I'm a empty-nester mom of 3 and wife to an oil-company executive who is working on a project in Lagos, Nigeria. All many people hear about Lagos is bad stuff -- I'm here looking for the good in Lagos.
Last April, just looking for something to do on a Saturday night, we went over to the Muson Centre (The Musical Society of Nigeria) for an advertised concert. We knew nothing about the groups, but the bands were advertised as 5YZ Men and Girls Rule. We learned that most had been students in the Muson's music school. We heard some some quite good jazz, as well as R&B. My experience has been that the majority of jazz groups, especially in Nigeria, are made up of men playing the instruments, sometimes with a female vocalist. But it was a nice change to hear a jazz band that was all women -- girls really -- just out of school. Yes, you could tell they were young, but they really showed some promise and had some quite talented musicians.
Ok, you could tell the girls were female -- the "look" was important to them. For their second set they added wigs, changed the clothes and came out singing some covers of Jackson Five and the Supremes.
The guys in 5YZ Men were older and had more experience. They had even played at a Jazz Festival in Ohio. The program said that they had all received acceptance and partial scholarships to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, which is a great jazz school, but, as of yet, none of them had been able to raise the funds needed to attend there.
We've been very fortunate here on a number of occasions to have enjoyed some very fine musical evenings courtesy of the diplomatic patronage from a variety of countries. The most recent concert, a week ago Saturday, was sponsored by the Italian Consulate and the Saipem construction company, which was celebrating its many years of working in Nigeria. These evenings where musicians are brought in from other countries are almost always of an excellent quality of performance, and generally without any ticket charge to us, the appreciative audience. The other interesting thing is that most often there isn't much information given out beforehand about what will be on the program. I was given an invitation to this "gala concert" and when I asked what was on the program, the woman sharing the invitation had no idea, only that performers were being brought in from Europe. But we went, hoping for a fine musical evening and that is certainly what we got. The other thing typical of these evenings is that they start later than scheduled (this one was an hour late, which is not unusual), and then there are generally some dignitaries giving speeches at the beginning. The Italian Consul General gave a fairly lengthy speech in Italian, after which a translation was read by the emcee (actually there were two speeches given in Italian during the evening -- at the beginning and near the end -- and when the emcee announced she would translate the 2nd speech there were audible sighs from the audience). So the price paid is the patience to wait for the musical portion of the evening to actually begin.It was an evening of "popular" classical and operatic music, along with a bit of jazz. The featured musicians included the "Quintetto Dell'Opera Di Milano," which (for those non-Italian speakers) was a brass quintet ensemble from the Milan "La Scala" Opera House. They were fabulous musicians and we really enjoyed their versatility in performing a large range of music. They were joined by an accomplished percussionist, a performer and teacher and also active jazz vibraphonist, Andrea Dulbecco. He was really fabulous. Here is a clip with him performing a bit of Joe Green's "Xylophonia."
Also on the program was an operatic tenor, also from La Scala, Giuseppe Veneziano. He was very upright and stuffed shirt and proper -- he almost seemed to me to be a caricature of an opera star. I loved him -- loved his voice, his operatic mannerisms and his performance. Maybe in the video clips below you'll see what I mean.
He had obviously been doing some teaching and mentoring of some of the music students here at the Muson Centre, and I think it's so great for them to have this opportunity. A couple of the more accomplished students were introduced to sing solos that were not on the program. He seemed almost paternal and very proud of them as they performed.
The featured performers were joined by the Muson choir which sang a few things on their own, accompanied by the brass and were joined by the tenor on a very unusual performance of segments from the 4th movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the "Ode to Joy," which was accompanied by the brass quintet, instead of the normal full symphony orchestra. Lacking the quartet of soloists, just with the tenor, and just with the brass accompaniment, it proved quite a bit less thrilling than it should be.
This little clip is from the ending of one of the encore pieces, where the tenor invited the Nigerian soloists to join with them. The final note shows his great breath and vocal control.
This last clip is soloists, choir and brass joining in an impromptu encore of the Italian classic "Funiculi, Funicula" which is a really great response song. This song was composed in 1880 to commemorate the opening of the funicular rail car on Mt. Vesuvius (which was later destroyed in the eruption of the volcano in 1944). Bet you didn't know you'd learn that by reading my blog! It was clear that the tenor soloist had spent a bit of time rehearsing this with them and they had fun with it.
I had "Nessun dorma" running through my head for days after this concert, but I have had more annoying ear worms in the past.
When we lived in Houston, I was enjoyed participating in the musical culture of the city and would frequently attend concerts, as well as performing with the Houston Symphony Chorus. That is one of the things I miss most about my life in Houston. But sometimes there are opportunities here to attend performances that compare to the best of what I've heard in the States.
The Musical Centre of Nigeria (the Muson Centre) is usually the venue for artists that are sponsored by some business or embassy and the concerts are usually free or at very low cost -- less than $13. They do need to improve their PR, because the concerts are really poorly publicized and, therefore, usually poorly attended. Recently I went to a concert there which had been advertised as a string quartet from South Africa. I went, expecting classical music. But I was equally pleased to hear a really great jazz quartet: piano, violin, percussion and a vocalist. Singing was Melanie Scholtz with the Buskaid Soweto String Project. They were really wonderful! I've included some clips so you can hear a bit.
Melanie has a smoky, velvety voice and each instrument did some killer improvisations.
They played some original music and also some classics, like "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess.
Tonight was a thrilling performance by the 24 year old Czech pianist Lukas Vondracek. He was one of the most talented pianists I have ever heard perform live. He played one of the pieces which he had performed last year for the Van Cliburn Competition, where he received a Jury Discretionary Award. He recently won the Hilton Head International Piano Competition in the US, and will perform a concert in Carnegie Hall next month as part of his award. It was such a shame that his appearance here was so poorly publicized. When the concert started there were only a handful of people there. More trickled in during the performance, but there were still less than 50 by the time he finished. And it was a free performance -- I'm sure that won't be the case in Carnegie Hall next month! I felt badly that he had such a small audience, but it was kind of nice that it was so intimate.
You can listen to a good recording of some of the Smetana Czech Dances that he played by following the link to the Van Cliburn Competition above. Below is a bit of the Rachmaninoff he played.
He was joined by "his partner," a Taiwanese pianist who is also studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. Yu-Chien Shih played a Chopin piece and also joined him playing some of the Dvorak Slavonic Dances for 4 hands.
I left the concert with my musical soul purring with contentment.
We just returned from a really great classical concert performance by a wonderful soprano and a talented pianist. It was the final performance of the Muson (Musical Society of Nigeria) Centre and the musicians were flown in from Great Britain. It just filled my soul to hear some really fine music performed well -- that level of performance is something that I miss from my life in Houston. In the past couple of weeks I have had opportunity to hear a different variety of musical performances, and I've enjoyed them as well. Last Sunday I went to a choral concert with the Muson choir, orchestra and soloists singing works of Handel and Haydn. And the Friday previous to that, we attended a performance of indigenous social dance and music featuring the Ilaje people of Nigeria. The Ilajes live in areas where there is water, building their homes on stilts over water, and making their living by fishing. The performance was called Ajo, (The Journey) and highlighted a man's life cycle.
These women served as the visual narrators, dancing away the passage of time between scenes.
A young man wooed a young woman, presenting her with a flower.
They danced the beginning of their life together...
and then celebrated the birth of a child (and they used a real baby here, which slept peacefully through all the dancing).
There were dancing scenes of work and fishing.
The baby grew up and eventually there was another marriage scene.
And finally, a death scene. It actually was a much more cohesive performance than my video here show, and they had a little slide show to help tell the story with projected pictures. Pretty high-tech for Lagos!
Another performance of a different variety that we enjoyed was courtesy of the Goethe Institute. They have a peaceful setting right by the water and we enjoyed listening to a German reggae musician known as Jahcoustix. He was quite a talented guy with a good band and I really enjoyed his music.
So, yes, I have very eclectic tastes in music and I'm always very happy when I have an opportunity to indulge them here in Lagos -- it seems like it's feast or famine here, so I'm likely in for a dearth of concert opportunities for awhile. In this next clip. the dread-locked Jahcoustix is singing reggae in Arabic -- he also sang in German as well as English -- this concert was an eclectic mix all by itself!
The USS Nashville has left Lagos now, but last week the Navy brass quintet that they had brought into town treated us to a concert at the Muson center with some different music than what they had performed at the school. I jump at every cultural opportunity I can get here -- and these were really fine musicians, so I welcomed the chance to hear them again. During the week they were in town, they performed at other schools besides the American school and made time to do a lot of outreach. The first half of the concert they performed a variety of music and then in the second half of the concert, they welcomed to the stage the Nigerian navy band. This group was miles away from the US group in musical quality, but matched them with enthusiasm. I thought it was nice that they were able to even field a band, because getting instruments and musical instruction here is very difficult. The mostly Nigerian audience really enjoyed the Navy band's music selections.
After the Nigerian navy band left the stage, the US Navy musicians returned to the stage and invited some Nigerian musicians to join them on the stage in a jam session. They had held a master class that day with local brass musicians and they were at the concert with their instruments. This was really fun to see and they did a great job jamming together. One of the Nigerian trumpeters was especially good.
They closed with a rousing jam session of "When the Saints Come Marching In" that got our New Orleans native Counsel General and some of the consulate staff on stage dancing and clapping in appreciation.
I've had a busy, and also a tiring, week subbing for the secondary music teacher at the American School. I also subbed for her last month as she traveled with her honor band and choir students. Last month she went with them to Zurich and, this past week, to Doha, Qatar. I would have been happy to trade places with her, but I really had a good time working with her band and choir students, despite the wear and tear on my vocal chords. Trying to be heard over a bunch of tooting horns and beating drums is a bit of a challenge, and I went home every day quite worn out. But I've always gotten a lot of joy in my life out of collaborative music making and, even on this level, it's a pleasure to see so many young people really enjoying the challenge of learning to play an instrument. I also had an especially fun time teaching a small class of 11th grade IB music history students. They were great young people and really interested in learning more about music. A couple of them were talking about what an amazing and exciting thing it is to take these dots on a paper (music notes) and turn them into a beautiful noise. And I agree -- music making is an amazing thing that has brought me a lot of joy in my life, and I hope these kids will keep up with it long enough to really reap the rewards. But I'm wondering how long it will take me to get their music off of constant play in my head.
Last night, I had a different experience of music making. I've started singing with a little choral group and the director and organizer of the group recently left for a short vacation and I volunteered to cover the rehearsals while he is gone, as we shortly will be performing and we needed the rehearsal time. There was no problem, and plenty of enjoyment, with the rehearsal last week, but last night when we were beginning the rehearsal I absently-mindedly plugged in my digital piano to the wrong plug in our step-down transformer -- the one delivering 220V of current, instead of the 110V plug needed for my US-market piano. There were no sparks or smoke, but, even though I quickly realized my mistake and pulled the plug, it wasn't fast enough and the piano wouldn't turn on. I managed to control my rising dismay and panic and we continued with the rehearsal completely acapella (Thankfully, I did have a pitch pipe to give us our needed pitches.) Immediately after the rehearsal, Brent and I took apart the back of the piano to access the electronic board. We quickly saw the fuse inside, took it out and determined that it had burned out, recognized that we actually had the same size fuse in the house, replaced it -- and, within 10 minutes, we had the keyboard working again! What a relief! More music making to come in the future. I did put duct tape over the 220V outlet of the transformer so I don't repeat that mistake!
This afternoon at the school the student body had the treat of a performance by a brass quintet from the crew of the USS Nashville, a US Navy ship that is in port here. I already had good vibes about the presence of this ship, because two of our AWC charities were recipients of medical supplies and other humanitarian goods that were brought on this ship to share with the community here. And then everybody present this afternoon enjoyed a fun performance by these very talented musicians. I was thrilled to observe the band students soaking it all in. I didn't have a class during the performance, but right after the group finished playing, I was scheduled to teach the 6th grade band kids. I went up to the performers and mentioned that if they didn't have to leave right away, the 6th graders would love to have a minute to meet and talk to them. 3 of the 5 musicians took the time to come in and visit with the students, telling them about when they learned to play their instruments and some of the opportunities that music has brought to them. They played "Anchors Aweigh" for the class and then one of them led the kids in playing a favorite piece, and then they listened (and played along) as I led the students in another piece. The 6th graders were thrilled with the personal attention by these military musicians. Here's a couple of clips from the concert:
In the first one, notice the little kids just bursting out in movement with the music. It was fun to see them really get into the music. I neglected to film it, but later in the concert they were really up and dancing around to the music.
In this next clip, I filmed one of the pieces where the quintet played as they walked around their audience. They had a very excited and appreciative crowd of listeners! Thank you USS Nashville for sharing your talents and bounty with our Lagos community!
As part of the American National Day festivities featuring New Orleans, the US State department brought in the Grammy-winning musician Chris Thomas King. He performed at the party at the Consul General's residence, and then the following night his group performed at the Muson Center concert hall. We arrived right before the concert started and were ushered to the third row, which had been reserved for VIP guests. Most of the rest of the hall was full. So we were right up-close and personal for this fabulous (and even free!) concert. King both acted in and scored music for the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and also the more recent movie "Ray." In fact, he performed in the "Down From the Mountain" musical tour with Alison Krauss of the music from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", a concert we had attended and really enjoyed in Houston years ago. Recently he released an album called "Rise" dedicated to New Orleans with music he wrote after Katrina's devastation of his home there. He performed some music from that album. This first clip is from a song he performed from the "O, Brother" soundtrack.
He performed with a fabulous bass guitar player as well as a talented drummer. King performed some really wonderful blues music on amplified acoustic guitar, as well as steel guitar and also played sometimes on the keyboard. He is a really amazing talent (this next clip shows off some of his guitar skills -- but I missed recording some of the really amazing riffs he played....) and it was a real treat to be so close up to him and also to see how much the Lagos audience (more Nigerians than expats) really enjoyed him. He's performing this month at the New Orleans Jazz Festival -- we won't make it back to hear him there, but it was great to hear him in Lagos. We really are glad he was able to make the trip!
I hope you all had a great birthday celebration for the Prophet Mohammed today! We didn't have any birthday cake around here, but it was a welcome chance to get some things done around the house. And because it was a public holiday, there was also no school, so the kids from church that I have started teaching piano were all able to come over for a marathon piano lesson. The church provided some keyboards for them to use for at-home practice, and I'm committed to donating some time to teach them piano. They are really excited about the new keyboards and also about the opportunity to learn to play the piano. I hope their enthusiasm continues so they will make time to practice.
I started with the younger group first -- 3 siblings, who then wanted to hang around after the 4 teenagers arrived on the scene. I had 3 kids lined up at my keyboard at a time, often playing the same song in 3 octaves, and we went from 9:15 AM till I ushered them out the door at almost 2 PM.
Here's the girls: Precious, Oto and her twin sister, Anuak, and then Blessing. The twins are sisters of my long-time piano student, Patrick (which is what he wants me to call him, it is actually their last name, his first name is Ididiong), who had a lesson on his own after I finished with all the beginning piano students. Blessing is the sister of my former student, Samuel, who is now away at university.
Patrick has come a long way since I first started teaching him. He was working hard at playing very simplified hymns 2 years ago, now he can play just about every hymn in the church hymnal. He's a very talented musician, as well as being a very nice young man.
Here's the kids clowning around when I asked them to pose for a picture. Patrick is in the back and Daniel and Joseph, Precious' brothers are on either end. I don't know if you can see in the picture, but several of the kids are holding their cell phones. It's an interesting thing here that even though they all are living what we in the States would consider well under the poverty line, most all have a cell phone, and when they weren't active at the keyboard, they were texting or playing around with their phones. Also, they wolfed down the cookies that I had made for them. Not much different than kids anywhere you go.
Another concert in the Muson Festival featured choral music. I love choir singing and any cultural performance here is a treat, because there just aren't a lot of options. The first half was excerpts of the Bach Mass in B minor. It was performed with piano, organ and synthesizer accompanient. Except for the synthesizer, which had really poor sound quality, the performance was just fine. Singers here perform with a lot of power and force, so it was loud and without a lot of finesse, but still enjoyable. I liked even better the second half of the evening which featured African choral music. This is the part where I really wished I was on stage singing with them. It looked like lots of fun. Brent and I both agreed, though, that the two white folk on stage just didn't quite have the motion down like the Nigerians. I wonder if the ability to move like that is genetic?
[Wow, the internet's really moving today. I actually got some longer videos uploaded -- maybe more of this concert than you want to see, but they're there if you're interested. I'm excited to know it's possible.]
We recently attended an interesting concert at the Muson Centre of by a group performing music native to Lagos State. There were a number of different "acts".
Amazing drumming:
Music representing the Sea Lords:
Brent was reassured to see that old, fat men can still perform in dance troupes. Nice to know that career possibility is still open to him.
And there was a dance featuring the Eyo Masquerade, which is a social dance from Lagos Island, where the characters have this white draped garment over their body topped with a hat. The program said that the Eyo Masquerade is used for celebrations usually after the demise or during the coronation of a king.
I think it's great to experience this native Nigerian music.
I'm worn out today after subbing in a 1st grade classroom at the American school. I enjoyed it, but it was tiring. But one nice thing about working -- I return home in the afternoon and the dishes from the night before are done and put away, the bed was changed with fresh sheets and sheets washed, floors mopped and bathrooms cleaned. It's really nice to have a stewardess!
This weekend we went to a choral concert, the final performance of the Muson (Musical society of Nigeria) festival. It was the best attended of the performances we saw -- obviously people here enjoy choral music. The first half of the concert was Western music -- a performance of Mendelssohn's "Lobegesang," (Hymn of Praise). It was not a piece I was familiar with, but it was quite enjoyable, despite the struggling orchestra. The choral movements were a large part of the work and the choir did a good job and the soloists were excellent. There was a nice setting of the hymn "Now Thank We All Our God" in one of the movements. And my soprano friends may want to look up the music for movement 5, which is a beautiful soprano duet. The interesting program notes about the work said that this piece was written for a festival in Leipzig, Germany in 1840 (where Mendelssohn was then directing their orchestra) celebrating the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. Most of the choral movements were set to texts from the Psalms -- so the major theme of the work is praising God for blessings (like the printing press). One interesting tidbit from the notes is that a movement from a work Mendelssohn wrote for another evening in this festival is well known to us today as "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing." Who would have guessed that the printing press and this Christmas carol have a connection? It's a bit of trivia that will probably never be useful, but you never know when you can impress someone knowing something like that!
During the intermission, the choir members changed out of their tuxedos and shimmering chorus gowns into colorful African dress. The second half was African choral music, and it was a highlight of the evening. They sang mostly without scores and were accompanied with a piano, at times, and percussion. They swayed together during much of the singing. It was kind of interesting to see how the 2 white people in the chorus just don't do the swaying as comfortably as the Nigerians. I can relate -- I remember when the Houston Symphony Chorus joined with a couple of church gospel choirs for "Gospel Night at the Symphony." It was lots of fun, but it was clear that us whites just didn't have the same knack for the swaying as did those black gospel singers. It must be something in the genes. The video clip below doesn't really do justice to the performance, but you may get a hint of what it was like. We were told (by a Nigerian musician in the audience) that this music was African folk songs that had been arranged for choir, but probably most of it had not been published. Much of the music was fairly complicated rhythmically and harmonically. It was a real treat to hear this Nigerian choir!
(Sorry, it looks like this video turned out really dark here -- unfortunately, I don't know how to lighten it so you can see their colorful green African dress costumes.)
Happy Halloween! The most festive thing happening around me today was when I was volunteering at the AWC library and someone had hung up a motion-detector skull decoration and it was making various cackling sounds and utterances whenever someone passed by. I understand in the area company compounds there will be trick-or-treating tonight, and I may go upstairs and watch a scary movie with my neighbors, but that's about it. I've enjoyed seeing the costumes of my grandchildren on their blogs -- thanks for keeping those up!
Our final stop on the AWC charity field trip last week was a community clinic. It's run by a larger organization which has a number of fixed clinics and they also go out into rural areas and do outreach care. They go out and set up a temporary clinic and can see thousands of people in a matter of days. The clinic was quite small, but in a very nice, sturdy looking building (as opposed to most of the construction around here) and it was exceptionally clean. It almost looked like a doctor's office in the US.
They had, I think, four examination rooms off the lobby, as well as an area marked "Pharmacy" (pictured here) where they had a few shelves of medical supplies and medicine. They were pleased to get our donated supplies.
They had a surgical area in the back with a table for surgery and a dental chair -- which was really a car seat that had been modified with a foot rest. They said they do a lot of dental work -- regular stuff as well as major surgery. They had a man come in recently with a large tumor in his jaw that was making it impossible to open his mouth. They were able to remove the tumor and make his jaw functional again.
"Dr Dan" is the resident doctor -- he's a Nigerian. The administrator of the clinic is Andrew, a really friendly American young man, 28 years old. He was raised by missionary parents, mostly in Japan, but also in other places in the world. He said he loves it here in Nigeria and is hoping to stay "for a long time." He's quite a remarkable young man who is making a real difference in the community.
The clinic has some support from its larger Christian organization, but they welcome medical supplies. They would especially like to get a donation of a real dental chair. Unfortunately, no members of the club seem to have an extra one sitting around, but maybe in the future the club can help them with funds to get one.
Right across the narrow street from the clinic, these neighbor children (and resident chicken) were interested in the bus with the oyibos (white people).
Our next stop on our AWC field trip was to a school that was started by a church congregation that recognized a community need. They saw many of the local children from families that couldn't afford school tuition just wasting their time without any education. At first when they started the school, they used the church meeting hall, but they quickly outgrew those facilities. They now have around 500 students. They have moved into the building that is still being completed. It is very rough concrete -- they plan on painting it eventually. The windows are open holes cut in the walls. There is no electricity. I didn't see any toilets, so I don't know how they handle that with the children. It would never be an acceptable facility in the States, but, for here, it seemed to be a well-run place. The classes were crowded, but the children were working quietly when they weren't disturbed by the visitors. The church started allowing free tuition for the students, but they found that parents didn't take the school seriously, so they started charging 2000 naira ($16) a term, with 3 terms a year. She said they do give scholarships if that is too much for a family to handle.
Here's the entrance to the church.
The school building is attached.
The stairways are a little scary -- they just got the railings installed -- I don't know how the children managed before they were there!
Water was leaking at a good rate out of the water tank next to the school.
This is the food serving area right outside the school's front door. Tomorrow the AWC is providing lunch here for the children. Today they are cooking big pots of stew with rice and with the member's donations of drink boxes, boiled eggs and crackers and rolls, they will serve a treat -- no trick -- Halloween meal (though I doubt these kids know anything about Halloween....).
The classrooms were in different configurations, but all the children were in their seats. In this classroom some of the children were responding to what the teacher was asking, and some were more interested in the white women peeking in the doorway.
Such cute little children!
When we came to their classroom door, these children stood and recited a little welcome rhyme for us. The children seemed very happy and neat. One of the senior missionary couples was telling me about their neighbor children and how this little girl came home from their local school with cuts from beatings on her hands from offenses like when her brother was late for school. They beat the kids even for things that are totally without their control. I doubt these children experience that kind of mistreatment. We brought some general school supply and assorted donations. The school representative said that what they really need is a bus. Many children live close enough to walk to school. But those that don't, the parents just find whatever transport they can manage. This past year one child fell off the transport (I don't know if it was a bus or an okada or truck) and was killed. The school would love to have a bus to minimize those risks by transporting the children. Unfortunately, the club can't help them with that.
Also a part of the church service is a free clinic for the local community. This was just a few small rooms at the back of the church. They do a lot of prenatal support -- the women give birth in these beds. There was a sick child in the clinic's crib. The clinic really needs donations of drugs and medical supplies. When I'm home at Christmas, I'm hoping to visit my doctors offices and see what extra samples and supplies they can send back with me -- they said anything would be so much appreciated.
This past week I went on an American Women's Club field trip to visit three charities that the club supports. They organized this trip so members can see the good work that these charities do and be more ready to pitch in and help when needed. They also requested donations from the club's members so we were able to bring a supply of needed items to each location. I'll do a separate blog post telling about each of the charities.
Here's a shot of some of our group in the Chevron bus that provided us transport. Donations were piled in the back.
The first stop was at the Arrow of God orphanage. We got to this via some very rutted and roller-coaster dirt roads that led our trip leader to remind us that "you pay good money for this kind of ride at Disneyland." She was anxious to see the new home of the orphanage. They had moved this past spring after getting a large donation that allowed them to buy concrete to build a new facility. The funds came from the American pop singer Beyonce. She came last fall to perform in Lagos and she had learned about the orphanage when investigating charities in Lagos and she wanted to help them. She invited the children to come and meet her and she fed them and sang for them and they had a great time. Deborah, the orphanage director, said the older children knew who Beyonce was and they were thrilled to meet her. We were quite impressed with the buildings -- the women who had visited the orphanage in its old location said this was a big improvement. I was very impressed with the center's director. (She's pictured here in her office) The orphanage pamphlet I received said about her: "The President and Founder, Rev. Lt. Col. D. C. Ogo, an ordained Minister, a former Principal of the Nigerian Army School of Nursing and Mid-Wifery, a former Chief Matron and a retired Army Colonel who blends her military discipline with the warmth of a seasoned nurse to provide an enduring care and motherhood for the children." Sounds like a winning combination of skills! The orphanage is 9 years old and their brochure says that over 300 children have been adopted from the orphanage during that time.
After unloading the donations from the bus, we took a tour of the orphanage's buildings.
In the nursery area we were able to see and hold several new infants that had come to the orphanage. Generally the babies are brought there by the police after they have found abandoned infants, or after they've been given infants by people who find them abandoned. The babies were beautiful!
The director said that adopting a baby is very easy here -- there's not much paperwork and there's never a shortage of supply. (I'm sure actually getting the baby out of Nigeria and into the US there would be plenty of legal wrangling, however.) After holding these darling newborns, several women joked about bringing home a surprise for their husbands.
There are two buildings for living quarters, the one that has the babies and another that's a dormitory for the older children. There are 180 children at the orphanage right now, and the dormitory is not large, so they must really be packed in there at night! Behind these buildings is a courtyard area in front of the open building that is used for the school. This open school has classrooms divided by sheets of plywood. The children are working very closely together, but they seemed to be very focused on their work -- at least when they weren't greeting their visitors.
Here's the youngest kids -- with 3 that were down for the count.
Here's a close-up of a couple of the students. They loved it when I showed them their picture on my camera's screen.
A passing goat in the courtyard -- one of the women remarked that it was a plus to have a goat because it kept the trash down -- and laundry was hanging on the line. 180 kids must generate a lot of laundry -- though I'm sure they have much more limited clothing supply than the average American child. The facilities here would be considered very primitive in the States, I'm sure below what would be considered acceptable, but for Nigeria, it's quite an impressive facility. It was clean, the children were orderly and were learning and the babies were being cared for with love.
