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NO Title will sum up this blog post!!!
I can honestly say that I have entered into a new realm of blogger status… from “lame” to “TOTALLY LAME!!” I cant even begin to get my fingers going fast enough on this keyboard to try and convey what all has happened in life the past couple months…soooooo maybe I will go with bullet points, but then that would be adding to my lame status, so I could do bullet points with a brief explanation and just let the pictures speak for themselves! Let’s just see how I feel as we go. I know some of you might be thinking that “It seems like Dana is just having one adventure after another, I mean does she really have a job?!?!” That question has a 2 part answer because it’s true, I definitely have had so many incredible experiences here, but all that is just a bonus on top of teaching Grade 1! I wish I could insert a little chip into this computer that would allow everyone access into my world just to get a taste of how incredible, unpredictable, totally random, life changing, spontaneous, challenging, beyond blessed life that I am living here! Since Christmas everything seems to be in fast forward as my time here is winding down…maybe because I am trying to do anything and everything possible before leaving. So keep reading and you’ll get the inside scoop of the last 3 months, ok maybe 4!
Lets start with Spring Break…Since I had not been on a medical outreach before I decided it was time! My friend Kelly is a nurse here and her husband works with a people group called Fulani. They are actually the largest unreached people group in the world. So after driving several hours we made it to one of the Fulani Camps and it was the first time there had been an outreach there. Since I am not a nurse ooooor doctor I was assigned to be the Chemist…PERFECT! When we got there all the men were sitting under this giant mango tree and Tim had to meet with the chief and get things set up. Well Simona, Kelly and I were invited into the womens hut for food…ohhhh yeah, not really an invitation you jump up and down about and rub your belly thinking goooood im sooo hungry!! Instead you do that look where you half smile at the person telling you while looking at your friends with eyes that speak “NOOOOO I don’t wanna die today!!!” ok maybe thats a bit dramatic, but you are at least thinking, this won’t be a meal I am going to ask for the recipe for. So we go into the hut and about 10 of us are sitting around and only one of them speaks Hausa. So Kelly is doing all the communicating while we are just smiling and nodding and pretending we understand what they are saying to us! They were asking what they should prepare, and Kelly told them it allllll had to be cooked no matter what, soooooo about 30 min later we are served….drum roll please!!! Boiled lettuce…yummmm with tomatoes, some kind of rice mush filled with sand and little rocks, even better…something that resembled a chicken that tasted, well like something I have never tasted, and a pot of grey cream of wheat gluey substance that they call “NO NO” hmmmm I wonder why?!?! Anyway that was an experience. Then we set up clinic and Kelly and Simona saw the women and children while Collin and I passed out the drugs…It’s amazing how many things Paracetamol can cure!!!
Trying to put all the babies on me!!!
the most beautiful kids!
Take 1 in the morning, 1 at night...
Raise your hand if if your child has X, Y, and Z, cause if so you need VERMOX!
Shortly after the picture below one of the mothers set her infant on my lap and within seconds I felt this nice warm moisture filling my skirt…yep nothing like being covered in urine for the rest of the day!
A hospital we had to stop at to greet the Chief's son from 1 of his wives
so clever...
After a sleepless night in our tent we headed to another village a few hours away! Bush roads are fun for maybe 20 minutes, not 3 hours!!!
bush road
The second village we went to had a lot more people so when we were leaving I had a little round of copycat with the kids to make the same gestures as me!! So awesome!
#1 TOUNGE OUT
#2 THUMBS UP
#3 AIR PUNCH
#4 WAVE GOODBYE
So the next day after returning from our outreach, a big group of us left at 6 a.m. for a more relaxing getaway!! We were at a place in southern Nigeria about 8 hours away called Obudu! It could have been called Heaven, well not really, but it was incredible, the pictures can’t even capture the beauty of this place!
Presidential sweet!
the cutest little iguana on Joseph
look at his paws...or hands or whatever
team BANANA...
night time
the pools were incredible!
Don't worry I flipped all the way...no back smacker
I should have been a cheerleader!
Who thinks Kari caught it?!!
Can't stop the flow!
Trying to get too many people on the mat
Farm Fresh Dairy was right next door...we bought them out of yogurt!
cable car down the mountain...gotta love the Swiss for building this!
UNREAL!!!
the road up the mountain...pretty crazy!
The third day there we went on a mammoth hike like never before to some waterfall, our fearless leader who’s name happened to be Godsgift, gave us an adventure to remember…thats for sure! Literally we were going straight up and down, and just before the waterfall there was no path so we had to slide down on our butts for about 1/2 hour holding onto grass, roots, anything we thought would save us!
see our path
- How we gonna get there? I dunno!?!?
futher up and further in...we were still happy at this point
breathtaking
and to our butts we go...HOLD ON!
ohhhhh BOY
HOLD ON MICAH!!!
baby cow that decided to follow us...
blazing a trail...just not on foot
Emmanuel's feet afterwards
Ok so after Spring Break, the next exciting thing that happened is my best friend here got engaged!! Her fiance is working in Guinea and decided to come to Nigeria to surprise her and propose! It was perfect and she had nooooo clue what we had been planning for months!! So we had to do a trip to Yan Kari to show Andrew the warm springs and hopefully some elephants on Safari…well no elephants this time…but a sweet monitor lizard! When I asked the safari guide if it would bite me…he said in his Nigerian accent “Nooooo it won’t bite but it will ummmmm mash you with its tail!!” Sounds like a good story to me!
Engagement toast...nasty blue sugar water or something!
natural warm springs beats the pool any day!!
Dustin making sure he gets his money worth since he had to pay $10 to bring his camera in!
the lizard that could mash me!!!
So I thought I should include sooooome school stuff just to prove my “teacher” status:)
Gotta love show-and-tell!!!
they were making up their own cheers about Grade 1!
- BUG WEEK…learning about balance
My classroom was a jungle for 3 weeks while we learned about the rainforest!
My favorite Canadians!!
My 8th Grade discipleship girls!
Phhhhhew, that blog post just took me a total of 7 hours…so I hope it was worth it! There has to be an easier way to do this! When it’s all said and done it’s awesome being able to share life with whoever reads! Thanks for all your prayers…continue to pray about what next year will hold, cause at this point I have no idea where I am going to be!!! Lots of Love!
