By the
time we left the MTC on Wed., Dec. 11th, Marsha had a dandy cold but fly away we did
after having breakfast with the Justin Logan’s and Paula and then visiting with
Jeff at the airport. Our plane was delayed about an hour so we got to
visit with Jeff longer than anticipated which was nice. We arrived in Chicago
and had a delay there of about an hour and a half. Then on to London
where we had three hours until our flight to Lagos, but after a bus shuttle, a tram shuttle and walking the airport twice we barely made our flight. Due
to John having shaving cream in his carryon luggage, I think we reached the
gate with 10 whole minutes to spare. Of course they loaded the plane to Lagos
and then had 2 hours’ worth of delays on the runway. John was queasy, as
he took his malaria medicine without a full meal, so it was a 'pleasant'
wait. We finally reached Nigeria an hour late and nearly died getting off
the plane into the heat and humidity. Fortunately the couple meeting us
endured the delay and expedited our exit of the airport. Our travel time
was about 26 hours. The drive to the mission home was a blur as it was
already dark and our driver handled the awful traffic without a pause. Our apartment
is small but fine. We were given a 9:00 o'clock dinner and then headed to
bed. The next day was busy with unpacking and meeting folks here.
Saturday the Browns took us grocery shopping and it was quite an adventure. I
miss Costco and super markets. I don't know how to describe the traffic
other than it is worse than shown on the Internet. It takes nerves
of steel to drive here and the cars are just inches apart. Lots of horn
honking. Marsha tries to think of something else. At church on Sunday we were celebrities and everyone was super
nice. It is difficult to understand their English and visa versa.
Monday morning began the mission conference so all 191 young missionaries and
the three couples that live here were all in attendance. The hit of
Monday was the soccer games. Pretty much all day. The food was
African and scary. We helped dish it out for the missionaries and it was all I could
do not to vomit. I don't know what was in it (it is called 'Swallow'),
but it looked and smelled awful. We ate in our apartment. Today they
had a nativity program and it was very touching.
Then the mission
president asked all the couples to sit on the stand and bear their
testimonies. After which he proceeded to address the missionaries for
about four hours. It was inspiring, but my backside was dead. Of
course John had to add to the meeting by pushing a button on his cell phone and
having music ring out from the stand where we were sitting. He was
mortified and I tried to be supportive, but I did chuckle. We have two
weeks to learn everything before our trainers leave, so wish us luck. Merry Christmas.
