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 Manchester City. The rest of the day was spent relaxing before the first rains of the season belted down! (in other news: Debbie, Ellie and Emmanuel are coming down in a couple weeks from Jos to help redecorate the centre, I think they are under the impression that it’s going to be sunny here).

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.