Road Trip!!

The past few days have been so exciting and I don't even know where to begin telling the story! I cannot believe some of the experiences God has blessed me with, and He is continually teaching me new lessons. The biggest one so far is that He is in complete control.

The trip to Benin City has been full of adventure and I continue to feel more and more at home in Nigeria. Our team (Bola-works with NIFES, Edith-his assistant, Derek, Colin, and I) left early on Thursday morning and no one could anticipate what would happen on the way. I usually fall asleep instantly when driving long distances but I couldn't take my eyes away from the countryside. The further we got away from Jos, I started seeing more of the Africa Americans think of. We passed countless women carrying things (jugs of water, food, bundles of wood) on their head and as far as the eye could see was mountains and trees. The roads continued to get worse away from the city, and Edith was quite interested in knowing if we had potholes like that in America. I said some but not like this; here, your entire car could get lost if you hit one. Every so often we would pass a village and the poverty is truly heartbreaking. It was really hitting home how phenomenally blessed we are in America when the car started shaking-a lot! And, we got a flat tire. Then the spare was bad. So here we are, on the side of this highway, in the middle of Nigeria with a broken down car. Bola flagged down a motorcycle and the man was kind enough to take the flat into the nearest town-Keffi to be fixed and bring it back. In the mean time, the main concern was getting all of the white people off the side of the road because if any robbers passed, they would have stolen everything and possibly hurt us. So, God sent a taxi at the perfect time and the four of us (Derek, Colin, Edith, and I) went into Keffi. We rested under a tree and then I look up and my heart stopped. There was a lot of screaming and I saw one man pointing a gun at a car...all I could think was someone is going to die!!! Derek really took care of me and hid me behind a tree while the entire village literally went after the robbers (there were four of them). They were screaming 'Theif!!' and chased them into the field. After realizing we had escaped danger we came out from behind the tree and then heard a gunshot. Apparently there was a policeman undercover who had a gun as well and he shot it to get everyone to back away. Then, the entire crowd came back from the field and the actual police got there and took them away. It was like watching a movie and I couldn't believe it. God had protected us through it all and if we had been on the side of the road when they passed, who knows what could have happened. Edith said if those theives had been caught further North they would have been put in their car and burned alive. I am very glad that didn't happen becuase I don't think I could have handled seeing anyone die. We were on our way just as soon as Bola came and picked us up and he couldn't believe what we had told him. Then, a few hours later we were passing some policemen, well they can't really do anything but they are there to stop cars at their leisure. We got stopped and since Bola didn't slam on the brakes exactly when he directed him to, we made the guy very angry. He asked Bola to get out of the car and even though his paperwork was all there he didn't have an acutal license with him. The cop asked Derek, 'How could you let a man without a license drive you around? Are you stupid?' I really thought he might take Bola to jail but Edith reassured me they just wanted money. Luckily, with God's help, he let us go after simply giving us a hard time. What a journey! We didn't make it all the way to Benin City that day, needless to say and we stopped at a hotel along the way. It was very nice and I enjoyed seeing Edith's reaction-she had never stayed in a hotel before. That is just one of many things I have taken for granted.
The next morning we left early again to complete our journey and although it was a little less exciting, we still hit a few speedbumps. First, Bola didn't know exactly where we were going but that was alright because we found it eventually. Then we got stuck for three hours in a HUGE traffic jam. When I say huge I mean trucks literally blocking us in on every side and sitting in the road for almost two hours. We finally got off and to the University.
Our work here has been very interesting and I am learning a lot about the Nigerians perspective on HIV/AIDS. They honestly don't think it is a threat and believe that AIDS is simply an American invention to take over the world. We got some really good interviews and I enjoy listening the their dialect.
Unfortunately I don't have anymore time in this computer lab but I will post more later. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!! Please continue to pray for safety and good health. Also pray that we begin to interact on deeper levels with everyone.