Delays and Delights

A brief overview of the week:

Delay: Our sea shipment has been in the port for 3 weeks and was PROMISED to be here by today. Maybe we'll have it before I leave for Europe next week.

Delight: Jim leaves for Switzerland on Tuesday and I'll leave on Thursday. He has work in Geneva and then in Paris. He works; I plays!! :-)

Delay: I haven't been off of the camp all week due to sickness. Viruses spread pretty easily around here due to our close living conditions. The doctor at the clinic thought I had worked out too hard at the gym on Monday morning. Let's see --- a fever, chills, nausea --- from a good workout on a bike and a rowing machine??? Hmmm ... Not!

Delight: Getting to sit around all week, hearing stories from not only Prince, but also from Lucy and Moses. They want to prove that Prince is not the only one with story-telling prowess! These lives, I'm telling you ....

Delay: After my passport was in the Immigration office for 6 weeks, sitting in somebody's "in" basket, we discovered that my resident visa has still not been processed. So, I'm getting my passport back today so that I can travel next week. When we return, we'll try again -- for the third time!

Delight: Eating an Italian meal in the home of a woman from Venezuela and a man from Austria. The nine of us at the table spoke, as our first language: Spanish, Italian, a Nigerian dialect, German, and English! Amazing stuff, I'm telling you!

Delay: The remodel job we anticipated in our kitchen (and hoped would happen while we're traveling) won't be started until sometime after we return.

Delight: Jim and I will be spending 5 days on the French Riviera in Antibes (between Cannes and Nice) after his meetings in Paris. Can you say "ahhhhhhhhh!"?

And one final delight: At the Mango Tree Fellowship, today, a couple of people chose to become followers of Jesus!! Way cool!

Delights definitely win over all delays!!

A Nigerian Dinner

Lucy fixed our first ever truly Nigerian dinner. I had told her, before she started cooking and with Moses as a witness, that I wanted her to remember that even if I didn't like the food I still liked her!! I had to remind her of that during the meal. It was a meal that was difficult to swallow at times.



The gare was fine -- it's very mild, dried and ground casava that tastes a bit like rice. It's sticky and hard (Lucy made a soft version for Jim and me) and very bland. So, that was no problem other than the fact that we were to eat it with our fingers and roll it into a ball as we visited. Every child's dream -- to play with their food and not use a fork!! So, I repeated many times how much I liked the gare. It's not that I LIKED it, I was just able to swallow it!

However, the soup -- well, that's a different story!! The taste wasn't so bad -- spicy, salty, fishy, ... But the texture (or "textency" as I like to say) created a tendency to gag. I think it was the stringy okra. I just begged God to keep me from gagging all over my plate. And I survived. Jim was pretty silent as he ate. He was amazingly "full" long before the typical time for his "fullness!" The dried fish that was used in the soup was ... strong, to say the least.

So, we had a good time laughing a lot. Prince was convinced that Lucy is an amazing cook and assured Moses that Lucy is quite the catch! The Nigerians gobbled down the feast and were thrilled that we left so much for them. And, Lucy promises to make us some soup without the fish and okra and with more veggies next time -- that will include waterleaf and/or bitterleaf. Ummm ... we'll see how we do!

I'm teaching Lucy to crochet. She can't wait until the day that she will have a unique, one-of-a-kind top and shawl when we're done with this project. She's highly determined.

Lucy is a trained hair stylist so we're trying to figure out a way for her to work for us less hours and begin to build a hair styling business. The rent for a shabby (that's a mild term for it) shop is astronomical. So, we're developing a plan for her to have a portable shop. We'll see how that progresses.

Every day brings new amazement -- Lucy's finger is permanently disfigured because one of her younger sisters bit it just a couple of years ago when she was trying to kill Lucy. This same sister is requiring that Lucy, as the first issue, give her N25,000 to take her final exam so that she can graduate from secondary school at the age of 24. Lucy knows that she must comply or she will be disowned from the family.

And Lucy is wanting to bring her mother here for a time of peace because the younger siblings are stressing her mother so much. Her mom has survived almost 30 years in a brutal, violent, loveless marriage. Only during the past few years has Lucy's father become a decent guy. This occured after he turned his life over to Jesus. Prior to then, Lucy's family was living off of palm nut remnants; Lucy's mother had only the clothes on her back; Lucy became her mother's best friend and confidante when Lucy was only a pre-teen. So, Lucy doesn't understand why, after life is better and the kids are growing up, that her mother would want to leave her husband. She endured so much agony. I tried to explain to Luce (I call her this for short -- she loves it!) that sometimes our energy is used up when things are reallllllllly bad and when it improves we have no energy left to give. Her mother is old before her time.

Lucy told her mother, on a rare and short phone call, that she has another mother and father. Her mother wasn't threatened by this at all -- she actually said it was an answer to prayer. So, Luce has adopted us, I guess you could say!

Just two years ago, Lucy "met" a sister whom she hadn't seen since the girl was 4 years old. The family was struggling so much, financially, that someone from another village took the girl in as a "daughter." When the girl reached the age of 20, she contacted her family. I really am not surprised by anything I hear anymore.

Lif is tough here. "Big land, tough people." That's a motto that Lucy told me today -- it describes this place for sure!

We're not in Kansas anymore!

Every once in a while it hits me -- we're in Nigeria. That may seem strange to you but life just keeps hopping and we get rolling and suddenly something doesn't go the way we'd planned or expected and then ... whoa, what was I thinking? This is a different place with different ways and, well, different everything.

The problems come when I have expectations or make comparisons. Like, if I expect the bus for the ladies' outing to leave at 9:00 sharp because the invitation said "9:00 sharp." Would you believe a not-so-sharp 9:36? Or like, when I expect the plumber to come back after his break because he said he was coming back after his break. Well, maybe the break really was 4 days!!

Comparisons kill. Like, when Jim's been working hard all week and needs a total break and I think, "let's go out and catch a movie at a theatre." Oops! the only movie you can catch around here is one of those in the stack a guy is carrying down the street and that's probably a pirated and lousy copy. No theatres, that's for sure! The popcorn here, if you can find it popped from a specialty shop, is sugared and not salted. The microwave popcorn in the stores is about 8 times the cost of U.S. microwave popcorn and I've only seen it once, even at that high price.

Litter --- if you throw trash out your window in the U.S., not good, right? Here, whenever you're done using something you just let it drop to the ground. We have a trash can in front of our house. Usually, during the dark of night, I pick up the trash around it and throw everything inside the bin because the workers think throwing it in the area is better (and it is) than just dropping it. I have to pick it up at night or the workers say "Momma, you shouldn't be doing that." But they just pick it up for me that time without rethinking and adjusting the habits and patterns that made the mess in the first place!

I know I'm headed for trouble whenever I think or say, "in the U.S., we ..." It's really not good for my health! Like, "in the U.S., we grout the tile before we install the toilet because then we can grout everything." See, that just gets me going down the wrong path.
"In the U.S., we put a drop cloth down on the floor before we paint the ceiling."
"In the U.S., we use spoons to eat soup; fingers don't work so well."
"In the U.S., we stop at red lights. What does a red light mean, here? Stop? ... Really?"
"In the U.S., THAT word means something reallllllly bad. What does it mean, here? ... Yikes, sorry I asked. ... Jim, remind me not to ask so many questions!"
"In the U.S., we use Restrooms for purposes of urination." (Imagine seeing a guy "using the restroom" next to a sign that is painted like grafiti on a building and the sign says "Don't urinate here.") "In the U.S. we try to obey the signs."

So, expectations are bad for our health and comparisons kill.

I learned that the hard way, yesterday. I had my second little melt-down since arriving -- in, of all places, a McDonald's imitation -- the first fast food chain in Nigeria -- Mr Bigg's. Now, if I'm even willing to go into a REAL McDonald's, you know I'm a desperate woman so imagine my level of despair as we went into a Mr. Bigg's! Prince ordered spicy chicken and rice (not your typical MickyD's fare!) and Jim and I ordered non-spicy chicken and rice but they were out, so I ordered a "beef burger" but they were out and then Jim had ordered slush drinks, but the machine was broken, so I went outside to pout and pray about my stinky attitude and in the end, Prince and Jim ate spicy chicken that even Prince thought was too spicy and I ate a "beef burger" that somehow appeared out of nowhere -- nowhere I want to see, that's for sure! I apolized to Jim and Prince for my behavior and I started to cry when I was explaining it to a bewildered Prince (a guy, by the way, who had previously complimented me in that I wasn't like a typical woman and was "straight thinking" like a man) and to a not-too-bewildered hubby while all of the tables were filled with guys watching football on TV, until the power went off, that is.

And then, the pastor this morning said in his message "stop your weeping and persevere!" right to my gut and I heard him (and God, really!) and decided I'd talk about it on my blog and then quit whining! So, thanks for letting me spill all of this stuff (I don't even have to pick it up because I'm in Nigeria, after all!) --- I feel much better, now!

More photos

These things are loading better, lately -- just 10 - 15 minutes per photo with a higher success rate for each attempt, so, here are some more shots, or snaps, as they say here in NGA.

Easter in Nigeria

The Easter weekend is a full four days with Friday and Monday as national holidays. What a time of celebration! We went with Lucy and Moses (and Prince, of course, or we can't go anywhere!) to Lucy's and Moses' mass, area-wide church meetings in the "Civic Center" on Friday evening. I was so discouraged because I had thought my Nigerian English comprehension had improved but I only understood about half of what the pastor said. It was encouraging, in a strange sort of way, to learn that Lucy and the others had a difficult time, too. The sound system wasn't too good. This is soooooooooo often the case. During the closing hymn, "It Is Well with My Soul," the power went off and things actually sounded better. Everyone kept singing acapella, with drum beats and trumpets keeping us together. Cell phones came out of pockets everywhere and the little flashlight features came on -- voila! a candlelight service!

In their denomination, women must wear headcoverings, so, I used a scarf that Joey had brought me from a missions trip to Cambodia and our gang called me an A-free-kan woe-man. Jim wants me to wear it more often -- no way, too hot!! Anyway, the service was ok but not something we really want to repeat.

So, Easter morning, we went to a different church, yet again. Nope, we knew very soon that this would not be a repeater for us, either. Our visiting weekends are about done and then we'll settle in, soon, somewhere. But it is exciting to see what God is doing around the area. We see many patterns and rituals that make us question, once again, our own patterns and rituals. No matter the denomination, tongues speaking occurs -- some very publicly, some very privately. No matter the denomination, dancing happens, not the typical "white folk" swaying, I mean all out, serious dancing. So, I'm slowly starting to move around more. At home I feel very free to dance that way, but it just doesn't seem right seeing an old white lady dancing like these limber Nigerian gals. Jim just stands and closes his eyes in worship and never sees that others are dancing. It's definitely not his style and that's a-ok.

Other patterns we see everywhere are: the leader shouts "In Jesus' name" and the folks respond "Amen!" and this continues, back and forth, a lot. When the leader shouts "Praise the Lord" the group responds with "Hallelujah" and that seems to usually occur when there's a pause in the speaker's thoughts or a pause as they wait for a musician or some such thing. During prayer time, everyone prays out loud -- it's very powerful to be a part of. Some of the churches guide us in our topic of prayer -- praying for our repentance, praying for our family, praying for the church, praying for the nation, ...

Offering is more of an act of worship in many of the churches here -- more so than is often the case in the U.S. Each one lifts his/her envelope with the tithe/offering and prays aloud before the ushers pass the bags. Sometimes people file up to the front with it. Sometimes there is more than one offering -- a bit offensive for us foreigners, that some of the places are allllllllllllways asking for money. That is probably our greatest struggle. We are tired of being treated with special honor because of our white skin -- which is spelled m-o-n-e-y. Every church wants us to sit in the front, meet with the pastor, give them our address and phone number, etc. Prince, who is the group's skeptic, thinks it's all about money. Lucy and I think that often it is just a genuine "welcome" and heartfelt appreciation. (with the full awareness that if we settle in, we'll probably be good for some sizable, by Nigerian standards, gifts!!)

We remain a bit concerned because some of the pastors are millionaires and we don't want our money going into their pockets. Many are honest millionaires in that they don't take a large salary from the church but they have many in the congregations who lavish them with gifts. For instance, if a pastor has prayed over a man's wife for healing and the woman is healed, then that man will bring baskets of food, financial gifts, etc., in appreciation. Prince knows of pastors who have received MANY brand new cars as gifts and, always the skeptic, he thinks the giver is doing it out of more than gratitude -- it's gratitude mixed with trying to buy more blessings from God/this pastor. Because the background of most of these people includes signs and wonders from evil spirits, cults, etc., they carry a bit of that mindset of "keep the gods happy" into their Christianity. Yes, it's a bit confusing. And then throw into the mix the poverty and desire to receive material blessings -- well, it's ripe for the "buying off God" philosophies!!

So, we still see this polarization of materialism versus legalism. Of course, the churches that grow the fastest have the materialistic emphasis while the holiness churches struggle with low numbers and are a bit over-the-top in their piety! Here's an example of the phenomen that might help you see what I mean -- one week, a church we were in announced that the next Sunday was "key holder" Sunday. When "key holder" Sunday rolled around, the church was PACKED and the energy was high. The music was frenetic, to say the least. By the time the speaker got up, the people were psyched! Cut to the end of the service -- the ushers passed out a key holder to each person. Some folks came to multiple services to get more key holders, a problem the pastor addressed in his message. Then, for about 20 minutes, everyone was guided through prayers that they shouted and begged of God, kneeling, weeping, etc. -- they were asking God to give them a key for their key holder by the end of this year, specifically, a key to a new house, apartment, or car. They left believing that God would give them a key, indeed.

This lead to quite the discussion, later, with Prince and Lucy. P and L both said that God gives us keys by giving us jobs and the strength to work. Prince said, "I've never seen a house fall down from heaven, have you, Lucy?" So, we talked through the many ways that God does, indeed, work miracles in providing gifts to us through others -- prompting someone to bring something to us, guiding someone to send money in the mail, helping someone return borrowed money, etc. Anyway, all of these experiences cause us to re-think our theology, that's for sure!!

Lastly, I'll tell you about last night. What a deal! A concert at a church that included -- rappers, dancers, children's groups, contemporary soloists that were fantastic, traditional warbling-voiced soloists, instrumentals, and ... even a choir singing excerpts from Handel!! (I fought back the tears!) The strange, but fun, feature was a comedian reminiscent of Mark Lowery. He mocked the traditions of these churches, like "God is telling me that He has a message for someone sitting in a white chair" -- there are 1500 white chairs and nothing else in the whole place. Or " some of you young men have pains in your stomach, put your hand over your stomach, now remove it, is the pain still there? God is telling you ... (giant pause) ... you are hungry -- eat something!" The people were roaring with laughter and hooting and hollering. Interesting!

Prince about has a Chris Tomlin CD memorized, we listen to it in the car so much. He loves "Your Grace is Enough" -- that's way cool!

Thus endeth the post-Easter ramblings!
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!

Sights on the streets

The streets weren't as packed as usual due to the holiday weekend. So we could travel more steadily, more easily getting photos. But realize, this is about 1/10 of the typical amount of vehicles and pedestrians.












Look closely -- that's a wheelbarrow being pulled by an okada (motorcycle). We've also seen passengers carrying long planks, metal beams, dead goats, ...






OK, this one isn't actually on the streets. We were having a little fun on Prince's motorcycle -- okada. Jim's company won't allow us on such things on the streets so we could only ride in the camp. It was still fun!

Lucy's Day

Lucy Sunday Umoren;
local name: Ndifreke, meaning "I shall never forget" (ND for short!)

Thursday was Lucy's birthday. She's now 26. It turned out to be a spendid day for her in oh-so many ways. Early in the morning her fiance arrived at her maid's quarters. Tuesday, he had been a total jerk (details, I will leave to your imagination) and she had broken up with him. After kneeling in front of her for four hours, weeping and begging for mercy, she forgave him. He truly is a sweetheart as he requested to speak with Jim and me to beg our forgiveness as well -- for hurting Lucy. So her day began much better than I had thought it might.

I let her have the TV on all day (something I can't stand) and she could watch whatever she wanted as she worked. OK, a whole day of Nigerian soaps is a bit much so I don't thinkI'll be making that offer again anytime soon! I had Lucy's wrapped gifts out for her to see all day. She kept squeezing the packaging and giggling! She said the wrapping was so beautiful that it didn't matter if the box just had a brick inside, it still made her soooooooo happy!

We added some people to the dinner plans so I added beef filet to the prawns and we were off and running with dinner preparations. I'd never used a rice cooker before but the facilities office delivered one to me a week ago (I hadn't requested it and am still waiting for what I did request but they said they thought I'd like this) so I'm now hooked on cooking rice in a rice cooker -- no burning, always done to perfection, and it stays warm for hours without getting sticky. I'm sure some of you are familiar with one. I told an Indonesian friend that I was afraid to try it and she just laughed and said that she's afraid to cook rice on the stove but that it's impossible to fail with a rice cooker. Indeed!

Everyone tried and most ate a lot of the guacamole and pita bread "chips." I told them that the guac was Nigerian food. "Huh?" they questioned. Well, all of the ingredients came from Nigeria, so .... They didn't buy that argument.

I wouldn't let Lucy help with anything -- I told her she was my Madame for a day. She kept giggling and offering to help. When Jim thanked God for the food, he prayed especially for Lucy. That meant a lot to her. Everyone actually loved the dinner and Prince said, "now, THIS is food, Momma!" Carrot sticks, not something they'd seen before, were a great hit and disappeared quickly. And Prince and Moses loved the baguettes with mustard -- a French delight. During dinner we were playing Nigerian music -- until Jim just couldn't handle the volume anymore. Everyone laughed when "Master" turned it off.

After dinner, I had a "special" hat for Lucy -- a clown birthday hat (something she never had as a child). So, as she moved to the "sitting room," we would say living room, I gave noise makers and balloons to her friends -- 'sounded like the last ten seconds of a tied basketball game around this place!! Lucy was so appreciative of her gifts -- what fun.

Finally, I brought out shortbread (I had found out that she reaaaallly likes it and didn't know you could bake it yourself) with one candle that sang "happy birthday to you!" Believe it or not, she refused to blow it out because of the melody still playing so we listened to that silly little music box for 15 - 20 minutes until the flame burned out and the battery died. She danced next to it the entire time. And when she left for the night, she asked if she could please keep the little stump that remained. Amazing!!

Before we wrapped up, we had Lucy teach us some Christian songs in her dialect -- Ekwiabo. What fun! And then Moses prayed over Lucy and the evening was complete! She's still floating with the love she felt on Thursday!!

Around town and at home

These pictures are taken from inside the "golf course/country club" looking out. Now, this course was rather feable, but it's amazing how great it was to just walk around in something so open. The "members only" restrooms weren't fit for anyone, member or not. The greens weren't very and the grass needed weeding something fierce. Yet, with all of those negatives, these folks were staring inside with such curiosity and wonder. It made us feel amazingly grateful.









A typical scene along the roadside in the "country."








Jim is flying into a village near the ocean via some sort of small amphibious (is that the word?) plane tomorrow morning. I'm sure it will prove to be quite an adventure!

I got these three pictures loaded on in just one hour -- that's progress! Of course, I'd tried three other times earlier today.

Our search for a church where we truly want to plant our roots and get involved is proving to be disappointing. Sunday, we tried to get to two churches. We missed one completely and completely wished we'd missed the other one. I realize that sounds a bit harsh, but ... legalistic is not a strong enough word to describe this one. Women not only wear head coverings, they can't wear jewelry or makeup, and they must have their ankles and wrists covered (in addition to everything else.) I felt like a true infidel!!

Materialism or legalism, that seems to be the options thus far. But this weekend we'll visit two other churches -- one is Lucy's church. Actually, we'll be at the Civic Center with all of the parishes in her denomination in this region on Friday evening. And then on Sunday we're going to a church that Prince has been confident we'd like all along. He warned us of his concerns about the church that disappointed us so much. I told him that next time we'd listen to him. But we want to be careful not to be too critical. Certainly, the people in each of these churches are dear. But we'll be here a while and so we need to find something we can fully support.

Prince and Lucy and I went to the river beach yesterday. We were out because we'd gone to the fruits market and as we were driving (better stated -- sitting in traffic) I said something about the river. Lucy seemed so interested in going there that Prince turned around and we headed to a beach. Lucy's lived here 6 years and had not been to a river -- and the place is filled with rivers. She was utterly delighted with the canoes and fishermen -- hadn't seen anything like it since she was 5 years old. As Prince later told me, Lucy is such a country girl that she can't imagine just heading out and seeing something. The only parts of the city she's seen is what she can trek to and even that is limited to only the places she has to go. She's never seen the ocean and it's about 45 minutes in crazy traffic. She's never been on a plane, of course. She's never seen a salt and pepper shaker before ours'.

Lucy's birthday is Thursday and I'm fixing her a birthday dinner -- guacamole with pita bread (we mix our trans-continental cuisine, here, out of necessity!), prawns, rice (cooked in our new rice cooker), veggie salad, and shortbread with pineapple and pawpaw slushies. Prince will join us, too. We've got a few little gifts and some fun birthday hats, a birthday banner, and a candle that sings "Happy Birthday!" I'm tempted to do more for her but she's never had a dinner, a party, ... nothing. So, I don't want to overdo it! We'll play this great Nigerian game that we bought -- Lucy says she grew up playing it in the dirt under a tree.

Tomorrow, Prince and I are going to get started on writing his stories. We'll start with what the elders told him about when the first white missionaries came to his village. He warned me that it's a bloody story but he wants to start there. This guy is such a great story-teller. He used to drive a bus/van for the engineers headed out to the rigs. So, he hung around with other drivers waiting for their next orders. And during those times, he did what he does so well -- he entertained them with stories. Those drivers are begging him to come back so I told him he'd better plan on visiting them once a week.
Here's the story teller in action! Notice Jim's trousered knee, below -- he's getting a relaxing break from his rigorous work!
Don't forget that you can always double click on any photo you'd like to enlarge for a better view!! Enjoy!

Images and imaginations

It's actually Saturday, the 8th, but because I got one photo loaded on Thursday, it shows that date. Internet difficulties and lack of time require that I leave these as is. If you want to see the pictures and there are only boxes, click the box and the picture should appear. I'll try to fix it when I have another two hours!! The above pics are from around the camp. The igret bird is high up in a palm tree. They are beautiful birds who especially love to hang around when the grass is freshly cut. These images took about two hours to load so I'll leave the rest to your imagination as I fill you in on some stories -- ever so quickly, of course!

Briefly, Prince's father's memorial service -- 2 days of feasting at his father's house. Prince was responsible for all of the food, etc. He rented 300 plastic chairs. His siblings helped with expenses, fortunately. At the end of it all, he still owed the village elders a goat in honor of his father. He didn't have the money and promised them he would deliver the goat as soon as possible. They were not happy but accepted his promise. Well, a man unknown to Prince arrived at the house and apologized to Prince that he couldn't get to the village earlier. He explained that he loved and respected Prince's father and that he wanted to present a gift -- yep, over near the road was a huge goat. So, the elders danced for joy that the duty had been fulfilled and all debts were settled. Before Prince left the village on Tuesday, the elders told him that if he marries and returns to the village to live in the next 5 years, they want to confer on him a chieftancy title. This is quite an honor. Already Prince is regarded as a source of wisdom for the villagers. He has sat with the elders on and off for years and has learned the entire history of the village. And he has great discernment. He says that when the first man arrived at his home to ask Prince for advice, Prince was only 17.

Ubadire Timothy Nwaogwugwu -- that's Prince's name. His father always called him "Prince!"
So, this guy has amazing stories -- if he hadn't learned, first hand, the fear of God if he lies, I'd think he was "shining us on" -- an expression I've told him about. But, we believe he's sincere and just a very stubborn adventurer -- including surviving in a small boat on the open seas for 2 weeks, without food and water for a few days. He says that they looked like dead men when they arrived on the shores of Equatorial Guinea. They frightened the local children away!

So, anyway, starting on Monday, I'm going to sit at my laptop and type while he talks. I told him we've got at least two books, here -- one about his life thus far and one about his village history. Lucy's had a hard time getting work done this week because Prince is such a fascinating story-teller!! Anyway, thanks, Linda for the idea. I'll get a draft finished and then start looking for a publisher, I think. I showed Prince a book about an American woman living in Lagos in the 60s and told him that people love this kind of stuff. None of the village history is recorded but it's all logged in Prince's brain!

The Mango Tree Fellowship (my name for the Friday gathering of workers for worship and teaching from noon to one) -- about 25 guys this time. One gal finally joined us, too. I don't know why more of the maids don't join us -- I couldn't even get Lucy to go. She likes to go back to her quarters during lunch break. Most of the maids live on the camp and most of the men live off of the camp -- maybe that's the difference -- the guys don't have anything else to do during lunch. Anyway, it was a great time. The preaching was the best I've heard in Nigeria. The teacher was the foreman of all of the workers. We are going to visit his church this Sunday. So much of the emphasis, here, is on gaining material wealth. It has disturbed us a bit -- 'seems like a "come to Jesus and he will make you a Big Man!" approach. So, it was refreshing to hear Freedom, the teacher, say "don't chase after miracles, chase after righteousness!! God is a God of miracles but, most importantly, He wants your whole heart!"

I had to have a straight talk with Christian yesterday. I'd been hearing reports that he lies and many of the residents won't buy produce from him. Well, it seems that he lied to me about his age. He says he didn't know is age -- which is entirely possible in the village, but he was born here in the city, so..... I'm skeptical. I told him that I can't work with someone who lies to me, that I didn't want to make a quick decision, that I needed to pray and think, but that I was very disturbed (a common word, here) and would not buy anything from him while I thought about it. (I don't need any ve-ge-tables, long "a," right now because we're eating out 4 days in a row due to a golf tournament in which we are guests -- they're recruiting future golfers and Jim's clubs are in the sea shipment.) He's very long-faced.

Speaking of the sea shipment. It's here in the port!! They are promising us that we'll have it in 3 weeks -- that's about 2 months earlier than typical so ... we'll see. But, in the meantime, they have Jim's passport. And mine is still in Abuja, awaiting a residency visa. So, we can't go anywhere fast. But we do have photocopies for emergency.

OK, gotta run! (Actually, strolling is the Nigerian way!) We're off to the golf tournament. Jim is working such long hours, this will be a welcome break!

Friendly Faces

I've got so many photos I'd love to share -- time only permits me to load a few at a time.
Here's Jim with Prince and our car -- all three are certainly good lookin', don't you think???





One of the resident girls.











Three drivers. Everyone poses whenever they see me walking about with my camera. I do think I'm going to have to take most floral photos on Sundays (when few workers are around) or I'll use up all of my ink and photo paper printing copies for all of the dear people who ask me to take their photo!!



Another child living on the camp.

Living

I'm finding it increasingly more difficult to find the balance between living in the midst of all of these stories and writing about the living! I don't know how the days pass so quickly but they certainly do. Updates:
1. Lucy is at about 80% health and steadily improving. She is amazingly grateful. Humbling, indeed.
2. Prince leaves this afternoon for his father's memorial service. Yesterday, Prince brought Jim back from meetings at about 2:00 p.m. Jim forgot that he was going to call me if he wasn't coming home for lunch. Well, of course this was the day that I got the best-ever head of leaf lettuce. It was fresh, crisp, and good-sized -- rare in these parts. Christian (the produce guy) was so proud of it! So, in celebration, I had fixed a huge salad for lunch -- shredded fresh ginger root and fresh lime juice was the dressing -- using what I have is a fun adventure! So, when Jim walked in with Prince (Jim was just going to say "hi" before he went back to his office) Jim saw the table set and the salad bowl filled and said, "big ogologo wahaala!" -- ogologo is a word for "tall man" and wahaala is "problem" -- I doubt they're ever put together in that way so Lucy and Prince burst into laughter. Anyway, Jim was full from his lunch meeting, Lucy was too sick to eat, and Prince had not eaten so I said, "Prince, please sit down and eat lunch with me! Lucy can eat a cracker." Prince took one look at the salad, turned to me with a funny smirk and asked "Is this food?" He certainly has had most of the ingredients before but never together and never without rice or gare -- they eat high carb, heavy food. Prince was a trooper and ate a plate-full of salad. But we had a lot of laughs over lunch. Like -- he said that if his mother had given him this food for breakfast when he was a boy he would have told his friends that he had not had breakfast! So, I explained that Nigerian men are not alone is this belief and that Jim used to call salads "chick food" but now he's well trained. More laughter. When Jim brought out Salad Cream, a sweeter version of Miracle Whip, Prince began to actually enjoy the salad!!
3. Names around here continue to amaze me! I went to a fellowship, yesterday, of Christian workers and the names included -- God's Time, Gospel, and Praise. But imagine this, an Indonesian man told us that he had been with another company guy and they'd met a Nigerian man and asked him his name. He said, "God knows," and the friend of the guy we were talking with kept saying things like -- "I'm glad God knows, but I don't know it. Please tell me what your name is!!" Reminded Jim and me of the "Who's on first?" routine! (His name IS God Knows.)
4. Our first Bible Study for couples started small. The night didn't work for some folks. So we'll try another night and see what happens. But we still had a great time of cross-cultural fellowship over our Bibles and in prayer. Listening to another person pray in a language I don't speak is, somehow, quite meaningful! God is amazing!
5. I attended a Friday fellowship yesterday. It's one hour of worship (our clapping hands are the only instruments), prayer, and a short teaching with Christian workers on the camp. I was told, "meet us under the mango tree." After figuring out which tree that would be, I got there late and was still early! Usually there are 15 - 20 people but this Friday the camp was abuzz with work because two new families arrive today. So it was about 7 black guys and one white woman. But I loved it! I almost wept just hearing these guys pray -- crying out to God with such gratitude for their health and their ability to work and then begging God for the salvation of others around them and for the rescue of this nation. They were so thrilled that I was there; I told them that I plan on being there every week that I'm here and that I will try to bring others with me. Jim can't attend, though he would love to, because he has meetings (which we now know include lunch!) on Fridays.
6. Last night at a party with residents I had a great visit with a French guy who's married to a Nigerian woman. They've been here 10 years and are soon to be transferred. He said that he's looking forward to living in another country but that he somehow feels, deep down, that he'll never find a place quite like this. We had a great visit about politics, the census, the upcoming election in 07, the future of the nation, etc. Totally intriguing!
7. After Prince gets back from the memorial services, I'll tell you more about the whole thing. It's really quite a lot of pressure on him as the first issue male -- paying for food for the feasts with the whole village, buying gifts for the village in honor of his father -- two days of music, dancing, and memories. Whew, it's gonna be a heavy time, I believe. Just thinking about Prince, makes me grin -- he's told me so many stories already -- like the way he was fascinated with cars at a young age. His father could tell. So, they had an old, cheap car and his father was afraid that Prince would try to drive it sometime. So, the dad put the only key on a chain around his neck to keep it safe. One time he handed the key to Prince to go to the car and retrieve something. Prince quickly grabbed the stuff, made an impression of the key in a damp bar of soap, and returned to the house. Then, he saved money for a verrrrrrrrry long time and paid a blacksmith to make a key. He waited until his father left one day to another village (without the car) and his mother had trekked to a farm to work. Yep, he successfully drove the car ... until a co-worker of his mother saw him, told his mom, ... big trouble from Momma! BUT his father had forgotten something, returned home, saw that the car was missing, reported it to the police, ... yep! Big wahaala! The punishment Prince received was equal to child abuse in the U.S. It definitely taught him something, but the wrong something. He learned that he could endure anything up to death. So, he took the car again about a month later, and then again, ... which lead to his career, beginning at the age of 17, as a driver. The money he spent supporting his father, mother, siblings, siblings' education, etc. caused his father to long-ago forgive him for his naughtiness!
I'll have more pictures posted by tomorrow, I hope.
I'm tellin' you, I love this place!