I woke up at 8:30 exactly and was more than ready to start another day. Breakfast, chatting with Adrie, and then a nice walk to United Baptist were all very enjoyable. Church has been a little different every Sunday so far so I was interested to see how today would go. We had the normal mix of old hymns and current Nigerian praise songs, the procession of offering, and acknowledged every member who had a birthday in the month of September (which took a while). My greatest hope was that the nice pastor who I can’t understand wasn’t preaching today, but when he got up with his Bible I knew that it was going to be another Sunday of trying to read lips. The reading was from Isaiah 60 talking about the New Jerusalem, a passage I have always found to be really beautiful. Nigerians resonate well with looking forward to a Kingdom where righteousness rules over all and peace resides in every household. I have been spending time over the past couple of years thinking deeper into what ushering in this Kingdom looks like in the here and now, I hope to speak with Pastor Ben and Pastor Esther about what that means in this culture.
We gave Baba the day off so we scavenged for leftovers and made our own Jos version of rice bowls for lunch. I desperately miss the need for chopsticks. After eating Adrie and I decided to try out the Pilates video together and thought we were going to pass out after the extra 12-minute “Energy Boost!” It is difficult to find a way to exercise around here considering a) It’s been insanely hot and/or pouring rain in the mornings and afternoons, b) Once it gets dark no one sets foot outside, and c) Did I honestly think I would find a gym in a place that doesn’t have a post office? We are hoping that with our powerwalking team with the addition of Ana on our pilates video we will be in the best shape of our lives! (Maybe not, but it will at least make up for sitting with our projects all day)
The weather has changed drastically over the past couple of days and is moving into what can only be described as the Insanely Windy time. High winds from the Sahara blow dust over our plateau, drive out the rain, and drop the temperature 10 degrees. Most Nigerians think that the transition from rainy to dry season is horrible but I haven’t found it to be too bad. (They also think that 75 degrees calls for wearing a sweater) The only unfavorable part is the howling noise from the winds that come up at night and make it hard to sleep. Thank the Lord I brought earplugs!
For dinner Biana made a salad, tuna fish, and brownies turned chocolate pudding cake. It was delicious and reminded us all of home. After eating we decided it was a good night for a game of Killer Uno, which soon turned into yelling, laughing, and singing (White Christmas songs for some odd reason) as we took turns making each other draw and throwing down cards out of turn. Sometimes you just need to have some ridiculousness in your life.
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