We Have Arrived Safely!!!

2/25/09 @ 7pm

Well, it’s been a long journey, but I am happy to report that we have finally arrived in the village! Starting on Monday afternoon, I flew from Des Moines to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Amsterdam, and Amsterdam to Lagos, Nigeria, arriving in Lagos around 8pm Tuesday night. We were exhausted. We rented a couple of hotel rooms in Lagos near the airport. The “hotel” experience was, well, memorable. I’m still not sure how they could possibly charge us $70/room, but whatever.

Steph and I woke up at 3:30am wide awake. We talked and laughed for the next two hours of the night because we couldn’t sleep – I think we were so sleep-deprived that delirium had set in. Everything seemed funny to us... until we had to get up after only sleeping about 6 hours over the past several days and nights! The time difference is 7 hours later in Nigeria than at home in the Midwest.

This morning we got up early and took an in-country flight from Lagos to Owerri, Nigeria. It was a bit of a turbulent ride and the pilot drove the plane around the turn on the runway like a racecar driver drives a racecar. When we got to Owerri, we had to drive about an hour to our final destination in the village of Atta.

A man at the airport came up to me and asked if we were from the U.S. I told him we were. He said “that’s good!” I said, “Is it?” He said, “Yes! You are Obama people!” We’ve gotten the clear impression that Nigerians are very happy by our country’s recent election results. It makes me less nervous to announce that I’m from the U.S. when asked!

We arrived in Atta and met Ben, the village bishop whose home we are staying in for the next two weeks. Ben and others here were extremely happy to see us arrive, which was nice. We had not even gotten our luggage out of the vehicles before Ben told us we had to go to the clinic because “the village is waiting for you.” Apparently we were wasting no time in getting to work! This was just fine by me, though, because I want to do as much as possible in the few short weeks we’re here! It didn’t hit me until 3 hours in that we had not yet eaten today. We just finished eating for the first time and it’s 6:30pm.

We saw kids from the school in the clinic today for malaria screening and general assessment. We checked their heart, lungs, abdomens, skin, etc. The way we screen for malaria is by evaluating each child for splenomegaly (enlarged spleen), abdominal pain, fevers, difficulty sleeping, and poor appetite. We also rule out typhoid, which can present with very similar symptoms (usually more intense abdominal pain though). We have a laboratory at the clinic where we are able to run basic blood work such as complete blood counts, etc. We are screening all of the school children as well as children from the on-site orphanage for malaria. If we do detect malaria or typhoid, or other such disease, we treat them with medication.

The “program” we are a part of administers Vitamin A supplements (tablets) weekly to each child in the village. Vitamin A supplementation alone has been proven to reduce mortality in under-developed nations such as Nigeria by 25%! It’s a simple way to make a HUGE impact on the prevalence of unnecessary deaths. Vitamin A has many benefits.

These same children also receive a three day course of Mebendazole, which is a de-worming medication for abdominal parasites, every 3 months. 1 in 3 children here have worms at any given time. The most common type of abdominal parasite is round worm.

Today was awesome. It feels like we are part of something that is working here in Atta and has been proven to save lives as well as improve quality of life for these kids. This program is very focused and specific, which is awesome because we can see the difference being made. I am so relieved to finally be here and I was so glad when we were put to work immediately after our arrival. It was perfect!

The people in Nigeria are wonderful. They seem genuinely happy (in fact, they were recently ranked the happiest country in the world!!!) and hopeful, and they are extremely grateful. They want to do everything for us, which is actually pretty awkward at times. They won’t let us carry any of our bags or walk anywhere, even if we want to! They are gracious and kind people, and they seem to like to give us hugs when they meet us! They are so happy to have us here and clearly have a great deal of pride in this country. I feel safe and protected.

Thanks for checking in - I hope to be able to write again soon! Unfortunately, we do not have internet access where we are staying, so we have to go to Owerri each time we want to communicate. We are also having trouble with the cell phone Steph brought to use. Tonight we are feeling very distant and out of touch with people at home. In addition, we are over-tired and extremely hot. It’s not a good feeling. Thankfully, though, we have each other which is helpful.

Good night!!