A Different Type of Garden Party

Gyero is the care centre / orphanage where I teach a discipleship class each week. Apparently it’s only 12 miles outside of Jos, but it often seems worlds away from life in the city. Today we had a party with all the staff who work there (literally all the staff, as we started with the opening prayer of “please keep our children safe, as they are alone whilst we are here”!).

The party started in the laid back kind of a way that things usually happen round here: We headed out of the centre at about 11, for our 10am start. We travelled along a dirt road and over a bridge that has definitely seen better days, to some large houses, which are apparently where the mine owners of the area lived in colonial days. One of these houses is owned by a barrister, who was out of town, but allows us to use his garden for events such as this.

We arrived, unloaded the food, set out the chairs and all took a seat….Things were going well. I was mildly amused by the goats, which were all safely tied up, but scattered around the garden, as I thought about the goat meat we had brought with us for consumption later in the program: Until yesterday this had been one of the small heard of Gyero goats, but that’s what it was bred for right?

One of the Uncles (house parent s) was leading proceedings. He did a pretty good job of convincing us there was a planned programme of songs, games talks and food, but I remain convinced that many of those who contributed were hearing about it for the first time as their act was announced.

Not long after we had got started, some cows entered the garden, along with a small group of children. Mildly amusing, but nothing too out of the ordinary, until as somebody was singing his special number, the cows began to move closer and closer to our circle of chairs. The performer lost his composure for a second, but quickly got it together again, the children moved the cows on with some prompting, and we continued with our program.

A few minutes later, another cow made a slightly more dramatic entrance: It was attached to 2 ropes, being lead by 2 men, and didn’t seem too happy at this loss of freedom. It kicked and jumped its way through the gate, before managing to break free and disappear round the other side of the house; luckily not to be seen again by us.

We continued through our program of songs and forfeits until the next interruption: One of the goats broke loose. He apparently had a problem with every other goat in the garden, and so proceeded to chase and head butt them around, until one of the on looking children managed to grab hold of his rope, and tie him back to the tree from which he had broken free. He continued to head butt the tree, but the other goats appeared to now be out of danger, so we proceeded with our party, and began dishing out the food.

A feast had been prepared! As pieces of goat meat were pulled out of the bucket where they had been waiting, the only slightly bizarre thing that I noticed was the fuzz of hair that remained on many of the pieces. As we ate, all went smoothly; all, that was, except the baby tied to the back of the lady next to me, who vomited at the first sight of food, and the intermittent thuds as mangos dropped from the tree above us, occasionally onto a poor unsuspecting victim.

Things were drawing to a close, and I was definitely of he opinion that there had been quite enough excitement for one day, when around 10 soldiers, complete with guns, marched into the garden. They spent the next 10 minutes just kind of wandering around: Apparently some cows had been stolen the night before, and so they had been sent to investigate.

Finally, the delicacy of the day was revealed: Intestine soup. It would have been rude not to try it, so I cautiously tucked in, ensuring that I tried some of each different looking piece in my bowl. My personal favourite has to be the “Towell” so named, because of the furry lining of the intestine wall!

Having finished the meal, we cleared up, packed the cars and headed back to Gyero, where we spent some time with the children (who had managed just fine with no adults around), before heading home. I can say with confidence that this was unlike any bank holiday I’ve ever had before!

Plan C....or was it D?!?

One thing that I learnt pretty soon after arriving in Jos, is to expect the unexpected! This makes planning kind of hard wok, and helps me to understand why it is not a strength of so many Nigerians.

For example, two weeks ago we had elections on the Tuesday, making it a none movement day. These had originally been scheduled for the Saturday before, but due to previous cancellations and Easter they ended up on that day. Easter Monday was also a bank holiday, but it was only announced on the Thursday before that the Hospital was actually going to observe this. Therefore, my 5 day working week became 3 days long.

We had planned to go on outreach in the brothels on the Monday morning, as the previous week we had had to cancel due to security concerns. However, another commitment came up for the other ladies, who participate in this, which it was not done on the Monday could not be done for another 3 days (forgot to mention that Wednesday morning was also no-movement in case there was any trouble following Tuesday’s elections. Therefore 3 “normal” working days was actually 2 and a half). We therefore changed our plans for the outreach to Friday.  Still with me?

So, Friday came, and we went. As it was Easter and elections many of the women we would usually talk to had travelled, but some good conversations were still had. It was the birthday of Angie, one of the girls in the outreach team, so we had planned to go out for lunch to celebrate. We finished in the brothels by 11:45, and needed to leave for Gyero (Kid’s centre) by not long after 2. Plenty of time for lunch right? Wrong….the car broke down.

After a few frantic phone calls to various mechanics, drivers, husbands and friends we managed to leave the car in the hands of a mechanic, arrange a ride home for those who needed it, and borrow a car to take to Gyero, as mine would not be able to make it down the road we needed to get down (at least not without causing some serious damage!). We ate lunch in record time, and made it to Gyero only 10 minutes after the class was supposed to start. However no-one else had started, so why worry about little details like that?!

The class went well, and we then spent some time with the children….mostly dancing on the rain. What better way to end a slightly “unplanned, but it all came together in the end” kind of a week?

So what do I actually do?

Well there’s a question! I’m here with SIM (Serving in Mission) , and my primary role is to be a missionary. I work at a Hospital in Jos as a Physiotherapist each morning, and in the afternoons I have been trying my hand at a few other things: I teach a discipleship class of primary school aged children in a care centre / orphanage in a nearby village, I have been going on outreach into some of the local brothels for the last couple of weeks, which I hope to continue, and I am also looking to start teaching English at another project in the city, which focuses on training widows in tailoring.

Other than that, just living life can sometimes feel like a full time occupation! A lot of energy goes into what used to be quick every day kind of tasks like buying food, and then of course there’s relationship building. This is so essential in Nigerian culture, but when I have a list of all the things that I feel  I should be doing in my head, I sometimes have to remind myself of this.

You may have gathered from this little list that no day is ever the same! Today I came home to 200 doughnuts being made in my kitchen (not all to be eaten by us, I hasten to add), and a couple of weeks ago I sat on the roof of my friends car as we drove round a safari park.

I promise to tell you things in more detail soon, but just thought I should start by setting the scene.

First Thoughts

So, my plans for the afternoon have been halted and I have been saying for a while that a blog would probably be a good idea; I’ll let you all be the judge of that! I could get bogged down in what’s ok to say and what’s not, what’s interesting and what’s not….but then I’d probably write nothing. So instead, I’m just going to tell you about my life over the past 2 and a half months: The good and the bad, the entertaining and the not so entertaining. Here goes!

Here are a few things that I’ve learnt in my time here so far:

If you learn to greet in Hausa, you can participate in about 50% of the total conversation that occurs (often more) and if you repeat the same thing each time you meet a person, or even during the same meeting, it really doesn’t matter; if you think that something should take about 5 minutes, it will take 20mins – 1 hour; if you think that something should take 20 mins it will take 90 mins – 3 hours; electricity is a luxury and not a basic human right; You will hear “sorry” many times in a day, but actually getting a true apology is a different matter altogether.

Some things that I love: In those difficult, don’t have a clue what to say kind of moments, “sorry” is always fine; people saying “well done” every time I walk into a room – I don’t have to do anything worthy of praise; Colour– if you like it, wear it. There’s so much; Being surrounded by children, all of whom want your attention at the same time; fitting as many people as you possibly can into a car (and if we were actually Nigerian, still having room for a few chickens); driving behind lorries with slogans painted on them such as “Trust No-one”, and “God is in control”.

And some things that I’m learning to love (or just live with): Men peeing on every wall; glancing to the side as a motorbike nips past you, only to stare down the barrel of an AK47, slung over the shoulder of the driver of the bike; Nothing really looks like it should work, but everything sort of does, as long as you rest it in exactly the right position, and give it a good shake every now and again; No price is final, and you’ll always be made to feel like you should have paid more (if you’re not, then you probably should have paid less).

I won’t bore you with more, but I can assure you that the list could go on!