Muddy roads, surgeries and sleeping on the floor!

So life has been fairly quiet around Jos of late, no bombings or riots to mention. There was some gunfire outside my compound last Friday afternoon, which was alarming until I ascertained that it was mearly the military trying to make a path through the congested traffic with their trucks. Obviously people weren’t moving quickly enough for them. They probably just wanted to get home for tea. I swear those guys are a law unto themselves.

But please continue to pray for safety in Jos as we are coming up to the Muslim Eid (the holiday which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan) and the days of Selah (celebration) following. We’ve been told to keep a low profile this weekend incase of any problems, but God willing it will be uneventful.

My work has been going well with the kids; despite the difficulties we’ve been having getting down the Gyero road. The persistent rain has meant that, as predicted, the road has turned to mud and once I’d had several scary trips myself where I prayed out loud for help to get through several deep sections of road and heard reports from others who actually had to get towed out; I started hitching a ride with others because I’ve been too anxious going alone! Even the bulldozer that the road builders brought in to repair the road got stuck in the mud for a week! I just don’t have the experience of driving in and negotiating a truck in the mud in 4WD mode. I’m continuing to pray that none of the children get seriously ill while my visits continue to be sporadic due to the weather. The picture below I took from one of the huge trucks the move dirt up and down the road. We were offered a ride after we had parked the truck before a particularly muddy part we couldn't pass and started walking towards the orphanage.

Getting a ride down the Gyero road

Despite the road, I took one of the girls from Gyero to have her appendix out at one of the clinics here in Jos last weekend. It went really well, there were no complications, the appendix was definetly inflamed and needed to come out (they don’t have imagining here to actually definitively say it is infected) and she had minimal pain as she recovered. I would say the most interesting part of the whole ideal was when I got given the appendix in a little jar of formalin to take to one of the larger hospitals for testing. I was a little incredulous that I had to take it myself and to a hospital that was a fair journey out of the city, but was assured I could do it at my convenience. So Fiona and Angie were able to appreciate the comic value of driving with the appendix (which was situated in the well of the car, by my hand brake) for the next few days.

Elizabeth prepped for surgery

So most of the missionaries are back now after their summer breaks. Kelly got back on Friday and it will be interesting to see how dynamics change in the health ministry. It has been such a great experience being solo for 2 months, it’s forced me to make decisions and become more confident in my own judgments out of necessity, but I am looking forward to being able to gleam more medical expertise off Kelly.

I had a fun night at a Nigerian’s friends apartment complex the other week. I was invited over for a meal and entered her small rented room, where the only piece of furniture she owned was a matress on the floor! We had a great night of jisting (Nigerian slang for chatting and joking) and hanging out on the bed and ate a delicious meal of Eugusi soup and semo tuwo. It definatly had me thinking why we in the West even have beds. Why do we insist on everything being off the floor? Chairs and table….everything is raised. The Asian population are fine with eating and sleeping on the floor. I was even contemplating getting a good mattress and following suit once home until I thought a bit more about it and in discussion concluded that beds must have evolved because of a hygiene and health concern. It makes sense that in colder countries with damp and mildrew,, being off the cold floor would have been better for avoiding colds and such.  So I think I’ll still be sleeping on a bed once I’m back in NZ.

Another interesting thing I’ve noticed about visiting Nigerian homes is that they all want to show you their photos. Small piles of photos, are brought out and a commentary offered as you flick through them. The pictures are all of the photos they’ve compiled over their lives, dating as far back as their parents wedding, birth of siblings, then tracking their childhood to graduation, but also including ex-boyfriends, even photos of friends and friends parents, all posed, most with colourful boarders. It’s a funny feeling knowing that when you print off photos for Nigerian friends they will go into the collection and be shown to other friends for years to come.

Girls in the kitchen..mixing the Semovita for dinner

I went out to a village last week with my flatmate Angie to see a new birthing centre that has been started. When the missionaries went in and surveyed the people to find out what their health needs were, they found that the mortality rate for babies and mothers was 50%! We had a great afternoon visiting with the kids and seeing what has been started out there. It's exciting to think that more mothers and babies will be surviving because of such a basic development within the community.

Some of the gorgeous kids at the village