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!

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!

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.