T.I.A

<--[My first view of Nigeria from the airplane and the Sahara that I got to see for about 3 hours out of my window-->]

If any of you have ever seen the movie "Blood Diamond" (I highly recommend it), you may be familiar with the phrase T.I.A.: This Is Africa. I thought I understood it before, but just being here 5 days has shed some blazing new light on the concept. You may be wondering why I'm writing a blog since I'm supposed to be off somewhere doing my best to run my first Nigerian youth camp. Well...this is Africa. No, that doesn't mean that I'm writing this via some REALLY cool, advanced piece of technology available only in Nigeria. Here's what it means. Friday morning I am in the shower, going through things in my head and making sure I have everything together that I need to leave for camp @ 10 when I hear some knocking outside my b-room window. My window opens up to the same hallway that my front door does but it's hard to tell which door someone's knocking on becaue everything echoes. Well, that confusion was cleared up when I hear, "René...?" So from the shower I answer, "I'm here...in the shower. Who is it?" Turns out to be Claudia Long, the director, trailblazer, and powerhouse of this camping ministry. She also happens to be my supervisor and the ride I was looking for. I finish up quickly, throw some clothes on and throw the door open to greet Claudia. We exchange long-awaited hugs and then she informs me that there will be no more camps, they've been cancelled. Then, with much regret and frustration she goes on to explain how the committee heads of this one community waited until the night before staff training was to begin to inform her that they hadn't been able to get enough kids to sign up. There are MANY details involved here (money, agriculture community, Nigerian's reluctance to disappoint, lack of ability to communicate, etc.) but the end of the story was that I would not be rushing off 2 days after I arrived to start camp. This is a bit unfortunate because I won't have a chance to do a camp with Claudia before she leaves for a 6-month furlough(missionary vacation of sorts) and hands the reigns over to me and her other assistant. On the plus side, I got to spend the day (my birthday, by the way) with Claudia asking a zillion questions and then attending a great bit potluck dinner with many of the other SIM missionaries that serve in Nigeria. What a fantasticly diverse and dynamic group of people there were filling that house...not to mention some incredible food. I can't wait to learn how to cook more!! Ah, well, that's enough for this post. I'm sure there'll be more examples of how T.I.A. in the future.