We’ve been home for 2 days and are just beginning to make some
sense of over 1000 photographs and 5 rolls of video. I hardly know where to
start with stories and impressions. Nigeria is a country packed full of
courteous, kind and hospitable people. We made lots of new friends in a short
amount of time..and most of them wanted to exchange email addresses.
We saw parts of 4 cities and the main highway that connects them—Abuja, the
capital, Kaduna where the National Eye Center is, Zaria where the school for
the blind is and where we helped build the radio station, and finally, Kano,
the most northerly and the most polluted. Nigeria is the most populated
country in Africa and there were crowds everywhere.
Our new adventure started in Amsterdam when we met up with 3 other members of
the surgical team that we assisted at the NEC. Our friend Dr.Linda Lawrence
from Salina was the facilitator for that group and introduced us to Andrew
Gani-Ikilama last year when he was in Kansas. He’s the Executive Director of
Hope for the Blind Foundation and School. Before we left home Linda gave us
many helpful hints about making our trip easier—clothes, habits, food, water,
money, visas.
I guess Pete told you that the first hotel was surrounded by razor wire. Guns
are not allowed in Nigeria by security guards, so we didn’t see a repeat of
all the weapons of Honduras. The team had mountains of luggage because all the
docs brought surgical tools and microscopes and supplies with them as well as
regular stuff. We carried 4 suitcases of medical supplies in addition to our
own 2.
The National Eye Center looks a lot older than it is and is obviously hard to
maintain and way too big for the activity that goes on there. It’s a
government property so requisitioning anything is a huge nightmare of red
tape. The techs we met were very frustrated that they didn’t have the tools
and resources to do their jobs and coveted our computers, cameras and
camcorders. Pete was able to “work around” many of their problems to set up
microscopes, video displays and even fixed an air conditioner and looked at
their internet connection and their generators. He was a real popular guy. It
was my job to take pre-op and post-op photos of many of the patients and get
some of their stories. I also acted as sort of logistics person who kept track
of stuff..
It is common for electricity to go out 2,3, 4 times a day and can stay out all
day at times. It went out in the middle of eye surgery!!! A very classy lady
is the Chief Medical Director: Dr. Mrs. Pamela Ozemela. Breakfast break was at
noon with coffee, tea and meat pies, lunch at 1:30 to 3 PM with full hot meal
tho we weren’t sure what we were eating at times. Some of the food was very
spicy,,, too much for me. Ask us how much we liked Spinach Soup …ugh. Dinner
was after dark and seemed like about 8 PM most days.
We got ferried back and forth to the Hotel in various cars and vans. The
Hamdala was known far and wide as the best hotel in the city. Our room
probably rated a 1 and that was when the hot water was actually coming out. We
had to figure out the switches for the hot water heater and the AC switch was
in a strange place. Only one towel provided. Phones a mystery. The best food
(most recognizable ) was in the hotel—eggs, shrimp, chicken, pancakes, fruit
salad, yogurt and toast all available, none of which was ever seen again after
we checked out and moved to Zaria.
We didn’t handle too much Nigerian money—the naira.. One dollar was worth 125
naira. As recently as last April one dollar could buy 140 naira…. The declining
value of the US dollar is really hurting overseas charities. We gave our cash
to Andee and he paid our expenses for us as well as being our professional
haggler at all the vendors and shops where we bought small gifts. I’ll stop
for now and add another segment soon, Doris
