wow, it has been forever since i have written on this thing! sorry about that. once i got back from africa, i hit the ground running at work and have been going like mad since then.
honestly, its been so long since nigeria that this post may be somewhat hard for me to write. but i am going to give it my best shot since i know i will want to remember the trip for the rest of my life.
so in my part 1 post, i talked about how hard it was being there, and how much devastation and poverty was in the world around us. it literally was the hardest thing i have ever done to drive by the saddest, poorest homes and people with literally nothing and leave them knowing i had so much nigerian money in my purse that i would never use. i struggled with that daily.
but, on the positive side of things....once we got the hang of the trip, the girls and i really started enjoying ourselves. on the work side of the trip, we were learning how to facilitate and deliver a 6 hour training class. each day, we would have to learn a new section of the training and deliver it to a full class of students the next morning. it was SUCH a challenge learning that much information so quickly, and fighting fears of talking in front of people, but by the end of the week we had all improved SO much. it was insane. now, looking back, i cannot believe how much fear i had that first day of presenting. my voice shook and i was sweaty and nervous. its june now and i have hosted a training class pretty much every week since i got back. my class is mandatory so i usually have between 30-40 people in it. no biggie!
the nigerian employees were some of the kindest, funniest people i have ever met. they were so thankful for us being there, so thankful for us to be teaching them, and they were so excited to have a real american (me) in their building. they would ask us to take pictures with them when the classes were over. we felt famous!
every day, we would wake up at 5am, catch our bus at 6, ride about an hour and 15 minutes to the office, and have coffee and catch up with emails til our classes started about 8:30-9. then we would teach until lunch time, take an hour for lunch, then teach until about 3pm. our bus left the office at 5 sharp, then we would go back to the home base, shop in the little commissary, and eat our dinner prepared by the home base chef at 7. after dinners, we would study and practice for the next days presentations, shower, and go to bed around 10-11. they were LONG days, and the trip seemed to last forever, but when i got home it seemed like i had just left. weird how time works like that.
when i got home from the trip, i had a bit of an emotional breakdown. it was so hard coming home to decent roads, clean water, and easily accessible food when i knew i was leaving so many people in nigeria without those things. we tend to take for granted how easy we have it here. sure, its so easy to complain about things and get involved in the petty small stuff, but in reality, there are people in port harcourt who didnt know where their next meal was coming from. mothers would have 6 or 7 babies in case some of them didnt make it, which is a sad but true thing that happens. i saw a baby girl getting her daily morning bath at 6 am in a baby pool in front of her shack. the trip truly made me appreciate my life and taught me that we have so much to celebrate and be thankful for. it also showed me that the nigerian people are strong, funny, and love to laugh. the people i met there are seriously some of the kindest, most down to earth people i have ever met.
so thank you nigeria! i loved getting to visit and learn about you, and to learn about myself.
