Cricket and other Aussie shots

more photos -- family fun in Aussieland

more later ... tech troubles! 'can't get anymore loaded right now!

Photos from Singapore, part 2

More views from our hotel window.









Orchard Road shopping district, dressed for Christmas!









In Little India.







In the city.

Singapore photos

I'm taking some time to get some blog entries in today. Notice that I've done two others.

Here are a few photos from our trip.
View from window of Singapore Hotel. Yummy!

Technical difficults are not allowing me to add more. I'll post this and add more later.

Random bits of info

In the offices, there have been some construction workers doing renovation work. The first few times I walked in to my office, I was surprised at their surprise to see me. Now, they're used to me. But this morning I finally realized why they were surprised. I must be a bit dense but I realized that I am now the only non-Nigerian woman working in these office buildings. Jim's company has other offices in other locations in the area and there's, well, let's see -- an Indian woman working in one of the buildings. That's it, there. At another location there are a few white gals -- I can count four out of a few hundred employees.

Because there are a few wives still on the camp, I don't feel alone. But in the offices, well, it is a bit weird!!! There never were many of us -- three in all, I guess, now that I think of it ...

We're onto the 9th week without rain. But for the past three days I can feel a bit of humidity returning in air. Lucy says that soon the rains will come. We need it VERY badly but, quite selfishly, I would love it if the rain came in small doses ...

There's a fuel (pronounced "fool") shortage here at the moment. Evidently the government creates this situation every December and January -- driving prices up as the demand is higher during the holidays when people travel back to their villages. So, empty cars line the streets and as you follow the line for a few minutes you'll find that it usually leads to a Fuel Station. Folks can spend the entire day in line and still not get any fuel. Supposedly, it will get better soon ...

That causes other prices to increase. Our "fish lady" brought us a fish that I expected to pay N3000 for and her price was N4500. That's around $40 for a fish the size of a typcial silver salmon. I can get a fillet of beef from out of the country for a better price than that. She said that the fish prices are up and the transportation for public transit is up.

Public transit, by the way, means packing about 25 people into a minivan designed to hold 8. Their belongings are on the roof, strapped on in piles that sometimes double the height of the "bus." Hanging out the back are the smaller things -- baskets of chickens (live), luggage, products they are taking to the market, construction materials like rebar or other metal posts, ... For a short drive it costs them N200 plus extra for their belongings.

Poverty in Wealth

This is an excerpt from an article that's in the Feb. 2007 Vanity Fair issue called Blood Oil. I just read the full article on line. Very interesting! From what I know, most of it is accurate. He has a couple of details a bit off, but not much. The guy he refers to as being shot while in traffic - yes, that happened but it wasn't political. It was because he had made some poor personal choices relating to someone else's wife. No expat has been shot due to the political situation.

Excerpt:

As is often the case in Africa, many of Nigeria's problems come as much from wealth as from poverty. African countries that happen to have valuable resources—oil in Angola and Nigeria, diamonds in Congo and Sierra Leone—are among the poorest and most violent on the continent. Economists refer to this phenomenon as the "resource curse." The resource curse holds that underdeveloped countries with great natural wealth fail to diversify their industry or to invest in education, which leads to long-term economic decline. The per capita gross national product of OPEC countries, for example, has been in steady decline for the past 30 years, whereas the per capita G.N.P. of non-oil-producing countries in the developing world has steadily risen.

According to the World Bank, most of Nigeria's oil wealth gets siphoned off by 1 percent of the population, condemning more than half of the country to subsist on less than a dollar a day. By that standard, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. Since independence in 1960, it is estimated that between $300 and $400 billion of oil revenue has been stolen or misspent by corrupt government officials—an amount of money approaching all the Western aid received by Africa in those years. Former president Sani Abacha and his inner circle stole at least $2 billion. In a recent crackdown on corruption, the president of the Nigerian senate had to resign after accusations that he had solicited a bribe in exchange for pushing through an inflated education budget (which presumably would then have been plundered by others). A former inspector general of the national police, after being accused of stealing between $52 and $140 million, was recently sentenced to six months in prison for a lesser charge. And two Nigerian admirals were put on trial for trying to sell stolen oil to an international crime syndicate.

The list of wrongdoing continues almost without end. With top government officials so brazenly violating the social contract, everyone downstream inevitably follows suit. The Nigerian constitution stipulates that just under 50 percent of national oil revenue must be distributed to state and local governments, and that an additional 13 percent must go to the nine oil-producing states of the Niger delta. Last year that amounted to almost $6 billion for the nine delta states—plenty, it would seem, to take care of basic social services. The problem, however, is that the money goes to the governors' offices and then simply disappears. A financial-crimes commission was recently formed to investigate all of the country's 36 governors, and it wound up accusing all but 5 of corruption. The most apparently egregious case was that of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars while he was governor of Bayelsa State. He fled to England, was arrested for money-laundering, jumped bail, and slipped back into Nigeria dressed as a woman. (The English authorities had taken his passport.) When asked how he managed to make the trip, he said he had no idea. "All the glory goes to God," he explained. He is now in custody awaiting trial.

"It's going to be tough," human-rights activist Oronto Douglas said when I asked him about reforming Nigerian politics. "Nobody who has privilege surrenders it easily. The struggle is to get people to give up power who got it illegally."

Back in Nigeria, Again

Well, we're back and it's feeling a bit weird.

Firstly, due to an incident involving a bomb that was rather near our compound, our company decided to move all children out of this location. Wives without children had an option to stay with their hubbies. Therefore, many great people have returned to their home countries and the dads will just be visiting them once every two months. The cool thing is that the wives who are here really want to be here so the attitude on the camp is pretty terrific. Everyone has a "can do" kind of approach and is chipping in to make this experience a great one. We do have limited mobility so I'm coming up with ideas for entertainment on the camp. Some who had been miserable will not be back -- so, now no one here is made miserable by their misery!!! Hallelujah!!

We feel quite safe, still. Our company is very cautious and makes decisions based on the future projections. Things will be a bit shakey up to the elections in April and then beyond. We plan on being out of country during that time. If these elections succeed and a new president takes office it will be the first time in the history of this rather wackie nation that there has been a transfer of power from one civilian government to another without a military coup or a few coups. Most people expect the election to happen. There will, more than likely, be a president elected from the North. The main candidate appears to be a fairly honest dude -- quite an accomplishment in itself seeing the rampant nature of the corruption in this land.

Jim's swamped with work! But other than the occasional panick that accompanies too many demands at a time, he's thriving quite well. My work load has become reasonable due to the decrease in numbers of folks on our camps, the lack of children, etc.

I never had the access to internet that I had hoped so I'll be adding photos from our trip on this entry and for the next few.












I'll work our way backward, so I'll start with Sydney and back up to Singapore in later entries.

Happy New Year

Here's a shot of our late Christmas Eve dinner -- out on Joey's back porch!







Greetings from Sydney Harbour!
Here are a few snaps of the fireworks -- I needed a tripod, etc. -- so they're not too super-dooper but the show certainly was!!

Mail Server Down on Boxing Day

Curiously, we now have adequate internet connections but our mail server is down. So, both options for emailing are not working at the moment. This is the second day I've tried to email -- from either of my email addresses. Seeing that they are both linked to the company, they happen to both be down at the moment. So, bear with me as I'll try to continue emailing. Jim's continuing to try as well.

You could always call us :-)
Jim's mobile is working with roaming -- 234 803 979 9132.
Joey's mobile is -- 614 0187 5972

It's Boxing Day, here in the land of Oz. For those of you who think Boxing Day is a day to honor a professional sport, check out this website, below. Warning: afterward, you'll still be pretty clueless but at least you won't feel alone!

www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.asp

Celebrating our Savior's Birth!

A very Merry Christmas to each of you!

We are enjoying an Australian Christmas, though it's evidently atypical -- it's quite cool, even for us! So, we didn't go to the beach today as we'd planned. Maybe tomorrow -- Boxing Day.

'have had a difficult time getting internet access. 'trying a bit more tonight.

Let's see, more about the contrasts -- ah, the culture of Singapore -- incredibly friendly and polite. From initial impressions, we were very!!! (impressed, that is!) The people are hard working, kind, respectful. Until the moment we left we couldn't stop talking about the cleanliness! We'd love to go back sometime!

And now, Australia, where the contrasts to Nigeria abound yet again! We were immediately struck by the cleanliness. That was something we noticed on our first trip to Oz which was pre-Nigeria. But it's even more impressive after being in Nigeria! In Joey's neighborhood the streets are perfectly clean. The yards are beautiful. The brick sidewalks are spotless. Flowers abound. Fragrances flourish. Peaceful. Calming. Quite the contrast from the headache creating streets of Nigerian cities.

What fun it was to celebrate Christmas at Hillsong Church. Let's see -- 4 different Christmas services in one week! Awesome! At one point I couldn't stop the tears from peaking out. It was so refreshing to sing so many amazing praises and Christmas carols with such a huge and diverse crowd of folks!

God is good. Very good. And we are blessed. Very blessed!

I'll write more soon and try to post photos, too, very soon!

Contrasts!!

We are still stunned by the contrasts, having left Nigeria and traveled to a variety of locations in the past week:

Paris, cold/NGA, hot!

Singapore -- clean, clean, so very clean!! Nigeria -- not!
Jim and I had a contest going on who would find the first piece of trash. I won ... on our second day! And it was a microscopic piece of a candy wrapper.
In NGA we could have contests on who spots the first piece of clean dirt ... and no one would have won, yet!
Green and beautiful -- gardens everywhere. The sides of the road -- all gardens! We were speechless (and we haven't stopped talking about it!)
Clean water -- amazing! Blue ocean water. Clean rivers, even!

And now we're in the land of Oz.

OK, the internet cafe is closing so I'll continue with the contrasts another day!

Life updates as we are heading out for one month!

See Jim.

See Sharon.

See Jim and Sharon pack.

See Jim and Sharon smile!

We leave tomorrow, God-willing, to Drs in Paris for Jim, three days in Singapore for our honeymoon (married 26 years ago Dec. 6!) , and then on to Australia -- spending great time with Joey and then we'll be joined by -- in this order: Jeri; my sis, Kath, and her hubby, Dave; Brad and Karissa. We'll have a late Christmas as those-guys will all arrive on the 28th and beyond. I can hardly stand the wait!!!

We've got our laptops loaded with everything we need for working from anywhere -- that's the problem with our high-tech world -- you never really get away, anymore!

Jim's got huge projects coming in -- things he's been working on for the whole year.
I've got new arrivals coming in -- there's never really a break in the steady stream of new hires and transfers!

But, even with the work load it will be great to be away from the intensity.

Lucy cried when we said goodbye -- hugged me and had a tough time letting go. We gave her a little Christmas gift, a Christmas bonus, and a raise -- you'd think we'd found her a job in the U.S. or something. She's so grateful for every little thing we do for her.

I hired a guy named "Jumbo!" who cooks for the camp doctor to train Lucy and she's been doing a great job. So, I think she's most disappointed to not have any oyibos to cook for in the next month! She's precious!

Prince's wife, Glory, is pregnant. He's rather ticked ("disturbed" is his word) that she's not cooking food he likes anymore. He seems to think it's fine if she vomits while she's cooking as long as he gets his food. A bit of an ego, there! So, she's sick day and night and still operating two sewing shops in a town 2 hours north of us and she's opened a new shop here in our city. She does a great job as a seamstress. Her business is growing here, already. We made them a loan so that they could rent the shop space. Prince is diligently paying it back each month -- little-by-little.

Camp life continues to be a bit tense as we still have very limited options for getting out, still need escorts, etc. So the nasty people stay nasty but ... the good news is --- the nice people just get nicer!! So, some of us had a progressive dinner last night. Jim and I quit after the dessert house. Many stayed until 4 a.m. That's 5 hours past our bedtime! The "entree" house or "hors d'oevres" house as we would say -- was our's. I didn't have Christmas decorations so I lit gobs and gobs of candles and had paper snowflakes that I'd cut out in the windows. What fun! I brought no Christmas music and most of our music is Christian, so, it was weird but we played Sting on the CD player. He seems to have universal appeal. 'just not quite like Christmas parties we're accustomed to!

I'll have more time for reflecting during our travels so I'm sure I'll blog more soon.

Air France -- here we come! Business class, even!

Corruption Abounds

Here's just one all-too-common scenario:

The chief, the leader of the "community" in this area of our city, demands that "his" people work on our camp. So, we pay the chief and his people to work. Actually, we pay them not to work. Here's how it works:

They show up and are given odd jobs that can't be too destructive -- painting the curbs black and white alternately, painting a stop sign on the pavement (ok, it was spelled "sotp" and was facing the wrong direction!) -- his guys are paid to do these things -- regularly. But that's not enough -- he wants them to be the plumbers, the electricians, etc. Training? Of course not. How hard can it be, after all?

So, they took 3 months to "renovate" a place that now needs more renovation than it did before! To get a real plumber on the camp requires that the plumber pay the chief and that our company pay the chief. And then the chief might still say "no!"

So, he's paid to work and he's paid NOT to work and ...

two guys are now in jail because

well, ... it went like this:

the trash truck was heading out of camp driving way too fast as I was walking down the main street in camp. I motioned him to slow it down!! He altered his speed. But first, he surged as he down shifted. This caused the stuff in the back of the truck to shift. A can of paint -- bright yellow -- came flying out of the back of the truck, hit the street, burst open and ... well ... painted the road!!! A full can of paint. Yellow. Good paint.

Long story, short version -- the reason the guys are in jail is that the paint was stolen from the camp. A search of the "trash" truck found DVD players, light fixtures, chairs, DSTV decoders, remote controls, more chairs, ...

And get this ... the source of the "trash" -- the chief's "workers" of course -- as they "work" in a vacant house.

So, he's paid to work
and creates a disaster!
He's paid to NOT work
and demands more pay!
So he robs us while his workers do the work they're there to really do --
spy on the qualified workers and report back to the chief so he can demand more pay and
rob houses they are trying to "work" in!!

What do we do about it?
We give the chief and his "workers" more work.

So, today --
in one house we told the chief's guys that we were noting all things that were in the house -- TV, decoder, DVD player, etc. If anything was missing -- he was responsible.

Then, we went to another house where contractors (trained workers, well ... we wouldn't hire them in the U.S. but they're more trained than the chief's guys) were ready to start a new project. Here's the pep talk they were given -- "If any of your workers sleep on the furniture, on the floor, anywhere in the house ... or if any of your workers eat anywhere in this house --- they will be thrown off of the camp. You can sleep in the car but not the house."
Sheesh -- and I thought the workers were there to ...

well ...

work!!!

It's been awhile!

Hello! Are you out there? I haven't gotten emails from many of you folks for awhile.

I haven't updated this due to: lack of time and technical difficulties with the blogger system. Now all is well with the tech part! Lack of time continues to be an issue!!

We're into the dry season -- hotter, but we can usually leave our umbrellas behind. Except two weeks ago when something that felt like a hurricane came through -- took out electricity, phone lines, burned some laptops and DVD players and Satellite receivers and transformers and ... made a lot of frustrated people more frustrated.

My laptop survived fine 'cuz when the storm hit I unplugged it. Jim's had problems -- it was back in his office and plugged into a surge protector so he thought it'd be fine. Well, the surge through the network cable line fried his network card, so ... trouble. All's well for him, now.

Jim's off golfing with a friend. I chose to sleep in. Yes, there's a golf course we can now go to with security arrangements. 'helps that it's the military course!! 'maybe (just maybe) it's a little safer. It's Sunday. We still don't have security clearance to go to any church. Too hard to protect us in a crowd and the church we'd want to go to is not in the "green zone" of safety!

I get so used to all of the versions of English around here that it takes me back when someone doesn't understand someone else. It's getting easier for us to understand every mutilated version of English. But, imagine a new guy who speaks Portuguese trying to interview a gal I sent him to see if she could be his maid. She speaks her tribal language and pidgeon English. So, in desperation, he emailed me something like "Sharon, Thanks you arrange maid interview. me talk maid but trouble have. She no understand. What do?"

'gotta run. Just got a call from a friend who's going away party was last night and he's on his way to his new location. He thinks he left his passport on the counter in his house. Always something to keep me hopping!

Once upon a time ...

Life is no fairy tale, I know!!

But here's an interesting thought --
Between the "once upon a time" and the "happily ever after" there's a whole lot of drama!

Compare that to the creation of earth to the new heaven and new earth continuum.
Compare it to our birth and our death continuum.

Mmmm ...

Here's a great book to read -- Erwin McManus's The Barbarian Call. It's a motivator, for sure! Like this:
"... to walk in the character of Christ is always the right choice, regardless of outcome or consequence. ...God's will for us is less about our comfort than it is about our contribution. God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance. God created you so that your life would count, not so that you could count the days of your life."

Being Missional

Missional:
This word is floating around books, blogs, and boardrooms. It's being used in titles of new organizations and seminars. I don't want to beat it up or add my drumbeat. But the word popped into my mind last night when I was telling Jim something someone told me that they'd said about me. Here it is in a nutshell -- some of the gals were talking about all of the garbage I've been putting up with from a few of the women here. They were pondering why and how I keep moving forward. My friend, who doesn't understand why I am a follower of Jesus but she just knows that I am, told them, "It's because of her deep faith. I think that she is energized each day because she believes that she is here for a purpose. And she wants to accomplish that purpose. It's like her mission or something." (I think that actually is the word she used.)

I have to remember what that friend said about me. It is true, but I get so lost in the messes sometimes that I forget. If I awoke with a pulse this morning (which I can report that I did) it is because God has something for me to do here on earth this day. Specifically, here in Nigeria this day.

The WHO and the WHY are intricately linked. And more important than the WHERE.

WHO I belong to matters greatly. I belong to Jesus Christ -- the King of kings and Lord of lords. Creator of the universe and creator of my heart. Healer of the broken and sustainer of the weary. My Redeemer. My friend.

The WHY follows. Why am I here? Well, for a variety of reasons I might not ever know. Sometimes it feels like punishment. But usually, when I clear my head, I realize that Jim and I are here for things that we need to receive (learn, grow in, ...) and for things that we need to give (do, be, ...).

So, it's about being missional -- living with the end in mind. Not the end of the project or the end of the day. THE END -- For all eternity. We all are eternal beings and I need to remember that our time in Nigeria could change the destination of many people's lives -- for eternity. If one person can turn toward the same Jesus who is my Savior, King, and friend and call him their Lord, their Savior, their friend ... Well! That's a mission that I accept!

The NFL in NGA

So, I went to sleep at 10:30 with the alarm set for 1:30 a.m.. Watched Monday Night Football -- what a great second half for the Broncos (better than the first half for sure!)!! And I went back to sleep at 4:30 a.m.
Wow! How terrific.

A bit strange, though, to wake up this morning and find myself in Nigeria. It just didn't fit into my foggy mind at first. I'm sure those of you in Denver woke up to snow!

I'm on the hunt for simple pleasures. I had to unpack my suitcase and give up all dreams of France with Jim. He's there now but he's got to hurry back to NGA after his meetings end -- a long-awaited project is ready to roll. So, I can't join him for the 8 day vacation on the Riviera. My countdown to freedom is back up there to months instead of days! Yep. A bit discouraging. But, Jim is actually experiencing the pain of trying to get the things on my shopping list. That's true love! Lest you feel too much pity for him, though, remember -- his meetings are on the Riviera all week. REALLY tough!

Reports

Should you believe the reports you hear about this place? Well, ... yes and no.

Safety/violence issues?
There have been a couple of kidnapping incidents again -- after 5 weeks of relative calm. But we are still quite safe, here in our walled, guarded, and gated community! You will continue to hear reports because the place will be unsteady up through and after the April elections. Criminal activity abounds but oyibos are never the targets. Imagine this, though. Some of our students on a school bus had to wait while their police escorts were told to put on seat belts. The guys refused. So their boss caned them! Yes, he actually beat them with a cane in front of the children. So we get close to the violence sometimes but we are never touched (at least not physically!)

Corruption?
Definitely true!! In fact, whatever you hear -- double it!!
Example -- 30 of the 36 governors are being investigated for corruption. At least 16 will face charges very soon. And ... the group investigating them are sure to be corrupt as well! (That's the "double it" part!!)
Another -- a guy who worked here on our camp for the facilities contractor was in charge of the Bill of Quantities for projects around the camp. And, he had to get 3 bids for each project. Interestingly, he owned all three companies that did the bidding!!!! Creative!!

Progressive?
Nope, no, and no way! This country is really not progressing in any way -- culturally, economically, politically, spiritually, ... nothin'

We still haven't lost that American "we can fix this" attitude! Maybe that's good -- as we continue to try to influence our own little part of this vast place! Please continue to pray for our wisdom to know where to put our energy. And pray for grace -- that we might offer it everywhere we go and to everyone we touch.

You end up missing the strangest things!

Hotdogs with ketchup in a previously-considered "bad" white flour bun ... I would love to eat one right now!

A bag of potato chips ... or Doritos ... definitely any kind of chips and salsa.

Hot fudge sundaes ... even from McDonald's would do ...!

The unfamiliarity of everything here really hit us when, low and behold, on the Sports Channel -- there was BASEBALL!!! Usually it's golf, lots of golf ... and car racing (I still can't figure out how that can be called a sport -- I know, some of you love it, but ... really, a sport for athletes??) and lots of football (soccer) and cricket and rugby and ... never American Football and never Baseball! So, it was fun to watch a bit of the Padres and Cardinals game. We've never even seen a clip of a football (our kind) game, yet. So, we rely on internet updates -- it's just not the same!!! I never thought I'd miss seeing the Broncos sooooooooo much. Hey, I'd even be thrilled to watch a 49ers game!! :-)

Sunny Days and Goofy Nights

So, it looks like all we do is party around here!
By Saturday I was so exhausted, I hid behind closed curtains to be able to find a few hours of peace and quiet.

Let's see ... the first photo is from a "Decade" party -- can you tell? Two from the 60s, one from the 80s, one from the 90s. These gals are not as tall as they look -- I'm scooting down.

The other photo is proof that I really did "dance" -- ok, it looks like I'm just standing there, I know!

The sun is filtered through the bushes outside my patio and streaming through the window. Wow! We've had a few hours without any rain and it's wonderful. Families are by the pool -- kids and inflatable toys abound. On days like this I really do love this place!

Spirits are up around camp as people are adjusting to life in a lockdown situation. Basically, the only answer to survival is -- get along with your neighbors or be miserable and stay in hiding. We've had more parties and we have even more on the way. I'm working on bringing in some pro athletes for the kids and I'm working on bringing in a comedian. Should be fun.

My job is still taking up too much time but this weekend, at least, I've had a few hours of break.

Jim and I have a good "second choice" Sunday routine. We each have solitude, separately (or it wouldn't be solitude, duh!) until 10 a.m. and then we pray together, watch a Christian DVD, worship, ... We do miss going to Carpenter's Church, though. But it looks like things will stay this way for a long time.

Jim travels this week -- Lagos and then France. I'll join him next week. Yippee!!!!!!! I can't wait. His meetings are very near Antibes (where we stayed in May) so, what a bummer, ... that's where his hotel is located!!! We'll have a few days of fun and relaxation and I'll work like crazy on some writing deadlines and then ... we'll be back here.

Jim and I have had an ongoing Rummy game going since March. I was in the lead for months but he moved ahead and it's looking impossible to catch him. So, we'll be battling it out in a couple of hours.

I'm off to a meeting -- yes, we always have work, even on Sundays. Jim's in the office doing some catch-up work, himself.