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!