A long wait

Six hours after we had crawled into bed, the alarm rang – 5 o’clock. Time to get up; the convoy to Ogbomosho was to set off at 6. We were just about properly awake when the telephone rang. It was Ilka. The departure had been postponed until 10 am. We sank thankfully back into our beds and slept for another three hours. I did not sleep very well; a strange bed, the lack of air and the noise of the air conditioning kept waking me up.

Then I was wide awake. We did not bother with the 40-dollar breakfast and I ate a muesli bar instead. After my private devotion, we packed, checked out and waited to leave. The other CfaN guests gathered in the lobby. Reinhard Bonnke and Daniel Kolenda gave us a friendly welcome. It is amazing to see how down-to-earth they are; they seem so ordinary and caring.

There were around 30 people in the lobby – all waiting to leave. An hour later I had met so many nice people, my English was becoming more fluent, but there was still no sign of any departure. The first people sat down and made themselves comfortable. At 12 o’clock I ate a sandwich and chips, which cost €16. I just could not get over the prices here. I was told that this was the safest hotel in Lagos and the only one where Europeans can eat without hesitation. 2 pm – we began to wonder whether we would be moving on today at all. Ilka told us that we would have to leave by 3 pm at the latest as, otherwise, we would still be on the road after dark – not a very safe thing to do. I watched the people outside the hotel, felt tired from all the waiting and was amazed at Daniel Kolenda’s son, who had also been waiting for six hours but was not making any fuss.

(Follow Stephan in German)