1st - 22nd August - The final words

1/8 – Another new month, another step closer towards going home (sad times). On the brighter side of things, it was the final Purpose Driven Youth and we had loads of things planned. The program was to take place in Onicha-Igo (this is the place where we had turned up before and no one was around). Since I had the summer team at my disposal we decided to add more activities, specifically concentrating on life skills. Each summer team member led a new seminar (e.g. team work seminar). By the afternoon there were well over 100 young people in the church so I’m thankful for the extra hands because those sorts of numbers usually cause chaos!
When we got home there was only one can of sprite left! What a disaster! Only one way to decide who gets the can; an epic game of family fortunes, oh and who wins it...ME!

2/8 – We were at our usual hang out this Sunday morning and the service was fine and we all enjoyed dancing during the offering time (a long line of awkward white movers). Come 9.30 we were ready to leave when the pastor invited a ‘stranger’ to speak about an upcoming conference. Now, this guy spoke very quickly and loudly so I didn’t really catch a lot of what he said, but he was basically recruiting people to look after the foreign visitors who were coming to preach at the conference. He referred to a ‘paramilitary protocol’ and suggested that lots of big Americans wanted him to go to the USA just because he had previously helped look after visitors. What a load of tosh!
Unfortunately the Holley Memorial girls had to leave back to the hospital, so it was another sad moments and another realisation of my impending home time. We had to cheer ourselves up by watching High School Musical 3!


3/8 – With the orphan’s party only a day away, we (the Ogugu boys and the summer team) headed up to Sam ‘the expert’ and Joy’s compound – the party venue – to set up everything ready for tomorrow. After arriving to find the venue well cleared up I headed off with Rueben to sort out some music equipment. Again, it’s quite amazing what you can acquire in Ogugu if you know the right people; not only did we get some big speakers but we also managed to get an amp, mixer for rent as well. DJ time! The only thing left was to buy some Igala/Nigerian music CDs, which you can find anywhere on the road because it is always being blared out during the night.

In the afternoon, the older football boys and I took the short trip to Okpo to play Agala FC. The match was tough, as was the oppositions tackling (one of my defenders was pulled off with an injury after a harsh collision). After going 1-0 down, the referee failed to recognise the linesman’s (sounds very professional I know but it was actually a branch) flag and allowed the opposition to score a blatant offside goal. Unfortunately that’s the way the game ended, but the performance was good and it was good preparation for the tournament on the 8th.

4/8 – Before the fun of the orphans party, I had to attend to picking up my large order from Ankpa. I had previously put an order in for 15 pairs of football boots, a prize for the winners of the upcoming football tournament.

Today was one of the most enjoyable days of my 6 months; around 60 children from the orphans list came along to the party we had organised. I was in charge of musical statues, using the music equipment; mixing up some Nigerian music with some less well known western music! There was also face painting (for the adults as well), other competitions and food and drinks. We also celebrated little Josh and Goodness’ recent birthdays by cutting and sharing cake. The day was really fun and it was also nice to give out gifts to the children (buckets, soap and other wash things).

Not all of today was happy and good fun. Today is the last full day the summer team and Chris Banks have in Ogugu before they head to Abuja and then onto the UK. This occasion was marked by Reverend Okpanachi and Reverend Okoli coming over to share chicken, rice and stew and taking lots of snaps!

5/8 – Today was the ‘beginning of the end’ because the summer team and Banksy were leaving Ogugu. The emotion was too much for some; Becki’s sister Jane broke down in tears and couldn’t stop crying! What’s more sad is that I have less than 3 weeks left in Nigeria. Still I have lots of things left to do including the football tournament and more HIV awareness within different church denominations. I’m also very busy putting together a new schedule for Callum, the new gapper who is arriving early September. This has been really good news because we have someone else to take over what we have started.

6/8 – After the emotional goodbyes, it was time to turn my attention to the football tournament. Since I had a couple more weeks in Ogugu (and a lot less busy without a summer team to organise) I thought it would be a good idea to hold a football tournament for the different areas in the Ogugu superintendence. By this time there was already a buzz around the village with players getting very excited and talk of teams putting in extra practise for the big occasion.

As I alluded to before, I’m also working on a schedule for Callum. What was most difficult (but turned out to be a blessing) coming to Ogugu was the lack of structure in the day, especially when the schools were on strike. Kogi State willing however, Callum should arrive with schools up and running. I have therefore organised the following goals for him; to get the Donegore centre library up and running (which I am in the middle of setting up), taking the Purpose Driven Youth program into different schools and working with Reverend Ameh at a school in Adupi.

7/8 – Since the summer team and Holley Memorial girls have left, life in Ogugu has slowed down and become a lot quieter recently. Most schools are on holiday now so a lot of children have travelled back to their home villages. This has caused the number of children around Ogugu central to drop considerably.

This gave me time in the morning to compile my HIV/AIDS presentation which I am supposed to be giving to the different denominations in the area. This 6 months has showed me how important it is to spread information and awareness to avoid the spread of HIV rather than just wait to have to treat it. It’s shocking how ignorant there is about an epidemic which is right on many people’s doorsteps. The way the church is responding as well is largely not good enough; this issue needs to be addressed. The stigma attached to people suffering from AIDs is still there, even in the church, and it needs to be replaced by loving and caring attitudes.

In the afternoon, I was in the centre starting to organise the book for the library. Mark and Elaine are donating a shed load of their old book, including lots of bibles, which is something the locals are dying to get hold of. After a meeting a few days ago, we all decided that the centre should move away from just being a medical centre but also provide a community feel. This will certainly go towards taking away the stigma that surrounds visiting a ‘HIV clinic/centre’.

8/8 – I had to be prepared today to face some stress; organising a football tournament in the UK is hard enough let alone in Ogugu. Thankfully all the teams had arrived early and I was happy to see lots of football players ready to get going by 10 o’clock. There was only one team missing, but fear not, my team were on stand-by to replace any team who were not present (something I was expecting).

After only an hours delay, the game got under way with Ogugu Central (otherwise known as Ubele Bombers) taking on Unyi-Ogugu. Ogugu Central are definitely tournament favourites because they play against lots of teams from around Kogi state whilst other teams in this tournament only play smaller village teams. Ogugu central won 3-0. My team (Shining Star FC) played Amiriwa and played brilliantly. They drew the first game and won the second to go through to the quarters. They then won that match on penalties to set up a semi final with the tournament favourites.

I was really pleased with the quality of play from Shining Star but they weren’t quite good enough against Ubele and went out in the Semis. The final will be held tomorrow with Ubele playing Amiriwa.

9/8 – I must have eaten something dodgy because I was on the toilet all night last night! I generally felt rough after no sleep so I stayed in bed for most of the day. I needed to recover enough for the afternoon because it was the final of the football tournament between Ogugu Central and Amiriwa. Of course my allegiance is towards my home village of Ogugu Central, but the away team definitely had the tag of underdogs which gave me a reason to the support them to.

The first half was very even and there was evidence of quality from both teams. Unfortunately the second half became a walk over for Ogugu Central who ended the match winning 3-0. The team took 10 pairs of football boots as a prize but Amiriwa went home with 5 pairs as a consolation prize. The crowds for the final were huge and everyone is very excited about a bigger and better tournament next year.

10/8 – After the excitement of the football tournament, it was back to the centre to work on the library. Mark and Elaine were kind enough to leave loads and loads of books before the left for Jos and with these books we can open the library with around 100 books. A lot of people over the 6 months have asked us for bibles. It would be great to buy everyone a bible but that isn’t financially possible so the library will be a good place for people to hang out and read the bible and other books. We also want to encourage locals to be looking after the library and taking part in how the centre is run.

Today was my last lesson with RCM inside the classroom and I also managed to fit in a good session at football late in the afternoon.

11/8 – Today was a very slow day; as a lot of children are away there is little to do. I’ve now sorted all the library books into alphabetical order and according to whether they are fiction, non fiction or Christian literature. The only remaining program left for me is speaking at Holy Ghost fire Church about HIV. I had planned to speak at other churches but they didn’t respond to my queries, you have to roll with the punches.

12/8 – I’m devoting my blog space today to a boy named Fidelis. He’s 12 years old and he’s just come back from schooling in a nearby town. I first heard about him when Andrew from the summer team spent some time talking to him and bought back a hat. This hat was one of the craft materials from the holiday club, the idea is that you decorate the hat yourself. This hat, however, was no ordinary hat. Fidelis had written this on it: ‘Wish you a nice stay here and a safe trip back home. You are enviable people giving no time to racism as your ancestors did a long time ago… BRAVO!!! (Fidelis – Nigeria 09).’

Today I got a chance to meet him and he’s by far the most intelligent child I have ever met, Nigerian or otherwise! He loves talking about Gordon Brown being a bad Prime Minister. Where does he get all this stuff from?

13/8 – Today was the last lesson as RCM as the school was breaking up for its holiday. It was quite funny because I turned up and the teachers were lounging outside as the entire school ran around like crazy. Amongst all this there was an inter primary school football match which I ended up running around in. So, it wasn’t really a structured P.E. lesson, but we all got to run around and it was nice jumping around with the kids for the last time!

14/8 – Today I was speaking at Holy Ghost Fire Church (the Pastor is called Emmanuel, he is always smiling and he is the happiest guy I have ever met, it’s infectious) doing a HIV awareness program. Not only was it a simple awareness program but we hope to set up a HIV support group within the church with Callum (the new gapper). It’s important to set up links and relationships so there is a position of trust which we can use to encourage the church to act against the spread of HIV.

The talk went really well and I’m starting to get the hang of speaking in a Nigerian way. The congregation seemed very responsive; I just hope they get excited about doing their part.

The last few days - Since all my programs have finished, I’ve decided to record the remaining notable events in a more condensed summary!
Before leaving Nigeria I was able to enjoy the beginning of the football season springing back into life, and boy did I enjoy it; Arsenal getting off to a flying start with a 6-1 win over Everton and an important 2-0 win away to Celtic in the Champions league Qualifiers.

Another interesting experience during my last few days was meeting Brian from the USA and his wife from Venezuela. They were in ‘town’ for the annual Calabite conference in Okpo. What was most interesting was that another white person was in Ogugu who had no link to Advance or Mission Africa.
After meeting the couple in our house, he spoke at the English service at U.E.C. and packed in lots of Amens and waving of hands; not my preferred style but it certainly went down well with the congregation.

The following days were spent relaxing, visiting people and saying goodbye. I took the short trip to say goodbye to Auntie Rose for the last time. I really hope she is alive when I next visit Nigeria, unfortunately the TB has become resistant to the first strain of drugs and she cannot get the second strain anywhere in Nigeria. She has been getting better recently but I pray that her faith increases throughout this time. She has been a big inspiration to me!

One of the nicest moments for me during the last few days was the send off I was given by my footballers. They prepared a ‘love-feast’ of drinks and biscuits, which for me just symbolises the generosity of Nigerians. They had also written speeches and bought presents for me; such kindness will stay in my mind for a long time.
We (Myself, Zongo and Ryan) left Ogugu on Thursday and arrived in Abuja safely ready for the Saturday morning flight. The one remaining thing to do was to visit the craft village with my remaining 4000 naira. I purchased a cool bongo and was dashed (given free) a wallet and a necklace! We also needed to get pizza because Ryan was going back to a land where no one has heard of it!

So, as I write these last few words I’m safely waiting at gate C2 of Abuja International Airport ready to fly back home (sniff sniff). I can’t wait to return to Nigeria, hopefully next year at some point. I’ve got unfinished business! This country is so amazing in many ways; the people are so generous with the little they have and they display so much faith in God, not being afraid to ask him for what they need. The culture is vibrant and so fascinating. There’s some awesome scenery and the weather is great!

In other ways however, this country is flawed; it’s the eight fastest growing economy in the world and yet I’ve lived in a place where people live with barely anything. I don’t want to finish my writing on a bad note though! Up Nigeria For Life! And up Ogugu For Life! Thanks to everyone who has supported me in different ways and Thanks to God!!