Life is good-oooo

Well its been a long time again... apologies. When I set out about doing this blog I new for sure no matter how much discipline or will power I had I would never keep it up to date. But Hey thats fine :) Let me fill you in on the last couple of weeks.

Everything is still going really great here in Ogugu. The clinic is running well, with a steady flow of sick people all be it they are mainly old women with general 'Body Pain'. But they are all receiving help, and there have been some really sick people who are now getting better. Alot of people seem to be coming with Malaria and Typhoid, which is really treatable and would other wise probably be fatal if left untreated. Mel is the main one doing clinic now and she's doing a top job. I'm still pushing for people to come for HIV tests, but we've only had a couple of people coming in. I don't know whether people know that they can get a free HIV test (which shouldn't be the case cause I've given out loads of flyers) Or They just don't want to have the test because its too public a place...I dont know but its kinda getting frustrating. But I'm trusting that its in Gods hand. Out of those who have had the test, a couple have come back positive. One in particular was a young girl that I councelled and did the test for. We talked for some time and I pleaded with her to come to the centre to make an action plan and get her referred to the HIV clinic for drugs. But as of yet she hasn't come. She will must probably forget about the test and just carry on with her life, which is really really sad, and scary, who knows how many people will become infected through her. I'm praying that she will come to her senses and come and see us soon.

The lessons in schools are also going really well. So far I have taught lessons on; HIV awareness, Male Puberty, and Drug and Alcohol abuse. All the lessons have gone really really well. Lots of fun and good banter. Its also been a good way to build friendships with some guys my age, and let them know my reason for being here. Im hoping that in time some of the boys will be coming to the centre if they need help or support with any issues. I would love that. The HIV lesson showed some interesting things about the level of knowledge of these boys. Probably the Age group that are most at risk.

•  60% thought there is no hope for people who have HIV. 
• 75% think there is a cure for HIV, which there isn't.
• 35% think that people with HIV should be locked away from family and friends so as not to spread the virus more!!!
• 50% think that HIV is a punishment from God for their sins. 

I dont know whether you find these facts as shocking as me, but I was totally shocked. I knew from data another gapper had collected that the knowledge was bad, but I didn't quite understand how bad. These facts have spurred me on though to trying to educate more people. I might start shorter programmes in some more high schools, just doing 1 or 2 lessons on HIV.

What else is there to say...The outreaches are still going strong, slowly but surely people are watching and hearing the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Not the prosperity gospel which seems to be ravaging the churches, which says the more money you put in the offering the more you will be blessed in your life. So far the film has been shown to 468 people, and I'm hoping that it will keep continuing.

I have been doing a little building project with 2 of the orphan boys; Henry and Hicenth. I think I have mentioned them on here before. But its been a good opportunity to show my complete lack of woodwork skills, despite my GCSE haha. We have built the base of a table tennis table, which the orphans can use. We're just waiting to get the big bit of wood to finish it off. But im sure endless hours will be spent on that, by the kids......and me :P

So I've just got back from a couple of days spent in Abuja Nigerias capital. We went to see Sharon off to the airport but thought we'd make a little break from it. Sharon is back in the UK now which is really strange...It was kinda tough to walk all the way to the check in desk and then turn around, but I know there's still so much to be done here. And despite how nice it'd be to see family I'm having to much fun here to go back now :)
After seeing Sharon of me and Mel went to this big hotel, and paid to go and lye by the pool. It was awesome! Went swimming, chilled out, and then even went in a steam room...total LUXURY :) turns out missionary life isn't that bad after all hahah. But it was really nice just to have an afternoon to relax, even if I got toally sunburnt. We also found time to do a bit of shopping and picked up some food goodies to take back to Ogugu.

So Im back in Ogugu now and there's lots to be done. I'm having a big meeting with all the captains of the football teams that are playing in the up and coming competition, which is happening tomorrow. On sunday Im going back to one of the villages I showed the film in, to speak in the church.
There's a couple of other things in the pipeline at the moment. We're having quite a few of the people from Jos coming to Ogugu in April, and I hope that we can run a `kids club in one of the nearby villages, so Im going to start making arrangements for that soon.

So thats all for now. I hope you are all keeping well at home. I hope to see you when I get back. Any news from home would be good to hear:)

O-G-U-G-U we love you!

Hello everyone.

It’s been too long since I last wrote and so much has happened that it’s a daunting task to have to write about it all haha.

I’ll start from where I left of last time…The Market day clinic. I have been making plans in the last months to go into the market place, based at a small medical centre, to offer free health advice and medicines, as well as really emphasizing the free HIV test. We had the first Clinic on the 24^th of January, and a medical team that was working in a town nearby joined us. We had 3 doctors a small pharmacy set up and me and Asabe offering the HIV test. On that day we saw 89 people who all received free drugs. It was a really great day and so so so many people came. It was unfortunate that we could only see 89 I think if we’d have stayed for 3 days we wouldn’t have seen everyone who wanted to be seen! But it was a really great day and a good start for future market days.

Since that day we have been back 2 times to the market to offer the free clinic, and we hope to continue going back every 9 days. Both times we have gone we have been faced with crowds of 80 to 100 people. There is just so much medical need here. Everybody has a complaint of body pain or sickness. Its hard sending people away but Mel is the only doctor doing the clinic so we can only see around 30 people in 1 day. As of yet we have not had many people coming for the HIV test but I hope that in future weeks we can really get people in for the test.

Another really exciting thing that has been happening recently is outreaches to some remote villages. When the team came they brought out a film called ‘The Jesus Film’ in the tribal language here…Igala, which I ordered from Germany. It’s a really great way of telling people about the gospel. I went last Sunday to a small village called Okpudu, with my good friend Victor. We took the projector and set up a film show for a really small church in the village there. The village has apparently only had a church there for 3 or 4 years, and a lot of people are still practicing Traditional African Religion. We had a really great day there. We visited the church in the morning and there were only about 30 people. But when we came back on the afternoon there were around 90 people so it was a really great turn out. We showed the film and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I also spoke afterwards and Victor interpreted for me. It was a really enjoyable day, we came back on the bike just as the sun was setting, and I had one of those “wow this is amazing” moments. Driving through the bush with the sun setting after coming from an outreach in a remote village. It was awesome!

Hopefully going back every other Friday to run some studies in the church there.

I’m hopefully going to a village called Eleje this Sunday to run the same programme, and then next Sunday I am taking it to a big crusade of maybe 150-200 people. So I’m really excited about everything to come.

I have finally gone into schools now as well to start the HIV awareness lessons. It has taken a long time in coming, because of exams then Christmas, then schools not resuming because of elections. But this week I have been teaching the first set of lessons. I am teaching in 3 schools at the moment with Mel, she is taking the girls whilst I take the boys but its Just 1 lesson a week. The first lesson on Monday went really well, and I have another tomorrow, which is exciting.

And then finally I just want to mention Saturday. I am in the process of arranging a big football tournement for all the surrounding UEC churches. A couple of weeks ago I went with a few others, to inform the churches. I also offered to come back to a couple and run a day programme of coaching, football theory, and other fun things. And I’m going this Saturday to a village called Ofante to run the programme with ‘The Coach’ who is helping run the competition. Should be a fun but tiring day J

Anyway sorry to talk so much, congratulations if you’ve read to the end. I probably would have given up after the first paragraph.

Hope everyone is doing well. As always would be lovely to hear any updates from home.  

Nigerian Food

So I thought I would tell you all a little about the Nigerian food...because it's well tasty!!!!

So hear is a run down of my top 5 Nigerian foods:
 1. Pounded yam and Egusi soup- This is the first Nigerian dish i tried and it delish, its serve separately. The pounded Yam looks like a big ball of mashed potato. The Egusi soup is made from ground watermelon seeds, mixed with spinach stuff, and some red oil. Mmmmm its amazing!

 2. Moi-Moi- This is basically ground beans which is then boiled in a bag. They serve it with a boiled egg inside but its melt in the mouth stuff. Also if left to go cold it hardens and is a pretty good afternoon snack.

 3. Beans Porridge- This basically looks like someone's thrown up on your plate but it tastes pretty good. Again the main ingredient is beans, but it is a porridge consistency. Often made with either yam or potato to fill it out a bit. Its also good if you spread the beans porridge on bread.

 4. Fried Yam and red soup- Yam is a similar consistency to potato apart from its a bit harder and comes in massive tubular shapes. So fried yam is basically like having a big circular chip. You eat it with Red soup which is made mainly of red oil, tomato paste and spices.

 5. Okara- Again this is ground beans...its amazing what you can do with beans! But this one they put bread crumbs around it and fry it. It's quite common as a breakfast food, and is again pretty amazing.

So there we go you now know a little more about Nigerian food, and all of the delicacies your missing out on :) Fortunately not been offered snails, snake, or random meat yet but im sure ill have to stomach somethin gross soon.
x

Me and Henry hard at work

climbing the palm tree

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone. Thought it’s about time for another short update J Hope your all doing well, and enjoying the New Year.

I’m back in Ogugu now. We had a really warm welcome back from everyone, which was really nice. Even got a hug from Elder Rueben, which was strange haha. It was nice to get away from all of the mayhem and madness going on in the big cities, and get back to the simpler village life.

The day that we got back there was a big football match in Ogugu, between Ogugu team and Ogugu Old players (veterans). It was a big occasion with a lot of the village coming out to watch, maybe 500 people or so. My friend Old Skool, was the commentator for the game so when he spotted me in the crowd he announced on the speaker that “he was being joined by our football analyzer from UK Mr. Will” it was hilarious, it was basically me and Old skool having banter over a speaker system, and trying to offer some sort of half decent commentary. Never had myself down as a commentator and I’m pretty sure its not a gift of mine, but it was good fun J

In the first week back we had Billy Abwa, the ‘Advance’ coordinator for Nigeria come and stay with us in Ogugu. It was really nice that he came for 2 reasons; firstly his purpose for coming was to finish the final touches on my room and the house next door, which is nice. But secondly it also gave us a great chance to chat to him and make sure that all our plans are all ok. He also brought a projector with him, so I took the opportunity to do a film night for the football boys, in the centre. So I had like 30-40 of the footy guys round to watch a good old 007 James Bond classic. Its was a good evening, and Billy finished by giving a really challenging gospel message, and they all seemed to take in what he was saying.

When Billy was here we also to a trip into the ‘Bush’ we went to quite a remote village where one of the circle of hope boys, Henry, who is staying with his grandparents. I might just tell you a bit about Henry, both his parents died of HIV when he was young, he then moved in with a relative here in Ogugu, but he was being badly abused by the relative, because he is HIV positive as well. Since Circle of Hope heard his story, they have provided a house for him and also reunited him with his brother to be room mates, and they provide money for food, clothes etc. Henry is now a really happy young guy, and a really fun guy to spend time with. So yeah we went with Billy to visit him where he was visiting his grandparents. It was a fun day; we went through a village called Japan, which was weird. We met all Henry’s family and one of his cousins was climbing palm trees to tap the palm wine. He used like a bark rope, which he circled around himself and the tree, to harness himself to the tree. It was so cool watching him climb these big 30ft trees, but I couldn’t just watch I had to try it. Turns out it’s a lot harder than it looks! But I tried and got a good 12 ft off the ground.

Anyway I’ve been pretty busy since getting back. I’ve been organizing a football competition for 4 junior teams in Ogugu, 3 of which I have been helping to coach. The competition has been running for 3 days now and finishes in 4 days. The first prize is a set of football shirts, which I collected from you kind people when I was at home. There’s been a couple of problems with the competition, some of the teams have been using some foul play, trying to bring in older players from other teams, and lying about the ages of some of the players, to try and give them the advantage. Which has been annoying but on the whole the competition is running smoothly, and fairly, so I’m hoping that it’ll continue in this way.

I’ve also started doing HIV tests, and councelling more regularly, which has been really challenging work, and quite humbling. But it is really rewarding work. Unfortunately because of the elections, school isn’t resuming till February now, so all of the school HIV awareness things which I had planned I have had to put on hold, for now.

I really need to stop writing soon, but I’ll just mention one more thing before I go. I’ve had this idea since coming, that on market day we can set up a health clinic stall, which offers free HIV testing and councelling. The market day is like the biggest event in Ogugu, because so many people are traders and farmers. The market comes to Ogugu every 4 days, and the village is always bustling with people. So I thought it makes sense to go and offer the HIV test. The problem is that HIV stigma is so great here, that if people think that the stall is just for HIV stuff they will avoid it like the plague because they don’t want to be seen attached to anything to do with HIV. So the idea is to offer some other basic health tests (blood pressure etc) so that it is seen as more than just a HIV place. We have a team of doctors coming soon, so I am hoping to start the market day stall with a bang and have the 7 doctors offering free clinic, tests, medicines etc, to really make people aware of the stall and what it offers. So I have been making arrangements for the first market day, which is on the 24^th Jan. I am really excited about the opportunity to do this, and if you can please pray that it would be a success, and that we would be able to offer the HIV test and councelling in a discreet and stigma-free way.

Anyway thats all for now...hope that didn't bore you too much! 

bye x

Its Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone.

So I thought I’d update you on the last couple of weeks, and all the shenanigans going on here. I’ve been in Jos for Christmas, traveled up on the 13^th December. It was really nice to see Abi from home, who is working in Jos for Mission Africa.

I’ve done lots since I’ve been here. Jos is like the mission capital of Nigeria, which is great because there are so many ministries and things to get involved in. but it’s also a bit strange going from Ogugu where there is 5 white people to Jos where there are like 200, part of me wants to spread them a little more evenly over the whole of Nigeria.

Some of the ministries here though are top! I visited Abi’s work which is a school for special needs students. Its such a great place. Special needs aren’t really recognized in Africa yet. Those who are born with special needs here are often neglected, abused, and don’t receive an education, so the work that the school does is really great. The students there are so happy as well! It’s seems to be really rewarding work. I was really struck by one story of a boy who was locked away by his family, for 20 years, having no contact with the outside world, because he had severe special needs. He was found by open doors and now aged 30 has the mental age of a 5 year old. It’s so sad, but makes me wonder where these people would be if it wasn’t for the school.

I also really enjoyed visiting the street orphan ministry which is running in Jos, particularly a place called Gyero, which is where kids go after coming of the streets to live and to go to school. It’s in a small village on the outskirts of Jos, but its such a cool place! There was also a team from Orange county in California which was there over Christmas for a week, and two of the guys were American college footballers, one of them was a quarterback for USC college which is apparently a pretty big deal, but he was a cool guy, and the team ran a really great program with the kids, and built a brand new set of football goals for the kids. I’m interested in coming back for a couple of weeks and running some sports programs with the Gyero kids, maybe I’ll even try and introduce them to rugby J

I’ve also been visiting a place called Transition House, which is where the guys go to live after Gyero, to make the transition back into society getting a job and a house ect. I’ve made some really good friends there and hope to return back there some time later as well.

So that’s the work stuff that I’ve visited, but there’s also been a lot of other stuff to do here. One day we went to Yankari ‘hot springs’ which was beautiful. It’s a big hot stream running out of a rock face which is situated in thick forest. It was incredible we floated down this hot river into thick forest where a tiger or elephant could of just wondered out of the trees. Apparently there are also water snakes ad alligators as well but we didn’t see anything, which was probably for the best, but then also a bit dull. 

On Christmas Eve we also visited a place called cherry hills which is a big natural rock formation, you climb up through these tiny crevices in the rocks making way to the top where you can see for miles over the whole of Jos. We stayed there to watch the sunset and it was incredible. Such a beautiful place to spend our Christmas eve.

After sunset we headed back home. This is when the MADNESS started!

I don’t know if any of you have seen on the news, but on Christmas Eve there were 3 bombs detonated at different parts of Jos, by Muslim extremists. We were running one of the guys who we were with back to Transition House, and then when returning home after dropping him the bomb was detonated on the bridge that we were approaching, and the whole place just kicked off, we were diverted down a road that we didn’t know, with cars screeching round like wacky races. And as the driver I’ve gotta say I was pretty scared, and we just started praying, asking God for protection, and for a way out of the madness because we were completely lost and didn’t know another way home apart from going over the bridge. But God answered. Ruth who has been living in Jos for a year and a half vaguely remembered a back road which took us back to Transition House. So we found the road and made our way back quickly to Transition House. It was a surreal experience, but God was so good to us and really undertook for us. So we stayed for Christmas Eve at Transition House, and had a great time with some of the boys who had no family to go home to for Christmas, and with the TH staff, before taking a safe route home in the morning. It was certainly a Christmas not to forget!

Since the bombs there has been a lot of problems in Jos, with burning of Churches and Mosques, and fights between Muslims and Christians on the streets. Because of the violence we have been told to stay in the compound for now. The guys from Ogugu (ie. Sharon, Mel, and Me) have been recommended to spend the rest of our Christmas celebrations in Abuja, so I think we will travel there tomorrow.

So all in all it’s been a pretty eventful couple of weeks. I’ve got to see more of the amazing World which God has created around us, but I’ve also seen a pinnacle of how we as mankind have just messed up, and are in need of forgiveness. It’s been amazing to speak to some Christians who have lost family or friends in Jos crisis that have happened in the past, and the way that they have not sought to justify the wrong themselves by going out in retaliation, but by putting there trust in God that he will righteously judge all the wrong that has happened and that they will receive the punishment that they deserve for the wrong that they have done.

Hope everyone is well at home, and enjoyed there Christmas!

Happy new year For Saturday.

Any news from home would be lovely to hear J