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Early morning found Fanty and NAGS president Kestin settling in over pepper soup for a filmed dialog. Sandy had originally proposed a talk over coffee, which drew cultural puzzlement and some laughs. The traditional Nigerian warming brew of very hot pepper soup was substituted. They discussed issues ranging from educational opportunities to political agendas to shared visions for the future and how to get there. They chewed over the generational aspect of the causes of the trouble and the responsibilities in finding solutions. Maybe most importantly, we discussed the tension in attempts at non-violent protest and violent resistance. It was by far one of the more hard-hitting and gritty pieces of footage we have recorded.

A couple of quotes from the exchange:
“If we sit back, it is our children, our people, that will be destroyed.”
“If the multinational companies operate here, their primary concern should be the environment.”

Timi and Kestin hosted us on a trip to Egwa, one of two villages (Egwa 1 and Egwa 2) located in close proximity to a Shell oil installation. On the way, we had a chance to visit many of Timi’s family members. Shell has been trying to relocate this entire community to a tiny piece of land further up the river, a piece of land grossly inadequate to house this number of residents. The effort has been going on for several years. So far on the new land Shell has begun construction of a huge town hall (not finished) but no housing or any other buildings the people could use. The land is very sandy and erosion is a big problem.

Joseph is a young man with extreme physical challenges we were introduced to during our trip with Global Citizen Journey. We spent time with him and the relationship led to Tammi offering a scholarship fund so that he could attend school. In Oporoza, once students complete primary school, which is free, they have to pay for secondary school. Joseph had informed Tammi that he was not in school due to lack of finances. She intends to raise funds every year so he can attend the duration of secondary school, which is six years. Today, Kendra interviewed them about all of this. The dialogue closed with a touching exchange between Tammi and Joseph of gratitude and hope.

While the others were visiting Timi’s village, Kendra, Helen, Ibiba and Cliff stayed back to spend more time with Joseph and later, with Sandra’s family. We met Joseph again, and Ibiba added her poignant questions and voice to the interview. She commented on how Joseph’s situation, a person with a disability with no resources and no support, is another example of how the government is failing the people. She encouraged him to believe in himself and stay focused.

He took us to the home he stays in while in Oporoza (he lives in another village and attends school here) to show us where his wheelchair is kept. It arrived in July and was a direct result of the care of a student of Ryan’s. Ryan has created a sister school relationship, and the students in his class are quite taken by the students and stories of Oporoza. A demonstration of this is that one of his students found a wheelchair that eventually was delivered to Joseph. It was a wonderful sight to see him wheeled to the library at the end of our interview.

In the meantime, Sandra’s mom, Janet, had returned from a boat ride to the neighboring village of Tibejo. She had left in the morning to buy larger fish that she could provide for her family and to sell. Again, this size fish is no longer available in her local waters. Cliff was able to film her and Sandra cutting and prepping the fish for cooking. This is the third means of income/business that we have learned Janet engages in. In addition to trading in fish, she sells “Glo” phone cards and fuel.

Many more NAGS students arrived in the village today for a meeting this afternoon. We were introduced and invited to stay as observers. NAGS is a very tightly run hierarchical organization. The meeting was very formal and not very conversational. It was remarkable though to see how many students from around the kingdom had traveled to Oporoza to take part.

Football (soccer) is really popular here. This afternoon Oporoza hosted a boys match, which they won. The cheering was even more enthusiastic for this game, with all the fans rushing onto the field each time Oporoza scored a goal, and the mothers leading rousing cheers, with much clapping and fists in the air.