busy and sad times in Abuja

always-energetic Jare!

Week two was eventful and sad at the same. I was back in my office, which is actually quite large but let just say that my allergies are not as excited. Lots of meetings and my understanding of collaborations and outsourcing of projects to NGOs, civil society, grassroots organizations continues to grow.  Early in the week, we met with the Director of a small NGO that works with youth here in Abuja. The Director had scheduled the meeting to meet with our Education team to propose an initiative that fits under our literacy goals for Nigeria. His NGO would partner with us and be mostly responsible with designing and implementing the initiative. My office gets many similar proposals and my supervisor spoke to me about many requests that came though from organizations that are actually not in existence or similar situations. Later in the week I was asked to do some research on the history and experience of another NGO that had sent a proposal for another youth empowerment partnership. This week, I also met with my direct supervisor for quite a bit – which went very well and I participated in my office’s monthly birthday party. Overall, the pace of my work is picking up, quickly! 

My second week was also a week of an unfortunate tragedy in Abuja. There was bombing about 15 minutes from my office and many people were killed and injured. It happened around 4pm, at which time I was actually in my supervisor’s office talking to him about a report he wanted me to write. My uncle called me on the phone to tell me about the attack and check on where whereabouts. My supervisor had not known about explosion and when I told him…it was like everything stood still. I went to another part of the office to find out more about what happened and bumped into a colleague who had just returned from the site. He said that as he was nearing the site he saw the explosion happen and quickly turned around and headed back to the office. His destination that afternoon was the site of the bombing, on an errand for the office. I am thankful that God made it so that he was minutes late. Nevertheless, I felt scared, angry, and very sad for the many that were not as fortunate. 

The site of the bombing is a very popular spot in Abuja and where everyone goes to purchase electronics, especially phones. The bombing was just outside the main building and thus most of the victims were young kids selling bananas and peanuts, taxi drivers waiting to pick up passengers, and anyone who was unlucky to be hanging around outside the building at that moment. I called my parents to let them know I was okay, but the news had not reached their media yet. They were thus surprised and concerned. I then went home.

It pains me to say this but Abuja is rapidly becoming an unsafe place. The threats are not empty and they are very frequent. Public places are major targets and thus people are forced to limit their movements to work –home – church/mosque. Even then, your work/worship site could be dangerous. I thank God that I am okay. I thank God that my family and colleagues are okay. I could go on a bit more about what is and what is NOT being done to take control of this situation but I’ll pass on that right now. That requires a separate post and possibly a book chapter. We continue to pray for God’s mercy and guidance; that He leads and directs our actions and steps according to His plan. I don’t go out much, in fact, at all. In a way, it is frustrating because I would like to explore this new city but I also notice that I am rapidly losing enthusiasm to bother about anything besides my work and finding a j.o.b! Again, thank goodness for comfort food -- my cousin bought me some Suya for week 2. 

Please keep us in your prayers.