Sunday posts

It's Sunday, September 10, 2006
Been several days since my last update and will try to get things caught up.
Wednesday of last week was the wrap up of the surgeries and leaving the National Eye Center of Nigeria. Wednesday night was a banquet with all the doctors and technicians that were in the training session, a fun and relaxing time. Spent most of my time with the engineers discussing power distribution and with the language issues, it was most interesting. The Northern part of Nigeria the primary language is hausa, one of 2000 languages in Nigeria, and English is secondary, with an accent that is hard to get.Like any other language you try to get the main subject of the conversation and fill in the blanks, I could have made some better choices filling in the blanks though..........
Thursday the official conference opened with ophthalmologists from all of Nigeria were in attendance. Dr. Linda Lawrence kicked off the talks with a new way for them to think about treating the eye, very interesting to a layperson in attendance (me). Andrew's talk was scheduled for 2 but got shifted to later in the day, which would make us late going to Zaria so we decided to stay in Kaduna for another night.
More rain Friday morning (it's the rainy season) we were off early to Zaria about 80 km to the North. It is hard to describe the road / driving rules. First you can pass anywhere, right, left, in-between. With hundreds, make that 1000s of 125cc Chinese motorcycles sharing the road and are burning an oil gas mix that fogs the air, it is a lesson in barely missing them. These motorcycles are used for taxis and cargo carrying. I have seen 6 people on ONE motorcycle also a rider carrying 2 mattresses, and one with a wheel barrel carrying an engine block (rider on back holding the handles). The pollution from these and other diesel sources makes the town streets look light blue color, not good on the lungs. If a motorcycle rider is hit other riders will stop and check out the accident. If the motorcycle rider was in the correct lane (not coming towards the car in the wrong lane) the riders will cuss and accost the car driver and the car driver is responsible to get the rider to the hospital..... if the motorcycle rider was at fault, the other riders leave him....Bottom line, if your horn does not work you can not drive effectively or at all......
Arrived at the Hope House in Zaria mid morning.