Family Home Evening with Praises

Sister Martin and Sister Krupp holding Praises Martin, born 31 December 2007!
We had a Family Home Evening at the Church last night. The purpose was to help motivate the families to have a regular family night like we are used to doing in the U.S.A. It was under the direction of Brother Cletus Martin, the High Priest group leader. Brother Martin works at the Church office next door to us, and we see him frequently. Little Praises is the third Martin child. They have a daughter, about 5 or 6 years old and another son that is 17 months old. Since Praises was born the same day as Miriam, I had to hold him. He is smaller than Miriam, and he also seems to be a very calm and happy baby like our Miriam. His mom said that he sleeps through the night, so he must be a good little guy.

Saturday's Service Project

The High Priest group in our Ikeja Ward planned for a thorough cleaning of the church on Saturday so that everything would be nice for Sunday. We were having General Conference Sunday, and members of the whole stake were invited. The clean-up started at 7 a.m., and there was a good turn out. We dusted all the wood parts of the benches and cleaned inside the hymn book holders. The upholstered benches could really use a good steam cleaning. I don't know if you can rent things like that here, but it would be useful. We also cleaned up outside. It reminded me of the last day at Girls' Camp and going all around the camp ground picking up every little candy wrapper or bit of paper. I almost filled a small grocery sack.

Things did look nice on Sunday. They played the Saturday morning session of conference at 8 a.m., the Sunday morning session started a little after 10 a.m., and the closing session started about 12:20. We were asked to not leave during the middle of a broadcast, so if people needed to leave early, they left after one of the sessions ended. But Mormons tend to be a social group, and that is especially true here in Nigeria. They skipped out of the session of conference, but then they stayed and visited in the parking lot for the longest time. It is actually wonderful to see the strong friendships that the members have.

Our Produce Stand

We made another trip to the produce stand today. We need to go about twice a week. We made a batch of fresh salsa this morning and used up all our tomatoes, I also bought several bunches of leaf lettuce, and another pineapple. The celery was pretty small. Each stalk was about the size of a pencil, and there are only about6 puny stalks per celery.


I have gotten pretty bold and just step over the big gutter to pick stuff out myself. I don't think the sales guy really appreciates it, but I like to look it over, especially the lettuce. I don't want to take bugs home with me. Kurt said that we did get home with a few ants, however. I guess I wasn't careful enough.





We had Elder and Sister Pack with us. They go home in 2 weeks, and then we will be the only senior missionary couple in either Lagos mission. Elder and Sister Pack live in Holbrook, Arizona, and both were school teachers. After the produce stand, we went to Barcello's for lunch and then made a quick stop at the Oasis market for some whole wheat bread. They were out again today. I may have to break down and make my own again.

Fans, Fans, Fans

A company called SMC, seems to have a monopoly on all of the Ceiling Fans in Africa. This picture illustrates the fans in the Cultural Hall and Chapel of the Church we attend. Click on the picture to enlarge it and count the fans. During our Clean-Up project this morning, Pres Dyreng was commenting on the amazing engineering that goes into these fans. They are self contained. To install them, all you do is hang them on a hook, connect the electrical and your are set to go. They are so perfectly balanced that they never vibrate or make noise. All you hear is the air they move. In the Chapel of this building there are 15 of the SMC fans and 4 more conventional fans, two on each side of the rostrum area. When they are all going, it makes it hard for Elder Krupp, with his hearing aids to hear, but it is the only possible way to keep semi-comfortable in the heat.

The reason I said the SMC company must have a monopoly is because we see them in every building we go into. We see them in stores, commercial buildings, banks, government buildings. They were even in the Nigerian Post Office. There was no power so none were moving, but they were there.

Emmanuel U. Okey (O.K!)

Emmanuel is the Mission Maintenance Man I work with. He loves his truck. It is a silver Toyota Hilux and is about 3 years old. He is responsible for every aspect of the Missionary Apartments. This includes keeping water available, propane gas for cooking, sprayed for bugs, fumigated for larger critters, paying the electric bills, negotiating for new apartments and moving missionaries from apartments we are vacating. Emmanuel is a man with many talents and we work well together.

To give you an idea of things he encounters, I will give you a partial list of the things he took care of over Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the 21st through the 23rd of April 2008. Bright and early Monday AM, he left Lagos for Akure (Uh-coo-ray) some 150 to 200 Kilometers north of Lagos. Two weeks ago he had negotiated for a new apartment for 4 Missionaries who serve in Akure. He moved them from the old apartment to the new one. He assessed the work to be done to refurbish the old apartment so it could be turned back to the owner. He hooked everything up for the missionaries at the new apartment; water, propane, etc. He made sure their mosquito nets were hung and the nets (screens), doorways and window surroundings were sprayed with Permethrin, the insecticide we spray on every possible surface to keep the critters at bay. Next, he hooked up their water filter and verified it worked. Every apartment, including ours, has a water filter for drinking water, tooth brushing water and cooking water. He visited every apartment around Akure, Ife, Ondo and Ibadan. They are pronounced Ife-Ee-fay, Ondo-On-doh, and Ibadan, Ee-bah-dun. At every apartment he tended to water, propane and electric bill needs. This required three days and two nights away from his home and family. He has two boys and a wife. He signed lease documents and delivered N240,000 (just under $2200 in US dollars) in cash and checks to the apartment owner. This pays for 2 years, in advance. That's the system. You pay rent, in advance for a minimum of two years. Some leases have been in place for 20 years. The 240,000 Naira is a significant sum in Nigeria, considering many people subsist on 100-200 Naira ($1-$2) per day.
The working folks' incomes here are way different than what we would consider acceptable. Emmanuel, for instance is paid very well for Nigerian standards, at about $400\N50,000 per month. He also gets reimbursed for up to $900\N100,000 per year in medical expenses and his compensation package covers school tuition for his two sons. His comp package is very good for Nigeria, but is not much money when calculated in American dollars.

Emmanuel, repairs and replaces almost anything needing work, with the exception of electrical repairs and plumbing. There seems to be an unwritten, but strong rule, that those two trades do those types of work and Emmanuel can do everything else. He changes the filters in the water filters on a schedule like I wrote about in an earlier blog about the faithful filter. There are three filters and each gets changed at differing intervals. Every two months for filter #1, every 4 months for filter #2 and once a year for filter #3. He puts bunk beds together, fixes them, transports propane bottles to every apartment, moves literature and Books of Mormon, everywhere they are needed. Emmanuel Okeh is definitely, OK!

Cold, Hard Cash...Our Monthly Money

It takes a lot of cash to support a Senior Missionary Couple in Nigeria. It's a good thing it's their own money, administered by their trusty family in Idaho. This is a little over one month's cash. It pays for everything except our Monthly bill from the Mission for our apartment, vehicle and cell phone. The money spread out on our dining table is about $1,200-$1,300 in Nigerian Naira (ny-ra). That totals up to N135,000 to about N145,000, all in 500 Naira Notes. The black bag is the fancy, black, plastic "Bank Bag", they give you to carry your cash home in. Our Naira purchases groceries, vegetables & fruit from the little produce market we shop at, gas for the car, personal care items, medications, and anything else that arises during the month (like chocolate, for instance). It stacks up to a bundle almost 2 inches thick. Two people always go to the bank together to provide security. This is one of the more interesting issues we deal with as we serve in Nigeria. Sister Krupp has to pre-calculate what we may need for cash anytime we leave for shopping or an outing of any kind. We can't rely on credit cards, debit cards or checks. They don't exist except for the check the Mission Office writes to the Bank in Naira, in exchange for our check to the Mission in good old US Dollars. You always want enough, but not a lot of excess in case of a run in with unsavory folks.

Elder Ma'u from Tonga, is the body guard who usually walks with Elder Krupp to the Zenith Bank. Elder Ma'u is a semi-pro Rugby Player in Tonga. He also likes American Football, but says it's little wussy for Rugby Players. Too much standing around and not a lot of real work like it takes for Rugby. He takes care of Mission Office Finances half of the time and Missionaries for the other half of his time. He is going to be a lawyer at home in Tonga.

Fashionable Mission Footwear

On my first Sunday in sunny Lagos, I wore my favorite old black flats to church without any pantyhose - Yeah! Or so I thought, because by the end of church I wore the skin right off the top of one of my toes. I then could only wear my Crocs for the next couple of weeks until my toe had healed sufficiently. Sister Wadsworth came to rescue, once again, by giving me two pair of footies. These are a heavy-duty version of the things they give out in the shoe store when trying on shoes. At first I thought they were pretty lame looking, and I really didn't want to try them. However, when going into people's homes to visit, we always take our shoes off before entering. Going barefoot is not such a safe idea, so the footies come in handy. Now I actually love the little things and wish I had more. I hope to start a new "trend" in footwear when I return to Idaho Falls. I'm sure everyone will be so jealous of my new style!