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!