On Tuesday morning I got up around 6:45am and had a quick breakfast before we left for Ilorin just before 8am. The trip there was uneventful. I spent some time asking Abby numerous questions about shopping in Egbe, Ilorin, and Abuja. In other words, I went over the list of questions Maureen sent with me! 🙂 We had a nice air conditioned ride in the Toyota Tacoma. It actually got a little cold!
One task I had been given by Maureen was to find out the availability of baby items for our new little girl. So, I looked for diapers, formula, etc. Our first stop was a little grocery store – emphasis on little. Found some diapers here and took a few pictures of other items. Next we stopped by the outdoor market. This thing seemed to go on and on. Think of it like an outdoor Costco where you get a better price if you buy in bulk. Found diapers and formula here. The most prevalent formula brand appears to be SMA – made in Ireland. Prices vary between the grocery store and the market for items. The stores probably purchase in bulk from the market, so seeing the set price in the store is a good place to begin when negotiating at the market. Abby suggested that I buy some formula to take back – great idea! Our next stop was an appliance store where we priced out various kitchen items that will be needed as houses on the hospital compound are renovated.
We then met Dr. Agaja and took a tour of his home and the teaching hospital where he works. He is an orthopedic surgeon who is connected to Egbe – he helped start George Campion Academy 25 years ago. This is a government hospital but has pretty good equipment. It would be good look into building a relationship of some sort with the hospital in Egbe. After the hospital tour we went back to Dr. Abaja’s house for a small meal, met his family (government holiday so all were there – they also live in the same compound as his clinic), and then headed out to find some cucumbers. We stopped for gas on the way out of Ilorin and headed home – made it home just before dark. Enok made sure that we left in time and Pastor Babawarun called twice to make sure we would be here before dark. We had dinner just after we arrived and I then headed to the computer room to get some work done.
On Wednesday morning I got up around 7am and headed over for coffee and breakfast. Following breakfast I helped measure the operating room area. Detailed building layouts with measurement are being made to have on record as work is done. From 11am until lunch I worked on a few blog postings. After lunch I headed over to Titcombe College on a motorcycle taxi to speak with Principal Dada about getting additional copies of the history of the college that they gave to us earlier – several on our team (including myself) wanted more copies. Dada was in a meeting but I spoke with him briefly and he said to come back in an hour and that he wanted to make the additional copies a gift – even though I said we wanted to buy the books. So, I headed back to the compound and did some more engraving for just over an hour – decided to make it a Nigerian hour. Our drive Enok joked about the difference in set times. When we were running late in Ilorin the prior day and someone said they wanted to stop and shop for 10 minutes, he asked if it would be an American or Nigerian 10 minutes. Anyway, for this trip to Titcombe College I decided to borrow the keys to the Tacoma and drove over – yep, my first drive in Nigeria. Okay, it was a really short drive – took about 3 minutes! Principal Dada was ready with twenty copies and again said he wanted it to be a gift from him to us. I then asked if he would allow me to make a donation to the school. After a bit of coaxing he agreed and we said our good-byes.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon engraving everything tool in the workshop that I could grab. After dinner I took my clothes out of the dryer and folded them – Ronke usually leaves around 4pm but she made sure to let me know that my clothes were not dry yet. I assured her that it was okay . . . that I knew how to fold clothes. She is a really nice lady and has been working at or in the hospital compound for many years now. After folding I decided to go ahead and pack up to see what it would look like. I had already set aside the stuff I would be leaving a few days ago – extra food, bed sheets, towel, razors and shaving cream, etc. I had already given the books I brought to Femi, and without the other items I could easily pack one suitcase inside another as planned. I spent a little time in the computer room tying up some loose ends. I went to sleep looking forward to beginning the trip home, but also knowing that I would miss Egbe.
McAlhaneys on Mission 