February 6, 2006
Dear Friends and Family,
I don't know how long it has been since I have written. Our days have been filled with routine, none of it boring. It appears that we will have internet access again, at least we have had it for the last couple of days. The owner of the wireless service is a friend of ours. He called us to tell us that it was back up and running. We can even get it in one area of one of the rooms of our apartment on good weather days. We can always drive to his office and safely sit in his parking lot to use it if we have to. We are ever so grateful for it no matter how long it lasts or where we go to get it because it is one of the faster services we can get. Let me be really honest.it is the fastest service, not just one of the faster. We still can't seem to be able to send pictures via internet, however.
I've had to review my journal to see what has happened in the last month. The middle of January a member of the General Board from the Young Women and another from the Primary came to our mission to give a day of leadership training in our area. It has seemed to spark the local leaders in the district and they are eager to learn more about their responsibilities. We have scheduled additional leadership training for the next 6 weekends. I have helped the district leaders prepare an agenda for training sessions for each auxiliary. We are pretty basic, but I think I'm learning more about the administration of the auxiliaries than I ever thought I would have to. It is a miracle that the branches run so well given the leaders weak understanding of what I would say is even the minimum procedures necessary to keep a branch afloat. One branch president spoke to his branch about the leadership training given by the General Board sisters. He said he learned that leaders were supposed to have presidency meetings to plan and organize their auxiliary. He was surprised because he never heard of nor thought of it before. It is a good thing that the first branch that we are training this Saturday is his. My responsibility in the general session of the meeting is-you guessed it---how to have effective presidency meetings!
On the 17th of February, Elder Dallin Oakes is coming to our mission and will spend a day up in our area. He will meet with the missionaries for an hour before he gives a fireside. Doug commented that in his whole life he has never had a member of the quorum of the 12 come to his stake or district. We had to come to Sagamu, Nigeria to have that happen. I'm really looking forward to that event.
Speaking of events, we went to the open house of a new eye care facility last week. A very prominent eye surgeon, Dr. Adekunle Hassan, and his wife Tonde have built a new facility in his home town, Ilese. They are members of the church and very generous. They built a chapel for the branch in this small city which is a couple of blocks from the new eye care center. (He is also building a new home in Ilese which will have a separate building with an apartment for the couple missionary-which would be us if it were finished before we left). He designs the facility to cater to the wealthy and the needy. He invites medical students to come and train under him and work in his free clinic. He has a very good reputation and there is a waiting list to serve and train in one of his two clinics. At no other medical school can they get so much hands on experience performing the simple sight saving procedures. The Deseret Foundation has teamed with the Hassan's on this latest facility, providing the needed equipment. There are several good stories if you will bear with me.
The first is concerning the building of the facility. The compound consists of about 5 buildings. We have been watching and visiting the site off and on since we arrived. 4 days before the open house we were invited to come to the private dedication. There was no way that building and grounds were going to be ready for the open house. Dr. Hassan explained that this was the way of Nigeria. The contractors had delayed finishing until the pressure was on to have it completed. Then they could demand "dash" or bribe money in order to have it finished in time. The Hassan's had budgeted $365,000 for dash funds at the end of the project to get it completed on time.
The second story involves donations by the state government- a promise of two things; a bus to transport patients and a back-up generator. The day before the dedication, the governor had called the Hassan's to tell them the bus was available and to send someone to pick it up at so and so's office. When the bus arrived it was a used, beat-up wreck of a vehicle. Dr. Hassan sent it back with a thanks but no thanks. It wouldn't do for what he needed. It appears that the government had paid so and so to buy a new bus for the eye care clinic, however, that person decided he could pocket most of the money and still present the "donated bus" to the facility. The governor called to apologize, there had been some mistake. Dr. Hassan's driver had picked up the wrong bus, the right one would be made available soon.
When Doug and I arrived at the open house, we noticed a generator in the outbuilding that hadn't been there the day before. It looked like it was used and damaged. Doug said it probably was new but had been damaged when it was installed. When I later found out it was donated by the government, I recalled the bus incident and put two and two together. It probably was supposed to have been new, but someone lined their pockets with the difference between new and used.
The next story has to do with the ceremony itself. Every oba (king) who is any class was invited. The lesser ones arrive first and the greater ones arrive late. The "Father of the Day" king arrives last and latest. (This is a problem that we have to overcome in church. The leader, say the Relief Society president, thinks she is the most important person in Relief Society, so she should make a show of her importance by coming late.) Anyway, it is really show and tell. The greater class the oba, the more ostentation that precludes his arrival. The greater the oba, the deeper the bow from those who greet him, even to prostrating on the black-plastic covered ground. There were obas, and bank presidents and wives that arrived that thought they should sit at the high platform, so chairs were shuffled and rearranged to satisfy everyone. The festivities started about 1 hour late due to the pomp and circumstance. There was still one chair unoccupied.well it ended up being a chair when all the shuffling was done. It had started out as a throne. Each speaker had about 5 minutes to talk. However, before anything can be said, everyone who is anyone has to be recognized first and thanked for the honor of speaking to them. A list of names from the program is read and honor paid in order of importance. Then the 5 minutes of speech, then every one is recognized again and thanked for the listening to their few words. The whole thing takes about 20-30 minutes. Then the next speaker gets up and does the same thing. Then the next. Some speakers pass out the text of their talks so everyone can have one. The only speaker who didn't follow the rules of etiquette was the American rep from the Deseret Foundation. Anyway, about 1 hour into this, the mc starts to tell us where the guest is that is supposed to fill the last seat. It is the Governor of Ogun State. He is in very important meetings and may not come. Next speaker finishes, the governor is still not left his meetings to come. He may call on the vice governor to come. The next speaker, the vice governor has been called away from her important duties elsewhere to come and preside over these proceedings. Finally, she arrives. She apologizes profusely, but she had been going to another ceremony, and had received the urgent call from the governor asking her to u-turn and come back to this ceremony. She sits and her body guard stands at her back. When it is her turn to say a few words, she follows the protocol. Then she talks about the great medical strides in Nigeria. She particularly talks about how modern their teaching hospitals are. Now I've been to one of the "best" teaching hospitals several times. Modern is not a word I would use to describe the facility. She also mentioned that the state had partnered with Dr. Hassan in giving him a new bus and generator. (This was when I put 2 and 2 together-yes the generator was probably second hand) If Dr Hassan would send someone back to Abeokuta with her, she could deliver his new bus. Cheers erupted all around at the generosity of the government and her offer to partner with anyone who wanted to fund an operation such as this new facility. The ceremony concluded with a native dancing troupe. All in all it was very entertaining and my initiation into UK formality mingled with African tradition.
The final story. After all the obas had arrived and been seated, we see this older man coming with his very large umbrella held high above his head by his servant. The umbrella is draped with the words his royal highness, oba so and so, King of Ilese. He is about to enter the tent from behind the high table. Someone on the platform sees him and jumps to the ground to restrain him from entering. There is a scuffle, more join to keep him out. He is finally forcefully escorted out of the compound, his servant trying desperately to keep the umbrella over his head, so as to not let the sun reach him. Later we asked a friend what that was all about. When the ground had been given to Dr. Hassan by the supreme oba of Ijebu-land, the king of Ilese claimed he owned part of the land. In court it was settled and he was paid for his claim by Dr. Hassan. But the king of Ilese kept making trouble during construction. As a result, he was not invited to the ceremony, although he was thanked in the program for selling the land to build the facility. Here's the rest of the story. There is a tradition that the Supreme ruler of Ijebu-land can never see 'eye to eye" with the king of Ilese or the Supreme ruler will be cursed. Etiquette required that the high table look upon the new facility, but this rule had not been followed just in case this very thing might happen. The high table had been constructed with the backs of the honored guests turned toward the facility, so that anyone entering the tent would come in from their backs. It had been anticipated that the king of Ilese would come in last to create an incident, that he would think the honored guests would be facing him at his entrance and the Supreme ruler would have inadvertently looked at him "eye to eye" and thus he would have been cursed. The planners of the event had been very careful to not let this happen, and had ignored one rule of etiquette in order to keep the supreme ruler from being cursed by a jilted second class oba.
Wow. The intrigue and pomp made for a long but very interesting day. It also made for a long letter. I hope you thought it was worth reading. It certainly was worth living through.once.
Love, Sister g
I don't know how long it has been since I have written. Our days have been filled with routine, none of it boring. It appears that we will have internet access again, at least we have had it for the last couple of days. The owner of the wireless service is a friend of ours. He called us to tell us that it was back up and running. We can even get it in one area of one of the rooms of our apartment on good weather days. We can always drive to his office and safely sit in his parking lot to use it if we have to. We are ever so grateful for it no matter how long it lasts or where we go to get it because it is one of the faster services we can get. Let me be really honest.it is the fastest service, not just one of the faster. We still can't seem to be able to send pictures via internet, however.
I've had to review my journal to see what has happened in the last month. The middle of January a member of the General Board from the Young Women and another from the Primary came to our mission to give a day of leadership training in our area. It has seemed to spark the local leaders in the district and they are eager to learn more about their responsibilities. We have scheduled additional leadership training for the next 6 weekends. I have helped the district leaders prepare an agenda for training sessions for each auxiliary. We are pretty basic, but I think I'm learning more about the administration of the auxiliaries than I ever thought I would have to. It is a miracle that the branches run so well given the leaders weak understanding of what I would say is even the minimum procedures necessary to keep a branch afloat. One branch president spoke to his branch about the leadership training given by the General Board sisters. He said he learned that leaders were supposed to have presidency meetings to plan and organize their auxiliary. He was surprised because he never heard of nor thought of it before. It is a good thing that the first branch that we are training this Saturday is his. My responsibility in the general session of the meeting is-you guessed it---how to have effective presidency meetings!
On the 17th of February, Elder Dallin Oakes is coming to our mission and will spend a day up in our area. He will meet with the missionaries for an hour before he gives a fireside. Doug commented that in his whole life he has never had a member of the quorum of the 12 come to his stake or district. We had to come to Sagamu, Nigeria to have that happen. I'm really looking forward to that event.
Speaking of events, we went to the open house of a new eye care facility last week. A very prominent eye surgeon, Dr. Adekunle Hassan, and his wife Tonde have built a new facility in his home town, Ilese. They are members of the church and very generous. They built a chapel for the branch in this small city which is a couple of blocks from the new eye care center. (He is also building a new home in Ilese which will have a separate building with an apartment for the couple missionary-which would be us if it were finished before we left). He designs the facility to cater to the wealthy and the needy. He invites medical students to come and train under him and work in his free clinic. He has a very good reputation and there is a waiting list to serve and train in one of his two clinics. At no other medical school can they get so much hands on experience performing the simple sight saving procedures. The Deseret Foundation has teamed with the Hassan's on this latest facility, providing the needed equipment. There are several good stories if you will bear with me.
The first is concerning the building of the facility. The compound consists of about 5 buildings. We have been watching and visiting the site off and on since we arrived. 4 days before the open house we were invited to come to the private dedication. There was no way that building and grounds were going to be ready for the open house. Dr. Hassan explained that this was the way of Nigeria. The contractors had delayed finishing until the pressure was on to have it completed. Then they could demand "dash" or bribe money in order to have it finished in time. The Hassan's had budgeted $365,000 for dash funds at the end of the project to get it completed on time.
The second story involves donations by the state government- a promise of two things; a bus to transport patients and a back-up generator. The day before the dedication, the governor had called the Hassan's to tell them the bus was available and to send someone to pick it up at so and so's office. When the bus arrived it was a used, beat-up wreck of a vehicle. Dr. Hassan sent it back with a thanks but no thanks. It wouldn't do for what he needed. It appears that the government had paid so and so to buy a new bus for the eye care clinic, however, that person decided he could pocket most of the money and still present the "donated bus" to the facility. The governor called to apologize, there had been some mistake. Dr. Hassan's driver had picked up the wrong bus, the right one would be made available soon.
When Doug and I arrived at the open house, we noticed a generator in the outbuilding that hadn't been there the day before. It looked like it was used and damaged. Doug said it probably was new but had been damaged when it was installed. When I later found out it was donated by the government, I recalled the bus incident and put two and two together. It probably was supposed to have been new, but someone lined their pockets with the difference between new and used.
The next story has to do with the ceremony itself. Every oba (king) who is any class was invited. The lesser ones arrive first and the greater ones arrive late. The "Father of the Day" king arrives last and latest. (This is a problem that we have to overcome in church. The leader, say the Relief Society president, thinks she is the most important person in Relief Society, so she should make a show of her importance by coming late.) Anyway, it is really show and tell. The greater class the oba, the more ostentation that precludes his arrival. The greater the oba, the deeper the bow from those who greet him, even to prostrating on the black-plastic covered ground. There were obas, and bank presidents and wives that arrived that thought they should sit at the high platform, so chairs were shuffled and rearranged to satisfy everyone. The festivities started about 1 hour late due to the pomp and circumstance. There was still one chair unoccupied.well it ended up being a chair when all the shuffling was done. It had started out as a throne. Each speaker had about 5 minutes to talk. However, before anything can be said, everyone who is anyone has to be recognized first and thanked for the honor of speaking to them. A list of names from the program is read and honor paid in order of importance. Then the 5 minutes of speech, then every one is recognized again and thanked for the listening to their few words. The whole thing takes about 20-30 minutes. Then the next speaker gets up and does the same thing. Then the next. Some speakers pass out the text of their talks so everyone can have one. The only speaker who didn't follow the rules of etiquette was the American rep from the Deseret Foundation. Anyway, about 1 hour into this, the mc starts to tell us where the guest is that is supposed to fill the last seat. It is the Governor of Ogun State. He is in very important meetings and may not come. Next speaker finishes, the governor is still not left his meetings to come. He may call on the vice governor to come. The next speaker, the vice governor has been called away from her important duties elsewhere to come and preside over these proceedings. Finally, she arrives. She apologizes profusely, but she had been going to another ceremony, and had received the urgent call from the governor asking her to u-turn and come back to this ceremony. She sits and her body guard stands at her back. When it is her turn to say a few words, she follows the protocol. Then she talks about the great medical strides in Nigeria. She particularly talks about how modern their teaching hospitals are. Now I've been to one of the "best" teaching hospitals several times. Modern is not a word I would use to describe the facility. She also mentioned that the state had partnered with Dr. Hassan in giving him a new bus and generator. (This was when I put 2 and 2 together-yes the generator was probably second hand) If Dr Hassan would send someone back to Abeokuta with her, she could deliver his new bus. Cheers erupted all around at the generosity of the government and her offer to partner with anyone who wanted to fund an operation such as this new facility. The ceremony concluded with a native dancing troupe. All in all it was very entertaining and my initiation into UK formality mingled with African tradition.
The final story. After all the obas had arrived and been seated, we see this older man coming with his very large umbrella held high above his head by his servant. The umbrella is draped with the words his royal highness, oba so and so, King of Ilese. He is about to enter the tent from behind the high table. Someone on the platform sees him and jumps to the ground to restrain him from entering. There is a scuffle, more join to keep him out. He is finally forcefully escorted out of the compound, his servant trying desperately to keep the umbrella over his head, so as to not let the sun reach him. Later we asked a friend what that was all about. When the ground had been given to Dr. Hassan by the supreme oba of Ijebu-land, the king of Ilese claimed he owned part of the land. In court it was settled and he was paid for his claim by Dr. Hassan. But the king of Ilese kept making trouble during construction. As a result, he was not invited to the ceremony, although he was thanked in the program for selling the land to build the facility. Here's the rest of the story. There is a tradition that the Supreme ruler of Ijebu-land can never see 'eye to eye" with the king of Ilese or the Supreme ruler will be cursed. Etiquette required that the high table look upon the new facility, but this rule had not been followed just in case this very thing might happen. The high table had been constructed with the backs of the honored guests turned toward the facility, so that anyone entering the tent would come in from their backs. It had been anticipated that the king of Ilese would come in last to create an incident, that he would think the honored guests would be facing him at his entrance and the Supreme ruler would have inadvertently looked at him "eye to eye" and thus he would have been cursed. The planners of the event had been very careful to not let this happen, and had ignored one rule of etiquette in order to keep the supreme ruler from being cursed by a jilted second class oba.
Wow. The intrigue and pomp made for a long but very interesting day. It also made for a long letter. I hope you thought it was worth reading. It certainly was worth living through.once.
Love, Sister g
posted by PorpShow at 2:26 PM
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