Second Week Summary

I am now at the middle of my third week of my trip to Nigeria. It is Saturday morning. I am eating breakfast of oatmeal, cup of milk (from powder), tea, and malaria pill. I forgot to put the raisins in the oatmeal.

Last night to make my curried rice with sardines in tomato sauce, I opened the minced dried garlic and the ground ginger, I brought with me last. After I finished cooking I put them back in the zip lock bag with other spices and my earl grey tea. The garlic cap was not fully closed. This morning when I opened the bag to get some tea I had a distinct garlic odor. About a half teaspoon of garlic was loose in the bag. The tea are sealed in foil pouches.

I took out the open spices and put them with my other spice on the shelf. They are in the identical shaker bottles that the cinnamon I use in my oatmeal is in. Garlic or Ginger oatmeal just does not seem to appetizing. 


Outside my house, men are busy setting up shade canopies. They will get decorated and rugs, tables, chairs, sound equipment added. By Noon they will be ready to receive a wedding couple for their reception. Another reception is being set-up on the other side by the Cathedral.

Second Week.

The Evangelical Lutheran Deaf Association (ELDA) Team on Wednesday March 28th, spent the day with the children of the LCCN Deaf Center School. This is the "End of Term" meeting where the children and parents get together. They will have a one month break before the next term. All the children and parents crowded into one classroom and the ELDA team sat up front at tables. Earlier in the week the Team went to the local "bookstore"(Bookstore here sells office supplies, some sell books.) and purchased schools supplies for the school.

This was a chance for the ELDA team to get to talk with the parents and the students.  They are considering whether to provide ongoing support to the efforts of the LCCN Deaf Center.

We are using a two interpreters. Most of the parents do not understand sign, some understand English, and some only use Hausa. In Nigeria your tribal language is your first language, you then may learn Hausa as the trade language of the area. If you go to school you will learn English. In the case of the people born Deaf, their first language will be sign. Those who loose their hearing at a later age will have learned their tribal language and will generally learn ASL sign. Bill Lockard is interpreting ASL from the ELDA Team to English and Gabriel is interpreting ASL to Hausa and Hausa to English and ASL.

After a while the students were given some snacks and juice and sent outside and the parents kept talking. The younger kids mostly chased each other around while the older kids got together to sing and dance. The preschool teacher Vivian joined in.

School Enrollment Chart

The parents mostly discussed, that the LCCN was not supporting the school and that tuition was hard for some families. There is a lot of confusion about the school's affiliation with the LCCN. Depending on who you talk to, you get different stories. The LCCN approved the LCCN Deaf Center with funding from Denmark, back in the 1990's.  They had an account for the funds and used that money to pay Ruth's salary. This did not include a school. As the Center worked with the Deaf in Jimeta/Yola it became apparent that Deaf children were not learning sign or other communications skills. So a basic sign language class for children was started. Over the years they went for basic sign language to school preparation and then teaching primary school classes and now junior secondary school classes.  The Primary and Junior Secondary Schools have never received any formal recognition from the LCCN.

School Teachers and Pastor Ruth

The LCCN under the new administration of Archbishop Musa Filibus is now looking into the needs of the physically challenged. The Education Department is working on a paper to present to the LCCN Executive Council in order to get funding to research the needs and the appropriate response by the LCCN to the education of the physically challenged people including the Deaf. I have provided input into the paper through the Education Department. They are hoping to have the first draft completed before I leave.

Ok, enough of this tangent. Back to the ELDA visit.

Thursday, March 29th, was the start of the Easter Camp for the Deaf.

As you can see from the schedule all of today's activities are for the evening. So the ELDA Team got most of a day to sit in their hotel and rest in Air Conditioning.





In the evening the program started with a Lord's Supper Service and Communion. With Pastor Ruth giving the sermon and Pastor Beth giving the bread at the communion. Following the service they had a song of praise then announcements.

Friday was the first full day of the Easter Camp program. There was a morning session with songs of praise, followed by a message, then offering and songs and a Bible Study. The Bible Study was broken into 4 groups. At the end of the Bible Study they had Questions and Answers. The questions were asked to each group to see how well they understood the Bible lesson. Someone kept track of right answers, wrong answers and answers somewhere in between. This was always a spirited session with a lot of laughter and groups competing.

During the afternoon session Yakubu Bulama and I took Karen and Bob out shopping. They wanted to find African dress for their sons, daughter-in law, son's girlfriend and their two grandchildren. We first went back to the Main Jimeta market and found two nice dresses which Karen thinks will fit the adult women. We could not find much for the grand-kids or there sons. Yakubu drove us over to the Old Jimeta Market and we walked around there until we found some clothes for the grand-kids. Then Yakubu took us to his favorite shop at the Old Market. Here we found shirts and pants for Bob and his sons. A tailor was called and he took measurements of Bob and agreed to modify the clothes to better fit him. Then he and Karen selects clothes for their sons. They told the tailor that one was the same size and Bob and the other was taller and broader in the shoulder. In fact the other was about the same size as the tailor. The tailor took all the measurements and Yakubu argued prices with them. He is a good negotiator with shop keepers. I was able to pick up the clothes the next day.

Saturday, March 31

Saturday we added a Renewal of Vows for Karen and Robert into the schedule. It was suppose to be at 11:00. The Bible Study went a little as did the Q&A. I took Bob over to my house and had him put on a shirt his wife had bought him earlier. Bob was not told that this was planned. I think he knew something was happening that he was not being told about.




After the service and lots of pictures we drove to Ruth and Paul's house were we held a reception.  With a cake for their 45th year of marriage and lots of food and more pictures.

























Easter Sunday, April 1

Easter Sunday Service had 107 people at the service, with Pastor Ruth giving the sermon. The capacity of the church is around 120 with 8 people per pew. Seating friendly they could get another 32 in the pews.










After the service we all went outside for ... pictures.

In the afternoon session of the Easter Camp the ELDA Team presented a drama of the when Mary went to the tomb with Dorothy as Mary and Bill playing Jesus. Angels are Karen and Vivian.

Monday the ELDA Team packed up and got ready to leave. Pastor Ruth, Pastor Beth and I had a meeting to discuss the history of the Deaf Center and Deaf School. To look at how she keeps her books and a few other things related to possible future grants.

On Tuesday they flew from Yola to Abuja and found out that their flight to Paris was cancelled due to Air France strike. Air France put them up overnight in Abuja and they left the next day. All their connections were re-booked with different layovers. Karen and Bill flight was improved a little. Dorothy flew through Atlanta instead of Ohio and arrived in Minneapolis very late at night. Bill and Beth went through Detroit instead of North Carolina.  Everyone got home eventually. More than a day late. 

Now some miscellaneous pictures in no particular order.

I dropped my phone on the concrete porch. Still works. I just get glass in my finger as I swipe.

We went to lunch at the Damada Restaurant. The electric pole was installed after the sign was painted.

The thatch roof on the Restaurant makes it a little cooler. They also have a pizza parlor and a Chinese restaurant.

Vivian braided Karen's hair.

At lunch one day at the Camp Bill was given a beef joint of some sort. Mostly gristle and flavor, not much meat.

 As part of the afternoon Easter presentation Dorothy spelled out Easter. The Command strips did not adhere well to the dusty back of the white board. Empty, Alleluia, Saved, Eternal, Rise

 The Jimeta Church for the Deaf Choir on Easter Sunday.

My garlic ginger curried rice with a can of sardines in tomato sauce. I have half of it left over. Tonight I will add some fresh Mango and heat it up.

 The ELDA gave Ruth a plaque for Partnership in Deaf Ministry

Ruth also gave the ELDA a plaque but I did not get a picture of it.




With the slow network this has taken all day to do. Now I will put on my shoes and go to a local shop for some more orange drink, Pepsi and other drinks to restock my fridge.

I have no pictures for this week. I pretty much stay in the office doing administrative work. Next week we plan on visiting a village that is having problems with getting a water source.