It is hard to explain the situation in northern Nigeria, but where I lived was quite remote, no other expatriate in my village and no electricity. So, it was very dark and quite bleak being on the edge of the desert. The school where I worked was 24 kilometres away.

After school one evening I went into the town before coming home. When I tried to put the headlights on the horn went on but the lights didn’t. I fiddled with the lights. Nothing except the horn. I prayed, fully expecting things to work normally. Still they didn’t. I didn’t know what to do as it was so dark, I couldn’t see to drive and the horn was still going. I remembered that there was a permanent roadblock set up by the army on the road from me home to school, so I decided to walk there and ask what to do, knowing that they like to make the decisions.

The walk was much further than I had anticipated. (When I think about it now it gives me goose bumps thinking of how vulnerable I was.) Anyway, I spoke to the soldiers, told them my predicament and they sent a young boy to accompany me back to my car. They also chose one of their own group to come back to my car and then to drive his motor bike ahead of me to shine his headlight on the road. When we arrived at my village, he delivered me to my house, refused any payment and left.

The fact that he would take no money for his time, petrol, etc. was to me a gift from God. Also, being a woman, white, and a Christian makes the whole thing very remarkable. God was certainly with me to protect and care for me.