MPR - The one where we went to Keffi

By Andy Crisp

So there we all were, waiting for our bus to turn up, it’s 9:30 am on Friday morning and the bus is already 30 minutes late (although this is something I’ve come to grow used to during my time in Lafia). It’s about 11 by the time we finally set off but none of us care because we’re all too excited about getting away for our Mid Phase Review in Keffi. For those who are unaware of what this is, the Mid Phase Review is our opportunity to get away from our Host Communities for three days at the mid-point of our programme in order that we can assess how everything is coming along.

It took around two and half hours to get to Keffi from Lafia, with no problems along the way. Upon arrival in Keffi we then went on to our hotel for the weekend, which was absolutely brilliant, a place called the New Keffi Hotel. Great food, really accommodating staff and even a screen to watch the football on! Not much more I can say on that!

To give you an idea of how the Mid Phase Review works, our weekend was structured into 10 sessions and split over 3 days. Each session focused on a different aspect of the programme so far, with each session devised by a different counterpart pair. Topics included things like Team Dynamics, Counterpart Progress and Voices for Development. All in all it was a great opportunity to give ourselves, as a group, a little bit of perspective on what we’ve achieved and also what we can improve on going forward.

Outside of these sessions we were also given an opportunity to relax a bit and enjoy some time away from our community work. One of the ways we elected to relax was by having an African themed party on the Saturday night. Everyone came dressed in their best traditional African attire, which was great to see. One of the highlights for me was when Alice decided to teach everyone to ballroom dance, although I admit I didn’t get involved (two left feet!). We also got a chance to celebrate Suzie’s birthday with a cake lovingly bought for her by VSO.

Lastly, I just wanted to make a special mention about the food we were given over the weekend. CHICKEN! CHICKEN! CHICKEN! So much chicken! This may sound like it was quite repetitive but it was actually fantastic. Having largely been deprived of the opportunity to eat it while I’ve been out here, as they don’t really eat it much in Lafia, I jumped for joy when I saw our options for the weekend. Of course there were lots of other options for the weekend as well, such as Swallow and soup, but in my book Chicken and Rice was the clear winner of the weekend.