Travel

I think a good topic for the first post describing our trip is travel. Although travel is not the most important part of a mission trip, it certainly is a part of any Mission trip. In our case, four to six (depending on how you're counting) out of the 16 days that we were gone were spent traveling. That's at least 25% of the trip! Furthermore, problems while traveling can lead to problems like missing luggage (which is a problem when that luggage contains the general anesthesia machine), or missing people. However, God was certainly at work while we were traveling. Although there were five pieces of luggage filled with medical supplies that didn't arrive until Wednesday of the second week, and although one of the doctors from the states was in a car accident while traveling to visit her parents in Calabar, God kept all of us safe, and we had everything we needed to accomplish the work that He had given us to do.

The most interesting part of the travel were the bus trips. After a full 24 hours spent in planes and airports, the 11 of us from the states spent the night in a hotel in Abuja. The next morning, we met Vincent, our driver, boarded one of the Pro-health buses, and set out for Jalingo. It didn’t take too long to notice that there are several differences between driving in Nigeria and driving in Chicago. For starters, Nigeria must have as many motorcycles as Chicago has cars. For ex, there really aren’t lanes in Nigeria. You just move to the left of someone moving slower than you, being sure to honk so they know you’re there and hoping that you don’t hit anyone driving in the opposite direction. Also, in Chicago you generally don’t see herds of cows wandering on the road, or goats that dart in front of your bus. And while Chicago certainly does have potholes, Nigeria has "sinkholes," which are 20 yard sections of pavement that are missing.

With all these obstacles, you might get the impression that Nigeria is not the safest place to drive. Well, you'd probably be right. However, Vincent was simply an amazing driver, and never once did I worry about our safety. Laura has said at least several times that Vincent was the best driver she's ever met. God certainly used him to answer many of our (and your) prayers about travel safety. And that's a theme (God using Christians from Nigeria to provide for us) that you'll probably be seeing again in later posts.