sannunku (greetings to you all)

faith alive is going through a lot of change and i am lucky enough to be a part of the transition. a few weeks ago, faith alive celebrated its tenth anniversary with the dedication of the newest volume of FA's magazine called touching lives, the social services graduation ceremony, a music concert, the dedication of the new building, and many more events. it was a chaotic time, but full of great memories. many americans and nigerians united in the weekend long celebration. dr. mercy is pictured here greeting guests to the new hospital building constructed after the fire. the building is not finished, however, and there is not enough money to finish it as of yet. FA is already in debt and cannot continue construction or furnish the rooms until funding arrives. the half finished building is immaculate, though, and it is the talk of the town. i was developing photos the other day and one of the employees commented on how beautiful the building is. dr. chris mentioned that they had to reduce the number of hospital beds in the new building because patients get too comfortable in the hospital and do not want to leave. this is certainly a contrast to the states where most patients would want to leave the hospital as soon as possible to enjoy the comforts of the average american home. FA's hospital is much cleaner than any local nigerian home i've visited, with clean water available at all times and NEPA (the nigeria electrical power authority which supposedly provides electricity to the country) backed up by a generator providing consistent power in the works.

the magazine dedication as well as the music concert were held jos university's auditorium. the magazine turned out to look wonderful, with plenty of color photos of the staff at FA, as well as an interview with dr. mercy. i spent most of my time socializing with all the new friends i've made in the FA staff. florence, the sewing school teacher, has become a great friend of mine who i visit often. she is an incredibly strong, intelligent, and gorgeous woman. she also makes me fabulous nigerian clothes!

although i do not work at social services, i visit often because of all the friends i have made at the sewing school. some of the ladies graduated during the anniversary weekend and i was fortunate enough to have a sewing school dress made for me so i could feel like i was part of the team. the entire weekend was full of activity and shuffling from one place to the next. i anticipated the normal pace of life in jos during the anniversary and welcomed monday with open arms.

last weekend, amos the architect for FA's new building, took us on a tour of jos. it was a great day, despite some rain. he drove us all over town to some places we have never seen. jos is on a plateau and is surrounded by scrub plains and giant rocks. check out that rock to the right. it's balanced by the smaller rock on top of it. amos told us that if it moved, the giant rock would not be able to keep balance there. amos then drove us to the wild life park in jos. it's more of a zoo, since most of the animals (including the birds) are in cages. i saw a lion, an elephant, monkeys, antelope, and other animals. all in cages. it was pretty pathetic. it certainly discouraged me from visiting jos' zoo, which is supposedly worse than the wild life park. i had fun spending time with my room mates, though. i suppose i was very spoiled in yankari where "you are in the cage."

last week, blessing took me to visit the barracks. we traveled on a "bus" which was basically a minivan with three times the capacity recommended for a 15 to 20 minute ride on the outskirts of jos. the trip cost 40 naira a person (current exchange rate is 128 naira to the dollar). once we arrived, we met blessing's friends. there were surprisingly quite a few female soldiers. here is blessing with some of the soliders we met. blessing used to live at the barracks because her in-laws were here. she told me all about the soldiers' quarters and we got to see a rehearsal parade for army day, which happened to be the next day. we then visited her old neighbors in one of the apartments, which were quite nice. afterwards, we went home on the same bus. it was certainly a great trip! blessing is a wonderful person with an amazing story. she was rejected from her family when her husband passed away due to aids-related illness. they kept her two boys in the village. she got treated at FA and graduated from the sewing school. she opened her own shop down the street from the clinic and has been living at the transition guest house. she traveled back to the village and snuck her two boys out to jos. she is currently moving into an apartment she found and is running her own shop. she has a great sense of humor and is teaching me pigeon english, which is a common form of speaking that "africanizes" english. for instance, when you want to say "i'm coming" in pigeon (which ironically means you are leaving), you would say: "i de come." i find myself following a conversation with a local and then losing it because they sometimes break into pigeon. i'm learning!

one of my favorite things to do in jos is go to the market. although the meat market is my least favorite market due to the smells and the fact that i am a vegetarian, it is certainly the most interesting. you can guess which meats come from which animals in this picture. my favorite part of the market is the "fabric district" as i like to coin it. nigeria is known for very bright and colorful patterns. both men and women dress in elaborately designed clothing. jos is also known for being particularly fashion conscious. it is very common for locals to buy fabric of their choosing and have clothing made by a tailor. with my connections at the sewing school, i am able to have plenty of beautiful dresses made.

today, i went to amos' thanksgiving service at his church. it's always interesting to see the locals on sundays. church is a huge event in jos. there is much dancing and singing. the thanksgiving service was in honor of amos' 20th wedding anniversary. there was a reception afterwards at his house, which is in the same compound as dr. chris' house. it was wonderful being a part of amos' wedding anniversary.

as for my research, things are picking up. the hepatitis prevalence is much higher than expected so far, but we still need to increase the sample size. i am learning a lot and meeting great people every day. i received a visit a while back from a representative of an NGO that advocates women's rights, who wanted to use my data. i am happy my research will benefit this organization as well as FA.

as they say in hausa, sai an jima (see you later)!