Motherless Babies Home

Two Thursdays ago I had the incredible opportunity to visit a local orphanage here in Lagos. A group goes from our camp every Thursday morning and that week my boss was gracious enough to grant me the morning off to take advantage of this opportunity. I had honestly resigned myself to the fact that I'd never get to go because they only went on weekdays, but after finally just talking to my boss about it she was perfectly willing, if not eager, to give me the morning off to experience this before I left Nigeria. For obvious reasons, they don't allow you to bring cameras or take pictures or anything, so I don't have any of those to share. But it was certainly another amazing experience that will stick with me forever.

I think this was actually the first time I'd ever visited an orphanage of any kind, so I didn't really know what to expect. The living conditions were certainly not great, but surprisingly better than I had anticipated. It was definitely better than many other housing and living situations I've seen elsewhere around Nigeria. There wasn't any air conditioning and it appeared most the kids slept 2-3 to a bed, but it seemed like they were still all pretty well fed and cared after. The Chevron group that goes every Thursday always brings a few big boxes of toys and balls to play with while we're there. It was very obvious that this is rare for them as the children were all beyond ecstatic to have toys and things to play with. It appeared they didn't have really any toys of their own, so these few hours were likely the highlight of their week. I asked one of the women why we didn't simply leave the toys there for them and the response I received was because they are just not cared for. The toys would get destroyed or stolen too easily and there had actually been instances in the past where they saw some of the employees stealing toys to take home for their own families. So unfortunately they just couldn't trust to leave them there which is quite disappointing. 

We only stayed for a couple hours, but I truly enjoyed my time spent there. We did spend a bit of time breaking up fights over toys and trying to ensure everyone got their turns, but that's pretty natural with kids anywhere it seems. I got to play ball with some of the older boys outside (soccer that is) and play around with some of the younger toddlers with their different toys inside. There was also one instance I had a young boy sitting on my lap and all he wanted to do was lay his head on my chest and be held. This was definitely the most heart-warming moment of the day. It occurred to me that these kids probably rarely ever get any kind of special one-on-one attention. The child-to-staff ratio was presumably around 20:1 and there are a good amount of infants/newborns who require most of the attention. I can only assume this leaves the toddlers and other young children lacking much attention. I can't blame them for just wanting to be held. My heart really went out to them. While it was certainly tough to see children living like this, abandoned and with no parents, it still brought joy to me to know that these kids have been given a chance. I'm sure there are plenty more kids around Africa living with virtually no parents that aren't getting at least the minimal attention and care these orphanage children are. And praise God that these kids were at least given a chance at life, unlike millions of others. 

Alright, changing topics real quick. I spent the last week out of the office doing a contractor audit with the same Nigerian coworker I'd done all that travel with recently. We were auditing a former contractor who operated all our airline shuttle services around Nigeria until just this past December. We essentially combed through all the contractual documents that outlined the pricing structures and amended agreements then went through all the invoices from the past two years making sure all the billing and payments were done appropriately and in line with the contract terms. It was actually really interesting and possibly my favorite thing I've gotten to do here work-wise. We had some good findings and were actually able to pick up some lost money along the way. The crappy part was that the contractor's office is way out by the airport, which is about an hour and a half away from the Chevron camp. So, basically I was driving an hour and a half each way in the morning and afternoon every day this past week to get out there for this audit. I don't think I'll ever get used to Lagos traffic, but at least I had a good book to read and got a lot of reading in. 

Well, as I sit here writing this and looking ahead to the next few weeks, I'm starting to realize this may already be one of my last posts. One week from today I'll be leaving for South Africa to meet my parents in Cape Town for a two week vacation and safari. I return to Lagos on March 9, and have recently found out I may have a pretty quick turnaround heading back to the states just a few days later. It's looking like there's a good chance I'll be home by the weekend of March 15th, which means this week ahead may be my last full week of work in Nigeria. In any case, I'll certainly put up one final farewell post, but not sure if I'll get any more in between now and then; I'll try though. I have recently received and signed my official offer letter to return to the Houston office starting April 1st and couldn't be more excited about returning home to the greatest state there is. I am thrilled to see my parents next week for the first time in 5 months and almost equally excited to return home and see everyone else. It's been too long. I'm not sure if anyone still even reads this blog besides me and my parents anymore, but regardless, see ya soon 'Merica!