Starting Over

We had a major religious/political crisis in Jos on Nov. 28/29, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Just three days before the crisis, there was a major fire in part of the Jos downtown market. Because of the crisis and the ensuing tension in Jos, it was at least a month before I entered the main market and saw the devastation for myself.

The news of the fire had been eclipsed by the crisis. In fact, I hardly even remembered hearing about it. Therefore I was shocked at the devastation that I saw when I entered the market. At least 40 shops had been consumed by the fire. The shops are quite small, about 12 feet by 20 feet, all joined under one roof. I offered condolences to a couple of the merchants I knew who lost everything. The fire occurred around midnight, and they don’t really know what caused it.

In the past I often purchased items from the man pictured at the right. After asking him about the details of the fire, I asked as an afterthought, "So how was the crisis for you?"

To my utter shock, he said, “They burned our house and our car, but we thank God that our lives were spared.” I just wanted to weep right there; how could one family lose its livelihood and home and car within the space of three days in separate, unrelated incidents? Jos is a city of approximately 1 million people. The market and his home are about 1 mile apart. What are the odds of that happening?

How do you pick yourself up after something like this? I don't know, but I do know that Nigerians are the most resilient people I have ever met.

Day 3

It seems that the worst of the crisis is over. We heard a few random gunshots from 6-7 a.m. There is a lot of traffic on the main road outside our compound.

Some friends from the north side of town made it to our compound on the south side early this morning. We are so grateful that the violence in their area did not continue through the night.

We now have a city-wide curfew from 6 p.m. til 8 a.m.

Angela, who sought refuge with us, briefly returned to her home this morning. By the look on her face, I knew the devastation was significant. Her home was not burned, but so many homes around her were still burning this morning.

So far we have heard that two of our staff members had their homes torched.

We are being creative with the food that we have. I have actually enjoyed the challenge of coming up with nutritious meals from the bits and pieces of food in my kitchen and freezer. We had banana muffins and Russian tea for breakfast. For lunch we'll have 5 bean soup with some bits of meat from the freezer. I just dumped in what was left of our taco salad (mainly minced meat and beans) from a few days back. I did pick the wilted lettuce out. (I'll see if my in-house food critic notices. Tobi is extremely perceptive when it comes to food. He's only 8, but he can tell if I've used margarine or butter in food preparation. He much prefers butter.) I'm also making whole wheat dinner rolls. We'll have a tasty deep-red Nigerian drink called zobo with our meal. We had made it for Thanksgiving and had a lot left. I think we'll eat outside on the picnic table. Serving lunch to 12 today.

I will send food out to the guards as well. Normally they buy lunch from vendors who are close by. They probably wouldn't think much of the above soup I mentioned. In Nigeria, soup is something you eat with your fingers, not with a spoon! We made okra soup last week and I have just enough for two people. We will serve it with a starch called gari (made from ground cassava).

In Nigeria when eating at someone else's house, it's not polite to completely clean your plate. You're supposed to leave a little bit on your plate. A few days ago when I gave Angela's son a plate of rice, I told him to finish all of it because we can't waste food. When he had a bit remaining, I saw him ask his mom with his eyes if it was really ok to finish all of it.

Bayo is on his way from Abuja now. He has been there for the past 6 days. He had planned to return Friday morn, but was unable to due to the violence. I texted him my shopping list. Stores are starting to open in Jos, but some prices have quadrupled. Prices will come down somewhat, but will probably remain high for quite awhile.

During this crisis we have never felt personally threatened or in harm's way. If we had any trauma, it was mainly just the mental stress of having our city under seige and having to plan ahead in case the crisis escalated. The general population of Jos has faced incredible hardships. Unfortunately there has been much loss of life and untold property damage.

Day 2 and Holding

We had a fairly peaceful night, although the guards told me they heard gunfire throughout most of the night.

My phone rang at 1:45 a.m., and I was instantly awake. Turns out, the person just wanted to know if we were safe. I was wondering why he was calling at that time. Later I remembered that calls are free between midnight and 4 a.m. He probably didn't have any phone credit so he took that opportunity to check on people.

You can find quite a bit of news on the internet today if you google "Jos election violence." For the most part, I think the reporting is quite fair, although I think they have greatly decreased numbers of those injured and dead.

We are actually seeing hundreds of people fleeing from the Tudun Wada area which borders the area we live in. It's mainly women and children. They are not quite running, but they are walking very fast. They are all trying to get to the Air Force base which is a trek of about 2-3 miles.

I saw a family of 6 plus the driver get on a motorcycle this morning. The four children were quite small. I have never seen 7 people on a motorcycle before! The traffic I was able to see appeared to be mainly heading south out of town.

Of course, rumors are abounding. We heard this morning that our church was burned, but just now a member confirmed that only windows are broken.

Tobi just asked if he could play outside. I said no, but that he can watch another video--he sure was surprised. Letting the kids 'veg' out on videos seems somehow appropriate these days. They do know what's going on, but I try not to let them hear details.

Amazingly, we have had uninterrupted power for 36 hours now. I always feel better when we have power. I know I can do email, the kids can watch videos, the lamps provide a warm, homey glow even in the middle of the day, the limited food in the fridge & freezer is not spoiling...

I have had to get very creative with meal planning. It's a good mind-stretching experience. We have food; it's just not in the quantities and types that we would normally have. We are now feeding 5 extra mouths plus our family.

One woman who is with us now went to the hospital at 5:30 a.m. on Friday to line up to get her anti-retroviral drugs for HIV. That hospital is in the area of town where the fighting was quite heavy. She had to stay in the hospital all day because it was not safe to go out. She said many people were taking refuge within the hospital compound. She also said many people with injuries were coming in. By 4 p.m. she was able to trek to her home about 2-3 miles away. She said there were many soldiers on the main roads.

The other woman with us forgot to bring her anti-retroviral drugs for HIV when she fled. These drugs must be taken religiously, at the same time in the morning and evening. It's not possible for her to go back home to get the drugs. If the drugs are not taken properly, the body can develop resistance to the drugs in a fairly short amount of time.

Lives are simply being disrupted in every way imaginable. Some disruptions are manageable; others are devastating. We have heard of numerous homes being destroyed by fire.

Continue to join us in prayer for this situation.