It’s Been Quite a Day

 

The alarm woke us early; we needed to dress in our Nigerian dress for church.  Felix took us to his Pentacostal church — which was great — very charismatic and definitely a megachurch and filled with the spirit. Unfortunately the PA system has pushing it — Claudia said “too much bass” — and so we couldnt understand the sermon.  Since the service was two hours long this was a real loss –except that we could follow the gist of it from peoples’ expressions and excitement.

We stopped off at Felix’s home to see Adetutu — she had flown home late from Lagos after a week of grandchildren and so had not gone to church — but she needed our measurements for new dresses (!!!!).  Then back to Mike’s guest house, where we had a late breakfast, packed, and off to the airport.

The airport was full.  It’s Sala, the Muslim holiday that celebrates God sending a ram to Abraham so that Isaac won’t be sacrificed — and everyone is headed home for the holidays.  It’s a Muslim holiday, of course, but the Christians enjoy the time off and the eating of the ram as well.  By the way, we’ve seen plenty of rams for sale the past two days — I gather it’s sort of like the turkey killings we have just prior to Thanksgiving.

Anyway, Felix hadn’t been able to get us seats on the airplane unless we upgraded to business class, and it probably saved us some hassle with our checked luggage, since we have so much of it, mostly donations for what’s to come in Jada.

We were met at the airport by about half the two Jada clubs, and got an extensive tour of the American University in Nigeria (AUN) prior to arriving at our hotel, which is on AUN property.  I will spend more time tomorrow talking about the university — it’s late and I need to turn out the light; it’s enough for now to say that, as so often happens when you suspend belief and open yourself to the possibilities, the university turned out to be So Much More …

We finally got to our rooms, and a quick change before a joint fellowship of the two Yola clubs.  Dinner and fellowship lasted until 8:30; then we brought out our suitcases plus the books and supplies that had been sent out before; got everything reasonably organized; went outside to the pool for a beer and to discuss the schedule for tomorrow, and now I have returned to my room to get this written.

Tomorrow we have a media interview.  And Sala.  And the displaced persons camp.  And I’m exhausted already.

 

Only in Rotary

 

 The relationship between District 7780 in New England and District 9125 in Nigeria ‘goes back a long way.

In the beginning … Ann Lee Hussey met Saliu Ahmed at the International Convention in about 2007 or so.  Out of that came several NIDs to Nigeria, including the one that introduced me to Africa in 2010.  On that trip I met my governor classmate, Felix Obadan, and a Group Study Exchange was the direct result.  The exchange teams happened to be led by Sheila Rollins and Big Mike, who subsequently were governor classmates in 2015-16.  Got the connection?

In the interim, more than a few grants have taken place, and hundreds of lives changes (on both side of the Atlantic).

Last night, after our naps, Felix had arranged for us to meet president Bob from the Abuja Metro club, along with his president-elect and president nominee.  Abuja Metro and our Saco Bay club have been working on a Global Grant, but it’s gotten “stuck” in Rotary minutiae.  The goal of the dinner was to get the grant unstuck, and see what we could do to move it along.  Everyone wants the same result, but as often happens, when things get bogged down it can be challenging to get them restarted. In this case the issues involve changed expectations as well as devaluation of the Nigerian Naira.  But meeting people and talking directly is good .. I know we made progress, and I am cautiously optimistic that this can be straightened out.

Today is September 11, the 15th anniversary of a day that those who lived through will never forget.  I am awake with jet lag; on the agenda today is to go to church with Felix, and then to return to the airport to fly to Yola, where we will visit the camp for internally displaced families.  I can think of no better way to spend this anniversary than in doing our small part to bring this fractured world back together.

 

 

Nigerian Adventure

Sight-impaired students play soccer with a ball that has a bell inside.

With all that’s been happening, I haven’t had a chance to talk about Group Study Exchange.  Most GSE trips move pretty quickly, and even though Rotary markets these opportunities as a vocational exchange, the “vocational” component usually is little more than a series of walk-throughs.

I hope very much that this one will be different.

Felix, my  governor counterpart in Nigeria, and I have planned a special GSE for teachers and other professionals who work with special needs kids.  The idea is to slow the travel down and let the team know the facilities they will visit in-country, so that they can prepare in advance and do lesson plans and really make a difference during the trip.

Need I say it? The developing world is no place for special needs kids. It’s easy to think of many of them as being warehoused in dismal facilities, and I am sure that they are.  On the other hand, I’ve also seen visually impaired teens playing soccer — the ball has a bell in it to let them know where it is.  Heck, I can’t kick a soccer ball even with two good eyes!

This week we selected our GSE team leader.  She is Sheila Rollins, an Assistant Governor and member of the Bridgton-Lake club, and she is very, very excited by the opportunity.  She has traveled widely, although not to Africa; she is remarkably competent, she will be a great ambassador for Rotary.  I am very pleased with the selection, and now we need to turn our attention to putting together a team of young professionals to travel with her!

Stay tuned.

http://www.rotary7780.org