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.