Retreating in Jos

David hangin’ out at the boarding lounge in Addis Ababa waiting for the flight to Abouja, Nigeria.

It might not occur to just anyone to choose an area of violent conflict and recent massacres to have a team building retreat, but MCC reps are not just anyone.  I am writing late this evening from a retreat center on the outskirts of Jos Nigeria where Rebecca and I (and Oren and David) are participating in MCC regional meetings known as CWARM (Central West Africa Regional Meetings).  Countries in this region for MCC include Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Nigeria.  It was Nigeria’s turn to host.

Planning to meet as a group of representatives from these diverse countries is no mean feat.  It is notoriously difficult to fly between Central and West African countries as they are really not linked by any air roots.  For us to get to Nigeria, for instance, (which is to our North west by about 5 hours by plane) we had to fly first south and east to Nairobi, then north to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) spend the night, then fly west to Abuja Nigeria, then drive 4 hours by cab to Jos. 

The rep from Congo went South to Johanesburg! To get a flight to Lagos, then another to Jos. 

(I was talking to the rep who serves both Burkina Faso and Chad, which are adjacent, but to get between them one has to take a flight to Paris and then back!)

In short, it is a challenge to get together.  The purpose of these meetings is for us to talk to our area director and advocate for our programs, as well as support each other through difficult times.

We had our first day of meetings today and shared reports of highs and lows of our program for the past 12 months.  All I can say is that if you think you are having a hard time, take a moment to listen to someone who is having a worse time and you find a lot to be thankful for.

My heart really went out to the reps in Nigeria who are based in Jos.  The conflict here has been flaring up violently since January and they are faced with very tough choices about how much risk they are willing  to face personally.  There have been reports of suicide bombers in areas near their work, and even a bomb threat at their children’s school.  Constant curfews are making any kind of work and schooling, not to mention shopping for basic necessities more and more difficult.  While the reps do not feel like they are directly targeted, it is still a hard choice to decide when the risk is too great, or even if it is possible to do anything in the current instability.  Their big question is the worst over?  Is it getting better?  Will it stay like this indefinitely?  Or deteriorate into all out war?  There is really no way to predict the answers to these questions.

The conflict seems to be a war of identity between 2 ethnic groups one called Christian the other Muslim.  And there have been alternating raids and massacres by one group against another with increasing regularity.  It is interesting, coming from Burundi where I see two groups in conflict (tutsi and hutu) to which I feel no sense of belonging.  In this context I profess a family connection to the group called Christian.  And I am aware that the tension between Christians and Muslims internationally has been on the increase.  And yet, I cannot feel that this conflict reflects anything more than a kind of cultural  team sport.  I do not feel that Christians murdering Muslims have God or truth on their side any more than I feel the reverse is true.  I believe this conflict is cultural and generational but not a battle between good and evil.  Or I should say that I do not believe that the good are on one side and the evil on the other.  It is a tragic story of revenge and retribution which is a cycle that is extremely difficult to break.

As a Christian working in a small NGO that specializes in peace making and conflict transformation, it is hard to know where to begin to address this kind of conflict in the midst of a raging crisis.  I do believe that God revealed himself fully to us in the person of Jesus, but I do not believe that this ‘truth’ will be emanated through violent conflict.  The power of the Gospel is in showing His redemptive love for all people, it is not through victory in a savage turf war for land and resources.  I fear though that Christians more and more believe that precisely this hostility between Islam and Christianity is a struggle for faith around the world and the victory of the Gospel will be a military one. 

OK. Enough preaching.  It is just hard to be on a border town on this conflict and not feel angry about people being incited to kill each other by cynical politicians in the name of God on both sides.

So what is it like here?  It was good to arrive at midday in Abuja to catch a cab to Jos because it gave us a chance to see the terrain.  Abuja is hot, dry and flat.  It is a big city with a modern airport.  We drove in a minivan which met us there to Jos, in what is called Plateau State.  The drive was long and we passed through numerous military and police check points.  The roads are all 4 to 6 lane highways and the drivers drove insanely fast and dangerously.  We passed through some of the areas where the recent massacres took place.  Jos is at a higher altitude than Abuja and it reminded me a lot of New Mexico or even Mexico.  There are many jutting hills and mountains, many look like they are composed of stacked boulders.  It is dry and hot in the day but gets quite cold at night.

The retreat center is actually a school with some guest houses.  It also  has some conference rooms, a playground, and lots of boulders to climb on which Oren loves.  It is hard to keep him safe though, because he has great confidence in his ability to climb just about anything.

It is good to see our colleagues and Oren even has some playmates among the 2 other families here with kids who are just a bit older than him so that is fun for him.  There are also 2 child care workers to help out, while we are in meetings, with David.

Security concern is ever present as the school is surrounded by a 10 foot chain link fence with razor wire on the top.   The front gate is heavily guarded, and apparently there are guard dogs that are let loose on the property after 10pm at night.  Nonetheless, the center is relaxing and the kids are really enjoying themselves.

We are glad to be here on time.  I did not mention that the 2 day trip gave us some concern for a timely arrival.  On our first leg, we flew to Addis Ababa with a stopover in Nairobi.  When we got to Addis we the plane stayed in a holding pattern for a long time because of bad weather.  The pilot assured us that if it did not clear we could go to an alternative airstrip in Djibouti.  That did not give Rebecca and I much assurance since we knew that would mean we would miss our connection.

Fortunately we did land shortly after.  In Addis, Ethiopian Air put us up for the night in transit at a hotel.  That is something I was very grateful for, traveling with kids.  The kids liked the hotel, especially the taxidermed lion and leapord that sat at its front entrance.

Addis is a really huge modern city and is a place I hope we can come back to sometime to see.  I hear so much about Ethiopian culture and I am interested in seeing it more.  But this was not the trip.  We left town the next morning about 6am and, as I said, got to Abuja about  6 hours later.

We will be here a total of 6 days before our 2 days of travel to return.  We get back home midmorning on Easter Sunday.  That was not good timing for us, but we had little choice given the limited flight schedule.

So that is the short, hopefully interesting story of our trip here.  We are definitely schooling our children in good travel behavior and they were actually quite patient with waiting in line at customs,  immigration, security and in the boarding lounge.  We are also improving in the art of toting 2 kids and 5 carry ons around without having to make 2 trips between points or without the aid of an airport cart.  Hopefully the trip home won’t offer any unexpected delays.