Our last night in Nigeria

Counting out Ibuprofen and putting them in labeled bags for the village people that we had seen days prior in our clinics in Onitsha.

Queen had a dinner party with family and friends the last night that we were in Nigeria. We wore our Nigerian outfits that Queen's friend made for us. It was a great way to end the trip.

Me, Kathy, & Erin in our Nigerian attire. We had a little bit of difficulty trying to put our head wraps on properly!

Beautiful faces

Erin and I stopped by a school during a morning walk in Atta

This picture should be after the one below. The little girl carrying her sibling.

We ran into these two little ones during our morning walk. It just amazed me how well the children there get along and take care of each other. They play so well together, try to comfort the younger children when they cry, and always seem to be looking out for one another. I have to admit that I was not quite as nurturing to my siblings growing up! :)

I just thought this was ironic and funny

It's rare that you don't see a woman with a baby on her back

more pictures

Doing assessments at one of our clinics in Onitsha

"Smash" our now deceased spider friend that was in Kathy's room

Onitsha shanties. Below that wall and railing is a canal filled with sewage and trash

An adorable village boy in Atta

I was told that this woman was "sick". When asking what was wrong with her I was told that she was widowed.

Finally...pictures!

Finally I am able to post some pictures! I am still waiting for pictures from other people, but thought that I would post some of my favorites that I have (I took over 600). I wish I would have been able to post them while in Nigeria, but I am still very excited to share some of them with you.
I thank you again for following along with me on this wonderful journey. I miss being there, but am also happy to be home. I am so grateful that I was once again blessed with an opportunity like this. I feel that we were able to accomplish a lot while we were there, but I always leave these places wishing that we could have done even more. I hope that you enjoy the pictures and I thank you again for all your thoughts, prayers, and support.

Love Always,

Steph

I love these ladies! They were sitting in front of the clinic each day as we arrived.
I told the kids to gather around us so we could get a picture. Instead they kind of tackled us. They Loved having their pictures taken and would say "snap me". They thought it was so funny when they could look at themselves on the digital camera screen. These are the kids at the Manna school.

Our team. Queen, Erin, Kathy, me, Robert, and Mike. They were so much fun to travel with and work with.

A boy getting IV antibiotics at the Manna hospital

Erin and I checking spleen sizes on two of the Manna school girls

Home Safely

I am home, and exhausted! After 30 some hours on planes and in airports we arrived safely in Minneapolis on time. Our flights were very good and we cleared customs without any problems. It was the first time going on one of these trips that I was actually ready to come home. The weather in Nigeria was just unbearable. However, the people are pretty amazing. There is so much poverty, but yet so much hope. This is not the case in places that I've been before like Haiti. The people are extremely religious and spend their time focusing on God and family rather than material things (which they have none of). The only time that we really saw a lot of sadness was when women were infertile or when they became widowed. Women are expected to have many children and they start at a very young age. Many of the marriages are prearranged and they are married by age 12. They start having children as soon as they are married. The people there couldn't believe that Erin had been married for five years and didn't have children yet. They pretty much told her that her children are going to be deaf and mute since she's waiting so long to have them. She loved that!!!
Our trip ended on a great note. Our last day at the compound we left after singing and dancing in the driveway. It all started when Erin told Juliet (who is a Nigerian gospel singer) that I loved to sing Gospel songs (Erin thought she was so clever and funny). It was quite a sight watching the white girls try to sing and dance to African Gospel music. Then on our very last night in Nigeria we stayed at Queen's house. Her cousin's wife made a huge meal, we had Queen's family and friends over, and we all wore our native African outfits that were made for us. All of the people that we met during our time in Nigeria were very grateful for all that we did, and welcomed us with kind words, smiles, and open arms. They are all very proud of where they come from and can't thank us enough for coming to help "their people".
I will post some pictures either later today or tomorrow and update the blog a bit more. My parents are currently visiting so I'm going to visit with them, but I wanted to just post a little something to say that I made it home safely. Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers, I appreciated them more than you know. Again, I will update soon with pictures which I'm so excited to share with you!

Love Always,
Steph

Winding down....

Hi everyone - Here is an excerpt from an email I received from Steph that highlights the last couple days in Owerri:

Yesterday we went to the market and I got a few things for the house. We then went to the pharmacy to get meds for Mana and spent the afternoon dividing them up and putting them into individual baggies with directions for the people to take them. We'll drop them off with the people at Mana before we leave Owerri today. Our flight leaves Owerri for Lagos at 3:45. We'll then be at the Lagos airport until we leave at 10:45. I guess that there is an air conditioned lounge that you can pay to sit in. We've all saved enough money so that we can sit in there for the 5 hours before our departure. I can't imagine sitting in the hot airport for that long and then smelling all the way home.

I also talked to her this morning and they had made it to Lagos and were now waiting for their flight to Amsterdam which leaves at 10:45pm (Nigerian Time). From there they will be returning to Minneapolis and a much cooler climate which I think will be received rather warmly!

It sounds like they've had a wonderful experience in Nigeria and were able to do some really great things to help those less fortunate. Thank you all for following the blog and putting up with my translations of Steph's stories. Thank you also for your thoughts, prayers, and support - they are greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Nate

Tuesday

Hi everyone - I just talked with Steph for a while and it sounds like they are still visiting lots of different people/clinics and managing to have some laughs along the way. As I said earlier, yesterday was Erin's birthday and they ended up going to a place we all dream of going to for our birthday dinner....Crunchy's Chicken!! I'm told it was like a fast food place and not terrible. They spent yesterday in Anucha which is another of the shanty towns and saw lots of kids as usual, but also a good number of adults as well. Tomorrow they are supposed to go to the pharmacy in town and pick up some more of the eye medication that they have been using.

Later that day they were working with a group of people when a bunch of radical evangelists just starting singing/screaming and worshiping. The leader of the group asked if any of them sang and Erin said Steph was a great singer and volunteered her to join them. I can only imagine what this looked like, but I wish I would have been in the front row to watch! They will spending the remaining nights they are there at Queen's house which is the "comfort suite" of the trip so far since it boasts multiple ceiling fans.

Evidently there is some competition for my wife on the other side of the world as well as she told me that her and Erin constantly receive cat calls and whistles from the men working in the market. In addition to that, a cheif from one of the local tribes came up to her and tried to her to go back to his village so he could marry her off to one of his people! Steph and Erin must look pretty hot dripping with sweat and feeling what they called "gross and disgusting"!

They were also able to pick up a few things at the market for souvenirs/memorabilia. She closed by saying that today even the locals were saying it was very hot. Must be pretty warm over there....

Regards,
Nate

Anucha

I just talked to Steph again and it sounds like today was once again, a busy day. They went to 2 different church services this morning and it sounds like it was quite an experience. They were up dancing around and waving hankerchiefs as the loud music played and everyone was worshiping.
This afternoon they were back in the villages/clinics doing their medical exams on the people. She said the area they were in today reminded her of her trips to Haiti due to the fact it was so run-down and desolate. However, she was encouraged by the people of Nigeria expressing a hopeful demeanor as they went about their daily routines and activities. Much different than the people of Haiti who evidently do not share the same sentiment.

People are discouraged from travelling on the roads at night due to the uneven terrain and the threat of being carjacked so tonight they are staying in a hotel although it sounds like it doesn't afford them any additional luxuries than the guest houses. Tomorrow is her friend Erin's birthday so they were hoping to find something fun to do and thought they might get to go to the market and do some shopping. They will also be heading back to the village of Atta tomorrow.

She was ecstatic that they were able to purchase a toilet seat and now carry that around with them to use. However, she did not share the same tone of excitement when she told me that the people of the village were considering sacrificing a goat in honor of them and all the work they are doing to help out. Perhaps they will sacrifice it to celebrate Erin's birthday??

She said the internet situation is once again looking bleak so I will do my best to update this as often as I talk to Steph.

Regards,
Nate

I finally slept last night and it was divine! I even got cool enough to put a sheet on to help keep the mosquitoes. We got up, had breakfast, and then headed to Atta to work at Mana Clinic. When we arrived we got a huge welcome from the children and the elders alike. They were running towards the van yelling hi and good morning. We ended up seeing mainly children that go to the Mana school, as well as some adults. We didn’t see nearly as many people as I was hoping for today, but the work that we did do was important and well worth our time. We diagnosed a couple cases of malaria, and made notes on the children that need medication for worms so that we can bring that back and administer it. I’m hoping that we’ll be busy at the outreach clinic in Onitsha (I think this is really how you spell it instead of Anusha, but I could be wrong again). We stopped at the pharmacy on the way back to Queen’s and picked some antibiotics, antimalarials, and some antiworming medications for the outreach clinics in the upcoming days.

We left the clinic around 2:00 this afternoon. As we were leaving we walked onto the front porch of the building where many of the older ladies were sitting. They were very mad and yelling. They were evidently told by somebody that we would be giving out free medications today. That obviously wasn’t true. The main focus of our work is with children, not adults. Besides that, Mana Clinic has hired a physician to be there full time and he would be much more qualified to give the adults medication because they need much more follow up since most of the issues have to do with hypertension. Mana had received a “crate” from the US which they were opening while we were there. I believe that most of the stuff was donated by Mike’s church and sent over. It had bikes, toys, a sewing machine, clothes, etc in it. The people were preoccupied with finding out what was in there that we didn’t have a lot of patients. In one of the cases they opened and found a nest of rats and termites…GROSS!!! So they had to go through everything to make sure that there weren’t more rats in there and then reorganize everything.

After we left the clinic we went to a museum about the civil war that took place in Nigeria in the 60’s. It was pretty interesting. I had my first experience with racism here. Queen went to go and buy the tickets for us to get in. The person at the ticket counter asked if she had “white people” in the van and she said yes. Her and Robert’s tickets for admission were 100 naira, while the rest of us had to pay 200 naira. I thought the whole thing was kind of funny and ironic, but Queen was very upset with the whole situation.

After we got back to Queen’s this evening Erin, Kathy and I prefilled bags with vitamins for the outreach clinics in the upcoming days. Erin and I did some laundry (by hand of course), and we had some dinner. Queen and her family have been so hospitable to us, I am so happy that she came along and am so grateful for all that she has done for this group. This group of people is really a lot of fun to work with. We were all measured today for our authentic Nigerian dress that Queen’s family is going to make for us before we leave. I’m sure that they will be beautiful. I love the bright colors of the clothing over here.

Before I sign off, just a little update on Erin, who is currently in the shower and is hoping that “Brutus” (her cockroach friend) isn’t planning on joining her again tonight. She cracks me up! I forgot to mention that she has had a very sensitive stomach while we have been there. The first night while we were at the guesthouse in Atta she wasn’t feeling very good. I gave her a plastic bag just in case she threw up, which she did. As soon as she had tied the bag shut two women came running into our room, so happy to see us and grateful that we had arrived safely. They threw their arms around us and kept hugging us. There stood Erin with her bag of vomit, trying to hide it, giving this huge hug to these strangers (we still don’t know their names).
I think that’s all for tonight. We are going to try to figure out how to get internet on Queen’s laptop computer while we are away at the village. I’m really hoping that it works and that we are able to update our blogs and e-mail while we are away. Thanks again for checking in, I appreciate it!

Well the lights are flickering in spite of the generator so I must go.

Love Always,
Steph

Nate hopefully updated that I made it safely to Nigeria. We landed in Lagos on Tuesday afternoon after a pretty good flight. We lucked out and had fairly empty flights on the way to Amsterdam and to Lagos. We sat next to this very nice guy who now lives in Sweden but is originally from Nigeria. He was telling us about the people, the food, the terrain, etc. It was very interesting talking to him. After only five hours of sleep from Monday morning to Wednesday night I was totally exhausted. This showed as Erin and I layed in the hotel bed laughing hysterically for no reason except for the fact the sleepless delirium had set in. The hotel left a few things to be desired…perhaps a toilet seat that wasn’t lying on the floor would have been nice. I did find it humorous that we had a flat screen TV in our room. The only thing about this TV is that it got one channel, and that was scrambled. Our room number was written on the door in pen, and the light bulbs were hanging from the ceiling. I do have to say that it did have air conditioning, which was a blessing until the electricity went out about midnight (which is when the laughter began because it was to hot to sleep).

Wednesday morning we got up and headed to the airport for our flight to Owerri. The flight was interesting. As I said to everybody in the group, they drive airplanes like they drive cars…fast and crazy. We did however land safely in Owerri and headed to the “guesthouse” in Atta. We got there, ate lunch, and then headed to the Mana clinic to see some of the children. Mana is the name of the school/orphanage/clinic that is run by the Jubilee Christian Center whom we are working with. Ben, who started the Mana house is a bishop here and owns the property and house in which we stayed at. Our work at the Mana Clinic consists of doing assessments on the children, primarily checking their spleen size to help track malaria. All the children that go to school at Mana are in a program that consists of getting Vitamin A throughout the month, as well as doses of anti-worm medication. It has been proven that giving Vitamin A helps reduce mortality by 25%, so this is huge! We saw the school children yesterday and saw more of the village people today.

I have to say that last night was the most miserable night of my life! This was due to three factors…the HEAT, lack of sleep, and the inability to have any contact with people from back home. The phone that I had did not get reception at the guesthouse and there is no internet there. The fact that there is no internet is not surprising considering that there is no electricity. So thank you to Dad Veldman for all the flashlights, they are coming in quite handy! There is a generator that runs for a few hours at night during dinner and into the late evening hours. After dinner Erin and I tried to get settled into our room. Being the resourceful young women that we are, we finally got our mosquito nets rigged up with hair ties, hair clips/pins, string, and a clothes line. We had two nets over one double bed which we had to share. Now if it were 70 degrees in that room it may not have been a big deal. However, when it’s 90 degrees and you’re attempting to sleep while avoiding touching a mosquito net and at the same time trying to avoid spooning with Erin, it’s not the most comfortable. I did fall asleep around 10:00 and woke up in a panic around midnight. I felt as though I was suffocating and couldn’t breathe because there was no air movement due to the fact that we had to close our door so that people couldn’t see inside our room from outside the gates that surround the property. I have to admit, I laid there and wondered how I was going to get through the night and wondered if I had made the right decision in coming. I had prepared myself to be miserable, but I was not prepared for this. Mike (Dr. Talberg) has been coming here for years and even he said that it was the most miserable that he’s been. To top it off, I had to go to the bathroom (in the dark since there is no electricity), with no toilet seat. That’s right, toilet seats are evidently a luxury item over here. I should have some great quads by the time I come back to the states. After a little pep talk from Erin (while she was also complaining about the heat and sweating her butt off) and some deep breaths of stagnant air I finally fell back to sleep around 3:00. I slept very well until around 6:00 when the prayer/singing service started outside our room. After last night, we have decided to stay at Queen’s house (she is a nurse at United as well and is originally from Nigeria) where she will hopefully have a generator going all night so that we can have a ceiling fan going. I am really hoping for some good sleep tonight!

Today we went to the clinic to work, but stopped at the Mana school before starting clinic. It was so wonderful, and I was soon reminded why it was worth it to be so miserable last night. The children were full of love and laughter. They loved having their pictures taken and thought it was so funny to look at their picture on the digital camera screen. I wish that I could upload pictures to the blog, but due to lack of technology here I can’t. I will definitely put up some pictures when I return home. At the clinic we saw some children, and then also did some physical assessments and blood pressure screenings on adults. It’s funny to see the children laughing and having so much fun at school, but as soon as they come into the clinic they are very serious and it soft spoken. They take it very seriously and are very well behaved.
I don’t know how much I’m going to be able to update the blog, but have asked Nate to put some updates on here after I talk to him on the phone (which I’m hoping will be every other day). We are planning on heading to Anusha (I believe this is the name of the village, it’s about 1 ½ hours from Atta) on Saturday and will be staying there until Monday evening. We are going to be setting up some outreach clinics there. I believe that we’ll also have a chance to go to the market while we are there also, so I’m looking forward to that.

The food has been ok, and I’ve been able to eat a lot of pineapple and rice. I did eat some meat that they said was beef the other night, and had some “suey” which is beef (that’s been sitting out in the sun all day) that is highly seasoned with spices and is then grilled. It was actually pretty good. We had baked beans for breakfast this morning which was kind of interesting. Who knows what’s on the menu for tonight. Tonight we had amazing rice as well as black eyed peas and fried plantans. I also tried some chicken that seemed a bit tough which is somewhat concerning to me. I’m always a bit leery about trying the meat in third world countries.
I would like to report that Erin just came out of the shower and is having a large panic attack. She took her shower with a large cockroach and is slightly freaked out to say the least. Time for me to go and give her a pep talk and remind her why we like showering with geckos (by the way, Erin pulled the tail off one when she tried to take it out of the bathtub last night) and enjoy sweating as soon as we get out of the shower. She is now rolling around in bed moaning about how hot it is. It could be another long night! J

I thank you for checking in and thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. I wish that I were able to update more frequently and had more time to give you more details of what we’re doing. The group that I'm working with does great work over here and I'm so excited to be a part of it! I’m hoping that Nate is able to give you some updates after I speak with him on the phone in a couple of days.

Love you to all!
Steph

The first night....

Hi everyone, I just spoke with Steph again and she filled me in on her first night in the village of Owerri where they are staying. She described it as "the most miserable night of my life".... Evidently it barely gets below 80 degrees at night and there is nothing to circulate the 100% humidity filled air to at least help. She said she got about 5 hours of sleep and it sounded like it was mainly because she had only gotten the same amount in the previous 48 hours and her body just needed to recharge even in the muggy conditions. She also shared with me that there are no seats on the toilet so you women that are reading this can imagine how fun that must be....sometimes it's nice to be a guy!

Anyway, she said they went to a local worship service this morning and it was a blast. After that, they went to the clinic today near the school and orphanage and got to play with the children there for the afternoon which was the highlight of her day. The excitement in her voice is immediately recognizable when she talks about interacting with them and making them smile and laugh. She said she has taken lots of pictures and can't wait to share them with everyone when she gets back!

Another person in their group whose name is Queen is from Nigeria I'm told and still maintains a house there so they went there this evening and will be staying there for the next 2 nights. Sounded like everyone was really looking forward to the ceiling fan that Queen has in her house in hopes of getting a few hours of "comfortable" sleep. From there they will be heading to the town of Arusha for a couple days to work at a clinic there. The main things they are doing at the clinics are overall assessments of the children and checking their spleen sizes which is a good indicator of whether or not they have contracted malaria.

She said the city is run primarily on generators which leaves the electricity to chance it sounded like although she was optimistic that she would have an internet connection perhaps as soon as later today/tonight. If she does, she said she will of course update the blog with firsthand information. Reading some first hand accounts of her amazing journeys over there certainly will be exciting and welcomed even it includes her correcting the inevitable errors in my witty 2nd hand translated narratives!

In closing, she is doing very well and doing lots of good things over there. Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers - they are greatly appreciated!

Until next time,
Nate

Update

Hi everyone - this is Nate. I spoke with Steph today and she said it doesn't look they will have electricity over there which also means no internet I'm told. She asked that I update the blog with her events as often as possible so here goes. Just remember, I may not get everything right so please don't shoot the messenger!

I spoke to Steph for about 5 minutes today around 11:30 am central time which I believe would make it 6:30pm in Nigeria. Today they arrived in Owerri which is the town/village where the clinic is located. Steph said they spent last night (Tuesday) in Lagos which is the town they flew into from Amsterdam and it sounded like the plane ride was fairly uneventful. Steph said she was running on approximately 5 hours of sleep since she woke up Monday morning the day they left, so as you can imagine, she was exhausted. The flight from Lagos to Owerri was just a couple hours and once they landed in Owerri, it sounded like they didn't waste any time getting over to the clinic and putting their skills to good use. They spent the afternoon working at the clinic and I assume getting acclimated to their new environment. She said it is very hot there and that will take some getting used to. She is staying in a 3 bedroom guest house and since there are 6 of them on the trip, I'm not sure if that means there are 2 people sharing a room or there are 2 guest houses. She said there was running water, but no electricity. Like I said, our conversation was very short and she closed by saying she was going to go take a shower and still needed to set up her mosquito netting around her bed. Kind of makes me think the 6 inches of snow we're supposed to get here in MN tomorrow not seem so bad....

She thanked everyone for their thoughts and prayers and I do as well. They will be doing some great things over there and I will update you as often as possible.

Regards,
Nate

Five hours...

Five hours till departure, and the nerves and anxiety are building. The bags are packed and hopefully full of everything that I'll need for the next two weeks. I'm so anxious to get there (and get off the plane) and see where we'll be working, meet the people we'll be working with, and see the conditions in which we'll be staying. There is so much unknown, and being the "type A" person that you all know I am, there is bound to be a bit of anxiety. I am just looking forward to getting there, getting settled, and getting to work. I know that it's going to be another amazing experience, one that I am so grateful for.

I have to admit that it is more difficult leaving this time around, mainly because of Nate. As mushy as it sounds, it will be hard to be away from him for that long when we're used to talking multiple times a day and seeing each other. However, his support of me and this trip has been amazing and for that I am so grateful. I know that he's excited for me and truly wants me to enjoy this experience as it's something that has been a dream of mine for years. So I thank him, and all of you for your support. I could not do this without all of you.

I'm hoping that my next update will be on Wednesday after we arrive in Owerri. I can't wait to share some of my experiences with you!

Love Always,
Steph

One week to go

I set up this website to try to keep you all posted on what I'm up to during my time in Nigeria. I'm not sure how reliable the internet will be there, but I will do my best to update on a daily basis. I'm hoping to be able to add some pictures to the website during my time there, but we'll see.

It's hard to believe that I'm leaving in just over a week. It seems like so long ago that I started to plan this trip. I want to thank each and every one of you for all your love, support, donations, prayers, etc. As you know, it has been a dream of mine for quite some time to travel to Africa and do this type of work. I feel so incredibly blessed that I have this opportunity, and am so grateful for all of the support that I've received from so many of you!

For those of you who don't know, I'll be traveling with a group of six people including myself. Four of them I work with at United, and the fifth person being my friend Erin (who moved to Des Moines last year). The organization that I'll be working with is "Bridging the Gap". During our time in Nigeria we will be working primarily with children in the village of Owerri, and I believe that we'll be doing some outreach clinics as well. Ben,who has been my contact person in Owerri, has promised me that he has plenty of work lined up for us when we arrive. I am so anxious to get there and get to work!

We leave on Monday the 23rd, but won't arrive in Owerri until the 25th (I'm not looking forward to the long plane ride). I'll be arriving back in Minneapolis on Friday March 6th. Feel free to check in on the website whenever. I look foward to sharing some of my experiences with you and I thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for all your support. It means more to me than you can possibly know.

Love Always,
Steph