The Everyday People in our Life

Meet Zainab. She is my main house helper and is a real pleasure to work with. She was cleaning away in our new home getting it ready when we first came so she was one of the first Nigerians we met. Zainab comes everyday to help me around the house. Simple things like doing laundry are not so simple in Nigeria. First, you must have clean water! Then you have to hang the laundry up outside in between cloudbursts. Once the clothes are mostly dry, you then put them in the dryer only to kill the mango worms that will hatch and bore into your skins if you don’t! Our voltage is so low (if we have enough power in the first place) that using the dryer to actually dry doesn’t work.

Zainab and I are both learning a lot from each other. I am the first bature (white person) she has ever worked for. Westerners and Nigerians do some things very differently. Zainab has never used a washing machine or dryer before even though there are four people in her family. She has now been introduced to garbanzo beans, hummus, and German food. In return, Zainab coaches me on how to speak the Hausa language ( Sannu! Yaya yau? Yaya Maigida?) (Hi, how is today? How is your husband?) She also advises me on readily available food and prices and various other things like how to tie a proper headtie for Sunday church. I am very fortunate to have her!

Meet our guards: Joshua and Joseph, two brothers. They keep a watch over our house and our

neighbors’ house, the Sampsons, day and night. Crime and achabas (motorcycle taxis) are on the increase in Jos , so this is a very needed service. In the picture, note how bundled up Joshua is. Though it is 70-80 degrees depending on the time of day, many of the Nigerians are wearing sweaters and even parkas throughout the day. They think it is very cold. Meanwhile, Michael is sweating buckets! I hear Joshua tromping around our house every night in his rubber

boots patrolling our house.

And finally, meet the Nigerian kids who live across from our house. When they are patient, they wait outside the gate and try to catch our kids’ attention. When they are not so patient, they come to the door though most of them cannot speak English. They love to play with our kids who throw them around and teach them silly chants and hand games, but even more, they love to play with our soccer ball! Though much younger, they are quite skilled and have no problem getting the ball away from our much bigger kids. It made me laugh when they got us girls to sit down and ravaged our hair with their fingers in delight at our soft, fine hair! Each of us girls got our hair braided.

-Lisa