{"id":4498,"date":"2015-09-28T12:04:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T17:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=4498"},"modified":"2015-09-28T12:04:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T17:04:02","slug":"the-hosts-by-janet-crago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2015\/09\/28\/the-hosts-by-janet-crago\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hosts (by Janet Crago)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Markus<\/a>
Markus and Janada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Markus Gamache is the Church of the Brethren (COB) Mission Coordinator in Nigeria.\u00a0 He\u2019s from a small village in northeast Nigeria called Wagga, very close to the Cameroon border and the Sambisa forest.\u00a0 His wife Janada is also from a village in northeast Nigeria called Lassa.\u00a0 Both places have been seriously impacted by the insurgency in Northeast Nigeria.\u00a0 Wagga has been overrun by Boko Haram seven times while Lassa has also been overrun several times.\u00a0 While some people are returning to Lassa today, no one has yet been able to return to Wagga.\u00a0 Markus and Janada have five children.\u00a0 Their two older children are away at boarding school, but the rest of their family is living with them in Jos, an area largely unaffected by the insurgency in Northeastern Nigeria.\u00a0 But, this is their story of how the insurgency has affected the lives of people hosting refugees.<\/p>\n

It began at the end of May, 2014.<\/strong>\u00a0 Refugees started arriving at their house 2 or 3 at a time,<\/p>\n

\"Janada<\/a>
Janada and the younger children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

until the numbers swelled to 60 people living in their home.\u00a0 Can you imagine how to house 60 people in a home built for 5 or 6?\u00a0 The home has a small office, 3 bedrooms, a living\/dining room, kitchen, and laundry room.\u00a0 In this case, they put all the men in one of the bedrooms and in the office.\u00a0 Small children slept on the floor in Markus and Janada\u2019s bedroom.\u00a0 They reserved the living room and dining room for the women and other children.\u00a0 They moved all their furniture against the walls, placing sleeping mats on the floor where people slept.\u00a0 Janada tells me there wasn\u2019t any place left on the floor for anyone else to sleep.\u00a0 All sleeping space was taken.\u00a0 They had 60 people sleeping in their house like this until earlier this year!<\/p>\n

The refugees told them stories of how they were terrorized.\u00a0 Many men were slaughtered (throats cut) with knives.\u00a0 The Boko Haram didn\u2019t want to shoot them.\u00a0 They wanted to see blood flow.\u00a0 To prepare for such slaughter, it\u2019s believed that the Boko Haram take drugs that affect their minds.\u00a0 It makes them indifferent to the cries of helpless people.\u00a0 The Boko Haram told local Muslims they wouldn\u2019t kill them or their families if they pointed out the Christians.\u00a0 When they arrived in a village they shouted, \u201cAllahu\u2019akbar,\u201d meaning \u201cGod Is Great\u201d, then \u201cArna\u201d meaning “Pagans\u201d signaling their intent to kill Christians who they consider to be pagans.\u00a0 Many of the refugees related this same story.\u00a0 The refugees mourned the loss of relatives and friends and were also very sad about this betrayal by their Muslim neighbors.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But back to the story — How can you take care of 60 people staying in your house?\u00a0 Janada happens to have 1400 laying chickens.\u00a0 Having eggs readily available helped tremendously.\u00a0 The eggs provided protein and could be prepared in many different ways.\u00a0 Nigerian daily meals ordinarily consist of two things.\u00a0 \u201cTuwo\u201d is the grain base for the meal.\u00a0 It can be prepared from ground corn, ground maize, or semovita (a very fine tapioca).\u00a0 Tuwo is prepared by slowly dropping the grain into boiling water until it forms a thick, heavy mass of grain and water.\u00a0 This mass is divided up into balls that are about 4 inches in diameter.\u00a0 The balls are each placed in a plastic wrap.\u00a0 That is a single serving.\u00a0 Another option is to cook rice instead of grain for the tuwo.\u00a0 Then they prepare the \u201cMiya\u201d.\u00a0 This is what provides the flavoring.\u00a0 The flavor of the miya varies.\u00a0 It is prepared with oil, leaves such as aleho (a form of spinach) yakwa, or bitterroot, Maggi cubes (bouillon), tomatoes, onions, and a small amount of some kind of protein like beef, goat, fish, or chicken.\u00a0 To prepare enough miya alone, Janada tells me she spent 5500 Naira ($27.50) per day.\u00a0 That did not include the protein she used in the miya.\u00a0 Tuwo was prepared from the grain they harvested from last year\u2019s crop.\u00a0 Thankfully, Markus and Janada had a bountiful harvest last year. (They also received assistance though food districutions of EYN and CCEPI)<\/p>\n

In Nigeria, it is a cultural expectation that you will take care of refugees coming to you in this type of situation.\u00a0 Refugees know that they have a place to go to.<\/p>\n

\"Markus<\/a>Many of these refugees had medical issues.\u00a0 Some hiked for miles to escape.\u00a0 They traveled heartbroken by the scenes of relatives and friends killed before them.\u00a0 They frequently were starving, had no water to drink, slept in unsafe places, and were miserable.\u00a0 Some suffered from snakebites and died on the way.\u00a0 Others died of starvation.\u00a0 Many had skin issues, foot and back aches, and lack of medications for problems like high blood pressure or diabetes.<\/p>\n

Some problems that Markus and Janada faced were the poor attitudes of some of the refugees.\u00a0 Some of them didn\u2019t care for the food that was prepared and criticized its\u2019 taste.\u00a0 Markus and Janada\u2019s children didn\u2019t get as much attention as before.\u00a0 Also their food wasn\u2019t quite as healthy. \u00a0They were stretching their budget to care for so many people.<\/p>\n

Some the good things that have resulted from taking in this enormous number of refugees are the feelings of satisfaction they got from being able to help so many of their family and friends.\u00a0 All the refugees have been able to physically recover.\u00a0 Two women who arrived pregnant were able to safely deliver their babies.\u00a0 The children who got separated from their parents have found them and are living together.\u00a0 Most of the men have been able to find jobs.<\/p>\n

Janada tells me that the main thing she learned is that it is very important to have patience when around so many people.\u00a0 All people are different. She learned that she needed a large heart and the patience to deal with different people and their problems.\u00a0 She learned to firmly articulate her house rules and to speak respectfully.\u00a0 She says you must have patience, patience, patience.<\/p>\n

Most of the refugees have now relocated to places that have more room and are better for their situation.\u00a0 But, God Bless such Hosts!\u00a0 Markus and Janada are only one household among the great many who have provided a refuge for people who were able to escape.\u00a0 They helped people to recover physically, but now the emotional recovery must continue.<\/p>\n

 \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Markus Gamache is the Church of the Brethren (COB) Mission Coordinator in Nigeria.\u00a0 He\u2019s from a small village in northeast Nigeria called Wagga, very close to the Cameroon border and the Sambisa forest.\u00a0 His wife Janada is also from a village in northeast Nigeria called Lassa.\u00a0 Both places have been seriously impacted by the insurgency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[139,419,581,813,814],"class_list":["post-4498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nigeria","tag-boko-haram","tag-eyn","tag-hospitality","tag-nigeria","tag-nigeria-crisis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}