Things have been very busy! I had last taken John and Leonie up to Abuja for them to return to Canada and I began on meetings and paperwork that ended up having me stay in the capital for three weeks! I made a little progress during that time as far as immigration and security meetings. I was able however to meet and interview several times, a couple to possibly hire as our first “house parents”.
Eventually as time was going I returned to the village to await a call to go back for a meeting regarding visa papers (re: Foundation and myself). I was in the village two days when I received the call, so I ended up being in the village for one week before returning back to Abuja. During the time in the village I had meetings with Catherine (that she already had been working on), we met with several children and those who brought them and worked through some cases to start processing.
I then returned back to Abuja to get on with the meetings and paperwork once again. On my second day there, on my way to a big meeting I fell down three stairs and injured my ankle badly. There luckily was a doctor at the place it happened and he was a great help. Within 50 minutes i had it splinted and wrapped after being iced and was on some pain killers and half hobbled was carried off to my meeting. It was slightly difficult to be sweating so profusely from shock and pain and try to remember was I was needing to request at the meeting, but I succeeded in getting an appointment for the next morning. The next day started with the hospital with xrays and exam, no broken bones but torn muscles and ligaments. I went to some very important meetings over the next two days, tripped twice and succeed in tearing a calf ligament also, however I did get what I wanted from the offices and meetings :). I ended up staying in Abuja for three weeks once again, this time however, I succeed in making many important meetings and accomplishing much, all that on make-shift crutches or having a shoulder to lean on. Thank goodness for wonderful friends. Every night ended with my leg up in the air and ice (yay for the city and mostly constant power) to help the swelling go down.
I have since returned to the village once again, and am awaiting information regarding our Expat quotas.
