Strike!

After such an amazing Christmas break it is great to be able to honestly say that it is good to be in Nigeria!  It was the most wonderful thing in the world to be back with family, dear friends and the comfortable familiarity of home!  I don’t know if I’ve ever appreciated those things more than I do now! =) Nigeria has been a very interesting place to live these days.  Here are some picture of so police officers going through one of the road blocks, and some of the people staying at home because they couldn't go anywhere.   We took it from the library window, looking just outside of our compound just over a week ago.  

Basically, the government lifted a fuel subsidy, causing gas prices to more than double overnight.  Originally, the government promised that the money would be put toward desperately needed improvements in national infrastructure, but corruption runs so deep in Nigerian politics that there was no chance of that happening.  So, the outraged labor unions organized a nationwide strike and the entire country held its breath and waited for eight days through the negotiations. We were so thankful that the majority of the protests remained peaceful! Moving around was impossible, there was one march that we saw, and they were burning tires in the road to block traffic. We got a front row seat to an event that began as an issue over gas prices and soon turned into a protest against governmental corruption, which was tagged “Occupy Nigeria”.

            For us at ACA, the strike really wasn’t that bad.  We were given enough warning about the strike to get all of the food that we needed, and we locked inside the compound with friends, our house, out classrooms, a tennis court, psych re-runs and the game Settlers of Catan. We were totally fine.  It also gave us a ton of time to catch up and do all of the little projects that we never have time to do during school! I am loving feeling on top of things, and I’m pretty sure this might be the only time that will ever happen in my entire teaching career!  

A week after it all began we were told that they had compromised on gas prices and school would begin the next day.  It was amazing how quickly the world returned to normal and we’ve been back to school since last Tuesday.  Unfortunately, the people that this hurt the most are those that could barely get by before the ripple effect price increases.  It’s just another layer on the picture of Nigerian corruption and politics, widening the gap between rich and poor.  We’re still working on some ideas of how to help, but there sure are a lot of hurting people here.  It’s amazing to live in a place where sin is so out in the open.  I don’t think Americans are any less sinful, but they are much better at hiding it!   

             Since I coming back for the second term, I am beginning to see how short two years really is.  I think my mind was so stuck in the fact that we were living in Nigeria and this was life now, and that my perspective was that I would be here for just short of forever!  I know the Lord is changing my heart because I’m beginning to see what an opportunity it is to be here and how important it is to waste a single second of this time.  It’s probably how we should be living our entire lives, but I’m learning to live with that urgency. He’s growing a love for Nigeria in my heart that better than I ever could have created for myself and I am so grateful.  It’s also been amazing to see my class begin to settle down.  I think I am settling down a little too, settling into teaching and all that that includes.  We have also started a Bible study with some of the high school girls that I am very excited about!

            Here is a picture of the kids in 1st through 3^rd grade, and my kids are the ones in the front row!  Thank you all for being so amazingly kind and encouraging.  I couldn’t do this without you and your thoughtful prayers.  If you think about it could you please pray that I am aware enough to see where God is working around me, and wise enough to join him.  And that He would mold my heart to be more like his! 

Sending my love from Nigeria =)

Settling for Shallow

After three months here in Nigeria I am feeling pretty settled into life here.  The market doesn’t scare me as much.  I have my Nigerian driver’s license, we’ve made a few friends, and I can understand the accent most of the time.  I have squished more cockroaches than I care to recount, survived parent-teacher conferences and I have resigned myself to the fact that attempting to straighten my hair is simply a complete waste of time.  However, the biggest challenge of the last few weeks hasn’t been Nigeria; it has been how easily I always seem to slip into things that are easy, comfortable and shallow.m Just to be clear, it is not that I have any desire for anything more stretching to be added into my life right now.  I feel sufficiently stretched, and my desire for adventure is pretty much at capacity.   Living in Nigeria and learning how to be a teacher have been more than enough entertainment, but I am becoming increasingly aware that faithfulness is proven over time, and that character is developed as we make one decision to honor God at a time, every day, in every moment. 

We have had some amazing experiences and made some great memories.  I took my class on a field trip to the top of a place called Bower Tower; we are starting to get involved with an orphanage and hosted a Luke 14 feast which was pretty amazing.  We also had some short term doctors come and stay with us!   It was great to get to know them and have a little piece of home!  They couldn’t say enough positive things about the Nigerian people.  That they had never experienced better hospitality, stronger families or friendlier people than they had here in Nigeria.  Now, I knew that I was supposed to smile, tell them that they were right and that I was the luckiest girl alive to be living in such a perfect community.  However, that was not the Nigeria that I was experiencing.  My ears were ringing, partly from the fact that I had said things like that after getting back from a short term missions trip.  The other part of me was irritated because after living here for a few months, that was not the general opinion that I had of Nigeria.  I do know a bunch of Godly, wonderful and humble Nigerians, but overall the Nigerian people that I had been getting to know were aggressive and generally fairly unreasonable.  Specifically, the parents of my students had been harsh and demanding. I was buried deeply in resolving behavior issues with several of my students that could mostly be traced back to either poor parenting, or the fact that one or both parents live in another country.  The kindest people that I have met here are either from India or South Africa!  So, friendly? not exactly, and strong families? Well, not the ones that I was seeing.  I was seeing a Nigeria full of hurting, sinful, very real people. 

This is when I realized that I was settling for shallow.  All of the things that I saw in people might have been true, but I was looking at them with a selfish perspective and I was desperately missing a very key component.  “And Jesus looked at them and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Compassion?  He looks at people with all of our insecurities, selfishness and sin and the only thing that he feels for us is compassion because we are lost.  Looking at a bunch of people that are hard to love, His response is unbelievable to me. And the reality that I am one of those people that are extremely hard to love is incredibly humbling.  Now that I’ve been here longer than a short term trip, I am getting to know real people, with real issues, and real expectations.  But I’m learning that I can have two responses.  I can either become bitter because I’m settling for a shallow, selfish perspective, or I can rely more on Christ, and look through his eyes at his people, with his compassion.  I don’t have to deny that there is something wrong, or pretend like everything is perfect, because true, deep compassion is unconditional. 

            I’m completely blown away by how much deeper God’s perspective is than mine.  I think I’m being loving, but I’m settling for being kind.  I do just enough to get by and call it working hard, and I see people from the perspective of how they relate to me.  I complain about suffering, I’m impatient with people, even if only in my heart and I’m counting the days until I’m back in my comfortable home with my wonderful family.   God on the other hand loves us enough to not care about what we think of him.  He uses suffering to bring us to Him, because without it we wouldn’t even be able to see that we have a problem, and he looks at us with compassion. 

Thank you so much for all of you that are praying for me.  It means more than you’ll ever know, and if you pray anything for me will you pray that God molds my heart to be more like his.  I want to have his eyes and see his people with compassion.  I have been given nineteen children to love this year and I know that I can only do it with God’s heart.  Pray that I have the wisdom to love and discipline them well and that I will look at them and their parents with compassion.     

Teacher or a student?



Abraham, Tanishka, Jesse, and Folashade



             I was talking to the art teacher the other day and she was telling me that she has been teaching for the last 20 years!  As I thought about it all I could think of was that I have been teaching for a whole month now, and I count that as one of the major accomplishments of my life.  I can’t even imagine what it must be like to look back on a 20 year career knowing that you have faithfully served for all of that time.  It’s crazy and completely inspiring at the same time. So, those of you that have done that, I’m amazed!  Thank you for your example!

We have had some great days and some rough days in my class over the past month, but I am really loving getting to know my kids and I already think they have taught me more than I will ever teach them.  Abraham and Ademiola are brilliant and if you don’t keep them busy they can get a little mischievous.  Joel, Jesse and Samuel couldn’t stay in their seats for a whole lesson if you paid them a million Naira, and my three little Indian girls, Tanishka, Nayanah and Anupama are just about the sweetest little girls you have ever met.  Missy and Folashade want to be superstars when they grow up and everything they own, besides the light blue uniform t-shirts that all of my students wear, is pink!  Also, I think soccer is the air that the boys in my class breathe and I’m pretty sure P.E. is what gets them through the day. Altogether I have 19 students in my class representing eight different countries.  It’s quite an interesting mix.

We had an exciting addition to our class this week because we are studying fish in science and I was given a gold fish to have in our classroom as a pet!  My kids were absolutely thrilled and by popular vote her name is now, Miley.  I can’t imagine where they would have gotten that name from! J  (The boys were out voted, but they are getting over it.)  She has brought up some great questions too, like: Do fish breathe water?  And does a fish turn into a shark when it gets older? I guess we’ll have to find out next week!  The best part of our fist day with the fish was when the class was pretty wound up and as I was trying to quiet them down to dismiss them, when one little girl said, “Shhh… you’re scaring our fish!”  The room went silent. It was quieter than I had ever heard before, and then somewhere in the back one little first grader said, “I’m sorry Mr. Fish, we didn’t mean to make you feel afraid.”  Soon the whole class chimed in with sweet little apologies.  It was absolutely adorable. 

            We have lost teeth (thankfully only from natural causes), had pants that can’t stay on and a million little shoes to tie.  One of my favorite things is how ever is how eager all of my students are to jump in and sing or dance.  There is absolutely no concept of self-consciousness and I only wish that freedom could go with them forever. For now though, our favorite songs are Hillsong’s “Superhero” and the “Waka Waka” song from the world cup last year.  They love playing “Little Sally Walker”, heads up 7-up and addition around the world.  Amelia Bedelia is their favorite book and I’m thinking Frog and Toad might be our next read aloud!

            My students are so patient with me, and even though Moody taught me a lot about teaching, I can guarantee that have learned more in the last month that I ever thought possible both about teaching and life in general.  The best thing happened when little Tamilore got too many letters for shouting out in class and had to stay in for recess to write lines.  Now, you have to know that not being able to play soccer at that moment was pretty much the end of the world.  So, he is sitting at his desk, miserably copying, “I will listen to my teacher” as many times as he can before the break was over.  Then out of the blue, he looked up at me with the saddest eyes and said, “Ms. Katie, I am so sorry.”  And that was it.  I melted.  It was completely sincere and in the innocence of that moment I realized what genuine repentance looks like.  It was God’s way of showing me what he wants from me and I don’t think He could have explained it more any more clearly than that. 

            Another day, we were memorizing 1 Corinthians 13 because we were going over what love looks like in our devotions and I was helping the class come up with actions to help us remember the words. I asked them what they wanted to do for patience and they held out their hands like a stop signs.  That seemed like it would work and then I realized that is something I say to them all the time.  “Just relax and be patient” and I put my hand out like that. Maybe they really are listening!  It was encouraging to know that they were picking up on little things and also a great reminder of the responsibility of being around kids.  There’s nothing like lots of little eyes to keep you on track. 

             Friday was one of our particularly hard days and I was lecturing them about their behavior, not a good teacher move, but it was what I was doing.  By the end of the day I felt like the worst teacher on the planet and I just wanted to go hide.  Then one of my little girls came up gave me a little flower that she had picked from the bushes and said, “I love you, Ms. Katie”  I didn’t even know what to say.  She couldn’t have known that I completely didn’t deserve that or that all day I really wasn’t that great of a teacher.  It’s love that I didn’t deserve   So, in everything from the courage to dance and sing, to repentance and unconditional love, I’m convinced that my students are teaching me more than I could ever teach them.  God has used them in my life already and if this is what teaching is like, then bring on the next 20 years because I have a lot to learn.        





Just a little bit of Nigeria...





The road outside of our compound.

Nigeria as a whole has been growing on me.  I haven’t felt so completely out of place and as we begin to get to know a few people I’m relaxing and settling into life here. As a whole, Nigerians aren’t crazy about having their pictures taken, but here are a few pictures that I took from the car driving on the way to the market one day.  I promise to put up more pictures very soon! 

Hello Nigeria!

It is officially day 12 in my African adventure and Nigeria has been so much more than I expected in so many ways.  Take all of the pictures that you have seen of African cities, stretch them to become three dimensional, add West Virginia humidity, huge bugs and lizards, interesting accents, brightly colored clothing, interesting smells, crazy traffic, strange food and finally add in a dash of unpredictability and you have Ibadan, Nigeria.  Sometimes people show up, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes we have hot water, and sometimes it is just wet.  Sometimes we have power, and sometimes it goes out.  Sometimes the market has what you need, and sometimes it just isn’t there.  It’s amazing how much of an adjustment it can be when absolutely nothing is familiar and what a comfort little things can become in those moments.  The first couple days that I was here were very hard.  Nigeria is way more “Africa” than I thought, and culture shock was way more intense than I wanted to admit.  I was up for a two week mission trip, but the thought of living here, was a little more than I could handle.  Things like my ipod, with familiar, American music on it and notes from all of you back home were a huge encouragement to me last week.  Thank you for being there, it really meant the world to me and I needed it way more than I expected! 

            Teaching has been way better than I ever could have imagined.  I have a busy class that keeps me on my toes. I can’t wait to see what happens by June because after one week, I can’t imagine loving them any more than I do right now!  I finally have all of my curriculum and I am beginning to find my way around the school and its systems.  The other teachers and especially the principal have been wonderful and so helpful. I know there are some “kindred spirits” among them! =) The days have gradually gotten better and better.  I am settling in, feeling more comfortable and beginning to fit into life here. I can honestly say that I am glad to be in Nigeria, something I could not have said a week ago.  I love knowing that the Lord is changing me, even if it leaves my heart a little sore, and it’s great to be a part of what he is doing.  I am so thankful to live on a safe compound, where all of my needs are met, and where the people honestly seek to honor God with their work and their lives.  Also, just so that you know, I never want to tell stories about the need or difficulty of life here to make you feel guilty about the way that we live in America, or to make your problems feel small.  The struggles in your life are just as real as Africa is for me.  I only hope that the Lord shows up in the middle of your challenge as real and close as He has here and I know He will!

Right before I left, a friend gave me this verse to remember, and it has been one to cling to during this transition time.  “For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I am the one who helps you.’”  (Isaiah 41:13) I found out that I am not nearly as tough as I thought, and I wasn’t expecting that.  I was expecting to find God faithful again, but I wasn’t ready for the amazing way that he would carry me through this.  He has blown me away, far beyond all of my expectations.  Just the image of him holding my hand is enough, all by itself.  I have always known that my only comfort and security can come from Him, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so hard to give up the other things that I have found it in for so long. So, for being just over a week into this crazy adventure I only want to say that I’m humbled, thankful to not be alone, and I’m raising my expectations, because I know that the Lord is just going to blow them away.