26/5 - This morning i actually woke up cold! The heavy rain in the evenings are starting to cause reduced temperatures in the morning. The heat does however, continue to rise to over 30 degrees in the day time, so it's not quite like back home yet. Myself and Ryan started the day by taking a young boy (accompanied by his uncle) to the hospital. Henry is an orphan living with HIV and needs everyones prayers! The hospitals are also on strike so the situation is not easy to cope with.

Fortunately because of the Circle of Hope scheme, children like Henry can be sponsored enough to go to school, eat well and get drugs and other medicine.

27/5 - Today was children day all accross the world (or so i was told) and Ogugu was not going to miss out on the fun! After a loud band parade, the children of all the schools (and many spectators, including esteemed guests such as the chief) congregated outside the palace for dance and songs. We did not plan to attend the celebrations, but there were 3 seats prepared for us as we arrived un-expectedly. It is really amazing (and a bit worrying) how some of those children can move! As the children marched back i did attempt to show my moves. My attempts were received with laughter (probably at me).

28/5 - Today a team from Holley Memorial Hospital cam to the centre to carry out eye tests for locals. Since news spreads so quickly here, there well over a hundred people waiting for a test (some had arrived 3 hours early to guarentee a check up, something very un-African). By now i expected to be in Abuja for team meetings with Billy and Linda etc, so i haven't scheduled much work to do. Timothy (the guy who invited me to speak at the last youth conference) did come and visit in order to propose speaking at an event that could attract 1000 people!!

In the afternoon, myself and Chris went to visit Rose. She is doing very well considering her situation and she sounded like the TB was not getting on top of her too much. We bought her bread, milk, eggs etc from the market. She thanked us loads and maintained that our presence in Ogugu alone was enough to satisfy here. Her faith and kindness is a constant reminder and inspiration.

29/5 - Today i haven't been feeling too well (AWW), thankfully, its the only time in my three months that i haven't been able to do my activities because of poor health! After sleeping for most of the morning, i walked to the market in the afternoon and ended up sitting with Lemon for a few hours; Lemon is the town joker really, he is so funny! i also made friends with Isaac and Matthew.

30/5 - It seems that no matter what i do, i cannot get away from the C word...Chelsea. I travel to another continent, almost 3000 miles to live in Nigeria. I even chose to live in a place no one has ever heard of, and still, when THEY win the F.A. Cup, i get people in THAT shirt coming round telling me how great THEY are. On a more serious note, i do have a pastors training programme coming up on the 17th and 18th June, so your prayers for preperation and delivery would be appreciated.

31/5 - As the Mission Africa conference starts tomorrow, we started the long journey to Jos with Zongo in the morning. The journey was good and Pippa held up for the whole 7 hours! The only rough part of the journey was after eating Mr Biggs (100 times worse than McDonalds!). We arrived in Jos mid-afternoon, only to find out that Pippa was being taken away from us (sad times), lets just hope they don't put her down.

1/6 - The weeks conference is being held in Miango (about an hour away from the centre of Jos). As Sid (another Mission Africa person) described it 'if yoe've been living in the bush, being in Miango is like dying and going to heaven!' He isn't wrong you know; internet, almost 24-hour electricity, basketball courts, tennis courts, BACON! It just doesn't get any better than this...Unfortunately, its not all play for us; we have to produce a presentation to prove we have been working hard in Ogugu!!!