What a week!

We are back safe and sound as many of you have heard. I thought I would fill in some of the details of our week for you:

On Wednesday, Michael, Emily and I left with our driver and 2 other Nigerian doctors for an ENT conference about 9 hours away. The bad news is that it turned out to be really 12-13 hours away. Ever traveled cross country on a two lane highway with huge potholes, no roadmap, and few road signs? We had some good laughs because we had to stop and ask for directions so many times. By the way, there were no roadmaps because there are none to buy!

The conference was worthwhile for Michael to attend. Several Nigerian residents are now eager to come observe him for a month or so to further their training. Michael is excited about training more doctors to do surgeries that he alone is doing in Nigeria right now.

While in Ife, we got the message that rioting had broken out and that Sterling, along with all the other missionaries, was being evacuated from our compound. There was really not anything we could do so far away, except pray. And that was the very thing to do! That is when we first made our family and friends aware of what was going on. We thank you for your prayers and ask for your continued prayers as things are still not back to normal here in Jos.

We finished out the conference and then Saturday morning headed for home. I am amazed at how the Lord provided in advance for us personally: our Nigerian travel mates went through the 2001 Jos crisis and were a wealth of knowledge and advice to get us home safely reunited with our children. They also had families they had left behind in Jos during the conference and understood our eagerness to be with our family. They very wisely suggested, however, that we delay our return and overnight in Miango (see previous blog for Miango Rest Home.) They even suggested routes that they felt were safer. The Lord knew our need and made provision for it even before the fighting ever broke out. And we just thought we were giving friends a ride!

We are all in our house now. The kids and Michael are even unwinding in front of a movie.

I would have to say the highs of this week so far for me would be: in Ife, seeing unusual lizards and a massive bat population flying around, having a bonding experience with our Nigerian acquaintances who are now friends . . .witnessing our driver Alphonsus eat his first American hamburger at Miango and spending a significant amount of time with him (as he is a newer Christian) . . .seeing God’s faithfulness firsthand in our time of need amidst the rioting . . .reuniting with our kids and having a special time of prayer and worship with all of the other displaced missionaries before heading back home.

One low: realizing that our hotel in Ife that had inconsistent water and electricity was the best hotel in town and the one that all the other conference attendees were trying to switch to! Oh well, we will get a real vacation one day!

LIsa

Jos is calm for now

Lisa, Emily, and I just made the 12 hour trip back from the other side of Nigeria but we were advised to not come into the city just yet. There was shooting this morning, but since then things have been quiet.

The newspaper reports at least 50 people including 2 high ranking generals were killed in Jos yesterday. No white people were reported injured. Sterling had a scare when a crowd of people gathered around the van he was evacuated in and started pounding on the windows. They just sped on. Since then, the kids have been having an extended party with a bunch of other teenagers at a hostel for the boarding students.

We are currently staying at the Miango rest home (see entry in October). It is very peaceful here. We plan on joining the kids and going home tomorrow if all remains calm.

Michael Mitchell, MD

Worried about the birthday boy

We have been in the city of Ile-ife, Oceanic State, Nigeria, 500 kilometers and a 10-12 hour drive away from home in Jos. Lisa, Emily, and I have been attending the annual meeting for all Nigerian ENT surgeons. We just found out about the riots in Jos this morning. Sterling has been evacuated from the hospital compound where we live to a safer compound where Hannah and Camille have already been staying. We hear that one pastor in Jos has been killed and his church burned. The emergency room at Evangel is receiving many injured patients. The missionaries are prepared to evacuate to an outlying city if necessary.

We are choosing to stay here for now, since we would not arrive home until after dark. We will be heading home to join the rest of our family tomorrow.

We pray that peace will prevail and that the violence will subside quickly.

Michael Mitchell, MD

Riots In Jos

Today is my sixteenth birthday and unfortunately we have school off for the day. Election Day was yesterday and the results came out the opposite of what the Muslims wanted. Consequently there is rioting everywhere in the city. My parents and Emily are off at a medical meeting near Lagos so I am staying on the same compound that I usually do but with my friend Jacob Naatz. We went out into the football field in front of our house and we could see large pillars of smoke coming up from fires in various places of the city and all the while gunshots were going off from all around. The fires and gunshots all seem to be a mile or so away but the danger is still there. As my friend Jacob says “Since we don’t have ‘snow days’ here we have to make up for it with ‘riot days’.”

Sterling (16 as of today!!!!)

Final Day of Class

Today I taught my last class for the semester. My students will prepare for their finals next week. I will resume Jan 19th with not one class, but two. I look forward to getting to know a second group of students!

I thought you would enjoy seeing a picture of my students and the classroom. If you click on the picture, it will blow up bigger so you can see more detail.

The student I had asked for prayer concerning, Tikikus, so far has survived the car wreck. Unfortunately, there were some issues going on before the crash that were aggravated. He left the hospital, though not fully recovered. He is missing and his parents are very worried. You can continue to pray for him and his family.

Lisa

A Peaceful Retreat

We had a nice relaxing hike this past Saturday. Our friends, the Taits from New Zealand, took us on an afternoon stroll through the hills and rock formations west of town. It was quite fun and relaxing. We have had quite the week with the senior play, water shortage, Lisa preparing for finals, and Michael preparing for his presentation. It was nice getting out in nature. The wilderness here is a lot like the foothills of the Sierra Nevada of California, though there no wild monkeys in California . It was a needed little break.


We are back to the mayhem. Tomorrow Lisa, Emily, and I leave for the city of Ife, a seven hour drive away. I will be attending a national meeting for Ear, Nose, Throat doctors. It will be quite interesting.
There was no active blasting that day at the gravel quarry, so we were OK.

Michael Mitchell, MD

Hannah Goes to Broadway

Well , … not really. But she has a part in the annual Senior Play at Hillcrest School. What great fun! The entire senior class of 22 students was involved in some way with the production of Neil Simon’s “Fools”. Hannah plays the part of Yenchna the Vendor. The setting is a late 19th century Ukranian village whose citizens have been cursed with stupidity and no love. A fresh young school teacher comes to the village to try and educate the population and break the curse. He subsequently falls in love with the doctor’s daughter. There are many animated characters with a lot of comedy. Hannah’s Yenchna passes off flowers as fish and umbrellas. The part of playing a ditzy lady comes quite naturally to Hannah. She is fabulous. In fact, all of the kids do a great job of acting and delivering the punch lines. It has been a source of entertainment for the entire ex-patriot community here in Jos – even for those who have no children. Last night the house was packed.
I like what Gareth Mort, the director, writes in the printed program, “And the question that may jump out at you from amid the mayhem of this crazy play is: Would I be willing to go to an out-of-the-way village and try to make a difference?”
Michael Mitchell, MD

Hannah, in pink, with her friend Caroline (Mishkin the Mailwoman)

More Water Woes

Clean, running water is a blessing. Today we are without that blessing. The foul odor of a stagnant puddle came trickling out of the shower this morning. I hoped it would clear, like the muddy, rusty water often does after I first turn on the shower, but that was not the case today
The culprit is a hand-dug well that is too close to the hand-dug septic tank- a mere 20 feet separates the two. We rely mostly on the well for water. I spotted the problem when we first moved in, but until now, the water has only looked dirty. It had never smelled bad.
We have gotten water from the hospital three times. The hospital has a “bore hole” --the term for a deep machin -drilled well. The water itself is cleaner than our well water, even before today’s event. It is delivered to the two ground tanks pictured next to the tower very infrequently. We suspect it comes only when everyone else along the 1 inch pipe line has finished getting all they need. We have not yet found an inexpensive way to get a more reliable supply of the hospital water.
This is only for running water to wash and flush with. We have to filter the water for drinking and cooking. We use a double filter system (pictured). The first sediment filter pictured here had been in place for four weeks. The red African earth tinges many things, especially water filters. A second filter gets out all the small particles and microbes. When it works, it works well. It worked better when we filtered rainwater runoff from our roof. Now that we are using well water, it seems to be clogging up faster. More woes.
We are showering next door, and also gathering water in buckets to wash dishes. We will fill our ground tanks with the neighbor’s water tomorrow and then look for a more permanent solution… new well, new septic tank, or re-plumb hospital water. Stay tuned.
This is only stressful for us, the pampered Americans. We don’t have to look far to appreciate what we have. None of the physician residents on the compound have running water in their homes. They gather water in buckets from rainwater runoff during rainy season or from outdoor spigots when they are running. Occasionally they have to retrieve water from hand-dug wells with a rope and bucket. My residency was difficult, but at least I had running water in my home. We will get over this momentary inconvenience and count our blessings.
Michael Mitchell, MD

Please pray for Tikikus

Dear Family and Friends,

I am asking you to pray for one of my students. I just found out today that Tikikus is unconscious in a hospital in another part of Nigeria. I was told that he has a head injury which occurred as he was traveling by car back to his village for the weekend. He was just in class this past Thursday.

Pray for the care he would receive in the hospital. Healthcare here is a far cry from what we have available in the States. I believe this young man will only be back in my class one day by the grace of God.

Thank you,
Lisa

Meet the Sampsons

Recently, we had a fun evening out with our next door neighbors, Don and Kim Sampson. It was a first: a dinner out with another couple just for fun! We had a delightful evening chatting and laughing which was very much needed. We can count on one hand the number of times we have eaten out since we arrived. American prices in a 3rd world setting on a missionaries’ budget . . .not a good combination! Plus there are only 3 restaurants in town known to be safe to eat at. The choice of cuisine is Lebanese, Lebanese, or Lebanese. I take that back; one of the restaurants offers Lebanese and Chinese. We sampled the Chinese portion initially. As one of the other missionaries put it, "the longer you are here, the better the Chinese tastes!" Let's just say we need to be here a bit longer!

Don and Kim were the first family that we met. We are indebted to Kim because she helped prepare the house for our arrival. She was determined to make our homecoming more welcoming than their own. She told me stories of searching with a flashlight through 40+ boxes for bedsheets. They had no electricity, no running water, no beds made up, and all after 48 hours of travelling. We had fresh bedsheets, food, and even a decorative centerpiece of candles and a fresh rose in a vase to greet us. What a blessing!

Don is the pediatrician at the hospital. Kim is a nurse by trade, but currently she is an organizer extradonaire. She is a key person for many different groups. Accomplishing anything here takes great effort, patience, and organization. Don and Kim are both active in music ministry and do combination medical/worship outreaches within the local community and out in the bush. They and their 3 children who are very similar in age to ours are longterm missionaries. They arrived here just one year ahead of us.

This next week, they will go on an outreach to the bush. Emily is hoping to go with them. I am, too, but I don't think I will manage it due to finals approaching. Stay tuned for an update from Emily . . . .

In the Classroom: Adventures in Teaching Prepositions

This week in my class at JETS, I have been teaching prepositions to my students. For those of you who don’t know, this area is one of the most persistent sources of errors for English speakers of other languages. We have had some interesting discussions in the process of trying to explain the meaning of such words as at, on, and in.

I have discovered that there are many challenges in coming up with examples when teaching English outside of America. For example, the classic illustration for helping students to identify a preposition is to tell them that anything a squirrel can do to a tree is a preposition. I quickly realized one thing though . . .no squirrels in Nigeria. Hmmm . . .okay, anything a monkey can do to a tree! Later in the discussion, a student asked me the difference between at, on, and in. He had no idea how to tell the difference. I told him to think of a car . . .at the car, in a car, and on a car all have very different meanings. (The students all laughed at the thought of this student being on top of a car.) The light bulbs started coming on so I quickly tried to think of another example to drive the meanings home. I told him to think of an elevator . . .,but I had to abruptly stop. The blank stares of 39 students were looking back at me. I thought to ask a key question . . .”How many of you have ridden in an elevator?” Not one person raised their hand . . . Okay, bad example!!! (Though one of my students was very quick to enthusiastically inform me that he thought there was one in the big city 3 hours away!) (By the way, Jos is a city of 600,000+ and not a small city.)

My favorite question of the day though was from one of my strongest students. Some prepositions must be deleted where we would normally use one. Ever wondered why you say, I’m going to the store, I’m going to the mall, but say I’m going downtown or I’m going home(no preposition)? After finishing up this short discussion, a young man raised his hand. “Mam, there is a club in Jos named Downtown. If I am going there, what would I say?” Managing not to laugh out loud, I told him that it was okay to say,” I’m going to Downtown” in that case.

Teaching these students is a lot of fun!

Despite the fun (there’s a prepositional phrase for you), the goals of my students are very serious. They are studying to be future pastors, small Bible college teachers, and missionaries in the African bush. Some of them are active in ministry already. They need/will need English to communicate effectively in their work. I consider it an honor to work with these students, and I pray for them regularly as they are the future spiritual leaders of Africa.

Lisa

Hillcrest Service Day

Today the whole of Hillcrest High School had a half day and spent the second half of the day splitting up and going to 4 different child care ministries. I personally went to the one which is made up of kids ages ranging from 12 to 18 called Transition House. All of the boys have been rescued from the streets, fed, educated, and had the gospel shared and made a part of their every day life. The boys are not taken off the streets and put directly into Transition House though, it is called Transition House because they are preparing them to go off and live life away from a ministry. First we all got a tour of the boys’ compound. We were led into tiny bedrooms packed with bunk beds. The next stop was the “kitchen” which was a covered area outside with two fires going and two massive pots on top of the fires with food inside. We were then led across the compound to the “library” which was the size of a small bedroom with hardly any books on the shelves. The last stop before we really got to business was seeing their computer lab. The lab was not much bigger than the library but had about 10-11 new looking computers in it. Out of the 15-20 boys going to serve at Transition House were 3 groups. One group helped some of the boys repaint many areas of the small concrete buildings. Another made bracelets and other little crafts like that with the boys. My group was to play sports with the boys. (Lots of the Nigerian boys were sneaking off from their other activities to come join us.) At first we played soccer, we split into 3 teams of 3 and took turns playing. The games were quite short as to make it so that everyone could play more, we only played until a team scored just 1 goal or until 3 minutes had pasted. To give us American boys a break we played basketball briefly. We used the same system for games except that we played to 6. Not many of the Nigerians are skilled at basketball so the games were short lived. We made multiple attempts at playing basketball but we could never get past 2 or 3 games before kids started hauling the 3x4 soccer goals onto the court along with soccer balls to play soccer again. After we were done with sports we went down to a newly built covered area next to the court and sang praise songs led by probably the oldest of the boys named Timothy. We sang “How Great Is Our God” and “His Love Endures Forever.” Following the music Mr. Abaya came up and gave a small talk on sexual purity. No girls were allowed to come to Transition House because the guys are older there and they want to help them out with their purity as much as they can.

Sterling (15)

To Market, To Market

My driver! Because he is from the old school in Nigeria, he has many notions that, no matter how hard we try, we cannot convince him to abandon. One of those notions is that the oga (boss), especially if they are bature oga, are not allowed to carry packages! It doesn’t matter how laden down he is and how empty my hands are, he refuses to let me carry anything. (Okay, he doesn’t fight me too much on not carrying my purse.) Today, as we left the crowded street and ducked into a dark passageway to another part of the market, I decided it was a Kodak moment. . .Alphonsus’ hands full with the market in the background.

I go shopping only once a week or so. I like to see what new produce might be available and buy the import items that my driver would die of a heart attack from when paying the final bill. Alphonsus does all my shopping, and he shops almost every day. This weekend we are hosting two large dinners, one for our new friends the Chamis (featured in an earlier blog) and the other for our monthly compound missionary dinner and fellowship. Because shopping takes so long and because availability isn’t always consistent, you have to start shopping several days in advance.

Nigerians don’t always like to have their picture taken. However, because I had just bought a pile of beef from the butcher, I thought he would accommodate me. He looked a little confused when this bature lady asked if I could “snap” him. His confusion turned to elation when I told him that I wanted to send his picture to America! Despite all the shouts from the women on either side of him who were afraid of what might happen to him when his likeness was trapped inside my camera, he agreed. I thought you might enjoy seeing the butcher I go to weekly (the fly-infested meat that I buy,too) and seeing the market in the background.

Lisa

Off to Church We Go

Our family attends two separate churches each Sunday. Emily and Hannah walk across the street to Bishara #2, the first church we visited here in Jos. The wooden pews are jam-packed (there is no such thing as personal space); the service is lively and there is a lot of singing. But everyone’s favourite part is the Women’s Fellowship Choir. These ladies go back and forth singing sometimes in English and sometimes in Hausa. (Although because of their thick accents, you can’t always tell which of the two languages they are singing in!) You can always know they are about to start singing because you hear one lone voice start up. Then the hand drums join in. The ladies are experts at building the excitement of the song: the choir comes in, then adds harmony, and finally at the most exciting part of the song, the choreographed movements begin. Michael and I get teary-eyed everytime . . .there is no doubt we are in Africa at that moment. Their music is beautiful and touches you deep down inside your soul! When I hear the ladies singing acapella as the drums begin, I can picture these women in small villages. I think this is the way music has been sung for hundreds of years, well before any bature showed up!

The rest of the family has settled on JETS Seminary Church. This is the church that is associated with the seminary I teach in; many of my students also attend there. Though the music is not quite as unique to Africa as Bishara #2, the teaching is excellent. We really appreciate the pastor’s sound theology and his expository style of teaching. I was particularly struck by a comment Pastor Maigadi said this past weekend. He talked about what a difference Christ has made in the lives of African Christians since the gospel came to the continent 150 years ago. He talked about how they as individuals have been delivered from the darkness and have left their former ways behind. He drove this point home with a rhetorical question:” Do you go to witch doctors anymore?” Initially, I smiled; you would never hear a comment like that from a pulpit in America! Jesus Christ has made a huge difference in the lives of the people of Africa. He has delivered His loved ones from horrible practices and ways and filled their hearts with joy so that now they sing a new song unto Him, drums and all!

By the way, witchcraft and animism are alive and well in Africa. Michael recently took care of a lawyer from Jos who had been driving in northern Nigeria on a business trip. The Christian population and influence is almost non-existent there. This man was involved in a car wreck. When he awoke in the hospital, he discovered that both of his ears had been cut off as he lay unconscious at the scene of the accident. Such animist rituals are common where Christian influence is so scarce. He is lucky compared to another man he heard of who awoke from his injuries to find that both of his eyes had been gouged out.

Lisa

A Sad Day

I took Daniel (see October 29 blog) back to the operating room yesterday and again this morning to clean out the abscess in his brain again. He has been very sick and delusional in the intensive care unit. The procedure seemed like it went well, though there was still some bleeding that I had to pack off. He was never stable in the ICU after the procedure today and died 3 hours later. I am deeply saddened at losing such a young patient (21) who obviously came from a concerned family. In addition this complication was preventable, had he been able to have the necessary surgery three years ago. His father and often his mother and sisters have been at the hospital daily over the past 3 week. In general, the family is responsible for providing food and other necessities for patients during their stay. I was really hoping that Daniel would get better, despite the odds.

To add insult to injury, I have had a stomach bug today. I first started getting nauseated this morning while I was operating on Daniel. By midday I had vomited. I have been in bed all day. It is now 6:30 pm and I am feeling better, though not well enough to go to Hannah’s basketball season premier tonight. She was supposed to play yesterday, but she was just getting over the same bug I have. No one else in our house is getting sick so far, but sickness is going around many of the families associated with the school. Since it is so widespread and short-lived, I suspect that it is a virus. In isolated cases we often suspect food contamination. Lisa and I had diarrhea last month when our cook failed to properly bleach the cucumbers in our salad.

Michael Mitchell, MD