Julia's Blog

A belated post that has waited a few weeks before an internet place could send it !!

2008-06-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

It’s been a hectic few weeks again. I had a bit of time out in Jos countryside, in an area called Vom one week and in the familiar Shere Hills the week later, which was beautiful as you can see from the pictures. Back at school, I had a staff development day last week and then there was Children’s Day which was great fun. It was entertaining to see the children learning to do the egg and spoon, three legged race and the sack race as none of them had tried it before! But they loved it as you can see. One little girl, Judith, was so cute when we were doing the three legged race. She uses a wheelchair and can’t walk but she really wanted to take part in the race too, pointing to all the ties showing us that she wanted to tie her legs together! So we attached her foot to the chair and gave the wheelchair race an extra edge! She was so pleased to be like the other children who were having their legs tied together!
We also brought a horse along to give some of the children some rides, which went down well. I was in charge of the obstacle course but we had a few practices before the day so it didn’t go too disastrously! No-one ran in the opposite direction or twisted their ankles at least!

It was my house mate’s birthday at the weekend too so he has a big barbeque to celebrate. We partied into the night using the front room as a disco! We had to hunt around the place to borrow a generator for the night as the electricity has been terrible here recently. We have had to give up buying any kind of dairy or even much veg as it goes off so quickly. Its amazing how fast mould grows in a fridge that doesn’t turn on! We were excited last week as the power came on for the first time for a few days but then it was such low voltage it wasn’t enough to turn the fridge on and it took an hour to warm up the laminator! Not great for a laminating freak like me!

I don’t have long to go at school now so I am busy finishing off all the last things I have to make and write up! Better get to it!...

A traditional Igbo wedding and a school trip to go horse riding!

2008-05-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week. Last Friday Rose, a colleague of mine at school, got married, and the wedding lasted for two days! I went to the first day of celebrations, the traditional Igbo ceremony. The next day, they did the white wedding in the church , but I have already seen plenty of those back home ( !) and I had other plans at the weekend with a friend who was visiting. Perhaps the most interesting part of the wedding was the fact that the actual ceremony didn't take place until 7 30 pm even though it was scheduled to start at 2pm. Now that's a delay even by Nigerian standards! I arrived at 4 30pm anticipating a late start as everything runs on "Nigerian time" over here but there were still another 3 hours to go before we saw the bride and groom and the canopy was only just under construction. Still, most of the guests had arrived and the loud speaker was blaring out the music for us all to enjoy, including the surrounding neighbourhood as the wedding was being held by the roadside. ( as there was no room in the flat to house all the guests) So there was plenty going on. In fact we were all given our meals before the bridal party arrived and many guests even left before the ceremony began , once they had eaten and drank enough, which was probably a good job as there wouldn't have been enough chairs for everyone otherwise! Apparently the reason they took so long was that the bride and the groom's families were busy negotiating her bride price, which is still very important over here and is taken very seriously. Families turn up with a list of required items in order to hand over their daughter to another man's family and unless there is agreement, the wedding can't take place. I couldn't help thinking that this kind of heavy negotiation could have been pencilled in for a date preceeding the actual wedding day, but that's just how it's done here. Just a shame many of the guests actually missed the ceremony.

Once the proceedings got underway though, it became more interesting. I liked the fact that not only did the bride have to feed the groom their first food and drink as husband and wife, but also that the groom had to do the same for his wife! There was lots of dancing involved too which I had a good go at!

The other pics show the school trip to the polo field in Jos as I tracked down a contact there who was very kind in organising for some of our physically disabled kids to have a free horse riding session. I was somewhat nervous when i tried to put one of the bravest children, Judith, on the horse as the first one, only to find she started to scream and kick and didn't want to go near ! But after a few more minutes of stroking the horse she calmed down, and once I tried with another little girl Simmi, who was a bit nervous but happy to sit with me , Judith was desperate to climb on. In the end , most of them loved it and it was so rewarding to see their happy smiling faces. I want to try to make it a more regular thing, for their families to take them riding, as "riding for the disabled" is quite a popular thing back in the UK and it helps lots of children learn to balance and gain confidence.

So I hope this will be the first of many visits!

Beaming kids with their new machines!

2008-04-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

I had planned to post some pics from my recent trip to Ghana and Calabar in South Nigeria, over the easter holidays, but the internet connection seemed to be having other ideas over the past couple of weeks so I have moved onto new pictures to see if the beach , rainforest and money photos were feted! It seems that they were as these have worked! Mind you, I have to make the photos as small as possible for it upload! Anyway, it was a great holiday all in all and I may add some pics at some stage!

Meanwhile, I am now back at work again , and Iwas very excited to return back to Jos to see a new DHL parcel full of the speech equipment I had ordered from home, via a charity donation.

As you can see, the kids are very happy with their new devices, and its been really rewarding showing the parents how to work the machines and record onto them, programme them with suitable pictures and talk about all the possibilities for the future. I have been visiting some of the children in their homes so that I can take photogaphs of all the familiar objects and family members for their machines, rather than just using generic pictures , especially since a lot of the picture symbols you can download aren't always appropriate for Nigeria. ( particularly food - can't find symbols of Yam , Akara or moi moi on line!)

It's going well so far, and I just hope the machines will cope with the fact that other children in the families will no doubt get their hands on them!

I also added a picture of me collecting water from the well in our compound. I sometimes forget to mention the every day stuff, and it was only after a conversation with a friend the other day that I realised that things like bucket showers and getting water from the well have obviously become a bit too normal!

And now the pics!

2008-03-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

Back to Jos

2008-03-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

Admittedly there has been a slight delay since the last post in November. I didn’t quite get around to it in December, and I went back to the UK over Christmas and New Year. I have now been back for three weeks and everything feels pretty normal again. I suppose you do get a fresh sense of African street life compared to life back home: the vibrant colours all the women wear, people carrying huge pots of yams on their heads as well as carrying babies on their backs, and the hustle and bustle of the lively street markets full of loud negotiations on price all seems a world away from Bolton! ( see the picture) But you get used to it remarkably quickly.

I have been enjoying life back at the school, and it has been great to see all the kids again. I managed to bring back a whole suitcase of new toys, games and equipment thanks to the great January sales, generous donations and presents from friends and family. So it has been lovely to watch the kids’ reactions to all the new things, and it has injected new excitement into the same old activities. I am still making them practice saying the same type of things, but if there are new toys on offer, it makes everything a lot more exciting!
I am lucky to have a full time assistant now, who is a natural with the children so I am training her up to be “me” when I go. We still spend lots of time in the classrooms though working with the other teachers.

Outside of work it has been great to meet up with my friends again, and I have seen lots of the other volunteers at the weekends as you can see. I am now living with two other volunteers….in house number 4 here!....and you can see the new place in the pictures.

This week there will be 40 volunteers all together in Jos as we are having a meeting with all the VSO volunteers in the central and northern regions in Nigeria. Whatever we end up doing for the seminars etc, it will be good to catch up with everyone again!

Finally, the pictures from my summer holiday in August!!

2007-11-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

You can see my cute little neighbour, a baboon sitting on the roof on a car in Yankari National Park, above the Wikki Warm springs, Sarah relaxing in Jos and both of us with some of the village community at one of the projects she supports.

Arrival of the wheelchairs!

2007-10-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Another blog entry without pics. So I will be brief, as I know it’s a tad dull to just read text! The problem is , my camera is still in Gashaka Gumpti National Park and no doubt the chimps have got hold of it and are taking photos as we speak….Well actually, not any more as it has been retrieved by rangers at the park but I thought it was safer to get a friend to pick it up when someone visits, rather than rely on the Nigerian postal system…

I have spent quite a few weekends here in Jos recently and have decided it’s not a bad spot! I have had a couple of friends to visit so we went on the obligatory tour of the Museum shops, trips to the market for material (cheaper than Abuja!) and hiking trips to the hills near my house.

I am happy that the rainy season is finally over so I have been enjoying getting back into the swing of swimming, cycling and hiking in the sun! I have also done my fair share of travelling too, mainly for farewell weekends in (Kaduna and Abuja) as it seems that there has been an epidemic of volunteers leaving recently! A new batch of VSO volunteers are arriving soon and an American girl is joining me at my school until December so that should be good. I have also found myself a very handy Speech therapy assistant in the form of a retired doctor who has some time on her hands. She has been very busy making extra PECS books and other visual aids, but the only down side is that we can’t locate stick on Velcro anywhere so are trying to find other methods!!

The really exciting news is that the wheelchairs have arrived too! My boss is going to pick them up next week so the children are so excited. Meanwhile a friend of mine is trying to set up a Cerebral Palsy support group and we had the first meeting about it the other week, which was even filmed for the local TV network. Typically they turned up when I was mid speech and I just had to carry on talking as if a film camera hadn’t just been thrust in my face!! Unfortunately I didn’t get to see myself on TV as the electricity wasn’t on that night!

It’s a short week coming up as Thursday and Friday are public holidays as it’s the end of the Muslim fasting period Ramadam. I am hoping to go to Zaria with some friends , to see the Durbar there. I will describe it in more detail when I have actually been!!!....Watch this space…

Photos from Ghana

2007-09-06T07:50:00.001-07:00

A break in Ghana!

2007-09-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

Some might say the last few weeks have been a tad hectic. I am all for travelling, but I was actually strangely relieved to be back in my little house this week, without the prospect of moving for the foreseeable future. That's not to say I haven't had a fantastic time. As the photos show, Ghana is a beautiful country and it was great to finally lie on a beach and soak up some sun for a few days after the week long Pan African reading For all Conference in Accra. ( I presented a workshop there along with some colleagues from my school in Nigeria.)

No rest for the wicked though, so instead of staying in one place, and together with some friends, I toured the coast of Ghana , stopping off at castles, stilt villages and Wildlife Parks along the way. It's a shame that the wildlife proved to be particularly illusive, and I think the most we saw in Kakum National Park was a few butterflies! Still, it was a lush rainforest and it was worth it for the extremely high up canopy walkway..the only one of it's kind in Africa apparently.

The bad luck with Wildlife spotting continued with us as we reached Nigerian soil again. After visiting my school for a couple of days , we went to two different national parks in Nigeria, but were foiled from seeing elephants both times, even though we saw their footprints and droppings so we knew they had been there!! In Yankari Game reserve, the Baboons jumping around the car park made up for it, as did the Wikki Warm springs which are a constant hot temperature..great for the rainy season! We went on a two day car journey to get to Gashaka Gumpti National Park, and were proud to be two of only a handful of foreign visitors who visit each year. It's a wild and remote part of Nigeria , but the countryside is spectacular and it's an interesting place to visit as much as to meet the friendly local people as for the wildlife itself! ( although luckily a few monkeys popped into view at least !)

Perhaps the best part of travelling in Nigeria though is that you are generally made to feel welcome and important...great for your ego!

But the problems of lack of power and running water , and the bumpy roads with umpteen potholes are sent to try us!

I am now trying to adjust to getting back to work ...But it's great to see the kids again, and try out the new equipment that we have been donated from the US. ( a basic electronic talker and switch )

Near my new house, and some party pics...

2007-07-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

I am now getting settled into my new house, and am enjoying the walk to work in the mornings. Luckily, I discovered a path leading straight from my house to the school…the only trouble is there is a river I have to cross and during rainy season it can get quite high. I am negotiating stepping stones on my way to work at the moment… and am hoping they won’t be completely covered over one of these days. The pictures show the views near my new place and also my outside kitchen, and the rooms inside. As you can see I am making myself at home there, and my 2 year old next door neighbour helps me out with the mopping!! He is always in my place shouting “ Aunty, Aunty!” wanting me to play games with him!
I am busy at work preparing for the conference in Ghana as well as all the usual things. And the big news is that the wheelchair request has been approved by the ministry so we are hoping that wheelchairs will be provided for all the physically disabled children by the end of August. But I am on the quest for more funding as there are so many other things we want to provide, including electronic talking machines and other aids for the physio room and for the parents to use at home etc! I will try to get into fundraising once I get back from Ghana I think. Any ideas for contacts, please let me know!

The other pictures are from a leaving party I went to in Abuja last weekend…the theme was “stars and stripes” as both the people leaving are American. I won the name the 50 american states quiz ( admittedly with a little help from a friend!) and my prize was a stuffed animal. I took in back home and was going to give it to the school but I thought the kids would fight over it so I gave it to Abdulai, my little neighbour..but he was so scared of it he started crying!!! Not a success….think it will be going to school after all!....

Special olympics... and a new wheelchair!

2007-07-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post this time, to show you a few photos from the Special Olympics event they held at school today. The kids really enjoyed themselves, although it was a shame the rain came earlier than usual and rained off the last few events. They were all so proud of their medals, and loved doing the march past to mark the start of the ceremony, including lighting the Olympic flame. I ended up being the chief photographer for the event so I didn't actually have much time to take my own pics but here are the few I did take...

I have also included a picture of Joseph in his new wheelchair, kindly donated last week. Admittedly, it is not exactly made to measure, and he has some difficulty staying in it properly, not least because it is made of slippy material, but he was so happy the first time he had a ride in it, as you can see. His mother was so happy that they finally had a wheelchair for him she started to cry, as did his nanny ( the girl also in the picture) who is generally the person who has to carry him around at school! We are hoping that our request for some more lightweight wheelchairs from the Ministry will come to fruition....We shall see!

2007-07-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

Life continues to be hectic but in a good way. I have just moved house for the third time in six months, but this time, it’s to my own place. A friend of a work colleague has built a house in his back yard, and I am the first one to move in. It’s a great little place, with three largish rooms and the only down side is that the kitchen is outside in a small shed. But I am now fixed up with running water and the potential for electricity…depending on whether the power is on or not! My boss has been a great help in collecting furniture for me to use, and even re- upholstered an old three piece suite for me to put in the sitting room. The only trouble is that my only means of cooking is an electric hot plate at the moment…not ideal for a country with unreliable electricity supply!

I visited Kano last week to combine a VSO conference with my birthday celebrations last Saturday. It’s a really interesting place to visit…a huge city of over 3 million people with sprawling old city area complete with the original buildings from over 500 years ago. In fact, there were buildings in the old market that were apparently used as the main depots for trading slaves. They are now used as money changing venues.
It was fascinating wandering around the narrow market alleyways bustling with movement. I nearly got my eye poked by someone carrying a long piece of timber on his head. Needless to say I got carried away buying objects from the market…I kept thinking that it was a birthday treat to myself….but it was nice to be able to see your things being actually made on the spot. ( such as the tie die cloth and the pot ( called a calabash…see pics) They still make the tie dye cloth in the original way and each die pit is owned by a particular family and passed down through the generations, over hundreds of years. But perhaps the best thing about seeing all these things was that you didn’t feel as if you were just another tourist…we were asked to sign a book when we went to the dye pits and I think we were the first tourists there for a while!

I was also lucky enough to have a birthday party arranged for me…I just had to turn up! A VSO friend helped to organise it , and asked a good friend of hers if he wouldn't mind holding the do at his house, complete with a pool! I felt ready to cool off in the water after a long day's sightseeing....!

It's been back to work this week though, and I am working of Saturday too as there is a family forum with the parents, to discuss issues around coping with children with disabilities. The next round of the Nigerian special olympics is also being held at school tomorrow so I will be hoping to get some good pictures of that....!

Jos Life

2007-06-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks since the Kabba weekend. Another volunteer, Heather, has moved to Jos so I have had a good excuse to eat out more than usual to show her the best places! She considers that Jos has practically artic conditions since she has been living in Delta state for the past few months, but I pointed out that although the temperature has admittedly dropped recently it’s still around 26 degrees or so. Hardly freezing, but then I felt a bit chilly the other day and needed a few layers on so perhaps I am succumbing to the local view of the climate!
Anyway, I am gathering a few more people to come with me to the samba and tango lessons I have started going to…which is necessary as the timings are rather casual , as are the other dance participants. Different people tend to come each time. Generally I end up texting the teacher before the class to remind her to come. That seems to work, although she was still 25 minutes late the other day, even after the text. I wouldn’t mind, but as it’s only for an hour….! Anyway, now we have a few definite regulars things should improve! I have been told that my waist needs to be more flexible in no uncertain terms, but at least I seem to be able to get the steps so that’s a start. And its all good fun which is the main thing.
The country pictures are of another hike in Jos with a few friends. I promised that I would take them to a place with boulders to climb and I don’t think I disappointed them! It was a beautiful day and even though I have seen the landscape in that area a few times now, I haven’t got tired of it yet!!

And moving to school matters...well, its all going quite well at the moment. I have been so pleased that many of the things that I had suggested and try to set up have actually happened. We managed to get external funding to create a partition in the physio room to make a small dark room area as a basic sensory room. I spotted a disco ball in the main “supermarket” in Jos ( not exactly Tesco sized…more like your average convenience store) and I couldn’t believe it as I hadn’t seen anything like that here before. So we bought that, and along with some light up toys I brought out with me, we have been able to create an atmosphere of flashing lights and spinning light up balls etc. We have also rigged up a ball pool using a paddling pool and a bag of small plastic balls we found in town. It makes a great waiting area for physio!
You may think this has nothing to do with speech therapy but actually I have been trying to get the non-verbal children to ask what toy they want using pictures, or a make-shift switch with a recordable message such as “I want toy!” If they press the switch, they get the toy! The switch I have got is tiny though as it is just a basic toy as part of a telephone set, so we are hoping to get funding to get some decent switches and “ talking machine” type technology ( AAC for those of you in the know) so I am more hopeful about that as I really think it will work.

Work and Play!

2007-06-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

I had a busy long weekend at Kabba, in Kogi State. There seems to be a regular get together hosted by some irish priests down there for VSOs ( at least 20 of us or so) and other people that they know here in Nigeria. It involved lots of fun and games, including crazy golf, hiking, bar games like jenga and the hat game incorporating the donning of as many different types of hats as possible it appeared! Not sure what the point was but it was good fun which was the main thing. The incredibly cheesy music and impressive display of energetic dancing also added excitement to the evenings!!

It was good to meet up with everyone, after a busy week at work. I have been busy preparing materials as I tend to make all my own resources rather than buy things that aren't appropriate...or indeed available!....so that keeps me occupied in the evenings. I also had to plan a workshop I was giving to local teachers on general language development and how to help develop young children's speech and language...and how to spot possible problems etc.

We had a few hiccups because even thought I had made sure that the generator was available in case of the inevitable power failure, I had failed to ensure that there was sufficient fuel to power the generator. So I had to swop the video clip to the middle of the workshop once someone had gone to buy some fuel...always need to be flexible in these situations!

I have also started dancing at a local Nigerian Dance studio that does African Samba and Tango lessons. I think I will take a while to get as flexible around the waist as everyone else there, but at least I am giving it a go!

I thought I would add a picture of my room at school...complete with an invading herd of cows!

An action packed weekend in Abuja!

2007-06-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Admittedly this is yet another bulletin completely non-work related but I just wanted to give you a quick update about the weekend. I went to Abuja for another get together at the army barracks which is the local gathering point if you want good fish and chips!

Later we ended up with some friends at a posh house with a full sized bar in the front room and I felt like I was in a surreal film set....But that was nothing compared to the party we went to the next night. It was in a house with a life sized model areoplane on the roof, taking up the top storey...anyone who has been to Abuja will know where I mean! A friend of mine knew the Lebanese family throwing the party so a group of us went along. It was very ornate inside, but the apart from the delicious food ( as much hummous as I could imagine !!) it was great to try out lebanese-style dancing ! Everyone was very friendly and we were all encouraged to bop away...The worst part was that I have never felt so under dressed for a party in my life. I only had my scruffy trainers with me in Abuja so i borrowed a friend's top but had to make do with my sporty trousers and trainers when everyone else was in cocktail dresses and high heels!! When I noticed the film crew filming us dancing , I was particularly aware of my outfit, but by then it was too late for me to care too much!! In fact the whole weekend was very surreal as I ended up sunning myself at the Hilton by the pool on Saturday...for free this time. Managed to get away with it!

Back to work today though. Lots of planning to do for another workshop and I was going to do another evening of making resources but I have had a nice excuse to go out for a meal....my gas canister has run out and I can't even boil water or cook at the moment!! I should be getting a new one in the next couple of days.....We shall see...!

Some pictures from the hike in Kagoro

2007-05-31T09:31:00.000-07:00

A weekend in Kagoro

2007-05-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

It's Democracy day today. The day of the handing over to the new president. Which is exciting mostly because its another day off! ( And also that it is the first handing over from one democratic government to another as democracy has not been around here for long...some would say it still isn't but that's another story best left to world news reporters!...)
Yesterday was Children's Day and the outgoing president Obasanjar decided to make it a public holiday but failed to tell us until last Friday. My boss had to make last minute notes to send home to the parents to let them know that suddenly the children had 2 days off this week. It suited me fine as i was going away this weekend ( again!) and I didn't have to rush back on Sunday. A group of 14 of us ( VSOs) converged on my friend Hiromi's small pink house in the beautiful but tiny village of kagoro, only 1 1/2 hours away door to door.
It was her last weekend in Nigeria so we made the most of it with a hiking trip up her nearby mountain culminating in the obligatory trip to the local bush bar as a reward when we returned.On sunday, the few of us who stayed on joined Hiromi at her NGO's party for Children's Day where local children's drama groups performed small sketches and songs on a stage outside.They were amazingly talented, and even did the sketches in two languages for our benefit. Suddenly the rains descended and an army of small children were herded towards two small dark rooms ( no electricity of course!) with barely enough room to turn around. As I said I worked with children in a school I was told to entertain one group of children whilst my teacher friend Siv took the other lot. I decided to fall back on the old favourite of impromptu action songs, and went through a number of verses of " If you are happy and you know it" and " the hokey Kokey" before almost losing my voice over the sound of the rain! Luckily it didn't last and later the children were able to continue with the sketches.
It's back to work tomorrow so I had better go and do some planning!...
Pictures are taking ages to upload today, so watch this space...!

Recent weekend pictures...and my house!

2007-05-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

Working hard!

2007-05-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

From most of the posts so far I have probably given the impression that I am permanently on holiday. Let me reassure you that this is not the case. It's just that I am sure you would find it incredibly dull if I kept on posting pictures of the school. I had a hectic week last week with a visitor with me every day, either other VSO volunteers or other interested parties! ( ie a german girl working with an NGO here who is interested in doing speech therapy as a career) It's always good to have other people around to bounce ideas off, and also as an extra pair of hands when you are trying to work with a group of children! We are one staff member down at the moment so it's all hands on deck, especially with the little ones.

I have now done two workshops for the staff at school, and this time we managed to rig up my camcorder to the newly purchased TV which proved very useful not only to show certain therapy techniques ,but also the staff loved watching themselves, as I filmed them on the school trip to the wildlife park.( I had not been able to show them until now!)

Since word has got out that a speech therapist is in town, I have now ended up going out to a mainstream school to assess and work with some children there, and I am also working with a 46 year old man who had a head injury last year and has lost most of his speech. So any of you adult therapists out there, any tips please? I am trying to remember back from Uni days, with no equipment bearing in mind! But its working so far as he is responding to using photographs of his belongings, and we are making a communication folder for him. He gets incredibly frustrated that he gets stuck on a word and keeps repeating it, even though he knows it is not what he should be saying. I am working in conjunction with the teacher in the reading clinic as he is using Hausa with him, so at least its not all down to me!

Anyway, sorry this is a bit full of work news. The photos show my visit to Akwanga last weekend for a friend's birthday, luckily only 1 1/2 hours away. We visited a few local villages where the people are incredibly friendly, and at least here I can go back and give them the photos that I take of people. I also went hiking in the hills near Jos again which looks even more stunning now its rainy season...luckily only raining in the late afternoon at this stage. Not looking forward to the constant rain expected in July and August!

The worst thing about the rain is that generally it means that there is no electricity afterwards, so it's candles all round and if you had planned an evening of laminating ( oh the joys!) , it just isn't going to happen! Actually last week I had quite a few evenings out as I had plenty of visitors...always a good incentive!

Arrgh! This computer won't let me download the photos.....I will have to do that later!!

Back to school.

2007-05-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

It’s been a hectic few weeks since Easter. The elections passed smoothly but I suppose the real test will be when the government actually hands over at the end of May. I spent the rest of the Easter break visiting other volunteers at their placements , and in Abuja, the capital but headed back to Jos in time for the start of term last Monday. Mind you, I am not sure that anyone told the parents as only about 5 kids turned up on the first day! We don’t operate normal term times as its as NGO and offers year round provision for children with special needs but parents generally assume it’s the same as government schools. It was a good job their weren’t many kids last week though as I was busy planning my first workshop for the staff at the school and a few extras who wanted to come too. I knew I would be doing something for the staff development day last term, but it wasn’t until last week that I found out that I was doing the whole morning’s presentation for 25 or so people!

I also had to move house last week as my room was already booked for a family for the next two months, before I arrived. The new place is sweet though. It’s surrounded by mango trees and has a country cottage feel to it. It’s in a much larger compound than the other place and a big bonus is that there is a nice hotel nearby where I can get nice food and drink if I’m in the mood for some luxury! I am getting used to the lack of running water and electricity and have been getting back into the art of water conservation. As soon as it starts raining I immediately put a bucket outside to collect rainwater….comes in very useful to flush the toilet and doesn’t waste the "good" stuff!

It’s been good to get back into work again, and the workshop went well despite a few teething problems….basically I tried to cram too much info into one morning. But as you can see from the photos , people seemed interested in it and I tried to make it as interactive and practical as possible. I even did a fancy PowerPoint presentation but rather regretted it as we needed to put the generator on to power the laptops which ended up being too loud and distracting. Next time I will either try to borrow a projector or give up on the idea! I borrowed some extra laptops and copied the workshop onto each one, but then as each laptop was slightly different, it was a bit of a nightmare trying to get everyone to move the slides on at the same time, and swop between mini video clips and back again! I tell you, technology is not always a good thing! But it added interest and a bit of reality to the whole thing, as I was supposed to be showing the staff how to do PECS. ( the Picture Exchange Communication System ) …which is basically teaching kids to exchange a picture for something they want, and then making sentences using pictures to talk about all sorts of things. You wouldn’t think it would take over a morning to explain, but trust me, it’s more complicated than it sounds!

I have been with other volunteers a bit recently which has been fun. There was the dutch party at the Dutch Embassy in Abuja at the weekend for Queen’s day, where we all had to dress up in orange , and then various volunteers have been visiting my place to do placement visits. It’s always good to have visitors and it encourages me to check out all the Jos highlights! I also saw a bit of Nigerian culture the other day as one of the guys at school invited me to see his dance group performing traditional dancing...a bit like a African version of Morris dancing!!

A magical Easter Experience!

2007-04-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

The school trip to the wildlife park went well but I didn’t take any digital snaps ( as they call them here) as I recorded it on my video camera in the hopes that I will be able to work out how to put it onto a dvd some time!! I might have to make use of the contact I made at the Nigerian Film studio down the road …someone I met on the road to Abuja. But it was great to see the children getting so excited about seeing the animals, despite the less than perfect conditions. Some of the animals roam about as you would expect in a wildlife park, but the majority are kept in cages near the entrance; the sort of cages you expect in a run down zoo to be honest. The greatest entertainment seemed to be in giving the gorillas a carton of drink as they are able to drink through straws it seems! Oh yes, and the moment one of them hurled a rock through the cage seemed to cause a bit of a stir amongst the kids…not sure health and safety regulations back home would cover that kind of thing happening in a children’s zoo!

I have just got back from an Easter trip away to Sukur, a UNESCO world heritage site up in the Mandara Mountains on the border with Cameroon. Kevin, another VSO volunteer, visited it last year and told us all about it…it’s somewhat of a hidden secret in Nigeria and it must be one of the least visited UNESCO heritage sites in the world!
Quoting from the first tourist magazine I have seen on Nigeria, Sukur is the “extensive remains of a former flourishing iron industry and a cultural tradition that has endured for many centuries”. It is still a kingdom in its own right and is home to over 3000 people, with 27 clans and 13 elders with regal titles. The king himself , Gizik Kinakakau, is the 13th Chief of the kingdom as it is today, and the royal palace he lives in was built over 500 years ago. Something about the place reminded me of the Inca trail near Cusco, Peru. For a start, the track up the mountain is paved with stones and there are stone gates to the kingdom, again all dating back to the 16th century, around or just after the time of the Incas I think . And the structure of the society, based around worship of gods associated with the natural environment who only the king can answer to, has similarities with the Incas too…But that’s just my observation, I am no anthropologist! If you are interested, there is a website at http://www.sukur.info/ which tells you more accurate info!!

I will get back to describing the trip and explaining the photos!
It took 11 hours of travelling, but as there were 6 of us (all VSO volunteers), it was easy to charter a “bush taxi” for ourselves rather than wait for them to fill up with other passengers as you have to do if you are travelling on your own. The others came to meet up with me in Jos, and I put them up for the night, before we all continued on the next day to Madagali in eastern Nigeria.

People are so friendly here. When you arrive in a village and ask about accommodation, everyone tries to help out, and even if there isn’t a guest house, you know you will be able to stay with someone. They are also very curious to see you as oyibos/ baturis ( as foreigners are known) don’t usually venture out of the major cities. So we ended up staying in the spare rooms at the Priest’s house next to his church , the first night. Very appropriate for Good Friday! Some of us went to some of the mass too, but as it was in Hausa and was stifling hot in the church, we didn’t manage to stay for the whole time!

The next day we got up early and the priest drove us to the foot of the mountain ( after a minor puncture incident) and found us a guide/ interpreter for our expedition. This involved the usual rituals of greetings with the local village chief and chairs being found to sit us all down and find out what on earth we are doing there and for us to seek permission to visit the kingdom, before we could continue on. Siv, the only male amongst us, was always assumed to be our “leader” and all negotiations had to go through him; something we just had to get used to despite my feminist instinct!

After a steep and stifling climb up the mountain with enough food and water for two days, we arrived in the kingdom and the King was asked to come out and greet us. People rushed to find plastic chairs for us to sit on, and I have to say I was very glad of it, especially in the shade! Our arrival definitely caused a stir, and swarms of children surrounded us, clearly intrigued! Then we went through a series of ritualistic greetings, thanks and procedures, via Raphael, our guide from the local village who could speak English and the local language of the Sukur people. Every time he spoke to the king, he had to bow and bend on one knee. We presented him with a gift of photos that Kevin had taken when he had visited. You can see a photo of some people looking at them, and they were clearly pleased. We said we may return for the festival next year and bring back more photos from this visit. We were shown round the royal palace, which is partly ruins now, but there are still living quarters for the present king and his family. The iron smelting tradition lives on as you can see in the photo. Later on we wandered around the main village, visiting the school and church ( a recent addition but the elders still believe in traditional worhip). I felt like the Pied Piper of Hamlyn , as everywhere you walked a trail of small children would follow after you! They loved it if you chased them though!

There was even a local bar with some beer imported by foot from Cameroon ( the other side of the hill) and everyone was very keen to chat to us, via Raphael and lots of gestures! Later there was some sort of festival involving drums and lots of marching, but it meant we could dance ( well wiggle our hips) much to everyone’s amusement!
Anyway, I will finish before this turns into an epic novel or something, but it was one of those trips that I really had to write about. Although I have been on treks elsewhere in the world, I have been to few places so untouched by tourism and it made the place so real, and so genuinely friendly.
I can see a place for tourism there as the people are very hungry ( the way the kids went for our pasta leftovers was heart wrenching) and the small kids are very malnourished, Tourism may even help to preserve their traditions, but I hope its done right, and doesn’t ruin the magic of the place.

A chance to cool off!

2007-04-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

On the way to Abuja for last week's VSO conference for new volunteers, I stopped off at Minna for the weekend along with some other "VSO- ers" and as you can see from the pictures we had a great time relaxing by some beautiful waterfalls. The great thing about tourist spots in this country is that you are generally speaking, the only tourists there, so you have the place to yourselves!

Abuja itself was hectic and I almost had culture shock in reverse when I went into one of the posh department stores there complete with glass lifts! I also had a chance to go back to the army barracks which is a great place to have food and drink....in northern Nigeria its often the only place in a city where you can drink alchohol. Jos is not a northern state luckily for me!

A short post this time, but I will try to upload some pictures from the school trip to the Wildlife Park tomorrow...

Enjoy the Easter break!

St Pat's day celebrations.

2007-03-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Nigeria is definitely a country of contrasts. One minute you can be negotiating the delights of the public transport system here (I am beginning to wish that my legs were slightly shorter)….and dealing with the fact the shops in the town centre may randomly go on strike just the moment you have set off to do some shopping…and the next minute you can find yourself in an ex-pat compound where there is a posh swimming pool, a bar with food and drink on the house, and a band playing irish music to celebrate St Patrick’s day! I had a fun weekend in Abuja ( the capital) this weekend as there were parties going on with all the irish expats and volunteers around to spur everyone on. ( I was at a house party on the photo) It’s great how everyone is so welcoming and there is always a place to stay even with people who you have only just met!! I think they are used to the VSO volunteers moving around in groups at weekends!

Life at the school is taking shape. My room is gradually being transformed from a poultry shed to a working office / therapy room. The paint went on the walls this week and I even got to choose my own curtain, which is actually bedspread material but who’s to know!...The next stage is to connect the room up with electricity although the generator isn’t used all the time, and the mains electricity is hardly ever on at the moment. I am glad that my job here doesn’t rely on electricity as it is really frustrating for anyone who works in an office environment to have to cope with. It doesn’t help that since generators are run on diesel, which is getting more and more expensive, many places can only afford to have the gen on for a short time.

As for me though, I am starting to run some language groups ( luckily as english is used throughout the school I can run them in my own languge) and have started some of the non-verbal children off with using picture systems to try to communicate, which is going well so far, but it's very early stages!! I need to convince everyone that these systems can be used all the time and not just during speech sessions or as a fun game!

The photos show a couple of children during assessment, and the scenery around the school - very countrified for a city! You can just about see the school in the background on one of the photos.

The photos...

2007-03-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hiking in the Hills

2007-03-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

I had a busy weekend meeting up with fellow VSO volunteers, and as it was Jenny's birthday we celebrated by splashing out on lots of great food in the posh places to eat and drink here. Any excuse to be honest! They left on Saturday night giving me time to catch up on some sleep ready for hiking the next day ( with a groups of French expats who have set up a hiking group). I felt like Indiana Jones bashing through the undergrowth at times ( and I have the scratches to prove it!) but it felt like a real adventure. The landscape was a cross between Arizona ( as I imagine it to be with all the cacti etc), inland Australia and the foothills of the Alps. ( ie very up and down!!)

Settling in.

2007-03-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

A Short post this time. Just a couple of snaps showing Speech and language Therapy Assessment in action! The little girl wearing the Snow suit ( over her school uniform no less and it really isn't cold in the slightest!) is discovering how to play with the Pop up dragon game and is in my new Speech Therapy room. We now have mats and a table. Hopefully paint for the walls, some curtains and some more rugs will be next on the list, depending on funding! The little girl in denim has Autism and is particularly intrigued in part of a game I brought out! She loves anything that is brightly coloured.

The picture of me swimming was taken last Saturday when I tagged along to a birthday party by a freshwater lake with a group of other ex-pats and Nigerians I met. It was cold, but refreshing as us Brits say. Not everyone ventured into the water though!

Time to head back to my place. I volunteered to help make 5o Gold medal ( cardboard medallions) for the Special Olympics Competition this weekend as I foolishly let on that I brought a laminator out with me! So that's my evening taken up!

Greetings from Open Doors Special Education Centre, Jos

2007-03-01T07:44:00.000-08:00

It’s true what they say about Jos. I can’t believe I can sit here at night without the fan on, and not only not be sweating profusely like in most other places in Nigeria, but also to be contemplating the possible need for another layer if I go outside. It’s still red hot during the day though, despite you needing a sleeping bag at night. But that’s enough about the weather!… I am downloading some more photos to go with this post to show you all some pictures of life at the school. I have only been there for one full day but I already feel quite busy! The plan is to screen the 80 children and young adults in the Special Education Unit over the next few weeks , most of whom have been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Down’s Syndrome and /or Moderate – Severe Learning Disabilities ( still referred to as mental retardation over here).
I have a “counterpart”, Ogbonna, who will take over when I leave and he’s highly trained in Special Education. He will also be an invaluable interpreter when I try to do language assessments in a few of the different Nigerian languages!! Even though they use English in the school as the main language, I think it’s still important to assess the children in their first language even though it makes life more difficult …
I was also pleased to hear that Ogbonna’s keen to try the Picture Exchange Communication System with the non-verbal children, and that he’d heard of it. It can sometimes be hard to sell it to people, as they think that teaching children to use pictures to communicate will stop them learning to talk when actually the opposite is true…
The teachers I have met so far also seem keen for me to work alongside them in the classrooms which is encouraging.
Well that’s enough about the Speech and Language Therapy side of it for now!!
To explain the first picture; It's the Baptist Mission guesthouse and I am staying in a small little annex which is round the back . This feels like luxury compared to Marilyn’s house in Lafia. For a start, I have running water, although admittedly I can’t drink it and need to remember to boil and filter it. And although there are the inevitable NEPA stoppages the owner of the guesthouse has a generator which is switched on until 9pm. After that, it’s just pot luck whether the electricity lasts. So far so good tonight, probably because it was off all day! I even have my own sofa and armchairs, and a spare room with 2 bunks, as it’s meant to be a family annex. There are no rules here and I can come and go as I please, and it feels quite safe as it’s a small enclosed compound with a guard at the gate. The down side is that I can only stay for 6 weeks so my boss is trying to arrange something else for after that. I might be able to get a place with another VSO volunteer who’s supposed to be arriving in May or June…but who knows what will happen! I might have more of an idea where would be good to live by then.
All in all though, I have been impressed with Jos so far. It’s much smaller than I thought it would be, and more countrified. The landscape around the school is almost Mediterranean , with the rocky hills , Cacti and flowering shrubs…will have to ask experts what they are…all I know is that there are lots of purple and pink trees/ shrubs/bushes…Okay so I’m not a great horticulturalist...but you get the picture! There are also a few expats around , and bizarrely I actually ran into someone I met at a VSO course back in June before either of us knew where we would be going! She had made the “pilgrammage” to Jos from the heat of Kano further north, in search of ice cream, chocolate and fresh salad that you can only get in Jos!

Photos from Lafia

2007-02-27T06:27:00.000-08:00

I have uploaded a few photos from my stay in Lafia ; the smaller size is easier to dowload! just learning about how to arrange them as you can see! I arrived in Jos today and from what I have seen of it so far, I have been impressed. Will write more on the next post...running out of credit! But I will just add that when I arrived at the school for a first visit earlier on, I noticed that the children had made a couple of welcome posters for me!! Good start!

A visit to Lafia

2007-02-22T01:31:00.000-08:00

I can definitely tell I am somewhere near the equator. To say I felt hot when trying to sleep last night is somewhat of an understatement! Given that the temperature didn’t dip below 30 degrees all night, and there was no electricity to power the fan ( except for a couple of welcome hours when it came on sporadically during the night) , it was not surprising that I woke up sweating like a pig.
So I have now relinquished my title of sun goddess and I am trying to avoid the sun as much as possible…well in the middle of the day at least!
I am in Lafia at the moment, on a placement visit with Marilyn, a Canadian volunteer who has been here for 4 months so she is showing me the ropes ; how to sterilize and work the water filter, how to charge everything electrical you own the moment the power supply comes on in case it goes again, how to wash using a bucket shower, and how to negotiate good deals at the market ! I am supposed to be learning how to cook a typically Nigerian meal too, but she let me off with that last night and cooked me some beans on toast which tasted amazingly great! I have been given lots of spicy food at the hotel since I arrived on Saturday so although it rather goes against the spirit of the exercise, beans on toast was exactly what I wanted! Marilyn has got a handy little campfire toast rack that you can put on top of a hob. Unfortunately she located it in Canada so I am not sure whether toast will be a rare luxury for me here…we shall see!

I have also been excited that you can get Smirnoff Ice in the most unlikely road side bars …even ice cold ones! So that has cheered up the evenings!

I am going to Jos next week which still appears to be a popular place from what most people say so I am pleased I am going there. Watch this space for photos of typical Nigerian street scenes….I should be able to upload them next Sunday.

ARRIVAL IN ABUJA !

2007-02-19T02:55:00.000-08:00

Well I have finally arrived in Nigeria and got around to posting something on this blog! Now the hard bit...what to put!

My first impressions of Nigeria ... Sunny, hot and full of friendly, cheery people! But actually , I don't really think I have experienced the true Nigeria yet as I have only been in Abuja, the capital, so far . As someone suggested, it's a bit like an African version of Milton Keynes, as it's a well planned city with lots of highways and roundabouts. There's also not much traffic and it's fairly quiet and ordered, which is apparently not like the rest of Nigeria! I have been pleased to discover that most people are quite enthusiastic when I tell them I am going to be living in Jos which is a good sign. And bizarre as it may seem for a sun lover like me and I am actually quite relieved that it is cooler up there in the mountains as I am frantically seeking shade here in Abuja! Strange to think that I was feeling cold just a few days ago.

So far I have been doing a few days training with the othe VSO volunteers in my "batch" as its known. I am the only volunteer from the UK, but there are a few volunteers from the South to South programme, from VSO Kenya, Uganda and India who are all really friendly.There are over 50 VSO volunteers in county at the moment and it seems like people meet up with each other quite a lot at weekends. I am going on a placement visit with another serving volunteer tomorrow for a few days so that should give me some insight into what to expect. It's all quite exciting so watch this space for more news about life in Nigeria.....!