Monday, April 21, 2014

A Couple Easter Pictures

Kaitlin and I had dresses made in true Nigerian fashion. In time we hope to have several more outfits made.The clothes are one of the things I really like about the culture. I stay in a constant state of sweaty and gross and my hair has to stay off my neck at all times, so its not the prettiest of pictures but it's pretty much my permanent Nigeria look. The sister in the picture is Sr. Ifeoma. Her birthday was on Good Friday, but we celebrated it on Easter Sunday. 

Kaitlin and I with all the sister in this community.

The Holiest of Holy Weeks

I love holy week and it's one of my favorite times of the year in the Catholic Church. I’ve always gone to Holy Thursday mass and the Good Friday service too.  This holy week has exceeded all other holy weeks in the amount of services and time spent in church. I’ll begin with Palm Sunday.  In the community that I live in there is one sister who does not speak the local native language of Igbo.  At the local parish all masses are in Igbo, which I obviously do not speak.  On Palm Sunday this sister decided to drive further into the city, so that we could go to the one parish where mass is done in English. I was very grateful for this, as it’s hard to fully participate in mass when you don’t always know what’s going on.  The Palm Sunday service at this parish was almost identical to the one I am used to attending at home. We began in the parking lot and did the procession into the church where mass continued as normal.

Holy week continued on Monday with a special mass at the cathedral. The mass was to honor the bishop in the Enugu diocese.  It was in Igbo, so other than the occasional translation from one of the sisters I didn’t understand what was being said.  The mass was done outside in a very large area probably the size of a football field. It was filled with people and probably a hundred priests. The mass was pretty long. There was lots of singing and the homily (when the bishop speaks) lasted for much longer than the average American homily. After mass people from different parts of the diocese and different organizations within the various churches presented the bishop with gifts. He was presented with gifts ranging from cases of water, to yams, to rice, to large live animals. I’ve never seen anything like it.  We got to leave at the beginning of the gift presentation for a while to visit one of the nearby markets, which I’ll talk about in a different post.  It was a nice little break from all the sitting. In total I think we were there about five hours. There was a lunch served to all the people at the end and Kaitlin and I were introduced to the bishop.  Do we have a celebration for the bishop like this in the states? If we do I’ve never heard of it.

We continued Holy Week on Wednesday with a morning of quiet reflection. We drove to a church compound I had not yet been to and sat outside in silence reading and reflecting for the morning. I enjoyed this. It was nice to go somewhere new and enjoy some time resting and reflecting under a nice shady tree. There were a few more bugs than I would like, but that’s a story for a different post.

Holy Thursday began with mass at the cathedral again. This mass is known as the Chrism Mass.  Like Monday there were hundreds of people from all over the diocese and several hundred priests. The priests were there to renew their vows.  It was also in Igbo, but the sisters did have a missal so I could read and follow along.  This mass ended with lunch for all the sisters and priests present.  Holy Thursday continued in the evening with the traditional Holy Thursday mass. They did the traditional washing of the disciples’ feet. Unlike my church at home, all of the people chosen to have their feet washed were men. After the service there was 24-hour adoration. The sisters and about a hundred other people had the first hour, which was good for me because I don’t think I would have been able to participate in the middle of the night.

Good Friday began in the afternoon with the Stations of the Cross.  The church acted out the Stations. It was pretty impressive.  We began in the church with Jesus in the garden right before he is handed over by Judas.  It was the most realistic production of the passion I have ever seen in person. There was fake blood and the guards very believably beat the man playing Jesus. The stations actually started outside and continued around the block. Unfortunately there were so many people that I couldn’t see many of the stations and since it wasn’t in English I couldn’t understand anything being said.  When we returned to the compound they put the man playing Jesus on the cross and had two other men on crosses to each side. At this point Jesus was covered in the fake blood and looked as exhausted as I would imagine Jesus would have been. Kaitlin and I had been warned by the U.S. Embassy in an email that we should be extra cautious during Holy Week, because it could be a potential time for terrorists against Christianity to attack. Well, after Jesus was hung on the cross there was a small explosion sound and smoke coming from right behind the compound wall. I jumped and thought for a split second we were being attacked. A little ridiculous I know, but no one had warned us that gunfire would be used to make the sound of thunder. So if you’re ever in Nigeria for the acting out of the Stations of the Cross, don’t panic when you here a small explosion. However I think in the future a drum might be more appropriate.  Good Friday continued with the typical service and veneration of the cross.

On Saturday I attended the vigil mass, which for those of you that know me well you will understand that is quite an accomplishment for me to stay up past a 11p.m. The vigil started at 10p.m. with the lighting of the candles. It continued with what I think was a pretty traditional Easter vigil. I have actually never been to an Easter vigil service that I can remember, so I don’t have much to compare it to. The one thing I’m pretty certain does not occur at home is dancing. There was so much dancing! People were dancing in the aisles, in the pews, and on the stage. The singing and dancing ended around 2 a.m. and to my surprise I managed to make it through the entire service without falling asleep. It was definitely a celebration and something I will not forget.

Happy Easter!




Sunday, April 13, 2014

A Few Pictures

This is the primary and nursery school. There is another school building behind these two that houses the secondary students. They are also in the process of constructing a fourth building. The school has over a thousand students. Each class has about 30 to 40 students.

This is one of the school busses that bring some of the children to school. 

This is the house where Kaitlin and I live. It is very close to the house where the sisters live. 

The school has a very nice view of the city of Enugu. We live on the outside of the city, but it is still very populated and very noisy. 

This house is home to the ten sisters that live in this community. 

These lizards are everywhere! They can be up to a foot long. For the most part they seem scared of humans, but I have seen a couple that were a little more aggressive. 

The secondary school has a soccer team, but they call it football. They are the ones in green. Unfortunately we lost this game. I honestly don't know how they play in the heat. It was probably a hundred degrees during this game and several were even playing without shoes on. It's pretty impressive! 










Saturday, April 5, 2014

Culture Shock and Other Struggles

Today marks day 18 of my Nigeria experience. It has been by far the hardest thing I have ever done. I had no idea that I would struggle so much to adjust to a new culture. Absolutely everything is different than I am used to!

Some of the things I struggle with…

Power: The government power, known as NEPA, does not work consistently. You never know when it is going to come on or how long it will stay on when it does. Days have passed without any NEPA. Fortunately the sisters have solar power, so as long as the sun shines we can have power from about 7pm to 11pm.  The fans cannot run without power. This is by far the worst part of being without power in the middle of the day.

School: Discipline, as mentioned in my previous post, is very hard for me to deal with. I am not having trouble getting the children to behave when I am in front of the class. The struggle is with the form of discipline the teachers use.  I have a hard time watching children being beaten with a cane.

Food: The food here is very different than anything I have ever eaten. We eat very few vegetables and a lot of carbohydrates. The spices are also very different. They use a lot of dried fish, which gives everything a very fishy taste that I am struggling to get used to. Thankfully they do have some really good and unique fruits, so I look forward to eating more of those.

Language: I just didn’t think this would be an issue. I have met many Nigerians in the states and I can understand them and they understand me. This is not the case here. The sisters are pretty easy to communicate with, but I still struggle to follow their conversations at times. The time when language is the biggest struggle is at school both with the teachers and students.

Heat: What can I say about the heat…It's awful! I am constantly sweating and hot.

Daily Life:  I love to stay busy and hate being bored or having a lot of down time. In Nigeria rest time is an essential part of the day. What do I do with all this time???? I can’t leave to compound without a sister, so sometimes I feel a little trapped. 

Homesickness: Last but definitely not least is homesickness. I miss home so much more than expected. I miss my family and friends. I think of you all daily. If I don’t learn anything else from this experience I will at least have learned how lucky I am to have such a great support system at home. I love you all!


I’m sorry if this post seems a bit negative, but I want to be honest and this is honestly how I’m feeling. Each day is struggle. Some days are better than others. I am hopeful that in time I will adjust.



Good Morning Auntie

I finally have Internet!!! I have only been without it for about a week and half, but when you are used to having it everywhere you go it is quite a change.

We I arrived in Enugu, Nigeria almost two weeks ago.  In Enugu the sisters run a primary, secondary, and nursery school. Kaitlin is working in the secondary school and I have been placed in the primary and nursery school.  The school is only about ten yards from our home, so it’s a short walk every day. The first day we arrived at school we were greeted by hundreds of excited children.  The primary and nursery school have over a thousand children, so it was a bit overwhelming. Nigeria has little to no diversity, so the children very rarely see a white person. Children screaming “Good Morning Auntie” greeted us, as this is what they call their teachers. Many children wanted to touch us. They want to know what skin that is a different color feels like. Needless to say this was a very overwhelming. Some of the younger children just stare and almost look a little scared. Now that I have just finished the second week of school, I am still greeted all day long anywhere I go by children screaming “Good Morning Auntie” while they touch my arms or try to grab my hair. I don’t find it quite as overwhelming as I did in the beginning, but I look forward to the day when I can walk around without being followed by a small mob of children.

The language barrier has been much harder in the school than I expected. Everyone speaks English, but we have very different accents.  The sisters say that the more I speak the easier it will get for the children and the teachers to understand me.  I am sure this true, but I never expected this to be an issue.  I will be spending a lot of the school day in Nursery 3, which is equivalent to Kindergarten in the States.  There are four Nursery 3 classrooms with 30 to 40 students in each.  I spent the last two days teaching some games and get to know you type activities mostly so the children could get used to hearing my voice.  When the next trimester starts in May, as this one will end next week, I will be teaching lessons in each of theses rooms.  The sisters seem to be interested in bringing some more hands-on lessons into the classroom, since most lessons are taught with notes and memorization as early as pre-k. I have looked at the curriculum for next semester and picked out topics that I can create interactive lessons for. I really like this idea and hope the children will be able to understand me.

I couldn’t write about the school without talking about discipline. It has by far been one of the hardest things about this experience so far. In Nigeria the most common for of punishment is to hit a child with a wooden cane or have them kneel in the dirt. I have seen this everyday multiple times a day since I’ve been here. I have seen a whole class hit with the cane and I have seen children kneeling over bad grades. I know it is part of the culture and something I cannot change, but I don’t think it will ever get easy to see.