This morning at the Clinic I took to my computer and Adrie was given the chance to learn how to draw blood. She got to have her first try on a patient and said she almost did it! (Biana told her that most American nurses aren’t allowed to draw blood until they have been through all their schooling. Nigeria has the right idea for hands-on experience!) Working on the discipleship curriculum has been a great chance to run through the Bible. I was having a particularly difficult time finding places where the Trinity was mentioned so Biana jumped on Google to find some scholarly advice. We found an entire article dedicated to this one topic and I realized I just don’t read Scripture as well as I should. Many things are not as straight-forward as we would like to believe. If I read things slower and discovered all the times God refers to himself as “we” or “our” then I wouldn’t have to use Google to prove why I believe what I believe! Goodness. It has been a fun and useful project for me.
A tasty lunch and we were back at Faith Alive to get some more work done. Biana has been swamped for the past week with various tasks -- scratch that. Past year. -- and has been plugging away to get those things done. Adrie and I worked some more and ended up in Biana’s office later to be her cheerleaders. I wish there were things we could accomplish for her! Larry, the OBGYN from Fort Collins here with MCC, spent the afternoon with us while he got some things done on the computer. He reminds us a lot of my Uncle Norm so we all enjoy being around him. He is very energetic, incredibly happy to be here, trying to absorb as much as he can, and in the process of deciding if this is where God would want him to spend this next year after he retires.
Around five Adrie, Larry, and I headed out to the Faith Alive bus and got on board with some other staff members to head out to the MCC Cultural Night. We weren’t sure what to expect but had heard rumors of tribal dancing and food. Sounded like a party to me! All the MCC team was trying out traditional Nigerian garb for the first time (of course Adrie and I didn’t get this memo and showed up in jeans. Cool.) and we were all anticipating a good night. Some of the missionary kids were with us, which made me really happy. I miss my third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders! The event was held in a large hall on the same compound as the MCC guest house and there were quite a few people there. And it WAS a party. Four different groups did traditional dancing, which was pretty much the coolest things I have ever witnessed. They tied bells and shells to their ankles (one group of guys had chains!) and had various drums, body-painting, and feathers to perform with. Lots of booty-shaking and foot-stamping; think Shakira meets Stomp. I wish I only looked half as put-together when I try to do those moves! They served us rice, chicken, fruit, and traditional rice cakes for dinner and we enjoyed good conversation around the room.
After eating I went outside to get some fresh air and was approached by one of the dancers. He introduced himself as Pius asked if I was an American and when I replied that I was asked if I knew of a way he could marry one of Obama’s girls. He explained that his plan was to marry one of them and someday become the president of the United States. After telling him that first, they are really young and second, presidential candidates have to meet quite a few requirements regarding living in America and that sort of thing he started laughing. He then told me he didn’t really care about Obama’s kids but wanted to get me engaged in conversation so he could ask me if I would be interested in being his wife. That’s when I started laughing. He made some good offers: he’s a young technician, would be fine traveling back and forth between the US and Nigeria, would provide and care for me and our family. Alas, I was not convinced. Adrie came and told me our bus was leaving so I said Goodbye (thanked God for a good excuse to run away) and got on the bus. Pius went back inside with no phone number, no wife, and no hope for marrying into the American presidential family. I think he’ll be just fine.
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