Well it’s been a few weeks since my last blog and it’s been a very
busy end of year and start of 2013.
I mentioned that my Mum was coming all the way to Africa to spend a
week with me in Jos and what a fabulous week it was. I had activities planned
each day such as a simple walk down to the open-air markets, a visit to the
various orphanages I work in, attending a Nigerian staff Christmas party, a Nigerian
cooking lesson with a friend of mine and a picnic at some rock formations
overlooking a small Fulani village on the outskirts of Jos. Mum reported thoroughly
enjoying her time here and meeting all the amazing Nigerians in my life.
We left Jos together the next Saturday to fly to Nairobi, Kenya to
start our week of fun in Tanzania on Safari. We had 1 day to explore Nairobi
and decided to spend the morning at the Elephant Orphanage and Rescue Centre in
Nairobi. They rescue baby elephants under 2 years (when they still require
milk) whose mothers have commonly been killed by poachers. The elephant keepers
spend 24 hours a day with the new babies, sleeping with them and following them
around the national park (as they’re not caged in) in an attempt to nurture and
create that caring relationship. We toured the city (which was so modern and
western in comparison to Jos) and saw the various main tourist attractions then
met up with our tour guide later that evening to be briefed on what to expect
over the next week. Emmanuel (Manny) our CEO (Chief Experience Officer) was such
a great guy and his humor and desire for us to have a great time really did
make the trip a memorable one.
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| The G Adventures Crew |
We drove to Arusha (Safari capital of Tanzania) and met up with the
rest of the group (2 other kiwis, a few Aussies and the rest Canadians) for
dinner. The trip turned out to be a nice
mix of game drives through the Ngorongoro and Serengeti National Parks (ticking
off every animal I had on my list!) and other activities to break up the
sitting and driving. We visited a local Tanzanian village, tried banana beer
and enjoyed an authentic Tanzania meal for Christmas lunch. We were hosted by
the Masai people in their village and saw how they lived, watched a man make
fire from dung, danced with the ladies and the guys had a traditional jumping
competition!
One of the highlights for me was waking up at 2am in the morning and
hearing a buffalo chewing grass and breathing right outside my tent! We also
had a curious elephant come into the campsite to drink from the water tank. We
had been told emphatically not to leave perishables in our tents because the
hyenas WOULD come and investigate if they could smell food, so when I heard
hyenas cackling and lions roaring in the distance it was a little
disconcerting! Getting up to pee in the night was a courageous venture indeed!
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| Overlooking the Serengeti National Park |
After an unforgettable trip and a lot of memories being made, I said
goodbye to Mum at Nairobi airport, but wasn’t too sad as I knew I would be
seeing her again in a month. After a
long wait (and attempting to sleep on the cold tile floor of the airport) I
boarded the plan back to Nigeria just in time to celebrate New Years Eve with a
big shared dinner at Challenge compound. We finished the night by toasting
marshmallows over George’s fire (yes it is actually COLD here in Africa in the
mornings and evenings….well when I say cold, it’s all relative!).
New Years Day Fiona, Keesha and I decided to take some of the
orphans to see some traditional dancing to celebrate the New Year in a small
village called Miango about an hour out of Jos city. We drove all the way out
there and then slowly through the village trying to see signs of activity,
crowds of people or anything resembling a larger gathering, but when we
couldn’t see anything happening we asked a local who informed us the Chief of
the village had a brother die so it had been cancelled! Ah well, we decided to
make the most of it and take our picnic somewhere and enjoy the day, but then a
young boy pointed to our car “Aunty…your tyre!”. Great timing! So out we jumped to start to
change this flat in the middle of nowhere…..some of the local teenagers came to
assist which was appreciated (not that we couldn’t have managed….we’re
professionals now!), but then we also discovered Fiona’s spare was flat as
well! So the boys then told us they’d take the tyre down the road to get fixed,
so off they went carrying the tyre on the back of a motorbike, essentially
leaving us 3 white girls stranded in the village! They promised it would take 5
minutes….45 minutes later, when our anxiety levels were high and we’d thought
through every possible scenario for getting ourselves out of this mess if the
tyre didn’t reappear, sure enough the motorbike returned and we were able to
get back on the road. Love spontaneous
African adventures!!
The day after, we packed up and headed back to Miango to the SIM retreat
center for the annual SIM Spiritual Life Conference. It was a 5-day conference
with speaker, small group sessions, free time for hikes and exercise,
activities and lots of time for catching up with other missionaries living off
the Plateau. It is a time of refreshment, reenergizing of the vision and encouragement
for what God is doing here in Nigeria. It was nice to get home on Sunday though
as I’d been living out of a suitcase for over 2 weeks by that point.
With just over 3 weeks left in Nigeria now I have to think of
goodbyes and quality time with the people I love here. I’m not looking forward
to all the farewell parties I know are being planned on my behalf and I foresee
a lot of tears, but such is life and the price you pay for investing your
heart.
