Our trip to the bush?

I finally had the opportunity of going to Ogugu, which is where I was originally meant to work. It is a 7 and a 1/2 hour drive away! It was great to see another part of this amazing country. It was the most beautiful part of the country I have seen yet.

Before reaching Ogugu, we stayed at Holley Memorial Hospital in Echadem on the Friday night, we were shown around the hospital on Saturday morning and then headed to Ankpa to have lunch with a Mission Africa couple (Liam and Colette Hannah). It was great to spend some time with them as they don't get many ex-patriates passing though their area so they are quite isolated. After lunch we headed to Ogugu and stayed there from Saturday night until Tuesday morning.

The reason why I put a question mark on the title is that the 5 of us that went (3 girls, 2 boys) expected to be living in a mud hut in the bush. Instead, we were treated like royalty and stayed in a Nigerian mansion! I'm not complaining, I just thought I would get to experience true Nigerian bush life - o well!

Our purpose for this visit was to simply see Ogugu and where Still Waters is (which is an HIV/AIDS ministry run by a Mission Africa couple) and to hang out with Billy Abwa (Mission Africa) and the team of boys that has just started working down there. We didn't do a lot but what we did do was help build a fence around the HIV/AIDS centre, play with the local village kids, sing a special number in the village church on Sunday morning, meet the chief of the village in his "palace", visit one of the orphans connected to Still Waters, help fetch water from the nearby river and try some weird and wonderful food. I actually have grown to love Nigerian food but to welcome us to Ogugu, we were given a kola nut - the most disgusting thing I think I have ever tasted! It just tasted like a very strong flavour of grass. We had to eat it, we had no choice!

All in all, this was a great experience and I am so glad to have seen another part of Nigeria before I leave. It is so different to Jos. It was so peaceful but the only thing was it was way to hot!