Nigerian Adventure

Clinton High School...here I come!

2009-07-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

After applying to LOTS of schools and harassing many districts with regular phone calls and emails I ended up interviewing at Clinton High School in Clinton, IA and Downers Grove outside Chicago. I can confidently say that I am certain I am supposed to be at Clinton HS! I went to the interview as "practice" for my Downers Grove interview and ended up LOVING it!

I will be co-teaching 3 sections of Physical Science with a special education teacher and teaching 1 section of Biology. They are on a trimester schedule where they have a 5 - 70 minute periods and get a new schedule each trimester. I've never heard of anything like it before, but I'm excited to have the longer periods like I had with block scheduling in Boerne! The science department seems fun, motivated and really cares about kids which is encouraging (and I was promised that they'd try to get me some Chemistry next year...I hope!)

Clinton is a community of about 25,000 people located about 30 minutes north of the Quad-Cities along the Mississippi. It's a blue-collar community with a lot of generational poverty. Now, I know that normally isn't a big selling point, but I'm pretty excited about working in a community like that without having to be in an inner city. I know there will be plenty of challenges but it's so comforting to feel so at peace about this next transition (especially when it's SO not what I was expecting/wanting: 1 hour from home, in a smallish Iowa town, co-teaching physical science)! Thanks for all the prayers as this transition is nearly complete, logistically speaking...now I just need an apartment! :)

Endings...and waiting for new beginnings...

2009-07-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

Being back in the US again is shocking...culture shock is real! Everything uses electricity...garage door openers, phones, escalators, automatic doors, garbage disposals...the list could on indefinitely. No wonder the US is a top consumer of natural resources!

Here are some random observations about being back in the US:
***Radio is a wonderful thing! Free music...lots of it...24/7!
***Hot showers are not in the least bit over-rated...AMAZING!
***Americans own a lot of STUFF. (I'm doing a much better job cleaning out my room in my parent's house out after living in Nigeria for a year!)
***Decorating one's environment is more highly valued than one's dress. (People in Jalingo are much more concerned about being dressed very well!)
***People wear short shorts here...out and about everywhere! How did I forget?!
***I love the entertainment opportunities...art museums, concerts, restaurants!
***People live indoors here. I miss being able to see people everywhere I go. (Granted I'm coming from a city of 150,000 to a town a 2500...that's part of the difference.)

Currently, I'm living in Wilton with my parents and still applying for a ridiculous number of high school science teaching jobs. I honestly didn't think I would have this tough of a time getting hired in the midwest. I've applied to so many places throughout Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa and am still waiting. Yet, the God who has been with me through my childhood, college, first job in Texas, and now serving for a year in Nigeria will surely continue. He will not forsake me! I'm hanging on to Psalm 27:13-14:

"I am confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

Yeah...I'm not sure if you know this about me...I'm not good at waiting for the unknown. I am an action person. Give me a task, a goal, an idea I will work hard to make it happen, but to be still and wait is very hard! In fact, being in this position right now is MUCH SCARIER than leaving for Africa to spend a year "alone". I'm trying to be content in all situations instead of wishing away this time before getting a job (I'm not being very successful).

I'm missing my day-to-day friends in Nigeria a LOT and looking forward my new beginning whereever that may be and whenever it may begin. Right now I'm in between an amazing experience I had and being excited for the new beginning that awaits me...waiting.

Good bye, Jalingo!

2009-07-12T15:22:00.001-07:00

I have clearly been in denial about being home. It's as if by not posting my "I'm home" post, it wouldn't be real! Obviously, not the case.

The last few weeks I had in Nigeria were filled with so many friends! I'm SO glad my roommate from Texas, Angie, came with the group of missionaries from Iowa to work at the UMCN Primary School because she was able to meet many of the people who are so important to me in Jalingo and get a sense of the life that I'm missing during this transition.

My school had a "Send Forth" (going away party/ceremony) for me where the kids sang some songs, did a skit and there were many kind words of appreciation spoken both by them and me with an awesome meal afterwards. There were multiple other occassions where people had spent hours preparing amazing food to share with us as a show of their gratitude for my time here. While I continued to try to find ways to show them how much I had appreciated them.

It was tough in the last few weeks trying to make sure to see everyone one last time. I feel so blessed to have been in such a kind, loving and accepting place for the past year. It's really hard to describe the feelings associated with leaving so many people. I like to speculate that the difficulty I found was because when you are in an intense/high stress situation with a group of people tight bonds are often formed. From my perspective, life in Nigeria was really intense, especially in the beginning, because everything was SO DIFFERENT! However, these people, taught me how to survive in my new environment. While I tried to contribute in my own way, I had to trust them for EVERYTHING! Thankfully, they were ridiculously helpful, dependable and giving of their time, resources and friendship. Hence, I left a part of me with my friends back in Jalingo and definitely brought a part of them with me back to the US.

Transitions are tough!

2009-06-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

I'm dreading leaving Nigeria in 10 days! While it should feel like returning home it's weird to feel like I'm leaving home behind. I'm leaving a place where I have an address (even if it is "UMCN Mission Compound, next to ECWA Hospital"), a phone number, a job and friends. I'm returning to the US where I thankfully have a loving family providing me a temporary address, no phone number, no job...yet (though I'm trying to pray with the same confidence that I used when I was stuck in the bathroom earlier this year!) and so many uncertainties.

While I get a little excited when I think about the food, amenities, and National Parks that await my visit upon my return to the US none of those things really make it seem worth leaving Nigeria (not that I really have a choice now!) However, when I start to think about all my fabulous family and friends back home I get super excited to see all of you! You're the best!

Pre-Cursor to Reverse Culture Shock

2009-06-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

As the team of missionaries from the US came, I realized that I’ve entered this strange place of existence, no longer fully American but not yet fully Nigerian. It’s a unique feeling. I think it’s a good transition to have them here and will help ease the inevitable reverse culture shock.

Here are a few observations that I’ve found myself thinking as a Nigerian:
1. Is that all the rice you’re going to eat?
(I now realize why I have to run twice as far as what I used to and trek all over creation…from eating so much!)
2. You’re walking so fast!
(For the first time, walking down to a little shop, I felt like I was being dragged along.)
3. You’re taking so many pictures!
(I know I still take a lot of pictures, but it’s definitely interesting how certain things don’t seem “photo-worthy” anymore.)
4. Americans are so free and friendly with everyone.
(Compared with meeting Nigerians, Americans that are here visiting Nigeria are so open and “free” with everyone!)

On the other hand I still have my American thoughts as well:
1. Why can’t things be better maintained? It’s like they don’t care…
(It’s not that they don’t care, it’s that maintenance isn’t as simple as it is in the US.)
2. Didn’t we say we were meeting by _________ time? Why aren’t they here?
(I’m not sure my scheduled brain will ever adapt to Nigerian time!)
3. We gave you this thing, isn’t it being used?
(Gifts and donations are so necessary, appreciated and valued. However, sometimes when something isn’t being utilized to its fullest potential, it’s not that it hasn’t been attempted. Oftentimes, there are constraints that are unimaginable.)

Just as adjusting to Nigerian life was challenging at times, I know that readjusting to American life will provide its own tests. I’m thankful that the enlarged perspective that I’ve gained and many lessons that I’ve learned make everything else worth it! :)

Frozen Moments

2009-06-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

As my time is winding down, I'm trying to freeze certain moments in my memory so that I can recall them someday to add a little joy to my day!

*Man walking down the street selling bras…and wearing one over his shirt as advertisement
*One man standing across the drainage ditch tossing crates of empty glass bottles through the air to another man who was loading them on the truck…they said they never miss
*Being watched as I peeked around a semi-truck to see on-coming traffic and decide to squeeze between the drainage ditch and the side of the truck and tip toe precariously along until I reach the other end…the on-looker celebrated with me when I made it successfully by.
*Women roasting corn over charcoal fires inside old tires along the side of the road, constantly fanning it to keep it from burning
*A mother alerting her child that baturia was passing so that the child runs out to the road to greet me
*People greeting me by name that I’ve never met before.

This all happened as I was walking home from being ridiculously frustrated with the internet. It's how I forget the frustration and remember the good stuff!

Aerobics...in Nigeria!

2009-05-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

While there is a group of us that run early in the mornings here in Jalingo, exercise isn't a high priority for most people. However, I was recently informed of a group that meets on a handball court in the morning 3 times a week for aerobics and encouraged to come and participate, so after my friend and I did our normal morning run this morning, we proceeded to aerobics class!

Now, I've done a variety of exercise classes back in the states at UNI, and in San Antonio, but doing aerobics here in Jalingo was a whole new experience! :) First of all the typical demographic of participant was a 45 year old male in high ranking governmental positions. Then, all exercises were done to Nigerian Praise music outside with many people stopping along the dirt road to watch the spectacle (I'm not sure how much of that was normal and how much was due to my presence.) When we did floor work, we used woven mats made from palm branches, and I was defintely the ONLY person who couldn't touch my "legs" (toes) during the stretching which no one could understand.

It was an enjoyable, energizing, and thoroughly entertaining experience that I plan to do for my remaining Saturdays in Jalingo! :)

Tadpoles!

2009-05-26T08:59:00.001-07:00

The JS3 students are being required to stay for a 2-week extension past their national exams and I was tasked with teaching them during that time. That’s right…9th grade students thinking that they’re going home for a 3 month break and being told, they’re actually staying for 2 more weeks of classes taught exclusively by me. Though I was skeptical of the possibilities of success, it hasn’t been that bad and it’s even been pretty fun at times!

I recently discovered that my school has a stream less than a quarter mile away from it…exciting! Some colleagues and I went and explored and then I decided during the topic of pollution we would take a field trip down to the stream. Thanks to my extensive experience with environmental field-based excursions during grad school I was comfortable with what data could be collected, observations made, and questions asked.

It was awesome! I had so much fun, the kids LOVED being amongst nature. They asked so many questions, collected temperature data, water samples, drew conclusions about habitats locations and observed adaptations of plants and animals. We were able to see so many tadpoles (only located in the clean, running water), leeches (in the more polluted water), figure out that the thorns on the acacia tree were to protect it from animals and the small leaves were to prevent loss of moisture. We saw the taller and greener grass in the stream bed and saw the tree-lined path.

After the adventure, the students learned about Microsoft Excel during our computer time and entered their data into a spread sheet data table. It was pretty exciting! Every once in a while in education, idealistic plans actually come together and when they do, it more than makes up for all the other times when they don’t.

Here are some pictures from the excursion as well as some others:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77981&id=501312909&l=fcef6b6668

Computer Class

2009-05-26T08:52:00.001-07:00

During the JS3 extension, I was told that I should teach them computer for a few hours per day. Overall, it has been a positive and beneficial experience. However, at one point the 7 different computers were going out like popcorn: as soon as power would get restored and rebooted another laptop would run out of power or a desktop would lose power from a partial connection in the power strip. Then, I realized (again) that using Microsoft Word 97, 2003, 2007 and Open Office Word without a central computer to demonstrate on isn’t ideal. Finally, there were about 6 kids per computer. Needless to say, we weren’t operating at optimum efficiency but the kids were thrilled to be on the computers and didn’t complain at all about the number of people per system, power outages or having to sit on the floor due to lack of available tables and chairs. They simply wanted to have free time at the end to play games and listen to music…just like kids in the US! :)

I Love Handball!

2009-05-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Before arriving in Nigeria, I was under the false impression that handball was like raquetball, but with your hand. No. Handball is like a cross between basketball and ultimate frisbee, and it's my game! I was on duty on Thursday and after the students close from classes, eat and siesta, they play games. I had the opportunity to embarrass myself on the soccer field, show my semi-competence in ping pong, enthusiastically participate in volleyball and most excitingly discover my love for the game of handball!

It's a 6 on 6 game where you can take 3 dribbles, but it's mostly all about passing and throwing the ball into a soccer-like goal. It's fast-paced and so much fun! All the fun of basketball without any of the pressure of shooting! :) It's my mission to watch a game of true players before I leave and then try to find the game when I return to the states!

(Side note: If anyone knows anyone associated with Madison Metropolitan School District, I'd love a connection!!) :)

Toilets

2009-05-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

As I was talking with some of my friends at school today, they asked me which of the states is the "least developed" in the US. Hmmmm...I thought...they're all developed.

I tried to use the example of toilets. Now, in my house at the mission compound, the toilet is basically like a toilet back in the US (it's not recommended to flush toilet paper, but still...) However, the rest of the toilets elsewhere I've encountered in Nigeria require a bucket of water to "flush" them. Then, there are plenty to be encountered at motor parks, school, etc that consist of a hole in the ground. I explained in the US, that the "worst" toilet one experiences is a porta-potty and proceded to explain.

Now, I can't say that I'm going to miss going to the bathroom in a hole (pit toilet) with flies. I can say that I don't really think about the fact that I'm going to the bathroom in a hole with flies anymore. It's great learning about what everyone views as normal...the Nigerians and I have certainly broadened our perspectives and understanding throughout the past months! :)

Updated Pictures!

2009-05-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, I found a cafe that would allow me to upload my Kano pictures and some that show me working...I do go to work on a daily basis (when school is in session!) As always, check out the captions to better understand what's going on. Enjoy!

Catching Fun in Kano
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76049&id=501312909&l=c49bad7d03

May Moments
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77981&id=501312909&l=fcef6b6668

A Time for Everything

2009-05-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.” Recently, insects have really made this idea come alive for me. As the predominant irritation has changed multiple times during my year here, so has my perspective on Nigeria.

When I first arrived, the mosquitoes assaulted me in full force. They died as the rain ceased and massive amounts of dust descended on everything which eventually began swirling into dust devils and descended as a haze. Like any living being, cockroaches desired to take refuge from these harsh conditions and felt that my house was a good location. Killing 4-5 per night was common. When the rain finally decided to return on March 30th, massive amounts of flies decided to join me in my celebration. Flies…everywhere! As the rain continued, the flies calmed down and reduced to an acceptable population. However, the mosquitoes have regained their moist breeding ground and are once again feasting on my blood.

Now, after detailing these delightful natural companions that have accompanied me in my stay in Jalingo (in addition to the epileptic power, spotty phone networks, and unreliable internet), it may be hard for people back to fully grasp how hard it is going to be for me to leave in less than two months. Jalingo has become my home and like all homes there are mix of frustrations that come with the good stuff!

I’m going to miss the children screaming with shrill delight “Baturia!!!” I’ll miss seeing the joy on people’s face when they are able to teach me something they consider simple (like tossing groundnuts on a tray to separate the nut from the thin covering or knitting) but I find difficult. I’m going to miss sleeping outside and hearing critters all around but knowing I’m protected in my mosquito tent! I’ll miss seeing the ridiculous improvements of my students in their lab skills and their amazement regarding the simplest demonstrations!

After talking with my brother (who was never a huge advocate of me coming to Nigeria), I have realized that I really enjoy and appreciate living in Jalingo, a pedestrian society, because of all the acquaintances and friendships that it has enabled me to make. He has encouraged me that I think I can move to a community in the states that has many of these qualities. While that is hopeful, I am really going to miss my Nigerian friends a LOT! I’ve taken consolation during my move to college, Texas and now to Nigeria in the fact that I can keep in touch with most people via the internet. One of the hardest things for me to face in my closing weeks is that I’ll likely not be able to keep in touch with many of these dear people that I’ve come to love. While I hope that I’ve left a positive impression of Americans in people’s lives, I KNOW that their friendships, like many back home, have changed my life forever.

Just as there was a season for each disturbance, there was a season to say hello to Nigeria, get to know the people and places and foods here, and develop a love for them. Now, it is the season of wrapping up projects, saying good-bye and praying for a job and my new season of life back in the states. Someday, I hope to be back certainly for a visit and who knows what else, but for now I will enjoy the end of my “Nigerian season” and know that just as God has kept me here, He’ll be with me in the next season also!

Chinese, really?!

2009-05-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

As I was walking down the road one day, I heard some boys greeting me with "me-how!" repeatedly. I knew it wasn't English and I was pretty confident that it wasn't Hausa, so I decided to go ask them what language it was! At first they giggled and then they told me it was Chinese because "aren't you from China?" they asked. It cracked me up! They explained that it's Chinese for Hello. I asked them if they wanted to learn Hello in Spanish. They were pretty excited about that, so I taught them Hola. They dutifully repeated it over and over again. When I passed by a few hours later they greeted me by shouting "Hola!" :)

Then, a few days later someone else yelled at me "Hey, China!" later that same day someone rode by on a bike yelling "Italiano!" So funny! :) I'm entertained, but can't be too critical because just as people here think all white people look the same and can't easily distinguish between the different ethincities, I'm always intrigued by the way that they can tell a Nigerian from a Liberian by look.

I once read somewhere that people are much better at distinguishing characteristics among people of their common race and have found that to be totally true. When I first arrived I had a really hard time telling people apart, but I've improved significantly after making a lot of mistakes. I guess I'll cut them a little slack for thinking I'm Chinese! :)

Final Kano Observations

2009-04-30T08:40:00.001-07:00

1. I had electricity all day everyday with only 10 minute outtages a few times per day...(only because there's some important person living in the neighborhood)...the rest of Kano has normal Nigerian electricity.

2. I found an some Obama comic books in a bookstore and was interested to see that it looked at the life of Obama's father prior to coming to the US as well as Obama's childhood...it was really pretty interesting!

3. I loved riding in the little motorized tricycles around the city...safer than a motorcycle...less safe than a taxi. The purpose is so that the Muslim women can go places that a motorcycle would take them while being "hidden". (I definitely opened the little curtains completely so I could take everything in!) :)

4. Seeing ancient city walls gives a new meaning to the walls of the city falling down after being marched around 7 times in the Bible!

5. Kano internet=terrible! For a huge and relatively developed city, Jalingo's internet was better!

6. All compounds have high walls around them to maintain privacy (and prevent adequate ventilation!)

7. The reason why the northern part of Nigeria is primarily Muslim is because when the British invaded, the north already had an established government and struck a deal with them to rule indirectly and allowed them to keep their religion and culture. However, in the south, it was less developed, so the British came in and exercised direct rule while strongly influencing their culture and religion converting many to Christianity. (History can be interesting when it explains some present realities!) :)

All in all, my trip to Kano was a success! There will be pictures once the internet decides to open facebook. School starts on Monday! I'm excited to get back! :)

Kano, Kano

2009-04-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

My friend from school, Laitu, has graciously offered to let me tag along to her trip to Kano to visit her sister over our spring break (which lasts 4 weeks). Kano city is the capital of Kano state and is considered to be the largest city in Nigeria and one of the largest cities in Africa. It is located in the northern part of the country where the population is predominantly Mulsim. Though I’ve only been here for one day, I’ve already made some interesting observations.

Our 550 km/343mile journey from Jalingo to Kano took us 10 hours despite relatively good roads for the second half of the trip due to some bad fuel that we received causing us to go along at a snail’s pace for a few hours. I was kind of surprised when we stopped to get better fuel around 3:30 that everyone piled out of the vehicle and began their washing ritual prior to going to the nearby mosque. All of the passengers except for my friend and I were Muslim and observing their afternoon prayers.

When we arrived at the motor park, we had to take a taxi to get to her sister’s house. Though they still pack the taxis with four people in back and two in the passenger’s seat up front, here they try to prevent women and men from sitting next to each other. In fact, later, there were two women in the back and a woman up front, the woman moved to the back, so that the man would be isolated up front. Then we stopped to pick up another man and he shared the front seat instead of doing the common thing elsewhere which is to make 4 in back before making 2 in front. Interesting!

Finally, we arrived and there was electricity…NEPA! It went off around 6:30pm, but then came back on 10 minutes later…and stayed on until morning! Then it went off for about 15 minutes and came back on. This is by far the most constant power I’ve had since coming to Nigeria. I’ve been here almost 24 hours and had power for over 23 of them. Wow!!! We’ll see if it lasts! I’m sure there will be further adventures, experiences and stories before the week is over and I’m excited!

Multicultural Education...for real!

2009-04-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

When I was at UNI and at OLLU, I had to take a Multicultural Education course. It was always compulsory to define culture. Frequently, we think of culture primarily relating to the food, dance, music and traditions within a particular people group. However, over the past few days, I’ve realized (again) that culture, which is instilled during one’s upbringing, permeates everything that we do.

After Aunty Kema’s birthday in the compound, there was a lot of trash on the ground. Since this doesn’t seem to affect people in Jalingo in the same way that it bothers me, I decided to take some initiative to have it picked up while having happy childhood memories at the same time! When I was a child visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Carter, they had an apple tree that would drop apples prematurely and result in apples scattered all over the yard. Grandma would pay my brother and I 1 penny per apple. We were excited!

Arthur and his friend LaToy are 4-5 years old and I tasked them with picking up trash and for every 10 pieces, they would get 1 naira. Since the smallest denomination that exists in circulation is 5 naira, I was probably underpaying, but they were excited to be earning money and I was excited that the trash was being collect. It was a win-win situation that I’m fairly certain had never been employed in Jalingo before but instead was a product of my American culture.

Later in the day, I decided that we needed a field trip down to the river which isn’t far from the compound, but I’d never been to that part of the shore. On the way, they had fun jumping in and out of the drainage ditch. We identified trash, talked about mango pits being seeds, looked at how seed pods from the tree drop into the ditch and dry out. We named the letters on signs, counted steps, and looked at the clouds in the sky. When we arrived at the river bed, we saw the how it was completely dry and how they bore down to pump water.

After the fun excursion, I started thinking about how I had never seen any adults go on little “outings” with kids around town. This was something that had not occurred to me either prior or during the fun but in hindsight found interesting. Believe me, there will be more field trips before I leave!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

As a Christian, Easter is pretty much the most important day of the year! If Jesus didn’t really get crucified, die and rise from the dead that kind of ruins our entire premise for salvation. Needless to say, as far-fetched as it sometimes seems, I believe it and appreciate commemorating the process! This year my Holy Week celebration was more diverse than most.

I attended Maundy Thursday Service with a friend from work at the Catholic Cathedral. This was very “high church” including many bowing rituals, spreading incense with a series of three shakes of a small cauldron in many directions, the bishop washing the feet (actually only the right foot…I feel this would lead to unbalanced cleanliness) of various congregants, singing without dancing (the first time I’d experienced this in Nigeria) and significant kneeling on a hard tile floor. The church was beautiful in its simplistic design with extremely high ceiling, long uniform screened openings as windows. I also really valued the meaningful liturgy. Certain phrases that everyone there had clearly recited hundreds of times were so beautiful, profound and powerful, I had to really consider whether I was willing to make the commitments that came along with them.

For Good Friday, I attended United Methodist Church at Mayo Gwoi in my neighborhood, which I consider my “home” church. Now, this service analyzed the seven words that Jesus said from the cross. I don’t remember being through a service like this before and I’m not sure I can say that I’ve been through it still because the entire service was conducted in the common language of Hausa. The appeal of this church is that I know many of its members because they all live in my neighborhood and conduct business there. Also, the order of service is comforting because a United Methodist Church in Nigeria has the same basic worship service as a United Methodist Church in Iowa (with longer prayers and more special music).

Finally, for Easter Sunday, I went to Life and Destiny Church, a Pentecostal church, with a friend. It resembles in the environment and worship style of the big non-denominational churches in the US. This church had hundreds of people in it, with lots of very enthusiastic singing and dancing and praising of the Lord for 3.5 hours. I really enjoyed the sermon and learned a lot from the scripture that was used as it was non-traditional references the resurrection. However, everyone felt very anonymous as there wasn’t a feeling of community because people were coming here from all over the city. Also, everything was so spontaneous and emotion driven that there was little time for quiet reflection.

These three experiences summarize my year of church service attendance thus far in Nigeria. I’ve been opportune to attend many different churches as guests of different friends and acquaintances and in the process experience the different modes of worship of the various Christian denominations (all with a Nigerian flair). I think my understanding of these experiences has been deepened through reading “A Generous Orthodoxy” by Brian Mc Laren, which examines the practices of the different denominations and shows that we can worship, commune with and understand Jesus Christ in a more complete way through the diverse methodologies.

There is a really unifying feeling in knowing that all over the city of Jalingo, country of Nigeria and all over the world people are rejoicing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. While there may be many ways of expressing that joy, thanksgiving and adoration, the sentiment remains the same, Jesus died, but now He is risen! Praise God!

Informal Islamic Lessons

2009-04-09T02:28:00.000-07:00

Growing up in Iowa and then living in Texas, I’ve had very little first-hand experience living in an area that has a substantial Islamic community. While Jalingo is predominantly Christian, there is a definite Muslim presence and I have had the opportunity to learn a lot from random observations as well as from a few of my Muslim friends.

Yesterday, I was walking home from the internet and wanted to get a pure water to replace some of my fluids however, when I approached the shop, I realized that it was closed. Never mind, that I knew the shop owner was a Muslim and I had walked by numerous mosques prior to reaching the shop where I had observed people praying their final prayer of the day during sundown, I am still not programmed to think about the day in terms of the 5 Islamic prayer times. However, it’s very common to find shops closed, fruit stands vacated and wheelbarrows abandoned while they stop everything to pray.

While I have to admit it can be slightly inconvenient when I want to buy oranges, it is helpful to hear the call to prayer at 5:00am every morning as it encourages me to get out of bed to run (and pray!) I figure if thousands of people in Jalingo can get out of bed and go to their mosque to pray, I should be able to get out of bed to have my own devotional time with God as I run on the dark and quiet streets.

After living here for about 6 months, it randomly dawned on me that I only see men praying at the mosques! Wait a minute, where are the women?!? I discovered that women are required to pray in their homes so as not to distract the men or cause them to sin. This is the same rationale that is the basis for the women wearing the long veil-like head coverings. Yet, the men are allowed to have four wives. While I respect their faith and ways of seeking to honor it, I question why the men can’t simply control themselves to allow the women to live more freely. Why must the women make all the sacrifices? I think my new mission is to befriend a female Muslim as my only first-hand sources of information now are men and a copy of the Koran that was given to me. I am confident that I will be able to get a better understanding from a woman!

Mosquito TENT Superiority

2009-04-09T02:21:00.000-07:00

Back in February my friend, Anne, came from the US for meeting in conjunction with the Rural Health project in Zing and she brought with her the most amazing mosquito “net” and left it here for me to use until her return. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to adequately explain the wonderfulness, excellence, perfection that is contained in this mosquito tent, but I’ll try!

When I was a small child, I received a bed tent one exciting Christmas. Then, there was no particular function for a bed tent other than novelty and adventure, but now there is utility. It started out as a barrier in my room between me and the ever-present cockroaches. I could hear them scurrying across the floor and roll over in my bed with confidence knowing that I was safe….AND it didn’t present the same tangling as the previous net.
Now, the new bed net allows me to relocate! For the past month, it has been ridiculously hot (110 degrees F+) therefore the closest thing I can get to air conditioning or fans at night is to sleep outside! I have suggested before that living in Jalingo can be compared to camping, but this development has made it even more real. Each night I drag my mattress and mosquito tent outside and enjoy a much more enjoyable sleep than anything that could ever be achieved inside my house!

I must admit that I actually really enjoy sleeping outside and was recently considering if it would be considered socially acceptable to continue this practice when I return to the US during the summer. (This transition back home could be tough!) Last night as I was trying to fall asleep I was simply taking in everything around me and feeling blessed: the moon is almost full and high in the sky, the stars were shining brightly while there were clouds and lightning closer to the horizon. There were bats flying above me from tree to tree making a high pitched squeaking noise. There were cats mating at a far corner of the compound. (I was convincing myself that my mosquito tent would provide a protective barrier against cats too!) The dogs all over town were sending messages back and forth in true Lady and the Tramp style. Crickets were chirping, and frogs were croaking.

While it’s true that none of these things are really unique to living in Nigeria, sleeping among them every night without the hum of air conditioners, refrigerators, computers or fans and actually taking the time to stop and really experience them, for me is unique to living in Nigeria!

My Birthday

2009-04-04T02:58:00.000-07:00

I've never had a huge birthday party before. I've always had really nice birthdays from when I was little and had friends sitting on the floor in the living room eating hot dogs to a fabulous little surprise party when I was in high school and some excellent dinners during college and in Texas, but Nigeria puts birthdays on a whole new level.

My friend Helen was the brains behind the entire operation and she helped me plan for, shop for, and organized the preparation in the kitchen. I simply took orders, chopped onions, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelon while everyone else put the ingredients together into yummy rice, cabbage salad, and fruit salad!

I was overwhelmed by how many of my friends came by, showed their love, support and friendship. I was pretty nervous about not really knowing what to do, what I was responsible for, what tasks should be assigned, but my friends were awesome and guided me through the whole program. Different people got music and speakers, chairs, decorated the table, brought over plates, silverware, contributed pop, fixed light sockets....so many things!

In true Nigerian fashion there were many prayers, a mini-sermon, and of course dancing! It was a WONDERFUL day and I feel so blessed to have had such a fabulous group of people supporting me here in addition to all the amazing wishes and greetings that I received from my friends and family back home. Thanks to everyone for helping make my 27th birthday one to remember!

Check out the pictures as they are able to convey a little more of the experience especially with the captions! :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70699&id=501312909&l=e1cd35633d

RAIN!!

2009-03-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

We have been in "dry" season since basically October. Now, I lived in San Antonio for 4 years and it's pretty dry there, but there was still the occasional rainfall intermingled throughout the many sunny days all year long. Here, they were joking when they said DRY! Not a single drop of rain from October until March 29th. Even then, it was simply a sprinkling.

Today, however, we got rain! I had been promising everyone that when it finally rained I was going to go outside and play in it wherever I was. I happened to be at home with a friend who refused to join in the fun and even my little 4-year old neighbor refused to play, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! It had been around 110 degrees for multiple days...so HOT! Despite 3 showers per day, I was sweating constantly...and that cold water from earlier in my stay is now just nice and toasty! :) Hence I LOVED twirling around in the pouring rain and cool breeze!!! Even the mud is delightful after all the dust! Yay for changes in seasons! :)

Trekking yields community

2009-03-26T08:44:00.001-07:00

I know I've mentioned trekking before, but it has become a part of my identity here. I'm no longer "the bature"...I'm "the bature who treks everywhere". I meet complete strangers on the street and they ask me why I trek everywhere. In fact, someone today asked me if I was scared to take taxis. I said that I do take them, but I prefer to trek. First of all, it's good exercise. In addition to running in the morning, I'm able to walk about 3 miles after school too which allows me to eat all the yummy Nigerian food!

More importantly, it has allowed me to meet and connect with MANY people in Jalingo. If I were taking taxis and bikes all over town, I would have missed hundreds of conversations and have many fewer friends. People here are so open and friendly and are very interested in engaging in conversation and trekking, an aberrant behavior here, is a perfect conversation starter. I love it!

Going to the market or electronics shop is not like visiting HEB or Best Buy where the employees are there one day and gone the next, but these shops are the peoples livelihoods and LIVES! They are always there and ALWAYS ready to chat! Sometimes I'll decide to stop in for a pure water at a store that I've passed day after day and invariably they'll ask me where I'm going and why I always trek and a new friend is made!

I'd like to live somewhere that is conducive to trekking. Everything and everyone seems so much more connected that way...much more of a community!

Skin Color

2009-03-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

Again...the topic is perspective, but this time it's in relationship to skin color. My entire life I've fought against being really white. When I was younger (and I still fight the urge as an adult) I used to purposefully try to be out in the sun without sunscreen. Now this did and still does mean trying to evade my mother and her endless warnings about the perils of skin cancer, which I'm fully aware of and find myself preaching to others. My motivation was of course to become tan, or have darker skin. While everyone was tanning prior to prom, I was being told there is no way I would ever be allowed to do that. (I'm now extremely thankful for that and regularly teach my students about the dangers of tanning beds.) The point of all this is, white Americans have a strong desire to be tan, or darker than they are naturally made to be.

I don't know why I never realized the obsession that black Africans have with being lighter. They do everything to stay out of the sun and avoid anything that might cause them to be darker. They also buy creams and lotions to bleach their skin in order to make it lighter. It cracked me up! My Nigerian friends were aghast that people in the US try to be darker! :)

I think we need to all simply embrace the color that God has made us instead of trying to modify His creation! :)

Lesson in Humility

2009-03-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

I was pretty nervous before coming here about how the other science teachers would perceive and respond to some girl from the US coming and trying to implement all her American teaching techniques and labs. I worked really hard to keep my suggestions to a minimum in the beginning and simply teach my own classes according to my student-centered, hands-on way. I have been so blessed with wonderful colleagues at the school and specifically the four teachers within the science department. Of the four, only one has had any appreciable training within the field of education and none of them had done any practicals (hands-on lab activities) either in their secondary science education or during their higher education. They had simply been taught everything on a theoretical level. Needless to say, practicals were not being done because it is difficult to improvise with materials and do activities that you have never experienced yourself.

I was pleasantly surprised and excited when they were really interested in doing and learning how to implement many of the activities. Specifically, the teacher who teaches Integrated Science was very interested when she saw the JS3 students doing an acid-base activity using basic household materials such as various fruit, soap, baking soda, bleach, etc to test the pH values with a pH meter (Thank You OLLU Grant!), blue and red litmus paper. I told her I’d be happy to write up what I did and give it to her. She said, “No, I want to DO it!” So, we got out the materials that we’d just used in class for her to try. She was enamored by the pH meter because she had only read about such devices before, but never actually seen one and when it gave her a numerical value for pH, she was delighted. Then, when we got to the pH paper, she was telling me the definitions about how red litmus paper turns blue in a base, but she had never actually taken a slip of the paper and dipped it into a solution and SEEN it change! She was giddy with excitement!

When we were done, she was SO incredibly grateful for showing her the new practical and looking forward to implementing it! There was not an ounce of pride or irritation that I was showing her something that she didn’t know. I feel that oftentimes in the US, I am reluctant to appear ignorant about certain things want to prove my abilities…especially to other science teachers. However, by feigning understanding or boasting about what I do know, I am only limiting what I can learn from others around me. I was humbled by my friend’s unassuming and willing attitude and hope that I am able to emulate that mindset as I join a new staff back in Madison, WI…(hopefully…we can all be praying that Madison Metropolitan School District wants to hire me as a chemistry teacher!)

Misconceptions about the U.S.-Addition!

2009-03-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

I know that prior to coming here, I had many misconceptions about how life here in Nigeria, specifically Jalingo and they are being correct daily. However, I wasn't aware just how absurd some of the misconceptions were about the U.S. Here are a few that I have found amusing:

1. White people from the US can't sing and clap at the same time.
(Now, while I agree that my sense of rhythm is significantly inferior to that of the Nigerians around me, I CAN clap and sing simultaneously!)

2. Walking down the street in the US, you are likely to get shot.
(I try to convince them that the movies are not real life. While there are murders that take place, if you are mindful, you will be safe!)

3. When you turn 18 years old, the government provides you your own home and a salary.
(Yeah right! I laughed pretty hard at that one!!)

4. There are no poor people in America.
(They are shocked to hear that there are hungry, homeless and jobless people in the US.)

5. People lose power in the US, just not as often as in Nigeria.
(They can't fathom electricity 24/7!)

I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting, but there are high-profile people that are propagating these crazy myths because everyone tells me the same things. They don't believe me that I'm not living in a government-provided home...We all have a lot to learn about our neighbors across the ocean!

6. People in the US commonly participate in contract marriages. They claim that here it's legal and acceptable for people to agree to only be married for a certain number of years.
(Now I recognize that divorce is exceedingly common in the US which is a shame, but I tried to explain that people here don't PLAN to only be married for a short time...it just happens. They were surprised!)

Picture Update...though this the same link as previously, there are more pictures added to "February Fun"...despite the fact that it's March. Sometimes the process is a little slow!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61701&id=501312909&l=f8c53ad007

Faith in Nigerians!

2009-03-09T08:59:00.000-07:00

I left my flash drive at the internet cafe. I was pretty sure I was never going to see it again. Every time a Nigerian sees my flash, they are enamored by it despite the fact that I have seen exact replicas here in Jalingo. However, to my delight and surprise, when I walked into the cafe 4 days later, it was had been collected and kept for me!!! YAY! While the Nigerian government may be one of most corrupt entities in existence, there are many wonderful and honest Nigerians with integrity!

Slowing Down

2009-03-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

Living in Jalingo has been trying to teach me to slow down since I arrived. Many of the strategies it has attempted haven’t been my mechanisms of choice i.e. slow internet, random power outages, waiting 15 minutes for a taxi before remembering why I trek everywhere. However, today I recognize the value of taking 3 hours to complete a task that could have been accomplished in 20 minutes. Whereas back home, I’m certain I never considered that to be a valuable skill. Now, accomplishing a 3 hour task in 20 minutes that was frequently a goal and occasionally attained.

Today, I was able to appreciate the value in slowing down long enough to:
-eat oranges with the magazine salesman and find out that he is getting his masters in Agricultural Science;
-sit down and have a 15 minute conversation with a woman who sits alone at a mattress shop all day;
-learn a few new Hausa phrases from the guy who tried to fix my phone, was willing to lend me a charger in a crunch;
-reduce my “solider-like” pace so that I could walk with a group of little Muslim girls who were thrilled to “shake me”;
-express my gratitude that my pocket-sized supermarket had finally stocked Diet Coke and let them know low-fat milk would be a good next step;
-heed a “tsssst” from across the way to explain why I don’t want to print my digital pictures from a standard printer while holding the smiliest Nigerian baby I had ever seen;
-sit down outside the restaurant by my house to listen to the little girls’ song and memory verse from school today.

Now, while I recognize that having more than 10 stops and conversations doesn’t necessarily sound like slowing down, for me it is. I wasn’t in a hurry. I was able to sit and linger in conversation with people without checking my watch. As I sit here, I wonder if this scenario is possible in the US. I know that I can purposefully free up my schedule, but would there be the same opportunities for impromptu, leisurely conversation or is everyone such a slave to pre-determined activities that even if I did make a conscious effort to make myself available would there be anyone around to interact with? I used to associate slowing down with being lazy, unproductive, and lonely, but I am beginning to see it in a new light.

Ice as a Delicacy!

2009-03-02T09:28:00.001-08:00

Ice...it's something that most people in the US have in their freezer right now...(unless someone forgot to refill the ice tray)! However, here in Jalingo, with extremely limited electricity, cold water is a treat. Ice is a mere figment of one's imagination. Therefore, when I wanted to do a practical where the students plot a heating curve by starting with ice water and taking the temperature every 30 seconds until it's boiling. I knew that finding "ice blocks", as they're called here, would be challenging so I was grateful when a friend of mine offered to take his car and get them for me the morning of the lab.

What I hadn't fully anticipated was that the students went CRAZY when they saw ice. They were basically heartbroken when they had to place the ice in the water and purposefully melt it. Then, they kept coming up saying they needed a few more pieces of ice because it wasn't quite cold enough...yeah...really they were eating it!

At the end of the day, I had one block left and I took it to the staff room where it was quickly parceled off. As I was laughing to myself about the fact that everyone was so excited about ice, I realized that I hadn't had any ice since August and I was pretty excited about it too! :)

Journey to Gembu!

2009-02-28T03:26:00.000-08:00

Since arriving in Jalingo, I’ve been told about Gembu. It is located in Taraba State on the Mambila Plateau, which I vividly remember seeing on a map as I was reading the World Book Encyclopedia article in the Wilton Public Library before leaving. Needless to say, after listening to countless people rave about it for months I was both excited yet slightly doubtful that it was as wonderful as people were claiming. Regardless, I was eager to finally see it for myself!

I went with two friends from school, Asper and Helen and a driver. We left Friday morning and spent most of the morning driving to the base of the plateau. We stopped to have lunch at this little “restaurant”. I have eaten at enough of these “dives” to know that even though the look dilapidated, austere, and a little scary I have never been disappointed with the food! It’s also entertaining to hear from my friends the incredulous comments of the other customers in the restaurant that I’m not only eating there, but I’m eating tuwo and soup with my hand!

After lunch, we proceeded along the meandering road up to the top of the plateau. The change in elevation provided the most delightful reprieve from oppressively hot and sticky weather! Soon, we were surrounded by rolling mountains, towering eucalyptus trees, roaming cattle sans herdsman (up here, the cattle are smarter and can find their way home each night!) and a delightfully cool breeze!

We visited the Highland Tea fields and factory. This whole new experience is detailed in the pictures and captions. Then, we went to the Mambila Baptist Hospital which is locally and aptly known as the “Bush Hospital” because it’s most definitely located in the bush. While we were there, we were invited to participate in the going away party, known here as a Send Forth, for one of their doctors. It was nice to get to share in the celebration and have a mini-worship service!

My friend Ezekiel is from Gembu, so although he was unable to come along, he connected us with his brother. He walked us around town and took us to their parents’ home which was fun. The language barrier was a bit of a challenge, but we were able to manage. A few times it was pretty funny because I would say something in English, then Helen would translate my American English into Nigerian English pronunciation, then his brother would translate that to Hausa so that his parents could understand. This system isn’t exactly conducive to long, in-depth conversation, but it worked!

Sunday morning, Ezekiel’s brother led us on an excursion to a “near-by” village that can only be reached via motorcycles. The experience is what I would term indescribable, but I’ll try!  These so-called roads were actually more like uneven, rocky paths that wound up and down, around mountains, through valleys, next to small farming plots. As I was gripping onto the back of the seat of my motorcycle with one hand, I was holding my camera with the other hand trying to somehow capture the passing women trekking the 12km to Gembu, banana and pear (avocado) trees, and the majestically green and pristine beauty that was surrounding me on all sides.

Then, we reached the Donga River. It can only be crossed by canoe, so we each boarded a canoe with our motorcycle, driver and poler. Yep, I felt like I was riding in a gondola in Venice, except it was better because we were able to buy fresh bananas from a man sharing our canoe and gaze at mountains along the way! We made it to the village safely, met the village chief, toured their water distribution system, see a school, church and eat some delicious and ginormous avocados before returning back to Gembu and heading back to Jalingo.

I felt so incredibly blessed to have experienced this excursion. People here in rural Nigeria never travel for pleasure, only when the trip is absolutely necessary. Therefore, when I returned, I realized that many of the people who had told me about Gembu had never actually been there themselves! It was a wonderful opportunity to see, feel, smell, and taste the delights of this luscious place created by God!

Here's the link for pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=63882&id=501312909&l=97991

Pictures!

2009-02-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

I just visited Gembu this past week and had a terrific time. I finally understand why Taraba State's slogan is "Nature's Gift to the Nation"...it was beautiful, green, cool, forested with eucalyptus trees, mountainous...pretty much amazing! I LOVED it! There will be pictures from the excursion soon.

Here are some links to pictures from the last few months (finally facebook and blogspot are working at the same internet cafe...it's a miracle)!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54508&id=501312909&l=a0fa7
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61701&id=501312909&l=f8c53

Black-eyed Peas, Dates and Spam

2009-02-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

There have been some other missionaries from the US here recently which has provided some people to be able to provide a little American perspective on things which I had lacked for about 5 months. Here is one conversation:
Missionary: "How do you like the black-eyed peas?"
Me: "Ewww...black-eye peas?! I haven't seen anything like that here!"
Missionary: "So you don't eat the beans here?"
Me: "Of course I eat the beans...they're delicious especially mixed with the rice!"
Missionary: "They're black-eyed peas."
Me: "Who knew?!"

A similar situation happened with "palm nuts". I really enjoy them because they're one of the few really sweet foods here. I was nervous to eat them at first because they aren't peeled first, they're just eaten. Clearly, I've become a little daring! I bought them for the people from Nebraska who were here visiting because they're so good! As I was sharing them, they told me, these are dates. Really?! I didn't think I liked dates, but I love these little guys.

My parents sent me spam in a care package. Now, I have been truly enjoying the packets of tuna, loving the vacuum packed salmon and found the canned chicken pleasantly delightful especially when seasoned with Rudy's seasoning, but I was skeptical about spam! However, there was a recipe suggestion on the tin to make an egg mc muffin concoction, so I decided to give it a shot! It was surprisingly decent! I had never eaten spam before, but I feel that it was an acceptable sausage substitute...and it's produced in Austin, MN, so I felt a little closer to home this morning. :)

Progress

2009-02-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

Oftentimes, progress seems slow. However, it’s kind of exciting when you can see marked difference! I had the opportunity to travel with some missionaries who have been here from Nebraska out to the villages of Bagarmi and Garbabi, which are two places that I visited on my initial tour o’ Nigeria when I first arrived.

Last Sunday we traveled to the small village of Bagarmi to attend worship because one of the churches in Nebraska has a partnership with it. When I had gone there in August, we had celebrated the well that had been installed and this time the church had been upgraded from a dirt floor to a cement floor! It was also fun to recognize some familiar faces.

Then on Tuesday, we went back to the Bible training school in Garbabi. There, we had identified the place where a borehole well was to be drilled. The students were all having to haul water from a river multiple kilometers away where the illness, River Blindness, runs rampant. This time, it was so exciting to be able to see the joy that the students are all receiving from having a hand pump well making clean water much more accessible to everyone! It was also neat that many of the people remembered me from back in August!

While many people may have the opportunity to come and do short-term work, there are really some great blessings that can only come with being somewhere for an extended period of time. These simple projects have all come to fruition over the past 6 months that I've been here. It’s pretty sweet to partake in the celebrations!!

‘Barrow Pusher

2009-02-08T06:10:00.000-08:00

I remember the days when I could turn on a faucet and drink the water. Now, I must buy bottled, rather sachet, water. One can purchase a large bag containing 20 mini-bags for under a dollar which is really a lot cheaper than buying bottled water and just as safe as long as I buy the right brands. However, it’s kind of amazing how fast I can go through a bag. I was getting tired of running out of water at inopportune times, so I decided to ask my friend, who cooks outside my house, if I could borrow her wheelbarrow to get multiple bags at one time from the store down the street. She graciously agreed, so I started off.

I didn’t really think about the image this would create. I just knew that I needed lots of water and the wheelbarrow seemed the most expedient way to do it. However, as soon as I started out down the road and saw the look on the peoples’ face I knew that I was doing was counter-cultural. Upon further reflection, I realized that only the lowest level of society pushes wheel barrows. Everyone who saw me or passed me couldn’t help but laugh.

There’s a really strong culture of hierarchy here and the idea that any white person, who is highly revered within society, would push a wheelbarrow is crazy! I successfully got the water and successfully entertained everyone that I encountered. Good times!

Carolyn Carter: Trend-Setter

2009-02-08T06:05:00.000-08:00

Yeah…who ever thought that would be a phrase uttered or even considered by anyone!?!? Alas, it has been brought to my attention that I have unknowingly started a new trend amongst the running community of Jalingo. Because of the necessity to run at freakishly early times (when it is still pitch dark without street lights), I have been carrying a little flashlight with me. Since I can pull the “I’m a foreigner” card here, I wasn’t too concerned by the fact that I had never seen another runner carrying a light. I simply wanted to avoid breaking an ankle (I’ve heard from fellow friends living in Africa that it’s not fun!) by falling into a pothole and provide a way for vehicles to avoid hitting me. However, I was recently alerted by my friend that if I look around other people are now carrying flashlights when they run in the morning. He’s right! Wow…I don’t think I’ve ever started a trend before, but I’m glad that my initial one promotes safety first! :)

Can we try this?!

2009-01-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

I like to think that I'm not easily manipulated...especially by students. However, I've discovered a weak spot. When students are inquisitive and propose scientific investigations, I'll do most anything to try to accommodate their curiosities. When I first came, I had to beg students to ask questions, but they have definitely come around! I was so excited last week when one of my JS3 Integrated Science Students came up to me after a class of talking about acids and bases. We had tested different fruits and household materials with a pH probe (thank you OLLU grant!), and litmus paper, and it had gotten him thinking. He came up and asked me,

"Is urine acidic or basic?"
"What do you think?"
"I don't know...can I test it with litmus paper?"
"Why don't you come up with a hypothesis first, then I'll get you some pieces for you to test with. Report back with some data for me!"

He hypothesized basic...wrong hypothesis, but that's okay! When he tested it with red and blue litmus paper...just to be sure...he concluded urine is most definitely acidic. So fun!!!

Then, some SS3 boys who were way too cool to talk to me for the first term have now decided that they're interested in "practicalizing" things. They were looking through the Children's Encyclopedia in the library and found an experiment...the age-old baking soda and vinegar volcano! They had written out the entire procedure, and come to me asking if they could try it during their free period. Of course, I enthusiastically indulged them! They created an excellent volcano out of dirt and proceeded to perform the most measured and accurate baking soda and vinegar volcano I've ever seen.

It was GREAT! They were really excited...well...as excited as 18 year old cool guys get! They must have enjoyed it because today they came back and we attempted to create a copper/zinc battery. That one was a little more complex and a little less successful, but I love the fact that they're interested and trying things! (I did put the kabosh on them wanting to use mercury. I told them it's illegal in US school, I won't subject myself to it.) Yay for science experiments!!!

Mosquito Nets

2009-01-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

When I first came to Nigeria, I was appalled by the fact that some people didn’t sleep with mosquito nets! My thought process went something to the effect of “Really?! This is such a simple and inexpensive way to prevent malaria and you’re willing to be so reckless with your life?!” I just didn’t understand.

5 months later…

I now understand. I detest my mosquito net. Every night I have a mental argument in my head that goes something like this:
“I really don’t want to use that mosquito net.”
“Carolyn Carter, this mosquito net will protect you from mosquitoes…and malaria!”
“But, you’re taking an anti-malarial drug…you’re protected!”
“Do you really want to take a chance of contracting a disease which has lifelong lasting effects?”
“There aren’t even any mosquitoes in the room!”
“What would your mother say?!”
“She’s not here…you can make your own choices…besides aren’t you sick of getting twisted in it?!”
“Suck it up, Carolyn…use the net”

The “good voice” has won out every night. However, I must admit that I had decided one night that I would do my devotion without being covered by it with full intentions of having a net-free night, but I got a mosquito bite and took that as a sign that I should keep with the UMC and NBA slogan “Nothing but nets!”

A Day in My Jalingo Life

2009-01-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

I went to school from 7:10-2:30, came home ate some lunch and then decided to trek about 2 miles to the hospital supply shop to buy a few chemicals that we needed. Now, I could take a cab for about 20 cents, but I enjoy the exercise and opportunity to meet, greet and chat with people along the way.

Here is a prime example: there is this one location where I always see men selling rat poison along the side of the road and found it quite amusing that they “advertise” by holding up a bundle of dead rats hanging from a string! Every time I see them I laugh to myself. Today, at the prompting of a friend, I decided to ask them how long they had been using those particular rats. Well, these guys were really excited to talk with me despite the fact that I assured them I didn’t need any rat poison (but I’ll now know where to go if I do). They told me that the rats that they used are dried and preserved to be used for this purpose. (Therefore, I feel that those same rat have been being used for quite some time…they looked a little aged!) They then continued to ask me where I work, how long I’ve been here, and share the fact that in secondary school they studied arts and not science. In short, I have two more friends in Jalingo, but the day was not over!

When I arrived at the chemical store, I kind of wanted it to be a fast transaction (I’ll never learn…) so that I could make it home to watch the inauguration that I thought was at 4pm. However, I was given a seat and served a Maltonic as we figured out what chemicals he had and which ones he’d have to order (because it’s Jalingo, and of course few things are actually in stock). Then, I explained to him that his costs were exorbitantly high and I am trying to help the children of Nigeria, therefore he should work with me. We continued to go back and forth and in the process he brought me a meat pie. By the time we had agreed on prices for the materials he had and what he was ordering, we had exchanged phone numbers he had promised to come greet me and we were new friends. I had also resigned that I would mark this inauguration by conducting business the way it was described in the book Three Cups of Tea (read it!).

I walked back home with my purchases and stopped by the Bishop’s house to see if there was some residual coverage of the inauguration and was delighted to find that it was just starting at 5:30! I watched the historic event with rapt attention and feelings of excitement and hope (and a little jealousy of the 4-5 friends that I know where amongst the throngs of people present in the cold). Then, just as Obama was walking up to take his oath of office, NEPA went off. That’s right...I had to laugh…there were about 8 of us watching, they had forced me to stand up to honor the president-elect…just as he reached the front, we lost power. We ran to turn on the generator, and it was turned on just in time for us to see them now presenting the 44th President of the United States of America! Funny! However, I was thankful that I got to see the rest of the program and his heartening speech. I am encouraged that he called the American people to action, sacrifice, and steadfastness in the face of the many challenges. I hope and pray that this new administration will lead in an innovative, just and honorable way.

To finish the night, I returned to my house to kill 4 cockroaches, a spider the size of a 50 cent piece and type up some emails to send the next day. All-in-all, it was a typical day for me in Jalingo filled with new friendships, lessons learned, and unexpected joys accompanied by a few hiccups along the way.

New Hair-do

2009-01-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

I got my hair platted. For all of you who have no idea what this means (which would have included me prior to moving to Jalingo) it means to braid your hair in tiny little braids and mostly applies to Africans and African-Americans….and now to me!  Everyone had been bugging me to try it basically since I arrived, and I decided that January was the time!

It was a LONG 7.5 hour process, which thankfully didn’t really hurt as had been predicted by my Nigerian friends. I was pretty self-conscious about how I looked when I first got done despite the fact that I knew my friend had done a great job! I think I would still be very self-conscious in Iowa, but the Nigerian-me has embraced it and enjoys it! 

When I was told that I couldn’t wash my hair for the duration of the style that concerned me. I’m the girl who goes crazy if she doesn’t wash it everyday and now I’m being told to wait a few weeks! AHHHH!! Let me tell you that I had it done on Saturday, got used to it on Sunday and Monday it started to itch and Tuesday I thought I was going to tear my hair out…it was bad! However, I made it through and it’s now Friday and not bothering me at all. In fact, I sometimes forget that it’s been a week since the last wash. (Sidenote: showers really aren’t any faster because one has to be much more careful about not getting it wet and in the absence of a shower cap, I have resorted to a plastic bag…it works!)

When you check out the pictures, read the comments as it explains how the process worked.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54508&l=a0fa7&id=501312909

Pictures!

2009-01-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

Here is the link to some Abuja pictures and some more Jos pictures...good times!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=52075&l=2c8cc&id=501312909
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=52479&l=50ab9&id=501312909

I got my hair platted...braided...and there will be pictures when the internet decides to cooperate! :) Pretty exciting!

Helmets

2009-01-07T08:13:00.000-08:00

When I arrived in Jalingo, I did not see a single person on a motorcycle wearing a helmet. When I traveled to Jos, I saw a couple. When I traveled to Abuja, I saw a few. Then, on New Year’s Eve, I saw a commercial on TV, while watching the news, saying that as of January 1, 2009 all motorcyclists must wear a helmet or they would be fined. I was skeptical that anything would change. However on January 1, I was SHOCKED! In Abuja, about 60% of them were wearing helmets and in Jos about 50% of the hundreds, possibly thousands, of motorcyclists were wearing them. Now, these helmets are not all your standard-issued safety-approved helmets, but it’s a start. Some were legitimate helmets, others were construction-style hard hats, but my favorite ones had been created from calabassa. That’s right, a helmet made from the thin outer covering of a gourd! Hilarious! Upon returning to Jalingo, I may have seen one helmet in the last week I’ve been home. Jalingo is definitely a little behind when it comes to implementing new policies, so maybe it will catch on by the end of the year! :)

New Year's in Abuja!

2009-01-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

After a challenging Christmas, New Year’s was EXCELLENT! One would think after discovering that birthday parties, weddings, and choir concerts all are really church services, I shouldn’t have been surprised to figure out that New Year’s celebrations here are also church services, but I was! I was also a little skeptical. However, as with everything here, I just went with the flow and was pleasantly surprised!

I welcomed in 2009 at Living Faith Church in Nyanya. This church was by far the hugest church that I’ve been to in Nigeria. It had quite a few similarities to the church I attended in San Antonio. One similarity that I was really excited about was seeing the words to the worship songs projected on a screen! It makes it so much easier to learn songs when one can see printed words…especially when some of the songs are in different tribal languages!

After some spirited worship, we were led in a time of prayer and reflection about the previous year. I found myself remembering back to some points throughout the past year where I was really struggling: trying to survive grad school classes, feeling completely inadequate teaching AP Chemistry, wondering if I was ever going to get everything ready to go to Nigeria, freaking out the first night of being here in Jalingo. I was completely overwhelmed by how faithful God had been to me throughout all of these situations.

We heard a great sermon and then right before midnight we all (probably a couple thousand people) all lit candles and welcomed in the New Year! It was so powerful! The next 10 minutes or so were spent in prayer regarding the upcoming year. It’s such a different approach than is typically taken in the US, but it was really meaningful. Now, it has been a family tradition to go to the church around New Year’s Eve and do a mini-version of this, thanking God for the past year and praying for the upcoming year. My brother and I have almost always loathed and complained about this wondering why we can’t be like “normal families”. Granted, candle light with thousands of other people in a corporate worship experience is a little more dramatic, but this experience has enabled me to appreciate this “weird family thing” in a new way. It only took 26 years.

Waiting with Confidence

2009-01-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

In Abuja, Laitu and I stayed in the “mother-in-law” apartment. I went to the bathroom to bath and was closing the door. I guess I didn’t realize that the door had never closed completely the four previous days that I’d stayed there. On this day, I was trying to get it closed and it latched. As soon as it happened, I knew I was in trouble. It definitely wouldn’t open, so I decided to take my bucket shower and wait. I tried yelling out the window. I tried knocking on the door hoping that people outside would hear me. No one did. I had no watch, no phone, no clothes, but I did have confidence.

I knew that eventually, Laitu would come in the apartment to bathe. I didn’t know how long it would take, but I knew that she would come and I was confident that we would be able to get me out! While I was sitting, waiting for her to come in, I had some time to think (because after you’re clean there’s not a lot else to do) and realized that this is the type of confidence that I should have when approaching God in prayer.

She did come. I’m not sure how long it took, but it was a while. A spoon rescued me and it was the start of a new day with a new lesson!

Abuja

2008-12-30T02:25:00.000-08:00

I feel really blessed that I have been able to travel from Jos to Abuja! I had heard from many people that Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capitol Territory, is the premier place to be in Nigeria. I have been thoroughly enjoying it! The roads, buildings, street lights, road signs all made me reminisce about the US. Abuja was created as the capital 12 years ago in order to establish a more geologically centralized governmental location.

I think my favorite place that we visited was Millenium Park. It was established by the former president who wanted there to be a green place in the city that was owned by the government and could be utilized by the public. It was beautiful, clean, and well-patronized by many! It had tall trees, green grass, a natural stream, meandering walk-ways and decorative fountains. I have to admit that I did question the practicality of having a fountain flanked walk-way when there are so many places around the country that don’t have access to clean drinking water. Previously, I’d only thought about whether or not the situation allowed me to run through them! However, I decided that I would ponder the efficacy of the fountain situation later when I was surrounded by drab dirt roads and dead grass and bask in the beauty that results from nature being enjoyed by a community.

As I was being driven around Abuja was initially surprised that Nigeria has a National Mosque. Upon reconsideration, I realized that I have visited the National Cathedral of the US and that it seems logical that a nation that is 50% Muslim has a National Mosque. Interestingly, the National Ecumenical Center is located a few buildings down the same road. I feel that their close proximity in the Federal Capitol sends a peaceful and unifying message. I only pray that this symbolic peaceful co-existence can be transferred throughout the country.

Kurra Falls

2008-12-26T13:07:00.000-08:00

Today was so much fun! It completely made up for a somewhat difficult (not that it was bad, I just missed home) Christmas!! My whole Jos family, Laitu’s niece, and some family friends all went to Kura Falls for a picnic! I LOVED being amongst the beautiful tall, green trees, a sprawling lake, and a variety of rocks! In addition to the picturesque location, it was the perfect weather: sunny, probably around 75o with a refreshing breeze. God is so real to me when I am in nature! We were able to eat by the water and then go and explore around the rocks and dam that was created to provide hydropower and constant electricity to this remote village. That’s right…Lagos and Abuja may not have constant power, but this small village 90 minutes outside of Jos has electricity all day, everyday because of water and gravity! CRAZY!

Tacos!

2008-12-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Laitu’s family had been asking me to prepare some American food for them, so I decided to “make” tacos since there are a limited number of American foods I feel confident making. I made 40 homemade tortillas (they were aghast at the lack of oil) , and removed the chicken from the bones (which they found so strange), I shredded some cheddar cheese (YAY!! but they thought it tasted like butter). We then cut up tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and peppers. They thought it was really strange that we weren’t cooking any of the vegetables but excited to try the new food. Without the taco seasoning spice packet from the grocery store, it really was more like a chicken wrap, but they didn’t need to know that! We packed it all up and took it on the picnic!

As I was explaining how to assemble the taco and they were practicing pronouncing t-a-c-o-s I related the pronunciation to the Hausa word for number 8 “takwas” (which I always thought was pronounced like the food). We were then all amused by the fact that we had nearly eight different ingredients to include in the tacos. Good times! The kids had fun making them and people really enjoyed them for the most part. They were definitely good sports!

Christmas Customs

2008-12-26T13:03:00.000-08:00

Before I write the main portion of this entry, I want to preface it with a realization that has been accentuated through my Christmas experience. I know that there are differences throughout American culture, but I’ve found that there are so many more throughout Nigerian. There are the 3 main cultures: Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. However, within these main groups there are multitudes of tribes or people groups that each possesses their own traditional dishes, cultures, songs, dances, and traditions.

I am going to describe the particular traditions that I experienced while staying in Jos. Despite Nigerian being a very family-based culture, Christmas isn’t nearly as focused around family as it in the US. The children where I’m staying went and visited “Father Christmas” in preparation for the big day. The big excitement for the children is to receive a new outfit, “Christmas clothes”! It isn’t a surprise, but instead they help to pick it out: new outfit, shoes, jewelry, etc.

Christmas morning, the children woke up, put on their new clothes and we all went to church. Though it was Christmas day, we still only sang one Christmas carol…and it was in Hausa…, the rest were typical Nigerian praise songs! (Luckily, I’d sung every carol I could think of in my head as I ran on Christmas morning!) It was neat at church to see everyone in their new clothes! Though it’s a special tradition for children, many adults participate as well! The church served everyone rice and stew (tomato sauce) with chicken and pop for lunch.

After church, we drove around Jos touring some of the main parts of the city. It was interesting to me that the city still seemed to be bustling. I feel this is due part in fact to the presence of Muslims in the city and partially due to the fact that here Christmas is a holiday to be out and about visiting people. Our next stop was to visit some of their family friends where we were given yet more fried chicken and chin chin (small fried pieces of sweet dough). Then, we returned home to receive visitors at our home. Children from the neighborhood came by to wish us a Merry Christmas bringing some traditional food items and in return, the children were given token amounts of money, fried chicken, and chin chin.

In summary, Christmas is not full of the same extravagance that it holds in the US. I’m sure there are much bigger celebrations in villages, but within the cities the big emphases are cooking large amounts of fried chicken, rice, stew, and chin chin and visiting friends and neighbors. I appreciated the reduced emphasis on gifts and increased emphasis on visiting friends and neighbors! However, I REALLY missed all the Christmas music this year, seeing my extended families and all the simple traditions from home that seem mundane at times, but in absentia they’re missed a lot!

Here is the link to some pictures practicing these customs:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49842&l=5db35&id=501312909

Christmas in Jos!

2008-12-22T06:08:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful that Laitu, my friend I teach with, was kind enough to take me to Jos with her family for the Christmas holiday! Since this holiday season had the potential to be kind of difficult, being away from all of my friends and family for the first time at Christmas, I'm excited to in a new place with new things to see and experiences to have! I'm still missing being home, but I'm staying busy and have many exciting plans for the next 2 weeks. While I would have liked to spend Christmas in a village, it would have been 1-2 days of experiences, and then I would have been at home alone in Jalingo (EVERYONE has left!) for the rest of the 2 weeks until school started. Laitu has said her church will have a big cultural celebration complete with dancing and traditional foods, so I'm excited!

I'll write more about the Christmas traditions, which I feel maybe start on Christmas day, after I've experienced them?! I'm just going with the flow and taking everything in! :) In the meantime, I'm LOVING the cooler weather, parks and welcoming people who are making me feel part of their family! I am renewing my resolve to reach out to internationals when I return to the US as so many people have made me feel so welcome and helped me experience Nigerian culture to its fullest. I will forever be grateful!

"How are you preparing for Christmas?"

2008-12-19T10:51:00.001-08:00

As I was walking along my regular route toward the internet, someone called me over to chat. After the compulsory pleasantries, he asked me “How are you preparing for Christmas?” Hmmm…I had no idea how I was supposed to respond to this question. I have been a little bitter about the fact that there have been relatively few signs of Christmas anywhere in all of Jalingo (I’ve seen 1 strand of lights…the only Christmas tree is a sticker one that my mom sent…no Christmas songs on the radio. Back in the US, I was the first person to complain about the excessive consumerism, but now that I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum I was really missing symbols season! In trying to gracefully dodge the question, I turned the question back to him to see what kind of response would be appropriate. He was reluctant to answer for fear of tainting my answer (completely warranted!), but finally answered with something to this effect.

“I’ve been praying that God would open my eyes to experience the birth of baby Jesus in a new way this year. I’ve also been reading and meditating on the scriptures that depict the birth of Christ.”

Yeah…don’t I feel shallow! All I could think about were the secular aspects of the season whereas I could have been using this time to focus on the real meaning of Christmas! I became determined to take my Christmas preparations into my own hands in my own way, which leads me to my Christmas cookies and cards extravaganza!

Christmas Cookies!

2008-12-19T10:47:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite childhood memories was helping dad bake, frost and sprinkle sugar cookies at Christmas time! Despite this being a favorite memory, I hadn’t actually attempted these in my independence. I decided why not make them for my friends around Jalingo to share the joy of Christmas?!

After getting the recipe emailed to me from dad, I was inspired and started with enthusiasm enhanced by the fact that I was listening to the 2 Christmas albums that I had on my ipod! I realized that cream of tarter, almond extract and vanilla were unattainable. Dad suggested lemon juice as a possible substitute, so I figured that orange was citrus too, so I added a splash of orange juice to replace these three ingredients. The mixed dough was then put in my freezer for a few hours in hopes that the temperature there would dip to the condition of typical refrigerators. The adventure of rolling out the dough commenced with the discovery of my nalgene bottle acting as the perfect rolling pin! I made a few attempts to create some cookie cutter shapes. I tried paper clips for stars and a tuna can with inserts for a tree. These failed miserably. I settled on a diet coke can to create a Christmas ornament…okay…really it was just a circle, but I was using my imagination!

Ruth astutely observed that I don’t actually have a cookie sheet, but instead I have found the broiler pan of my oven functions quite nicely! Then, I had to go find a calculator to convert the Fahrenheit baking temperature in the recipe to the Celsius temperature intervals on my oven. (Good thing I learned the conversion in chemistry class! :)) After estimating where 193.33 degrees Celsius was between 180 and 220, I was questioning how a gas oven relates to an electric oven in terms of cooking time….guess no longer…it cooks faster! After the 3rd set, they were getting pretty good!

Then, it was time to attempt the frosting. I ended up adding about 4x’s as much as the recipe called for in order to get it spread-able. Frosting without vanilla is a little lacking, but I reassured myself that the Nigerians won’t have frosting with vanilla to compare it with! I was slightly disappointed that though my parents had sent me food coloring, it was definitely at school for use in lab, so we had white frosting (though I attempted to add some of my new strawberry flavoring since it was red…it clearly didn’t have the right dye).

Despite the many adjustments, I was successfully able to bake 13 dozen little ornament cookies with joy and deliver them to my neighbors, local shop friends, outdoor restaurant cook, tailor, generator gas guy, grocery store people who find me milk, post office saints, tire repair guy who helps me carry my packages from the post office, internet friends, salon women I pass on the way to the internet, and colleagues from school. It was so much fun giving out cookies and homemade Christmas cards to all of the people who make up my friends and family of Jalingo!!!! Many of them had not tasted cookies like this before and all were surprised and grateful!

I can now say that Christmas cookies, though a secular representation of Christmas, have helped me to prepare my heart and mind for this blessed season! I hope all of you are able to “prepare for Christmas” in your own special way in these last few days before we celebrate the birth of Christ all over the world!

Pictures!

2008-12-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Internet in Jalingo is being much more cooperative lately...thankfully! Here are some links to trip pictures and chicken pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47701&l=7b459&id=501312909
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43972&l=d8541&id=501312909

Nigerian Time

2008-12-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

My dear Jalingo friend, Laura, is moving back to her home state of Abia this weekend, (good for her, sad for me!) so I went by her house to tell her good-bye. She wasn’t there, so I called her and she told me she was at the market but would be home in 10 minutes. After 4 months of living here in Nigeria, I knew better than to really expect her in 10 minutes. Half and hour later at 4:00, she arrived. Ordinarily, the new Nigerian Carolyn wouldn’t have minded, but I was “scheduled” to attend a Christmas program at my church at 4pm and I knew I had to go home first to change into a skirt and cover my head. However, it was totally worth it to say good bye and see her one last time!

I rushed home, changed and hurried off to the church trying to make it by 4:30 (only a half an hour late). I arrived to find that since there was a choir practicing, the program was simply put on hold and didn’t start until 5:30. Ahhh, yes. African time.

Sunday morning, I was to meet my friend Ezekiel at his church at 9am for service. I believe his exact phrase was “Come for service at 9am. I’ll be there before that to meet you!” I was running a little late because I was trying to find the least wrinkled traditional outfit that I could since we hadn’t had electricity for a few days to iron. When I arrived at 9:05, I was all worried that service had already started. I looked around and didn’t see him anywhere, so I called him. Yeah, he was still at home and hadn’t showered yet, so I just went in and found a seat as service started about 9:15. He showed up around 10.

Needless to say, this weekend was a constant reminder that Nigerian culture doesn’t work on the same clock at the American one. I know this fact, but I still have a hard time internalizing it. I guess it takes more than 4 months to undo 26 years of conditioning! :)

Missionary, hunh?!

2008-12-15T07:34:00.000-08:00

As I’ve been enjoying my travels and some relaxation, I began to panic! Wait…this isn’t supposed to be vacation…I’m supposed to be here as a missionary! People have contributed so generously for me to be able to be here, and I don’t take that support lightly. It’s really easy to start questioning whether or not you are making any appreciable difference. Most of the people that I interact with on a regular basis are already Christians, so I haven’t knowingly converted anyone to Christianity. I’m not drilling any wells or building schools. I haven’t introduced any revolutionary agricultural practices or crops (though I’m trying to convince them to milk the goats…it hasn’t caught on yet!). So, I began to wonder, what is the advantage of me being here instead of simply donating the money that I require to live here for the year to one of them many worthy causes and drilling a well or building a school?

As I reflected on what it means to be a missionary, I remembered that during my training to become an Individual Volunteer through the United Methodist Church I formulated this definition:

I believe that mission is joining with persons of faith around the world in global partnership offering what I have to do the work of God which includes clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and setting at liberty those who are oppressed as well as working to change the conditions that perpetuate poverty and oppression.

After reading it, I breathed a partial sigh of relief. I think that while I’m in school and teaching, I’m working toward this end. However, I still questioned my purpose outside of school amongst the community of Jalingo and beyond. Through significant periods of reflection and prayer, I remembered a portion of a book I’d read a few years ago called “The Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne where he referenced Jesus talked about how important it is to be present among the poor and live in community. It was a huge relief to recognize that in my everyday errands and going about I wasn’t in any position to nor any compulsion to rescue anyone from their current plight. Instead, we are called to walk, work, and dialogue together!

Showing my friend dental floss and how to use it, learning from a stranger how to signal to a taxi which direction I want to go, sharing my cinnamon rolls with people sitting outside my compound, learning the Hausa word for “2 days after tomorrow” (that’s right…there’s a word for that!) are all examples of interactions that take place on a regular basis. I believe that these simple, daily encounters are helping to build understanding, respect, tolerance and love. Though these qualities are difficult to assess and quantify, I think that they are necessary to achieving peace and unity. Directly depositing money into a project account can’t do that.

Feelings of guilt prompted by a 4-week Christmas break initiated this line of thinking, but I feel that it produced an expanded and evolved sense of purpose for the next 8 months…only time will tell!

Gifted a Chicken!

2008-12-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

After arriving home at 6:15am from my trip to Abia, I had to hurry up and grade my students’ exams and get the grades entered (by hand!) by that afternoon. Since one of my colleagues had taken the sheets home with him to the village, my friend graciously took me to the village to complete the information there. My colleague, grateful for our efforts, gifted me a chicken, not a frozen chicken, not a recently butchered chicken, a live chicken! I kind of laughed and didn’t know how to respond… “Thanks!”…however, I was eternally grateful when my friend, Asper, volunteered to tie it to his motorcycle handle as we rode 20 minutes to his brother’s house where he offered to teach me how to prepare it!

***WARNING*** If you’re content with simply believing that the chicken magically ends up shrink-wrapped in the frozen section of the supermarket, just quit reading this entry. However, if you want a little inspiration to become a vegetarian, read on, it just might push you over the edge! Everyone around me was astounded that I had never butchered a chicken before…they just kept giggling!

I was unable to participate in the actual killing. It was just too much, but after that, I was an active contributor! Boiling water is poured over the bird so that the feathers can be removed easily. After I stopped anthropomorphizing the bird and relating the feather removal to pulling out hair, the process was less disturbing. It actually became quite intriguing. The remaining skin was bumpy…just the way that uncooked chicken skin looks…imagine that! AND the feathers were hollow on the inside! I knew that feathers were used as ink pens, but seeing them directly plucked from the chicken made it real on a whole new level! WOW! I learned that you should look for joints in order to make the sectioning of the chicken easier. I was becoming more comfortable with holding limbs and cutting them off, but then we opened the torso and it was almost too much! There were eggs! Oh my goodness! I felt bad, but then rationalized to myself that many of the chickens that I’ve eaten over the past 26 years probably had eggs in them as well and I didn’t have any qualms about it before.

Luckily, we found the gizzard, and the excitement of cutting it open to find the “garbage can” full of sand distracted me! We cleaned it out and put it in the edible pile. Here in Nigeria, the gizzard is always given to the man of the house. I asked why the one half couldn’t go to the wife if it was so delicious?! They just laughed and said that it would completely disrespect the man to do that. Hmmm…after I taste it, I’ll decide whether it’s a battle I want to fight! 

We finished cutting and cleaning it and I was able to take it home to season it, boil it and then fry half of the pieces! It actually turned out pretty well except for the fact I was so proud of my use of thyme, sage, and marjoram that I forgot to add salt. Whoops! I was thankful that I had some visitors stop by and was able to share my gifted chicken that I had personally, butchered, cleaned, and cooked! While I can’t say that I want to participate in this entire process for every chicken I eat, I feel that I now more intimately understand that process that takes place from the crowing rooster to the bag of frozen chicken breasts at the grocery store! :)

(When internet cooperates, there will be some accompanying pictures for the strong of stomach!)

Please Pray for this Paradox!

2008-12-11T13:47:00.001-08:00

I came back from traveling to find that all of the internet cafes in Jalingo had been shut down because they didn’t have a proper operating certificate. Really?! How can this happen? A capital city needs internet! One place is operating underground but since it’s a make-shift server, there are few systems available, it’s slow and they are limiting people to 1 hour. Internet is my connection to the US! No one can give me a definitive answer regarding when the situation will be resolved. Pray that it is soon!

Today, I went to the immigration office to check on my visa renewal situation and they told me that I may have to go home to the US in April. In light of the previous paragraph, I found it interesting that I was nearly in tears when they told me that! I also think it’s funny that I am seriously the only person in all of Nigeria who would be upset to be told I have to go to the US! After some more conversations with the immigration officer and some other church officials, I think that it can be arranged for me to stay until July as per the original arrangement, but things are never simple! Please pray that if it’s God’s will for me to be here until July, my visa situation will be resolved!

Awkward Moment #5842

2008-12-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

While I have running water in my house, I’ve gotten used to the fact that everywhere else I go, doesn’t have it. Therefore, I know to always procure a bucket of water prior to going. Laura and I are staying with a friend of hers in Owerri in a really nice apartment. I used to automatically think that would then imply running water. I’m no longer so naïve. Therefore, when I saw the bathroom without any buckets I got nervous. How was I going to flush?! I decided to wait until we came back to avoid the embarrassment of asking for water and someone having to go fetch it. However, when I returned, I saw some buckets and a 50L jug of water in the hall, so I figured that was to be used. I awkwardly poured water from the ridiculously heavy jug into a bucket to bring with me to the bathroom.

You can imagine how sheepish I felt when I realized that there was running water, and I could simply flush the toilet. I was really hoping that no one would see me putting the bucket back in the hallway, but there was no such luck. I decided to simply play it off as being an ignorant “onye ocha” (white person in Igbo…the predominant language of this new area). All you can do is laugh! 

Nigeria beyond Jalingo!

2008-12-04T13:49:00.000-08:00

Early on, I experienced a changing perspective as I transitioned from Boerne, to Wilton, to Lagos to Jalingo to small villages. In traveling first to Umuahia, Abia State and then to Owerri, Imo State for her convocation, I have gone back in the other direction. Jalingo has become my new “normal” and consequently, my new standard for comparison. Let me tell you, I am so glad that I have been given this opportunity to travel! It is helping me to understand why Nigeria is considered the place to be in Africa. Though there are still infrastructural challenges with running water and electricity, it is completely different from Jalingo! Here are a few of the most notable differences that I’ve noticed so far:

There are trash cans! That’s right, it took me nearly 4 months, but Abia and Imo states have public trash cans and encourage their populace to keep the city clean. It was delightful! Driving down the road in Imo State, I saw no less than 4 different buildings being painted while multiple others had messages painted by the government that it should be painted by the given date. Consequently, buildings looked good and were upkept! I saw sidewalks and paved roads…incredible! People were busy. There were not throngs of people sitting outside businesses watching the world go by. Other women, besides me, were wearing pants (trousers)! Businesses had Christmas decorations up!

Now, while these observations may lead one to believe that I am enamored by these more developed cities and now feel a sort of disdain toward Jalingo. That would be an incorrect conclusion. While it is exciting, refreshing and enlightening to see a new part of Nigeria, I still love my life back home in Jalingo. As I’ve found to be true everywhere, people are what make a place great and my friends and “family” back in Jalingo are the best in all of Nigeria! It’s been so heartening to be receiving calls, texts, and “flashes” (you call a person and hang-up when they answer…yeah…in the US, we’d call this prank calling…here they see it as a way to let a person know that you’re thinking of them without using much credit) from my friends back in Taraba.

I feel like I can appreciate Jalingo for the place it is, but the challenges come when Taraba is the only place that many of the residents have been exposed to. It’s difficult for people to strive for progress and development when they are used to their current conditions and aren’t aware of the possible benefits of alternatives. I really think that trash cans would be a good first step! :)

Road Trip to Abia!

2008-12-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

After spending 3 months here in Jalingo, I had become stir crazy. I was so excited that I was able to obtain permission from approximately 8 different people to prepare to go to Abia State with my friend Laura for her convocation. Thankfully, the journey proved to be uneventful for the typical Nigerian, but it contained oodles of interesting experiences for me!

At 6am Laura came with her friend on motorbike to pick me up with my luggage to go to the motor park. This meant 3 people and 2 large bags on one motorbike, excellent! We found the appropriate van that would be traveling to Abia state and along with 12 other people and sundry atypical (lots of yams) luggage boarded for the long journey. We left at 9 am, not because that was the scheduled departure time because that was the time when we reached capacity and then proceeded across the street to wait in line for fuel and THEN departed!

As we were driving along, there were different crops that had been harvested drying along the shoulders of the road. There is no speed limit, but potholes instead dictate maximum speed. Cars are meant to drive on the right side of the road, as in the US, but again, potholes are more instrumental in dictating this than anything else. As we went along passing village after village, I realized that the thatched roof hut has become such an iconic symbol of Africa because it’s so ubiquitous!

Now I had come with a few snacks for the road because I know that Nigerians are notorious for the ability to go obscene numbers of hours without food or bathroom. I have adapted to the lack of bathroom but not the lack of food. I needn’t have worried. Every time we stopped, people were swarming our van trying to sell us the local produce of that village: date palms, figs, bananas, groundnuts. Multiple places had delicious oranges. I was able to get 4 for about 20 cents…total! I also had the delight of eating fresh cashews for the first time and learning that there is such a thing as a cashew fruit!

After 11 hours of driving, 4 different vehicles, and countless stops we arrived to Laura’s sister’s home to be royally greeted by her sister, brother-in-law and their three children. This road trip has begun!

Birthday Parties

2008-11-25T09:26:00.000-08:00

I’ve been to two different birthday parties here in Jalingo within the last few weeks. Birthday parties in Jalingo are much different from the birthday parties that I am used to back in the US. Let me describe my first experience to give you an idea of the differences.

My friend Gloria who works at “my” internet café informed me weeks in advance that her birthday was approaching and she would like me to attend her party. I promised that I would be present. It was held at a big meeting room above the café. I went upstairs to find the room decorated in cloth, streamers and balloons and lined with chairs. I took a seat and pretended not to notice that everyone had stopped talking to stare at me. I was graciously introduced to her family seated around me and was told that “the program will begin soon”. I thought, program? What will this program entail? I soon realized that there was an MC who proceeded to welcome, “family, friends, supporters and well-wishers of the celebrant”. Then, Gloria henceforth referred to as “the celebrant” also formally welcomed everyone. Everyone was then asked to introduce themselves and state where they were from.

Next, the “cake baker” was introduced and asked to say a word about the cake. I had NO idea what to expect this to entail, but before I could wonder any further, my friend Ezekiel, the cake baker, called ME up to say a word about the cake from a chemists perspective! Oh my goodness…first of all, I don’t like standing up and speaking in front of groups in the US…it’s even worse here in Nigeria because people are really all listening to hear what the white girl is going to say. Secondly, I had NO idea if I was truly supposed to talk about it from a chemist’s perspective or if he was joking. Since I was able to come up with something chemical to say about it, I took a chance after deliberating for the entirety of 5 seconds that it took me to walk up to the front of the room. I settled on “the purple frosting reminds me of potassium because potassium has a purple flame test” and “the white frosting reminds me of a white precipitate”. People seemed to readily accept that with smiles and applause. I took my seat as quickly as possible.

The ceremony progressed with a cake cutting ceremony, dance, formal pictures and food provided to her guests by the celebrant. It was quite the occasion. However, I was told by many that this was a very “low key” event. I’m not sure I could handle a fancy one! In support of this comment, I attended my friend Laura’s birthday party this past week and found a very similar program to be followed! Oh...I forgot, there was a lot of praying too. Praying is a good thing, but I was simply unaccustomed to so much praying at a birthday party! Faith here is something that is truly integrated into every aspect of their lives.

Here is the link to some pictures from the event as well as a random assortment of others:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43972&l=d8541&id=501312909

HIV in Nigeria

2008-11-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

Today, I was informed (by way of memo being physically walked around to all the teachers) that there was going to be an HIV Educational Seminar this afternoon…not for the students, but for the teachers! I was kind of surprised but interested. Since coming here, I’ve noticed that there are billboards, seminars and events all related to HIV prevention, but I hadn’t personally attended anything. At the onset of the program, I was reflecting on the fact that I don’t remember ever having any formal and specific HIV/AIDS education after 4th grade when the nurse came in to talk to us about Magic Johnson being diagnosed with HIV and explaining the condition to us. Certainly, it has been covered in various health classes amongst other STD’s in health classes but never again in isolation.

After some conversations, I was able to correlate the prevalence of HIV/AIDS here in Nigeria to the prevalence of cancer in the US. They were shocked that I didn’t personally know anyone with HIV and equally surprised when I said that I easily know 20 people who either have or have had cancer. They couldn’t find a single person that had been formally diagnosed with cancer!

I learned SO MUCH! I was definitely taking notes! Here are some of the tragic facts that I learned:
*Nigeria has the 5th highest prevalence of HIV in the world with at least 10 governors and senators living with the disease (only surpassed by India, South Africa, Uganda, and Botswana).
*Taraba State (my state) has a 6% rate of infection, and “in Jalingo it’s running rampant!”
*Barber Shops are a common place of transference because the clippers are rarely disinfected sufficiently.
*HIV is not automatically passed from an infected woman to her baby. If the baby is delivered by C-section and she doesn’t breast feed, they baby can be safe!
*If the breast milk is heated at 67oC, the HIV will be killed, but the important nutrients will be saved (I question the feasibility of “exactly 67”, but found it interesting nonetheless).
*HIV is anaerobic meaning it lives in environments depleted of oxygen. This is one of the prime reasons that it isn’t typically transferred through saliva and sweat…there’s an abundance of oxygen around!
*There are two types of HIV…Type I is more aggressive while Type II is more gradual which is why it’s important for those who are infected to continue to take caution. They could contract a more aggressive strain.
*HIV tests here in Nigeria (and most of the developing world), PCR and ELISA, don’t give instant results but instead give you your status as of 6 months ago and one has to get retested to confirm their negative status.

Then, at the end of the program, we were given the opportunity to be tested for free! I think that I was the only person who was being tested for the first time. Everyone was surprised that I’d never been tested. I tried to explain to them that since I wasn’t engaging in high risk-behavior I had never even considered it. Here in Nigeria, regardless of life-style choices, everyone is strongly encouraged to get tested on a regular basis.

In a private room, a man asked about any high-risk activities that I’d been involved in which I expected, but then I was surprised by the next question. What will be your thoughts if the test comes back positive? I hadn’t even considered it. It was harrowing to contemplate, but my initial reaction was that I would be shocked and confused. Then, he pricked my finger quickly returning my thoughts to the present. 5 minutes later I thankfully found out that I am officially HIV negative and will receive a certificate to prove it!

I've added some new pictures recently to some older albums. Here are the links:
UMCN Nursery Primary School; College of Education; Wedding Attire
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37892&l=661e1&id=501312909
JSS Faculty House Dedication Ceremony
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35471&l=4f4c3&id=501312909

Popcorn!

2008-11-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

I know that I’ve already written extensively about food, but it’s a big part of my world here! I’ve recently made banana pancakes, cinnamon rolls which were quite yummy. I’m pretty proud of myself considering I have no measurement tools…I’m not sure what they would be officially called in the culinary world. I’ve decided that my plastic mug is similar in diameter to a cup and my small cup is similar to the half-cup diameter and therefore estimate the heights that would be equivalent. These estimates would be easier had I cooked at all prior to coming to Nigeria, yet I seem to be faring quite well!

Upon suggestions from a friend, I brought some popcorn. Sadly to say, I had never cooked popcorn in anything but a microwave. Since it was popcorn from the US, it had instructions! I heated what seemed like an excessive amount of oil then popped what looked like a small amount of kernels into a surprisingly large amount of popcorn! I was shocked to see the excessive amount of oil was almost all gone! I know about the law of conservation of mass…that oil went into my popcorn. I decided to ignore the fact that I was consuming an obscene amount of cooking oil, added some salt and enjoyed some decadent popcorn!

As I was savoring each kernel, I began to think about the 100 calorie bags of butter flavored popcorn I used to eat back home. How can they make it pop with so little oil? What strange chemicals was I consuming to have it taste so good yet only cost 100 calories? This is the second time the question of additives, chemical preservatives, synthetic food has come to the forefront of my thinking. Back home, tomatoes would last for a week or so before starting to spoil. Here, if you get 2 days before spoilage it’s a victory! Maybe it’s the superiority of the tomato genes in North America, but I venture to bet that it has something to do with some artificial chemical added along the way. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I definitely enjoyed the fact that I got a bigger widow than 36 hours to use my tomatoes, but at what cost? It’s a quandary.

My final food reflection (for now) is that food that I consumed in the US must have significant amounts of sugar and salt and flavorings added to it because I feel like I add copious amounts of these condiments to everything!

Central Market vs Super Wal-Mart

2008-11-11T08:06:00.000-08:00

I feel pretty confident getting around Jalingo (that is my little area of Jalingo) on my own. However, I had yet to conquer the central market independently. For those of you who have been dedicated blog followers, you’ll remember one of my first market excursions with my friend Laura where we bought a live chicken. I have been back a few times since but always with a friend leading the way. It always seems so daunting while I’m there that I had decided to try to avoid it by going to smaller little markets that are closer to my home. However, there are certain things that are unavailable at smaller markets that I really wanted such as Diet Coke, knitting pins, and wheat (to make whole wheat bread). I decided that the only way to conquer my apprehension regarding the market was to face it head on. I figured that maybe by going alone I would be able to learn my way around it better as opposed to following a friend blindly similarly to how you can better remember how to get somewhere when you’re driving car versus when you’re only a passenger!

On the taxi ride home, I was likening a trip to the market with a trip to Super Wal-Mart. The market is probably the size of 4-5 square blocks, hence larger than a Super Wal-Mart. Both contain nearly everything you need. However, in Wal-Mart items are organized categorically. One may not agree with the particular section that a particular item was placed, but they’re all together. At the market, there seems to be some sort of organization, but really everything is mixed together. I’m not really sure what the difference is among the 35 (probably a significant under-estimation) different tomato vendors or whether it is better to buy tomatoes from one of the vendors that is clustered together in a group 10 or to buy them from the person that is placed amongst the fabric. I’ve yet to get a definitive answer about that. Back to the comparison…both places are jam packed with people. However, in Wal-Mart the aisles are indoors, tiled, level, and about 6 feet wide. The market walk-ways are outdoors, rutted dirt and sand with puddles and just wide enough for one wheel barrow to get through. Never mind the challenge that is presented when the wheelbarrows try to pass by throngs of people!

Wal-Mart claims to have a helpful smile in every aisle (okay…I’ve later realized it’s not Wal-Mart, but good old Hy-Vee in Iowa…nonetheless…), but I’m confident that the Jalingo market has them outclassed in customer service. While the market is significantly deficient in adequate signage (none exists), it compensates by having many friendly people who are willing to struggle through the language barrier in order to understand what I need and then often personally take me great distances through a congested labyrinth simply to help me find what I’m looking for.

At Wal-Mart, large carts are provided to ease your shopping burden. This is not so at the Jalingo market. I have my arms and my large canvas HEB shopping bag, which has proven to be invaluable, to carry all items from the market to my house. Due to a weight limit that I am able to carry, I am forced to thoughtfully weigh the benefits of buying certain things with the costs of having to carry them for the rest of the shopping excursion. There are certain things that can only be purchased at the market and therefore those are non-negotiable, but other things that they may be cheaper at the main market are not cheap enough to justify carrying them around all over creation.

Wal-Mart, as you all know, is set up so that one collects all desired items and then brings them up to the check out to pay one grand total of a bill typically by debit or credit card. At the market, each item is purchased from a different vendor as a separate cash transaction. Nigeria, as a country, is still very much a cash-based society. That was quite the change for a girl who has purchased everything on a credit card for her entire adult life.

The final hurdle is finding my way out of the market, back to the main road, securing a taxi, and adequately communicating where I want to be dropped. As I was riding home I was considering whether or not I had conquered the market. I came to the conclusion that I had. The main market is not my favorite place in all of Jalingo, but I am now confident that though I will never know my way around the prodigious place of commerce known as the market, I am able to navigate it with a reasonable degree of success. I managed to get all necessary items and a few bonus ones that I didn’t even know existed let alone know that I needed!

Africa's Reaction to the Election!

2008-11-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

The United States has elected a new president! After months and months of endless campaigning, Barack Obama will be the new president. On Tuesday, afternoon I tried to find a radio station that was talking about the polls opening. The English stations weren’t talking about the election yet and the Hausa stations were definitely talking about it but all I could understand was blah blah blah Obama blah blah blah McCain. It was torture for a person like me who loves political commentary! Radio coverage on the BBC didn’t start until 11pm here. So, I went to bed and asked my friend back home to please text me as soon as there was a winner!

Now, over the past few weeks I had begun to recognize how interested the people of Nigeria were in the election, but nothing compared to the response on Wednesday. Everyone in Jalingo was “watching” to see who would win, not just the educated, well-off people but people who hadn’t finished high school and had never left Taraba state were aware and interested in the results. The people of Jalingo, Nigeria and all of Africa are ecstatic to have Obama, a person of African descent in the White House. It was the first time I fully understood what an effect the president of the United States of America has on the entire world.

Around 4am, I received a text saying that Obama had won! While I was getting ready for school Wednesday morning, I listened to numerous reports on the radio that gave snip-its of both McCain’s concession speech and Obama’s victory speech. I was so encouraged to hear Obama’s call for unity that people of all races, religions, economic backgrounds. I hope and pray that we, as a country, will be able to move forward in a positive direction amongst the many national and international challenges.

My friends and co-workers here were all congratulating me on a good election. Some of the comments I heard were, “It was such a civilized election!” “I can’t believe McCain simply conceded defeat!” “What a blessing to have such a free and fair election!” “I can’t believe a white country would elect a black man to be president!” After listening to these comments, I realized in a new way what a unique and special government and political system that we have in the United States. I guess it made up for feeling a little homesick that I was missing out on the election excitement and election parties back home! 

Daily Musings

2008-11-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

These next blurbs are things that I think about or encounter on a nearly daily basis that I take note of or giggle about in my head but due to a lack of any American companions they don’t really come up in conversation. I thought I’d share them through this venue!

Showers

I realize that I’m incredibly blessed to have running water here in Jalingo and I really appreciate the fact that I can shower everyday! I feel like I have even adjusted to cold showers. In fact, on the mornings that I run, the cold shower actually feels good! It is a prime motivating factor that drags me out of bed in the mornings 3 days a week.

This past week there has been a marked change in weather. The nights have been refreshingly cool! So cold, in fact, that I have been sleeping in long pants and a sweatshirt, which is absolutely delightful! However, the colder nights, which produce much improved sleeping conditions, also make my shower water colder! It’s a quandary. This morning, I decided that some morning calisthenics were in order. That’s right, I was definitely doing sit-ups and jumping jacks first thing this morning for the sole purpose of getting warmer so that the shower would feel better…you may be laughing, but it worked! Next time you feel like laughing, take a shower with the temperature setting all the way on cold! :)

Moon

One thing that’s been interesting to observe is the changing phases of the moon. I can’t say that I’d ever really taken notice what phase the moon was in except on the rare occasions that the full moon looks extra pretty. Here, there is a significant difference in the amount of light at night depending on whether it is a full moon or a new moon. The extra light is welcomed when I’m walking at night because it makes the flash light, or torch light as they’re called here, nearly unnecessary. However, when it’s a new moon, the sky is so dark and the stars here are beautiful! Sometimes I just sit outside with my generator turned off and gaze up at the sparkling stars and the blur of the Milky Way…pretty amazing really!

Washing Clothes and Cooking

This past weekend I did my laundry for the second time by hand. It ended up being 3 weeks again since the last time I had done laundry. It wasn’t a good decision the first time I waited 3 weeks and it was an equally poor choice this time! Doing laundry the first time by hand was novel, this second time the novelty was wearing off. While it is a physically more demanding process to wring out every item of clothing once after washing and once after rinsing overall, it does takes less time! I was able to do all of my laundry in about 2 hours and have it all drying on the line for the day. At home, one must be around every 45 minutes or so to switch out the loads!

With cooking, I have developed a system and come to a few conclusions. I have figured out how to cook enough “soup” to last for 3-4 days and then I can fix either rice or tuwo of some sort to go with it each night. I much prefer cooking twice a week to nightly. I’ve also determined that my joy of cooking is inversely proportional to my level of hunger. That is, I detest cooking when I am super hungry! However, if I actually begin preparing food before being hungry, it’s not that bad. I grew up in a household where the household workload was shared. My dad cooked the meals and my mom cleaned up. My roommate and I had employed a similar system when I was living in San Antonio. When a person cooks, they shouldn’t have to be the person to clean up the dishes after the meal! Living alone means that one takes 45 minutes or more preparing the food, 15 minutes eating and then has to spend 20 minutes cleaning up. That’s not a favorable effort-reward ratio to me. However, here there aren’t a lot of alternatives. If I want to eat, I will cook. If I want to avoid a bug infestation, I will clean up! J

Band-aids and Neosporin

Since arriving in Jalingo, I have received and inflicted significantly more scrapes and cuts than I’ve ever had! Partly because I’m cooking more, partly because I haven’t purchased a can open yet, partly because everything is done with rudimentary tools and partly because mosquitoes love me and I lack self-control when it comes to itching their bites. These contributing factors equate to me having all sorts of skin impalements. Since I am avoiding infection at all cost, I am striving to keep these cuts covered with a band-aid and Neosporin! However, one day I cut myself at school and when I went to the clinic I was amused that they didn’t have any band-aids. Now, they were fabulous and able to disinfect me and put a piece of cotton over it covered by tape (essentially a band-aid)! But it made me giggle on the inside that something I take as common here is uncommon. I brought quite a few band-aids with me and now carry a couple in my purse. Live and learn! :)

Is it Tuesday?

Now, Tuesday was a special day for me in Boerne because it meant dollar mochas at Bear Moon Bakery, so I found myself asking “Is it Tuesday?” on a regular basis. Now that I’m in Jalingo, the question has been altered. Presently, I habitually ask myself “Is it malaria Tuesday?” Yeah, it doesn’t really have the same ring as “Is it malaria Monday?” a phrase that a friend of mine suggested, but the very first week that I was supposed to take my pill, I forgot on Monday and so I took the first one on a Tuesday. Thankfully, I haven’t forgotten since then! Sleeping beneath a mosquito net nightly is a pretty good reminder!

Hello, Taft Middle School!

2008-10-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

I’m very excited to be saying hello to the 7th Grade Gold Team from Taft Middle School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa! I’m “Aunty Carolyn” to my students here in Nigeria (they address all their teachers either using “Aunty” or “Uncle” and their first name) and I’m from Iowa, but I’m here in Jalingo teaching science for a year. My JS3 (like 9th grade) Integrated Science students at JSS are looking forward to getting to know things about your school, Iowa and the United States.

These students live in Jalingo which is the capital of Taraba State in Nigeria. Since Jalingo is located near the equator, it’s pretty hot here most of the time. The weather now is changing from rainy season to dry season with Harmattan to be coming during November and December, which is their “winter”. This time will be cool at night and very hot, dry, windy and dusty during the day.

In science, they just got done learning about Living Things in their Environment including the five sense systems and they are now learning about chemistry, which is my personal favorite! They just learned a little chant about the 3 parts of the atom and are now practically chemistry experts! The students also take classes about Hausa, which is their native language, math, English, home economics, social studies, physical education (they love it here, too!) and art. Since they live here at school, they eat all of their meals here, play games, do chores, sing songs, and study all here on campus. They love to play football (soccer), volleyball and Badminton during games time and hang out with their friends. They don’t have any internet access at school, so communication will have to go through me, but you can email me cartercarolyn@hotmail.com if you would like to send the students in JS3 a message.

Thank you so much for your efforts to help us out with some supplies! We really appreciate it and are excited to get to know you! Please let me know if you have any specific questions you would like the students to answer.

"I don't understand!"

2008-10-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Back in Boerne, when I heard “I don’t understand” it was a phrase that stirred mild disappointment that my explanation wasn’t yet adequate. Here in Jalingo, “I don’t understand” evokes feelings of excitement, hope and potential. While this may be counter-intuitive, it’s nonetheless true. One of my greatest sources of frustration with my classes has been that they would simply sit silently staring at me after I explained something and denied having any questions. However, they would then perform abysmally, by my standards, and I would be left feeling confused. They said they didn’t have any questions! I questioned my colleagues about this phenomenon thinking that it may be something to do with my accent or that they were scared of me. They assured me the same thing happens in their classes.

Hmmm…I decided that this must change! I began starting each class with the little mantra stating that “Asking questions indicates intelligence, not ignorance.” I then started providing ridiculous amounts of positive reinforcement for asking any question whatsoever. I felt like I did this to an extent in the U.S., but I took it to a whole new level here! I told them over and over again how important it was to ask questions and by golly, now in the 8th week of school they’re starting to do it!

The primary mode of teaching here is teacher lecture and so many of the students are used to sitting in their desks passively absorbing information. It is so exciting for me to see how their eyes have changed from glossy and disengaged to focused and confused! Granted, I ultimately want them to be engaged and glowing with understanding, but everything is a gradual process. Today, I was thrilled to explain how to draw the Bohr-model of a silicon-27 atom about 6 times in as many different ways as one can say the number of protons always equals the number of electrons in an atom! The next step is to help them to more accurately describe their lack of understanding, but for today hearing “I don’t understand” and “no capishe” (thank you Full House!) multiple times from a variety of students was a victory!

Importance of Education

2008-10-23T06:54:00.001-07:00

Clearly, I believe in the importance of education. I grew up in a household where both of my parents are teachers. I became a chemistry teacher and have moved to Nigeria to teach science in hopes of creating positive change in a community. I believe that all change starts with education. Three Cups of Tea (www.threecupsoftea.com) is a book depicting the actions of one man who chose to further the cause of education for the children, particularly the girls, of Pakistan and Afghanistan by building schools in the remote areas that had previously been too isolated. Greg Mortensen believes that peace will only be achieved when communities have economic stability and that will only take place after the people of the region have received a complete and balanced education.

From my experiences here in Nigeria, I can attest to the fact that there is a significant difference between the numbers of men being educated vs the number of women being educated. I feel very blessed to have grown up in the United States with the benefit of receiving a strong education in science nonetheless. Many people here, girls specifically, haven’t had the same opportunities especially in some of the Muslim communities in the northern part of the country.

This book did an amazing job of illustrating how people of differing faiths can work together to achieve the common goal of education which will effectually be the only way that peace and progress can be achieved. If you have not read it, I highly recommend it. You will not be disappointed!

Living Sacrificially = Sharing Grandma’s Cookies

2008-10-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

Romans 12:1 says that we are to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is our spiritual act of worship”. This was part of the introduction to my devotional book for the month of September. I had read this verse many times, but I was taken by the commentary that accompanied it stating that we are called to be a living sacrifice makes this decree much more difficult to heed. If we were called to be a dead sacrifice, we could make a one-time decision to sacrifice our lives and it would be done! Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we are called to be a LIVING sacrifice! That means, as we are squirming on the altar, we have to make repeated decisions whether we want to stay on the altar by living and loving sacrificially or jump off.
I read this nearly two months ago and have thought back to it many times during my stay here. Living and loving sacrificially is as much about the little daily decisions as it is about the big ones. While leaving the US to go to Nigeria doesn’t initially seem to be on the same level as giving away some of Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies, I’m pretty sure the latter felt more sacrificial! The point is that each of us has innumerable times each day when we can choose to live and love sacrificially in worship to God or we can choose live according to selfish motives. (These can produce much more personally favorable results ephemerally, which is likely why, evolutionarily speaking, we would be inclined to yield to them….the science part of me can’t just be turned off!) However, in the end, choosing to live and love sacrificially not only pleases God eternally, but it also serves to edify those around us in the present!

I write this not because I have everything figured out, because I don’t, but because living sacrificially on a moment to moment basis is something that has presented itself to me many times throughout my stay here starting with the devotional and coming up in a variety of church services and Bible Studies. It must be important…God knows to be persistent with me!

Flame Test Lab Fizzles Out

2008-10-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

Today I was so excited that I had remembered to bring my old Coke cans from home to use as flame-resistant receptacles for the flame test lab. Then, I used my hand pocket knife (that I’m pretty sure I couldn’t live without) to cut in half so I could use them as bowls that wouldn’t crack or melt. I then realized that I didn’t have any matches, so I went to the little hut outside the school grounds (I’m going to have to take a picture of this place because it seriously looks like it has nothing, but it’s come through for me multiple times now!) and purchased 6 packages for 30 cents. Then, I found some chemicals that would work to give some pretty flame colors and found the big bottle of ethanol. I thought for sure that I’d conquered all the challenges and was ready for the lab to be successful because I’d done this same lab nearly 10 times! Never underestimate the challenges in doing lab in Nigeria! J

I described the procedure, since I now balk at the idea of a lab handout, for making a 50% water 50% ethanol solution in the bottom of the can and adding their salt. They were then instructed to light the solution on fire and record the flame color. The kids did all of this and went to light it on fire (I was cringing and dying on the inside that they were going to be doing this without goggles on.) but it didn’t light. Now, I was certain that I’d used a 50/50 mixture last year when I demonstrated this method in AP Chemistry because we needed the water to help dissolve the salt, but I thought that maybe the water was causing the problem, so I had them start over and use all ethanol and their salt. Ethanol, the chemical that has “Highly Flammable” warnings on its label, extinguished the match as if it were being placed into water. Ethanol, the volatile chemical that is used as a fuel additive because of its combustion properties, didn’t even spark once in the consumption of nearly 3 entire boxes of matches. We probably could have stopped trying before consuming so many matches, but I was so incredulous that ethanol wasn’t producing a flame that I allowed attempts to continue past the prudent stopping point.

Grrrr…I was frustrated and dejected. I went to complain to Dajah and verify with another chemist that ethanol is in fact flammable, and this was crazy! After he chucked at my distress and disbelief and assured me that ethanol is combustible in air and told me (Iowa girl) that it’s used as a fuel additive, he told me that it must not be ethanol that I was using. I emphatically told him that I checked the bottle multiple times and it was ethanol! He then explained to me that there are many corrupt business people who simply put clear liquids in bottles and place fraudulent labels on them in order to sell them for money. Oh my goodness! He said that in the 3 years that he’d been the chemistry teacher he’d never used the ethanol to know that it was bad. After evaluating the lid that didn’t actually form any semblance of a seal, I became further convinced that it wasn’t ethanol since it had been around for 3 years and hadn’t completely evaporated in an essentially open container.

So, we started to discuss alternatives for the practicals on Friday. I asked him if one could buy vodka here (as it is an excellent source of ethanol). He had never heard of vodka and his pronunciation made me giggle. It was quite the turn of events to have me trying to explain a type of alcohol to someone! We left school with him promising to buy some gin and me in search of rubbing alcohol at a pharmacy (drug store). I definitely checked in no less than 8 different stores looking for rubbing alcohol using as many names and descriptors as possible to no avail. I think maybe 3 of them really knew what rubbing alcohol was but I visually search all 8 of these small 8’x 8’ stores and there was no alcohol to be found, but this one woman did show me this juice that may have been alcoholic, but it was imported from France and I know even less French than I do Hausa, so I gave up uncertain of what it was but certain that it wasn’t rubbing alcohol. I hoped that Daja would do better with the gin!

Unfortunately, the store was closed, so no gin. After more thought, I decided that we could maybe dip sticks (that they created by pounding branches with rocks) into kerosene, coat them with the salts and then light them on fire. So, with 1 film canister of kerosene we were able to get fire! Alas, the chemicals that I thought would be good really all produced orange flames except for the copper sulfate which was my redeeming blue flame. They were definitely not convinced that this lab is the “best lab ever!” but can’t fault me for lack of effort!

I love "restaurants"!

2008-10-18T06:26:00.000-07:00

I was excited that I didn’t have to cook on Thursday because I had leftovers from the night before. Now, I had used too much groundnut paswte to prepare this sour leaf soup, so it wasn’t good, but it was edible. I thought that I would “spice it up a bit” by adding some tuna! Now, I had forgotten from last week when I ate a can of tuna that these cans require can openers. I don’t have a can opener, so I had to use my multi-function tool to hack-saw into the can. We can be thankful that I still have all my fingers! I really need to invest in a can opener! Now the dinner that was edible the previous night, after sitting for a day was even worse (even with the tuna!) I ate enough to provide me adequate nourishment (don’t worry Mom!) but it was pretty gross. Thankfully, since my one portable light broke a few days ago, I couldn’t see how awful it looked in the pan before I ate it. When NEPA, which was finally fixed this week, came on as an unexpected surprise around 9, I went back to my kitchen with light for the first time in about a month. I was disgusted by the greasy concoction remaining in the pan. It looked horrible!! I quickly disposed of the remains and said a prayer of thanks that I had eaten it before seeing it! 

As a result of this recent cooking disaster, I decided to call my friend Laura and ask her to come over on Saturday to help me cook tuwo masara and some soup. She listed off some ingredients to buy and said she’d be over. In the meantime, I was a little reluctant to try again without some guidance, but a girl has to eat so I decided to go to the little “restaurant” right outside my compound where the women who helped me shell my moi moi beans prepare all the food. When I first came to Nigeria, I had been warned about the dangers of eating “street food”, which is why it has taken me 5 weeks here “alone” and multiple botched dinners before I decided to try it. I rationalized it with the fact that I’ve eaten food prepared at JSS, which can’t be anymore sanitary than this restaurant, had my food partially prepared by these cooks with their utensils, and have had my food ground at the community grinder which is anything but clean, and I have thankfully stayed healthy. I figured I would give it a shot.

Oh my goodness! It was delightful! Many people laughed at me for going and I still need to consult Laura as to whether it’s because I’m a bature eating Nigerian food (which they all find intriguing) or whether it’s because I’m a woman who is eating prepared food (which is practically unheard of), but I don’t care! The food was delicious! The women were so excited to have me there. There were two other men at the table with me that provided excellent conversation and one of them who left before I was through even paid for my dinner (which I was oblivious to probably because the transaction took place in Hausa)! I asked how much the meal costs for future reference and they told me 100N…yeah…that the equivalent of like $.85! Now, I know I need to learn how to cook, and I will continue to press on but this is an exciting development in my culinary world!

Cultural Differences

2008-10-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

There are many social rules and many of them aren’t given any thought…when you’re in your own culture! However, it requires a lot of thought, attention and effort when you’re in a new culture. I vividly remember in high school telling a foreign exchange student from Germany that it wasn’t socially acceptable to wear the same clothes two days in a row here in the US. She thought this was so strange and said that people do it all the time in Germany. I remember saying, that’s fine, but you’re in the US and people will think you’re weird if you do that here. That conversation has flashed through my mind so many times in the two months since I’ve been here in Nigeria.

A few social norms that I’ve had to adapt to:
1) When wrapping your wrapper (pronounced “wrappa”) the open side MUST be on the left…I asked why? I like it better on the right…they laughed hysterically and said if I was a woman, I MUST have the open side on the left…okay.
2) When entering a church for any reason a woman must have her head covered and wear a skirt…I asked why? I was told, “Haven’t you ever read that verse in the Bible?”…yeah…I’m trying to build up my scarf collection and still don’t really enjoy that…I wore capris the other day because I had worn them to school (where a student gave me a note with Deuteronomy 22:5 in it…check it out!)…and I survived.
3) You shouldn’t wear a shirt that isn’t the same pattern as your wrapper when you go to church. It’s considered too casual.
4) You don’t invite people over…they stop by to visit and you’re expected to go visit people “greet them” in return. I feel that I’m at a disadvantage considering I know where very few people live and everyone knows where I live!
5) There are no neutral places to meet people at. It is always at someone’s home.
6) Nigerians ALL (and I know that I am using ALL because it applies) comment on people’s weight/size. I have been told by innumerable people that I’m getting fatter or that I was fat in previous pictures. (I’m fully convinced this is because when I first started teaching at JSS I was gaunt. I am now “normal”) I have not gotten used to this. People often ask me to then assess other people’s weight. I have explained many times that I just can’t do this…it’s too weird.
7) When someone invites you to do something, they have to pay. Even in a group of friends. I don’t think this is fair because I still feel like I’m at the mercy of going where people invite me to go because I don’t know enough to initiate but I feel guilty that it means I never pay!
8) You’re not supposed to do laundry on Sunday, but it is acceptable to have a conversation with guys while doing laundry…underwear! They didn’t seem to think it was strange at all.
9) When you’re walking along and see someone you know, you’re supposed to stop and have a full conversation with them. Saying hello and walking past isn’t acceptable. This is fine except when everyone feels like they know you!
10) When riding a motorcycle (which I try to do as infrequently as possible), you don’t hold onto the driver…even though it seems as though it would be the most stable thing to do. I, instead, grip onto the rack behind me and say a prayer.

This is really just the beginning. There are so many “rules” and each one learned has involved a situation or multiple in which I have felt quite awkward! It takes extra energy and effort to simply not make a fool of myself or at least minimize the frequency! However, I feel that I will be much more mindful and seek out people to help once back in the United States as I have been grateful for many kind and patient teachers here.

I uploaded some new pictures...some are a part of old albums and some are in a new one...here are the links:
Mountain Climbing!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37892&l=661e1&id=501312909
Cooking and Home Repairs
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35042&l=d4f33&id=501312909
Colorful Columns Density Lab
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35471&l=4f4c3&id=501312909

I GOT MAIL!!!

2008-10-11T02:07:00.000-07:00

After mailing my ballot, I introduced myself and told them that I was hoping to be receiving some packages. They said I could leave my phone number and they’d contact me if they saw anything…5 minutes after I left they called me saying I should return as they’d found some packages!!!!

AHHH!!! YAY!!! I received my first letters from Mom and my friend Laura in Botswana which was so exciting and encouraging…and now I received an excellent package from my parents (so hopefully my printer will be able to be used now!), chocolate chip cookies (all in one piece and miraculously fresh) from my Grandma and a super-fun care package from Laura and Meredith!!!! The post office people were so happy that I was so excited!! I told them that the Jalingo Post Office is the BEST EVER! When I told them that I had been concerned that packages wouldn’t arrive and that stuff might be stolen, they said, “We have a very good and efficient mail system!” I said I would now boast as much! They promised to call me as soon as anything else arrives for me…I’m confident now that any package that gets even close to Jalingo will make it to me! :) They are fabulous!!!

I'm making a list of requests now that I know they just might make it! :)

Voting in America!

2008-10-11T02:02:00.000-07:00

Democracy is a beautiful thing. Free and open elections are a blessing. I have been a strong advocate for participating in elections big and small ever since getting interested in politics during my government class in high school, but I think voting in this election has been the most challenging and rewarding voting experience yet! It started by having to switch my residency from Texas to Iowa only to move to Nigeria. I had to convince the Muscatine County Auditor that I couldn’t receive mail (which I didn’t think I could at the time!) and she needed to email me my ballot.

When I thankfully received it via email, I saved it to my flash drive only to find out the file had been corrupted, so I had to do it again. When I found a USB cord to hook up my printer to my computer, it didn’t work. So, I went across the road to print it at a “computer service center” since my internet café was not working for a few days. Unfortunately, after he started up his generator, booted his computer we realized that he didn’t have Adobe Acrobat Reader so I couldn’t open all the documents. I tried to explain to him the beauty of pdf files and promised him I would try to copy the program onto my jump drive (which he’d never seen before…at a “computer service center”…I was a little confused by this, but I guess that people normally just type what they want there and then print it…so much for the idea of saving!) and bring it to him so he could have it on his computer. He was interested in this and therefore changed the price to print from the completely outrageous “white person price” of about $1.50 per page to a more reasonable $.50 per page. Later, I printed the remaining 6 pages at my internet café for a “special person price” of about $.15 per page!

Since I was ridiculously excited about having my ballot, I showed it to many people…at the internet café…around my compound…at school…really anyone I came in contact with! They were all intrigued that I was able to vote in an American election even though I was residing in Nigeria. Then, they were all amazed to see the names John McCain and Barak Obama that they’d all heard about on the news on my ballot!! I then was able to get into some interesting discussions with people at school about how elections in Nigeria are completely rigged and so people become disenfranchised and don’t want to participate in the process. I encouraged them to come up with a way to change this problem…but that’s a topic for another day…

After asking around, I discovered the location of the post office and was able to take a taxi (which I’m now quite adept at hailing myself!) there. I was delighted to discover no line and some extremely welcoming employees eager to assist me! I was able to purchase envelopes there and they even provided me with glue to affix the necessary documents the outside. I put it in the “International” slot and said a prayer that it would make it to the USA and that my vote would be counted!!! (Make sure you all vote!!!)

Call me Chef Carter!

2008-10-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

After this weekend, I'm pretty sure I can now add the word Chef in front of my name! I successfully finished baking and shelling and grinding my groundnuts into groundnut paste or Peanut Butter! I was nothing less than estactic when it came out of the grinder as future pictures will prove! After adding a little salt, sugar and some groundnut oil (which I learned will not be necessary next time when I cook them a few at a time like I'm supposed to) to make it less crumbly it was done! It was pretty darn good and my next attempt will only be better! :)

The peanut butter simply gave me confidence to try moi moi solo. I decided to trek down to the grocery store to pick up some american food and then hit a mini-market to get the final ingredients for the moi moi. This turned out to be quite the jaunt as many people stopped to greet me, I was able to stop and price a water tank for a future project, and I was able to scope out a picture printing place and let him know that I would not be paying $2.50 to print one 4x6 picture! :)

Having gathered all the necessary ingredients and confident I remembered how Laura had made it, I realized that I had not taken an active role in shelling the beans. I knew that she had soaked them and the shells just seemed to come off for her...clearly that was not the case for me! After attempting to shell them one-by-one and concluding that there must be a more efficient way, I went outside my compound where there are women who have a little restaurant and are always cooking food. I'd never officially met them, but we were definitely on a waving and "Sannu (hello)" basis, so I took my bowl of beans and a quizzical expression to them to request help. Now I speak limited Hausa and they spoke limited English, but they understood my problem and showed me exactly how to grind them in a giant morter and pestal then to put them in a bowl of water...the shells most definitely floated to the top (thank you density...this will definitely be an example I use in class later this month!) and in mere minutes, they were all expertly shelled! I figured out how to say "Thank you for helping me!" and promised I'd bring them some of my product.

I was a little disppointed to find out that the man at the market had given me dried pepper instead of dried crayfish, but I pressed onward! Then as I was filling the bags as Laura had done, I'd somehow purchased faulty baggies...yeah...every other one leaked out the bottom. That's okay...I was able to double bag! :) I wasn't sure how long to cook them, so I just kind of guessed when they looked done. I was more than a little nervous, but decided to go share my food, which had been a community endeavor, with those who had helped! The women who had helped me shell the beans were excited to try it, and I was excited to have new friends and kitchen mentors right ouside! Since the guards are always there to help me out, I decided I'd partake under the tree with them. They were very appreciative and complimentary of my first attempt! Now, there were defintely some chunks of spice that hadn't been well-distributed and a couple of the bags were kind of runny, but it wasn't bad! Even more importantly, I made a lot of great connections with people while making it which made it taste even better!! :)

Other Weekend Happenings

2008-10-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

I tried to buy wheat when I was at the market with Laura (I still haven’t ventured there alone yet…it’s way too daunting!) and was asked repeatedly, “What’s wheat?” We tried to explain that it’s used to make bread and that it’s a grain like rice, but all they could do was show us white flour. My goal is to make whole wheat bread, but it’s taking some time. I did successfully find yeast!

My baked ground nuts turned out amazing! They are by far my best “cooking” product to this point. I’m in the process of making peanut butter. Thankfully, the bishop’s son who lives in the house next door came over and helped me take the peelings off the baked ground nuts (which I definitely burned, but it’ll be okay) because it was taking me way too long. Tomorrow I plan to take them to the grinder and supposedly I’ll have excellent peanut butter! We’ll see…I think if I add a little sugar and salt it could be really good based on what I tasted of a friend’s, but the verdict is still out.

I was able to go running for the first time here in Nigeria over the weekend with my friend Helen! It was so exciting!!! I had missed running so much! We went at 6am because it seems that’s the only time people around here exercise and I was amazed that the entirety of Jalingo was already well into their day at this time. I had been worried to run alone this early thinking that it would be too desolate, not the case at all. I saw other runners who were very friendly (as all runners are!) and felt just as safe as I do walking around alone during the day. No sooner did I run one morning as I am now wondering if there are any races…probably not here in Jalingo, but maybe in Abuja. I think it could be so much fun to “compete” internationally! I need to get back into shape, but I’m now hopeful at the possibilities. J

Nigerian Independence Day

2008-10-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

Besides Christmas and Spring Break, 5-day weekends don’t happen in the US. I’ve decided that I like them! Monday and Tuesday were off because of Sallah, the end of Ramadan. This is a perk of living in an area with a significant Muslim population despite teaching at a Christian school! Then, Wednesday was Nigerian Independence Day. They didn’t gain their independence from Britain until 1960, so they’re a fairly young country! As part of the Independence Day celebration, Her Excellency (the wife of the governor) hosted an event to celebrate the rich cultural heritage within the state of Taraba in which students from the surrounding schools were asked to represent a particular tribe from the area and perform that tribe’s dance in appropriate garb. Students from JSS were asked to participate, so I was able to go and observe!

I was intrigued by how distinct the particular tribes were. As a couple of my co-workers were taking me around to view the different tribes, they could tell which tribe they were just by looking at their costumes. There are over 60 different tribes, each with their own dialect, traditions, and sub-culture within Taraba state. As I was watching the dozen or so different dances I was thinking about how neat it is that they have this special connection with this particular group of people. All of the people here can tell you what tribe they’re from. Then, when they run into someone, they can somehow tell if a person is from their particular tribe even if they’ve never met and they begin to speak in that specific dialect.

At the end of the performances, Her Excellency gave an address to the students and gathered audience about the importance of preserving cultural heritage. Dress is very important to Nigerians and she stressed if they leave the country they should dress in their Nigerian attire with pride. She also stated that though Nigeria has some challenges with poverty, they should be thankful that they have peace because many nations that are better off economically are at war. I thought that was an interesting statement almost implying that the two are mutually exclusive. Taraba is considered the poorest and most undeveloped state in Nigeria. Trying to move the country forward developmentally speaking while preserving its cultural heritage is an ongoing challenge everywhere and it is even more pronounced here amidst the rich traditions and stark amenities.

Here is a link to some pictures from the event:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36276&l=45e17&id=501312909

Comedy of Cooking Conundrums

2008-10-01T02:14:00.000-07:00

There were leftover greens (soup) from the day before, so I had told Mrs. Thomas that I could simply make some more semovita (starchy rice substitute that is kind of like cream of wheat) and eat that for dinner. My friend Helen asked me if I’d made semovita before. I asked her, “Really, how hard can it be? Add some of the powder from the bag to some water and heat it.” She just smiled.

I’ve now mastered the “off” position and the “on” position on the gas tank, so the gas was on when I tried to light the burner. One would think that Nigerian matches are the same as American matches…and they are the same with one minor difference…Nigerian matches don’t LIGHT! I’ve done some mini-scientific studies trying to isolate the faulty variable. Is it the fact that the wooden part breaks as I try to strike it along the box? Is it the tip that just maybe doesn’t have enough of the activated phosphorus coating? Is it the striking surface of the box that doesn’t activate the tip? My conclusion: all of these are contributing variables to exhausting half a box of matches every time I have to light a burner.

Since I was heating the greens and making semovita, I had to go through the match ordeal not once, but twice! I thought I had been successful when I realized that I hadn’t made enough semovita (but it was, may I add, a perfect consistency!) So, I innocently thought, I’ll just make the same amount again. Ha! I had to light the burner again because by trying to conserve fuel I had turned off the burner prematurely. Once I finally got the burner re-lit, I added more semovita and more water.

By this time, it was getting pretty dark, so I went outside to turn on the generator. As I tried to turn it on, it wouldn’t start. I confidently went over to the gas can (which I had checked earlier that afternoon) to add more fuel. It clearly wasn’t enough because it still wouldn’t start. No problem, I thought, I’ll just go buy more fuel right outside the compound. As the man was measuring out 3 gallons, (yep…Nigeria measures everything in metrics including fuel, except when you buy fuel from men on the street…then it’s in gallons…go figure!) I realized that I had left the semovita cooking on the stove…whoops!

When I returned, I hurried into the kitchen to check the status of my second portion of semovita. It was most definitely burnt, not that I could see this, but I used my sense of smell to detect this outcome. I grabbed my handy lantern, turned off the burner then went back outside to fill the generator with fuel. Once I came back inside and washed the gasoline from my hands, I realized that I had failed to cover my initial portion of semovita which had becoming quite cold by this point in the process.

Needless to say, my independent cooking endeavors are not overly successful, yet. However, I’m still going to try to bake my groundnuts tonight, and I looked up bread recipes on the internet as I found out from Mrs. Thomas this morning that I had initially misunderstood her and I can use gas to fuel the oven! I’m sure there will be more adventures!

I Love Lab!

2008-09-26T08:52:00.001-07:00

I did my first “practical” or lab with my SS1 Chemistry kids this week. While it didn’t go perfectly, it was fabulous! J The kids were so excited to be doing lab!!! The groups were way too large due to limited supplies, but it worked out okay. There are about 36 in the class and we had enough supplies for 6 groups, so 6 kids per group is typically way too many, but they were so excited to be in lab that they wanted to participate and few were just observing which was good! We were doing a mixture separation lab with salt and sand (we canvassed Jalingo for iron filings unsuccessfully before we realized that we could get some from a welder but it was too late!) and I in my initial naiveté thought we could do a percent composition…yeah…not so much! It was their first hands-on experience with using a balance, so we were working on first things first. I was pleased that they had written a procedure beforehand and they were actually using them! They had to teach me how to light the kerosene burners that we were using as bunsen burners. The lab time allowed me to get to know them more and we built some great rapport! They were asking so many questions about different lab equipment that they saw. We had some minor issues like trying to use a 50mL pipette as a stirring rod, but they were trying and it was exciting!

My other favorite moment of the week was in my computer training class with the teachers. I was teaching them what the top three boxes in the right hand corner of every Word document do. When I had them minimize, they were devastated because they had just typed a couple of sentences using proper typing fingers and now they thought it was gone forever. Their looks of pure delight when they saw it the box at the bottom of the screen and then reappeared when they clicked it were priceless!

With that said, it’s been a terrific week except for the awful cockroaches at night! Thanks so much for the encouraging emails and photo comments and prayers! They are so much appreciated!! People in the internet café have told me more than once that I look so happy when I’m there and it’s because of all of you!

Here is a link to some pictures of my kids and co-workers:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35471&l=4f4c3&id=501312909

Frustrations and Blessings!

2008-09-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

Most of my experiences here have been fabulous, but there are certain frustrations that I encounter here which are typically pretty inconsequential. After a few of them are compounded, I have to consciously look for the positives (which are always present) to keep the right attitude!

Frustration
I was really excited for computer training on Friday. The generator was to have been fixed, more computers had been found, tables had been scrounged and then NEPA even came on! It was a time of disappointments. The generator wasn’t fixed. Then, I had hoped NEPA would come on, but it didn’t for the first class at least. When NEPA did come on, it proved to be even more frustrating. The two new desktops acted like they had power because the monitor, speakers and mouse were getting power, but the CPU wouldn’t turn on, probably due to low voltage. Then, we realized that the charging cord of the new lap top I’d brought had been fried and would no longer charge the lap top that was completely out of battery. This makes me really nervous that the power strip we have is going to blow out other pieces of equipment. Then another computer that was plugged into the wall directly was receiving no power. I found out that despite the appearance of many outlets, a number of the outlets have no fuses, and therefore have no power.

Blessing
Habukuk, the maintenance person at school, said that he’d check the outlets for me. When he found one that worked, it was on the other side of the room so he had to make an extension cord by crudely wiring two cords together to reach, now one more computer has the potential to have power! (Today, Tuesday, we had training and the computers are now hooked up to a stabilizer and we had 8 functioning computers! So exciting!!!)

Frustration
When I got home, I was going to go to the little store right outside the compound to get some water, since we were completely out and return my pop bottle. Henry, the owner, wasn’t there. There are plenty of other stores down a little further, but I had bonded with Henry and like to frequent it!

Blessing
My friend owns the store next door, so it was nice to get to chat with her for a bit. A little while later, a friend of hers came to my house to let me know that Henry had returned. I got two big bottles of water from the store and then also got some biscuits (that taste just like shortbread Girl Scout cookies!) and little chocolates that he had purchased just for me!

Frustration
Then when I got to the internet café, the generator was out of fuel so I had to wait about 45 minutes for fuel to arrive. Then the internet was sickeningly slow and I wasn’t able to access my Facebook page during the two hours that I was there.

Blessing
However, I was thankful that I ran into Liatu and was able to chat with her while waiting for fuel. She spent 7 years in the U.S. and so she’s as close to an American perspective that I can get.

Frustration
When I got home, I tried to turn on the big generator to pump some water as the pressure was getting quite low and it was dark. Though the generator seemed to be running fine, it wasn’t giving my house any electricity! I tried troubleshooting the best I could and made 3 trips back and forth to see if it had worked and was unsuccessful. I had to turn on the little generator meaning that I had lights and charging power but no fans or water pumping.

I ran out of water on Sunday morning because the big generator still wouldn’t work. When Ronald came over to “fix” it, it appeared to work fine for him (I think it’s because NEPA was on when we were testing it), because again it wouldn’t provide me electricity on Sunday night. When I tried to turn on my small generator, it was out of fuel.

Blessing
I’m SO thankful that James was here to help me solve these problems the first 5 weeks! Now that he’s gone, I know that I’ll have to do more troubleshooting on my own as well as be more dependent on Ronald but thankfully, I feel settled enough and confident enough in my surrounding that while these situations are frustrating, I am in a position to deal with it and survive okay. I learned that NEPA (city electricity) has enough power to pump water to my tank when I shut off the other tanks in the compound, which is valuable information to know and should prevent me from running out of water again even if the generator doesn’t work!

Throughout these situations, “…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28. As my shower trickled to a stop on Sunday morning, I can’t say that I was rejoicing. But when I was able to see the people of my church literally bringing their first fruits of the harvest…yams, ground nuts, eggs, chickens, goats…to the alter, it brought the scripture in Deuteronomy 26 alive in a way I could have never imagined! I was then able to praise God for such an authentic and spiritual experience. My paradoxical Nigerian experiences continue!

Here is a link to some pictures of my Nigerian home!
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35042&l=d4f33&id=501312909

Food!

2008-09-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

Over the past 5 weeks that I’ve been in Nigeria, I’ve had the opportunity to eat many delicious and authentic Nigerian dishes! I’ve really enjoyed almost all of the culinary experiences with one exception…kunu! It’s awful! Sorghum is boiled with water and supposedly sugar is added. It looks like watery chocolate milk and tastes like pickle juice! When I said this, they didn’t know what pickles were! I said that pickles were good, but drinking pickle juice that looks like chocolate milk isn’t favorable.

Two days ago at school, a Fulani woman came by with “no no”. I was told that this was milk. The Fulani tribe is nomadic and follows the cows around as they graze, milks them and brings the milk to the market daily. She came with a large bowl filled with bowls of this “milk”, sugar, and cereal to add. All of my co-workers were encouraging me to try it while I was a little leery. After asking about 10 times if it had been boiled, I decided it was worth the experience to risk it. It turns out the “milk” is really yogurt and surprisingly good! I hadn’t had any dairy products since I’d been here since questionable refrigeration and pasteurization makes it difficult and I was excited to try it. The next day, I decided to have a bowl of it and really liked it. They promised me this woman is very clean in her preparations. She said she would bring me milk that was extra boiled and extra clean in the future.

Moi moi is another traditional Nigerian food that I helped to make this past Saturday with Laura. I’m going to be a better Nigerian cook than American cook by the time I leave!  We soaked and shelled white beans and then mixed them with pepper and took it to the neighborhood grinder to be run through with water to make a kind of soup. Then, Laura added an expert mixture of curry, maggi seasoning, chicken boullion, salt, dried craw fish, and peanut “groundnut” oil to the mixture while I was the stirrer. Then we poured this mixture into little bags or “leathers” with half a hard-boiled egg into boiling water for about 20 minutes. It was so good!!! I was very excited that I had even participated in the yummy result!

It’s amazing how central food is to culture! I’m thankful that I really do enjoy the food because my Nigerian friends are so excited when they see me willing to try the native food and actually like it! Everyone has been so thoughtful and kind in offering me food and sharing in the new experience with me. I’ve been very conscientious about trying everything while keeping the safety issue in mind! :) Also, I can now see the fun in preparing a meal as entertainment. There are no movie theaters or malls or parks or trails…well walking through the town is basically like walking trails…but cooking together is a lot of fun! Nigeria must be having an effect on me! :)

***I added some pictures of these food experiences to the picture folder...here's the link:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32625&l=ae61a&id=501312909

Rain

2008-09-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

It's the rainy season here in Nigeria right now. I enjoy the rain for the most part as it keeps it cooler, but it's really interesting how the Nigerians aren't really fans. They appreciate the rain for the agriculture and for the clean drinking water, but they think it's way too cold! Today I was walking to the Internet Cafe after school when it got really cloudy and I could tell that rain was coming soon. People were packing up their food booths and scurrying around to beat the rain. As I was walking by, normally people just stare, but today I had so many people look at me and say, "Rain! It's going to rain!" (Really, I think they were implying, "Idiot, it's going to rain! Get inside!") I just smiled and felt that I now had a legitimate reason to walk fast. Thankfully, I made it before it poured!!!

I had been told last week by my friend Laura that people had commented to her that her white friend walks too fast. I started noticing that everyone here walks at the pace of a leisurely stroll. I'm used to walking as if I'm on a mission because normally I am! I am now making a conscious effort to slow my pace down in order to better blend in...okay...a girl can hope, right?! :)

Classes!

2008-09-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

I officially taught students on Wednesday! It felt like it was a really long time in coming. Monday was essentially just teacher meetings then Tuesday classes began, but since I’m only teaching 2 classes. I have 1 section of SS1 Chemistry (sophomores) that meets twice a week: once for 80 minutes and once for 40 minutes and 1 section of JS3 Integrated Science (freshmen) that meets 3 times a week for 40 minutes each. This is not abnormal. Most teach 1 more section, but it is much less teaching intensive than what teachers do in the US. I’m also going to be in charge of the labs or “practicals” for SS2 and SS3 chemistry. The kids aren’t used to doing many hands-on activities at all. I found a balance in the science room and brought it in for the kids to utilize in making observations of a candle in my chemistry class. These sophomores had never seen a balance before! Overall, the chemistry class went well but there are definitely some students in there who are trying to push me to find my limits and they’re doing it subversively. I think we’ll understand each other better as time goes on. There are some great kids in there!

The JS3 students are adorable and precious! They are so excited to learn and everyone participates and asks questions. I’m really excited about working with them! The challenge with this class will be that the book that it’s based out of is wacky. As one of the other science teachers said, “maybe they didn’t really understand the science and were just money hungry”. This book tries to teach chemical reactions before learning the parts of an atom and Chapter 1 of the book starts out with the nervous system…yeah…not body systems or systems…or living things…the nervous system! What?!? I will clearly not be following the order of the book. They are working on getting me the standards that the students will be tested on from this course.

I forget how much I love teaching by the end of a school year, but at the beginning I remember again! I truly love being with students and doing science. While I’m excited to have a lot more time to plan it really is pretty nice it takes extra long to scrounge up materials to use in activities. I asked to check out the kitchen to see what supplies were available since there is typically lots of good stuff there for chemistry experiments…yeah…when I got to the “kitchen” there was seriously an empty room with a concrete floor and a fire pit off to the side…hmmm…I said, where’s the food? There was a locked little closet with rice, flour, sugar, salt, tea, and not a whole lot else. I was hoping for maybe an orange (they come on Saturday’s and are eaten on Sunday’s) or some aluminum foil…no such luck! I did purchase two candles and four boxes of matches for about 45 cents!

When I initially thought that the lab was fairly well stocked, I clearly hadn’t tried to actually conduct any experiments! J One balance that functions questionably, no magnesium ribbon, zinc powder, calcium carbide, no good alkali metals, and the iodine solution had no lid. There will be some challenges, but I’m excited about the challenge and think that I’m going to learn a lot about actually planning lessons ahead of time and producing presentable lesson plans complete with objectives and everything!

JSS vs BHS

2008-09-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

I don’t know if it’s possible for teaching at JSS in Jalingo to be more different from teaching in Boerne and to be so similar at the same time! I’ll try to describe this relationship in a sort of Venn Diagram manner for all of you who love graphic organizers! J
Differences

BHS-public day school (though there were occasional prayers, it was still a secular institution) the kids arrive in fancy cars or busses.
JSS-private boarding school the kids are already there and we teachers arrive in a beat-up 15 passenger van (they haven’t been deemed too dangerous here yet! J) because taxis won’t transport down such a bad road.

BHS-A teacher teaches for 22.5 hours in a week
JSS-A teacher teaches for about 6 hours in a week

BHS- about 8 computer labs with about 20 computers a piece
JSS-6 computers…maybe once a monitor gets “fixed”

BHS-A teacher gets paid $40,000+ per year
JSS-A teacher gets paid about $200 per year (fuel prices are exactly the same!) and have gone multiple months without paychecks.

BHS-Teachers groan and complain (me totally included) about going to technology inservice.
JSS-Teachers clapped when it was announced that computer training would be provided and were so excited!

Similarities
*I work(ed) with fabulous teachers totally care about the kids and are doing their best to teach them.
*Some kids want to learn, some kids don’t.
*Teachers at these schools are getting paid less than comparable schools in the area.
*Getting supplies to do labs is challenging…at BHS when I wanted to buy materials to do labs, it took an act of God to get a purchase order, get the credit card with the Tax ID Card, buy the items, and return the card with the receipt…at JSS it takes an act of God to find simple materials like candles and matches at a store and certain chemicals have to be ordered from across the country….but it’s totally worth it to do the experiments!!!
*Chemistry is the same everywhere!!!

Internet Cafe Woes

2008-09-10T08:11:00.001-07:00

Hey there all! I had typed this whole detailed explanation about my first day of classes and now the internet cafe seems to have put a virus on my jump drive so I can't access any of the files, there's something wrong that won't let me open any of my emails and the photos that I wanted to upload have been corrupted for the second time. Grrrr! So the sparknotes version is that classes are going really well! Some of the kids are great and some are challenging, just like the US! :) Lots of planning time, but very limited supplies!

I'm in the choir?!?!

2008-09-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

I went to Bible Study at the church that is within walking distance of my house on Thursday and was excited to go to church there on Sunday because I knew that I would “know” or at least recognize some people there AND there’s an English service! (I hadn’t been to a church service in English in a month!!!) When I got there I realized that the English service is much smaller than the Hausa one, but there were quite a few people I saw from Bible Study and was excited to sit with them. Here in Nigeria, “youth” constitutes people up to age 30; therefore, I am part of the youth group! I sat with them and before I realized it, there was an announcement that the youth group would now be performing a song. Everyone around me stood up and I was faced with the choice of standing up in a group and not knowing the song or remain the only person seated in the entire section. Either way, everyone was going to be looking at me, so I stood up and decided I would try to figure out the song as I went. Everyone was swaying and clapping along with the song…not just clapping a steady beat or even clapping the off-beat…no, clapping in some syncopated rhythm that everyone but me felt quite comfortable with. Let’s just say that I did my best and now realize that choir practice isn’t really an optional activity!

Saturday...a day in Jalingo!

2008-09-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday
Saturday was the first time that I felt like a resident of Jalingo as opposed to a vacationing person. It was fabulous! My new friend Laura (I think it’s a rule when I move to a new place that I find a friend named Laura!) walked over to my compound to pick me up and took me to her compound, introduced me to a bunch of her friends and gave me some great experiences! We went to the market and picked out a live chicken, it was partially killed and handed to us with tied legs to be brought 10 steps over to be fully butchered. I watched it be de-feathered and cut up placed in a plastic bag and handed over to us. We promptly brought it home and cooked it up! I felt so sheltered that I had never experienced that before.

Then, Laura was cutting it up further and I was embarrassed to say that I had only ever purchased frozen breasts of meat before and definitely had never seen the head put in which I simply decided to not let bother me. When we were eating the fabulous lunch that Laura had prepared (I did help peel some potatoes with a ginormous knife without cutting myself!) on a single burner kerosene stove and no running water, I was asked is life easier here or in the US? Alright, now the obvious response is that it’s easier in the US. There are many more conveniences there to make many tasks like laundry and cooking less work intensive. However, I feel that in a certain way, life is “easier” here in Nigeria...but when I tried to explain myself I was at a loss. I’m still reflecting on that question and I told him I’d get back to him on that question.

After lunch, we went to the gym where Laura’s boyfriend works. I was unsure about what to expect from a gym here in Jalingo and was completely impressed. It’s housed at a hotel and had multiple tread mills, bike machines, ellipticals, weight machines. It was definitely superior to the facility I had at my apartment complex in San Antonio! There was even a machine I had never seen before called a massager machine. You stand on a platform and then it vibrates and shakes out your muscles after a tough workout! It was crazy!

Then, I went to my first restaurant in Jalingo with some of Laura’s friends. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, and I had a great time!

Motorcycle Ride

2008-09-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

I officially had my first ride on a motorbike! It was a little scary! However, luckily my friend Magdiel was here and so I knew the person I was riding with and I made him promise to drive very carefully! :) I was extra safe...don't worry!! (I wish I could say that I wore a helmet..but I haven't seen one of those here in Nigeria yet.)

Here is a link to some new pictures. I feel that once school starts the amount of pictures will decrease signficantly, but for now, I have fun with them! :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32625&l=ae61a&id=501312909
Thanks for the fun comments!!!

Address

2008-09-03T05:18:00.000-07:00

So, I found out that I can receive mail at the school where I teach. I think it's going to take a while, but that's okay! :)

Carolyn Carter
UMCN Junior Seminary
P.M.B. 1012
Jalingo, Taraba State
Nigeria

Despite packing what felt like a bazillion books, it's amazing how fast I read without internet around! :) I've been here less than 3 weeks and finished three books! Any and all mail is much appreciated!!! I love you guys and have so appreciated all the comments/emails/facebook posts! They are seriously huge highlights! I love everything here, but it's so nice to hear from home!!!

Offering...Dance Party Style

2008-09-03T04:19:00.000-07:00

Though I have been gone from Iowa for 3 Sundays, this was the first Sunday that I was able to attend church here in Nigeria due to travel. Everyone was so welcoming! We were given the place of honor and asked to sit up front facing the crowd. While that’s slightly awkward it is exacerbated by the fact that the entire service is done in Hausa meaning I catch about 1 word every 10 minutes or so which makes it difficult to focus for hours. However, things got really exciting during the offering portion of the service! I’m convinced that if we treated the offering portion of the service with a fraction of the joy and jubilance that they did in Zing, the church would bring in more money! More importantly, I’m certain that is how Jesus would want us to be bringing forth our gifts with a spirit of delight in giving.

There was music going and people singing and dancing while coming forward to put their money in the bucket. This process when on for 4-5 different songs and what seemed like 6 different offerings, but it seriously felt like a dance party! Now, I was a little leery when they motioned for me to come around back so I could dance my way up to the front. I don’t dance well and definitely not in front of people, but I’m in Nigeria, so I danced! I had the freeing feeling of being so different that it didn’t matter how I danced. They were thrilled that I was doing my little interpretation of their dance up the aisle alongside of them. It was so much fun!

Friday Afternoon Crowds

2008-09-03T04:11:00.000-07:00

Growing up in Wilton, Iowa, attending college in Cedar Falls, Iowa and then living for 4 years in San Antonio, TX, I have clearly always lived in predominantly Christian communities. Before coming to Jalingo, Nigeria, I had read that the area was divided fairly evenly between Christianity and Islam. A friend who had lived in Lagos, Nigeria for a year had mentioned the craziness that ensues on Fridays when the mosques let out. Thankfully, I have not encountered any pandemonium, but on Friday afternoon we were picking up a few things downtown and there were throngs of people walking along the streets. I asked Hannahtu if there was some big special event going on. She said that it was simply people walking to the mosques. Interesting experience!

Perspective

2008-09-03T04:08:00.000-07:00

While living in San Antonio, I taught in Boerne where I had many students whose families were incredibly financially well-off and honestly made me feel pretty poor. However, then I would encounter other students both in Boerne and while I was doing some student teaching at an inner-city school in San Antonio that reminded me of the plenty that I do have. Really, there are some very poor areas in most cities of the United States that require attention and support. In spite of this, all cities and citizens have running water and public electricity and telephone services (to my knowledge). When I arrived in Lagos, it was clear that I had arrived in a developing country indicated by the lack of air conditioning and the dilapidated state of many of the buildings but there was a bustling business-like feel to it. After a flight to Yola and a two hour drive to Jalingo, I realized that I had left the big city and arrived in a huge “small town” with erratic electricity, no public water and allegedly no newspaper. Just when I thought, WOW, I remember I still have access to internet and a cell phone. I, then, arrived to the small village of Sibre where everyone lives in huts and farms and realize that the people of the city of Jalingo are living in luxury because many people there have access to generators. But, the village of Bargarmi added yet another layer of perspective.

This village was settled in the 70’s when people were looking for an area of land that could be cultivated for farming. This village was about 6 miles (thank you GPS!) off the main paved road and we reached in an hour thanks to about 8 guys from the village that walked about 3 miles to meet us and navigate the massive wash outs, lift us out of muddy bogs, and push us through the river. Sibre instigated a church in this village a few years back and a church in Nebraska had helped to fund a building for them and the Iowa-Nigeria Partnership and assisted them with a deep-water well. Seeing the villagers show off their well and the pristine water that was flowing from it was a spiritual experience for me. There is nothing more loving that could have been given to this community than clean water. This community has no school for its children no healthcare facility and lives off of the food they are able to grow, some of which comes from the donated seeds.

While we were there and Beverly was reading a letter of greeting from their partnering church in Nebraska, they were intent listening to the translation (they don’t even speak the native language Hausa…but only their tribal language Mamui…I was proud that I was able to tell that it wasn’t Hausa…baby steps!!) when one of the villagers brought in a tubular plant they hadn’t ever seen before but wanted to know how to prepare it. James identified it as a type of radish and sliced it for them. They were all tried it with great expectation! Really, it’s a radish, a little is okay, but they were eating thick cucumber slice sized pieces….yuck! Most enjoyed it, but this woman that I had sat with couldn’t keep the squeamish look from her face! It was cute!

Past Missionary Impact

2008-09-03T04:02:00.000-07:00

This morning, Beverly, James and I went first to a community about a half-hour’s drive from Jalingo called Sibre. There is a United Methodist Church of Nigeria mission station located there including a Rural Development Program of a fish farm, carpentry training program, garden and clinic. Jusef and Mary are spear-heading this ministry. These Nigerians grew up in Bambur and worked alongside some missionaries from the states and were trained in helping others achieve self-sufficiency and grow in their faith and moved their ministry to this poor village, Sibre. Now, however, the church of Sibre has reached out to a ridiculously remote village, Bagarmi which I had the opportunity to visit on Friday. It is encouraging to see the positive and wide-spread ripple effects that can take place!

Being Different

2008-08-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

It is an interesting feeling to stick out so much (I haven't seen any other white people since I've been here). The color of my skin is probably the most obvious difference, but it’s definitely only the beginning. I dress differently, speak differently, behave differently and think differently. However, it’s kind of liberating. Few people here have been to the US and those who have definitely are not critiquing my fashion sense. I’ve received two beautiful, traditional, Nigerian outfits since being here and I have mixed feelings about them. I love them! They are quite regal, but when wearing them, I am definitely laughed at. Now, this laughing is done in love and appreciation of my effort to bond with the culture, but I still feel like a poser! Maybe as time wears on I’ll become so Nigerian in so many ways that no one will notice I’m not a native…hmmm…we’ll see!

Here is the link to a few pics...no time for captions now!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31478&l=bbc48&id=501312909

Cell Phone

2008-08-27T07:57:00.001-07:00

I am officially the proud owner of a Nigerian cell phone! YAY! Most everyone here in the city has cell phones because it doesn’t require the infrastructure that landlines would require. It’s kind of incredible the service that’s available in the boondocks! One interesting feature that many cell phones here have that I hadn’t seen in the US is that they have a flashlight on the end! How ingenious! In the US, with light pollution running rampant, it isn’t that important, but here where the world becomes black after 7pm, it’s a life saver. I'm a little bummed that the instruction manual didn't come in English, so it's taking me a little while to figure things out, but hey...I've got a phone! :)

The Nigerian-American Skill Exchange

2008-08-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

I’m thoroughly enjoying the significant skill sharing that is going on around me in Jalingo! Hannahtu, our official Nigerian host through the church, is working hard with me to help me learn Hausa, which I am definitely picking up. I purchased an English-Hausa dictionary in the market yesterday, but I was confused by the fact that they said there was no such thing as a Hausa-English dictionary. I thought all language dictionaries went both directions…not in Nigeria! However, I’m frustrated by the fact that they struggle to understand my Hausa…I’m seriously pronouncing it the exact same way they are! J Hannahtu recently received a digital camera from the Iowa Nigeria Partnership and a laptop from the US. I am able to offer her expertise in taking and viewing pictures as well as how to operate her computer. I didn’t realize that my level of technological knowledge was going to make me an expert here.

Mrs. Thomas, my cook, has 5 children which drop by regularly, last night I was providing some basic computer training (gotta love typing on that home row) to her oldest daughter who has graduated from high school and is in a computer training program with about 6 people/computer while her son was helping me try to find the BBC on my radio. Sadly, we were unsuccessful because my radio doesn’t have the SW band…who’s ever heard of the SW band?! I was bummed, but he said that I could get a radio like his for only about 600 naira or about $5…I think I can spring for that considering I am dying for some news!!!

Bambur

2008-08-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

After staying the night in Pero, we took the infamous "rock road" over the mountain to Bambur. We rode with 4 people in the cab (I was in one of the back jump seats) of a small Nissan pick-up truck with 2 more people in the back over a "road" that is simply rocks and boulders. However, while we were going there, since it's rainy season, it of course began to pour (our wind shield wipers didn't work). This rain in turn caused the dirt road to become pure mud. We crossed over huge holes, puddles, and crossed serious rivers in this truck (bridges haven't made the priority list yet!) After about 3 hours of this, we ended up getting stuck in the mud twice. Luckily, with some help from some other passer-bys who stopped, we were able to continue on and complete the trip in 4 hours. It was quite the experience! :)

Here's another interesting phenomenon: now that I'm hours from a big city, I have easy internet access. Yep, there is no city power at all in this area, but there's an internet cafe run by the United Methodist Church here run completely off generator power! This cafe is used for a computer training program that trains people in internet browsing, typing, and the use of multiple computer programs. These are valuable skills that are allowing the graduates to obtain marketable jobs. It's a great program!!!

Being out of the city and the presence of a clear night enabled me to see the Nigerian night sky. Oh my goodness! It was the most AMAZING view I have EVER seen! The Milky Way galaxy was ridiculously clear across the entire sky. There were billions of sparkly stars that could be seen. Prior to now, Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas was the best night sky, but Bambur, Nigeria has now surpassed it! INCREDIBLE!!!

Pero

2008-08-22T06:42:00.001-07:00

Today we spent time in this area called Pero. It took us 7 hours to get from Jalingo to Pero over some horrible roads (though I’ve been told they will be worse tomorrow). If a person were susceptible to car sickness, we would have been in trouble. Luckily, I was able to enjoy the beautiful, lush, green mountainous landscape while bouncing and swerving along. We met the kind people of the Pero district and were delighted to see some neat gardening again being used for medicinal purposes and a great training program with sewing machines being done at their Women’s Leadership Training Center. After a 6 month program, these women have purchased a sewing machine so that they are able to become self-sufficient by selling goods. As we went around this much more remote area referred to by everyone here as the bush, I began to think about how we from the US can’t imagine living in a hut without running water and certainly no electricity and they couldn’t fathom the life that we lead in the US. It’s quite mind boggling!

I Miss Phone/Internet!

2008-08-22T06:41:00.001-07:00

I really miss easy access to internet a LOT. It makes me seem so much more disconnected. I’m really hoping that once things get more normal I can find a way to get there more regularly. It’s also really weird to not be able to pick up a phone and call anyone. Next week I’m going to work on getting a cell phone here so that I will at least be able to contact these new Nigerian friends I’m going to be making soon. I am thankful however that for me the internet café is about 5 minutes away. We were talking to these people who work in a village called Zing and they are at least 45 minutes away from internet!
Update: Today I found out there is a possibility with one of the cell phone services here that one gets free minutes from 12am-4am even internationally!!! AHHH!!! This is so exciting to me!!! With a 6 hour time difference, that makes it completely feasible to call people in the US at a reasonable evening hour. We’ll see if this really pans out!!! J
AND: Mail is definitely a possibility they tell me…it just takes a while…I’m a patient girl!! J I’ll post an address once I know.

Official Language: English...

2008-08-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

So, the official national language of Nigeria is English, yes, the official language is English. What do I hear all the time, everywhere? Hausa. (Angie definitely warned me about this!) Most people do speak some English and school is taught in English, but Hausa is definitely the predominant tribal language here. Once you know a second language, it is supposed to make learning a third easier. I don’t think this applies if the third language is an African language as opposed to a Romantic language! I’m working really hard to learn some key phrases, but what I really need is a Hausa dictionary that has some basic grammar in it too. It makes things difficult when I am trying to write down a new phrase in my handy dandy notebook that never leaves me (best packing suggestion EVER!) and I can only hear it and never see it. I have officially mastered counting from 1-10, hello, good bye, how are you, and where’s the bathroom. It definitely provides a source of entertainment!

Dinner with the Governor!

2008-08-22T06:39:00.002-07:00

Everyone I have met here has been so warm and welcoming which has helped to make the realizations that I’ve been having that I’m going to be spending a year in a foreign country by myself easier. I don’t think I fully grasped that fact prior to leaving. Here is an example of the extravagant hospitality that has been shown to us in our first few days here: Next we went to the Faith Business Men’s meeting with the Bishop and the governor was also there. After a church service, we were invited to dinner at the Governor’s house! Wow! His Excellency Dababa de Sutu, the governor of Taraba state was so kind, generous, genuine and gracious. When we described the steep costs of renewing my visa each month for 11 months with hopes that he would waive the fee, he offered to pay for my visa renewal monthly. I was really surprised and grateful not only for the financial advantage but also for his support and blessing of my work. The Lord is showing me on a regular basis that I am meant to be here and doing this work. After discussing business, we had a political conversation which was a lot of fun. I love talking about American politics and it is so eye opening to realize that two men from Liberia, three men from Nigeria and three people from the US are able to discuss American politics. Despite the fact that everyone at the table seemed more conservative than me, I was able to speak up on behalf of Obama and not offend people, so that was a success.