From the campsite to the prisons

 So I survived camp! What an amazing experience. Hard and uncomfortable, but worth it all the same. After the usual delays from waiting for late comers at the church, 55 youth set off in buses and SUV’s to the camp site. We arrived an hour and a half later at Nkiedonwro Village outside Miango. We parked the buses and walked 20mins to the camp site to meet the team who had gone in advance to set up. They had erected a huge canopy made out of rice bags into a tarpoline on huge spear ended sticks. This was to be out meeting place for activities and talks, termed the ‘ghetto’. Fiona and I started to set out the tents we had bought only to be over taken by the Nigerian guys who kindly wanted to help us. After a while we realised that we were the only girls helping with the tents and the rest of the Nigerian girls had gravitated to the designated kitchen area (think massive cauldrons over fires). We figured we’d better let the boys be boys.

The 'Ghetto'

The Nigerians really do have their priorities when they are camping. Among the things brought to the camp were a full set of drums, guitars, amplifiers, huge speaker system and a projector screen. It made for great entertainment, worship and dancing during the camp (especially when popular Nigerian pop music was cranked up loud at 7am while we were taking bucket baths before breakfast!) but it was just so amusing to see a set of drums in the middle of the bush!

Once the tents were up we ate dinner which was jollof rice (rice with bean, carrots and chili) and fried fish, had an introduction to camp then it was lights out. Thankfully and amazingly the other big priority was mattresses. They somehow managed to cart about 30 mattresses to the campsite which made everything more tolerable from my point of view. While the girls were in the tents the guys slept under the make-shift tarpaulin structure and prayed for no rain!

The kitchen

The next morning we were woken at 6am by a blast of an air horn (like the one they use to start races) and told it was time for personal devotions and bathing. The first morning Fiona and I took a tentative ‘bucket bath’ in sarongs and towels, cleaning what bits we could reach without revealing too much, but by day two after seeing how the Nigerians did it, we were a bit more adventurous, although I still didn’t have the courage to strip down to nothing and lather up in front of 4 beautiful black bodies, being so white made me self conscious!! So feeling semi clean we had a morning programme which included some bible study down by the river. My team was on cooking lunch, which was yam porridge. That afternoon we went back to the nearby village to do some community service. Some of the guys dug a pit for the community to dump refuse, some of the group did dramas about water safety and the importance of seeking professional medical help (or at least this is what I deduced as it was in Hausa!). Myself and a doctor who was at camp and had brought some simple medications, did a clinic with the villages. I was completely swarmed by little hands when I sought to give out the worm medication, it was pretty overwhelming, but really good to be able to use my skills to help in that way unexpectedly.

Make shift bush clinic

Dinner that evening was semovita, garri ogbono and vegetable soup ( I don’t even know how to begin to describe it!). Another early rise on Saturday morning and a breakfast of fried potatoes and yams with egg sauce and bread (almost a whole loaf each! Nigerians really know how to eat!) and tea, then we were off on a hike to a beautiful waterfall upstream. The track was very steep in parts and some of the girls were very ill equipped for hiking in terms of their clothing and shoes so struggled, but overcame their fears as they slid down gravel paths on their backsides! We arrived at the top of a gorgeous waterfall which was about 50ft high. A few of the guys jumped off (after watching one of the village boys do it to check it was deep enough!), but I was weary as I knew I’d have to take tablets to prevent sickness afterwards. I think we’ll have to get a group together and go back and just do it one weekend soon though, you only live once.   

So over all my camp experience was defiantly less traumatic than I expected. The pit dug for a toilet was usable, the bugs were annoying but didn’t bite and being able to get a good nights sleep (with earplugs to drown out the snoring coming from the ghetto) just makes everything seem slightly less taxing. Once home, my shower had never felt so good, washing off all the grime of 3 days of built up sunscreen and insect repellent felt like heaven! I’ll never take my little apartment for granted again J

The campsite from up on a hill

I have started going to the Jos Prison to do outreach and bible study with the women there. The women’s compound is small and the ratio of guards to prisoners is ludicrous. There were 7 prisoners this week when I went and 9 guards sitting around talking, sewing, eating, reading and sleeping. I won’t comment on the Nigerian governments use of funding. The woman for the most part are in prison for petty crimes like stealing a cell phone or not being able pay a debt, and are only there because they don’t have the money to bribe their way out of the system. Some of the women however are serving life sentences, most for murder of their husbands mistresses. The women are so welcoming and cheerful despite their circumstances and not hardened emotionally as I presumed they would be. I am working alongside a women who runs a halfway house for prostitutes who are trying to rehabilitate and so having that resource at our disposal is a blessing as a lot of the women were prostituting before being arrested and don't have their bail money (sometimes as little as $25NZD) or anyone willing to pay it, and would out of necessity be forced to go back to prostitution after being released. Please pray for a good lawyer, a quick court date and release for a 19 year old girl named Blessing. We are hoping to get her into Grace Gardens (the halfway house) as her family have disowned her since her arrest. 

Off to buy medications this morning at the pharmacy for clinic tomorrow with the Muslim women from Blind Town. Always a long and drawn out process that demands maximum patience, but I have to remember the benefits also, like that we can buy whatever we need without a prescription! Yay Nigeria!

Easter weekend fun, games and dramas!

I’m just back from an Easter retreat weekend in a small village 1 hour outside of Jos called Miango. There is a retreat centre there which is used by missionaries mainly for conferences, getaways and functions, but some Nigerians use it for a honeymoon destination also. It was a really relaxing venue, with green grass to walk on (such a simple missed pleasure), cute little swing sets everywhere, thatched gazebos and a track up to beautiful look out over the African plains. But before you think we were living in the lap of luxury for the weekend, it’s all relative remember, for example, I wasn’t impressed we had no shower and had to talk bucket baths for 4 days!

There were many families there, so many children to provide endless entertainment and laughs and lots of quality conversations. It was a really good way to get to know a lot of the Missionaries I’ve heard by name but had yet to put a face to. There were various activities planned for the kids but most of the time was free to do what we wanted. On day two of the weekend a group of us decided to go for a hike and explore one of the nearby volcanoes (volcanic rock hill!). We drove a bus out to the site and it started to RAIN! It’s been humid and has smelt like rain for weeks now in Jos, but God had just been teasing us until that moment! This was my very first experience of African rain and I was NOT disappointed. When it rains in Africa, it rains! It got so hard at one point I had to find shelter under this pathetic shrub (wouldn’t even call it a tree) half way up the hill, as it was hurting my skin. The rain drops are huge and it is just a torrential downpour…but minutes later it’s over and the dry red earth is soaking up the rain and returning to it’s normal dry and hot weather. The rain was so nice though, heavy but warm. I made the call to continue up the hill despite the torrential downpour (my adventurous side coming out to play) so we set off, already completely soaking, up this almost vertical volcanic rock climb. It was a 20 minute scramble to the top, clinging to whatever we could find to haul ourselves up but once we were up top it was such an adrenaline rush! Then someone pointed out the bugs! I had been fine until that point then noticed we were literally being swarmed by these little annoying flying ants (that I later found out only really come out in the rain/after the rain) that were sticking to our skin in the wet. As I watched and flicked them off, they would loose their wings and their little bodies would continue to squirm and wriggle...I don’t mind creepy crawly things but this was testing even my tolerance for Gods creatures! We made it down safely and once home, even a bucket shower seemed oddly appealing!

Soaking wet back at the van after the hike!

The next day a few of us wanted to avoid the hordes of children descending on the pool that afternoon (the planned bus loads to take people at 130pm each afternoon) so we set off to the pool at the local health and beauty hotel about 340mins from the retreat centre. It was a great idea as we had the place to ourselves and the others played Frisbee while I worked on my tan (soooo pitiful from wearing long skirts all day everyday, but I’m determined!! Haha No actually I’ve resolved myself to my pasty white skin….not much I can do about it after all). It was a real blessing being cooked for all weekend too, we had amazing food (cooked by the Nigerian staff but all Western influences….some funny Nigerian attempts at American delicacies, but on the whole a huge success) and it was so nice not to have to think about all the preparation that goes into cooking here.

I must admit I was a bit sad I didn’t get an Easter egg on Sunday (first Easter in my life!) or any chocolate for that matter but I did get a hot cross bun so couldn’t complain too loudly. And hey, I avoided the sick stomach ache I usually get from over indulging on creme eggs! (NO self control when it comes to creme eggs).

After the weekend had officially finished a group of us who attend JETS church had arranged to meet up with the Youth pastor from our church and the Youth committee to check out a site in a village near Miango where they want to hold a Youth Camp in 2 weeks. They want to camp. Now to explain and give this context….Nigerians don’t camp. You would think they’d be used to going rugged from the village life, or if they didn’t grow up in a village, then having parents or grandparents who did or still do….but strangely it’s not part of the culture to ‘go bush’ and the youth from the cities just have no idea how to manage it. The idea behind wanting to camp is to get away and learn how to relate to God out of their comfort zones. Good idea….in theory. So anyway, the Nigerians organising the camp think us Missionaries have more experience and therefore will be experts on the process (if being an expert means I’ve camped before then I guess I qualify!). So off we went in a 4WD, following the Nigerian team who had crammed 8 people into their tiny car, driving along this terrible pot holed dirt road for over 40 mins until we reached a small village. We then left our cars and had to go and find the chief of the village to get permission to go to the site (and just greet out of respect to come onto his turf). Because of all the security issues of late and the drama in Mainagio the weekend before (some police had arrested some youth at a festival and then the youth burnt down the police station in retaliation) there had been an increase in the number of military guarding the village. The pastor was under the impression that the village elder would go and speak to the military men on our behalf so we started off trekking towards the camp site. We saw the site and the muddy river (which they all assured us would be crystal clear in 2 weeks after the rains) and were on our way back when we were approached by a very drunken hazy eyed military man carrying an AK47. He insisted we come back with him to the main military barracks and discuss our intentions. We all had to follow to the guard house where we were given benches to sit on (this felt like we were being lined up to be shot, but I later learned that being given seats to sit on was actually a respectful thing to do) while the youth pastor and our guide tried to explain that we had meant no disrespect by not coming to them first to seek permission. It was a pretty tense time not being able to understand what was being said in raised voices but knowing that all these men with guns were drunk and not making rational decisions, but as it turned out they were only worried for our safety and that if anything happens to us they are responsible. We left on good terms, so hopefully when we come back we won’t make the same mistake and will go to them directly…I suggested bringing a chicken when we come back for camp, they seem to cover a multitude of sins!

We arrived back in Jos late Sunday evening to find that it had been a reasonably peaceful Easter Weekend there, but that the district of Kaduna had sustained an attack and a reported 38 people (mainly men on motorbikes) had been killed when a car bomb aimed at a church had been diverted on a busy road. There was an incident with a hand grenade in one of the Muslim areas of Jos but in the scheme of things this wasn’t a major worry to many! So we’re thanking God for the peace and praying it will continue, whilst remembering the Nigerians and Missionaries in less secure areas of Nigeria that have now become targets.

It’s back to work and ministry tomorrow, I’ll be teaching the women at the Widow's ministry tomorrow, I’m going to do some letter writing skills for job applications with the more advanced women and continue with practising writing the Lords Prayer with the women who still need help with basic spelling and grammar. The children in Nigeria are officially on break for the month of April which makes my job a lot easier as I don’t have to schedule my clinics around their school hours, so I’ll be trying to get around all the centres this week to see how everyone is doing with the change of season.

My gorgeous girls at Gyero orphanage