Driving!

Our car!

In Britain I really liked our little Fiat Panda.  It was economical, environmentally friendly, nippy, could park in small spaces and hold a surprising quantity of stuff.   Yesterday we got our Nigerian car, a Toyota Sienna.  It’s huge (7 seats) and feels more like a small bus than a car but a little vehicle would be bullied and squashed on the Nigerian roads. It drinks up petrol but filling up with 65l of fuel cost under £30 as a litre of petrol is under 40p.

Fraser and I had our first goes at driving it on the main roads on the way to Bukuru accompanied by the very brave Luka.  I can’t believe anyone would drive for pleasure on Nigerian roads.  In its tips on driving well the Nigerian Highway Code booklet suggests that you imagine you are the only sane person on the road: that is a very easy thing to do.  I’m sure it’ll get easier with practice and getting to know the vehicle but at the moment I find it hard to believe I’ll ever be able to concentrate on the driving and finding my way at the same time.  I find it difficult enough to recognise where I’m going when I’m a passenger or walking but then we have only been here 10 days.  What I would like is a driver or a navigator or better still, someone who can combine the roles whilst I sit in the back and take in the fascinating sights by the roadside.

We drove to Bukuru yesterday so Fraser could actually see inside the library at TCNN and discuss with the Provost what his role would be.  He was extremely encouraged by the Provost’s desire that the library should be at the centre of college life and helped by his tips on how to lead a Nigerian staff.  Emmanuel, the acting librarian who’s actually a theologian rather than a librarian, showed us around.  It was clear that there’s a lot of work to keep Fraser busy and we could see how all his experience with the library changes at Highland Theological College and UHI have been preparing him for the tasks ahead.

I wandered along to see how work on our house was progressing.  It wasn’t but we sincerely hope something will happen soon.

Next I walked along to ACTS headquarters to see Luka Vandi the General Manager to chat about how I could help.  He took me along to Mrs Abiola, Personnel Manager, and we had a great time discussing God’s goodness in getting us to Nigeria and the protection he extends to his people.  Yet again I felt that merely by being willing to come to Nigeria we are being an encouragement to the Christians here.  It was a good type of personnel interview.  Basically I told her what I could and would like to do and she said she’d find me the work.  Fraser and I know there are quite a few more orientation things to do before we’re properly ready to start work but we feel as if we’re making progress.

Fast food wrapped in newspaper

It was good to be able to call in at Hillcrest for a late lunch of suya, masa and onions as we waited for James and Ruth.  As it’s our second week we thought it about time to try puffpuffs, lovely fried doughnut holes at only N10 each (4p).  We did discuss leaving a couple for the children but somehow by then all the puffpuffs had disappeared.

This morning we woke up to quite a lot of noise and chanting in the distance then saw a load of men and women jogging along the streets.  Auntie Rachel assured us it wasn’t a riot but the army going on a training run.  They run through different parts of the city each day and are told “to sing to make them happy”.  I’m not sure how happy they would be as it had been raining all night (so heavily that it was hard to hear the 3am mosque noise) and still was, but they were certainly doing their bit.