I got this letter from one of my friends in America

He asked a lot of good questions so I’ll answer some of them. Here is his letter with my comments:

Dear Jack

                        What’s up?

Having fun in Nigeria?

(The answer to that is yes. Usually there are about three hundred kids around, so when school’s out we have to make do with twenty to two kids, so it gets boring)

Are you learning a new language or do you still speak English?

(No, I only speak English but I’m learning pidgin/broken English. I am learning a few words in different languages like: Igala, Basa, Hausa, and Fulfulde which is what the Fulani speak.)

What food do you usually eat?

 (Whatever, we have a caterer who cooks for us. French fries aka chips, Hamburgers, cabbage rolls -you name it. He can also cook Nigerian food yams, catfish from our own pond and jollof rice. One time mom and dad had grasscutter aka giant rat. Yuck! We get care packages with cool stuff like mac and cheese.)

Is the weather there nice or are there bad days?

(All of the above, but it’s always hot.) 

Did you see the world cup? Spain won!

(Yeah! Although I had hoped that America would win.)

Do you go to school in Nigeria?

(Kind of, I’m in home school)

OK last question, is there cars or do you have to walk every where? 

(There are cars but they have a different name, “moto.” We have a machine/ motorcycle and truck. Most people walk or get “okeda,” which is transport by machine or moto. ) J

                                                                                                                       Jack

 

liz

The Kofa Dye Pits

A couple days ago I was in Kano. We went for vacation and also to encourage the Free Methodist church up there. Nobody has visited them in three years. Of course we had to go site seeing. The strangest thing was the dye pits. Imagine a bunch of ¾ meter wide 3-6 meter holes with blue liquid inside. Now think that 75% of them were filled with garbage. You get a strange place. The same holes have been used in the same way for 600 years! Now imagine the sound of ten 30 pound wooden hammers continuously hitting cloth and wood. I bought a piece of cloth called House of Parliament. At the start the cloth looked like George Washington’s wig, (see picture) because if you want to have designs in the cloth they have to tie it up in places. To get the dark color the tied cloth gets dunked in the solution over and over for six hours. A 6 meter deep pit’s solution lasts for a year. I’ll always remember that place because of the pillow that I’m going to make.