SORRRYYYY for not being to blog early, I tried to do so during the first week but there was not enough internet. Anyway I'll fill you in with what all has happened.
I encountered my first problem in Belfast international airport security. The stupid beeping metal detector decided it didn't like me and continued to beep no matter how much metal I took off. This took so long that the rest of the team weren't allowed to wait around and had to go into the duty free zone leaving me at the mercy of the airport security. So the security guard was obliged to give me a little pat down to check for weapons, fair enough I thought, but when he started brushing certain areas with the back of his hand and then literally checking underneath my shorts in the rear region while whispering gently in my ear, I got slightly freaked out. Even though they found nothing on me they decided to empty my hand luggage and put each individual item though the x ray machine seperately. Eventually I got past after they made me repack everything back into the bag.
We arrived in Kuduna and jumped in our bus at 4.30am, driven by possibly the coolest man on earth, he's called Victor and he genuinely is a legend. We were driving along happy as Larry when we got stuck in a MASSIVE traffic jam, like it was miles and miles. To avoid this hinderance on the road our driver decided; why should we wait on this side of the dual carriage way when all this traffic is here, lets drive down the wrong side of the road towards uncoming traffic on a motorway. The driving is properly mental, the only real rule is beep your horn lots to warn other drivers of your presence.
Something I only realised when we arrived (probably due to my crap listening skills), that every place we were staying at was an orphanage. Our first one was in Kuduna. It can only be descibed as basic. I loved it but goodness me was it basic i.e. drop pit, bucket for a shower, no clean source of water on site and beds were matteresses on the floor in a very small room. At each oraphange we visited we did a 3 day camp similar to a holiday bible club, I could go into a lot of detail about them but it would probably be quite boring as there the time of thing you have to experience to find interesting. It was kinda weird though because I kept getting more attached to the kids from the surrounding neighbourhood. In Kuduna I grew very found of a kid called Moses (a lot of people have biblical names), he was only 12 but he had already seen someone being beheaded and a Mosque being burnt to the ground. One of the greatest moments of Kuduna was on Day 3 of the trip, there was a huge thunderstorm and the rain was crazily heavy, so the guys from the team all decided to go out and have a shower in the rain, the only light we had was when a flash of lightening ripped through the sky, it was awesome. Also quite a weird funny thing happened while playing volleyball. We were playing against some men from the village and their best player was in his late 20's early 30's, he dived to hit the ball but as he fell he ripped his trousers and pee'd himself at the same time, but he just didn't take a second thought about it and played on, twas odd, but we won and that's all that mattered. It was in Kuduna were a got my first kinda experince of African culture, a lot of people have scars on their faces, these are tribal markings and the belief behind them is that the scars have some sort of healing power, so if the child is sick, they won't die. Witchcraft is also still a very common belief in the rural areas of Nigeria. The vast minority of kids end up in orphanages because they are accused of witchcraft and the Uncles (Uncle is what all children call their elders i.e. I'm called Uncle John over here) have had to go rescue them from being burnt alive or drowned.
We left Kuduna on the 6th day of the trip. Before we left I was talking to a pastor who told me the next trip was only a 30km drive, selfishly I jumped into the most uncomfortable, cramp seat on the bus thinking if I endured it now I wouldn't have to on one of the longer trips... the pastor lied, the trip took 4 hours and by golly I couldn't feel my legs or rump by the end of it. We arrived in Kagoro and were quite taken aback by how peaceful and relaxing it was, it can only be described as a haven. I got to wash my clothes the Nigerian way, bucket and soapy water, but our cook who travelled with us who is also an expert at pretty much anything practical and African took over as I was awful at it. It then went on the washing line underneath a mango tree, why add this pointless detail I hear you ask, well I tell you this because mango trees are the habitat of the dreaded mango worm that jump on your clothes and if you put them on straight after they come off the line they burrow inside your skin. They're easy enough to deal with, just put vasiline on the entrance they crawled in to, and they'll stick their head out for air, then you grab them with twisers and pull them out, but it just can't be that pleasant having worms under your skin. Kagoro was great in the fact that it had an actual toilet that you could rest your weary checks on, the shower was still a bucket and cup but it was very clean. The kids there were pretty amazing, very enthusiastic, some were fantastic singers which if anyone who has visited Nigeria will know is quite rare and they got very involved in everything. To my disapointment but something the rest of the team revelled in, it was quite cold and rain a fair bit, in fact it rained quite a lot throughout the all the camps. There was a kid called James at Kagoro who had been rescued about 3 days before we arrived. He had been accused of witchcraft by his village and was covered in cuts and had a deep gash in his head from where he had been beaten.
On day 11 we sallyed forth from Kagoro towards Makurdi. On this trip we were stopped by "Nail boys", Nail boys are men who work for the government, their job is to get money off drivers for ridiculous reasons. There method is thowing a plank of wood with 100's of nails sticking out of it in front of your automobile and if you don't stop your tires get burst. We were charged N5000 for a tiny, broken, cheapily made, plastic, green bin (That's about £20) We relucantly paid, but not before we made a right scene by calling them racist for charging white people huge amounts and idiots. We arrived 4.30hours later. My first impression was, wow this is pure luxury. We were staying in the Head Uncles house which consisted of beds, actual toilet, carpet, sofas and a tv. My opinions soon changed. They had a small son who was possibly the most spoilt child I've ever seen, he respected no one but his mum and that's only because she would whip him if he was cheeky to her. On the last day he actually punched me in the face, I was not best pleased... we'll leave it at that. In saying that we did get some laughs from him as he seemed to still want to get milk straight from the female body, to the misfortune of the female members of the team he tried on numerous occasions to "latch on" to them. There were three girls at the orphanage who, in our teams opinion, should not be there. They were literally used as slaves, and I know that in the Nigerian culture women are made to work harder, but when 12 year old orphans are washing clothes by hand for 4 hours solid, then cooking meals for a perfectly able family and are forbidden to leave the compound then something is wrong. This was also the venue for the terror of the rats and cockroaches. To start off with it seemed to be isolated to the girls room, which was hilarious, but alas it did not stay that way. Due to the lack of beds, each night, the guys drew names from a hat to see who would be sleeping on the floor in the living room. 2 out of 4 nights I was required to sleep on the ground. The first night went without a hitch, at times I could hear the rats but they were far away from me. The 2nd time was the worst night of my entire life, I could hear the rats running around me, literally inches from me and I was too scared to grab my camera and use it as a torch cause it was on the ground and I'd have to move my hand around blindly on the floor to try and find it leaving me an easy target to be eaten alive by rodents. Eventually I plucked up the courage and shown the light at the door were I could hear scratching, to my horror there were 4 rats just clawing their way up the door which was no more that 4 feet from my bed. If I'm honest, I couldn't wait to get out of that house.
On day 15 we packed up and headed on for Lafia. Wasn't a very long journey but we had an extremely near miss with a pick up truck that was over taking on a blind corner. Lafia was an experience I will never forget as long as I live, but unlike Makurdi, it's for the right reasons. We were back to the drop pit and mattress on the floor, but they had running water which was awesome. On the first day, like we did in all the other camps, we went for a short walk to explore the area. I bought some Suya meat which is the nicest thing in the world, however as we were walking back, I was eating, not a care in the world, when a man asked me why I wasn't fasting, I had totally forgot it was Ramadan and all Muslims were fasting making it very obvious to spot the white Christains. With our presence known the Muslim cow owners (Known as Falani) decided to dump heaps of cow manure outside our compound, which from what I've been told is quite a soft warning by their standards. Anywho, it was here that I meet Ema (short for Emanuel). Ema was born in a nearby village and by the age of 2 he could not stand or talk. His village thought he was not human, but a snake spirit, so they abandoned him in the jungle. He stayed on his own for 13 years surviving on stones, sand, leaves, grass and his excrement. It's thought that he was assisted by monkeys. He's now 17 but looks like a 6 year old, but compared to what he looked like when he was found 2 years ago, he's improved spectacularily. We were expecting to be doing the camp with 14 boys from the orphanage, it ended up having more than 70 attending. At least 20 muslim children responded and became christians which in that area is unheard of and has to be kept on the down low until they are older as they face disownment or even death if it is dicovered.
All camps are now over, we're having a much more relaxed time now in Jos. The guest house we're staying in is pure luxury. I've lost neary half a stone but no doubt by the end of my stay in Jos the weight will be regained as the food here is specatular i.e. pancakes for breakfast. The team were pretty awesome to me regarding my exams. On the 17th they had a "last supper" for me as I told them that's what my year were doing (which I hope went fantasticly) and when I found out my grades they had a chocolate cake made for me by the kitchen staff here. There was slight confusion in the translation of "Congratulations" as the cake said "Happy Birthday", but it tasted magnificant. I'm loving every second out here but really want home to talk to everyone again and I've just been bitten by a mosquito as I typed that. No one has had any significant sickness so thanks a trillion for all you're prayers. I really want to get photos up but the laptop won't let them load, which is worrying but sure. Will see you all very soon and sorry if this is littered with spelling errors, but there seems to be no spell check out here.
Toodles
xox
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