Bombs at church!

As I'm sure most reading this have already heard, a bomb went off last Sunday morning about 7:20am at a big church headquarters down the road from my compound. It shook my windows and woke me up, with bits of ceiling dust falling on my face, but to be honest, having never heard a bomb before, I was unsure what it was. In my first week here, every tiny sound made me jump, every car backfiring, every mine blasting rock, even a police siren made me anxious, but as they days wore on I realised I couldn't live in this constant state of anxiety which was exhausting me, so I let it go and gave it to God. So on Sunday morning, I had my suspicions, but was a bit blazae about the whole thing. It wasn't until my phone started ringing and other people from other compounds started calling me to make sure I was OK that I started to become alarmed. I got up to ask my neighbour what it was and she confirmed it was a bomb blast. We then got an alert via our cells informing us of what had happened and our security director for the compund organised a meeting. We surveyed the damage to the compound and a few windows had shattered in the front apartment (closest to the bomb) but that was all. I was actually a lot calmer and more collected than I thought I may be in the situation. I think it would have been a different story if I'd been alone all day to worry in my room, but as it happened, since we were on lock-down and couldn't leave the compound, it turned into a really social day. I was so blessed to be surrounded by so many people who had been here for longer and had experienced many similar crisis situation, many lasting a lot longer than 1 day. We had lots of cups of tea and the day centered around our meals, everyone pooling resources. We played some Wii guitar hero, watched some movies, wrote some emails and even did exercise (another 'Ripped in 30' DVD!). The next morning I went for a walk into town for groceries with one of the guys from my compound and as we walked down the street we surveyed the damage that had been done to the Muslim shops in retaliation for the bombing. They were completely burnt out and it was sad seeing people ripping corrugated iron off burnt roofs and salvaging glass coke bottles that hadn't burnt. It seems so unfair that any Muslim is targeted when chances are they have no affiliation with the bombers and no allegiance to Boko Haram. But they're slowly rebuilding now and things are back to 'normal'. I must say I had moments of anxiety leading up to going to church this Sunday (1 week on) but things went off without event and people were greatly encouraged and strengthened in spirit by meeting together (and security had been increased with sand bags at the entrance meaning a car had to zig zag around and could not drive directly into the church grounds as they did with the car bomb last Sunday, semi reassuring!).

On to lighter topics, I finally got up the courage to try out have my gas oven the other day and I must say, to my surprise, we started our relationship off on a good foot! I finally put my fear aside and made some peanut butter cookies for a pot luck dinner, yes I know, not the most adventurous, but considering my initial trepidation and imaginings of burnt edges and raw middles, they were a great success! So watch this space for more sweet offering as I get more adventurous and trusting of the new system. I've also tried my hand at making Hummus and homemade yoghurt too. They were not like the bought stuff, but eatable, I'm sure I'll get used to it!

Speaking of household things, I've had to get used to someone coming once a week to clean for me. Now Mum, I know you will be thinking something along the lines of 'I did that for you for the first 17 years!' and I love you for it, but it's another thing to be paying someone to sweep your floors etc. because it gives them a steady income. Mama Tabita (a widow with 5 children) is hired by all the missionaries at Challenge and once someone leaves, the next person takes up her employment. We pay her 400N (equivalent of $3 NZD) to clean our apartments each week and by Nigerian standards for someone with no qualifications, is actually a really good job for her. During the weeks I've been here I have LOVED her help, however it's frustrating that the floors get dusty again a few hours after she does her weekly sweep and mop because of the slat glass windows (which I always have wide open) which don't stop dust from getting in when closed.

Well I am well on my way of getting the basics down in Hausa. I'm starting to be more adventurous in my greeting vocabulary and have been very proactive in attempting to learn medical specific words and parts of the body. Last Wednesday Kelly made me try it out on the Muslin women (who don't understand English well/if at all) “Menene dam wanke?” Which means “What is wrong with you?”.....the women then preceded to reply back to me in ridiculously fast Hausa, none of which I understood! However, I'm getting better at recognising certain worlds within a sentence e.g. 'zazzabi', which means fever or 'ciwon kai' which is headache. Slowly slowly I guess or as they say in Hausa, 'Sannu, Sannu'.

I'm sure you all heard I was pretty sick the week before last. I've determined (self diagnosis) I had Giardia as the symptoms were similar to a colleague of mine who was sick at the same time and had had Giardia before. It was a miserable time of feeling like I had a pregnant belly from all the bloating and needing to stay close to the toilet, but the medication I finally took (too late in the picture in hindsight) cleared it up after a few doses. I will be keeping a healthy supply of that particular anti-parasitic on hand in future! My hope is that now my immune system is now that much stronger and I'll be less likely to be so susceptible to getting sick again.....please God!

Well I'm off out to Gyero care center today to assist with a prenatal exam on a 13yo girl we've just had come into the ministry 6 days ago. She came to us and had been complaining of abdominal pain for days. Someone then did a pregnancy test and it was positive. She is not talking at all, so is either in shock or has been traumatised and is now very hardened and just not able or not willing to show emotion. Please pray for her, that she will open up to us and start to deal with what is happening.

I also have to go and pick up 5 boys to have their teeth pulled! None of them have ever been to a dentist, so they're in for a bit of a shock...I'm just hoping the dentist uses anesthetic on them!