Goodbye Kaduna, Hello Banbury

I'm now back home safely in Banbury, while Rob stays in Kaduna and Lee in Gusau.

My journey back was uneventful although quite long - the dangers of travelling cross-country at night meant that I travelled to Abuja (where the airport is) on Sunday afternoon, then went on to the airport itself on Monday morning. The guest-house in Abuja is always quite fun though - chance to watch Nigerian TV and enjoy a last meal in the country.

Before leaving on Sunday Rob and I had the chance to visit a rural church where our friend Muhammed Ibrahim is the vicar. It was great to hear him preach as well as to see some baptisms and have a great lunch cooked by Muhammed's wife, Antonia. The service itself was short by Nigerian standards, coming in just under the two-hour mark. There is a great choir in this small church, and they plan to produce a CD of local choruses and songs - mostly in Hausa, but maybe with some English songs too.

Please continue to visit the blog this week, as we hope the guys who are still in Nigeria will be able to post again.

Nytt Inlagg

That's Swedish for "new post". Still struggling with language settings on this computer but I hope this will appear on the blog - probably my last post from Nigeria before I return home on Monday. Rob will be staying to finish the second week in Kaduna, and Lee will remain in Gusau until the same time.

Things have been going well and we are encouraged
by the enthusiasm of the Evangelists and the good questions they have been asking. Our health is still good and we have been well-fed (including pineapple - yumm!) Went to large second-hand book shop yesterday to get books for the guys - found lots of ones sent over from England and was tempted to import some of them back to add to church bookstall - but they are needed here where there is a lack of good Christian books.

On the way from the bookshop got stuck in a traffic jam done in a way only the Nigerians can manage - absolute chaos. But gave us more time to examine the wares of the shops we were pasing - one shop seemed only to sell those kind of 'domes' that ladies sit under in hairdressers to dry their coiffures! Bizarre.

Must go and get tea - maybe more pineapple...

Publicera Inlagg then Logga Utt...

Goat's Head Revisited

In response to the "Goat's Head" chanting, I thought I'd post a photo of what it looked like on the plate last time. Just to get David back in the mood.

If you look closely, you'll be able to recognise what part of the goat's head we have here.

(I'm sure David would be posting this himself, if the internet cafe connection was quick enough. Definitely.)

Wednesday in Kaduna

Phew! Finally got logged in to Blogger.com - not easy since internet connection is so slow, and when I do get to the site it's in Swedish (Finnish? I'm not 100% sure...!) Who in Kaduna speaks Swedish??!

It's hard to convery the chaos that is Kaduna city - cars, bikes, goats, chickens, children... The place seems even busier than 2 years ago when I was last here. However, our classrooms at Our Saviour's School have been an oasis of calm and concentrated learning. In fact I even have working fan in my room!

We have now had 1.5 days of proper teaching and I am very encouraged by the dedication of the evangelkists who I am teachign. They are eager not only to learn about the book of Romans in order to pass their exam, but also to be able to preach better to their congregations here.

We have also enjoyed the company of John Pitts from Louisiana - and I think he has appreciaited some company and Cadbury's chocolate.

Apologies for typos and spelling errors - keyboiard not great!

Comments very welcome - just click the link. Off to lunch now - no goat head yet, but it's early days!

Arrived in Kaduna

We're now safely installed in Kaduna after a fairly long journey. Not much sleep on the plane due to lovely BA hostesses selling duty free at 2.30am. I di ask them to stop but to no avail.

Teaching starts tomorrow iun earnest.

Will post more soon.

Ready for lift-off

Well, I think the bags are fully packed now, and I'm starting to feel excited about this trip to Kaduna. It will be great, as always, to catch up with old friends in the Diocese. This time it will be an extra pleasure to be joined by Mr Robert Scott from St Helen's Bishopsgate. We should fly at 2215 this evening, then a short-ish overland trip will take us to Kaduna. I'll catch up with you when I'm there!

Up, up and away

Just got back from Heathrow - Lee is successfully airborne, and only has about 18 hours of travel ahead of him before getting to Gusau (ouch!).

A few days to go

I'm in the final stages of preparation for our trip to Kaduna. It always feels like there is a lot of admin to do... but the more exciting bit is thinking about how I will teach the book of Romans to the class there.

I will be trying to post to this blog most days that I am in Kaduna - please keep coming back to see updates. Of course, this is dependent on having electricity and an internet connection (not to be taken for granted)!

Counting down...

The flights are booked,
the books are (being) ordered,
the clock is ticking ...