The 27th good thing about Lagos: Lots of people that God loves are here.

Of course, I know God loves everyone -- I just think he has a special place in his heart and his plan right now for these African people who have waited so long for gospel blessings. I just finished a book this week called "Safe Journey: An African Adventure," by Glenn L. Pace, who was an LDS Area President here 1998-2001. It was given to me before I left -- and I'm so grateful that I had the chance to learn more about the explosive growth of the Mormon church in West Africa. I highly recommend it to any LDS members who are interested (I'll share my copy when I get back to the States -- let me know if you want to borrow it). This book bore a strong witness that God wants to bless his children here in Africa and people here are very ready to receive His blessings. I had another experience with the faith and testimony of church members here today with our Victoria Island ward's fast and testimony meeting. For those reading this who are not familiar with Mormonism -- this is a worship service usually held on the first Sunday of the month, where members come fasting (the money that would be used for the meals that are sacrificed is donated in an offering that will go to help members in need of assistance) and during the service the time is opened up to members of the congregation to, in turn, bear testimony to each other extemporaneously. Though often in testimony meetings there is a lull between speakers, here that was not the case. Speakers were encouraged to keep their remarks to under 2 minutes and the one who went slightly longer got a poke on the leg from the bishop! It was beautiful to see the bright countenances, hear the strong testimonies and feel the joy of members here as they bore witness to what they believed. It is a real privilege to be among such people of faith.

Last Sunday after church I was asked to be the ward organist -- no surprise, since I knew they didn't have any members here who were able to play the hymns. They really do quite well singing the hymns acapella -- but I know they will appreciate having accompaniment. I got to church early to play some prelude music, but the power had gone out. The room was quite stifling without the ceiling fans going. But soon someone got the generator going so the fans started up, but we still couldn't get the keyboard going. We started the meeting singing hymns without accompaniment, but someone sat by the keyboard for the first part of the meeting and kept unhooking and checking cords and he was able to get it on and working, so I was able to play the closing hymn on the keyboard. Hopefully that won't be a weekly problem.

In Relief Society, our women's meeting, we had a very good lesson and discussion on fasting. The teacher asked the class why we fast -- and there were many good answers -- we do it to gain inspiration into our own lives, to ask the Lord for answers to our problems, to plead for help with family members who may need blessings. I don't know if I can state it as beautifully as one young woman who answered: "When we fast, by giving up such a basic need as food, we acknowledge before God that we are dependent on him. We let Him know that we rely on Him for everything in this world, we acknowledge His hand in all our blessings, and we look to Him with faith to meet all our needs." What a beautiful understanding of this principle!

On a totally different subject: the Super Bowl IS on live here on ESPN -- starting at about 1 AM. We were invited over for dinner last night to the home of another Brass employee and his wife who live in our building. We were talking about the game and "the wife" said that the sad thing about the game here is that they usually don't show the commercials, which are her favorite part. I have to agree that I usually watch them more attentively than the game. I'll probably stay up for the beginning of the game, but I doubt I'll last very long. I finally feel like I'm getting over my jet lag -- I don't want to regress back into US time!

The 26th good thing about Lagos: Computers and internet access make being so far away bearable.

I had a heart-stopping experience the other night when, for the first time when I was on the computer with it plugged in to AC power, the power went out and my new laptop went dead! What? This was why I bought a laptop and brought it here -- so when the power went off, it would switch over to the battery and I could keep going. We unplugged the computer and tried to switch it on and -- no lights -- nothing! We waited. Tried again. Still nothing. I had this sick feeling that something with the power outage had fried my computer and it was lost. What would I do? I realized how dependent I am on this lifeline. After a little while of panicky button-pushing, Brent took the battery out and then put it back in and -- whew! -- when the buttons were pushed, the little lights started flashing and it powered up. I'm still not sure exactly why my computer continues to die when the power goes out instead of switching to the battery (it's since happened a number of times without my ensuing panic). I have written a very polite email to Dell asking them why this is so. But since losing power here is a common occurrence -- I need to figure this out before I spend a lot of time writing on some project and then lose it to a power outage. It's 3 in the afternoon here now and the power has been particularly bad today -- it's probably already gone out at least 10 times. 3 times alone while I was on the treadmill --a different kind of heart-stopping experience. But the internet IS great -- very quick email contact and we've even called the kids on Skype, the internet phone service for free. That worked out amazingly well. One downside of internet access here -- they (the Big Brother who is watching us on the computer) know I'm outside of the US and -- the nerve! -- they won't let me watch my favorite shows over the internet! That was going to be a link to civilization -- I could keep up with Lost and Jericho -- who knows what will happen to those worlds before I return to the US? If anybody knows a way to get around this and fool Big Brother into thinking I'm in the US -- please, let me know! In the meantime, I REALLY hope the power doesn't ever fry my computer, or I may be returning to Houston sooner than I expected.

The 25th good thing about Lagos: They are working at democracy -- but seeing their system makes you appreciate the US election machine.

Nigeria's government has huge problems. It's a country with great resources, but so much is lost to corruption. The money oil brings in isn't being used to help the populace in general or build a workable infrastructure. But they are making attempts. Friday and Monday were holidays within the country to allow the population to register to vote. Our driver said he wasn't going to register on Monday because the lines would be too long. He would do it another time. There was a huge crowd shopping in the grocery store and at the mall yesterday, so many others agreed with him. And he said that though the election is currently scheduled for April, they may need to postpone it till August because the voting machines may not be ready. This election should (and hopefully will) mark the first time a Nigerian government has changed peacefully. But campaigning has already been marked by bombings and assassinations of promising candidates by rivals. Americans may think their election process needs some revamping -- but take a look at Nigeria's -- and the US machine seems to be in pretty good shape. Here there are lots more problems than hanging chads.

The 24th good thing about Lagos: Arriving safely with all our luggage and secret parcels that won't ever make a spy movie.

It's Monday evening, and we arrived here on Saturday evening -- getting in to the apartment around 10:30 PM after what was, for me, a trip of just over 30 hours. I had to change planes and airlines in Chicago -- Brent got on the direct flight to London from Houston. We met up in the BA lounge in London. I've got to say -- flying Business class is great! I'm too cheap to pay the premium myself. But when the company is paying, I certainly enjoy it! The trip was very comfortable -- the only annoyance being on the Lagos to London flight when the inflight entertainment system wasn't working. Oh well, it was a trial, but we managed to endure it. I'll have to watch The Illusionist another time.

There was one slightly disappointing thing to me. When I applied for my STR visa in Houston, which is a resident-type visa, the company sent my passport off to the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, and it was returned with a thick manila envelope marked: "DO NOT OPEN THIS ENVELOPE! It is to be hand-carried in to Nigeria with you and opened when you arrive by a Nigerian customs official." I don't know if it is just documents, or if it also contains bribe money -- or what -- it is a mystery. And I worried about stumbling through a reply to the airline ticket agent when I was asked the security question asking if anyone I didn't know had given me something to take on my flight. But, thank goodness, they've done away with that security question with the looming threat of 2 oz. bottles of mouthwash and mini tubes of toothpaste. But I imagined some kind of hand-off to the customs guy -- I didn't know if it was going to be on the sly, or over the counter. I kind of was hoping for some intrigue with it -- and I wanted to catch a glimpse of what was inside. But, no, Brent told me -- I'm just supposed to give it to some company person and they bring it over to the consulate and take care of it. Oh well -- in Nigeria, probably most often boring is better.

It was comforting to me to arrive to the same familiar apartment that I stayed in last summer. Things in the city seem much the same -- although a construction project of a walkway along the beach seems to be finished and looks quite nice. I'm sure it will be featured in a future blog entry when we find the time/get up the nerve to go walking along the beach.

I've been getting things organized in the apartment. Because Brent's been sharing it with other guys, he's kept his belongings in the bedroom storage areas. But now, we have the apartment to ourselves, so the food went into the kitchen cupboards and things have spread out to other closets and dressers. There's plenty of storage space for what we have.

I did some grocery shopping today -- the driver came back from exchanging money for us with a thick wad of 200 naira notes -- the exchange rate is 129 naira to the dollar. Food and goods, especially things that have been imported are very expensive here. As close as I can tell most things are about 3-4 times what they would cost in the US. I've never spent $9 for a box of cereal before. I declined to buy a tub of Crisco for $25 -- I'll wait till I absolutely need it. But my grocery bill for my 8 bags of groceries came to $15,000 naira (about $116)-- and I had to pay for it with 200 naira notes -- oh my hands felt scummy after counting out that money. I reached for the hand sanitizer as soon as I got to the car!

The 23rd good thing about Lagos: Looking forward to a big lifestyle change that hopefully will help me keep my New Year's resolutions.

It's been a long time since I've written. The project my husband is working on has gone through some real stormy seas and it looks to me like the company may pull out of it. Brent thinks that it will take some time for them to actually do this -- and there's still a chance that they'll hang on and the economics may turn in their favor. We decided that it's too tenuous to sell the house now, but we want to get going on the full expatriate benefits package, which won't start until I move over there. So -- we've found someone to watch the house for us and I plan on going over there at the end of January for a couple of months. Brent just went back, but he is planning on coming back for meetings in Houston at least by the last week in January, and if my visa is ready, I'll be able to go back with him. I'll be in Lagos until the beginning of April, when my daughter is due to have her first child in Boston. I'll be with her as long as is helpful, and then I'll come back to Houston. I'll spend the end of April and May here, rehearsing with the Symphony Chorus for our European tour, which begins the last week of May. Hopefully by this time, we'll know if we should sell the house and make a more permanent move. It will be a better time to sell a house, anyway. So hopefully the house will do survive our absence okay, and it won't be a nightmare getting it in shape to sell after a few months of neglect. Anyway, my son in his blog listed some of his New Year's Resolutions, so I decided to do the same here. I'm looking ahead to some big changes in Lagos and realize that one has to go into life there with different expectations and a positive mindset to survive and be happy in a place where much of life is very challenging. 1. I feel the need to be more prayerful. I would especially like to be more consistent with a prayer and meditation time each morning. I really think this is important living in a place where you face some very real risks just with going about your daily activities. And because Lagos is a place with such chaos, starting each day with an activity inviting peace into my mind and heart will be really essential. 2. I want to live with a spiritual mindset where I can ask God in prayer to lead me each day to places where I can serve and do some good. With moving to a new place, there's always a big freeing up of time until you get sucked into new activities. When I leave the busy-ness and many commitments of my life here, it will allow me to be free to put my life in God's hands and let His Spirit help me discover how I should spend my time. 3. I'll be living in an apartment that, although very adequate, doesn't have many of the things that make my life easier in my home. So I realize that I need to resolve to let go of THINGS, and be happy with less and make do without many of the comforts and possessions that here in Houston I consider pretty much essential. Of course, it's easier knowing that at first I will just be there for 2+ months and then I'll be back to all my "stuff." It's not hard to camp out for that long. But I'm hoping I'll realize that I can live happily with many fewer possessions, and that knowledge will make it easier to do the down-sizing that will still need to be done if we end up selling the house and moving for a longer period of time. 4. Of course, each year I have the requisite dieting and exercise resolutions. I think living in Lagos will make this one much easier. Food is VERY expensive there and there's not all the appetizing options that are so tempting here in the US, so, although eating healthily will be more challenging, I think it will be easier to eat less. And the past few years I've developed some really healthy exercise practices that I know I'll continue there, even though the apartment exercise room is a pale substitute for the 24 hour Fitness club that I frequent here. But with fewer regular commitments, I'm sure I'll make time each day for exercise. Okay -- that's enough for now!

The 22nd good thing about Lagos: Amazingly enough -- the happiest people live here!

One very interesting thing I learned during my time in Lagos is the results of a survey that the Nigerians like to publicize. The World Values Survey, publicized in 2003, found the Nigerians to be top on their list of 65 surveyed countries for the happiness of their people. "The survey is a worldwide investigation of socio-cultural and political change conducted about every four years by an international network of social scientists. It includes questions about how happy people are and how satisfied they are with their lives." That's from a BBC article about the results: here's the link to the article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3157570.stm

There's plenty of other stuff on the web about this survey as well. But when people hear about all the violence and kidnappings and killings, etc. etc. that goes on in Nigeria, it's difficult to reconcile that with the world's happiest people. And when a spoiled and pampered American such as myself sees how most Nigerians live -- the desperate poverty and unhygenic and difficult living conditions, it's hard to believe that they could be happy with their lives. Here's more from that BBC article:
"Nigeria has the highest percentage of happy people followed by Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico, while Russia, Armenia and Romania have the fewest. But factors that make people happy may vary from one country to the next with personal success and self-expression being seen as the most important in the US, while in Japan, fulfilling the expectations of family and society is valued more highly. The survey appears to confirm the old adage that money cannot buy happiness. The researchers for World Values Survey described the desire for material goods as "a happiness suppressant". They say happiness levels have remained virtually the same in industrialised countries since World War II, although incomes have risen considerably."

Another article (http://www.transnational.org/forum/power/2004/01.01_NigeriaHappiness.html)
quotes Nigerians saying why they are happy:
"Peter puts it down to God and music. "We have a great religious faith. Whether we are Christians like us or Muslims as in the north, we all believe ardently that God is looking after us. We believe in being our brother's keeper". Ele is perhaps more perceptive, "people smile at you because that is the way they deal with the awful stress in their poverty stricken life. I can take you to people in the village who are hungry, who are not happy, and God is just in their lives to give them solace. One reason why many of us are happy is that we don't ask for much. If God gives us food we easily become happy. We are not greedy. Gloria said, "You see it in how we move. It's a movement inside us and in society. We feel full of music and love of God. Her friend, the business woman, added, "We Nigerians look after each other. If I know you and you are hungry or ill I will try and help". The engineer said: "It was in our old tribal traditions and religion built on that. Have you ever seen such a religious people?"

It's definitely something to think about. Oh yes, where did the US fall in the happiness survey? 16th place.

The 21st good thing about Lagos: Having a church congregation where I can worship, where I feel needed and welcome and where there's great singing!

My second Sunday in Lagos we went to church in our local church congregation (our ward service, as differentiated from our larger stake conference the week before . The Victoria Island ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints meets in a large rented house. It serves the purpose, though it's definitely not as nice as the church-built building on the mainland. Most of the congregations in the Stake have a permanent building, but we don't have the necessary numbers in our ward. It looks nicer on the outside than it does on the inside. (The American women warned me to avoid using the bathroom at all costs!) But the meetings were very nice and much like what I'm accustomed to in the States. We had the women's meeting (Relief Society) first.







Here's a picture of the room, which is on the 2nd floor and pretty bare. But it was full of women with wonderfully colorful African clothes and big smiles and warm hearts. Though the room had bare cement floors and no other decoration -- they moved the table to the front and covered it with a bright blue tablecloth with the Relief Society motto stamped in gold on it -- "Charity never faileth." And on top was a blue vase with blue silk flowers. I was so moved by their efforts to beautify this spare room. Even in Nigeria, you can't get away from centerpieces in the RS classroom! The woman next to me shared her lesson manual and the teacher gave a great lesson and we had a nice discussion. I wanted to take a picture afterwards, but the women were gathered around me and introducing themselves and welcoming me. They were very sweet. I then went downstairs to the main chapel where we had Sunday School. The lesson was on Job, and it was very well-taught. As we were discussing the sufferings and trials of Job, I thought about what I guessed were the realities of the lives and trials of many of the members in that room. I know if many of us in our comfortable American lives were faced with what these Nigerians dealt with every day, we would consider ourselves as sorely tried as Job. We had been told that in the Stake, there is 60% unemployment among the members, but in our ward, there is 80% unemployment. And life is difficult for Nigerians even with jobs -- without work, I know that many of these people must live very desperate lives. But you wouldn't know it to look at them. I know it is a challenge for the expatriates who worship in Lagos, because they are sometimes approached and asked to help out families in situations of need. I'm sure they do provide help in many ways, but we are advised to remind them that the proper channel is to go to the bishop and ask for assistance and he will determine what is appropriate. My new expatriate LDS friends brought me by the church building earlier in the week, and I got this picture of them in the chapel. On Sunday, the power was out and I guess the church either doesn't have a generator, or it was out as well, because the fans and microphone weren't working. It wasn't too bad sitting next to an open window with a breeze, but I imagine on a hotter day, it could be very difficult! The keyboard must have a backup battery, because it worked. They had heard that I played the piano, and asked me to play for the sacrament meeting service. They usually just have a missionary (a Nigerian) playing the keyboard, and Brent had told me that though he tried, he wasn't very experienced. The missionary very sweetly asked if he could sit by me while I played and watch how I moved my fingers so he could learn from me. I was glad to have his help with figuring out the techicalities of the keyboard, as well. I wish I could have had time to teach him a few lessons -- he was so eager to learn and was disappointed to hear that I was leaving that day. After I left, Brent said that he had been transferred and the ward now doesn't have anyone to play, so they sing without accompaniment. He said they ask every week when I will be back. I hope that when I'm there I'll be able to teach some piano lessons to some ward members so that eventually they'll have permanent people there to play for them. But the Nigerians LOVE to sing! (Even if their hymn books are almost falling apart, as you see in the picture here.)They sing out loud and strong and it's really exciting to be singing with them. We sang an intermediate hymn of "All Creatures of our God and King" and the ending was different than what they were used to -- the melody holds onto the note while the lower parts move and this confused some of them. So right after the meeting the bishop stood up and asked everyone to practice that hymn again because they had been singing it wrong and he wanted them to learn to do it right. I thought that was pretty neat. Also, during the meeting he sent me a note asking if I would bear my testimony in 2 minutes. This made me smile, because when we were over at our friend's house for dinner earlier in the week, they were discussing how in testimony meeting the bishop has a thing about not wanting people to speak for more than 2 minutes. He thinks if they talk longer they are taking someone else's time. He'll hold up a 2 minute warning sign, or nudge them to let them know they're going over their time limit. So I was careful to not talk too long. But the service itself was very good -- another missionary from Ghana was leaving to go home and he spoke his goodbye and told of his love for the people in the ward. There were probably a little over 100 people there in the meeting. Though the women were in brilliant African clothes, all the men in the room (except my husband, who wore a blue shirt that day) were dressed in Western dress with white shirts. One of the Americans had previously asked the bishop why the men never wear African dress to church and he had responded that they had been told that a white shirt is the appropriate dress for a priesthood holder and if they wanted to participate in the priesthood ordinances, they should wear a white shirt. I have mixed feelings about this. I know white shirts symbolize purity before God and I think it's a powerful symbol, though I do believe God cares much more about what's in our hearts than what we wear. But I was very touched by how all the men in the ward choose to obey their leader and honor their priesthood. I came away from worshipping with these Nigerian saints with the strong impression that though I certainly would be welcome and could contribute with things like my musical ability, I would also love the opportunity to learn from these humble and faithful people.