Daring to Dream in Damaturu

It's not an impressive sight. When one drives (or most walk), up to the fellowship center of the believers in Damaturu, Yobe State, one wonders what is located here: an abandoned building, a room for animals, someone's uncompleted home. However, when one walks in to sit down, everything changes. Followers are meeting here and they sing with passion. The prayers of the disciples are inspiring as they are uttered in such austere conditions.

The thought first occurred to me to begin encouraging the believers in Damaturu in the fall of 2005 after our family moved to Maiduguri. Dr. Uche Eni, a servant among the Maiduguri followers, performed a week of surgery every month in the far northwestern Yobe State city of Nguru. Dr. Eni would always leave on the first day of the week and had to miss fellowship because of the distant journey from Maiduguri to Nguru. One day I proposed to Dr. Eni that I drive him to Damaturu (closer to Nguru) so that we could break bread with the disciples there. From then on, Dr. Eni and I developed a monthly routine when we would leave Maiduguri by 7:30AM on the week's first day, stop in Damaturu to rendevous our brothers & sisters, then I would drop him at the motor park to finish the final leg of his journey to Nguru.

It has been during these 2 1/2 years of visits to the fellowship in Damaturu that I first met Ebenezer Udofia. Ebenezer was the "Executive Agricultural Administrator" at RNT Farms in Damaturu covering 1.5 miles by 1.5 miles. As Dave Goolsby from Healing Hands International visited Maiduguri, I invited Ebenezer for some discussions. Dave was immediately sold on Ebenezer's credentials and encouraged me to request his services at the INTERCEP farm in Maiduguri. Graciously, Ebenezer recently covenanted to come on board our work with INTERCEP in Maiduguri by developing some livestock additions for our drip irrigation farm: poultry (broilers & layers), rabbits, & rams.

The most impressive site when one enters Damaturu is the new huge mosque just commissioned by the state governor in May of 2007. It is apparently the largest mosque in West Africa and the 2nd largest in Africa only to the Friday mosque of Cairo, Egypt. Damaturu is a state capitol that was commissioned when Yobe State was carved out of Borno in 1996. This immediately put Damaturu on the map and brought it out of obscurity to a commercial center. However, the overriding sense that one is overwhelmed with when one drives through Yobe State is desert poverty.

As INTERCEP has located a branch office in the northeastern Nigerian hub of Maiduguri, one must pass through Damaturu. There has been a fellowship there for a number of years but it has failed to mature due to a long line of proclaimers without the tenacity to endure the harsh conditions of this desert city. Now that Ebenezer is coming to serve with INTERCEP in Maiduguri, we will not forget our kindred spirits in Damaturu. We dare to dream that the Almighty has big plans to bless the brothers & sisters at Damaturu through agriculture, health care, skill acquisition, education, and in-depth discipleship. Won't you dare to dream with us at Arewa Aid to demonstrate compassion to these desert disciples?

Christmas At The Blakes

Under the Christmas Tree



















Opening Presents

Christmas Eve Dinner

Testing the Quality of Life

Do you notice a difference between Save-A-Lot groceries and Publix fare? How about filling up with generic fuel from 7-11 instead of Exxon? What about purchasing toys that are “Made in China” as opposed to “Made in the U.K.”? This is the dilemma that we face daily as we shop for household items, food, and most recently, building supplies in northern Nigeria. The passage of time teaches us much about how the quality of the materials with which we invest but also the context in which the choices are made.

When the idea was expressed that our farm needed a water reservoir, we immediately thought that a believer serving as an architect could do the job. Between the first estimate until the last dime was spent on the reservoir, the amount of money to be spent had doubled. This caused us little concern if the quality of the materials for the reservoir would stand the test of time. Therefore, after eight months, when Jen wrote in an e-mail that our reservoir had sustained a leak, we questioned the value of the supplies used in construction. The intensity of the desert heat, the ferocity of desert thunderstorms, and the cool desert dry season nights had offered a test that this cistern could not pass.

Unfortunately, this is not surprising in northern Nigeria where the average person lives on $1 a day. Therefore, when faced with a choice of purchasing building supplies that is imported or local, cheap or expensive, and non-guaranteed or guaranteed, the decision is an easy one to make. It’s a bit like asking someone in Nigeria to choose between buying infant formula for their baby or saving for their infant’s college fund. They can’t do both. Tough choices played out in these real life scenarios put one’s decision about the purchase of building materials into perspective.

When INTERCEP needed an office in Maiduguri, we rented a small storefront with no existing electrical apparatus. We had to start from scratch with the power company in purchasing a meter, registering the meter, and paying out first installment. The brother who made the arrangement was given the option of waiting through a 6 month process or getting a meter on the “fast-track” (off the books). We asked what our options were and we were told that practically everybody has to take the “fast-track” to get anything done with the power company. After being in this office for over a year, the power company threatened to cut our light if we didn’t produce a registered meter.

All of this illustrates the need for people to see a quality of life through a series of decisions made based on integrity. The INTERCEP drip irrigation site offers local farmers the opportunity to work through means that are affordable, practical, simple, and sustainable. The upcoming INTERCEP food preservation workshop offers the women of Borno State honest ways of keeping excess vegetable produce reducing waste. The 2008 INTERCEP agricultural addition of poultry, rabbits, and rams will train farmers in upright methods of small-scale livestock expansion of drip irrigation farms. As people envision a work ethic that produces a quality means of livelihood, they will be drawn to the One who gives meaning to all of life.

Counting the Cost

Wal-Mart seems a million miles away. The ease of walking into Home Depot and purchasing sheet rock, shingles, or tile fades like a distant memory. Everything in Nigeria is negotiable. There are no set prices except for “supermarkets” (one room dry-goods shops). The bottom line: the Nigerian customer is always judged by what they can pay not the value of the items to be purchased.

The research into the expenditures of drilling a bore hole (well) in northern Nigeria easily explain the lack of bore holes: commercial drillers estimate based on the customer’s pocket not the merit of the service to be rendered. Our first question into the bore hole maze surrounded the options available in pumping water from the depth of the first aquifer: hand-pump, gasoline generator, diesel generator, solar-power, wind-power. At the first committee meeting of the believers interested in a bore hole being drilled at our farm, one thing stood out: the idea of using a hand-pump in Maiduguri was comical. Then, Jen and I had horrifying anticipations of most of our financial resources being siphoned off into gasoline and diesel generators. Therefore, the sight of some solar-powered street lights began to give us hope that this was our best alternative for a bore hole pump.

However, when Jen and I looked into solar power as an option for electrical supply in our home, the cost was an outrageous $40K. An elder in Abuja working with the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Water Resources encouraged us to approach the Chad Basin Development Authority. After multiple visits to the offices of Chad Basin, we could merely receive an oral estimate on a solar-powered bore hole for $45K. A brother in Maiduguri thought he had friends in high places with the Borno State Ministry of Water. His visit to the state office of water resources yielded an estimate of $40K.

After these frustrating encounters, the fog was lifted through the intervention of Mac Safley, an agri-engineer from the University of North Carolina consulting with Healing Hands. As he sorted through our labyrinth of bore hole options, he asked a simple question: why not use Schedule 40 PVC pipe instead of stainless steel pipe? As it turned out, Mac further revealed that this would not be “stainless” but galvanized steel pipe anyway. This significantly reduced our cost into the $28K range out of the outrageous $40K zone. Bolstered by Mac’s ability to critique the current bore hole proposals in front of us, we felt confident to finalize our plans.

At our first drip irrigation workshop, one of our Borno State government participants, Ibrahim Ngamdu, vowed to help us with our solar-powered bore hole. Ibrahim offered the name and telephone information for Kunduli Mustapha, a solar engineer at the University of Maiduguri, who had drilled 4 bore holes in the state. We were duly impressed when Kunduli thoroughly read all of the information from Mac Safley and designed a solar well for our needs. In northern Nigeria, the proverb “It’s not what you know, but who you know” applies in a market of little supply and tremendous demand. May our ears be sensitive to the One who grants all wisdom as we interact with the good, the bad, and the underhanded.

Strengthening Weak Knees

I hate being sick. I never thought of myself as a very sickly person until coming to Nigeria. Malaria, typhoid, dysentery, diarrhea, and boils were only a handful of the illnesses to which I grew accustomed. Basically, we thought enduring bouts of bad health was just part of the job description of being a cross-cultural worker. Jen and I even started to appreciate the feverish moments to take it as a sign that we needed to slow down the pace of our work.

But then when we had Ibrahim, Rahamatu, and Musa, all this causal thinking about infection changed. Suddenly it wasn’t “bulletproof Brad” or “jagged Jen” getting sick but these little kids depending on daddy and mommy to get better. I still remember Dimis and Mary Mai-Lafia telling us to give our kids malarial treatment at the first sign of fever. So there I was ever-armed with children’s fever reducer, multi-vitamin mixes, and kid’s malarial remedies. Immediately after Rahamatu was born, I held her little arms and listened to her cries during a blood transfusion that still makes me shudder to ponder it.

Last week, I woke up feeling some pains in my right knee that I thought might have been from excessive walking on our farm. The pain gradually increased until morning I woke up to a tremendous pain behind my right knee and Jen looked at it in dismay saying, “That looks like a softball!” I immediately sent a text to Dr. Eni asking for some tips on urgent treatment. He recommended rest, elevation of the leg, an analgesic, and hot compresses on the swollen area.

After a week, I am still not able to walk normally but I can actually dress myself, walk stairs, and drive without too much pain. With another week of treatment, I expect to be walking without a hitch hailing the Lord’s healing grace.

The Almighty uses our feeble bodies and weak joints to teach multiple life lessons especially in a context like northern Nigeria. On the 3 rounds of treatment that I have spent this week, this would have been half the monthly salary of an average Nigerian worker. Most northern Nigerians endure infections like this until there is no other alternative than amputation. How desperately the indigenous people of northern Nigerian need health care delivered with compassion. With even greater desperation, medical treatment needs to be given with the gentle touch of the Great Physician.

The Genesis of Arewa Aid

I still remember the announcement in 1985. One of my teachers, Keith Parker, was going to the Bahamas in 1986. I thought, "He'll let me go hang out on the beach." Little did I know that we were going to be out serving folks in abject poverty on the streets of Nassau. After that 2-week experience, Keith asked me how I felt about the experience. I replied, "I think that I want to do this the rest of my life." This led me to Nigeria, Scotland, Zimbabwe, India, and Kenya. Yet, my heart felt the greatest burden for the receptive masses of West Africa especially near the Sahara Desert.

In 1998, I was serving in a work that focused on the poor metropolitan communities of Long Island, New York. At a singles retreat, I bumped into a young lady from Pennsylvania, Jennifer Becker, who talked about her interest in serving the poor in Ghana. Her father had traveled to Ghana and returned with an African doll in 1975 which planted a seed of service. Thus, after Jen and I had been married for a couple of years in 2000, we traveled to Nigeria exploring options for potential service. Northern Nigeria emerged as the location with the greatest need for expatriates with a heart to serve one of the least-developed regions of the world.

As Jen and I began serving the people of central Nigeria in 2001, our favorite work was among the villagers in the rural countryside. These were the places with no electricity, no pipe-borne water, no tarred roads, no clinics, and no schools nearby. As I served in religious education along with the University of Jos, my burden became greater to serve the poorest of the poor. Week-long trips into remote towns of northern Nigeria kindled a greater desire to serve among the most educationally backward. Jen and I began to wonder how the scope of our service could shift to a more humanitarian-based work.

In 2004, the executive director, Clement Iornongu, of the International Centre for Peace, Charities, and Human Developent (INTERCEP) approached us in central Nigeria. His idea was to offer me to serve as INTERCEP's International Development Director in northern Nigeria. As we began surveying which state to locate an INTERCEP branch office, northeastern Nigeria emerged as the most suitable environment. Borno State was known all over West Africa as the "Home of Peace" in Nigeria and Maiduguri was it's capital with a reputation for inter-tribal harmony. Thus, in 2005, the Blake family relocated from the Plateau highlands of Jos, Nigeria to the semi-arid sandy soil of Maiduguri to open a branch office for INTERCEP.

In 2006, our INTERCEP office in Maiduguri was approached with a parcel of land to develop for some indigenes of Borno State. As a significant amount of money was raised to erect a perimeter wall around this field, we were encouraged to create a 501c3 non-profit organization in the USA. This created the dream of Arewa Aid as a humanitarian organization to help disenfranchised communities of northern Nigeria.

"AREWA" means "NORTH" in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria but really embodies a culture. When someone in Tennessee says "The South" they're not talking geography but Cracker Barrel, SEC football, and the Grand Ole Opry. This is what "AREWA" means to someone living in northern Nigeria: Islam, Hausa language, wearing kaftans (long dress), eating tuwo (corn meal mush), singing with the algaita (flute).

Board members from Arewa Aid were recruited from Tennessee, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and Washington. On July 25, 2007, Arewa Aid was granted official non-profit status by the US government increasing the legitimacy of our fund-raising efforts.

The Blake family serves with INTERCEP in Nigeria and AREWA AID in the USA to create strategic partnerships to develop the poorest African people starting in northern Nigeria. Our humble beginnings have mobilized that abandoned Maiduguri field into a thriving drip irrigation farm growing vegetables in the dry season. Our 2008 goals involve supplementing this booming vegetable farm with livestock to create a balanced ecosystem. Our objectives beyond agriculture include a skill acquisition center, rural mobile clinic, and primary education for the poorest children. God is writing our story and we invite you to participate in helping the world's poorest people beginning in northern Nigeria.

Acquiring an All-Star Agronomist

The Cleveland Cavaliers have LeBron James. The New York Yankees have Alex Rodriguez. The New England Patriots have Tom Brady. Golf has Tiger Woods. Tennis has Roger Federer. All of these men have 1 thing in common. They are all-stars in their respective sports and highly sought after for commercial advertisements. To bring them into your organization is to raise the level of productivity beyond any previous expectations.

INTERCEP (Intl. Centre for Peace, Charities & Human Dev.) needs Ebenezer Udofia to run our farm operations in northeastern Nigeria (Maiduguri). Ebenezer is the son of a retired proclaimer of the good news from southeastern Nigeria. Ebenezer currently runs the RNT farm operation in Damaturu, Yobe State which is 1 1/2 hours west of Maiduguri. The RNT farm operations consists of guava, mango, orange orchards, thousands of broilers, and thousands of layers. RNT farms breeds cows, horses, chickens, rams, goats, sheep, fish, mills grains, squeezes fruit into juices, and grow numerous vegetable crops.

Ebenezer has completed a graduate degree in animal production technology and has written a book on "A Guide to Raising Rabbits." He is currently being pursued by the largest commercial farm in northeastern Nigeria owned by a state governor who is promising to pay him more money that he could imagine. The RNT farm that Ebenezer manages is 1.5 miles by 1.5 miles giving him the responsibility of managing 30 workers in fruit, livestock, milling, and vegetable operations. Ebenezer is a committed believer but those who are seeking his skills could care less about his religious orientation because he can generate enormous revenue. For the past 2 years, I have visited with Ebenezer at assemblies in Damaturu causing my interest to grow as his gifts and humility are obvious.

Recently, Ebenezer assisted INTERCEP in Maiduguri with a proposal to Healing Hands International (HHI) for 100 broilers, 100 layers, rams and rabbits to enhance our current vegetable production through drip irrigation. Dave Goolsby from HHI was so impressed that he recommended that INTERCEP hire Ebenezer away from RNT farms to serve in Maiduguri. At first, I wondered how in the world that INTERCEP could afford one with Ebenezer's talent when we barely can afford to pay a secretary and farm caretaker. I set up an appointment to meet with Ebenezer for lunch in Damaturu and explained to him how we needed people of his caliber. When I first mentioned the possibility of Ebenezer serving as the administrator of the INTERCEP farm, he was obviously thrilled.

However, nothing could prepare me for his response after I asked him concerning his salary need. He replied: "Brother Brad, there is no amount of money that you could pay me to work for God. I know that I will receive double my reward in heaven for doing this work. Don't worry about the money. God will provide. If it is God's will, I will work to see that the INTERCEP farm in Maiduguri is producing enough to satisfy everyone for God's glory." Arewa Aid will labor to pay Ebenezer's salary through INTERCEP until the farm is self-sustainable and we would be blessed through your partnership.

Arewa Aid in Nigerian HIStory

When I began studying sociology at the University of Maiduguri in 2006, I realized how little that I knew of Nigerian history. The coming of Islam through Arab traders to the Kanem-Bornu empire around Lake Chad in the 11th century was ground-breaking. The "jihad of the sword" from the Fulani (nomadic tribe) Emir, Usman Dan-Fodio, against the dominant Hausa tribe in the early 19th century revived Islam. The invasion of the British into northern Nigeria in the early 20th century was strategic as these colonialists left the Islamic emirate system intact. When the United Kingdom finally gave Nigeria independence in 1960, there was little preparation for the transition from the colonial to post-colonial era.

In the 1960's, northeastern Nigeria was one of several "regions" governed by the federal government in Lagos. The northeastern Nigerian provincial capital was Maiduguri which made it strategic to the northeast and crucial for cross-border trade with Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. By the 1970's, the northeastern province became Borno State offering this new state government more freedom of action. This was the period of Nigeria's greatest oil boom from the southern coastal reserves but this revenue never seemed to create political stability. Through the 1980's, a cycle of civilian rule and military dictatorship began escalating that would re-define the heights of corruption in Nigeria.

The 1990's was the decade when Nigeria's global reputation as the international corruption capitol became a by-word. However, the sudden passing of General Sani Abacha in 1998 renewed the hope for democracy. In 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as Nigeria's first democratically elected president since 1979 reviving everyone's eagerness for change. After 8 years of Obasanjo's top-down approach to democratic government, Nigeria was still without stable electricity, potable water for everyone, and a network of motorable roads free of potholes. When Musa Yar-Adua was elected president in April of 2007, hope re-emerged for a leader from the Arewa to rid Nigeria's government of it's innate graft.

How do organizations like Arewa Aid fit into Nigerian history to encourage integrity, transparency, and trust? Thankfully, our family was invited to serve with the International Centre for Peace, Charities, and Human Development (INTERCEP) in 2005 to encourage the progress of Nigerian history. Since 1999, INTERCEP had been encouraging peaceful resolution to religio-ethnic conflict in the central Nigerian highlands of Plateau State. For years, INTERCEP had been operating a micro-credit loan plan for poor market women to increase their quality of life. After a half-decade, INTERCEP had conducted numerous workshops to reduce the stigmitazation of infectious diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis, and leprosy.

Arewa Aid was formed in early 2007 to enhance our family's ability to establish INTERCEP as a viable entity in Maiduguri. Our hope is that by approaching the Nigerian people from the bottom-up that the citizenry will be empowered to chart their own course. Drip irrigation farming with composting as a central component is one way we seek to lift local Borno people from dependency. Our future plans for a skill acquisition center is another means to assist the Maiduguri people in becoming self-sufficient. We invite you to join us at Arewa Aid in catapulting the indigenous people of northeastern Nigeria as they write a brighter chapter of Nigerian history to honor God.

A Dry and Weary Land

I like hot weather. Since I developed sinus problems in my 20's, I always seem to function better when it's hot outside. Since my parents moved from Canada to Memphis, Tennessee when I was 4 years old, I've always looked forward to summertime. In contrast, my wife, Jen, grew up in Hanover, Pennsylvania and loves the changes of season in north America especially autumn or the falling of the leaves. Therefore, when our family first moved to the central Nigerian city of Jos in 2001, the highland climate of Plateau State was cool most of the time and pleasant for Jen.

When Jen and I decided to move from Jos to Maiduguri in 2005, we knew that we would have to adjust to a climate change. However, we had no idea exactly how hot that the semi-arid climate of northeastern Nigeria would be. We arrived in the middle of the rainy season which was a bit deceiving as the problem in Maiduguri appeared to be flooding because of a lack of drainage. Yet, when the rains ended in October, we began to understand what every Nigerian talks about when they point to Maiduguri as the hottest spot in the nation. From 7AM to 7PM, no one would be caught out "under the sun" without an umbrella, long clothes for protection from sunlight, or a small plastic bag of "pure water."

Jen and I quickly noticed that all of the green leaves, green grass, or any green foliage was rapidly turning brown. It was as if all of the ground had become sand in only 2 weeks from the conclusion of the rainfall. We hardly saw any open-air market stalls where locals were selling fresh vegetable produce. Big, tall trees that provided shade were few and far between and those few refuges of shade were always occupied with people under their canopies. We began to empathize with the plight of the semi-arid farmer as we planted flowers only to see them wilt away.

Nevertheless, I don't think that anything could have prepared us for March, April, and May in Maiduguri. Immediately when the harmattan sandy winds from the Sahara ceased in February, March brought bitterly scorching days of 120F+ daily. We felt like we were walking around in an oven every single day with no refuge because we had could ill afford to buy diesel for our generator to power our air-conditioner. At night, it was difficult to sleep because we would toss and turn in our own sweat longing for a breeze. The March to mid-April heat was dry while the late April to May heat was humid progressively becoming more muggy each day.

After constructing our water reservoir at the INTERCEP farm in March of 2007, we noticed a unique phenomena. The water hauled in via tankers from a commercial water company would dry up as soon as it was unloaded into the reservoir. As we raised plant beds at the INTERCEP farm in April of 07, any water released through the drip irrigation tape had to be applied by 6AM or 6PM, otherwise, it would quickly evaporate. Our struggle to water the vegetable crops from March until the first rains of June of 07 was unbelievably arduous. Thus, when the first rains arrived in abundance by July of 07, it was a time to celebrate God's provision.

God has blessed us to see his abundant mercy in a dry and weary land as people are able to grow vegetables in the desert through drip irrigation. We would be blessed by your partnership in bringing the water of life!

Where on Earth is Safe?

As far back as 1989 when I would visit southern Nigeria, I expected to encounter crime. I had heard so many stories about missionaries, foreigners, and expatriates being robbed. At night, I would lay awake at night listening for any possible sound of a thief rustling around the perimeter of the house. Out on the road, I fully expected to be stopped by an armed robber at some point and mentally prepared for it to happen. However, when I first crossed over into northern Nigeria, something put my mind at greater ease.

The most obvious aspect of northern Nigerian (Arewa) culture is the pervasiveness of Islam in all of life. Also, the culture in the Arewa is much more traditional causing people to greet longer, practice hospitality, and exercise greater patience in a traffic accident. Our entry in the central Nigerian city of Jos was an appropriate introduction to the Arewa with a strong Muslim minority. Nevetheless, any illusion of innocence was shattered during the Jos riots from September 7-12, 2001. This tumultuous time gave us unique insight into the way that "Christians" in Jos were willing to kill to "defend their land."

During our 4 years in Jos from May 2001 to July 2005, we witnessed a continual increase of organized crime. We initially were comfortable with our German Shepherd and Rottweiler for security at night. However, the more that our friends, neighbors, and acquaintances were being attacked we increased our security team to 7 dogs. Jos was a cosmopolitan city inviting the best and the worst of people from every corner of Nigeria. It was geographically a part of the Arewa (northern Nigeria) but culturally had become more like the busy, frenzied, and quick-tempered society of southern Nigeria.

As our family moved to the northeastern city of Maiduguri in July of 2005, we immediately noticed the slow pace of life. In Jos, we could go to the open-air market and get almost anything any day of the week during daylight hours. In Maiduguri, our market days were limited to Tuesday through Thursday because on Friday through Monday there was little availability of goods due to Islamic Friday prayers, weekend rest, and the arrival of all imported products on Monday. Our first Maiduguri neighborhood was a close-knit community where the roads were bad but criminals had no easy access. On occasion, we would hear the vigilantees gun's at night to protect the community but hardly heard of a break-in.

On Sunday morning July 21, 2007, my worst fears were realized when Ibrahim (my 5 year old son), 2 friends, and I were stopped by armed robbers on the road close to the Cameroon border. Nonetheless, these north African robbers who spoke only Arabic only wanted money and items of value. They did not touch us, threaten us, or terrorize us but simply told us to "bring money" and open the back of the car to search through our bags. Ibrahim and I sat down on the road waiting for these masked men to finish rummaging around. When it was all over with, Ibrahim, my 2 friends, and I thanked God for his protection during the robbery.

We have learned to trust God because there is no place in this fallen world where there is a guarantee of "safety." The Arewa (northern Nigeria) has called us to serve people in need and we invite you to join us.

Drip Irrigation Promotes Big Dreams

When the Blake family moved to northeastern Nigeria (Maiduguri) in July of 2005, we immediately felt the August vegetable scarcity. We had lived in central Nigeria (Jos) for 4 years enjoying an abundance of sweet corn, green beans, lettuce, green peas, and broccoli. God blessed Jason Williams to visit us in August of 2005 with my mother, Carolyn Blake. Immediately, Jason perceived that Maiduguri would be a ripe candidate for a drip irrigation project through Healing Hands International. Jason went back to the College Hills church and Healing Hands preaching the need for growing veggies in the desert.

I was eventually invited by Healing Hands along with two believers in Maiduguri to attend a drip irrigation conference at Dakar, Senegal in March 2006. When we got back home to Borno State, we started composting at a piece of abandoned property. We began to secure that forgotten propety in western Maiduguri throughout 2006 with a perimeter wall. God brought $10,000 into that project to "build the wall" around this 2 1/2 acre sandy soil plot in 2006. This set the stage for our 2007 project to turn at least half of the field from a desert into a beautiful garden.

Our 2006 compost heaps were well-preserved providing a foundation for us to begin envisioning plant growth. In 2007, we began raising plant beds to test the viability of composting and drip irrigation. Parcels containing various types of seeds began rolling into our post office box allowing us to experiment with the compost and drip method. This set the stage for a bumper harvest of zucchini, squash, sweet corn, cucumber, and sweet corn in July of 2007. As our first food security workshop was launched for the Borno State Agricultural Ministry, they were deeply impressed at what could be done.

The Nigerian NGO (non-governmental organization) under whom we serve is INTERCEP (International Centre for Peace, Charities, and Human Development). INTERCEP in Maiduguri is now known as the organization impacting people at the grassroots with sustainable farming. Farmers have depended on rainy season crops like sorghum, guinea corn, millet, peanuts, and watermelon for centuries. This always proved risky because the rains only fall in northeastern Nigeria for 3 months a year at best. Now that the word is out on the street that vegetables can be grown in the desert people are excited.

Arewa Aid is our USA-based 501c3 non-profit organization that provides INTERCEP in Maiduguri with the tools that it needs to progress. Phase 1 of our vision is to help promote a sustainable agricultural project for local poor farmers. Phase 2 of our dream is to initiate a skill acquisition center that will train local unemployed youth with marketable skills like sewing, auto mechanics, electrical work, plumbing, and masonry. Phase 3 of our long-range plan is to mobilize a rural clinic on wheels that will travel to the poorest villages in northeastern Nigeria with primary health care. In phase 4 we foresee that a primary school targeting the poorest children with options in arts and computer skills will bless children with no options.

Would you become part of the Arewa Aid family in providing humanitarian empowerment to those the people of northeastern Nigeria?

A Few Thoughts on Water

I remember as a kid being reminded by my parents not to use too much water for my bath and to turn the tap off while brushing my teeth and such. As Barney says it so well these days “While I’m brushing my teeth and having so much fun, I never let the water run. No, I never let the water run.” I know some of you can sing right along!
However, I have never been so conscious of the use and conservation of water as I am now in this stage of my life. Living in the edge of the Sahara where water will sometimes flow and sometimes not has caused me to appreciate the essentiality of life sustaining water. I have also thought many times about the day to day life of people who survive with far less water than I have.
I thought it might be interesting to some of you for me to share some of our daily life experiences which are sometimes eye-opening, sometimes mundane and sometimes funny. First you should understand that because of our African culture and way of life and because of the design of our house, outside elements are very much a part of our indoor life as well. Wind, dust, rain, gardens, flowers and trees all come inside. And water is almost always used for multiple tasks before being poured out.
We have several courtyards in the center of our house. Two adjoining courtyards are just outside our children’s bedroom doors and each kitchen (I have two) has a small courtyard for outdoor cooking and cleaning grains and various food preparation tasks. In these courtyards we are growing trees, flowers, tomatoes and beans. This is most often the place our water ends up after all its other purposes have been exhausted.
When our children were a little younger I would set a large basin in the courtyard and bathe all three of them there, in the same water, of course, before pouring the water on the plants. Now that our kids are a little older I turn on the shower and tell them to run inside simply because this is easier and less work for me. But I do feel guilty about all that water going down the drain.
One day I was washing Musa’s bottles in a basin of water. When I finished I noticed how dirty my feet were so instead of wasting the water, I sat down and gave my feet a good scrubbing. After all, I hear milk baths are great for the skin! Then onto the flowers it went.
Our bathtub drain is set up so that it runs into the yard instead of into the suckerwell. To take advantage of this we have planted shrubs outside of our bathroom and channeled the water to reach them all. We pour a few buckets of water down the toilet each time we bathe since our water pressure is not strong and the toilet doesn’t flush with much force. If I notice our bathroom floor needs mopped I will do this with my bathwater as I get out of the tub. I will also sometimes carry buckets of bathwater to other thirsty plants in the house or yard.
If our water level is especially low we are in the habit of taking bucket baths. What that means is you have one bucket of water and a small dish. You use the dish for pouring water on yourself, soap up and rinse off. You get real good at estimating just how many dishes of water you can use to wet down and rinse off so that you aren’t left standing all soapy with an empty bucket.
We wash dishes in basins. One for washing and one for rinsing. Once the wash water is too dirty it goes onto the plants or onto the compost pile. Then the rinse water becomes the wash water and the cycle continues. A basin of water can start out as rinse water for dishes, become washing water for dishes, then be used to wash feet, move on to the mop bucket and finally end up as a flush for the toilet. We are not casual about water here.
I often think of the words to a song of which I cannot remember the name. “If just a cup of water I place within your hand, then just a cup of water is all that I demand.” A cup of cool, clean drinking water in this place is no small deal. And even if one cup of water is all you have, if your neighbor comes asking, you do not deny him. That is the heart of hospitality here. In fact, even as I write this I have sent our girls out with buckets on their heads in search of water from a neighbor who may be fortunate enough to have some.
I am grateful to have these experiences so that my heart is full of appreciation for God’s abundant blessings.
I love you all, Jen

Living without fridges & freezers

Every Tuesday and Thursday are the Blake family market days in our home city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. Jen braves the traffic, parks in a sea of vehicles, walks through sewage, smiles at the beggars, and moves from stall to stall for our groceries. However, the vegetable stall is the most important one because we long to eat fresh veggies. Still, once we get there we find: rotten tomatoes, wilted lettuce, dried-out carrots, cabbages starting to spoil, green beans beginning to shrivel up. These vegetables are almost always trucked 10 hours away from central Nigeria at Jos where the weather is cool, the rainfall is better, and the sunlight is less intense. Every Nigerian knows that the vegetable capital of the country is Jos not some semi-arid desert town like Maiduguri.

During our first July 2007 harvests at the INTERCEP (Intl. Centre for Peace, Charities & Human Dev.) farm at Maiduguri, we were amazed at what a little compost and a little water can do. Huge zucchini, beautiful squash, gigantic watermelons, thick green beans, plump sweet corn, beefy tomatoes, and hefty eggplant were all growing in this sandy soil. Thus, we began to understand that producing vegetables in raised plant beds, composts, and drip irrigation wasn't a problem. The first day that Jen took the vegetables to the International Hotel they asked her: "When did you come from Jos?" She said: "We are growing these beautiful vegetables 5 minutes away from his building?" to which they were astounded.

We have had no problem selling these vegetables to the hotels, locals marketers, and interested buyers. Commercial revenue has been generated proving to the local believers that we can pay our own farm caretaker from the sales of the vegetables. In August 2007, we held our first INTERCEP food security workshop in Maiduguri with Dave Goolsby from Healing Hands International in Nashville, Tennessee. Our trainees were skeptical at first as to the motivation of these people in bringing them to our farm for a farming workshop. However, after they saw the blessing of composting, they were thrilled to envision how vegetables could grow in the desert.

Nevertheless, a couple of our first workshop participants asked: "How do we preserve all of these vegetables after production?" It was an excellent question that neither Dave Goolsby nor any of the INTERCEP team was ready to answer. Therefore, Jen began to ask: "How could we teach our women to preserve these vegetables through canning?" Dave immediately called his wife, Janice, and discussed with her the possibility of simple preservation techniques. With Jen and Janice now both considering the possibilities, the idea of a fruit and vegetable preservation workshp was born.

If God wills, we hope to lauch our first food preservation workshop for the women of Maiduguri in early 2007. This will be followed by a vegetable production workshop for the almajirai (Quranic students), malamai (teachers), and parents of the almajirai. This will only increase the viability of our non-governmental organization (NGO) in Nigeria which is INTERCEP in Maiduguri. As the credibility of INTERCEP continues to resound throughout Borno State, the impact of self-sustainable agriculture will only be multiplied.

May God Give Us Grace....

Can you imagine a 5 year old child, alone and begging in the streets? What about rummaging through a gargage pile for food if the begging isn't successful? Impossible as this sounds, this is an everyday occurence in the cities of Northern Nigeria. Males from the ages of 5 to 15 are sent to the Northern cities to learn the Qur'an and a marketable skill. They are solely dependent on the teacher(malam) and fellow disciples(almajirai) for their daily food. Because of the scarcity of food in the area, they resort to begging and pleading for spare change, food or any gift that someone might offer. "Allah ya ba mu alheri" is their begging cry which means "May God give us grace". All too often the response they hear is "Allah ya ba da sa" which means "May God provide". A polite way to say "I have nothing for you".

Poor Muslim farmers who cannot afford to feed their children go through a thought process similar to this "Since I cannot afford to feed the boys here, I will send them to the city where they can learn the Qur'an and get a job." Though they do study the Qur'an for a few hours every day, these boys are unable to find work because they are uneducated, unskilled and have no experience. Their only chance for survival is to flood the streets and beg for handouts from anyone with means.

A major focus for Arewa Aid for the upcoming year is to hold workshops to teach basic farming skills. Our goal is to teach the Nigerians to produce and preserve food to last all year. One of our planned workshops is specifically intended to help remedy the plight of the almajirai. We intend to invite 20 of the students (almajirai), 10 of the teachers (malamai) and 5 sets of parents from the affected villages to come to our farm to learn basic principles for food production.

We plan to hold two vegetable production workshops during the upcoming year. In addition, our plan is hold a food preservation (canning) workshop to help preserve vegetables all year long. The cost of a single workshop is approximately $1,750. We need your help. Can your company, church or civic group become involved and sponsor one of these workshops? Can you help us as we teach these boys and other similar groups in Nigeria to become more independent?

Please help us, so that we can help them.

The Weak say "I'm Strong"

I first met Ayuba in December 2004 at Chibok in southern Borno State (our home state in northern Nigeria). He was tall, strong, and a great communicator especially with little kids in his local elementary school where he taught. His Kibaku (local tribe) parents were so proud that one of their sons, against all odds, in the village had made it. He was an active believer, successful primary school teacher, and renting his own apartment in the capital city of Maiduguri. He was my translator when I first visited Chibok and he could interpet my words from Hausa into Kibaku with ease.

In July of 2005 when our family first moved to Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria from Jos in central Nigeria, we always asked about Ayuba. He was conspicuously absent at local assemblies and we began to inquire from the local leaders on his whereabouts. One day at a congregational meeting, the subject of Ayuba came up and my best friend, Dr. Eni, began to cry. Ayuba had gone from being this strong, vibrant, and competent elementary school teacher to a crippled beggar. Dr. Eni thought that a local unqualified "quack" doctor might have prescribed unnecessary medicine but it was unfortunately worse than that.

There are so many mysterious sicknesses in Africa that have no explanation and even qualified doctors are giving "their best guess." In Hausa, the word for sickness is "ciwo" and no one ever qualifies the type of "ciwo" because in the local worldview to specify the "ciwo" gives it more power. Therefore, all we knew is that Ayuba was slowly becoming blind, his spine was weakening, and his legs were so incapacitated that he could barely walk. He went to an eye hospital in Cameroon (neighboring eastern country to Nigeria) but they could do little. He even went to his hometown of Chibok to announce to his parents that he didn't know what was going to happen to him now.

However, through all of Ayuba's severe pain, his faith has been a powerful testimony to the rest of the believers. Ayuba in Hausa is actually the name for the most awe-inspiring Old Testament character of suffering: Job. Whenever, I meet Ayuba at assembly, in the office, or at his house, I always ask him: "Yaya jiki?" (How is your body?). His response forever remains the same resilient answer from a man of deeply-held faith in the Almighty: "Alhamdu lillahi!" (Praise be to God!). Ayuba will never let on to how much pain that he is really experiencing with his degenerating eyesight, weakening spine, and shriveling legs but he will tell you: "Mun gode wa Allah saboda alherinsa" (We give thanks to God for his grace).

Ayuba goes to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (where Musa was born) every day for eye treatments and physical therapy. The local believers are assisting Ayuba with nearly $20 monthly but that cannot possibly provide for his everyday needs. Before I traveled, the shepherds approached me about requesting some additional assistance for him. I asked one of my INTERCEP understudies, Dauda Balami, who takes care of Ayuba every day how much he would need and gave me a figure of only $70 monthly. Ayuba would be unbelievably grateful if someone helped to relieve some of his pain but would say as he always does: "Alhamdu lillahi!" (Praise God!).

Ruwan Sama (Sky Water)

Water is so precious. In the Hausa language of northern Nigeria, you can never just say "water." You have to say "drinking water", "sky water", or "cool water." Water is a treasure. You can't just talk about water flippantly without qualifying what it's used for, where it comes from, or what temperature it is.

I forgot about this last night. When I went to pick up my toddler son, Musa, from bible class at the College Hills church, he was holding a cup of water. I told him it was time to go. He held tenaciously to his cup of water. I repeated "let's go Musa." That cup of water was not budging from his tiny little fingers. When I pryed it from his clenched fists, he bawled. It was then that I remembered. This 23 month old boy remembers how much we valued water back home in northern Nigeria.

I just received a call from our home Nigerian city of Maiduguri. My first question to the caller was "Yaya ruwa?" (How is the rain?). He responded, "Ruwa ya yi gyara." This literally means "The rain is repairing" which really means it is softening up the ground for planting. A Hausa speaker will never say "The rain is destructive" because "ruwan sama" is a gift from God. No one but God can ever control when, where, how, how, or if it falls.

I'm a bit worried because the caller actually said that the rain will soon end. This means that the long dry season will set in. In a good way in Maiduguri, there will be no more flooding, less mosquitoes (carrying malaria), and driving won't involve worrying about splashing pedestrians near the puddles. However, for the majority of northern Nigerians, this will mean that planting is over. This will begin the idleness of the dry season. "The idle mind is the devil's ..."

This close of this year's "ruwan sama" (sky water) will mean that we have to twice or thrice weekly buy water from the companies in Maiduguri who sell it in tankers. Then, the Pompomari community surrounding our drip irrigation farm will beg for water. We can't turn them down because our sign says "Intl. Centre for Peace, CHARITIES & Human Dev." Thus, the perpetual struggle will re-ignite between the need to water our drip irrigation farm and the local needs of the neighborhood. My prayer is that the Lord will provide a deep well with a solar pump for our farm to also help our local people quench their thirst.