Monday 31st March - Project Comfort

Monday the 31st of March
Today I went to Project Comfort. It gave me a taste of Nigerian disorganisation and time keeping. We went to see a nurse in her own office but she said she was at our own. When we got to our own she said she was at her own. Now being told all that when you thought you were going to a place called Hoffers not Hoffier is all a bit confusing. Hoffers is a fast food joint with air conditioning, television and is a good place to eat. As it was lunchtime I thought our visit to Hoffers must have been a treat organised to welcome to me Project Comfort not a wild goose chase for a woman who did not seem to want to be found. I was expecting a meeting about the children we would be meeting in the week and to discuss their progress. Instead I had come on the day of the tri-monthly staff meeting so nothing talked about made a whole lot of relevance to any children in detail.

Despite the confusion, it was good to meet the team. There is Rev David who is the co-ordinator, Ozuoma who I see as taking the role of ‘top dog’. She has been with the project for a long time and is very smart. She organises the boys who are Evan, Obinna and the newest member John Jeremiah who was the barber at the Workshop in Amaudo 1 that showed me around. It was very hot in the office and I felt quite tired. John saw I was looking bad and bought me some biscuits to eat. He is a good friend but I felt a little embarrassed to be the only one to eat something when it was so hot so I went and fetched 8 pure waters so everyone could have a drink. Pure water is good drinking water that is sold in plastic bags, you bite open a corner to drink. It looks like how goldfish were packaged when you win them at fairs and you can often find children walking about with big baskets of them on their heads. Pure water used to be 5N a bag but has now gone up to 10N so from about one penny to two point five pennies! You can buy 10 pure waters for about 40 pence. A bottle of cold coke in glass costs 50N so about 20 pence….this makes me feel bad about working in a restaurant where I sell a smaller bottle of coke for £2.90 and we do not even reuse the glass!

Some nurses have come to stay at Amaudo as part of their training. There are 40 in total so it is taking over quite a lot. The ones by my house are all males and enjoy singing. Luckily for me they sing very well in a barbershop style that I have been secretly enjoying from behind closed doors.