Charlotte has been quite ill the past 3 days with malaria and likely typhoid on top of it. She is feeling a fair bit better this morning and had a bite to eat. Our family has been faithfully taking malaria prophylaxis and also received typhoid vaccination before coming, but they are known to be less than 100% effective.
We have learned a little bit how to use the hospital’s services through the experience. A Scottish doctor we know has been helping Charlotte, along with one of the Nigerian staff doctors. The lab test to diagnose malaria can be done for 150 naira (about $1.25). I had the lab tech give me a refresher on how to prepare a thick smear slide for microscopy and was able to see the parasites giving Charlotte such trouble. Although medications may be inexpensive by North American standards, their cost is often a heavy burden for families here. Medications are readily available in pharmacies, even without prescriptions. (Apparently the national government has been making progress in ensuring that ineffective fake medications are kept off the shelves, but we are still advised to always ask, “Is this the orginal?”)
Yesterday while at the MCC office in Jos, we heard a volley of shots being fired not far away. Apparently someone had stolen a motorcycle and the police were pursuing him. This caused some people to panic and start fleeing. In no time at all, rumors of “Jos burning” and renewed violence had spread via cellphone throughout Jos and further. One community had pulled a large bus across the road, blocking access to their neighborhood and fired a volley of shots to keep people away (which is what we had heard). So even though there had been no actual violence, it can be seen how high the tension remains and how close the fear remains below the surface of everyday life. On the way to and from school in Jos each day we pass through more than half a dozen police/military checkpoints.
Christmas is soon arriving here, although it still feels like late summer in many ways. Christmas without snow and cold will take some getting used to. I miss the crisp crunch while walking down the sidewalk, the glow of Christmas lights, taking the kids ice skating at the pond in the park, snuggling up on the couch in the den with a good book and the gas fireplace going, getting together with family and friends, egg nog, the smell of the Christmas tree, the climbing heating bills (oops- guess I don’t really miss that).
In spite of a hard couple of last weeks we are still grateful to be here in Nigeria, though. We have many new friends and continue to receive much support from friends and family back home. Charlotte does not mind the absence of cold in the least. The children have an excellent school, establishing relationships with other children from all over the world. The countryside here on the plateau is absolutely gorgeous with its beautiful spreading trees, rugged mountains, piles of precariously balanced huge boulders scattered across the landscape as if God were playing a board game and decided to leave the pieces out afterward, the fields everywhere with ripening crops and groups of villagers coming together to harvest each different crop as it is ready- the potatoes and yams, the maize, the acha, and now the guinea corn; the hundreds of children in their bright school uniforms filing along the side of the road on their way to school each morning. Even the bustle of the city has its appealing rhythm, with the frantic traffic and amazing loads being transported, the yellow fevers(traffic police wearing yellow jackets, controlling intersections in place of traffic signals) with their white gloves wildly flapping directions, the street hawkers selling everything imaginable at each stop(belts, rat poison, monopoly games, world maps…), people everywhere bustling, fruit stands, and the markets. The markets are the place I feel a wonderful “otherness” of Nigeria most acutely- with the press of people and amazing combination of sights, smells, sounds and jostlings. Vendors and other people we meet in the course of the day are overwhelmingly gracious and welcoming to us- we often receive wonderful smiles and greetings just for being here and trying to speak a few words of Hausa. Children often follow us, both fascinated and a bit scared of us, usually breaking out in group giggles when we pester them back. MCC and our country reps and staff support and provide for us very well.
We both look forward to starting work in January, feeling our way into new positions, but confident that we will have meaningful things to both give and receive in our work. Our family spends time together here in different ways than we did in North America and we have opportunity to talk about important issues in a different context. Attending a Christian school alone (which also enrolls those of differing faiths, such as Muslim), where most have a more conservative theology constantly sparks wonderful conversations with the children. It is exciting for us all to deepen our understanding of and relationship with God and our world together.
We also have much to learn about what our Mennonite background means in this setting, and our belief that violent solutions can only perpetuate violent systems. The country program review recently completed for MCC Nigeria identified the peacemaking lens as a critical, unique component of our presence here. Given the violent events of the last couple of weeks here, not unlike events that happen continually around the world (and it is easy to forget to include the structural and sometimes hidden violence occurring in North America), there is much work and learning for peacemakers.
Thanks for continuing thoughts and prayers. We also think of you and the work and lives you are all carrying on with elsewhere. It is comforting to think that we are connected and part of the same fabric of being and efforts towards wholeness.
Ku gaida ma iyalinku. (Greet your families.)
Randy
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