Taking Tea: Initial Impressions

Contrasts and contradictions -- Watching the Winter Olympics (as in “winter” with snow!) in a hotel in Abuja, the capitol of Nigeria, where it was in the 90s today! We are here for three days of meetings with Jim’s company. As I meet new people, I am asked about our home – a difficult question to answer because I had less than 20 hours to adjust to our new home before leaving town for these meetings. THEY can tell me more about my home! So, I’m all ears and I’ve learned a lot! Everything’s either too hot and muggy or too cold and goose-bumpy! It’s gonna take a while to figure out how to dress and how to adjust the house air conditioning. (But thank you, God, for air conditioning!) The language barrier exists, even in an English-speaking country. I ordered crème caramel last night at the guest house (and even asked if it was like a custard, to clarify!) and I got Swedish pancake-type-of-things with berry jelly. It was good but, well, … not crème caramel. On the plane to Lagos, I sat next to a man who had his one-yr-old daughter on his lap. She was very entertained by me – kept grabbing my white skin. I look funny and talk funny!

First impressions -- There’s a musty smell in the house but they’re fixing a leaky ceiling in one bathroom and fixing the air conditioning in one bedroom – that should clear up a lot of the problem. But, I fear that a bit of musty smells are normal due to the climate. Lucy, our maid, cooks Nigerian but doesn’t know other foods. She wants to go to cooking school part time and hinted that we could help her with tuition. We’ll see. She’s 25, single, from a large family in a northern state. She walks from home and her body odor is pretty strong by the time she arrives. She lives in a one room, 8 x 8 place that is “outside” she said. I’m not sure what that means. Lucy calls us Master and The Madame or Mother. She explained that it is a custom that she can’t violate. Basically, we have two strikes against us – we are her elders which, in itself, demands that high level of respect and then we are her employers, which makes the titles non-negotiable. I tell Jim to enjoy being called Master because he’ll never hear it from me!!! Lucy keeps the house spotless. Dishes get done immediately so as not to attract bugs. She mops the floors and cleans the bathrooms, daily. The camp we live on is filled with palms and flowering trees. Lovely. The housing construction is shabby but compared to what we’ve seen on drives we’re living like kings. We could eat all meals at the clubhouse by the pool if we wanted to – good food, cheap price. There’s basketball and racquetball but who would use it when it’s this hot in the winter?

So much reminds me of missions trips to Grenada – the shanties, the vendors alongside the roads, the concrete blocks used for all construction (and then covered with mortar). There are so many people dressed in beautiful colors and in clean clothes. I’m not sure how they do it in such simple living conditions. There’s trash along the roadsides. Lots of trash, sometimes in piles, sometimes burned, and sometimes just left wherever it was tossed – which is anywhere and everywhere! The country has one Saturday morning per month called “Environmental Day” – a time that everyone is to devote to cleaning up the countryside. Hmmmm, nice idea but there seems to be no incentive!

It’ll be easy to grow all sorts of flowering plants and the veranda that the workers are currently building will be a perfect place for them. When I asked Lucy about where to buy some plants, it took awhile to make myself clear. When she finally understood “flowers” she thought I wanted silk plants like, she said, “what your people make.” I told her that I wanted plants that grow in the tropics and not plants that are made in a factory – she laughed hard at that.

The Nigerians are friendly and quite patient with our accents and odd ways of saying things. Their names are fascinating and break into two types: 1) Tribal-type names like “Gbenga” the “g” is silent and Chika and Choma and Ifeome and Chinedu. or 2)Westernized names like Freedom, Gift, Joy, Princess, Michael, David, … There are roughly 300 distinct tribes in this country, each with a slightly different language. They fall into three groups – Hassau in the north, Igbo (silent g) in the east and Yoruba in the west.)

I’ve seen my first Nigerian lizards. They’re actually quite pretty – very colorful! Some are also VERY large! Creepy! And bats -- trees filled with bats. Yuck! But both take care of bugs, so I’ll accept them but I don’t have to like being around them!

I’ve learned that the reason Abuja is such a well designed city and kept quite clean, comparatively, is that it’s under the control of the federal government. In other places, there is no cooperation between the state governments and the little tribal governments. Therefore, in Port Harcourt, a person might buy a small parcel of land from the state and then find out that there is no access across any land around it because those parcels were sold by the tribes. That’s why Port Harcourt is a total hodgepodge without any reason for the placement of roads, etc. And beyond the city there are only a few roads. Because it’s the Niger River Delta there are zillions of creeks and rivers so people might own a little piece of land that is surrounded by water. They travel on boats rather than walking anywhere. Fishing is their main livelihood. They step out of their “front door,” fish along the shore, and travel in a hollowed out log down stream to sell their catch.

The signs along the road, some professional billboards and others handmade, are entertaining. Like this one – “LIFE – no get duplicate!” I believe that’s our motto – we only get to do this once, so we’re going to make the most of it!!

I got to go to a small church plant with Chika on Sunday, in Abuja. She was thrilled to have someone go with her. Between the accents and the horrific sound system that was too loud and distorted, it was impossible to understand most words. Some melodies were recognizable and those I gladly joined in on. Otherwise I just danced (like a white lady, I fear) and clapped and prayed. At least I made a new friend who loves Jesus. She told me of a church in Port Harcourt that she thinks we would love and that she described as “more like the good churches in the US.” She and her husband lived in New Orleans for 1 ½ years so she probably has a good sense of US churches.

Cherish, Embrace, Delight – that is our theme. Cherish -- I am asking God to help us cherish every memory-making-moment just as we cherish our contacts with friends across the miles. Embrace -- To truly thrive in this place we need to set aside expectations and embrace whatever comes our way. Delight -- We want to delight in every new experience for it won’t always seem new. It will become the norm, the things we grow accustomed to. Just like my relationship with God. Sometimes I take it for granted. I expect Him to be all that He is – wise, loving, powerful, … and I lose my sense of wonder and delight. Lord, help me to delight in the encounters that come our way! And may we see You, oh God, in each delightful encounter!