Today we went to get my bags from the airport. Cecil wanted to bring Christian from the local village because he said he had never seen an airport. He has finished his schooling for now and has to wait for money to restart; he also has to wait for his older brother to finish first. We dropped into the CPP office (Community Psychiatric Program) and called the airport. They said my bags were now in Lagos and would come the next day.
We then decided to stop for lunch at Bubbles the Nigerian equivalent of a fast food restaurant. Martha then met us and took me to the market to buy some cloths. The market was pretty busy and I got quite a lot of attention for being white. Lots of stall owners called “Onyeocha” to me which is a greeting meaning white person they also shouted 'white' and 'USA'. I bought a nice shirt for 700N which is about £3 and some bananas for under £1.
In the evening Martha and I go to Reverend Timothy's house for company, he has a fan and a television so we chat and watch films. He has stacks and stacks so I am looking forward to getting through some of those! We can also cook some dinner like plantain and yam.
Saturday the 15th of March
I slept better last night and was up at half 6 to be ready for church at 7. The service is half an hour and then there is breakfast. In church, men and women sit on separate sides and the residents sit amongst the staff. I was welcomed officially and introduced to everyone by his or her name and job title.
Today we picked up Christian again and drove out to the airport. We were told to be there for half 11 but we got there for 12. They said the aeroplane was still in Lagos and they would not be able to tell us if my bags were on board until the plane arrived. We were allowed to sit in the VIP lounge for free to make up for the fact we had over an hour to wait. The lounge had comfy chairs and fans going and a television against the wall. A woman brought a book over for us to sign saying Name, Date, Business, Amount. Everyone else who had been in the lounge had to pay 1,000N for the privilege. This is only about £5 but is quite a lot of money; you could buy a small radio for 600N and then get lunch out for 400N!
We went and watched the plane landing and my luggage was there. I was pretty happy and spread it all around my house making it messy and homely.
Sunday 16th of March, Palm Sunday
Church is at 10 on the weekend so I got a nice lie in till half nine. Today was Palm Sunday so some people had picked palm leaves to bring to church. When hymns are sung there is a choice to sing in either Igbo or English, this happens at the same time so it took me a while to understand what was going on. People eat quite heavily here. For breakfast beans or rice is served, lunch is always garri and for dinner we eat rice with stew. Sunday meals are the other way round having garri for lunch and rice with stew for supper. Garri is white starchy sticky dough made from grounded cassava, which is fried; this is served with leafy vegetable soup with fish in. Rice with stew is pretty self-explanatory. The stew is quite spicy and the rice is boiled.
I haven't done a lot today just washing and organising. I walked around the Amaudo grounds. Martha, Rose and I went on a walk to see the sun set.
Monday the 17th of March
Today I got up earlier at 6 so I could shower before church. I had a meeting with Reverend Kenneth to talk about what I should do this week. He gave me Group 3 of the Residents to observe and get to know so I would be able to know what was going on in the clinical review, work shop review and WARD round on Wednesday. My residents are
1) Peter
2) Mary
3) Ngosi
4) Chibuzo
5) Friday
6) Goodwill
7) Innocent
8) Grace
I have also been asked to look out for:
Evelyn : to see if I can get her address for a home visit
Nathen: who was a teacher before he got sick and is now settling into shoe making before he can be discharged.
And I will be interested to meet the newest Resident who is suffering from delusions of Grandeur and believes she is Queen Elizabeth. She has a fancy scarf and has been keeping herself well enough to be allowed to keep her hair on entering Amaudo.
After the meeting I went to work shop from 10 till lunchtime (1 o clock). Workshop is where residents come to learn trade skills so they can support themselves once they are discharged and living back at home. There are currently 8 sections; Jewelry making, shoe making, carpentry, tailoring, barbering and hairdressing, a trading section and a typing table. There is a game table for those who do not feel up for working that day. There is also talk of bring back more traditional crafts such as basket and broom making. Residents also help work on the farm, planting and caring for crops; this too will help with rehabilitation.
The residents were happy to be in workshop and enjoyed the attention of me photographing them or snapping as they call it. While I was there a member of CPP came in to get her shoe fixed. Emmanuel loves mending shoes and I think he is doing well.
Residents in the Workshop
When a Resident comes to discharge they have a celebration service and invite people from the local and state government, board members, families and the local area. In the service the Resident is given the equipment needed to set up their trade they were taught at Amaudo. This means a tailor gets a sowing machine, hairdressers have all the little bits and a hair dryer and a trader will be set up with biscuits and drinks to start shop and so on.
Tuesday 18th of March
Today I was up at half 5 so I could follow House Parent Favor around on her morning routine. We had to wake up the Residents in her block at 6am and make them fetch water for their baths. Each House Parent is given a group of Residents all of the same sex and the House Parent themselves should be the same sex as the Residents they care for. It is the job of a House Parent to provide everything their Residents needs so help getting up in the morning, clothing, toiletries and special attention for if they are troubled or hurt. They are expected to get to know their Residents and do everything a parent would do for their own child. There are some Residents that need supervision to make sure they do take their baths because when they are not stable they do not bothered about keeping clean. Once everyone is up and dressed Favor gives out the drugs required by their psychosis and mental problems. Church is at 7 and breakfast is at half past.
Later I sat in on the clinical review. The same questions are asked to each Resident from the group
How are you?
Are you happy?
Do you eat well?
Do you sleep well?
When you are alone do you sometimes hear voices but cannot see anyone?
Are you a special somebody?
Is anyone against you?
What would you do if the room were on fire?
What is this place?
What do they do here?
Why are you here?
Do you take drugs?
What are they for?
These questions are used to assess:
- Mood
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Insight
- Thought
From the interview process they also build up an information bank about the persons past; where they are from, family relations, what their occupation was before going to the street, how long they have been on the street...etc.
They also monitor the blood pressure and weight of the Resident. Once all the information is together they can then propose a plan of how to help the Resident improve up to the point of discharge.
Most of the Residents gave pretty normal answers, a lot can recognize they are in Amaudo a center that cares for and rehabilitates people with mental illness but do not think they themselves are mentally sick.
Papa Issacc is at times under the delusion he is God. Today he said that Jesus made man but he himself made everything in the world like clothing, paper and drugs. He said he was taking drugs for the sake of others that are sick like the nurse and when he takes them they will transfer to help those who need the drugs.
In WorkShop review they monitor how they are getting on at learning their trade. How motivated and skilled they are. They also make note of how well a Resident is keeping themselves if they have body odor and how they keep their clothes. An example of a Resident who does not keep her clothes well is Catherine, she almost always wears things undone and inside out, and sometimes back to front as well. She also likes to put on clothes upon clothes and can change her outfit every 20 minuets at times. She is not very settled and likes to walk around a lot. I am quite found of her and she can be a very funny woman.
WARD ROUND is where everyone meets up to discuss their observations of the Residents in that group for the week and talks about their problems and if they have got over any. At a typical WARD ROUND there will be a Doctor, the Nurse, WorkShop and the Chaplain present. However as it is Holy Week I only heard from the Nurse and WorkShop. Success is a psychology graduate here for his year of service, here in Nigeria every graduate has to serve a year of voluntary work before they can get a job, it is called being a youth corpa. They are sent far away from the state they grew up in so that they can experience a different culture to their own and learn that the South is no better than the North or whatever else people that have not traveled may think. Success gives his psychological opinions of what is going on with the person’s behavior and helps the Chaplain and Nurse to improve interview technique to coax more information from the Resident if they are closing up.
I also found my dominos today, I wish I had brought them to WorkShop. I tried the game out with cook and House Parent KC and it proved very popular which amused me a little because they are quite grown up men. I think I will use playing games as a way of getting to know Residents.
Thursday 20th March, Maundy Thursday
Today I went to Ntalakwu to visit Amaudo 2 and the Wonderful School. The Wonderful School is for mentally and psychically disabled children.
Today was also my first Okada ride. Okadas are small motor bikes and are the most common form of public transport, I was a bit scared as the bikes to me did not look too safe, sometimes you see three people on a bike at the same time and nobody wears any safety gear, but Reverend Timothy booked me his best driver and told him to carry me like an egg. It was actually quite fun because it is breezy and not so bumpy because you are freer to avoid potholes and bumps in the roads.
I got a very warm welcome and all the children rushed out to see me. When I say children I mean the pupils of the school, several could be in their 20s and there was another woman called Catherine who looks very old.Nicolas the farmer took me around the Amaudo 2 center and showed me where they have their bakery and poultry farm, Both are now closed due to insufficient funding but are ready to start up again as soon as the money comes in.
Happiness
The teacher for the Wonderful School is called Happiness. She is young, pretty and very happy and caring for her children. The school is small and only contains one class, today there were 10 children and they settled to jigsaws well. The first thing I noticed about being there was how happy they all were, everyone was smiling at me and even though I could not understand what they were saying (they only speak Igbo and not very well) I enjoyed their company and their laughter. There were two children on the floor who were too disabled to join in jigsaw making, I decided to give them some balloons to play with that ended up with a big game of beach ball with all the students. I got lots of lovely photos and they were very keen to be snapped. They liked the camera and found it exciting I could show them photos of what they look like and videos of things I had seen. We sang songs of praise and broke up for relaxing time and then lunch. In the communal hall where lunch is eaten I got another game going with balloons. They are pretty into balloons and love blowing them up.
After Wonderful School I was picked up and taken to Helping Hands School for the ceremony of the handing over of the new school bus. The Ceremony was a big affair, 6-8 Rotary club members came to it including the president and the past president. The bus was presented to Helping Hands School at the school. The local Governor and the Commissioner for Education attended and the commissioner gave an address. There was a welcome service, singing from the school children and the Rotary Club sang their Rotary song. The bus was blessed and the school was presented with a donation of books and pens from the Rotary club and they also presented the Commissioner and the headmistress with a plaque. Everyone went outside to be photographed with the bus with the important people at the back and the kids in the front, I was asked to be in the photograph too which was nice. The children then danced and gave a traditional drum display. The whole Ceremony was filmed for the news. I hope to see it on television soon.
Everyone snapped with the bus
Traditional dance by children, during the presentation of the bus
At our evening service for Maundy Thursday we had feet washing to Reverend Kenneth washed staff’s feet and they in turn washed the Residents feet.
Friday 21st March, Good Friday
Today, because it was Good Friday staff and Residents from Amaudo 1 were invited to join in the service at Amaudo 2. Everyone packed into the truck but Success took Martha and I on the bike together. It was a lovely service and was nice having small children around, Very Reverend Bernard has two sons and a daughter and Reverend David has four sons.
Catherine was walking around with a teddy bear today. She was enjoying playing with it but it looked quite sad and broken so I decided to mend it for her by sewing up his leg and body and giving him new stuffing. I enjoyed mending it because I knew she appreciated it. Later she asked if I could be her mother. I said I am too young please may I be your auntie
Fixing teddy!
Success, Martha and I went out in the afternoon to find some Residents on my list to teach Dominos to. We decided to find Grace and Ngosi because they are quite lively and in the afternoon is when most Residents enjoy a nap. Grace has made good friends with Behold so he joined our game too. They picked it up pretty quick, faster than House Parent KC who kept confusing it with Ludo, Whilst playing we asked them questions like how are they and where did they come from? They joked quite a bit.... Behold does persistently claim to be a soldier although judging on his floppy salute and his claim to be involved in the civil war that most likely happened before he was born we think it is a delusion.
Dominos
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