Dear worried friends and faithful prayer warriors,
Once again, my gratitude is immeasurable for your many emails, messages, prayers, and even phone calls. They humble and amaze me in addition to motivating me to keep posting updates. Though things seemed to attempt to return to normal today, nothing felt normal. The tension and anxiety was visible on everyone's face. And the standard greetings didn't seem like a formality as much today:
Ina kwana? (How was the night?)
Lafiya. Yaya Gagiya? (Fine. How is the tiredness)
Da Sauke. Yaya gida/iyali? (There is improvement. How is the house/family?)
I looked every person I saw in the eye and went through the greetings with the utmost sincerity. Unfortunately, many people had stories to tell. Stories I'm not ready to write in a blog post. Imagine some of the worst, most brutal incidences you've read about concerning African riots and sectarian violence, and you'll have an idea of what's happened in Jos the past few days.
I wish I could say the worst is over, but there are credible reports that more attacks are on their way. Security check points and roadblocks coming into Jos have stopped numerous vehicles carrying guns, ammo, machetes, and hired attackers from all over Nigeria and even surrounding countries. Needless to say, this is bigger than just an election dispute.
Once again, you can likely google "Jos, Nigeria crisis" or something and read up on the situation, but I've also included some pictures and links here. I haven't exactly been around town asking victims to smile for the camera, so these are just the few I've been able to gleen. In the next few days, I'm personally hoping to be able to get involved in the relief efforts when they get organized. Until then, I'll be keeping my ears and knees to the ground.
Once again, my gratitude is immeasurable for your many emails, messages, prayers, and even phone calls. They humble and amaze me in addition to motivating me to keep posting updates. Though things seemed to attempt to return to normal today, nothing felt normal. The tension and anxiety was visible on everyone's face. And the standard greetings didn't seem like a formality as much today:
Ina kwana? (How was the night?)
Lafiya. Yaya Gagiya? (Fine. How is the tiredness)
Da Sauke. Yaya gida/iyali? (There is improvement. How is the house/family?)
I looked every person I saw in the eye and went through the greetings with the utmost sincerity. Unfortunately, many people had stories to tell. Stories I'm not ready to write in a blog post. Imagine some of the worst, most brutal incidences you've read about concerning African riots and sectarian violence, and you'll have an idea of what's happened in Jos the past few days.
I wish I could say the worst is over, but there are credible reports that more attacks are on their way. Security check points and roadblocks coming into Jos have stopped numerous vehicles carrying guns, ammo, machetes, and hired attackers from all over Nigeria and even surrounding countries. Needless to say, this is bigger than just an election dispute.
Once again, you can likely google "Jos, Nigeria crisis" or something and read up on the situation, but I've also included some pictures and links here. I haven't exactly been around town asking victims to smile for the camera, so these are just the few I've been able to gleen. In the next few days, I'm personally hoping to be able to get involved in the relief efforts when they get organized. Until then, I'll be keeping my ears and knees to the ground.
"The Family (Corinne, Marc, me, Dana)" trying to stay updated on what's happening. Better info online than outside sometimes.
Smoke rising from a certain part of town Sat. evening. Notice the difference in the two halves of the sky. Towards the right is where most of the burning took place all day.
Hundreds of dead bodies have been taken to the mosques for their burial rites to be said over them. No good figure of the death count so far, but well over 500.
More burnt out vehicles. Ironically, they torched this parking lot of fire engines. Imagine, sending a fire station up in flames. article about how this is affecting the rest of the country:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200812020825.html
HOWEVER, as I write this blog, a smoke-filled sky billows outside my window and I’ve heard gunshots for the past 3 hours. Since early this morning, people were out on the streets gathering and stirring up trouble. Down in the center of town, where the main mosque is located, houses and churches are being burned, people are being attacked, and federal soldiers are attempting to keep order. I figured I would still get dressed and head over to the office (just across the street) until I heard otherwise, but in the parking lot I ran into a colleague and he said, “The city is not at peace. The office will not be open today. See the smoke? The city is not at peace.” Soon I was receiving text messages saying to restrict all travel around Jos and make sure all gates on our compound were secured. Akim, my colleague who lives near the hospital called to make sure I wasn’t gallivanting around today and told me that he’s seeing many people come to the hospital with gunshot wounds. It is all a bit surreal right now and I’ve no real idea if this could become a much bigger deal. For now, I’m as safe as I can be and it doesn’t SEEM like the gunshots are getting any closer. Please pray for us though. Even if things calm down, homes have already been destroyed and many people have been injured, or maybe even killed. May peace, love and light overcome bigotry, hatred, and darkness. 
