Author: david

The Rowbory/Nigeria Family Blog

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Some of our music

From time to time we write music. Or maybe that should be we used to write music before 3 lively girls took over our lives and started providing a different soundtrack. I meant to rework the music pages of our old site, but that never happened, so here we go with an interim page of some …

Rebekah on backing babies and wearing headties

[youtube_sc url=”OcKcpZtl544″] We sent some Nigerian clothes, snacks and photos to a British primary school doing a focus on Africa. Here’s a brief video we made to explain how you back a baby with a wrapper and wear a head tie. Head of wardrobe: Julie Rowbory Assistant costume designers: Elizabeth and Abigail Model: Rebekah

I don’t really understand it so it must be great!

Journalists love writing about themselves and Nigerian journalists are no exception. I came across this gushing report on the Nation’s awesome achievements whilst searching for a turgid (but apparently award-winning) article on threats to Nigerian languages from the dash to English. I’m honestly trying not to be unfair here and to allow for the possibility …

Christmas 2014 Newsletter

Download the printable PDF: Monthly Museletter 40 Christmas Greetings from Jos!  Yesterday we had our office Christmas celebration not just with colleagues but with their families too. Our group has certainly kept growing over the last year. Last year’s party met in our back garden. This time we met in a hall (on the compound we …

“Are you OK?” — Sudden Suffering at Christmas

Sometimes the words “We’re OK” are a little unsettling, in particular when the message comes out of the blue and you didn’t realise anything was wrong or that your loved ones might not have been OK. We sometimes end up sending such messages but a few days ago were on the receiving end. Having had a twin bomb …

More or less: thoughts on the spread of education in Nigeria

Here are a collection of my observations and insights gleaned from friends and colleagues Nigerian and foreign, regarding the history and the result of the spread of education in Nigeria. It is frequently observed that there is greater access to education than ever before in Nigeria. Sometimes people claim then that Nigerians are better educated …

The inevitable magnetism of intersemiotic vacuousities (or why people love nonsense)

Every discipline attracts jargon. Why? Cynically we might say it’s because they want to make themselves look important and keep outsiders from understanding what they’re saying. Sometimes that is the case or becomes true, but less cynically it seems to be a natural byproduct of spending a lot of time thinking and talking and writing …

Renewing Car Particulars (in Jos)

Notes on the process made by David Rowbory August 2014, (VW Golf 3). Updated 2015 with input from Andy & James, esp on payment and process order. Summary: Cost: ₦8835 Time: 2 hours, much to-ing and fro-ing between desks. 1 hour if you know where you are going and have an ATM card. Where: Plateau …

Corpses or Dead People

The Gworog Bible translation team have been doing some community testing on Luke 22-24. It seemed to be a fruitful exercise though not always making things easier. In particular there’s a tricky issue about corpses and dead people.

BA’s worryingly unreliable baggage allowances for children [UPDATED]

Update 23 June 2014 After posting this to Twitter and Facebook last week I was contacted and told that an agent would get in touch. Eventually that happened and they have told me that they’ve sent £140 by cheque, but without admitting explicitly that anything was wrong, nor giving any clearer assurance about what we …