where the missionaries children go along with rich Nigerian children. We ate suiya, which is kind of like Nigeria’s answer to the kebab, and it is delicious! Afterwards we went into town to visit the street children and widows ministry and also get a few supplies for our work back in Ogugu. Our evenings entertainment was provided by Hillcrest; the 14-15 year olds production of Charlie Brown (which by high standards wasn’t really that great, but that’s what happens when you do drama a level).
18/4 Today was our first opportunity to wear our new African clothing; A friend of Billys was getting married so we felt it was best to indulge in the culture. The service finished surprisingly on time and the reception was packed full of crazy traditional African dancers so all in all the wedding was a success. Later on in the day, when we finally had some free time, I watched Rob Bell’s Nooma dvd series on anger. He made a great point about how all of us get angry at the smallest things, like losing a certain football match and yet we don’t get half as angry at the things that do matter. It’s about time we start getting angry at the important things and then channelling it into something beautiful!
19/4 – This morning we attended church at Hillcrest with Trevor and Emmanuel. The church was established by missionaries and is largely dominated by Americans. The service was refreshing because I didn’t leave feeling annoyed or confused buy it wasn’t that amazing at the same time. After church and lunch, we headed back to Abuja where we will stay for a night before we go home!!!
20/4 – Having planned to leave Abuja early at 7am, getting on the road at noon was not the best of starts (that’s African timing and Billy for you). The journey was good and we got to Ogugu around 6.30pm leaving enough time for a few games of cards before a good nights sleep.
21/4 – There really is nothing like waking up in Ogugu; no where else will you wake up to goats bleating, crazy African women shouting at each other and Becki, well just being Becki. Myself and Emmanuel spent the majority of the day playing football, but we did fit some time in to watch the children make musical instruments in the craft session.
22/4 – We decided it was a good idea to show the other guys how we really live in Ogugu, so we started off with a game of cards to determine who cleared up breakfast! Our main focus for the day was re-decorating the child friendly room in the centre, but the paint was, well, not exactly B&Q standard. As is patining was not fun enough, my football team had their first match today. Unfortunately they lost 4-1, although it wasn’t the slick passing game I have come to expect, I was happy with their effort.
23/4 – Since we had no time for boys choir yesterday evening, we decided to reschedule for this morning. We sang Everlasting God, which was sung with gusto as usual. Walking back to the house, we were met with the usual cries for lifts and piggy back (having the other guys around really helped). Moving Star (the name the boys chose for the team) then had their second match, narrowly losing 4-2. I say narrowly because we scored a great second goal and their 3rd and 4th goals were gifted set plays from the not-so-fair referee. Myself and Emmanuel then played with the big men, linking up in the first minute to set up a goal.
24/4 – Today was an early start because the Jos team were heading back (mainly so Emmanuel could get to ultimate Frisbee ha ha). After a short time of mourning, we had some meetings with Billy and Linda to discuss our work for the remaining 4 months. I will now be in charge of Purpose Driven Youth; a scheme set up to help young people make right life choices based on the life skills they have learnt. I will also be in charge of planning the holiday bible club for when the Summer team arrive in July. I can’t wait to get cracking!
25/4 – The main event from today was our evening visit to boys brigade meeting, where we spoke about the threat of HIV/AIDS. Ryan did a drama to demonstrate how the HIV virus works, Chris spoke about the myths and stigma surrounding HIV/AIDs and I did a biblical look at how the church can help treat and prevent the epidemic.
26/4 – As usual, Sunday started with an early morning visit to UEC church. The boys brigade weekend meeting was still in full swing so the president of boys brigade Nigeria did the sermon. By UEC standards, his grasp of scripture was really good and he was funny as well. Unfortunately his sermon was tarnished by another pastor who told the congregation the usually nonsense about the offering. On a brighter note, my footballers played their 3rd ever game and won 3-2, hoorah!
27/4 – this morning started with the very manly task of planting flowers (very pretty pink ones too) with Billy outside the centre. Part of my goal here is to get people to take pride in the beauty of Ogugu. After a short training with my victorious footballers, we headed to the centre to introduce ourselves to the advance HIV support group (which the other Chris is now in charge of). We spent the evening eating at Sams (aka expert) who is the guy that builds and fixes everything for us. His family are brilliant and his 4 children (Joseph, Victory, Goodness and Joshua) are such great fun to be around, they even gave us another chicken as we left, yay!
28/4 – Despite the fact that we had an agri chicken (a free to roam chicken rather than a cooped up chicken) in our possession, Billy and Linda still decided to head back to Abuja, leaving to our devices once again. Since we had the morning free we decided to go to Ankpa to get some supplies (folders and chocolate milkshake powder). Unfortunately since leaving for Jos, the numbers attending lessons have dropped so our objective now is to encourage others to attend English and maths.
29/4 – Unsurprisingly, it has turned out that most of my time here has been spent coaching or playing football; I see the same boys every day and I am now starting to build good relationships with them. Because of this, I have decided to start a team bible study for every week. So for the next 13 weeks we will be studying 2 Corinthians. I have chosen this particular book because Paul discusses many aspects of the Christian faith that will benefit the footballers such as forgiveness and endurance during times of suffering. I hope that the bible studies will be relevant, enabling the boys to question how it applies to them when playing the beautiful game.
30/4 – Today hasn’t been the greatest of days. Firstly I had planned to begin working on the Purpose Driven Youth programme but the books I given to me were accidentally taken back to Abuja! Secondly, some of the football boys showed a complete lack of respect today during our game. I’ve told them to buck their ideas up otherwise there will be no team! I am now going to start more training time with the smaller boys so that they can feel involved too.
1/5 – A new month has arrived, and it started with a meeting with elder Rueben (who runs the centre). We will be having regular meetings to discuss our various activities and the goals we want to achieve week by week. The meeting was productive (in an African kind of way) and I now have 6 dates set for the Purpose Driven Youth programmes which will go to all 6 area conferences in Ogugu. After our meeting I received a letter from the footballers apologising for their behaviour which made me a lot happier about the situation; I agreed to do only two sessions a week with them so I would have more time to play with the smaller boys (I have also been asked by a neighbouring football team to coach, which I will be doing every Monday). Today was also the first time we managed to gather some of the older guys for a bible study. We went through some history of the Old and New Testament so I could get a good idea of their biblical knowledge. I am really excited, because I feel I am best at teaching and relating to the young adults in Ogugu.
Monday, 13 April 2009
4th April – 8th April
4/4 – Saturdays in Ogugu guarantee 2 things; going to Ankpa and watching football. Unfortunately our trip to Ankpa was a short lived one because the internet connection at both cyber café’s were down (which is why I haven’t posted on the blog for a while). I did however get a chance to practise my battering skills, managing to bring the price down on two pineapples from 300 Niara (around £1.50) to 200 Niara (around £1). We then hit the shack to get our weekly dose of football, watching Arsenal beat
5/4 – This Sunday was the turn of Becky’s church for a very stately visit from the ‘Ogugu White Three’ As much as it pains me to say this, we all agreed that FGC (Faith Gospel Centre) suited more to our understanding of scripture than UEC (but that is something we are working on J). We were invited for super chilled 7ups and a ‘wee’ chat with the Reverend Minister who seemed like a top bloke. Later on in the day myself and Chris went to the shack to watch Man united vs Aston Villa, and it was such a tense game that when United scored the winning goal in the dying minutes, the United fans present began swinging from the rafters (literally)!
6/4 – It is really encouraging that the number of 11 – 14 year olds attending lessons and bible studies are growing by the days (even if we have to cushion the lessons with games of football for the boys). We gave them a maths test today to gauge how much they knew, and it looks very promising. The next challenge is trying to get more of the older guys into lessons (especially since they have exams coming up soon and we are the only source of education for them at the moment).
7/4 – From my experience of Nigeria so far, the most valuable lesson I have learnt is not to get too downhearted when no-one turns up to a scheduled activity. This is because the children can’t seem to understand the concept of time management! Yesterday, by 2pm (the starting time for the lesson) no one had turned up to my planned English lesson. By half 2, only 5 had turned up, but by the end of the lesson, at least 15 had arrived. Prayer for patience in these situations would be greatly appreciated.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
14th – 26th March
(above is a pic of one of the children with a picture he had drawn, all the children love using the felt tips etc)14/3 – The weekend quickly came around and we decided to go (on our own) where no other group of British boys had gone before (on their own), Ankpa! What made this journey all the more treacherous (already taking into account the many pot-holes and the very aggressive attitude of local drivers) was the fact that we were travelling in Pippa, a 23 year old Peugeot 504.
We made the journey relatively unscathed and managed to get some supplies and see Liam and Collette for a nice cuppa tea! Other than that, the day was uneventful. I spent most of it getting in some much needed preparation for my preach the following day.
15/3 – Happy Sunday! And so it was (a little bit of Irish ‘slang’ there for you). I spoke about grace to the UEC congregation, getting at least a couple of ‘Amens’ from the pews! I really just hope the message gets through to the people (the understanding that no works will every increase God’s love for us because we are already part of a covenant that was secured by Jesus’ death). Unfortunately some of the Pastors (of all people!) are still convincing that success and favour from God are only attainable from giving more to the church (no mention of giving joyfully).
16/3 – With the permission of Rueben (UEC Ogugu youth pastor) we decided to scrap our current childrens programme and take a week off to organise a new schedule (as some times clashed with when children were expected to help their parents on the farms etc). Sometimes it felt like one step forward, two steps back but it is now starting to feel like we are getting somewhere! We got a chance to visit the UEC primary school with the head teacher inviting us to lead as many lessons as we wished.
Working with the young children and the adults has been challenging so far, so it was refreshing to mix with the locals who were similar to our age. It made me feel more at home (if that was possible).
17/3 – Today it became quite clear how certain biblical teachings in Ogugu have misguided the community in their views on what is right and wrong. Becki (our house helper) and Vicky (who collects water for us) were claiming that it was sinful for women to wear trousers! Somewhere down the line, the church took the verse from Deuteronomy (women should not wear mens clothes and vise-versa) and conceived that trousers were made divinely and exclusively for men! This is another unforuntate example of how the masses in Ogugu (and possibly the rest of Nigeria) are being misguided by a minority of men who are still stuck in the 17th century.
18/3 – I’m finding it quite astonishing how many local people think we are doctors (I think there is a rumour going around the village). This morning, a man came to the house because he wanted a full medical check up. The good news is that we are having our HIV/AIDs training soon. With this training we will be able to test for HIV and properly counsel people before and after testing.
Although this week, we have been given the week off, we have been working hard planning lessons and also planning a massive scavenger hunt in order to properly launch ou programme of activities.
19/3 – Who’d have thought it, we could potentially be the new voice of Nigerian worship music (watch out Tim Hughes and co). A local soul and worship singer Pierre came to us asking if we would sing on his new track! He said he wanted the white voice (he is in for a big shock) and he won’t take no for an answer despite our warnings that none of us can sing!
But back to more mundane matters; we started our rubbish collection programme today (from front man to bin man). Ogugu is such a beautiful place but it is blighted by a sea of rubbish that taints the scenery. We hope that the decrease in rubbish will be enjoyed by all and they will notice the change and want to get involved. This small idea has no limits!!
20/3 – You can call me Kanu (that is my new Nigerian footballing name)! I’m taking these few days to play a lot of football with the children and I’m pleased to say I’ve discovered Nigeria’s next star Zeke Usman. He’s probably only about 13, small in size but big in personality and he has the touch of a footballing angel. He’s certainly a cut above the other boys despite the fact he plays in girls school shoes.
Other than paying football, we spent the day putting together a maths and English syllabus. The day has been relaxing, however poor old Pippa (our supposedly trusty old car) broke down today meaning we would have to scrap going to Ankpa this weekend!
21/3 – Unfortunately poor Pippa was unable to get herself started, meaning we had to stay in Ogugu because we didn’t have a clue about public transport to Ankpa. And as I was thinking I had this place figured out, along comes the Rev minister for all the churches in Ogugu with no shirt on asking for a game of football. Turns out he’s rather good, much to my embarrassment. Could you imagine having a topless game of football with an Archbishop?
And as if that wasn’t enough…Minutes before the end of the Arsenal Newcastle match (a convincing 3-1 Arsenal victory) the inhabitants of the shack (where the locals go to watch the football) started thanking Jesus for the victory. Unless they know something I don’t, I can’t be too sure Jesus supports Arsenal.
22/3 – Nigerian children will do anything to have their photograph taken. They bring by shouting ‘snap me’ and swarming around whoever is unfortunate enough to have brought out a camera. One picture isn’t enough however, so they begin to strike weird and wonderful poses to attract our attention; one boy began to walk on his hands and then proceeded to bend backwards like some performing circus act. The less flexible children continued striking poses, hugging each other, jumping on each others shoulders and so on. Had it no been for my camera running out of battery we could have been taking pictures all day.
23/2 – The increasingly deteriorating health of Pippa (now her brakes were failing) meant that our plan to travel to Ibaji to do our HIV training was put on hold for a day, but I’ve learnt not to be surprised by changes in plan by now. The more frustrating thing was that we had no food for dinner because we had eaten it all! Thankfully, due to God’s good timing, Rev Amee came down from his house to present us with a chicken! And it was so good!
24/3 – Today we set off to Ibaji to undergo our training. Our first real road trip and we were accompanied by the eternally cool Rueben. What a road trip it was, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a road bump or a road dust trip). We arrived just in time for another meal and covered from HIV basics before heading off to our accommodation to get some rest.
25/3 – Although we had planned to stay in Ibaji until Friday morning, our intended schedule was changed (again). The HIV counselling and test training was moved to today which meant we could leave the next day. Which was kind of a relief because the food was no where near as good and Ogugu feels like back at home in terms of temperature when you compare it to Ibaji (and we had no time to sunbathe lol).
26/3 – After a slightly more pleasing breakfast than yesterday’s pap (YUCK) we left to go back to Ogugu. We arrived at home sweet home and relaxed for the rest of the day. In the evening myself and Chris had a great chat about many things, ranging from our reasons for being here, missing food (cheese and chocolate) and our angst with the church and religious people (somehow getting onto the quote ‘the church is a whore, but she is my mother).
And for your entertainment here are some Igalan words I have picked up (excuse the poor spelling, I learn to say them, not write them)
Good morning = oladudu. Good afternoon = Olrocka. Good evening = Olani
How are you? = ayagbo or abelle. I’m fine = laffia. God = Ojo
Sorry = awa. Thankyou = agba, anya or nago
We made the journey relatively unscathed and managed to get some supplies and see Liam and Collette for a nice cuppa tea! Other than that, the day was uneventful. I spent most of it getting in some much needed preparation for my preach the following day.
15/3 – Happy Sunday! And so it was (a little bit of Irish ‘slang’ there for you). I spoke about grace to the UEC congregation, getting at least a couple of ‘Amens’ from the pews! I really just hope the message gets through to the people (the understanding that no works will every increase God’s love for us because we are already part of a covenant that was secured by Jesus’ death). Unfortunately some of the Pastors (of all people!) are still convincing that success and favour from God are only attainable from giving more to the church (no mention of giving joyfully).
16/3 – With the permission of Rueben (UEC Ogugu youth pastor) we decided to scrap our current childrens programme and take a week off to organise a new schedule (as some times clashed with when children were expected to help their parents on the farms etc). Sometimes it felt like one step forward, two steps back but it is now starting to feel like we are getting somewhere! We got a chance to visit the UEC primary school with the head teacher inviting us to lead as many lessons as we wished.
Working with the young children and the adults has been challenging so far, so it was refreshing to mix with the locals who were similar to our age. It made me feel more at home (if that was possible).
17/3 – Today it became quite clear how certain biblical teachings in Ogugu have misguided the community in their views on what is right and wrong. Becki (our house helper) and Vicky (who collects water for us) were claiming that it was sinful for women to wear trousers! Somewhere down the line, the church took the verse from Deuteronomy (women should not wear mens clothes and vise-versa) and conceived that trousers were made divinely and exclusively for men! This is another unforuntate example of how the masses in Ogugu (and possibly the rest of Nigeria) are being misguided by a minority of men who are still stuck in the 17th century.
18/3 – I’m finding it quite astonishing how many local people think we are doctors (I think there is a rumour going around the village). This morning, a man came to the house because he wanted a full medical check up. The good news is that we are having our HIV/AIDs training soon. With this training we will be able to test for HIV and properly counsel people before and after testing.
Although this week, we have been given the week off, we have been working hard planning lessons and also planning a massive scavenger hunt in order to properly launch ou programme of activities.
19/3 – Who’d have thought it, we could potentially be the new voice of Nigerian worship music (watch out Tim Hughes and co). A local soul and worship singer Pierre came to us asking if we would sing on his new track! He said he wanted the white voice (he is in for a big shock) and he won’t take no for an answer despite our warnings that none of us can sing!
But back to more mundane matters; we started our rubbish collection programme today (from front man to bin man). Ogugu is such a beautiful place but it is blighted by a sea of rubbish that taints the scenery. We hope that the decrease in rubbish will be enjoyed by all and they will notice the change and want to get involved. This small idea has no limits!!
20/3 – You can call me Kanu (that is my new Nigerian footballing name)! I’m taking these few days to play a lot of football with the children and I’m pleased to say I’ve discovered Nigeria’s next star Zeke Usman. He’s probably only about 13, small in size but big in personality and he has the touch of a footballing angel. He’s certainly a cut above the other boys despite the fact he plays in girls school shoes.
Other than paying football, we spent the day putting together a maths and English syllabus. The day has been relaxing, however poor old Pippa (our supposedly trusty old car) broke down today meaning we would have to scrap going to Ankpa this weekend!
21/3 – Unfortunately poor Pippa was unable to get herself started, meaning we had to stay in Ogugu because we didn’t have a clue about public transport to Ankpa. And as I was thinking I had this place figured out, along comes the Rev minister for all the churches in Ogugu with no shirt on asking for a game of football. Turns out he’s rather good, much to my embarrassment. Could you imagine having a topless game of football with an Archbishop?
And as if that wasn’t enough…Minutes before the end of the Arsenal Newcastle match (a convincing 3-1 Arsenal victory) the inhabitants of the shack (where the locals go to watch the football) started thanking Jesus for the victory. Unless they know something I don’t, I can’t be too sure Jesus supports Arsenal.
22/3 – Nigerian children will do anything to have their photograph taken. They bring by shouting ‘snap me’ and swarming around whoever is unfortunate enough to have brought out a camera. One picture isn’t enough however, so they begin to strike weird and wonderful poses to attract our attention; one boy began to walk on his hands and then proceeded to bend backwards like some performing circus act. The less flexible children continued striking poses, hugging each other, jumping on each others shoulders and so on. Had it no been for my camera running out of battery we could have been taking pictures all day.
23/2 – The increasingly deteriorating health of Pippa (now her brakes were failing) meant that our plan to travel to Ibaji to do our HIV training was put on hold for a day, but I’ve learnt not to be surprised by changes in plan by now. The more frustrating thing was that we had no food for dinner because we had eaten it all! Thankfully, due to God’s good timing, Rev Amee came down from his house to present us with a chicken! And it was so good!
24/3 – Today we set off to Ibaji to undergo our training. Our first real road trip and we were accompanied by the eternally cool Rueben. What a road trip it was, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a road bump or a road dust trip). We arrived just in time for another meal and covered from HIV basics before heading off to our accommodation to get some rest.
25/3 – Although we had planned to stay in Ibaji until Friday morning, our intended schedule was changed (again). The HIV counselling and test training was moved to today which meant we could leave the next day. Which was kind of a relief because the food was no where near as good and Ogugu feels like back at home in terms of temperature when you compare it to Ibaji (and we had no time to sunbathe lol).
26/3 – After a slightly more pleasing breakfast than yesterday’s pap (YUCK) we left to go back to Ogugu. We arrived at home sweet home and relaxed for the rest of the day. In the evening myself and Chris had a great chat about many things, ranging from our reasons for being here, missing food (cheese and chocolate) and our angst with the church and religious people (somehow getting onto the quote ‘the church is a whore, but she is my mother).
And for your entertainment here are some Igalan words I have picked up (excuse the poor spelling, I learn to say them, not write them)
Good morning = oladudu. Good afternoon = Olrocka. Good evening = Olani
How are you? = ayagbo or abelle. I’m fine = laffia. God = Ojo
Sorry = awa. Thankyou = agba, anya or nago
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