Here we are a little more than a month away from our journey to the capital of Edo State, Benin City. It sounds like such an amazing place. Once the capital of the pre-colonial African empire, formerly known as Edo, it’s home of the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era (yes, four times longer than the Great Wall of China). A place so rich in history and culture, yet much of its history has been lost through the years, replaced by the modern city.
There are the new faces of Thecla, Festus, Precious, Fumni, and Fustina, and the rest of the Nigerian team, telling us their stories and sharing their excitement about the coming days when we will soon join together. And of course, there are all the videos of smiling children, singing songs of faith, full of hope and energy. How could one not be excited.
So as the days draw near we keep crossing things off our list; make an introduction video, travel to Atlanta to get our visa applications submitted, three vaccination shots in one arm & two in the other, meetings to plan for our Entrepreneur workshop, and gathering together to pack all the bags. Before you know it we’ll be climbing on board and heading east. It seems like a lot of work has gone into this trip but then I found this Nigerian proverb that sums it up nicely, “only the thing for which you have struggled will last”.
