Thank you to Iris and to Ed!

We are looking and sounding FINE in Emi-woro. Thank you for the banner and
the drums!

Thanksgiving

This may shock you, but nobody in Nigeria knew it was Thanksgiving and only a few knew it was Jack’s birthday yesterday!  But, we made the most of it. 

 

We can thank the team for leaving some Kraft mac and cheese.  We had that, with hot dogs for lunch.  We also thank the team for leaving a yummy chocolate box cake WITH icing WITH sprinkles WITH ice cream dand WITH those awesome candles that keep re-lighting.  We celebrated Jack at lunch and he got a few presents he is happy with.  Later we put up the thankful tree.  We still have a pile of leaves to write on and tape to it, but it is off to a great start, as a reminder that every good thing is from God.  We had Phyllis and Ubong (along with Steph and Aaron) join us for a fine thanksgiving meal.  Roasted chickens that we just decided to think of as turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, fresh carrots, cucumbers and green peppers to go with the yummy jalapeno hummus Phyllis brought back from the US, and bread.  We thank Steph’s Grandmother for sending pumpkin pie spice, Shelley for the Crisco, Nana for sending Stevia (helps Ben a little, although I must say Thanksgiving is hard on a little diabetic), and Abdulkadiri for growing and selling pumpkins (what we would call ghost pumpkins, so no quite pie pumpkins) It did taste like pumpkin pie for dessert!  It was the first time a big pile of bananas was on the Thanksgiving table – but that may become a new tradition for us, to serve as  a reminder of a simple time when we were strangers in a foreign land, happy with some familiarity from home, but definitely missing everyone at home.  We played some games and talked about what we were thankful for.  It was a wonderful holiday – even without football or a parade. 

 

Great big blessings on all of you!

Déjàvu

I think I remember this scene from about two years ago...

Thanks Ed and Iris!

The kids are loving marching! The sign looks great! Thank you to
supporters of Hope Academy!

Is that Floyd???

Pink Floyd’s Dark side of the Moon has officially been debut in Emi-woro, Nigeria.

Fulani kids dance past white boys.

Dropped in on the Neighbors'

We had a great night over here tonight.  We took a small gas powered generator over to our neighbors’ compound, about a ½ a mile through the bush, set up our projector and a PA system and showed them a couple of videos we made starring their kids.  They have no power and were finishing their evening meal cooked over an open fire when we arrived.  After showing them the videos we made we showed them one of the Planet Earth shows.  Their son, Yakubu, is one of our star students and helped us explain things like snow and bears and sharks to the rest of his family.  There was nonstop laughter and a lot of gasps going on as they saw things they couldn’t even imagine.  What an awesome time.  That’s the stuff I will miss.

 

Great start to the morning!

What a blast! We surprised the school today by drumming and marching out
during morning assembly. A woman from our church volunteered to make a
banner, and then decided to order it instead. The printer donated it! We
were waiting until we could gather funds to buy these drums before we
presented the banner and drums together. The children were so surprised and
happy - and so were the teachers!! Schools here march and have marching
competitions. When we attended Children's Day last year, we started wishing
for a banner and some drums so our students could have the experience most
other Primary schools have of marching. They marched off to their class
after morning assembly, but a few minutes later the school recess bell rang
and all the children rushed out to the field. They learned how to line up
and march! We never knew how many children we have here until we saw them
in line one by one and wrapping the football field! Some of our teachers
were VERY enthusiastic. It's going to be fun for Aaron and Mr. Chukwuma to
teach some cadences over the next few weeks!

It's great having Aaron around!

Unbelievable

Today was just unbelievable. There were hundreds of Fulani gathered at
Alhaji Ali's camp for a double wedding. Fulani had come from all around the
country. And we were invited. We were invited into the midst of
preparations, and welcomed with the men (Devin and Aaron) and the women (all
of us). What a crazy thing that Ali had the confidence to have the
missionaries there in his home camp. Here we are, these white infidels,
totally welcome. Unbelievable. As far as the wedding went, they never
really got to that part. The women sang and danced, the men ate and hung
out in the shade, but the brides were "shamed" or actually shy, and we never
saw them, which is somewhat typical apparently. I guess they will have a
somewhat private ceremony (in this case two) in the morning and then whisk
away for a couple of days as a couple (two). It was a lot of fun, and (of
course) very colorful. And hot.

I love this pic

I know it's no masterpiece, but it needs no editing either! I love the
playful spirit of it. We gave our camera to the children.

Evening baptism in the Niger

Sallah

Sallah

Dedicated the Generator today.

Pastor John and I discussed last week that we should have the church dedicate the new generator this Sunday.  With the team from Wenatchee here and all that is going on I forgot until he reminded me at the beginning of service.  I quickly ran to the village and picked up three crates of mineral (cases of pop).  When I returned Pastor was calling me up front to give a speech.  Having absolutely nothing prepared I did what most men do, started rambling on about this and that.   After the speech Jack told me “nice speech Dad”, I told him I hadn’t prepared and was just talking.  He said, “You should do that more often”.

Wonder if child labor laws in Nigeria are the same as in the USA?

Our team is getting plenty of help from the locals.
Here they are pulling in the main feed from the NEPA pole to the main
service disconnect.

See our new $20,000 - 12 gallon per hour pipe bender.