We have arrived!

We arrived in Nigeria yesterday afternoon, and were greeted at the airport by a friend of ray,s who he has worked with on young adult issues with the World Councilof Churches. It was very reassuring to see a big smile and open arms calling out ray,s name in midst of the chaos as we exited the airport. It took us quite some time through the traffic, on mostly paved roads to arrrive at her aunt and uncle,s home somewhere in the seemingly never ending sprawl that is the city of Lagos. Her family welcomed us, and we ate rice, fried plantains (delicious!), and chicken...and figured out our plans to get to Benin in the morning.

We were in contact with a pastor in Benin that we met through a peace corps volunteer.. we met his cousin (who works in nigeria) this morning and he accompanied us all the way fro, Lagos, across the border and to Coutounu. We are very thankful for his help along the way, we managed the whole trip with only paying one minor bribe. We are set up here to spend the night at a theological school and will look for an apartment or soemthing tomorrow. On tomorrow,s agenda is setting up ray,s french class and setting up contacts for a documentary I hope to make on a particular quarter of the city.

By the way, it is hot here and humid too. Last night our room had AC, though the electricity did cut out in the middle of the night.

more to come...