Nawahala!

Nawahala- meaning no problem in Hausa. This week has been pretty uneventful in the land of Lafia. The smog on the roads is giving me a cough, but other than that I'm absolutely dandy.

We actually had a day off work last week as the Nigerians had to go to Abuja to sort out their Visas. Incedently, the drove all the way there only to find out they were too late for their appointment, so had to drive all the way home again! The trip wasn't a total waste of time however. The Uk volunteers has asked them to get us some cheese as we've all been craving it in our dreams. We all got so excited about it and we were fantasizing about cheese sandwiches. However, the Nigerians returned with that fake plastic cheese you get on McDonalds burgers. It is an understatement to say we were disappointed! But, on Friday we had a bonfire party with cheese, tuna and Nuttela sandwiches. So, the moral of the story is, never let a Nigerian buy you cheese! The party was a good laugh and we had a fire and danced around it like godless pagans.

In school last week I stopped some of the senior students from being punished. When I got to school, about 2o pupils were kneeling in the boiling sun for being late. I approached the dean of studies and asked him what good it did them. I said they were already late, and he was making them even more late for lessons they are paying to attend. The reality of the situation is that most of the pupils have to lok after their younger siblings and do chores beofre school which is why they are late. He gave in and let them go in the end, and when I got to school today, there were no pupils kneeling in the yard. I hope that it stays that way.

The talent show isn't going to be between schools anymore as everything in Lafia is 100 times more hard work than it would be in the UK. If you want to send a letter, you have to hand deliver it and that involves getting on a motorbike. Getting letters printed in the first place takes about 40 minutes due to the slowness of the computers! But, the venure we were hoping to use was too expensive, so the talent competition is only going to be within our school.

We are busy planning our latest community Action Day which will again be about Road Safety Awareness. I witnessed a motorbike accident on my way to school this morning. There were two children and an Okada driver on the motorbike and they just clipped another Okada and toppled over. No-one was seriously injured luckily but it happened right in front of me, while I was on an Okada behind them, and it was rather scary, Just the other day another volunteer witnessed a boy trying to cross the road being knocked down. That was a more serious accident as the boy broke his leg. So, this Saturday we are doing some street drama on Road Safety then having a fundraising event in the evening. We are hoping to donate the proceeds to the hospital to help treat road accident victims.

We are also busy preparing for worl aids day, worls voluteering day and world disability day. We have got so much to do and there are only just over 3 weeks left!