First Sunday

Sunday we slept in again and had brunch before meeting.  At one thirty we met outside to wait for our bus and happened to meet Charlie.  Our friends who have been here will remember Charlie.  The rest of you will meet him in good time.:)  We enjoyed seeing village life on the way to and from the Kingdom Hall.  I wanted to take more pictures but I'm trying to be cautious and take them discreetly.  (If you read between the lines you will see the word "sneaky.")  Anyways, here is one for you:

The round structure in the foreground is their water storage.  If you click the picture and enlarge it you will see a complicated gutter system leading to it.  When it rains they direct the water into the storage container.

The village area is busy.  It's always nice to see the lovely Kingdom Hall and grounds.  Everything is neat and orderly.  It is an absolute contrast to the area around it.

The Front

The Back

The Entrance, complete with wonderful new friends!

The attendance was 171 for the meeting, which we were totally impressed with.  They said that has actually reduced from about 250 in the past.  The reason for that is that the contractors that are working at Bethel are all Witnesses and so many were in the area and attending at the local halls.  As the work has reduced, they have slowly reduced the amount of personnel and so many are returning home.  At least half in attendance were children and many were not there with parents.  Many young children attend meetings and study here in Nigeria without their parents and later become Witnesses.  It is so beautiful to see.  One young man sat with us and was totally attentive.   Looked up every scripture and followed along perfectly.  With 171 in attendance you are doing well to squeeze in one comment!

Our meeting time is 2pm which is a little difficult because it is hot.  However, they do have fans so as long as you are rested you probably won't fall asleep during the meeting.  We were rested so we made it!  After meeting we Skyped for a few minutes, than ate dinner and went swimming again.  After that we went to the sauna.   Why would you go to the sauna in Africa in HOT season?  Peer pressure. Pure peer pressure. Other people were doing it so we did it too.  It's a really nice sauna with the plunge pool inside.  At first I wanted to leave, but then you get used to it and after you feel really nice and clean.  And we enjoyed visiting with the brothers we were there with.  Some have called it the Oebo oven.  Oebe means white person. I'm not sure if I am spelling it correctly or not. You pronounce it Oh-ee-bo.

Then it was time to get ready for our first full week of work!