Fishing and Hippo Watching in the Heat

Sterling and I just got back from a short fishing trip that was short on fish, but tall on tales. We headed south off the 4,000 foot plateau that we live on. It was quite the adventure. No one knew of any rod and reel fishing on this lake in recent times, but apparently there had been some kind of fishing tournament on the lake that was last held 13 years ago. We set out on a three hour drive hoping to catch Nile perch, which can weigh up to several hundred pounds.
Things were not as we had hoped. There was no easy access to the lake with bank fishing as we had hoped. Last night was spent in tents with an outside temperature over 90 degrees farenheit, no wind, and much humidity. Today warmed up quickly to over 100 degrees. We fished some this morning, but without a bite.
On the good side, I got my first ride in a dugout canoe. We had great company. We did see hippopotami in the water and monkeys in the trees. We successfully warned some of our guys to get out of the way of some of the hippos on the move. Hippos are very aggressive and more people die in Africa from hippo attacks than from any other animal. We had more uniquely African experiences.
We were quite happy to drive back this afternoon and leave the 100 degree temperature. We came back onto the plateau to the first rain of the season. It has been over four months since any rain has fallen. It was 65 degrees while raining. Ahhh! We like the cool and the rain.
Michael J. Mitchell, MD

Hannah the Hillcrest goalie?

I don’t know if it has been mentioned in the past but for the first half of our time in Nigeria, Emily and I played soccer with the neighborhood kids on the field in front of our house. Emily played a lot more than I did, but whenever I did play I really enjoyed the game. Recently it has become so busy that it’s hard to find the time to get out and play with the boys but I still enjoy the game. Anyways, jumping back to the present, soccer tryouts were this week. I can’t really call them tryouts because the team has a no cut policy, but needless to say I made the team. I actually first kind of got the idea when Coach Tolar approached me at school and asked me if I would be willing to be goalie for the girls team. Michelle Palmer, the girl who usually is goalie for the Hillcrest girl’s team, has an injured knee this year and consequently did not come out for the season. So after Coach planted the little seed in my head I got to thinking about trying out and decided why not? There’s a first time for everything right?

So, Wednesday was the first day of practice and it was pretty fun. The field players did their own drills while I did goalie drills. I got out of a bunch of running. Being a goalie is pretty tough on your body though. Just so I could be up to par, I did a couple pre season practices with the goalie from the boy’s varsity team. After one afternoon I was pretty cut up from the ground we practiced diving on. But I guess it’s just part of the job.

But what’s even more crazy is that it looking like (this is based entirely on my own observations, so I can’t say it with 100% certainty) I could be starting goalie for the Hillcrest girl’s team. Our first game is in about 2 weeks, which gives me that long to get good at being goalie. I just hope I can live up to being a starter. So far I have shown my newness to the sport very well. So, we’ll see.

Hannah (18)

Women's Sport? I Think Not...

Yesterday, Hannah and Dad convinced me to participate in this season’s sport, volleyball. Yesterday was also the first practice of the season. About eighteen boys showed up for tryouts although the tryouts may not even be tryouts after all. At this point we are not sure if we are going to have two teams or not. Coach wants to split up into two teams but at this point we do not have a coach for the second team. The season will be very short and due to various school activities we will be limited to only twelve practices the whole season. We have about the same number of matches to make up for it though.
Sterling (16)

Back to School

Today is the first day back to school after an uneventful but nice spring break. For most of spring break none of my friends were in town so I spent a little time reading The Shack but most of my time was spent bonding with my Xbox. Wednesday through Friday we spent out at Miango along with my friend Jacob whom we brought with us. During the time we were there we played tennis, talked, ate, and slept so overall it was an enjoyable time. The last exciting thing that happened over break was me having Jacob and my Lebanese friend Jad over for the night. At some point during the conversation Jacob and I realized that these hangouts of ours are very numbered. We only have eight weeks left in the country. We are excited to come back home!

Sterling (16)

I before E except after C . . .

Remember that old elementary school chant? After continuing to see misspelled words like “receive” and “relieve”, I decided to teach this old rhyme to my students. I was afraid it would be a bit too juvenile. In class, I had them say it in unison over and over again. The students, who are in their 20s and up, were amazed that there was one simple spelling rule that solved this common spelling problem!

I was quite shocked though when one of my students immediately started ranting a little to the class and me in response; he is normally a quiet, respectful guy. With restrained anger, he expressed his feelings of frustration at the Nigerian school system. What I had just taught him was so helpful, so simple. He repeated what I had just told him, that every American child knows this rule by heart. Yet not one person in the classroom had heard this rule before!

These young men are working so hard to improve their English; it is the key to better jobs and the key to further education. Few materials are written in their native languages, and trained teachers who are native speakers are a rarity (I am the first Western teacher most of them have ever had.) I tried to encourage this student, reminding him that we Americans have had hundreds of years to observe the patterns of our language and pass them onto others. His country just needs more time! His country could also use a few more teachers from the West who would be willing to share their expertise.

The very next day, I was unexpectedly encouraged by a different student to continue doing my job. I passed George in the library and complimented him on the great job he had done in church last Sunday. He had sung an original song he had written in English. The student just smiled at me and said,” See Ma, what you give to us will come back to you!” I was quite pleased to think about what he was saying to me: by helping my students improve their English, I get to enjoy, along with the Nigerians, original worship music written by a local. Pretty cool thought!

Lisa

Senior Trip in Ghana

So this past week I got back from my senior trip. Senior trip is a trip that the senior class takes together every year over spring break. In years past, the class would just go somewhere in Nigeria, but for the past ten years or so the classes have vacationed in places outside of the country. This year the class went to Ghana. Originally we were realistically looking to go somewhere like Gambia or Dubai (I don’t know if I spelled that right and I’m too tired to look it up, haha) but because of some bad decisions on the school’s part and the economy crash, we only made it as far as Ghana.

However, as disappointing as it was that we had to go to Ghana like all the classes before us, we still had a lot of fun on the trip. Most of the time was spent getting to where we wanted to go but it was fun. All the bus trips definitely gave the class time to bond with each other. We spend a night in Abuja so that we could catch our early flight in the morning. Then we spent a night in Accra, Ghana after coming in on an early afternoon flight. In Accra we got lots of time to shop and enjoy the slightly more developed society of Ghana. From what I saw, Ghana is still West Africa, but with a few more western influences. Anyways, from Accra we went on to some random little vacation spot called Big Milly’s. That was nice for the girls, but all the guys got crammed into one room so they didn’t enjoy it much. But since I only had 4 roommates, I liked it. Plus, the beach was amazing. I swam pretty much the whole two days that we were there. Then we went on to another fancier resort called Coconut Grove. On the way we went on a tree walk thing and saw an old slave castle called Elmina, both of which were pretty cool. But Coconut Grove itself was really nice. There was a nice pool and I got to eat Calamari for the first time in however many months. It was sweet. Then coming home we stayed in Accra and Abuja again.

But overall, the trip was definitely worth it. It was some free time to just cut loose and enjoy everyone in the class.

Hannah

One hundredth ENT Surgical Patient

I have been keeping a log of the patients that ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) department has been taking to the operating room. On Friday, we had our 100th patient since I have been here. I have been involved in most of the ENT surgeries, though not all.
John is a seven month old boy who was strapped to his mothers back while riding a motorcycle taxi. The motorcycle took a tumble and so did mom and baby. There is a very nasty wound under the bandage with exposed bone and tissue loss (much of the eyelid gone). I was able to do some plastic reconstruction to close the wound and graft the eyelid. We pray that it will heal well.
Michael Mitchell, MD