As promised...

So here's a summary of everything so far as promised...

I won’t be doing secretarial work like they had suggested earlier, but I’ll be helping out with many projects throughout the year along with reading for 10-20 minutes a day to the school children. I’ll also be helping out with Pathfinders, which is much overloaded, and with the children’s choir that my host mother (Belen) puts on, as well as starting a worship band with Eric, Belen, and some of the local teens. Also they have an awesome outreach service here that takes a group of students out into the jungle to the farmers to pray and read the Bible with them. Eric and I went the first night and to the same group on one of the Sabbaths since they do a church service every week there as well. Unfortunately everything is in Yoruban, so I can neither be helpful nor gain much each time, unless I learn Yoruban fast.

The reading thing is supposed to be helpful because they have such a hard time understanding American English that they don’t generally understand you unless you adopt a British accent of some sort. I objected to my importance in this, when really it doesn’t feel like such a big deal, but there are some good reasons. Yoruba accented English is about the hardest to understand for one thing. We have some seasoned missionaries here that have traveled to a great deal of Africa, and find this region the hardest to communicate with. They explained that this limits the success for the future generations to simply this area, since getting a good prestigious grip on business and title in this world requires going mostly to English speaking countries. Like I said, they speak English, but it’s hardly recognizable, especially to us Americans because the English they learn is British. So when they take English class, the spelling and the pronunciation is British, which is why I faltered in seeing my importance since I would teach differently. But they related a story of an extremely bright student who interviewed at Yale and didn’t get in because of their poor English skills – this student was considered extremely bright, but their English skills made them fail the interview. So they’re thinking that if they could at least learn to understand American English, for those that would want to expand their horizons, they have an opportunity. I do have to agree with them on that – opportunity is a big deal. So I’ll only be reading to them instead of teaching them, but if they want to learn, I will certainly be open to that option. All I can really hope for is that God will use me no matter what; at home or while I am here learning from this experience, and I know it’ll be fun to tell them stories anyway.

Already I’ve helped finish some projects, so I hope that I’ll have enough to stay busy all year. The house I’m staying at is a guest house of the Lohr’s. Jason, the dad and the Medical Director, and Belen, the mom, both specialize in family practice. They have two kids, Michaela, 4, and Joshua, 3, which are nothing but energy and questions. The house is very nice, but I do have to go in an outside hall to get to the bathroom and separate shower which is odd at night since there are security guards for the compound that camp out in front of my house (it’s on a corner of the compound). Also since they view shorts on women as promiscuous, I have to put on some different clothes if I ever go outside at night. Hehe. I am very comfortable in my little house by now though; Belen made sure I had a good start by giving me curtains for privacy and a battery operated lamp so I’m not always in the dark when the electricity turns off. The effect of no electricity is something that I’m sure is hard for people in the States to understand because there it is on constantly, but it’s actually off most of the day here. This is difficult because it affects everything, not just houses, so it is SO DARK when it happens at night. I have never seen such pitch black darkness. It’s also hard because the fans only work with electricity, so when they’re off during the hottest part of the day, everyone is sweating profusely, even the natives.

The compound is beautiful and contains the hospital, a dorm-ish sort of thing for the “interns,” and houses for the doctors. Outside of the compound to the South and West is the Adventist secondary school and ½ of the primary school. The secondary school is in pretty good shape, but the primary school was bombed as an act of vandalism during a local war in 1999. ADRA raised funds to build a new school (the West one) within the same year as the war but they haven’t been able to use it yet because the fence is still broken. When I say fence, I really mean wall, which would keep people out, but more importantly keep children in. This beautiful new-ish school is just sitting over there, being used by the 3^rd-5^th graders because they are old enough to not wander off, but the kids ages 3-8 aren’t allowed over there yet. The fence they want to fix will cost $10,000, which is actually for only two sections of it, but it covers the most dangerous parts they are worried about. So for now, the remaining six grades are in one tiny building with partitions made of flimsy pressboard and a structure of two-by-fours. It is incredibly loud and packed in there so much that one of the classes is held outside mostly. It doesn’t help that they start their kids here at age three in full-time school and of course the classrooms are bursting at the seams with children, and lacking resources on top of that, so the teachers are super stressed out. Still, the Adventist reputation for good schooling here brings in more kids still, and actually educates them, unlike their equivalent of public schools.

The compound is very nice and well-maintained, but outside, in the rest of Nigeria, there is trash EVERYWHERE. Along the highway from Lagos to Ife there are mounds and mounds and mounds of trash just along the road. They don’t have a good place to put their trash, so they burn it when it gets too high or too stinky. We give all of our scraps and bad food to the pet antelope and dogs one of the doctors here owns, which takes care of that, but not everyone else has that option. There are a lot of goats here, but the goats would rather eat grass if there is any, so it doesn’t do a whole lot of good for cleaning things up. Also I’m guessing that a lot of other people have issues with bad food because only the people with backup batteries can keep the refrigerator on when the power turns off. And as far as I’ve seen, only a few families have that luxury, and all of them are within the compound. Traffic is the main cause of death here, as it is in most countries I believe, but I think it is significantly more so here. The roads are so incredibly bad, and they hardly have any traffic rules, especially ones they reinforce. To go to the school everyday I have to cross a main street, and it is actually a scary thing to do. It’s about the equivalent of crossing a 45 mph zone on a hill without any lines or lights… and blind drivers. So, in a nutshell, it’s scary to drive here.

When I first got here I was definitely culture shocked, and missed home a lot, especially over the holidays. But it’s gotten a little better now, and even more so after getting some more nice homely things for my room and some nice packages from the States. The biggest thing I can do here is be as good a Christian I can because that is the one power they have just handed over to me. I am an oyinbo, or a white person, and everyone is watching me to see what I do. I have ultimate influence on the kids at school, so even if I don’t teach them a bit of English, they might possibly be changed…by my actions? This is a hopeful statement, and at the same time, quite a frightening one – all that influence, placed on me, a human. I definitely need your prayers on this one!

Thanks for your continuing support!

A Much Needed Update

I'M HERE! But I'm sure not many of you are surprised at that. I hacen't been able to get on this specific website this whole time, and I've been here for a little over a month. So when the long term missionaries here said they had Internet, they were kind of kidding. The Internet is so slow that sometimes you have to spend an half an hour just to see one page load, so sending emails and posting blogs is nearly impossible. This may be about the only time I'll be able to get on, so if anything else is posted it might be by my boyfriend or family.

Right now I'm at a Resort for the weekend-before-Christmas family vacation since the father of my host family (Mr. Lohr, aka Jason) has his parents visiting for a few weeks. The Lohrs have been here two and a half years, and have another three and a half left to go. They treat me well, making sure I'm comfortable and not too homesick. The truth of it is, it's impossible to avoid missing home. I definitely miss Richard, my family, flavored ice cream and the climate, even though it is nice to be here. I think at this point in time I'm getting past what they call the "honeymoon" stage where I just love everything here and am now starting to not have so much fun with it. But since you haven't heard about all my rants and raves about this place so far, I'll try to update you throughout time.

One thing's for sure: It's hot. So I got sunburned once already wearing sunblock at all the appropriate times and places, reminding me that we are a lot closer to the sun here. So I used the Lohr's sunblock which is supposed to be impenatrable, as they claim, because they apparently have not got burned once since they've been here. I put this stuff on twice, when they said I only needed it once, and I still got burned. It's never gotten too bad though, so I am still in good health!

Anyway, I don't have much time to be on here, so hopefully I'll get some updates through family and friends to everyone. Just wanted to let you know I'm here and doing alright, though a bit homesick and thank you for your prayers and support as always!