Submitted by Sheila Dykstra

About: I'm a Christian education specialist for West Africa working in Abuja, Nigeria with Christian Reformed World Missions. I'm originally from Osgoode, Ontario. In a university class on cultures of the world, I was fascinated by African culture and wanted to experience it. I started teaching in International Schools here in 2001. I fell in love with Nigeria, its people and culture. In 2008, I began my current position.

My story: Many people say that traveling by road in Africa is an adventure. I don't always pray for adventure on the road, usually it's for protection and a safe journey. We certainly prayed this prayer as we left Abuja, Nigeria at 5 am on Saturday morning. Our final destination was Niamey, Niger Republic. This is usually a two day journey. The first leg would take us from Abuja to Sokoto (via Kontagora, Niger State.) This is usually a long journey, at least 10 hours. The roads are generally good, except for one road that is paved with potholes for over 100 kilometres.

We intended to spend the night in Sokoto, drive the last hour to the border in the morning, cross, and meet our missionary host who would take us the final five hours on to Niamey.

Though we were supposed to stay in Sokoto, after checking a couple of places they said that most accommodations were full because it was the weekend. They suggested we press on to the border town (Illela) and that there was accommodation there. There wasn't. They said there was accommodation on the other side in Niger. So we pressed on. It was dark by the time we left the border and then had to find a place.

On the way, we stopped at a village church for service, and to see the Christian school there. This is a two room school started by the pastor of this village.

About 30 minutes later, our engine cut out.

The next town was about 25 kilometres away. It seemed that the radiator had sprung a leak and would not even hold water for us to go a little bit at a time (nor did we even have enough water to do so.)

But not 15 minutes later, a missionary drove by in a pickup and stopped.

Luckily he had a tow and was willing to tow us on to the next town! He found us a mechanic and then continued on his journey. We waited in Dogun Doutchi for a few hours while they fixed the radiator. It was scorching hot and all we could do was sweat and sweat.

As we waited, we made friends with a few children and adults who were watching us with interest.

No water was cold enough to bring relief. A missionary group that we met had a house in the town and offered to let us sleep there should it get too late to travel. Our time limit was 4 pm. We were out of money in local currency. We had to search all over town for someone who would change our dollars.

There was no one around to make the change.

Finally we found someone willing to change our cash. We managed to pay off the mechanic and at 4:05 pm the truck was ready and we continued on.

Not 40 kilometres down the road, the truck engine cut out again.

This time we were in a little village. No missionaries drove past. The villagers found us a rather curious sight. Henry can speak Hausa, so we were fine to communicate the problem. While there, we met a guy who spoke English and spent a number of years in Nigeria. He found a mechanic for us and by about 6 pm, the mechanic arrived and got to work. The radiator split in the exact same place as before.

At some point it seemed the mechanic was fixing the radiator with super glue and a layer of ash. Then super glue and cotton, then super glue and ash, then soap and charcoal! During this time, I made friends with all the village children who were having a blast as I took pictures of them and showed them the photos on my digital camera.

When I took the photo below, we were broken down on the side of the road in front of a village. Several children in the area found us to be their afternoon entertainment — a bunch of white people with a broken down vehicle in the "middle of nowhere." We were between the cities of Dogun Doutchi and Dosso, in Niger.

The children did not speak French, so we communicated through a local who could speak a little. I asked if I could take their pictures, and they readily agreed. We spent the next 30 minutes taking pictures and all the children rushed to see themselves in the digital camera window.

I pointed out to the young boy that Barack Obama was on his t-shirt, but I'm not quite sure he knew who that was!

A dust storm came and went. The chief of the village came to greets us and told us if it was too late to travel on that we could sleep in the mosque. He also offered his house/hut.

By 8:30 pm we were on the road again.

We had paid this mechanic the rest of our CFA currency. We had to stop every 40 kilometres to make sure there was no leak. We made it to the next town that had accommodation, and spent 30 minutes driving around trying to find a place to sleep.

By 10 pm we had a place (nicer than the night before) and crashed.

In the morning, we got up and searched all over town for a place to change money so we could pay our hotel bill.

We went to four different places, including banks and they were not willing to trade dollars.

We finally met an "Alhaji Mohammed" in a hardware store. We paid our bill, and were on the road again!

We finally arrived in Niamey at 11:30 am.

I pray my next 3 weeks will not be quite so packed with adventures!!!