Church Naija style

When I arrived in Nigeria, I was told the apocryphal story of a previous volunteer who had agreed to go to church with an acquaintance, and after an exhausting four hour service in a hot church, had said something which indicated she had enjoyed herself. She was then woken at 6am to attend church for the next four successive Sundays until she plucked up the courage to say she didn't want to go...

With this in story in mind, and knowing full well that services here are not usually less than four hours long, I have always approached invitations to attend church with trepidation.

The steeple of the national Christian centre,
Abuja.

Those services I've been brave enough (or too weak to refuse) to attend have ranged in size and length, and craziness of the preaching, but have been endlessly surprising.

My first service was at the Assemblies of God church in Kaduna, a giant building able to hold up to a thousand people. Richard had been accosted by one of the many church pastors whilst at the barbers, and despite his insistence to the man that we were Buddhist, managed to commit to attending one Sunday at 8am! We arrived at 8.20, and were promptly split up, I to attend a ladies bible class, and he a mens. I was handed a white handkerchief, which I assumed was on account of the heat, and used it to mop my brow. I was then handed another, and politely asked to use it to cover my hair... mightily embarrassed I complied. Once the service proper began, we were seated at the front of the church, with all the other new worshippers, where were able to enjoy the service. I didn't recognise any of the songs, but the dancing and enthusiasm in the service was infectious, and the women's outfits of shiny large head wraps, sparkly tops and wrappers made for an incredible view, especially the two large groups which had on matching outfits in honour of the women's day at the church.. We left after 3 and a half hours, with at least three collections, lots of songs and dancing, but before the sermon, which may have been another hour! We crept out of a side door, with the excuse we had to visit some friends but I'm sure our exit didn't go unnoticed!

Some of the amazing outfits worn by Nigerian ladies to church.

My second visit to church in Nigeria was a complete juxtaposition to the first. My colleague Monday had asked me to attend a service for the children's day at his church, in Ungwan Romi, a surburb towards the less well off end of town where I work. This church was much smaller, with only space for up to 100 people, it was sparsely decorated, with plastic chairs and a low altar, much less fancy and golden than the Assemblies of God. The children's day performances were wonderful, there were plays, dances, songs and children reading passages from the bible from memory. Some of the readings were very cute, small children around five had learnt just sentences, whereas older ones had whole passages off pat. I realised how so many Nigerians are confident at public speaking, those who couldn't remember their lines were laughed off stage, I'm sure an experience like that at the age of eight would've hardened me up a bit! I'd arrived at 9, and by the time the performances were over it was 12, when the pastor proceeded to give his usual one hour long sermon. Just as he was warming to his theme 'giving your daughter a phone will turn her into a harlot', around 45 minutes into his sermon, I made my excuses to Monday and crept out the back. Unfortunately my escape was much more obvious this time as Monday's brother revved his motorcycle to take me back to the bus stop and quite a few people were distracted (unsurprisingly) from the sermon.

My next attendance at church came through my neighbour, Oscar, he is an aspiring pastor, and had set up a Friday night fellowship, which he had asked Richard and I to attend every time he saw us, and we did our best to come up with a variety of excuses not to. He finally lured us there with the promise of a preacher from the British High Commission. Our curiosity got the better of us, and we found ourselves spending our Friday evening in a sparse function room, with a band, and about ten other people singing, dancing and praying very loudly. The preacher herself went on for around 2 hours, she was a fan of old testament fire and brimstone, and managed to move from one point to another, and back without ever really making any sense to me. After arriving at 6, we got home at 9, from where we proceeded to the pub to try and salvage our evening. Unfortunately for Oscar I don't think the fellowship meetings ever became sustainable because the hire of the hall was quite expensive. So they have now moved to his home, from where every Friday I'm serenaded by loud exclamations and prayers and shouts for forgiveness, thankfully he hasn't invited me for a while.

Innocent & Dorcas at the alter.

The most recent church services I've attended have been decidedly better than the first three. Last weekend I attended the wedding of my friend Innocent in Katari, a small village between Kaduna and Abuja. The advertised start time was 10am, so the service started around 10.45, it was in a Catholic church and lasted a mere two hours! It was a breath of fresh air compared to the other services, with people reading from the bible, and a sermon that related to peoples everyday lives, and talked about love and marriage. For more details about the service, my friend Beth has written a brilliant blog which sums up the service and the party aftwerwards. http://bethharrison.me.uk/?p=120 It was at the reception that I had my first taste of palm wine in Nigeria, which was disappointing to say the least.

The final church service came about through an Irish family connection, it seems no matter how far I travel in the world there's no escaping them. The bishop of Clogher, (Irish family connection: he's the local bishop for my Grandad's cousin in northern Ireland, who also knows my great uncle in Waterford), was visiting Kaduna to support the Jacaranda project run by the Anglican church, on the farm next door to Hope for the Village Child. So on Sunday I found myself at St Paul's Anglican church, Kakuri, where the bishop gave his longest sermon ever, a mere 30 minutes! The only problem I found is that after listening to too many terrible sermons in Nigeria, I've developed a tactic of planning holidays and general day dreaming during church services, so when quizzed by the bishop of Kaduna's wife after the service, I couldn't remember what he'd said! That aside, the service itself was an amazing mix of traditional Nigerian and British hymns, with a thanksgiving section where families bless marriages, new babies, and one group even brought three live goats to the alter. There was a section where visitors were asked to stand so that they could be welcomed, and I was bombarded by hand shakes, smiles, and welcomes from all directions, some people were amazed that I'd arrived with the bishop, but wasn't his daughter, and actually lived in Kaduna.

Overall I've found church in Nigeria colourful, different and full of beautiful outfits music and dancing, I'm not sure how I'll feel being back in our cold church for Christmas next year, with a few people trying to sing louder than the cassette playing the backing music... but sometimes when I'm stuck in a four hour service here, that's all I wish for.

Family holiday in Naija

A few weeks ago Mummy and Daddy Saunders came to Nigeria, and I'm pleased to say... they survived! They found Nigeria, hot, dusty and pretty overwhelming at times, but had probably one of the most unique holidays they've ever had. They left full of praise, and plenty of 'When we were in Nigeria' stories to entertain you folks at home, finally replacing the stories about Uzbekistan.

When I work out how to use Google Earth a bit better, I'll try and post a link to the route we took, but in the absence of that, I'll explain it. They arrived in Abuja on Saturday morning, and were greeted by thunder, rain, and me, arriving on Nigeria time, slightly late. 

Afternoon tea at the Hilton

We spent a couple of days in Abuja, where they were accomodated in the splendour of Crystal Palace, which I'd misleadingly described as 'luxury' (because I live in a house with no air conditioning or power, somewhere with both of these is luxury to me!) Whilst in Abuja we went to Wuse Market, where Mum bought some fabric and ordered a skirt, then they spent a lot of time acclimatising by the pool at the British Village. On Sunday we visited the national Christian centre and the national mosque, and later on to afternoon tea at the Hilton. Abuja is a very relaxing introduction to life in Nigeria, or it was, until the first taxi we took had a very near miss with a couple of 4x4s and had to do some formula one style swerving to avoid a crash. 

A service at the National Christian Centre, Abuja.

After Abuja, our trip took us toKaduna, Zaria, Kano and Dutse. It was wonderful to see Nigeria through the eyes of tourists, the everyday things, which I'd stopped noticing, like lizards crawling everywhere, women carrying heavy loads on their heads, massive heads of cows for sale in the market and two goats being carried on a motorbike, were novelties for Mum and Dad. They even got some pretty good offers for my hand in marriage, I think 100,000 dollars was the record. 

On the way to Kaduna we stopped at Guara falls, where the place I'd picknicked in May was now 6 feet  deep in rushing water, which would have swept away the strongest of swimmers. The view was breathtaking and the sound of the thunderous water crashing down the rocks, and sending up clouds of mist was deafening. 

Guara Falls.

They had bravely agreed to stay in my house, to get the full Naija experience, not much power and limited running water, and they coped well, dad even made his famous lasagne for six, cooking in the dark with only a headtorch!

We visited my NGO, Hope for the Village Child, as mum and dad had brought my old laptop with them for the health section - the section's existing laptop required a key inserted in the power switch to turn on, and needed constant power to work, which isn't so efficient in no power Nigeria- it was received with delight by the nurses, and is now in daily use. Whilst at HVC, we visited the community of Telele, where they were able to see for themselves the village school, built with HVC's support, with it's bare minimum of resources, which is actually well off compared to some schools where children sit on the floor. 

Telele primary school.

From Kaduna we headed to Zaria, where we were greeted by my friend Hamza, who showed us around the Emir's palace and explained some of it's ancient history including the fearsome Queen Amina, who used to take men to her bed and kill them when she had finished with them! 

Outside the Emir's palace, Zaria.

We arrived in Kano at another VSO house, where the compound was an oasis of calm after the fumes, dust and horns of the city. The next day Yusuf proceeded to take us on a whirlwind tour of the dye pits, Dala Hill and Kurmi Market, Kano's ancient market where slaves had been traded across the sahara. After a brief rest for lunch we carried on to the museum, Emir's palace and camel market, before collapsing into Annie's Place for some dinner. 

The next day we took a trip outside Kano, to a reservoir, where we were able to take a trip in a dug out canoe, paddled by fishermen. After this we went  to a village where we were able to see traditional weaving in action, and tried rather less successfully ourselves. 

Writing all this has made me realise just how much we did in only two weeks, and this is the half way stage! Things slowed down a bit from here, as I realised we'd rushed around a bit too much in the heat. So we took it easy on our trip to Dutse, relaxing in Lucy's palatial house, and generally trying not to overheat. Here we saw our third Emir's palace, by far the most intricate and beautiful, and climbed 'the' tower for a view over the countryside, and an idea of just how small Dutse is.

On our way back to Kano we stopped to take photos of the brightly coloured pots for sale by the roadside, and only bought a few. Our journey back to Abuja was broken up in Kano and Kaduna, and back in Abuja their reward for so many nights without air conditioning or running water was two nights in the Sheraton!  It was really special to be able to show my family where I live, what I'm doing here, and how supportive all the other VSOs are. I think they've relaxed knowing I'm here, except for the road travel, too many near misses and frustrating check points may have marred the trip. But overall I was reminded of the potential of Nigeria as a tourist destination, with beautiful Emir's palaces, amazing landscapes and friendly people, there are so many reasons to come here. It makes the things which are stopping tourists -the difficulty of planning anything in advance, low level corruption at check points, and by petty police officers -even more frustrating.