It was very hard to get up this morning after such a draining night but I knew I had to get myself together to head over to the sewing school. Today was my first chance to lead discussion with this group of women and I was excited, and a little nervous, to do so. Getting everything together I walked outside into a nice breezy day and said Hello to all my neighbors on the way to the Social Services Center. Class started a little behind schedule (or on Nigerian time) seeing as we had a few crying babies to tend to before opening in song. God has been reminding me of what His family looks like while I am here so I shared what it means to be a child of God and sisters in Christ. Teaching on subjects that hit close to home ends up helping the leader grow and learn even more than the students. It is always a good reminder, especially far from your biological family, to realize that wherever you go there are kindred spirits to take you in as a child, sibling, a member of the family. There are some here who have done a particularly good job at that and I hope to act the same way once I become the one at home to reach out to other traveling brothers and sisters.
I walked back to the Clinic and up to Biana’s office where she had a few things for me to write. Adrie and I are going to sit down with a few people on staff and listen to their stories to share with our congregation for Advent. It takes me a while to put my thoughts into words (well, words that form cohesive English phrases) so by the time I was done lunch had rolled around. We walked back to the flat and discussed how much we missed the beach as the Jos wind blew around us. I guess this is the closest we can get to an ocean breeze for a while. Lunch filled us up and reminded all five of us how tired we were so we decided on a communal nap. Communal in the sense we were all resting, but we thought it best to find our own rooms to lie down in.
After a rejuvenating power nap Biana and I headed back to the Clinic where we saw things had quieted down a great deal from the normal morning rush. There was not much for me to do besides computer work so I spent some needed time planning my school schedule for next semester, replying to family and friends e-mails, and stalking those who I miss on facebook. Oh the joys of technology when you are far from home! I wandered into the office where Team D was working and spent the time before dinner discussing African superstitions with Jon while Kristen yelled at the computer for not allowing her to attach photos to an e-mail for her church. It has been very strange to come across various myths and delusions that many Christians have bought into here. Jon has been reading articles regarding this topic over the past few weeks and shared with me that many African pastors blame this problem on early missionaries allowing old wive’s tales to remain in the Church in order to make the transformation from animism to Christianity easier for the tribes they encountered. I want to talk to Pastor Ben about this more; it’s so crazy!
Dinner was on Baba-time so we were very hungry when food made it to the table. Luckily there were fried plantains so I was ok with the delay. A friend of Dr. Chris is spending the night at the downstairs apartment after proctoring an exam at Juth Medical today. He seemed like a nice guy, but only wanted to talk about American politics. Discussions on the election and the NRA just get really tiring after the fiftieth person comes up to tell you all they know about your county’s policies. After eating we needed some mindless activity to keep us occupied (going to bed is not an option at 7:30) and found the movie Red Eye on our favorite Arabic channel. It was much more suspenseful than it should have been because of our tired brains so we decided that would have to do for the night. Biana made some vanilla pudding from one of our boxes in the cupboard so we shared dessert before bed. It was good, but I think what was missing was Jesse’s pudding song and Missy dancing with a giant spoon. That’s the best way to eat pudding.
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