Kids’ Doc in Jos

I finished rounds yesterday and then learned from the residents that it was a national holiday. Surprise! It seems that since Christmas was on Sunday, an extra holiday was arranged to compensate. It couldn’t be Monday because December 26 is Boxing Day, already a national holiday, so Tuesday was made a holiday instead.

After lunch, Barb suggested we drive somewhere for fun. We set out not knowing where we were going, but ended up driving out to Rayfield, a suburb 20 minutes away. On the way Luke informed us that he wanted to go to a junkyard for fun. He remembers when we walked along the row of smashed up cars at a junkyard right next to the zoo in Abuja. Such an interesting place for a curious six-year-old boy.

We remember Rayfield from when we first arrived in Nigeria in 1991 (photo at right). Then it was a barren area with a small lake, remains of the open pit tin mines of years gone by. It is still a barren area, but a community has sprung up north of the lake. It’s most remarkable in its mix of poverty and wealth. There are only a few paved streets, some decent dirt ones, and many barely passable rutted tracks. I’m sure there is no community water supply or sanitation. Most of the houses, though, are large, quite expensive ones by Nigerian standards, surrounded by walls and barbed wire. One, by the lake, boasts a 20-foot loose replica of the Statue of Liberty. Another was a two-story home in American colonial style with columns. Scattered among these are the mud brick houses of the ordinary people, and some homes that look like they’re from the village.

We wound our way over a bad dirt road to the far side of the lake, where we found a spot for Luke’s other requested activity, throwing rocks into the water. It’s amazing how universal that sport is among men and boys — it must be in the genes. We found some tin cans and plastic bottles to use as targets and tried sinking them. When after half an hour we finally managed to sink a small can, we left and headed for home.

On the way to Rayfield, I had noticed a plot with some abandoned, rusting construction equipment, so this became our second fun spot, the “junkyard.” (I’m kicking myself now for not taking any photos of all this ). It was just a 50-meter patch of dirt behind some shacks doing small business, but what a treasure for Luke. In better times it might have been part of a museum. There was a rock crusher, sorter, bulldozer, diesel engine minus a head, shipping container, generator, big tires, steel cable, and more. I remarked to Barb as we got back into the car to go home, “This is a lot cheaper than Disneyland.” If Luke’s interest continues, we may develop a tourist guide to the junkyards of Jos. Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 at 11:47 am and is filed under Mike's jottings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.