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As we were flying over Nigeria, I couldn't believe the diversity of the landscape below me. First, flying over the Northern part of the country, the desert below stretched endlessly for hours during the flight, with vast tan and ochre expanses sprinkled with ant-sized communities of human habitation. Slowly, the terrain became hillier and greener. Finally, muddy, rain-swollen rivers and pockets of water that must be lakes appeared. But the country is enormous and the flight seemed never-ending. When we finally stepped out of the plane, we were greeted by torrential rains because, at the end of October, it was still the tail-end of the rainy season.
It's wonderful how green the planned capitol city of Abuja, Nigeria is during the rainy season.
Nigeria has many different tribes with their own languages. Some examples are the Yoruba in the northern part of the country and the Ibo in the South. One Saturday, our team at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja took a field trip to the Nike (pronounced Nee-Kay) Art Center where we were treated to a performance of traditional dances. Nike is a famous artist in Nigeria. She is known for her hand-dyed cloth creations. So, our group of 20 had a class in tie-dye using dyes made from indigo, ground bark and vegetables. Nike's artisans also showed us how to do wax paintings on the cloth using bird feathers as paint brushes.
In the month of November, right before Thanksgiving, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Terence P. McCulley, traveled to several northern Nigerian towns to meet with local officials and leaders and to visit some USAID-Nigeria partnership projects. The experience was extremely rewarding and some of these projects are producing excellent results in fields as important and diverse as human health, international trade, and education. The best thing about Nigeria for me however, is the warm and vibrant culture and people.
PA mission to Ethiopia 1/8/2011 · By Airman 1st Class Jevon Smith
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VETCAP in Negele 1/8/2011 · Captain David Creech
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Visiting Our Teams over the Holidays 1/4/2011 · Rear Admiral Brian Losey, commander, and Captain John Dixon, chief of staff, Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa
From LTC David Knellinger on 9/10/2012 2:02:03 PM "The Central Africa Region Environmental Security Symposium, hosted by the United States Africa Command Environmental Security Program and the United Nations Environmental Programme..." (Read Full Entry)
From Brigadier General Stayce Harris on 7/19/2012 8:54:32 AM "The following blog is by Brigadier General Stayce Harris, U.S. Africa Command's mobilization reserve assistant to the commander.
Over the past 2 years, I have had the..." (Read Full Entry)
Herman in Pretoria wrote on 9/23/2012 5:46:33 PM "Awesome aircraft, thank you for the display! It is most appreciated...." (Read Full Entry)
Paul in UK wrote on 8/22/2012 9:16:10 AM "I was also involved in the communications training at Kisangani and share Michel Beya's comments I'm sure we met. What I saw was a very well trained battalion and hope that..." (Read Full Entry)
Mark in Fort Leavenworth wrote on 8/21/2012 10:25:29 PM "False allegations against Commander USAFRICOM appear to be in fashion. It is shameful that someone felt the need to assassinate the character of the previous commander — one ..." (Read Full Entry)
Anonymous in Unspecified wrote on 8/21/2012 10:06:10 PM "Glad to see this, and would love to see more. It's about time we start calling out publications that feel free to write whatever they want based on rumors and myths and not fac..." (Read Full Entry)
Anonymous in Unspecified wrote on 8/21/2012 10:03:43 PM "Congratulations for calling Ethiopian Review on the carpet. The contributor who stated that the clarification was not warranted is clearly very near sighted. It is exactly those so..." (Read Full Entry)