Here are a few excerpts from Erin's e-mails in the last couple of weeks:
Monday March 1
Hi!The LCCN conference is now done, so we will be starting our ''real'' work. It is still very very hot - I wish we could trade places for a day so you get your heat and I get my snow!
Saturday Feb 27
We made it to Nigeria! We flew from Accra to Abuja, had a 7 hourlayover in the Abuja airport, then flew from Abuja to Yola, where weare staying with host homes. Right now it is the Lutheran Church of Christ Nigeria’s annual convention – think Sonshine with no facilities whatsoever, one stage, and speakers instead of bands. The average temp has been 100 to 104 degrees. Though really hot, it is a very dry heat and there are canopies and other sources of shade. Cross Fire gets to sit in the special guest tent with the Bishops of each Diocese! We are 5 of 15 white people out of an estimated 30 to 35 thousand Nigerian Lutherans. I just might be the only Methodist!
So far, I think Ghana was the much more colorful country, the buildings were painted in vibrant colors and we were in the southern part where there was more greenery. Here, the buildings might be painted, but they are more neutral colors and it is much drier, so it is a lot more earth tones there too. However, the fabric the women wear is just as if not more colorful than in Ghana! Kaitie and I play the fabric game, pointing out different fabrics, different color combinations and patterns we like and think the other will like!
Yes, we received the mail package, Finally!!! I got the most letters by about 8! I got 16 total! Thanks so much for the letters. I miss you and cannot wait to get home, but I also love the host home I am staying in here and actually cried when I thought Kaitie and I were going to have to switch (not our choice, a very long story foranother time!)
Oh, by the way, a trotro is a 15 passenger van taxi that usually isn’t considered full until it has 18 passengers, and won’t leave the station until it is full. They are fun! Especially carrying all of your instruments and puppets and puppet curtain to a program! (can you sense the sarcasm here?)
That’s all for now!
Love,
Erin
Sunday 2-21
We fly to Nigeria tomorrow at 6:30am, which means we leave the house at 4am! Then, when we land in Abuja, we have a layover until 6pm or so, and then fly to Yola. I am weary from the 15 programs we have done since last Wednesday, plus the 15 or so hours of trotro rides to get to those programs! But each one is fun, and so very different depending on the age and makeup of the crowd and if we are inside or out... In that time we have done programs for a Seminary class of married men, and orphanage, a group that gathered to listen in the marketplace, a junior high, a senior high, and a primary school, and a group of Compassion kid's moms. Altogether, we have sung to over 1000 people in the last 5 days! WOW!
