CALUM Donald is a North-east loon who's spending this year in Nigeria with charity Mission Africa. On this blog he'll be giving a glimpse of day-to-day life in the village of Ogugu, and of his work teaching English in schools and offering support to HIV/AIDS victims. Calum's picture gallery

6th May, 2010

RAIN. Lots of rain. Rain in the eyes, rain in the underwear.

After many months with next to nothing, it is finally pouring in Nigeria once again. We are slowly edging from dry to rainy season, and I couldn’t be happier.

This week, I am down in Kogi to do some follow-up visitations of some clients, as well as greeting all of my friends.

When we drive into the village, it feels like I’m coming home. Every few metres there is someone I know, and I shout their name as the car crawls through the mass of people.

When we arrive at the house, people come running up to see us. Many hugs and greetings are shared before we head to my old house. Asabe lives here now, a great girl from Plateau State. She has taken over from Ryan’s job as being in charge of the Circle of Hope Orphan Care Programme. The house, needless to say, is cleaner and more homely than it once was!

I can’t wait. As soon as I dump my bags, I go up to visit as many people as I can. First to Sarah and Joshua, a mother and baby who came for help to the house back in October. Then to Rev Emmanuel’s, my House Help’s place, and as many people as I can cram in before it gets dark.

I come home and have a quick dash of beans porridge before heading up to Sam’s house to sleep. The weather doesn’t bother me at all and I have a great rest.

The next day I wake up and trek round lots more houses. I start off with work, so I visit everyone I need to, to check up on their health and general wellbeing.

After that, I visit the rest of my friends. These tasks are a pleasure, and I both love and miss them.

As I sit in the house, I can hear the sounds of the kids singing in school, the birds and the crickets, the faint whir of a passing motorcycle. I can smell beans porridge cooking on the fire, the smell of newly-fallen rain and flowers blooming in the garden.

I think it’s safe to say I’m happy to be back, even if it’s just for one week. Tortoise blood and giant rat to celebrate, anyone? First round is on me ...

6th April, 2010

Dust. Lots of dust. Dust in the eyes, dust in the underwear.It can only mean one thing – Hamatan has struck again.

Hamatan is the wind that blows down south from the Sahara, and it’s very dry and very (you’ve guessed it) dusty.

Right now, all the way across the northern part of Nigeria, Hamatan affects everything. As you look into the distance, it’s extremely hazy, and very hard to see. People in Jos have even been driving with their lights on in the middle of the day. You can dust all the surfaces in the morning, and by the afternoon it’s completely filthy again.

I’m settling in to Jos now, in the northern state of Plateau. And, as the name suggests, it’s high up – in fact, I’m living further above sea level than Ben Nevis! This makes for cool temperatures compared to the rest of Nigeria, and the humidity is nothing compared to Ogugu where I was before.

I have also been given a car, as I did in Kogi. Driving in Jos is a challenge every day and, to be honest, I love it. You have to be aware of everything - from the motorbikes cutting in and out of the cars, to the lorries barging their way through.

I have been settling into work as well here, and I have been visiting the Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS) to organise a timetable. My work with them will be much the same as at was in Kogi State, with HIV prevention, testing, counselling and aftercare the main focuses of my work.

I will also be working with City Ministries. Many people from across the world come and work in Jos, and many of them work in City Ministries. It is the collective term for many orphanages, groups and centres that are in and around Jos. They cater to kids mainly from 4-18, helping to teach and care for them.

Life is different here, as they have everything from internet cafes to butchers. It’s more comfortable as well, with strong, regular electricity, an oven, freezer etc. But I still can’t help but miss Ogugu.

8th March, 2010

SO, THIS is it.

I’ve been in Ogugu for six months now, and as arranged I’m now moving to the city of Jos in the north-central zone of Nigeria. A move that my granny and mother aren’t too pleased about, due to the frequent outbreaks of extreme violence between Muslims and Christians in the area.

In the last decade or so, hundreds, if not thousands of people have died, and the city is well known in Nigeria – and the rest of the world – for its religious clashes.

In fact, just a matter of days ago, hundreds of people, including women and children, were killed in the villages of Zot and Dogo-Nahawa, just outside Jos.

The massacre was apparently a reprisal for an attack in January which cost hundreds of lives and displaced thousands. Houses and churches were firebombed, and men, women and children lost their lives.

The area is not as dangerous for me as it sounds though, otherwise Mission Africa would not send me there. On a normal day you can move around perfectly safely, as long as you use some common sense. There is a curfew still in place from 6pm to 6am, and there are rumours that it will now be made permanent, to avoid any future altercations.

Of course, I will miss Ogugu. The Igala tribe, who make up the overwhelming majority in the village, have always been friendly and welcoming towards me in everything. Being British has given me an all-access pass to work where I like, and I am very grateful for that.

A new guy, Asabe will be taking over from my housemate, Ryan, as he is going back to Britain having been here an entire year. They have been co-running the Circle of Hope Orphan Programme in recent weeks, so that Asabe can hit the ground running.

I know that many people must think taking a gap year in Africa means giving up a lot of luxuries. But to be perfectly honest, life has been pretty comfortable so far – in Ogugu I had a generator that ran for four hours a night, a laptop, iPod and phone coverage.
Although there have been some inconveniences like no internet, running water, hot water or electricity, it honestly hasn’t bothered me.

While being here, I have tried to avoid getting too emotionally involved and have become hardened to some of the things I’ve seen and stories I’ve heard. These are traits I think you need to adopt before moving here, but they are not traits I want to take home with me.

On a lighter note, I was in the HIV testing centre when a man came in and said “Good Afternoon sir, I‘m here for the test”. After 20 minutes of counselling, and 10 minutes of testing, turns out he was the mechanic that had come to repair the car!

11th February, 2010

"Can I name my next baby after you?"

Not a question you hear every day, but still, I was flattered when the lady at the local drink stand asked me. Only problem is, she thinks my name is Calott and I was too embarrassed to correct her. Baby Calott it is!

After a nice wee time up north in Jos and Abuja, it is time to go back to work. I headed back down to Ogugu feeling admittedly a little bit unmotivated, but still excited to see everyone again.

Because my house help girl got married and moved to Lagos while I was on holiday (I wasn’t gone that long, was I?), we have a new helper.

I’ve already known her for a few weeks, and I can quite honestly say she is the most fun person I have ever met. Always coming in in the morning singing and dancing, and smiling throughout the day.

Which to be honest is an achievement in itself, given that she washes my dirty underwear every week!

Strange though, I’m only in Ogugu for a few more weeks as we both leave on February 19.

I’m heading to Jos for the second half of my gap year, and my flatmate is heading back to Britain.So I have got a lot to fit in over the next few weeks, starting with visiting the secondary schools.

I’ve already taken my three-week HIV prevention programme into all the primary schools, and now it’s time to move on to the older kids.

They’re a wee bit scarier, as they aren’t really just happy that you’re white. In other words, a lot of the older teenagers are intentionally standoffish to get across that they aren’t impressed that I am here, and won’t be easily won over, unlike the wee kids.

Still, by and large everyone is still really friendly. I was out walking very early one day, maybe 7am, when a kid strolled past me quite confidently, gave me a wee nod of the head and said “good evening”. Still, bless her for trying!

2nd January, 2010

IT’S Christmas, Jim, but not as I know it!

I’m spending the festive period in the ‘short-term house’ in a compound in Jos, which means guards and large gates with razor wire.

Saying that, I do feel very safe here. They speak Hausa up here, which apart from a few words is a completely different language to Igala. Therefore, I understand nothing they are saying! Their English is of a far higher standard than Ogugu, and a lot of people 25 and under speak near-perfect English.

Because of the strong missionary community, there are a lot of places that feel like home here. For Christmas, I was invited to a party at some friends’ house. It was really nice, and good to speak and play part games with people who share the same interests as me.

I’m on holiday for the next 3 weeks, before I travel back to Ogugu to start work again.

On Boxing Day, I met two girls who I came over to Nigeria with in September, and another two friends who are working in Ochadam.

We had a Christmas meal with chicken, stuffing and even Yorkshire puddings! You can find the ingredients for all these things pretty easily in Jos, unlike Ogugu. It was nice having something familiar and celebrating Christmas with friends.

Just before New Year, we hired a driver (public transport is a tad dangerous) and a car, and drove to Abuja. We had been invited to a friend’s house in the capital to see in the bells.

However, this party had a twist. It was Bollywood-themed! So I dressed up in some Indian clothes, and we all enjoyed an Indian meal with Bollywood-themed games and quizzes. We celebrated the New Year an hour before Britain did, so I enjoyed phoning some friends and wishing them all the best.

Pretty strange not being at a ceilidh for Christmas, but at least there was Auld Lang Syne for Hogmanay. And thankfully we didn’t have to sing it in Hindi!

20th December, 2009

THE city of Abuja is like a different world compared to Ogugu, and definitely worth the seven-hour journey.

Nigeria do have buses, but they only run from large city to large city, and definitely don’t run in the smaller areas.

So the public transport down here is literally just guys in their cars who look for anyone who wants to pay to come along for the ride.

The first time I used this “alternative” way of getting around, I was crammed into a car with eight people, even though it was only supposed to fit five.

The driver rammed a screwdriver into the side of the steering wheel and turned it around to start the engine!

Motorists in Nigeria are notorious for quite often driving too fast, and trying some dangerous overtaking manoeuvres.

I found it pretty nerve-racking but then I have inherited the nervousness from my mother’s side of the family.

The only other time I’ve been in civilisation was my very first day, when I flew in from Scotland, so everything was very strange for me.

I’m in town for an Advance Conference. Although I have come out with Mission Africa, Advance are the people I more specifically work with.

They focus on HIV prevention, testing, aftercare, home visitation and training.

They have also recently branched out to child abuse prevention and orphan care. So this week, we did an evaluation on the past year, as well as planning for 2010.

In the evening we went to this beautiful plaza in the centre of Abuja. It is air conditioned, with marble floors and glass everywhere.

I went down to get my hair cut in this very posh place. Why didn’t I get it cut in Ogugu? Well, the barbers there barely know any other style than “shave it all off” and I look about 12 when I have short hair.

The hair cut was fine, even if it did have some dodgy moments. The chair I was sitting on was a massage chair, so I was jiggling around everywhere while he was trying to precisely cut my hair. Made for a funny evening!

After that, we went to a supermarket and got some lovely ice-cream. I could really get used to this Abuja thing, you know.

Still, after the conference was over, I went up to Jos – a city around three or four hours from Abuja. It is on a plateau, so it’s renowned for being much cooler than the rest of Nigeria.

Cool? Try freezing! The temperatures aren’t that different from Ogugu, but at night and in the morning, it’s easily as cold as Scotland. Which is a very different experience for me after the past few months! Still no rain though, it wont even rain once until April.

I’m in Jos to spend Christmas with some friends, and I’ve very much looking forward to it.

We visited a craft shop, where we picked up some presents. I bought a band that was a bit colourful, and on reflection very girly! Just as we were coming out of the compound, a very old lady came up to me, looked at my band, then looked at me and said “You do realise that‘s a girl‘s bracelet?” Priceless!

16th December, 2009

COCKROACH on the face. Is there any worse way to wake up? So far, I’ve also had to handle daily lizards, a hornet infestation, speedy spiders and mice using my bed as a social hang-out.

The spiders here are like a super-race. They are bigger and extremely fast, which makes it difficult if you are hunting it at 1am using your phone as a torch.

This week, I’m in Ochadam. It’s about an hour north of Ogugu, and the heart of the village is Holley Memorial Hospital. The hospital was set up by Mission Africa many years ago, so they always like seeing people from the charity.

This week, I will be taking part in a training seminar, with focus on HIV/AIDS counselling and testing.

I learned a lot, far more than I thought I would as I already knew a fair bit on HIV from my school teaching. Still, we went over prevention and aftercare, antiretroviral drugs and how to educate the community about all the dangers. By the end of the week, I got my certificate and can therefore test and counsel people with concerns about HIV.

When I got back, we headed straight for a local church. I spoke in front of 200 or so people on the ways you can contract the virus, and the ways you can avoid it. After that, two colleagues and I tested and counselled 10 people. I was very nervous, but thankfully made no mistakes.

On the way back from Adupi one day, I passed a man on the road who was so surprised to see a white person that instead of greeting me, or shouting the traditional Enefu, he panicked and just shouted “WHITE!”

1st December, 2009

DUNFERMLINE Athletic vs Raith Rovers. I’m gutted I missed it, and to be honest I don’t fancy my chances of finding any highlights on a Nigerian football channel.

Still, my beloved Pars gave the boys from Kircaldy a hiding, which brightened up my day.

Football here is far different to in Britain. If you saw kids in Scotland kicking a football about, they would most likely be playing a game. But here, anyone from 8 to 18 is happy just to kick and chase the ball. Not my forte – I’m more of a pounce and poach kind of player.

Money is something I still haven’t really go used to in Nigeria. It is 900 naira (£3.75) for a bar of chocolate yet only 200 naira (£0.80) to rend a room for an entire month! Some things are a lot cheaper than in Britain here, like the fuel. And some things are a lot more expensive, like anything that has been brought over from the UK or US.

On my budget, splashing out on expensive imports is not really an option, so I have to stick with Nigerian food. To be honest, it’s pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be plating up with some yam on the day I get back to Scotland but the food isn’t too bad. If you had told me before I’d left that a big plate of beans would be a treat in my house, I would have laughed. Still, Beans porridge is my favourite out here now, and is a mix of boiled beans with palm oil, spinach and onion. Mmm...

The past few weeks, I’ve been getting into the bulk of my work. While I’m here, one of my main jobs is to teach Purpose Driven Youth (PDY) in Primary Schools. Basically, I have made up a three-week course that I am going to take into the Primary Schools of Ogugu.

Even though it’s not very big, there are so many kids, with around 8 primary schools in and just outside Ogugu. I go to one school for one day, for three weeks.

The courses are HIV/AIDS, team building and bible study. The first school I go into is called St Teresa. It is a Catholic School, run by nuns and one of the best schools I’ve been to so far in Ogugu.

I’m setting up a pen-pal link between Mintlaw Academy (my old secondary school) and QIC Secondary out here. I am also doing the same with Macduff Primary and St Teresa Primary. It’ll be great to set up the connection so they can talk about the vast differences in cultures.

I was walking down the market the other day when a man walked up to me and asked a simple question – “Want to buy a wife? Unsurprisingly, I passed. Don’t really fancy taking home a wife with my yam and onions today – my bag isn’t big enough.

23rd November, 2009

HOT. Very hot. When I went to Singapore or Malaysia on holiday it was different as you can always turn the air conditioner on and get a cold coke from the fridge. But here, air conditioning is somewhat thin on the ground, and the best you can hope for is a fan which cools the sweat on you forehead.

Today is my first day in Adupi (pronounced AH-doo-pee) which is a village just less than an hour from Ogugu. I’ve been asked to teach there all Monday, every Monday. And today is my first day. The road there is made up of a strange mud and clay mixture with a bit of sand thrown in. If your not driving slowly to avoid breaking your car in the potholes, your driving cautiously to avoid your car slipping in the clay.

I’m going to be honest – I love it! Driving here is so much more fun than Britain. There are no markings or road signs, which makes finding places pretty much impossible if you don’t know exactly where they are. This all adds to the excitement though, especially with everyone giving you a friendly wave at the side of the road.

Come to think of it, there has barely been anyone that hasn’t been very friendly to me since I’ve been here. From the police to reverends, everyone has been lovely. When you speak Igalan (their local language) to them, they either laugh at your attempt, or are excited by it.
Sometimes I keep to English to avoid embarrassment, which is bad as I’ve been here for two months!

A local saying to show sympathy is “Sorry-oh” which is said if something bad is happening/has happened to you – anything from stubbing a toe to losing a loved one. Still, it’s reassuring when you fall over in the market and a chorus of “Sorry-oh” come out from a stall, a doorway and behind a bush. Beats Scotland, where if I fell over in the middle of street the only noise would be laughing or the snap of a camera phone.

Adupi school is lovely. The building itself is over 25 years old, so it has seen better days. The school is small but personal, with 20 students enrolled. Every Monday, I split them into different age groups. I take one group for the morning, and the other teacher takes the second. They know the alphabet off by heart, but unfortunately their imaginations haven’t really been nurtured.

When I asked them to imagine and draw their favourite animal, they were stumped. Even when it was translated into Igalan, the kids still didn’t know what to draw. I asked them what their favourite animal was, and I got the usual – goat, chicken or dog – but still, they could not put it onto the paper.

Still, the kids are great and with names like Happy, Joy and Success, who couldn’t love them?

9th November, 2009

MARKET day in Ogugu is very interesting.It’s called a Five Day Market, which unsurprisingly means that every five days they have a large market where people from all around come and sell things.

It is extremely colourful and intriguing for any foreigner to gaze at. Everybody heads to the Five Day Market, whether they are buying, selling, working at a stall or being a carrier for someone. The latter basically means your job is to walk around the market with a wheelbarrow and people pay you to carry their shopping back to their houses. You don’t get that type of service in Lidl!

The market road in Ogugu is a long dirt road with even more speed bumps than suburban Aberdeen. On either side there are small wooden stalls with ageing Igalan women flogging their wares. Basically, all stalls sell just about the same things. Ground nut, pure water and an assortment of very old-looking bread and eggs.

Next to where they sell chickens and tortoises (yes, they eat both) is the chief’s palace. In most villages around here, there is a village chief. He basically is the governor of the village, and everything big that happens has to go through him. We went for a formal visit, so I slapped on my shirt and trousers and went with Ruben to go and see him.

Ruben works in the same HIV centre as me, and looks out for us when people are charging us white-man prices in the market! We walk in the chief’s room, and there are maybe 50 men sitting around with the chief on his throne in the centre.He sits down as he asks me my name and what I am doing in Ogugu.

He then allowed us to stand next to him for a photograph, which was nice. It is little things like this that make me realise that I am living in a place where tribes and tradition are still very important.

On Saturday, we drive to Ankpa. It is the nearest big town and the only place where you can get internet connection! Our car is a bit of a disaster zone. It always has one problem or another, and has to be fixed every few weeks.

There are no seat belts, mirrors, speedometers or working electronics. It also has a slightly worrying tendency to turn off half way down a road, or you can be hurtling along at 60mph(ish) and suddenly the breaks lock. Already we have crashed into another car, but bizarrely the driver took no notice and just drove off!

There was one man I saw with his wife and two small children on his motorbike ... and the family goat strapped to his back!

When we arrive in Ankpa there are the usual children who beg for money when we stop the car, but as I’ve said before it is impossible to give to everyone who asks, and if you give to one person word travels fast.

On the way home there are children dressed only in a drape who stand at the side of the road holding up bush meat – basically any type of meat that can be found in the Nigerian wilderness.

This time, it is a grasscutter, essentially a giant rat that is surprisingly expensive and tastes like gammon. Never thought I’d be eating rat, but munching on tortoise is a step too far!

19^th October, 2009

RUSTLE. Rustle. I sit up straight in bed. What’s the noise? Is it an invader?

No, it’s just one of about seven turkeys that like to think they share this house with me.

Who needs the zoo when you’ve got rural Nigeria in your back garden?

After shoo-ing the turkeys, goats, sheep, lizards and small children out of our garden, I sit on a log for a moment to take in the view.

Our house is built in the middle of about an acre of land, cordoned off by a hand-made wooden fence which tries (and clearly fails) to keep the wildlife out.

The land surrounding Ogugu is a vast spread of green with a thousand different shades, specked with palm trees and brown houses made from mud and bricks.

It may be green and lush but it’s also really hot today, so I think I’ll do my work indoors.

We hire a local girl, Becky, to be our “house help” – which basically means she cooks and collects water for us.

Happily, this eliminates the risk of death from me trying to cook the small selection of foods they have here.

There is something rather humbling about your food for the next two weeks coming in a dirty wheelbarrow.

Four large, muddy yam (a vegetable a bit like a potato), a bag of beans, a bundle of plantain (similar to bananas) and some actual bananas – the latter being a treat.

Cooking takes a while, so Becky being here frees up our time to focus on working.

The local language here is Igalan, and it’s proving very hard to learn.

There are over 450 different languages and 150 million people in Nigeria – I could not go anywhere more diverse and rich with culture in Africa.

The first word any white person learns is “Enefu” which means... white person.

This is said mostly by kids at the side of the road, who are amazed that an Enefu is in their village.

The first couple of weeks here have been spent meeting a LOT of people!

In Nigeria, the norm is for a visitor to just turn up at your house to say hello.

This makes it rather eventful when you get a knock on your door with the ninth visitor in the past hour!

Everyone greets us, as we are the only white people for miles. Still, it is nice to meet everyone and hear what their stories are.

Already, we have set up a library in which locals can come and read books, study and generally have a peaceful few hours.

The kids gather outside and get excited when we arrive. They all want you to play games with them, give them money, buy them food or get them water.

As you can imagine, we can’t buy food or give money to everyone, so the Mission (Qua Iboe) suggests we give to no one.

It gets to a point where you are so sick of saying no and feeling mean when you can easily afford to buy them a coke for 50 Naira (20p).

However, word of this soon gets out and you have 16 kids at your door all wanting a coke. You can’t win!

Still, coming from Britain, where you can get 24-hour electricity, broadband and any food you could ever want two minutes down the road, it is hard to come somewhere that has no power, no running water, and certainly no internet!

In fact, just to post this blog I need to travel over an hour down a potholed track and encounter about five roadblocks, which varied from the Army to Nail Boys (guys who throw a bit of wood with nails in front of your car and demand money).

Still, the atmosphere here is generally friendly and welcoming – and despite being thousands of miles from the North-east, I definitely feel at home.

28^th September, 2009

I'M sitting in the car. Nervous, excited and feeling a little bit tired from the flight. We drive from the airport and I can’t stop looking out the window and wondering just what the next year has in store for me.

My name is Calum Donald, and over the next 12 months I will be living in Nigeria as part of a volunteer gap year placement.

I am here with an organisation called Mission Africa (Qua Iboe) and I’ll be in the south of the country for 6 months, working in the schools to teach English, as well as coaching football and continuing an HIV/AIDS programme in churches and schools, before moving to the city of Jos in the spring.

The first thing I noticed was that the drivers don’t seem to be too concerned about, well, living, as they undertake and pull out without signalling or even checking their mirrors.

Strangely enough, and much to my mother’s horror, this excites me more than it should – driving to work will be like a rally race every day!

I didn’t sleep in the six-hour journey from the capital Abuja to Ogugu. Was it because of the threat of a bloody, violent death every time we reached a roundabout? Maybe.

Was it the fact that people by the roadside pointed at me and made the “gun” sign with their fingers to their temple? I can’t rule it out.

Or was it just that I actually slept well the previous night – my first in Nigeria.

It’s not that hot here at the moment, surprisingly. Which is good for me, as I am a pale boy from Aberdeenshire. Buchan is quite warm enough for me.

We aren’t allowed to go any further south than Ogugu, because of the recent rise in kidnappings of white people by a local group. Just don’t tell my Granny the last bit.

Ogugu is bigger than I expected. The roads are shocking and are littered with potholes that we need to drive round every 50 yards or so (not so different from Aberdeen, then).

I am living in a small house with Ryan, a fellow worker with Qua Iboe.

The house has no running water or mains electricity. In fact, the whole area doesn’t get electricity.

We have a small generator that we turn on now and again to charge up our iPods!

There is something strangely back-to-basics that I enjoy about this place.

Washing with river and rain water is fine, and it is peaceful and pure without many cars or bright lights.

I’m going to enjoy it here...

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