Liz and Aaron Travel Journal

July 16, 2008

We traveled to the village of Begiaba a couple days ago. It is located only a few miles down the road, but due to the poor road conditions, the journey can take up to half an hour by car or 20 minutes by motorbike. This was our second visit to the village after having attended mass there some weeks ago, but our first chance to meet with some of the people and see the school conditions.

It was a Saturday, so school wouldn’t have been in session. Even so, Nigerian public schools are in the midst of a teachers’ strike and have been for the past two and a half weeks. The strike’s intensity is growing and though most students are almost finished with their classes, it doesn’t look like they will return to class anytime soon. Such strikes are common in Nigeria, where government teachers are perpetually underpaid.

The secondary school in Begiaba is in fair condition—the building was renovated late last year—but like most Nigerian schools, is dramatically overcrowded. Administrators have plans to expand the school with the abundance of land surrounding the current building. However, those plans are contingent on finances, which the school does not have at present.

The primary school consists of three blocks, one of which is new, another that is relatively sufficient, and one that is in near ruins. The older buildings do not have chalkboards or cemented floors. The oldest structure is dark, even in the midday sun, and has a corroded roof that, on rainy days, allows enough water to muddy the dirt floor. There are only a few, broken or unfinished desks that provide sitting space for students.

Aside from the schools, Begiaba seems to have developed more than some of the surrounding villages. Chief Sampson, the young head of the village, has taken an active interest in his community’s progress. Begiaba has several provision stores, a multitude of women’s organizations, fertile farm land, and a highly active population that seem genuinely interested in promoting the growth of their village.

Above all, Begiaba has one of the best village health clinics that we’ve seen yet. They have three to four beds; vaccination materials and charts to track those who’ve received the medicines; a maternity room with a scale to weigh newborns, sterilization fluids and materials, and other necessary supplies; a reliable staff of nurses; and even a map of all the water catchment areas in the village. There is a need and a desire to add on to the clinic, but it seems successful thus far.

On July 15, the Little Flower Nursery/Primary School in Ipong celebrated its first graduation ceremony. It was a festive day for the school (founded and operated by CORAfrica) that involved singing, dancing, eating, awards for the top graduating pupils, and heaps of pictures and smiles. As we reported in our last entry, the school needs to build a hall for next year’s primary school children. The crowd of about 150 was able to contribute nearly 24,000 naira for that effort. All in all, the day was a success—the children were beautiful and happy, we raised a little bit of money, Fr. Peter got to bless a cake, and Aaron drank a malt drink (which he is beginning to find irresistible).

That’s all for now. We have only one month remaining in the country—the time goes too fast.

July 8, 2008

We spent the better part of last week in Calabar, the beautiful capital city of Cross River State. Along the way, we drove by villages large and small that dotted the skirts of the paved road from Ogoja. Each settlement we passed rested below the road, showing their selves only as blankets of rusted zinc roofs. They resembled many of the villages and small towns we had seen with collections of market fronts and mud brick huts that seemed to grow organically from red African dirt. We’d heard that Calabar was one of the finest, most charming cities in all of West Africa. As a result, we expected the city to rise dramatically from the trails of humble villages behind. Instead, the city snuck up on us. It was a gradual progression into modern development, first marked by street lights and traffic signs and eventually by artistic architecture representing Nigerian culture and awesome estates.

Calabar is everything it was purported to be. Some of our time was spent seeing the sights and feasting on traditional Nigerian cuisine with friends and family (special thanks to Prince Joe Abue for hosting our joyful stay). Most of the time in the city, however, was spent working on various CORAfrica projects.

We are currently looking at three urgent tasks, the first of which is building a new school hall for the Little Flower Nursery and Primary School. At present, it is but a nursery school. Still required is a new structure with six classrooms to house the primary students who hope to attend the CORAfrica operated school next academic year. Fr. Peter, along with the administrative staff and parents of Little Flower, are looking into a fundraiser launching to raise money for the project. We’ve received an estimate of the costs and a building plan is in place. The only thing missing is the funding, which we hope to secure in the near future. We plan to visit Abuja, the country’s capital, to meet with UNICEF, a possible donor.

Energy is a notorious problem in Nigeria. NEPA, the National Electric Power Authority, has acquired a nickname from residents: Never Expect Power Again. This lack of electricity hinders CORAfrica’s daily operations on a large scale. All energy in the office and in surrounding establishments (including Little Flower) comes from personal generators, which are becoming more expensive to power with the rising cost of fuel. As an efficiency boost to the whole community, CORAfrica is hoping to upgrade to solar energy. We plan on raising the money to pay for enough solar energy to power our office in Ipong, which will cost about 650,000 naira (approximately, $5,555). The estimate for the rest of the project is around 5 million naira ($42,750). We hope to schedule an appointment with the World Bank in Abuja to present our proposal and obtain some part of the amount required.

We’ve also looked at building plans for a health clinic. The current clinic, open only on Wednesdays and with limited staff and limited resources, is in desperate need of renovation or rebuilding. The new one would include a maternity ward and vast improvements to infrastructure and sanitation. Hygiene education workshops may also be included in this plan.

We returned to our home village late Wednesday evening of last week to visit more schools and talk to more teachers, students, and parents. One of the phenomena we’ve noticed is that when we arrive in Ipong, we have that comfortable feeling one gets when arriving home. It’s quite nice. We’re excited to see the people, and they are equally excited to see us. Until our next update, so long.

~ Aaron and Liz

Week One

June 17th, 2008

Hello! After four days in Nigeria, we have already fallen in love with the country and people. We have been discussing several projects we hope to work on while here for the next two months. We are accompanied by another young man, Victor, who is starting a micro-credit program in the village. We will be working on this with him, as well as on many other projects including: improvements to school curriculum and infrastructure; preparing a video presentation to be given throughout the country and in the States; and increasing support for CORAfrica and rural education throughout Nigeria and other countries.

We are also helping to write a proposal for a group of Catholic youth within the parish, who wish to start up a resource center in Obudu. We met with them yesterday and will be working together in the following weeks. We visited the primary and secondary schools in the village and will have the opportunity to return and teach the students some English grammar and writing.

All of the people are some of the most hospitable and generous we've ever met. From the minute we arrived we felt safe and welcomed by almost everyone. We've never encountered a happier, more optimistic group of people. After only a few days here, we already feel settled and are looking forward to the next two months in this village. We met with the village chief, who welcomed us formally and invited us to visit whenever possible.

We are staying in the village of Kakum , which is a part of the greater area of Obudu. Obudu is much larger than we had expected, and we will be conducting a demographic survey to determine the approximate number. This figure will aid us when trying to drum up support for CORAfrica. 

Kakum is much more intimate and our surroundings are quite peaceful and only interrupted by animal sounds, motorbikes, and the joyful laughter of the many children. "Auntie" and "Uncle"—as the children call us—have become two of the most popular attractions in the village. The people are so beautiful, especially the smiling children, who inspire us to continue the work we are doing.

~ Liz and Aaron