Back to school

The first week back at school is over.  James is settling in to high school but his involvement in football three times a week means that we have eleven hours between leaving the house in the morning and getting back at night (me too when I go to Hausa lessons and BRICC in between dropping the children and picking them back up).  Ruth is enjoying being back with those of her friends who are still in Nigeria (many have returned to the USA) but she's picked up a bad cold already. I blame the travellers who bring bugs from the planes.  I'm enjoying my one-to-one tuition in Hausa although it'll take a lot of practice before I'm speaking naturally.  We're all in some kind of education except Fraser but he's busy helping students in the library, sorting out the cataloguing and working out how to get reliable and affordable internet access for the college.

Our new terms (or semesters as I'm supposed to get used to calling them) have just started but the current BRICC women's skills class is coming to an end.  Their examinations are taking place this week so on Monday, Wednesday and Friday a third of the women are doing their practical baking test.  BRICC is a family: everyone wants to be involved and support other departments so Madam Vero's call for volunteers to taste and grade the women's efforts unsurprisingly didn't go unanswered.  I missed Monday's test but yesterday I was there along with a good number of the BRICC regulars to help assess the cakes, doughnuts and bread.  It's great to see the enthusiasm and comfortable mingling which goes on and which I'm sure will be repeated on Saturday when people turn out to support the education department's graduation event.  There's still one group of women due to be tested on Friday with cookies and cakes the rumoured subjects so I'll have to do my best to go along and lend a hand.  It's a hard job...

BRICC Sallah

Ramadan ended on Thursday and today there was a sallah (holiday) meal of rice and chicken in the meeting room for the BRICC family.  It was lovely that Fraser, James and Ruth had received a special invitation as none of them had been to the meeting room

at all and many people in BRICC were sceptical that James even existed.  The four of us turned up in our Nigerian clothes to bask in the love that always emanates from such BRICC gatherings: Christians and Muslims eating together, talking together and building the relationships that are the only way to secure peace for the future.  Fraser, as a special guest, was prepared to be asked to give a short speech.  I, although I shouldn't have been, was completely taken aback when Siddiq called on me.  My few words were highly commended as being very short, not always a quality evident in speech-making but one that I value.  Just about everyone there, including neighbours and representatives from the neighbourhood watch, had something to say about the value of the work BRICC is doing.  Fraser's illustration of the two communities being like hands went down especially well.  Hands can clash as two fists; they can move together as in clapping - touching but not really involved with each other; or, as is the case with BRICC, the fingers can intertwine as the hands clasp, each fully connected with the other.  Long may our hands clasp and multiply!
Alhaji is always very pleased when Ruth comes along to BRICC and makes sure she gets in the photographs.

On a completely different subject: our puppy, Luach, has had a tough couple of weeks.  He got the second of his puppy vaccinations and reacted badly, hardly eating and spending most of his time sleeping or curled up (preferably on someone's knee) looking thoroughly miserable.  Now he looks on all Nigerian men as the vet coming to do something nasty to him and barks his little head off at any who approach.  Yesterday was the first day he improved and started to show more of an interest in life.  Unfortunately yesterday was also the day of the very strong wind coming from an unusual direction.  Luach has a pastic crate to sleep in on the back porch which we put inside the huge box from the washing machine for extra protection.  Yesterday afternoon Fraser heard him whining and went to investigate.  Poor Luach was sitting where his house should have been, staring forlornly as his entire dwelling place sailed off across the garden.  So we don't have to change his name to Toto it's now weighed down with a very heavy rock.

Harvest

Many years in Scotland I planted pumpkin seeds more in hope than expectation.  Every year they'd start to grow, somtimes they even produced a few flowers, but then the Scottish climate would swing into action and my poor plants would shrivel in the frost and damp before they ever had a chance to fruit.  The Nigerian climate is somewhat different.  I planted seeds and pumpkins tried to take over my garden.  It's so exciting (OK, I lead a quiet life) to go out and play "spot the pumpkin" among the leaves.  Perhaps next year the novelty will have worn off but at the weekend I was so proud to harvest my first proper pumpkin ever and as Fraser pointed out, it was as heavy as a set of twins.

Recently I've often been praying this prayer from the Nothumbria Community morning liturgy (www.northumbriacommunity.org).  Since we arrived in Nigeria a year ago God has been walking closely with us and this prayer encapsulates that.

Christ, as a light

illumine and guide me.

 Christ, as a shield

overshadow me.

Christ under me;

Christ over me;

Christ beside me

on my left and my right.

This day be within and without me,

lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;

in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.

This day be within and without me,

lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Christ as a light;

Christ as a shield;

Christ beside me

on my left and my right.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with us,

wherever He may send us.

May He guide us through the wilderness,

protect us through the storm.

May He bring us home rejoicing

at the wonders He has shown us.

May He bring us home rejoicing

once again into our doors.

 

One year on

We did share the cakes - honest.

Twelve months ago we were asleep, or as much asleep as we could be with the Jos mosques running overtime for Ramadan.  We'd arrived in Abuja that morning after an overnight flight, completed the four hour drive to Jos, met most of the Mission Africa folk living nearby and collapsed into bed at the Baptist hostel.
Today we had tea and cakes in our new outside room to celebrate surviving our first year.  Especially at the start it did feel like surviving although the small kindnesses and signs from God to reassure us we were where he wanted us to be were very encouraging.  There have been ups and downs; some aspects of life in Nigeria are definitely easier to cope with than others, but we have seen so many prayers answered and consider ourselves extremely blessed to be out here.

Back to School (part 2)

The second event in the end of year celebrations was the speech and prize giving ceremony on Saturday.  I was on my own this time - Dawn didn't make it.  The ceremony was due to start at 10:30am (‘prompt’, according to the invitation!)  By 12:00, when about half the invited guests had gathered in her office, Mrs Nji (the school principal) decided we should move over to the hall and make a start.

The programme eventually got under way at 12:30, with the arrival of the graduands.  (In Nigeria, as in the USA, pupils ‘graduate’ from school as well as from college or university.).  In true Nigerian style, they danced in, led by one of the senior teachers.  As previously mentioned, the school colours are purple and white, and the graduands made a striking entrance in pink mortar-boards and gowns with purple facings.  The school is relatively large, with over 1000 pupils this year, and 146 were graduating.

After the opening devotions we were led in the National Anthem and the School Anthem by the choir, who were back to their basic school uniforms – no straw hats on display this morning!  As we had started late, some of the music had been cut, and we moved swiftly on through various speeches.  The next major highlight was the launching of the school yearbook.  This was in effect a fund-raising drive, with various guests (not me!) competing as to who would pay most for their copy.  Top place went to the chairman, who purchased his copy for ₦150,000 (approx. £600!)

After some more speeches, the event concluded with the prize-giving.  In addition to class prizes and subject prizes, there were awards for those involved with the Fellowship of Christian Students and the choir – one graduand who had been in the choir since he started in first year was presented with a guitar.  There were also special prizes supplied by a group of young men who had started a maths club at the school.  I was very pleased to see that they included an award for the most improved student in the club.

Three of the students (Ivoren Iyuwa, Joy Anum and Benjamin Yusuf) at a science fair in Lagos in May

Ivoren Iyuwa, Joy Anum
and Benjamin Yusuf

Ivoren Iyuwa, Joy Anum and Benjamin Yusuf

Despite the late start, the whole ceremony was over by about 3:00.  What struck me most was the informality on display – in some ways (such as the dance in of the graduands) this was quite refreshing.  However the down-side was that at no stage of proceedings (neither for the speeches nor for the prayers) was the audience ever quiet – the whole affair took place against a background of constant chatter.  As this didn't seem to put any of the speakers off, I assume it is normal for Nigeria.