Welcome to 2008!!

I realize that my post are have some serious chronology issues. Sorry about that. Some pictures and stories are too good to pass over. And besides, this keeps my newsletter updates from being 20 pages long. People often want to wonder how the holidays are spent when they aren't in their "normal" habitat. Where else would I spend New Year's Eve than at the Wildlife Park? A group of us smiling singles serving in Jos thought it'd be cool to camp out ontop this overlook in the park, so rather than try to dodge security and sneak in, we had a chat with the guards. For a small price (especially when split amongst 15 of us) we were greeted at the entrance with smiles as the gate swung open. Other than the savage, wild beasts we were now enclosed with, our safety was taken care of. We toted firewood, guitar, sparklers, s'more fixings (sent from the US...no marshmellows to be found 'round here), sleeping bags, and reflections on 2007 up to the look out. For hours we sat around a fire talking, singing, telling jokes, sharing stories, and daring each other to go ride the elephant. At some point some of us found ourselves in a sleeping bag or under a blanket attempting to catch a few winks. But we all were awake for the first dawn of the year. Here is my first view of Africa in 2008, the sun rising up on my city of Jos and a year of untold adventure.
Well, what better way to celebrate the first day of my entire year in Nigeria than at a tribal dancing festival? So, a smaller gathering of friends and I headed out to the town of Miango for their celebration. I honestly don't think I could ever do justice with my words. First of all, there were tons of these awesome kids that were constantly being yelled at by adults for getting too close to the front. Of couse, since we're batures and we had cameras, we could get as close as we want. We sided with the kids, put our arms around a couple, and secured them a good viewing location. Here's a great pic with Dana, her mom and friend, and myself with a crew of these cuties. When we walked back to our cars, each of us had both hands held by kids who wanted to honor us by escorting us back to my car.


Oh, so the festivities also included all these different groups taking their turn to do a dance in the center of the square arena. Most of the time this involved some sweet drums, stomping, dust flying, singing, and groovy tribal attire. Then, the group would head into this center ring area and people who wanted to pay tribute or reward them for their good performance would go in and place small denominations of money on their head, also called "spraying ". I found out later that spraying has been outlawed in Nigeria. WELL, Dana and I didn't know that at the time, so at one point, we decided to join in the fun, boogied into the center ring after one group, "sprayed" a few performers and started shaking our groove thang. We were the only white people that had done such a thing all day so all the Nigerians got a kick out it. We even got a little spray action ourselves! Dana's mom was able to catch some footage of the jubilation in this video. All in all, I can't think of a better way to start my first full calendar year in Africa. Can't wait to see what else 2008 will bring!