Rick & Alanna's blog:

(Blog now closed)

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Rick — 03/02/2007, 19:53

Back home!!

We arrived safe and sound, and on time - and Heathrow & M25 were remarkably uncongested (many thanks to John for the lift!)

The only eventful part of the traveling was just as we were about to take off. The pilot had gone through all the normal safety procedures, and had told us we should be talking off in 4 or 5 minutes. A couple of minutes later he made another announcement - apparently the Nigerian President was about to take off in his jet, and so for security reasons they'd closed the runway to all other traffic. The pilot said he didn't know how long this would last, but normally not more than half an hour. In the event, it only lasted 10 minutes, and so we still arrived very punctually in Heathrow.

We're about to head out for dinner now, and then have an early night - we had a 5am start (Nigerian time) which is equivalent to 4am UK time, so we won't be up to much else this evening.

I suspect we'll go for some typically British food for dinner tonight. Perhaps Tikka Masala...

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Alanna — 02/02/2007, 16:52

This is our last day. It's great to have the courses all finished and to have got all the papers marked. We said goodbye to everyone in Gusau this morning and Seth, one of the students drove us down here. The weather is lovely and it's nice to have a final day to enjoy it before getting back to/02/weather. Looking forward to being at home, but I think that we will really miss being here next week.

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Rick — 02/02/2007, 16:43

We have arrived safely in Kaduna. As well as typing this, I'm also trying to see if I can use BA's 'Check-in online' option to make the process at the airport tomorrow a little easier. The internet connection is running pretty slowly, so it's taking a while to get to the right page on ba.com.

The exams went smoothly and well (both at 9am & 4pm), and then we put in an extended batch of marking last night, and managed to get it completed! (There were only 27 papers to do this time.)

A fairly good percentage of the students passed, though not all (more than 3 quarters passed), so lots of people will be pleased when they get their results - they find the exams hard, so not everyone will be expecting to pass.

It's quite pleasant now to have an afternoon/evening off in Kaduna, with no further marking that needs to be done. We will try to get an early night, though - we'll be leaving Kaduna tomorrow morning around 5:15 or 5:30 am in order to get to Abuja airport in plenty of time. (STILL waiting to get through the BA online check-in process, in the other window. Their website has too many graphics for Nigerian dial-up connections!)

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Rick — 31/01/2007, 18:06

Weds evening.

All the lectures are now finished - tomorrow is exams day! All the students are still very enthusiastic, and seem to have learned lots - but I guess tomorrow will make all that clear...

Several of them told me that in Nigeria, before exams, the teachers often give them some 'areas of concentration' (ie 'these are the topics the questions will be on'!) I had to explain that, sadly, it was an Australian exam and so it didn't work like that. Much disappointment all round. Still, it means those who pass are very pleased, and feel like they have achieved something significant.

Most people will be doing the exam in the morning, but a few will be doing it late afternoon/early evening (the electricity supply isn't reliable, so you need to fit it all in before sun set).

We're going to try to get the exams marked by Thursday night/Friday morning, so we can let people know the results promptly. We're heading back down to Kaduna on Friday, and we'll stay there overnight. Our flight from Abuja is at about 10am on Saturday morning - that probably means leaving around 5am or so, to get there for check-in.

Alanna's outfit is finished - very Nigerian looking, even the headwear (as before, I can't upload new photos from here, so that'll have to wait ....)

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Rick — 29/01/2007, 18:33

Sunday went well - a surprisingly short service by Nigerian standards (under 2 hours). It was interesting to see some of the countryside further north of Gusau - very dry at this time of year. Quite a few shrubs/trees, but too dry for grass - just, dust, dry ground. The 'station' church had a congregation of about 40 adults, & 15 kids - it's in a decent sized town (there's a polytechnic there).

We had a good rest over the weekend and feel refreshed and ready for the 2nd week. Actually, Monday is over, and tomorrow is the last full day of lectures (Weds is revision - students can come along with questions, but we won't have formal classes, Thurs is the exams, Friday we travel back to Kaduna, and Sat we fly out from Abuja!)

It's evening here now, and we're about to try to do a little bit of shopping on the way home - we're going to see if we can get Alanna a local outfit to wear!

Got to dash - it's close to dusk, and the stalls/shops will close very soon. I think they do sometimes stay open after dark, but only if the electricity is on!

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Alanna — 27/01/2007, 11:51

Hello. It's nice to be having a day off today. We are going to wander round a bit and see some of the streets in the town.Everything is going very well.

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Rick — 27/01/2007, 11:39

It's Saturday and we're having a day of from classes, as are the students!

Chris White should have taken off from Abuja now, and has a pretty long stint of traveling and transits ahead of him - he should arrive back in Sydney at 6:30am on Monday morning! (Syndey time)

Today we're having a little bit of a wander round the part of Gusau near to where we are staying. The 'cold snap' is over, and it's now more like the Nigeria weather I'm familiar with - very hot and very sunny, especially in the middle of the day - so we probably won't be walking very far or very fast!

Most of the shops we've passed so far are pretty small - the equivalent of stalls really. There are lots that offer 'Office Services' (photocopying, printing, typing, etc) as well as lots of mobile phone shops. There was one stall selling barbequed-fish-on-a-stick, a few mechanics involved in welding/metal work, and many people 'hawking petrol'. There's no easy way to upload new photos from here - but here's one I took last year of a fur-trader's stall:

Certain things aren't as predictable in Gusau: there's an ongoing petrol shortage throughout Nigeria at the moment, and in Gusua the electricity supply is also fairly intermittent. On Thursday and part of Friday there was an extra problem - no mains water! Fortunately the electricty & water are back (though the electricity is still intermittent), but the petrol shortage continues. Here's an article about it, though it perhaps tries to maximise the 'sensationalism-value' of the story:

petrol shortage article

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Alanna — 25/01/2007, 11:43

Thursday

Thank you for all the messages. we are still doing well - and no sickness yet.

We (or me at any rate) are looking forward to walking back to the house from the internet cafe. Normally we have been getting lifts everywhere, which is brilliant, but we watch everything from the car, and don't get as good a view as we should get when walking. We generally get back home just before it gets dark, so there isn't any opportunity to walk around.

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RickCreighton — 25/01/2007, 11:41

It's Thursday lunchtime, and we've found a fairly handy Internet Cafe on the way back to the Bishop's place. Very encouraging to read all the messages, so thank you!

Lectures still going well, and everybody working hard. Chris White, who's also been lecturing with us, is finishing up tomorrow and heading back to Sydney. (That will mean lots of traveling for him - 3 hours drive to Kaduna, then 3 more to Abuja, then 30+ hours of flying: Abuja-London-Sydney)

This Sunday we're going to go out to one of the 'stations' (that means a church in one of the smaller towns near Gusau), where I've been asked to speak.

We don't have anything particular planned in for Saturday - probably we'll have a fairly gentle day, and perhaps get to look around the town a little bit more than we've done so far (we've been fairly busy with the classes).

Next week may actually be a little busier - most of the classes will be doing revision, but as Chris isn't here, I'll be popping in and out of his class as well, to help them with any problems that they've come across in their revision. (They're doing the 'Introduction to the Bible' course, which is an overview of the whole Bible and how it fits together. My class is doing Mark's Gospel).

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Alanna — 25/01/2007, 11:29

Tuesday

Today again went well. We had a couple of extra students join, which at this stage is pretty easy to accommodate – there’s only one day to catch up on.

The weather was even warmer again today - the furry coats have mostly disappeared, because even by Nigerian standards it’s passably warm. On the way to the classes, we came across a donkey that was asleep in the middle of the road – still standing, just having a pleasant doze while the cars steered around it! There are lots of satellites and TVs around – some of them are HUGE. There are also plenty of blackboards advertising programmes (in the ‘Live Sport Here!’ style) – the most popular of which is Premiership Football. All the cup matches are receiving good coverage.

People in the streets wear a whole range of clothing. Some of it is western (with fairly muted colours), some of it is traditional (much more vibrant colours), and some is a mix. The headwear is the most impressive. Many of the women wear Muslim type headscarves of various lengths – some of them flow out behind them nearly to the ground. Others wear brightly patterned bits of material wrapped on top of their heads – matching the rest of their outfit. On Sunday we saw some women dressed up – the material was stiffer and stuck out at angles – the equivalent of a big wedding type hat. The usual hat for men is a pillar boxy North African type.

The streets are always full of people, buying and selling various things. There are sticks of sugar cane, big yams, yellowy oranges, hundreds of tomatoes and red onions and various hot foods being cooked. Barbecued corn-on-the-cob on a stick, pounded yam ‘ready in minutes’ and bubbling pots of unknown contents. There are sheep and goats running quite freely, the odd tethered horse and sometimes a herd of cows.

Here’s a photo of the street just outside the church where we are teaching:

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Alanna — 25/01/2007, 11:26

Monday

Hello. Today we started our classes. We had a daytime class (in the morning and afternoon) for clergy from the Gusau diocese, and an evening class for church members. (Chris had two classes as well). We taught in the church buildings. It all went very well. The class members are very enthusiastic.

The weather was much warmer today, but the Nigerians are all suffering from the cold. We see people on the streets wearing fake fur trimmed coats and woolly hats.

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RickCreighton — 22/01/2007, 08:42

PPS - Gusau is having a bit of a 'cold snap' at the moment. The temperature is only about 20°C (and sometimes a little lower) and there's a bit of a breeze - so lots of people are wearing woolly hats and thick warm coats, to fend off the (locally) bitter weather.

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Rick Creighton — 22/01/2007, 08:36

PS - Internet access isn't as easy here in Gusau, so we may only be able to update this every couple of days or so.

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Rick Creighton — 22/01/2007, 08:35

I’m writing this in an internet café on Monday morning, just before heading off to the first of the Gusau lectures. The first day is likely to be a bit patchy – probably not everyone will arrive together at the start of day, but by the end we should have a good idea of who will be involved for the rest of the fortnight.

Yesterday we were in church for over 5 hours (yes, FIVE! 8am-1:15pm). For various reasons this was longer than normal – though not by all that much – ‘normal’ might be about 4 hours.

The food continues to be tasty and interesting. Meals often follow this pattern: yams/potatoes/rice + chicken + ‘soup’. The ‘soup’ is more or less a thick sauce which is normally spicy, and can be made of various things. The most unusual so far has been a combination of beef, fish and melon(!)

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Alanna Creighton — 22/01/2007, 08:34

We are staying in the Bishop’s house. He is called John and his wife is Helen. They have a young son called Bulus (which is Hausa for Paul) who is about 6. Their 5 daughters are all away at school.

Gusau is quite different from Kaduna. As we came North on the road we have been getting closer to the Sahara – it is still a long way away, but we have seen a number of camels on the streets.

There is not much petrol around at the moment. In Kaduna some of the queues to get petrol were over 8 hours long. Once it runs out for the day the people leave their cars in the queues and come back in the morning.

We are looking forward to meeting the classes and starting the teaching. Everyone we have met has been most friendly. We have been made to feel very welcome. We are hoping that problems of understanding each other will not be too great. We have some difficulties understanding the accents of people and they have the same problem with us, but this should become easier after a few days.

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Rick & Alanna — 19/01/2007, 12:30

We've arrived in Kaduna - (and found an internet cafe)!

The flight went well and the drive up was pretty smooth (only fairly occasional potholes) - although there's a bit of a petrol shortage here at the moment, so queues at filling stations are longer than normal.

We're planning to head up to Gusau tomorrow afternoon. Chris White (who's been here for a couple of weeks) has set the Kaduna Evangelists' exam for tomorrow morning - we're all going up to Gusau after that.

Got to go now - we're due back for lunch - pounded yam and chicken stew!

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RickCreighton — 18/01/2007, 18:21

Bags all packed, tickets (etc) checked, and ready to go!

We're going to head over to Heathrow early because of the storms, traffic delays, etc.

Hopefully I'll be able to update this tomorrow or Saturday from Kaduna...

(PS Thanks again to Stewart for the lift!)

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AlannaCreighton — 17/01/2007, 19:30

Just checking this works before we leave.

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RickCreighton — 17/01/2007, 13:56

I'll be interested to see what sort of foodstuffs we get to try. This looks interesting ...

BBC pictures

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RickCreighton — 17/01/2007, 10:38

Malaria pills started!

I don't know whether I'll be able to easily upload pictures while I'm in Gusau (almost certainly not, I'd guess) - so, here's one I did earlier - to give you a feel for the building we'll (probably) be in...

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RickCreighton — 16/01/2007, 11:13

Packing not as successful as I'd have liked. Still, more than 24 hours ahead is a bit optimistic!

Malaria pills start tomorrow ...

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RickCreighton — 15/01/2007, 14:20

This is just a first test entry (made from my un-exotic front room at home!) to check whether this blog feature is up and running.

Still a fair bit of packing to complete - but that's a job for this evening.

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