Story of my life.....Well 3 months of it!

Ok, so here's another update about my time in Nigeria! Im gonna kinda throw everything in this update, just like one of those hearty soups you get on a cold winters afternoon with the rice, potatoes, carrots, tomato, chicken etc (sidetracked). This kinda feels like it's one of those....Once upon a time type stories but anyway back to the subject! So maybe a month in to the programme,  the dad of the house, Mr. Mbeh Williams said lets go for a drive...we ended up at the police station and me and Mamun were told to wait in the car. An hour went by before he returned and we swiftly set off again not knowing what we had just been there for. So I plucked up the courage and asked, Sooo, what was going on there? he replied by telling me that the police have his cousin in for murder and the police wanted N50,000 (£200) to release him (WHATTTT!). Mr. Williams refused to pay and he said they would settle it later. It seems that authority in Nigeria is kinda contradictory to its name as they are not shown any respect and don't seem to have any power. Another thing that was quite interesting was the way people believed in Juju and native doctors (basically witchcraft). I had so many interesting conversations with locals and the discussions about witchcraft were very insightful. Basically, many of the locals believe if you go to a native doctor they can give you the ability to disappear when fighting, be non penetrable from a bullet, get stabbed and not have a scratch on you or curse someone with evil spirits so they will die maybe in a car crash for instance and you can have all these powers for exchange of a year taken off your life from the devil. When I asked many people if they believed it, the common response was its not if they believe it or not, its real! so its clear that witchcraft is still very much prominent and real in Nigeria. One of my host sisters Immaculeta traveled to the capitol on public transport in a mini bus and the bus drivers told her that they have N1,000,000 (£4,000) in the boot of the bus but its cursed and now she knows about the money being cursed she is cured too, so the only way for her and the money to get healed is if she pays N25,000 (£100) so they can buy healing oil to heal her and once the money is healed they will give her a third of it. She was so scared she was cursed that she agreed to give money. They pulled over to a cash machine to get money out, then they said, "now that you've used the cash machine your bank account in now cursed, so you need to give us all your bank details so we can heal it" luckily she had no money in the bank. But when she got home she transferred the N25,000 into their banks and guess what.....they didn't give her the money they promised. Now, looking at this from a western point of view its kind of like What! why would she do that, that is crazy! (which i was like), but people out there are so scared of evil spirits its unbelievable, so she was scared out of her mind.

I wish i kept a diary now because I'm trying to think about everything off the top of my head haha! So anyway, when i was out there i was without alot of comforts such as chocolate, music, a cozy bed, a warm shower, clean water and my own food but after about mid way point of the programme it felt like i was at home and i could easily do without that stuff. I started to really love the food (especially pounded yam mmmm) and I didnt mind about having home comforts because i had my team and when i was at home all i wanted to do was see the children and spent time with them so i had everything i wanted right in front of me. I really think its important to adapt to different surroundings and wherever you are whatever you doing really embrace what your experiencing. My favorite pastimes were no doubt with the children and i had so many good times with them, but also, sometimes we would go cocoa farming (serious manual labor) and afterwards bathe in the near by stream. This for me, was such an incredible experience being at one with nature and just taking time to reflect on the wonders of life. Another of my favorite pastimes was visiting villages. We lived in Ikom which is a small town and surrounding it are so many different unique villages. Anytime i got the opportunity i would ask someone to take me to the village. We would walk down the street greeting everyone passing by and if we knew someone we would go and sit in one of their shacks have a cook up, share stories and then head home. It was beautiful sharing experiences with the locals and it was so beyond my belief how inviting they were to someone they never met. I met so many wonderful locals and all these people were some of the most beautiful people i've met in the world. Their hospitality, their humor, their passion, everything about them was incredible. Beauty gets attention but personality gets the heart and the locals certainly had my heart. To be continued