5:45        Wide awake.  I would rather be sleeping but I get up and get laundry going.  Caden is awake so I let him get up early.  Before breakfast I make a pie crust to use later.

7:00        We enjoy a light breakfast of muffins and homemade strawberry yogurt.

8:20        Toby heads to a meeting.  Caden and I go for a walk.  I decided to carry him Nigerian style, on my back.  So, I get him on there and tie 2 cloths around us both.  Then I went next door to have the hostel cook check and make sure I had done it right.  This was my first time to “back” him alone and I did it well.  We walked down the street to our neighborhood “container store”.  This is a small shop that is made from a shipping container.  They are very popular here.  I was looking for beans but came back with tuna and Indo-Mi (ramen noodles)…no beans.  I borrow beans from a neighbor instead.

9:00        We get home.  Caden is tired so he asks to go to bed.  He even seems to say “help me” when standing by his bed waiting for me to lift him into it.  He is sleeping in a borrowed pack-n-play for now.  We have bought him a toddler bed of sorts to use when we move into the hostel.  We still need to buy a mattress for it.

9:15        Start 2nd rinse cycle for diapers.  Then I begin cleaning and sorting strawberries.  I was talked into buying a very large box of berries the day before. “You can freeze them or make jam,” the lady selling them told me.  So, I decided I would try to make jam.  As I clean, I separate the berries into 4 bowls:  one bowl for the firmest berries to freeze, one for the mushy ones to make jam, one for the in-between ones to use in a pie, and a bowl for the ones I think are not good, as well as for the stems.  I also put the beans on to cook.  My neighbor gave me some “pot ash” and promises a pinch added to the beans will speed up the cooking process.  No, I did not soak them overnight…no time, I need them for dinner…I’ll do quicker method where after boiling them awhile I dump the water out and add fresh water.

11:40     Caden wakes up.  I have just finished cleaning and sorting the berries so I make us some Indo-Mi for lunch.

12:30     Toby gets home just in time to join us for lunch.

1:00        I start the pie filling.  It calls for between 5-6 cups of strawberries plus crushed berries for juice.  Yum.  After getting the pie done I put it in the fridge to set and begin my jam.  I’ve never made jam before so this is was an experiment.  I have a recipe that is called “quick strawberry jam” and it uses a box of strawberry jello.  Well, my mom just sent me a box of strawberry jello so I thought I would try this recipe.

2:30        The jam is still cooking…so much for quick.  It finally seems like it may be getting thicker.  I give up and decide we’ll have strawberry syrup instead, so I fill the jars…ok, I fill 1 ½ jars!  That’s it!  All that work for 1 ½ jars of strawberry syrup….needless to say I was disappointed.  I turn the beans off (they are finally done) and head outside to play with Caden.

3:00        Caden is having so much fun!  There are some rocks on one side of the basketball court in the center of our compound- he loves to climb on and off the rocks.  Toby texts me to say that he is finished with his meeting.  (I have to pick him up because we did not have a vehicle when he went so a neighbor dropped him off- we are still sharing a van with the hostel as we await the arrival of our car from Benin).

3:30        I am lost!  And it is raining!  I have not driven to Gidan Bege yet (the place where Toby’s meeting was).  Somehow I end up downtown on the BUSIEST STREET IN JOS!!!!  Kai! (that means Yikes!).  I am just praying to find my way.

3:45        I found Toby!!!!  He was waiting for me on a corner…he had seen me take the wrong turn earlier.  I climb out of driver seat to let him drive.  I tell him that I need to practice driving to Gidan Bege and a few places with him in the car- soon!

4:15        On the way home we stopped at a few places to pick up a few items:  lettuce, ice cream (to go with the pie), and a new toilet seat.  We arrive home and watch an episode of the Office before getting ready for dinner.

5:45        Toby and Caden take off to pick up Dustin, a guy who arrived from Austin, TX last week to work with City Ministries.  While they are gone, I finish up dinner:  soft taco’s with meat, beans, rice, salsa, corn and bean salad, and guac…and of course cheese (which is REALLY expensive here but o so worth it!).  I place a bowl of tortilla chips and salsa on the table.

6:15        They arrive for dinner.  Dustin walks in, sees the chips, smells the taco meat and gets a HUGE grin on his face.  I figured after being in Nigeria for a week he would be ready for a little taste of home.  The meal was a hit.  Plus, it was fun to have a guest.

7:45        Toby and Dustin head out and I put Caden to bed.  When Toby gets back we clean the dishes.  He says it feels like the weekend.  I said that it’s because at home we only had people over on the weekend- I like having people come for dinner during the week.

8:45        I fall asleep on the couch watching an episode of the Closer on DVD.

9:15        We head to bed.

 
PS:  What about the pie?  Did I forget the pie? Nope…but it wasn’t really a pie.  It didn’t set right.  We ate it anyhow and it tasted good.  I won’t do a strawberry pie on my own again.  I’ve made it twice in my life and both times it did not set.

Hey it is Toby’s time to give you his breakdown of a day!

6:15 am Awake unfortunately. For two weeks now I have not been able to sleep past 6:15 which is a huge drag. It does not help the remainder of the day when you are wiped due to lack of sleep.

6:30- 7:30 played with Caden as he was up early as well. What was my lazy wife doing at that time as I played with Caden and watched the news on CNN International? She was walking with a bunch of ladies who meet 5 days a week to walk. Great job dear.

7:30 am Made breakfast for Alycia and Caden. Egg sandwich for those curious of what we are eating.

8:30 – 11am I was picked up and taken to the stadium in downtown Jos to meet with the ministry leader of City Sports. It’s a ministry that uses sports to reach out to the youth of Nigeria for the Lord. We were about 30 minutes late in getting there but when we arrived the fella I was to meet was not there. So around 9:30 or so after being tracked down he arrived. We talked about ministry, City sports and sports in general as we watch the Plateau State Volleyball team practice. Man they are good, it was fun to watch.

11:05 Walking down the street I was told I looked like Hulk Hogan. What? Hulk Hogan? What trash are we importing to Nigeria?

11:30 Arrived home after standing out in the sun (their courts are outside) for the last 2.5 hours. Man am I RED in the face and head due to my head being shaved at this time.

12:15 Had lunch that my lovely wife made for me and Caden.

1:45 -2:45 Met with another missionary about scheduling next week along with going over my thoughts of what we have seen already and where I might fit in on ministry here in Jos. We came up with a couple of great places for me to get plugged in possibly. Here are two possibilities that arose.

1.       Working with Austain, the City Sports fella, in setting up a structure for the ministry. Right now there does not seem to be any structure to it. It is definitely set up in Nigerian time, whatever happens and at whatever pace he wants.

2.       Take the graduating class of 8 Nigerian kids under my wings. These kids are taken off the streets and given food and shelter as they grow in the Lord and in life in general. Once they graduate there does not seem to be anyone checking on the kids after they are set “Free” from the ministry. This way I would meet with the kids from time to time, check in on them, on how life is for them after leaving the program, do discipleship and just hanging out with them as they try to adjust to life unstructured.

 The rest of the afternoon had free time to spend with my wife and kiddo. Which was great.  During this time a neighbor stopped by with her 2 kids for a little while, I played with Caden, enjoyed dinner, and had a little bit of time to do e-mail.  Plus, we had a pleasant bonus of having electricity all evening.

9:00 PM  Alycia and I are sitting down to watch an episode of the Closer, a show we borrowed from some new friends.

 

My first real “stay-at-home” mom day:

7:00     Wednesday morning started out normal enough- ok, not really.  I awoke to find that Caden’s diaper had not been able to contain what he put in the diaper and it was all over him and the sheet on his bed.  He has been suffering from a bout of diarrhea since Monday evening, so I had even put him in a Huggies overnight rather than a cloth diaper. We’ve been using cloth since we got here and especially lately as the heat has caused diaper rash.  Tuesday he leaked out of his diapers many times (even at a neighbor’s house after dinner) so this was not a surprise.  However, since he wasn’t any better Toby and I decided that I would take him to see the pediatrician (an American missionary).  

7:30     I fixed a simple breakfast of cereal and strawberry-banana yogurt (the yogurt that I had made from scratch the day before).  After breakfast I set out to wash the soiled cloth diapers…outside… by hand!  (There was no electricity so our washer would not work - the washer that takes 2-3 hours per load)  

9:00     Anna, a woman from City Ministry came by to begin orientating us for the ministry we will work with until August.  

10:00    Jill, a missionary who lives on our compound, picked Caden and I up for our first visit to the pediatrician.  The Dr. works in the pediatric ward at the hospital run by the local church denomination that SIM works with.  We drove to the hospital (which is so very different in so many ways from our hospitals- especially our suburban, pristine hospitals- that I won’t even try to fully describe it here).  We first went into the “private clinic” area to pre-pay for our visit and collect an ID card for Caden.  I will need to take this card, as well as his “chart” (also a card) each time we go.  The “private clinic” was full…mostly families with babies and young children.  

10:30    After signing in we proceeded to the pediatric ward and knocked on the locked door to be let in.  Once inside, Caden played with toys in the “play area” while we waited to see the Dr.  When it was our turn we went in.  Caden wasn’t weighed, his temperature was not checked…the Dr. simply talked to us for a while, asked why we came, looked at a soiled diaper, then said, “well, it’s common here.  He either picked up a bug on the plane or is simply adjusting to Nigeria.  Take him home, have him drink a lot, and call me if it gets worse or is not better in 5 days.”  ‘5 days’, I thought, ‘I have to keep cleaning yucky cloth diapers for 5 days!’

11:30    After the hospital visit we stopped in at another missionary’s house to talk with her and her house helper to see if we want her house helper to work for us once this family leaves in May.  The helper, Asabe, was great with Caden!  She is a grandmother and is very experienced in her job…so she will begin working for us on Fridays until the end of May when she can work for us each day.  (While we were gone Toby departed the house for a tour of City Ministries).

12:00    On the way home we stopped to look at a little bed to see if it would be the right height for Caden.  It is still a bit too tall so they are going to cut the legs off a little and make it shorter.  The floors here are concrete so there is not padding whatsoever if he were to fall out of bed.

12:30    Once we got home we had a light lunch then walked to a neighbor’s house to buy some flour from her.   

1:00    I put Caden down for a nap and I did the dishes while soaking zucchini, green beans and a pineapple (we have to soak fruits and vegi’s in water with a little bleach, then we soak them in filtered water).

1:30    I started to make zucchini bread.  It wasn’t until after the bread was in the oven that I found the grater (so yes, I chopped all the zucchini into tiny pieces by hand).  Also, the recipe said to bake it for one hour but after 30 minutes it was over done…the joys of learning how to cook on a different oven- and a gas one at that.

3:00    Toby got home.  We did some more cleaning and then a neighbor stopped by to check on us and to chat a while.  I also started dinner while she was here.  Spaghetti sauce made with tomato paste, seasoning, water, ground beef and onions.

4:00    Aman stopped by to talk with us about what kind of car we want to purchase.  Then Toby went outside to play basketball with his brother and some other men.  I continued to work on dinner…cut a pineapple and ¾ of it is bad so I put it into the compost pail.

6:00    Just before Toby gets back, I go to pour water out of spaghetti and end up pouring spaghetti into sink…I must redo spaghetti.  

6:30      Dinner:  we have spaghetti with meat sauce and green beans.  For dessert we enjoy dry zucchini bread and pineapple.

7:30      We put Caden to bed, Toby cleans dishes while I pick up toys.

8:00    Toby and I sit down to watch whatever the neighbors are watching on cable…they are kind to let us use their line.  

10:00     We head to bed.  The electricity has been on most of the afternoon which is great…our fan is working nicely.

10:30    Electricity goes off….