Some of everything

The dust today may just be the thickest it's been all season. You'd never in a million years have guessed that it rained last Saturday. No way. I hate this waiting period between seasons. I just want the rains to begin.

Today is the beginning of spring break at Hillcrest. Of course, I'm not at Hillcrest, and I don't get a spring break. But my parents are going out of town for a week of retreat, so things will be pretty lonely and quiet for awhile. Plus we won't have access to a car while they're gone. Some of our missionary neighbours have gone to Paris for the vacation, sponsored by one of their supporters. I couldn't believe it. Paris?? A whole family of five, too! Wow. I sure love my parents' supporters, but I darn well wish they could have paid for us to go to Paris! Sheesh!

We don't have any holiday at all. In fact, David's on call on Good Friday and Easter Monday. Plus we won't have a car, so because I'm a stickler and insist on Timothy's being a carseat, we're stranded.

Yeah, life is good.

Fourth Trip to Abuja

Yesterday morning, we left about 7:10 to drive to Abuja for what we hoped would be the last time of petitioning the U.S. embassy for Timothy's passport. The trip was a huge success in that respect, and we have a receipt saying we can get the passport in two weeks. Woohoo!! The next step will be getting the receipt to my friend Sara, who lives in Abuja, so she can pick up the passport. Then we need to get Timothy a re-entry visa, since we looked into getting him a Nigerian passport, and the new process is an absolutely nightmare. Even worse than getting an American one!! Good grief!

But along the trip, I took notes in my new "blog notebook," so here are some of the things that interested me along the way:

• rocky hills through a haze of powdery red dust
• roadside market stalls, all identical and selling the exact same produce
• 9 gutted filling stations and 8 working filling stations
• fields littered with plastic bags of all colours and sizes
• brown plains atop the plateau, with hardly a tree in sight
• stick shelters--four sticks at the corners and a roof of more sticks--makes me think of Jonah
• a barren concrete foundation abandoned in the middle of a field
• red mud brick houses with corrugated tin roofs
• cacti surrounding little farm plots
• black charred fields--remnants of slash-and-burn
• goats, including the one we almost hit while it crosses the road
• lots and lots of Fulani cows
• 19 chuches and 6 mosques (I'm not sure if this is because I wasn't paying attention or because churches are just easier for me to spot than mosques. The fact is that the number of mosques and churches should be about equal.)
• people making mud bricks in a streambed
• concrete houses with tin roofs
• trees--flame, mango, eucalyptus, papaya, lots I don't recognise
• a nice-looking house with no windows, blue walls visible inside, and a missing roof
• primary school children playing in the schoolyard at recess
• young boys at the railroad crossing selling cabbage
• young men playing pool at an outdoor pool table on the far side of the railroad tracks
• turkeys for sale
• 12 wrecked cars
• a "no passing" sign when we descend the plateau
• 5 signs that eloquently ask you to slow down (Ironically, we were going too fast for me to read what they actually said.)
• "PDP" written on rocks in white paint
• 2 skull & crossbones signs along the right side of the road along a steep dropoff
• bougainvillaea
• bundles of drying hay leaning against buildings
• mud brick houses with thatched roofs
• forest of teak trees growing in rows
• road checkpoint with men in t-shirts and orange vests
• police checkpoint
• palm trees once we're off the plateau
• a small flatbed truck full of men
• government schools with shuttered windows
• a pick-up truck with blankets piled 4' high on top of its roof
• a bright pink concrete house
• a tree with bright yellow flowers overhanging the road shoulder
• a man in a long white kaftan and red cap riding a bicycle
• white cassava drying alongside the road
• high school boys out running in a huge pack
• a woman carrying a large bag of water on her head
• a 3' high termite mound
• 4 adult men on a motorcycle
• a woman backing a baby and carrying 3 calabashes on her head
• a gate standing lone in the midst of a barren field
• 42 filling stations on the inbound Keffi-Abuja expressway (in 34 minutes)
• cattle crossing signs
• big white bags of charcoal for sale on the side of the road
• a tarp-covered truck with a fluorescent yellow cab
• a black chicken surrounded by white chicks all pecking in a garbage heap
• 2 beggar boys come to bless us in Hausa when we stop for a moment in a small town
• 2 women carrying large metal bowls on their heads, topped by long sticks of wood
• dry brown fields of furrowed earth waiting for the rain
• 4 men sitting on the ground under a mango tree
• 2 red Mack trucks
• women washing clothes in a stream
• colourful clothes spread on bushes to dry
• a white van with its back doors open and 5 men standing on the bumper, hanging onto the back
• a blue canvas tent held up with strings

The first rain

It rained yesterday, our first rain of 2008!

Not just a pitiful first rain of the season, either. It was a hearty rain, the kind that will make all sorts of green things sprout in about a week. I know it's not really rainy season, that it will only rain a handful of times before May. But still, it's the beginning. It's cleared the dust out of the air if nothing else!

There's nothing like a good African rain to rejuvenate the soul.

Wedding season begins

I'm actually not talking about in Nigeria. I mean in the States and elsewhere in the world. I just thought about it because last night at the monthly SIM potluck we sat next to our good friend whose son is getting married in June and whose daughter is getting married in September. I entirely wish I could be at both weddings. We'll even be in the States for her son's wedding, but it's in Delaware the day after my friend Melissa's wedding, which we will be attending in California. And we'll be back here (or in England) in September.

Next week a good friend is getting married in North Carolina. He's a violinist and is marrying a flautist, so you can imagine the priority music is going to play in their wedding. I wish I could ask to get a videotape of it!

I had two friends who were planning on getting married in April in the UK, but one has called off the wedding entirely, and the other has postponed hers, so I'm not missing those. (Selfish of me to say, considering their headaches and heartache.)

Then in June, there are four weddings I would have loved to attend, but we'll probably only make it to one. Why are all my friends waiting until now to get married?? Why couldn't they have gotten married while I lived in the U.S.? It breaks my heart to miss these big days. I guess the good news is that most of my best friends from college are still unattached, and my four best friends from high school are also still decidedly single. So there's hope I'll be able to see them wed in the days to come. And will I ever get to be a bridesmaid again? (Well, no, not technically, since I'm married and no longer a "maid.")

Anyway, I'll get over it.

Passport saga continues

So Timothy and I went to the U.S. embassy in the capital today...again.

And the happy news is that I will have the delightful privilege of visiting that wonderful establishment a fourth time in the coming weeks.

Isn't my enthusiasm almost palpable?

Fortunately, all my documents complete the requirements, finally. Our immigration officer was really nice about it, too. She's a lovely lady.

I just wish we didn't have so many miscommunications.

Because of one of our "miscommunications," I didn't realise David's presence was necessary to sign the application form. He had to work anyway, so I went by myself. Oops. Now we're going to have to go again, together, because she must witness our signatures.

Good grief.

The security people are awfully friendly, though. They recognise us and always talk to Timothy. Today they asked where "the doctor" was. At least there's that.

Ah, life.

Somebody please remind Mommy to buy a potato masher next time she's in the States!

Tonight I decided to make mashed potatoes. Simple, right?

You'd think. First, I remembered that my black pepper is at my mom's house, so these potatoes have no black pepper in them--only salt and milk. Second, I was too lazy to peel the potatoes, so they're full of peel. Nutritious but not very pretty. Third, our kitchen has no working light. In fact, even the porch light--right outside the kitchen--and the hall light--between the kitchen and the rest of the house--are burned out with no hope of being replaced. (The fixtures keep burning out the bulbs, so we'd have to replace all the fixtures...) So once five o'clock comes around--since the kitchen faces northeast--the kitchen is dark. And I mean dark. And last but not least, I have no potato masher!! So I used my handy dandy pestle. Cool, huh?

Overwhelmed and fatigued

SO MUCH has happened since the Internet went down on Friday, the 22nd!

• My parents returned from furlough!! Yippee! David and I moved out of their house back to our own--without running water, of course--and are enjoying a bit of respite from Luke-sitting. The good news on moving back is that our Internet connection in our house is back up and running for the first time in over six months--yay!
• I went back to work...
• David got accepted to his top choice school in England! This is a huge relief and a surprise for David. (He just doesn't believe in himself very much.)

We're incredibly glad and relieved to have my parents back for every reason in the book. They are wonderful people, and we sure missed them while they were in the U.S. for almost three months. Luke, too, is quite glad. :) Thanks to everyone who encouraged us in their absense!

Going back to work has been hard, but I'm determined to get back into a routine. I spent two days this past week at the Joint Project office, between a normal workday and a semi-annual board meeting. I'm not really sure how to work while mothering Timothy, but I'm sure it's something I'll figure out with time.

Obviously, we are thrilled beyond words at David's acceptance to his top choice school and program! The hard part is only beginning, however, as it's my job now to find funding. We're applying for several different scholarships and are hopeful but realistic. The cost of the program alone is over $30,000! In addition, we'd have to find money for living expensive in London (although I do hope to work at least part-time). Yikes! It's daunting, but we know that God is in control, as always, and He'll give us the money we need if this is the program He wants David in.

On top of all that, I'm going to Abuja again this week to hopefully settle Baby Timothy's passport application once and for all. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and am prepared this time to ask to speak to the person in charge if necessary. This is just getting ridiculous.

And furthermore, I need to buy plane tickets for our trip to the States and then figure out our itinerary and budget. Oy! Now you see why I'm overwhelmed and fatigued. Help!

Filling in the details

Someone pointed out in an email this morning that I haven't really said much about this whole grad school business. So let me fill in some of the missing pieces.

David wants to study Public Health in the UK with the intent of returning to Africa to put his degree into practice. He's applied to four schools. His first choice school is in London, but it's also the most competitive program. Also, I think it's the most expensive--and London is, of course, the most expensive in which to live, of the three cities where we applied. On the flip side, the London school also has the broadest scope for scholarships... Anyway, we're waiting.

All the programs are one year, but we haven't been getting our hopes up much yet because it would only be by God's infinite grace that we could get funding for any of the programs. We aren't paupers by Nigerian standards, for sure, but we don't have $30,000 just lying around either. So we'll wait and see and trust God to provide if He wants us to go. In the meantime, when I get the official admission letter(s), it's frantic scholarship application time for me! What would David do without me? ;)