i’m going to miss this. 

i’m going to miss this. 

only in nigeria…
  • will you see two men and eight goats on a motorcycle
  • will you mistake gunshots for fireworks
  • will you see trucks so overloaded that they either fall over or cannot make it up a hill
  • will you have a lizard run across your window/floor/wall, etc
  • will people dress in in parkas, mitts, hats in +25degree weather
  • would a person have 2 or 3 cell phones
  • would you have to finish your evening activity by 8:30pm so that you can make it home before curfew
  • will you find shops with names like “Mother Theresa Internet Cafe” or “Lord Have Mercy Dry Cleaning” or “Mamamia Hotel - posh and homely”
  • would you pray for rain
  • are you never sure if a holiday will be declared a holiday until the day before
  • will you be in a wedding party for someone you met a month ago
  • would you be able to buy a phone charger for $3
  • would you have to have a fire extinguisher in your car, lest you get fined
  • would you miss pockets and cold weather
  • would you need to have things, such as bags of pure water, to pay off traffic officials
  • would you become a teacher of things that are so common place back home such as swimming, driving or using a computer
  • would you listen to a 2 hour sermon every Sunday…and be able to pay attention the entire time

    ps - i leave this wonderful country in 13 days. crazy. 

    community.

    I came to Nigeria expecting to have difficulty developing friendships. Normally I am a very social person who doesn’t have problems making friends. But I was worried that I had lost my touch after being holed up working on my thesis for so long. And to be honest, I really didn’t think I knew myself anymore. I had forgotten my personality (who I am, what I like, what I dislike) and I really had also lost the desire to put in the effort required to make a new friend. So when I got here, I was pleasantly surprised to find a wonderful community waiting for me. I was surprised because when I imagined what it was going to be like in Nigeria, I never considered the idea that I would have a community of Western believers here for support. But even with that support, I did struggle when I first got here. I was quiet and really not myself (which made sense because I couldn’t really remember who I was). I’m sure this was also exacerbated by coming into a completely different culture with a different language, different customs and ways of communicating/travelling/anything really. I had so much to learn that I had the feeling I was on a new job about 24 hours a day (and I hate being the person that knows the least). But the mission community here just welcomed me and I felt at home quite quickly. It probably helps that there is a good little dutch CRC community here, so I was able to meet people who know people that I know (yay for dutch bingo!). It also helps that I have awesome roommates who have become more like sisters than roommates. So that part of the community has been a wonderful blessing.

    However, becoming part of the Nigerian community has been very difficult. I think the crisis and then the impending city-wide curfew has played a big part in that. During the crisis, we were locked up in our compounds, behind our big walls and out of danger, while the rest of the city was exposed. Then the curfew was put in place, which didn’t leave much time for socializing after work because you had to be home before 6pm. However, this may be a weak excuse for not developing close Nigerian friends because the curfew was lifted to 9pm about a month ago and nothing much has changed. I think this is due to the divide between the mission community and the Nigerian community. Although we are living in the same country, and living much differently than we would in the Western world, we still live really well compared to the majority of Nigerian people. Our houses are stronger, better protected, and we can put food on our table with ease. I am not saying this is a bad thing and we should live in poverty because I understand that we have been blessed and just grew up in a different culture. But the fact remains that we are wealthy, and this divides us. I also think that time is required to develop friendships, and even more time is required when that friendship is between two people of very different cultural backgrounds. And since I am here for such a short time (a very short time compared to the lifers), it is difficult to get to know the culture well enough to understand where the person is coming from and then being able to bond with them. This is why long-term mission work is necessary – it allows time to develop connections and then from there you can begin to change and influence to people and from there, the country. But with that being said, I have made some Nigerian friends at the hospital and the school. I am not as close to them as I would like to be, and I wish I had been more intentional about inviting them over to visit. But I will miss them when I leave this place and I hope to continue communication with them so that if/when I return, I have a community to return to.

    One place that I have experienced community though, regardless of whether it is in the presence of Westerners, Nigerians or both, is in the church. I have been to at least six or seven different churches while I have been here and each time, I felt connected to the people there. It is amazing the connection you feel when you are in a room with followers of Jesus Christ. You can be from any kind of background, or race, not even speak the same language and still feel a part of the body of believers. And that is an amazing feeling. 

    a note on food. 

    so when i came here i had no idea what to expect in terms of food, at all. but you can basically get anything that you would normally eat, or at least a variation of it. so most nights, the roommates and i eat pasta or stir fry with rice. usually with alot of vegetables (they are in plenty here: tomatoes, carrots, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, green peppers, hot peppers, etc). and oh man, the fruit! pineapples, mangoes (mango season is just starting and i think i like them now!), bananas, plantains, strawberries, papaya, watermelon, yoghurt fruit (delish!), oranges, lemons, etc. it is just nuts the amount of fruit they can grow here that we can’t in Canada. i will miss the amount of fruit, and the inexpensivity of it. 

    most nigerians eat a diet that involved pounded yam…their yam is white here and they pound it into a fine powder in these big wooden bowls with big sticks. and then do lots of things with it. but mostly put it into big lumps and eat it was agussi soup. i don’t appreciate this food very much. at all.

    but they do make this wonderful thing called red stew, which is basically boiled tomatoes with oil and peppe (a hot spice). and it is delish. and you usually eat it with rice or pounded yam.  

    most nigerian diets also consist of many things that are deep fried or just contain alot of oil in general (palm oil, veg oil, etc). this leads to extremely high blood pressure and a ridiculously high rate of stroke. 

    the only things that i really miss in my diet here is a regular dose of meat. it is kind of expensive…you can buy meat on the street, but it prolly is not fresh and would prolly kill you. we bought some whole chickens and cut ‘em up. and some ground beef. but yeah, i can’t wait to eat a steak back home. but nigerians can’t make chocolate to save their life. so that is what we ask for if someone comes over from the west. 

    but food is good here. and besides clothing, is really the only thing to spend your money on….who would have thought!

    "Grace is not inactive. It should push you to work for righteousness."
    — Adapted from a sermon at ECWA JETS (Evangelical Church of West Africa, Jos Evangelical Theological Seminary)
    funeral.

    “oh, when the saints, go marching in, oh, when the saints go marching in. oh Lord, i want to be in that number. when the saints go marching in.”

    i went to a funeral today. the wife of one of the guards died of a heart attack shortly after child birth. although she has a previous heart condition, this death was fairly unexpected. the newborn baby boy is healthy and doing just fine, but has now entered a world where he doesn’t have a mother. i never met her but i know the husband (he usually helps us when we blow a fuse) so i thought i should pay my respects by attending. it was an interesting service in that, you probably wouldn’t really have known that it was a funeral by looking at the faces of those in attendance. no one was really emotional or distraught, but to be fair, there were probably about six-seven hundred people there and we were sitting near the back. but apparently, if someone is wailing, they will actually be escorted out of the church. i have noticed that Nigerians are not very sentimental people. at funerals back home, people will usually tell stories or testimonies on the person’s character but here, they didn’t really. some things were said and prayers were prayed but the whole service certainly was not focused on the woman that passed. but this is not to say that they do not care or are not emotionally engaged, because i am sure they are. but i think, maybe, they just have more practice at dealing with the things that are regarded as “tragic” in the western world. and what i do admire is their faith. they know where they are going when they die, and they believe it wholeheartedly. theirs is the kind of faith that can move mountains and allow a nation to continue living amidst the horrors that happen here. they are a resilient people and this is because of their faith in their God (regardless of whether they are Muslim or Christian). my heart cries for that kind of passion and commitment to come to the western world. i wonder if we need to face more tragedy to develop this kind of faith, or if we can realize it with all of the distractions still around us.

    the husband wrote a little tribute in the bulletin handed out in the funeral. i read it and thought it was beautifully put.

    my dearest wife,

    the simplicity, humility, commitment and faithfulness you displayed in serving the Lord and the family over the years has great impact in my life. i will surely miss your heart moving, and greeting with a contagious smile. adieu my lovely wife! sleep well until we meet to part no more at Jesus’ feet. amen.

    to have a love like this, and to know that we are loved infinitely more by our heavenly Father. let us know this love and put our faith in its promise.

    everyone likes a little mail.

    if you ever feel like sending me something…(probably sooner rather than later is better since the nigerian mailing system is like everything else in nigeria…unpredictable and on its own time):

    Rachel van Oostveen

    c/o SUM-CRC

    PO Box 261

    Jos, Plateau State

    Nigeria, 930001

    (ps - your mail is guaranteed to make my week).

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