Let me pass on a greeting to our President-elect in an open letter.
Behind the Miango Rest Home in open country with occasional little farm plots located along the valleys and creek beds we took a two-hour hike on Saturday, December 6, 2008. We went over Nigerian hill and dale in remote central Nigeria, here on the Jos Plateau. The landscape is beautiful with large weather-worn granite rock formations dotting the undulating landscape and golden chest-high grasses waving gently in the breeze. The gold was interrupted by the green valleys of creek beds where dry-season gardens are maintained. We walked through small garden patches of corn, milo, tomatoes, and peppers. The closest dirt road was over a mile away. No rumble or roar of a combustion engine was anywhere within earshot. Water is hand-carried to little hand-tilled plots. The harvest is then carried out on the head of the women, who walk one to two miles to the road. They may take their goods to the local Miango market, or some may stuff themselves and their produce in taxis and make the drive to a larger market.
We walked by some men working their plots. The first two were simply amused that I would want to take their picture. However, the young, lone, bare-chested Nigerian farmer was more eager to pose. After I showed him the digital image of himself on the camera, he looked at me and said in his thick African accent, “Please greet Obama when you return.” And so I have…sort of.
Michael Mitchell, MD
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