THE FINAL WEEK IN NIGERIA

I am leaving Nigeria on Thursday. I can’t believe I only have 3 more days here. During my final week here I had to do a few different things that I didn’t get the chance to do earlier. 

1. I managed to get all the souvenirs and gifts that I needed. I really like shopping here. It’s fun to see all the different items. Most of them are handmade which makes it even better! I did have to watch how much I was buying because I’m not going straight home from here and I have to pack light. I ended up making at least 5 or so trips down to the shops near the zoo. I know that means nothing to most of you. The zoo is about a 5-10 minute walk from my apartment. Near the zoo are some good shops to buy souvenirs. For various reasons, I walked down there a good bit in the last couple weeks. I started to get to know the shop owners. One of them said he wanted to give me a gift and let me pick out a card for free! Another lady really liked me coming into her shop. I think she liked the company. I wish I had more time here to get to know these people better. 

2. For those of you who don’t know, I really enjoy hiking and exploring new areas.  During my time here I was able to go on 4 hikes. Hiking here is much different from the hiking that I’m used to. I’m not sure I would even say I went “hiking”. I think exploring is probably a better word. It was fun to see new sights though. I went on one sunrise “hike” and saw a monkey! 

3. Yesterday was my last church service here. I went to JETS (Jos Evangelical Theological Seminary) with the ladies who live in my compound. JETS was the church I went to my first Sunday here too. I ended up going there three times. I’m going to miss the worship here. It’s pretty awesome. After church I got to decide where we went for lunch. I chose Elysars. Elysars is probably the nicest restaurant in Jos. It’s a Lebanese/Chinese restaurant and it has a really nice atmosphere. It was a good lunch filled with hummus and other yummy food. I tried a drink called Fayrouz. It was basically a pineapple soda. 

4. Yesterday was also my last Sunday dinner with Delight. Not sure if I’ve talked about Delight yet. Delight is a girl whose mother sells bean cakes and yam on the corner near my compound. She usually helps her mom in the afternoon after school. I think she’s about 16 years old. In Nigeria you don’t really ask ages though. I’ve had Delight over about three times for dinner on Sundays. She taught me how to make coconut rice and red stew. We have dinner together and then play games. She has really enjoyed playing skip-bo so we usually play that. Last night we were going to make coconut rice but the electricity went out. To make coconut rice you have to blend the coconut to get a coconut liquid. We were hoping that the electricity would come back on before she had to leave. So we went ahead and cracked the four coconuts. Cracking coconuts is quite a task. The shell is extremely hard. We had fun though. Electricity never came on. We had spaghetti instead. We played about four games of skip-bo too. Delight wanted to keep playing until she won. Too bad that never happened. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Delight. You can pray that she would be able to take her school exams this week. Her family doesn’t have the money to pay for exams and if she can’t take them she has to repeat the school year. 

There is so much more I could say. I can’t believe how fast the time went. I remember when I got here people were saying that two months was too short. At the time, I didn’t believe them. I thought two months was a good amount of time to be living in a different culture on my own for the first time. Now I understand what they meant. Once I started to figure out my role here and become more involved in the community and make friends, time flew. But I am so thankful for the time I’ve had here. 

God has taught me a lot about himself and myself. One main lesson He has taught me is that relationships take time. I think a lot of what He taught me I vaguely knew already but my time here made it hit home. In order to really get to know someone, you have to spend a lot of time with them. It takes time. In two short months it’s hard to create deep relationships. I’ve made good friendships, but I think I’m seeing how important long-term missions is. I’ve learned a lot more about missions. It has helped seeing what missions is like first-hand, on the field. I also strongly believe that wherever God has placed you is your mission field. It could be in Africa, Italy, North Carolina, etc. I feel a deeper conviction and longing to love others. I think loving others is one of the best ways for us to show Christ to them. I’m excited to process more of what God has been teaching me and share with you!

What’s next for me? I am heading to Italy! I am leaving Nigeria on Thursday and will get to Pisa, Lord willing, on Friday. I will be working on an organic farm through an organization called WWOOF. I will be there for one month and will be living with a family. They have one daughter who is 17 years old. Please pray for me! 

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray that the goodbyes here in Jos would go well. 
2. Pray that packing would go smoothly and I would know best what to leave behind.
3. Pray for safe travels to Italy and that here would be no wahalla (problems). 
4. Pray for my time with this family and that I would be a good witness for Christ.
5. Pray for the language barrier.

INTERNATIONAL

I wish I had the time to blog about each day. I’m so sorry I haven’t been more consistent with my blog. The fact that I haven’t blogged in a while means that I have been busy! I am so thankful that I have found ways to keep me busy. I find it hard to spend a significant amount of time on my laptop while I am here. I think of so many other things I would rather do. But I know it is important to keep all of you updated on what is going on and I really do want to keep you updated. I am so thankful for each and everyone of you who have been faithful to read my blog and pray for me. I wish I could be more faithful to updating my blog more often. I was thinking about what to write about since it has been so long. Instead of giving you brief updates of several things, I am going to focus on the most recent event and share it thoroughly with you.

Seeing as I am interested in majoring in elementary education, I thought it would be a good idea to observe in a school while i’m here. That way I can see what it would be like to teach in an international school. Since being here I have been helping out at the school in Gyero and in Gidan Bege. But both of those schools are Nigerian and I wouldn’t ever teach in one like that. However, there is a possibility of me teaching in a school like Hillcrest one day. In fact, every missionary I tell that I’m interested in majoring in elementary education says that I will have to come back and teach at Hillcrest once I graduate. They are in need of teachers. 

Hillcrest is a christian school here in Jos. It has been around a very long time. I asked Amos, a Nigerian who has lived in Jos a long time, how long Hillcrest has been here and he just said, “a very long time”. It was originally started as a school for missionary kids. Now there are more Nigerian students than missionary kids. There are fewer missionaries here than there used to be so Hillcrest allowed other children to enroll. Most of the Nigerian children at Hillcrest come from wealthy families, but there are some that come from families who work very hard to pay their school fees. 

Yesterday Amos picked me up around 8:00 and took me to Hillcrest. I thought he was coming at 8:10 but around 8:00 he called me and said he was waiting outside my gate. I never know what’s going to happen here. It’s hard to really plan. I have to take it one day at a time. I got to the school and had to be escorted by a guard to the 4th grade classroom. I already met most of the teachers at the Fretheims one Friday night. I am actually in a Tuesday night Bible study with the 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers. I got my schedule from Jess, the 4th grade teacher, and went to observe Kindergarten. The kindergarten teacher is from Jos and her name is Juliet. I asked her if she liked teaching kindergarten and she said, “I love it, it’s who I am”. She was very good at it too. All 16 of the children were very well behaved. Observing in her classroom was much different compared to the 1st grade class in Gyero. There are many more supplies and materials at Hillcrest and it is much more organized. 

After observing for a bit in Kindergarten, I went to 4th grade. They were in the middle of Bible class and were about to make tassels to represent what David cut off of Saul’s robe in 1 Samuel 24. I helped them with the project and then it was time for recess. 4th grade is the only class that sells canteen during recess. They were selling popcorn and chin chin. The “standard” popcorn here is different from the “standard” popcorn in the U.S. Instead of being salty, the popcorn here is sweet and has sugar on it. Chin chin is a Nigerian snack. I went for the chin chin. I’ve been trying to eat as much Nigerian food as I can. Chin chin is kind of just like bite-size sugar cookie bits except they aren’t quite as sweet as sugar cookies. I’ve actually been quite surprised by the normalcy of food here. I hear stories of missionaries having to eat disgusting things, but I haven’t had to eat anything disgusting. During recess I played with the kindergarteners on the playground. 

After recess I went back to 4th grade and read with a couple girls. Then I went to 2nd grade. In 2nd grade they were studying pronouns. I worked with them on how to know when to use he, she, they, and I in place of nouns. For lunch I went with the 2nd grade teacher to the huts outside. There are two huts where different Nigerian food is sold throughout the day. In one hut there is suya and massa. Suya is steak cooked in a peanut spice/sauce thing. Massa is some sort of rice that is cooked and fried in a ball. In the other hut there are chips, cose, and puff-puff. Chips are french fries. Cose is a fried bean cake. Puff-puff is kind of like a donut. I’ve already tried suya, massa, cose, and chips so I went for some puff-puff. In addition to the puff-puff she also gave me some salt and pepe. I like it with the salt but not so much with the pepe. 

Next, I went to middle school. I sat in on half of a health class, half of a math class, and two of Miriam Fretheim’s Bible classes. It was my first time ever observing a middle school class. It was good to be able to observe different grades and better see which grade I would prefer to teach. I’m thinking 3rd grade. So Hillcrest is very similar to schools in America. The biggest difference is the fact that most of the students in your class come from very different backgrounds and cultures.

Once school got out I rode with Noah, Sanji, Sanha, and Clayton to La Monde hotel. Noah, Sanji, Sanha, and Clayton are four boys that are a part of my swimming lessons on Tuesdays. Yesterday was the third week of swim lessons. I’m teaching in a pool at a hotel nearby. It’s definitely not as good of conditions as teaching lessons back home but it works. The kids love getting in the water. I was pretty excited to get in yesterday too! March is the hottest month in Nigeria and the heat really drains me. I teach two classes from 3:30-5:15. The first lesson is the beginner lesson and it is from 3:30-4:15. There are five children in the beginner lesson. The second lesson is from about 4:20-5:15 and there are four boys in the second lesson. I saw a lot of improvement yesterday so that was very encouraging! It’s nice to be able to use my knowledge of swimming to bless the missionaries. 

At 6:00 on Tuesday nights I have Bible study with about 9 other ladies. I am the youngest by about three years. We have dinner together and then dive into God’s Word and each other’s lives. We are doing a study called the STRONG challenge. There are different topics each week with challenges to go with it that we try to complete and then come and discuss on Tuesdays. The topics we’ve done so far include play, pray, and study. This week the topic is train. It’s been good to get involved in a bible study with other women here. 

It’s been really neat to see the body of Christ join together here. People from all over the world are working together to tell the nations about Christ. I have friends here from England, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, Korea, India, and Nigeria. 

I hope that was a good snapshot into a day for me here. I’ve definitely adjusted to life here and become much busier. Here are some prayer requests:

• Continued safety and protection
• Continued good health
• Finding joy in the small things
• A good sense of closure and ending these next two weeks
• Peace in Gyero