We are heroes...

It is said in China that one must walk the Great Wall to be known as a hero. And as our guide Rogin said, the woman who does is an 'Iron Lady'. So introducing The hero and the Iron lady :-) my wife and I that is! We made it; actually climbed the wall of China. We had just 8 days of vacation in China. Most of it in Shanghai and as my daughter had an old school mate that relocated back to Beijing China, I decided to surprise her with an opportunity to see her friend after 7 years! And while we are at it, why not go in 'style' I had read and heard of the speedy trains of China and booked a trip on one of those from Shanghai to Beijing. The Hongqiao station was almost like an airport itself, huge! These trains are fast! You notice nothing but in a short while, thanks to the neon display inside the carriage, we could see ourselves averaging more than 300 km/h throughout most of the ride. We were met at the Beijing South train terminal by my daughter's friend and mother. Reunion..This trip to China was really amazing, as I myself met an old friend from London at a church where I sung in Shanghai( He had been living in China for more than a year unknown to me). Then the taxi. Hint: Always have your destination written in Chinese otherwise the drivers can't really help you. A few phone calls, explanations from our Chinese friends later, and we could proceed to our service apartment as they are called here.
A homely spacious apartment.
The next day we met our privately hired taxi and guide. A half day was all we had, so it was the Wall, the great wall of China. Apparently called the Long Wall of 10000 Li in real Chinese 万里长城 Wànlǐ Chángchéng and then the 2008 Olympic stadium: the bird's nest and the cube.
The climb up the wall was dogged by our usual Chinese 'fans' who wanted to get on photographs with us. We were almost an attraction as well. We obliged most and made our way from tower to tower all with varying level of steepness. We had chosen the Bandaling which was one of the best preserved we were told, but also crowded at times. No problem, we came to China and want to see Chinese people. and indeed, we had our fill. Now I have an idea of what stars have to deal with... But we made it as far as we could upwards and then made a descent. There we had to take it slow. Towards the end I saw a very tall African american and judging from their t-shirts I noticed they were from Georgetown University and told my wife, he must be a basketball-er, and indeed we saw more with similar tops. I greeted them but little did I know that the next day, this group of players would make it to papers and TV all over the world and of course YouTube for all the wrong reasons, NOT the basketball BUT the brawling that took place 10 minutes to the end of the game during their 'friendly match with a Chinese team!

Man! Should have taken a photograph with them...

I lurve travel...

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

... oh yes I do. With some programme I seem to have travelled to some 15% of the world. And it just continues. The long train rides, the drives across American freeways, sleeping on the Stenaline ship, crossing the north sea, and aah the airports: going along the dutyfree shops, watching people walking up and down, the brief chat at the checking in counter, all before the flight itself. And what did God do, only to bless me with a job that requires travel, a ministry that may involve travel every now and then and the holiday trips!



The last 2 weeks have been something else: First a ministry trip to a conference in Nashville, a few days at Atlanta, then a stopover on the way back at London for a couple of days for my secular job. 9 days away from my dear family and a few days later it is Paris by train for a one day business trip! Great, met loads of new musical friends,sang at an open mike event, met an old friend, who happens to be a great sound engineer (he helped to record some tracks for a coming album), met my sister´s friend who is expecting her first baby after 9 years of marriage (Glory), visited my Aunt and family in London and paid galleries Laffayete in Paris a visit after 10 years! It was fun and I thank God for his protection through it all, BUT it could be tiring, my body´s feeling the long flights, and train ride and long drives.
Should go to bed now...yawn.

Guess what next month, it´s China with the family on vacation!

Off to Israel in April...Shalom

People always seem to have this must do before I die list, and you cannot
even begin to imagine what is on some people's list. Everyone's got a right to their own fantasies right? America or bust was one for me at a very yong impressionable age. Now I visit between 1 to 4 times a year. There's hardly a day/week that passes without the country of Israel getting a mention in the press.Sadly, the contents are not exactly flattering and for 'gullible' public, israelis must be these monsters and oppressive people, Israel must be some war zone. People equally have their very strong opinions on her as well and that is not my place to start another arguement. My mother has been to israel twice as a pilgrim and I lurved the photographs. This was in the 80's. I have since always had the dream (a la Martin Luther King) to visit this place of historical and more importantly to me spiritual significance. For the bible reading and loving people like me, the fact is that Jews (love em or hate em) are people with a convenant and via them and through Jesus, we become people of a convenant. I'll like to visit my spiritual roots then. I am so excited and looking forward to this. We'll be making this trip with some 350 people from the Netherlands and My senior pastor who's also an evangelist will be holding healing meetings in 3 messianic jewish churches! That will be something as we believe to see Jesus the Jew and the Christ manifest himself in miracles amongs our Jewish brothers and sisters in Tel Aviv, Ashdod and haifa. And of course some tourist visits, the Jaffa Gate, Sea of Galilie, the Jordan river et. c

I should hopefully go in full daily blog mode when I get there. Is Israel on your list of would like to visit? have you already been? What's on your list of must dos?
Shalom my firend.

Nigeria we hail thee ...

Just made a trip back from the great country Nigeria, in West Africa for those who don't know. Went with my whole family of 4 for 2 reasons to celebrate my father's birthday and have a short holliday. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and actually enjoyed the stay better than previous visits. My daughters will echo that sentiment. I decided to play tourist this time and was snapping happy with my new camera. The last time I visited was about 3 and a half years ago. This time the passage through immigrations was quite smooth.

I visited 3 cities ; Lagos (the commercial capital), Akure (upcoming city in teh west) and Abuja (the country's capital). As much as I would have liked to do the public transport, extended family and friends arranged for vehicles to take us around which has it's merits: air condition, and not having to pay :-).The only exception was the hire of the hotel cars (the drop) that are charged per hour. We stayed at 3 different hotels. African Garden Lodge in Lagos, Owena Motels in Akure and Angeles Hotel, Garki, Abuja.

The good stuff.
There seems to be a great effort to make places easier to find. Streets have been properly names and sign posted. New bus systems seem to be running. Traffic lights in place and actually working and being obeyed ! ATM machines all over. I actually dared to use them and did 4 times with my Visa card and got money every time. All this in Lagos and other cities as well. Not all perfect but should be commended. We visited the Bar beach( restored)nice and watched a film at Silverbird Galeria, Vistoria Island.

Hotels.
I actually made reservations from abroad for the 3 hotels. And it all went well bar one. Owena motel messed up. My booking for the 20th of July was set in June 20 in error, so we had to make do with 2 rooms in place of the suite as requested. Wierd, as I have never had to make a reservation with them before, and always walked in a got the desired room. Hotel food as usual was expensive, so we ate out at times, and that's no problem with more chique restaurants like Tantalizers eager to serve you with a range of snacks and rice, pasta and traditional Nigerian meals.

Airports

We took an internal flight to Abuja from Lagos with Aero and you can actually see available flights online
and book flights online, except that my 'foreign' visa and mastercard were not accepted, so I had to get a Nigerian friend to do it with his card and paid him back. And indeed, you pay much less by booking online. compare 8000 Naira one way to 16000 Naira for the same flight on the day !Did I talk about the new regional/local airport called MM2. It's beautiful. My kids loved the look. It's modern and has good shops and eating facilities and working toilets. Nice. It's looking better than the international even!


Abuja.

Is this in Nigeria ? Questions my kids were asking. Being a new city relatively and a bit of good maintenance, had good roads, less traffic. Beautiful houses. Driving to the City centre, you see a skyline that reminds you of Atlanta, Georgia! Hope, this beauty spreads around. We went to an attaction part Wonderland and had fun. Visited the arts and crafts village and saw the usual beautiful craft. Thankfully I have learnt to bargain, got some good deals. English football/soccer has a strong foothold here. Got a calabash with my fav club Arsenal hand painted. Now in a pride of place in my sitting room.


Working in progress. Roads in Lagos are stil BAD, with loads of portholes. On the road from Lagos to Akure, lots of check points. I sat in front and kept a straight face, and we never paid a single bribe to anyone. I wonder . Power cuts. No change, I'm afraid. I hear the responsible body is no longer NEPA, but some Power Holding Company (which gave cheeky people fuel for some interesting interpretations)Mosquitos! Nothing you can do about that. Had our insect repelant on and took the anti- malarials. To be fore warned my old primary scholl teach chanted is to be fore armed .

Great trip. Aah skipped my ministry in word and song at the Chapel of his presence , Isolo. That was a blast. God bless Pastor Dr. Boyo for his invitation and hospitality. He even took us to the Sheraton for a buffet. And what a spread. Lagos, see you again in couple of years...