Black (and smokey) Friday

smoke over Jos this morning

The day after Thanksgiving being termed “black Friday” is currently taking on a whole new meaning for me. While in the U.S., deal-seeking, door-busting, over-zealous holiday shoppers are getting up at 4am to be the first in line for ---------- (what IS the hot item this season??), certain sects of people in Jos were up at 4am with a very different agenda. Yesterday was actually a public holiday here in the Plateau State. Not in honor and memory of that first harsh winter survived by the grace of God and cooperation of two people groups coming together...actually it was election day. All the local governments positions in the state (equivalent of mayor and maybe House of Representatives), were being voted upon. Thus, there was a “no movement” restriction to prevent wahala (troubles). (on a side note...it seems to me that no transportation could make it difficult for some people to get to the polls, but whatever) While my friends and I opted to indulge in some Christmas craft-making while watching holiday movies, tensions ran high in the area. As I’ve mentioned before, Plateau State, and Jos in particular, is significantly located where the Muslim North and the Christian South of Nigeria meet. Thus, it is viewed by both groups as strategic for control and influence, not just for the local governments, but for the entire country. Plateau’s moto “Home of Peace and Tourism” has been true for most of its history, up until the 2001 Jos Crisis. Since then, Muslims and Christians no longer live in the same neighborhoods and bitterness, mistrust, and fear prevails between the groups. Leading up to elections, I heard a good bit of talk among Nigerians of all the corrupt tactics already going on--bringing in people from outside and forging residency papers, threatening people to keep them away from voting, and bribery. Perhaps it’d be easy for you to refuse a bribe to vote for the “other guy,” but these folks rarely get more than 1 good meal a day, and the Christmas season drives up the prices on everything. All sorts of promises were also made that if “our guy doesn’t win, we will attack!” I try to take all these bits and pieces of information with a grain of salt. After all, Nigerians do tend to dramatize things. So yesterday I layed low, gluttonized (not sure if that’s a legitimate word, but spell-check didn’t notice) at a big festive Thanksgiving dinner with the missionary/ex-pat community here, then enjoyed talking to numerous family members and my wonderful boyfriend. I went to sleep content, thankful, and without a single worry about the situation here in Jos. 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.

“Fill me with peace, that no disquieting wordly gales
May ruffle the calm surface of my soul.”