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!