arrived

Hey all,
After the 16-hours in the air plus layovers and driving, I can say that being here in Nigeria is so worth it. Also, I'm so excited to finally be able to tell you all of you about what God is doing over here in Jos. Nigeria is gorgeous, below is a picture I snapped during a hike we took.

This country is nothing what I would have imagined Africa to be like. However, I've been told that it's only incredibly lush because we have just entered the rainy season! There are two seasons here--rainy and dry. I had this idea that the temperature here would be extremely hot and intolerable, but because it downpours for 30 minutes or so a day, the weather is like upper 70s and sunny for the rest of the day. There's a picture below of the staff kids playing in the rain, they're out there enjoying every second of our downpours.


This first week we visited the CLAPAI (Child Love And Protection Advocacy Initiative) children's home. All of the children that live there have in some way been impacted by HIV/AIDS, whether their caregivers had/have it or they have it. The children are so sweet and full of life! We'll be working with this children's home very closely all summer and I'm so excited to get to know the 15 children that live there. Below are a couple pictures of the kids at CLAPAI.


I'm interning here with 4 interns--two from Iowa, one from Tennessee, and one from Ohio, and am here with two staff families, the Ramos' and the Guckenbergers. Almost all of us are living cozy under one roof, learning the true meaning behind living in community. Below is a picture with two of the Ramos' sweet boys.


We've visited the Kisayhip village area where the future Back2Back campus will be. This land where Back2Back will be is absolutely beautiful! I'll have to post pictures later. There's something about these giant stacked boulders and lush, rolling hills that is just breathtaking. As for animals... we saw a few monkeys running around on the rocks when we were hiking, there's cute lizards everywhere, and surprisingly, I've only seen one spider and two cockroaches while in Jos.
Later on during the week, we visited the children's home OLA (Our Lady of Apostle), which is an orphanage and hospital staffed by nuns. I think it's amazing that even though kids can have these terrible pasts and endure such hurt, somehow--if you work hard enough, you can still get them to laugh and smile. And personally, for me, that's all I need. If I get a smile, that just fills me up with more energy to continue loving on them and pursuing their heart. I put together a few pictures of Jos, CLAPAI (kids in red), and video of our time at OLA real quick... I'll have that up as soon as the internet stays connected for a solid amount of time. It's been such a blessing to be able to have electricity here so often. Most homes in Jos don't have electricity, so there's not that large of a push to have consistent electricity. We can usually count on it going out at least twice per day here, but it's been phenomenal to be able to stay connected to the world when I can.
Our first group comes on Sunday! They are from Kentucky and will be living with us for a week. I'm excited to see how God uses their time here and how they are impacted during their time in Africa.
I'm sure I left out many things, but know that where we live is super safe, this place is gorgeous, and God is doing incredible things in Jos, Nigeria this summer. Thank you for your prayers and support!


Sorry, your browser doesn't support the embedding of multimedia.