October 24, 2005

Dear Family,

Another week, another letter. This week I will relate what we did this past week. We just got back from Lagos. We were invited to attend church at the ward on V.I. (Victoria Island). VI is the most southerly part of Lagos. It is where the American oil companies have their offices and where most foreigners live. There are three known Mormon families there. The Summers who lived across the street on Morywood, the Neuders (newdairs) and the Stevens. Both the Neuders and Stevens are from Houston and work for ExxonMobil. We attended the church down there (a two hour drive) then went to dinner at the Neuders. They live in a very posh apartment near the beach, two buildings away from the Summers. All the ExxonMobil employees live there. The mission president and wife and the other senior couples (3 couples besides us) also attended. They were all blown away at how fancy things were there. Just about like home. Of course Sister Gilmore and I had visited the Summers two weeks before, so we knew what to expect. Anyway, it was very nice.

Afterwards we drove back to Lagos and spent the night at the home of the Hardys. They are the Humanitarian missionaries here. They spend their time focusing on three main projects, drilling boreholes, supplying wheelchairs, and neonatal resuscitation training. Boreholes are wells that supply drinking water to areas without a safe water supply. The church drilled about 25 in the west of Nigeria last year. Sister Gilmore and I are going to help find 2 or 3 sites for wells in Sagamu for next year.

The neonatal resuscitation is bringing American doctors to teach doctors how to provide resuscitation to newborns when they have breathing problems. Apparently it is a serious problem and many babies here in Africa die because of it. The US doctors train the doctors and then those doctors train other local doctors. The US doctors are planning to come to Nigeria for a week in February 2006.

We wrote and told our neighbors, Wyc and Anna Cheatums about it and wondered if they were interested, but we haven’t heard anything back from them. Ian and Melissa, please go next door and see if they received our letter and if they have any interest. Thanks.

There is a teaching hospital here in Sagamu, so some of the doctors from here will go to Lagos for the training. Sister Gilmore and I are going to work with the local doctors to get things ready for February.

When we returned from Lagos we ran into a go-slow. That is Nigerian for traffic jam. We were north-bound on a divided highway (two lanes in each direction) when we ran into the slow down. We have been in one before, and like the last time, the traffic suddenly became four or 5 lanes wide. We were on the right hand side when a breakthrough occurred. The traffic ahead left the highway, entered a dirt road and drove parallel to the jammed highway. So we thought, when in Rome, so we followed the breakaway. We drove on a dirt road (that is a generous description) a mile or so, then the traffic rejoined the highway. In order to get back on the highway we had to drive thru a huge mud puddle. I was a little worried it would be too deep for our little car, but we finally made it thru and got back on the highway. Of course during this whole time, it was like a free-for-all game of chicken/destruction derby. Cars, trucks, buses (vw buses) honking, swerving, etc. To get back onto the asphalt you had to play chicken with a big truck to cut in front of it. Of course, the driver wasn’t happy and let you know it. When we did get back on the highway we drove along the shoulder until we passed the problem. A truck had jack-knifed and was blocking all the northbound lanes. Only one lane, the right-hand shoulder (where we were) was getting thru. The really amazing thing is that the two left lanes, rather than squeezing around the truck like we had done, had crossed thru a hole in the center median and were trying to drive north on the south-bound lanes. Of course this caused an even worse traffic jam on the south bound lanes. The vehicles were just sitting there facing each other and couldn’t move forward or back because the cars and trucks behind them just kept piling up. As we drove north about ½ mile we started running into traffic that was coming southbound in our northbound lanes. Because traffic southbound had become stalled, they had decided to cross the median and head south on the northbound lanes. Luckily we were on the right lane and passed them before this area became jammed. All told we only spent 30-45 minutes in the go-slow. We have been told that sometimes these jams last hours. The worst we have heard about was 12 hours long. Most of the other couples have told of 3-4 hour jams. After our experience you can see why. With both sides of the road with cars facing each other there is no way to move forward, sideways or back.

Tuesday, Oct 25

Today went to the campus of a technical school called Grace Poly. It is a private, two year school that has a scholarship agreement with the church here in Nigeria. The church has provided them with computers, etc. and they have agreed to give ¾ scholarships to members of the church. Outside of Ijebu-Ode, in the small village of Omu they have a campus of about 300-400 students. There are 65 members there on scholarship. As part of their scholarship they agree to live the gospel, attend church and institute classes. The problem is that the nearest branch is about 15 miles away and its cost 200 nira ($1.50) round trip to get to church. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but to put it into perspective, their portion of the schooling (1/4 of tuition) is 15,000 nira per year ($105). They have institute classes taught at a primary school nearby, but not many make it to church on Sundays because of the cost. Sister Gilmore and I and the District president drove out there today to visit the students at their institute class and see what it was like. We approached the Mission President about establishing a student branch out there so more could go to church. So he said we should pursue it, so we are. We went to see if the room in the primary school which the CES (church education system) rents in the evenings for institute would be ok to hold church in. We visited with the CES man in Lagos on Monday. He described the primary school as a really nice one. When we drove up to it, Sister Gilmore and I thought we must have made a mistake. It looks just like the kind you see in pictures of Africa with the dirt floors, small wooden desks, etc. You know what I mean. Well this was like that except it had a new roof, and it had concrete floors. I will try to send a picture of it for you. Well, we met with the institute class. There were about forty crammed into a room 20’ x 30’ with 20 small, wooden benches. But they seemed ok with it. We will report to the President and see what happens. Hopefully, we can establish a temporary student branch out there. The students range from 18-25 years old, many are returned missionaries.

Until next time. Love, Dad