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

4th March - 13th March

4/3 – today I took my first coaching session with the future stars of Nigeria football!

The session was good fun and it was good to see the children having fun and mixing with adults (even if they didn’t understand everything I said), something they rarely get to do.

Since I have been imparting my knowledge of London slgna dupon the two other boys, I thought it was time they returned the favour; boys a dear (oh dear) and ‘hanging out’ (a response to how are you) are two of the more notable ones. And they claim that I make no sense!?!

5/3 – We decided to take a well earned break from the endless toils of building the fence by making the 45 minute drive to Ankpa where Liam and Collette live. It was refreshing to eat some British food (well lasagne isn’t British but oh well!) for a change and get onto the internet (however slow it may be). Liam and Collette are in the middle of selling lots of their stuff because they are moving back to the UK after 2 and a half years, we have already bagged the tv!

6/3 – Although setting a routine is usually helpful, the monotony of getting up at 7 every day to finish the fence was growing tiresome. Thankfully that sameness was broken by my first English lesson for the older children. The girls I taught were uiet but had some good knowledge and understood what I taught them. I want them to start writing a longer piece of descriptive writing.

It is such a shame that a country that boasts the 8th fastest growing economy in the world fails to provide a whole region of children with education. Last year alone in Igala, teachers went of strike for a total of 6 months and similar problems are expected to happen this year! It seems like no one in government cares for the future of the country. Unfortunately, too many are only interested in their own gain.

7/3 – Having done the usual (more work on the fence and being dragged out to play football) we were greeted by the team from Jos (Ellie, Debbie, Lindsay, Micah and Emmanuel) who had come down to stay with us for a few days. Despite suffering from a severe case of heat rash, the day was a pleasant one and it was good to meet the fellow gappers, plus, Emmanuel is an Arsenal fan. Result!

8/3 – To my COMPLETE dismay, my planned preach at UEC had been ruthlessly put back to next Sunday due to a joint service taking place today! A special guest speaker had already been invited. To make things worse, we didn’t even get to hear him because the service lasted a mighty 5 hours and our poor little bodies could only cope with 2. We did however sing Blessed be your Name which was received with much excitement.

9/3 – Morning, usual things; fence building, heat rash and football with the boys. The afternoon was slightly more memorable because we were formally introduced to the chief of Ogugu. He wasn’t exactly what I expected though; he was small and appeared very humble…top bloke!

10/3 – After more than a weeks had graft, with sweat and blood (and maybe even a tear shed somewhere down the line) poured out, the mammoth fence was finely finished! Although the level of satisfaction was limited because the fence is completely pointless. This project was forced on Billy by the church and not even paid for by them.

Billy was planning on going back to Abuja today, but the allure of bean cakes and coca cola ensured we had his company for another day.

11/3 – early in the morning and Billy finally made his exit from Ogugu to go back to Abuja. It didn’t take long before the house felt empty. He has been such an amzing help these last couple of weeks, getting us settled in and making us feel at home. Fortunately it won’t be too long before we see him (and Linda) again.

After a quick visit to the market we set about making our schedule. God has already laid on some exciting plans for us and I just pray that we would have the courage and wisdom to respond.

12/3 – Today was a day for sleep. I took the opportunity of getting a few extra hours! I finally woke up at 1.30! How very un-Nigerian. I’m pleased to say I did absolutely nothing today, taking Elder Rueben’s advice to ‘feel free’. I have been motoring through my 6 months worth of books, I’ve never read so much in my life!!

13/3 – Today has truly been the hardest day in Nigeria so far. Despite planning a good English lesson for the older bunch, it had to be cancelled because no one turned up. This only added to the mounting frustration of dwindling numbers at various different clubs and groups. We’ve had to accept that this is partly due to the Africa relaxed approach to turning up to things, however, it has been frustrating that our schedule and timetables have not been properly distributed around the village.

Arriving in Ogugu

Hey Everyone!

I am currently in Ankpa where the internet is just as a slow, and just as frustrating as it is in Abuja! This is, however, the only frustrating part of the couple of weeks in Nigeria so far!

Due to my seeminly useless memory stick drive (which is saved this weeks blog onto) i cannot give you a detailed account of what has happened over the past few days, however i can give you a summary of the highlights.

The most important piece of news is that yesterday i started my football coaching course with the orphans. It was a crazy session but it was nice for the kids to be playing with adults, something they rarely get to do!

Myself, Ryan and Irish Chris are also taking over this Sundays service, i am preaching on grace, so prayer for that is much needed, as well as prayer for all the children i will be working with over the next 6 months.

It is still wellll hot, and this hasn't helped us in our quest to build a fence round the centre. Work is slow, and painful (getting engine oil in my eye is not fun!), but it is slowly being completed.

All work and no play makes Chris a dull boy! or so they say. With this is mind, i have been relaxing by reading a lot and catching Arsenal at the local cinema! I have also taken various stresses out by killing the chicken that the minister gave to us as a gift. Yummy it was too!!

I do apologise for the lack of pictures on here, or on facebook, but the internet is so slow. I will persevere and get some on here or email them!! They are worth the wait...

A final thought to leave you with 'never turn your back on wisdom, for she will love you. Love her, and she will guard you'

God Bless