Hello everyone! I type all of my mom’s letters for her and thought this one would be an interesting one to post. : ) I’d also like to add that even though this disturbance is so close at hand we are blessedly free of fear. You’re prayers however, are as you can see, always necessary. Thank you. Talitha (more…)

Since we’ve come to Palmgrove, we’ve been putting on a push to get the place cleaned up and looking nice. Things have improved considerably, but I must admit at times we do run into a brick wall or two and get quite frustrated. Like the time Reverend (Ifiok), a 25 year old guy, wouldn’t give me the truck to help the girls haul firewood. He thought I was joking and laughed his head off and I got madder and madder. Paul Vetter says that he has a key with him at all times and that next time I should just come to him. So now I can’t wait for next time! : ) These poor girls do everything with a wheelbarrow. No golf carts and gators here. Into a wheelbarrow and away we go. Even “Hof aufraume” we did with wheelbarrows. My mom and me spent two days doing that with the guys. My mom has this very effective way of getting people to do things. She starts doing something and then when people come to help, she lets them take over. (more…)

The pineapple has to be one of my favorite fruits, although I don’t think one can have a favorite, with so many good ones to choose from.They’re a lot juicier then the ones back home, so you don’t notice the acidy taste as much. When you bite into it, you have to make sure you’re sitting over the table because the juice runs all over the place leaving a sticky mess. It’s a very common plant around here, everywhere you look you can see it growing. The garden in Palmgrove has many, many pineapple. For fertilizer, they put what’s left over from the palm fruit around the base of the pineapple plant.

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Out of the Palmgrove gate, to the left, there lives a small family of four. Gabriel, the father, with his wife and two small children. The young mother suddenly passed away. Gabriel had her embalmed and lying in the house for 4 months, as he had no Naira to bury her. To get Naira, the poor man sold some of his land to Palmgrove. He then had to use most of that money for the funeral. The immediate relatives of the deceased have to feed all kinds of extended family till, during and after the burial. Our men, Okon Sampson, Goddy, and Joseph went out to clear and work the new piece of land. Gabriel had apparently gone back and moved the livestick, (a planted tree) which marks the border for the land he sold. That caused a dispute and a fight. Our Security, (men at the gate) heard the commotion and went to help out. When they tried to interfere, he attacked one of our guards and cut his foot with his Machete. They subdued the man and brought him into Palmgrove. The Security then beat him to teach him a lesson, because they know him as a trouble maker, and the black sheep of the family. Glory came from the mill and asked Edward to come and put a stop to it, as the man was already bleeding. Edward quickly went and I slowly followed with a towel thinking we might need it. (more…)

Our security is trying to make a name for themselves. They will not be tampered with, they will seriously guard this place. They’re a group of nice young men. But now, I’ll tell you the rest of the story.

Four young men on their way home from selling palmfruit, drove by our gate on a motorcycle in the evening. The security stopped and questioned them. One young boy that none of us really knew, was there visiting with Jeremiah. He accused one of those men of trying to rob him a few weeks earlier. Our security had them lying on the ground in no time and searched them thoroughly. They however, found no weapon. Jeremiah had been the one to empty their pockets and put the money on the ground. The notes were in thousands, five hundreds, and two hundreds. Joseph Asuqua, a Palmgrove brother, walked out that night just by chance and that is what he found. (more…)

Have you ever wondered what manna tasted like? It was found like dew on the ground, every morning when the children of Israel were going through the desert towards the promised land. Well, in the months of June, July and August, here in West Africa, they have something that can be found ever so often, covering the ground in the morning. They refer to it as manna, in their language it’s called ‘nua’. Take a look at this picture and you can see for yourself how eagerly the children go around collecting it. What is it? In this picture you can see Eddy Vetter taking a closer look at it. You still can’t figure out what it is? Well in this picture, you can see Ini obong enjoying this tasty morsel, and it’s still kicking. In our language we would call it a termite! What happens is, around this time of year the termites, who are social insects, leave their nest in order to start a new home. The male and female grow wings and by the thousands fly out of their old home. When they land, they shed their wings, mate and dig into the soil to start a new home, only a fraction of them will ever be successful. The rest will make a good meal for birds, animals and as you can see, humans as well. This happens in the middle of the night, in the morning, the ground is just covered with a mass of crawling insects. (more…)

Palmgrove has a few small enterprises that are beginning to bring in money, not much though, but it’s still better then nothing. The Palmgrove construction crew are out almost every day, doing work with the loader and grader. At this time of the year it’s often raining, so at times they have to wait a few days for the ground to dry. They really need someone to teach them how to use the equipment properly, they keep misusing it, getting flat tires and minor breakdowns that really shouldn’t be happening. Paul Vetter has to constantly remind them to grease the machines and do minor repairs on the equipment, otherwise they would run them till they stop moving. They are bringing in a bit of money, but with the price of fuel and all the minor repairs, they are barely keeping their heads above water. That’s a strange thing, you would think that in an oil rich country like Nigeria they would have reasonably cheap fuel prices; but the price is between 70 to 80 cents per liter, the same as back home. (more…)