On to Washington DC

I finally arrived in Minneapolis on Sunday June 21st. Tuesday morning we climbed into a bus and headed for Washington DC for a Health Care Reform Rally with Isaiah . Wednesday morning we arrived and in DC. After a quick shower at Gallaudet University we drove down a Lutheran church a few blocks from the Capital and heard some speakers. Then we walked to our Congressperson's offices for a meeting.

My Congressman is John Kline. The organizers consider him a lost cause and did not schedule meetings with him. Instead I visited with the group from Congressman Erik Paulsen. While he is not our Representative his parents live a few blocks from us. We have seen them several times at the state capital when we have been at some progressive rally. They would be at another rally to lower taxes or other conservative agenda. We had a short meeting with Erik in the hallway outside his office. He was on his way to a committee hearing. Then a longer one with his top aide.

After the meetings with Representatives people from Faith Based Organizations from 19 different state met in a park and then marched to the US Chamber of Commerce to demonstrate against the Chambers opposition to health care for all. The security guard was not happy to see us. But what does he do when 500 people lead by a bunch of pastors show up uninvited. After a few speeches we knelt for a long prayer.

From there we walked to Freedom Plaza for more interfaith speakers telling stories on health care and encouraging us to continue to push for health care for all.

Thursday morning the 50 people from Minnesota showed up at Senator Amy Klobuchar's for her weekly Thursday morning open house for Minnesotans. This was the largest Thursday morning gathering that she has had. We 50 people in red tee shirts. Usually she gets a dozen or two of tourist. As people went up to her to get their pictures taken they told her their stories of denied insurance claims, layoffs that lead to no health insurance, and friends that died due to a lack of health care because they worked part time or for small businesses without insurance.

After mobbing Amy's Office we toured the US Capital then attended the big Health Reform Rally in Senate Park by the capital. At 1:00PM we jumped back on the bus and started the 19 hour drive back to Minnesota. Friday morning I was finally back in Minnesota.

Final Blog Entry - WAITING

I was up at 5:15 am on Saturday morning. The NEPA (power) was on so I plugged in my laptop to recharge the batteries. Had a little breakfast. Took my last cold shower from the bucket and waited for Yakubu. I had wanted to get to the airport early (by 7:00) so if they oversold I would be on the plane. Yakubu picked me up a little after 7:00. The Yola airport was a new experience. Getting to the airport early is not normal. So I was plenty early.

I got in one line to get my boarding pass and then another line to weigh my luggage. The luggage people kept my ticket and boarding pass until after the luggage was inspected. I waited in the waiting area then they motioned me to come to the baggage area. I identified my luggage then it went through the machine. No problem so they told me to go get my ticket back. Back into the line for weighing luggage and wait as they write up someones overweight bag. After asking a couple time the baggage guy came up told them to give me my ticket. Now my bag is inspected and I have a boarding pass back to just waiting. A little while after the flight was due to leave they started to inspect the hand carry, go through the metal detector and out to the plane to the next line. Here they checked my boarding pass and told me to go identify my luggage. They moved my luggage from one area another pile that will be allowed on the plane.

At Abuja the domestic terminal baggage area reminded me of a rugby scrum. I was in no hurry my next light was 10 hours later. I waited until most people had left and it was only two people deep. I got a cab to the International terminal for 500 naira ($3). There I sat from about 11:00 am until 6:00 pm when I checked in and went to the departure area and had a some dinner. Three chunks of over cooked chicken with fries for 1000 naira and a some bottle of diet coke for 300 naira. I fairly routinely had bought diet coke in Yola for 100 naira. Three hours later I was on my way to Amersterdam.

In Amsterdam Sunday 5 AM by my watch. Did not sleep much on flight so I am tired. I decided to get a coffee or something and reached for my wallet. No wallet. I had taken it out of my pocket at Abuja because the it was uncomfortable on the hard seats and put it in my small bag. At baggage check-in I had weighed them together and stuffed the small into the big one. I checked my computer bag and did not find it. Oh well. I headed to the gate.

I misread my boarding pass and went to Gate D40. There is not a gate D40. I am in seat 40D. I should be at Gate E7. No problem I have a 5 hours here. I start back. There is a grey haired lady in front of me with a guy who from the back looks like Doug Affinito. So I step up next to Mona and say “Hello”. They are on their way for a Baltic cruise out of Denmark. They have tight connections so we talked a little as they headed for the huge mass of people waiting for passport check. At gate E7 I got out my computer I found my wallet. Oh well. I avoided buying some over-priced airport food.

Finally, I am home.

Power Point

I was hoping to be asleep by this time instead I am back at the City Café hoping to download my revised itinerary. Yakubu left for lunch about 2 pm and had a family emergency come up and had not returned. At 6 I decided to walk to the internet and then saw his van stopped in front of his store. As I was about to cross the street two policemen on motorcycles pulled up, one in front of the van and one behind. It was his brother. He left before I could cross the street. I met him at the Cathedral entrance and we went back to the house to rehearse the Powerpoint presentation I wrote on the Water and Sanitation/Health Program. He has never used Powerpoint before but he catches on quickly. I have spent a lot of time this trip as a computer teacher. I think we should have time each week when he is in Minnesota for computer training.

Tomorrow morning he is picking me up at 6:30 and taking me to the airport. He then will go back to the office and get ready for the first meeting of the new Health Services Management Board. He will present a brief Powerpoint on the WASH Program at the 10 AM meeting in Numan.

Women Lutheran Jr. Secondary School

This afternoon while waiting for my rescheduled airplane tomorrow, Celistina G. Daudu the principal of the Women Lutheran Jr. Secondary School stopped in the office to buy a LCCN Receipt Book. Yakubu was not here so I found her a book and sold it to her. We then talked about the school. She told me it was here in the compound. They meet in the afternoons in the Catherdal Academy rooms. The school has women who were not able to continue school as children and now are going to school. There are 34 women in the school. They are mothers and grandmothers. One lady has three children who have graduated from college now she is going back to school. Classes opened this February. I was surprised to find that the women wear school uniforms. I assume as adults they would not be in uniform. They are proud that they are going to school and proud to show it by wearing the uniform.

They hope to move into the Yola Women’s Center being built out at the Yola Diocese Secretariat. The diocese is currently finishing the walls and will see how much money they have to start on the roof. Some of the women are not able to pay the school fees and may not be able to continue. The school is new and gets little outside support. One of their dreams is to have a computer center in the new building when it opens.

If my plane had not been canceled yesterday I would not have met these school "girls" today. The principal is retired. She was principal for several schools, then she worked her way up to Adamawa Commissioner of Education, then worked for the Federal Government in the Ministry for Mass Education as a Director. Some people ask her why she would go back to being a principal of a small private school. She says it is because she is connected to these women that did not get a chance for an education when they were younger. While the students may not have had a formal education they have still been working hard. One of them is the President of the Lutheran Women Fellowship. She says Hi to Margaret and Carol.

They have been asking for artist to create a logo for the school. The suggestions have been rather boring to me. Things like a women cooking with a child while at the same time reading her lessons. This last Sunday I was seated next to the Dr. Bimba, Chairman of the LCCN Health Services Management Board at the English Service and told him that it could be a man cooking and taking care of the children while the wife studies. He laughed and said that would never happen.

I am still in Nigeria.

My flight from Yola to Abuja was cancelled this morning. It was too late to get a car and no more flights out. I discovered I do not have any phone numbers for Northwest (Delta) or KLM. Bishop Edward gave me a name of a travel agent. She sain she would contacted KLM. When I called back she told me to fly to Abuja on Saturday and go to KLM and hope I can get on the Saturday night flight. I asked her for the KLM number she gave me two. I thought it was odd that she had just talked to KLM and now had trouble finding their number. The first number was Air France the second did not work. I called back and got a third number. Some kind of communications center that had no idea what a KLM was.

We decided to call Pastor Amson in Jos. He called a friend and called us back with a fourth number. Thank you Pastor. I got a KLM agent who rebooked me on the Saturday flight and told me how to pay for it at the Zenith bank in Yola. It took a while to find the right teller who knew how to do it. But I paid the 40,975 naira. Then the fourth trip back to the Yola airport to book a flight to Abuja on an other airline. It seems that IRS airlines has 2 planes. If one has trouble they only fly one route and it is not the Yola route. I am booked on Arik. When I get home I will file a claim with my travel insurance and hopefully get the money back.

I will be in Minnesota on Sunday. Then I leave on Tuesday for Washington D. C. with Isaiah for a rally on public health care.

I leave tomorrow.

I am through with my Water work (almost, it will never the through). I have briefed the Archbishop and put packages of information together for the Bishops. I have my airplane ticket for IRS airlines to Abuja. Then 4 hours in Abuja. KLM airlines to Kano, Nigeria. Change crew at Kano (usually) then to Amsterdam. I few hours in Amsterdam then the long flight to Minneapolis. 27 hours later I will be home.

Yakubu has his VISA Interview receipt number. We are in Numan. We are now trying to check the internet for his interview time. There are no times available. He will have to check everyday until they publish times.

I will be bringing back a set of drawings (see picture above)for the re-building of the Jos church that was burned down in last year's riots. The pastor's home has been rebuilt. But the church is in the design and funding phase. Hopefully, the churches of the Minneapolis Area Synod can help with the funding.

I Hope The Scale Is Wrong

Yakubu and I went to the specialist Hospital today to visit his Uncle who had cataract surgery. He was already released. So I asked if they had a scale. The director had a standard bathroom scale in his office. It said I weighed 199. I feel that I have lost more than that. But I have not been exercising and not taking long hot walks. Today is the first walk this week and it was only 15 minutes to the City Café to send emails and update the blog. We went out for lunch and had a bowl of spagetti and a piece of chicken. Because of rain and long evenings I have not been able to come here all week.

The person on the left is me in Abuja on April 16th. The person on the right is me in Jimeta on June 11th. When I showed this to some people they were worried that I was sick. Dr. Bili assured then that I was not that I had told him earlier that I was trying to loose weight. Ruth the Head of Department for the Deaf Center signed that Jay came to Nigeria and got thin and Yakubu will go to America and come back fat.

Check below for several other post I have done today.

Trip Home and Yakubu’s Visa Interview

I still do not know how I am getting to Abuja. Yakubu talked to Pastor Ansom of Dogan Dutse in Jos, last weekend a found out that the UBA bank in Jos was connected to the bank in Maidugari and he could get the visa interview receipt for Yakubu in Jos. On Thursday he is coming to Yola and will bring it with him. Yakubu transferred the money from his account to Pastor Ansom account. Pastor Ansom went to the bank on Tuesday and their computers network was down. Lots of people were crowded into the bank waiting and hoping the network would come back so they can withdrawal or deposit their money.

Wednesday morning and still no computers. If the computers are not back up this afternoon Ansom will have someone else do the errand and text the receipt number to Yakubu. When Yakubu gets his receipt number he can get on the internet and make a reservation for an interview. A few weeks ago they had opening for next week. If he can still get in next week we will drive there together. Otherwise I will buy an airplane ticket and flew there the morning of my flight home. The Plan C is I will get on public transportation and make my way there somehow. Plan D is enjoy the rainy season in Nigeria. I wonder how many people from the US overstay their VISAs in Nigeria. I bet more Nigerians have overstayed in the US than Americans have overstayed here.

Friday Yakubu still does not have the receipt. It is looking more like I will fly on Thursday.

The rain has started again. The internet café does not work well in the rain. The walk there is also not pleasant in the rain. I will wait until Friday.

Rain, Finally Rain

This suppose to be the rainy season. I had visions of southeast asia when it would rain for hours on end day after day. This is a much drier rainy season. This has been an unusually dry and spotty during May and first part of June. We had a few showers in early May then almost nothing. I am told the rainy season is a couple storms per week. Later they get longer.

The fields of maize and other crops that were up and growing late last May in Bonotem Diocese (the southernmost diocese) were dry and bare in early June this year. In the last week we have had three rain showers in Jimeta. Most lasted less than an hour. Today’s was probably the biggest. It lasted about one hour and maybe an inch of rain. We had rain on Tuesday morning at 1 to 2 am. We drove to Bonotem Diocese and the fields were dry only a few kilometers outside of Jimeta/Yola. People are out bent over with a short hoe planting.

The rains have restarted. It is now a steady light soaking rain. Not enough to stop the older football game but enough to stop the young kids that usually play everywhere else. Enough to keep me from walking to the Internet café. I have a can of mixed fruit in the freezer. I will probably make a canned salmon sandwich with fruit for dinner and hope power comes on. This morning was a ham omelet. I have been working on a small canned ham for a few days. Ruth gave me some fresh eggs yesterday afternoon.

The generator does not like the rain and I am out of battery power. It will be flashlights and pencils this evening.

Ganye, Dashen and Mayo Belwa June 9

Tuesday we drove to Ganye to add a simple ball valve to a pipe at the Bonotem Diocese Secretariat, sample their borehole, and then chlorinate it. On our way back we sampled the water from the new pump at Dashen and then stopped at Mayo Belwa to sample the new borehole near the Sabon Gari “B” Church.

The people are thrilled with the muddy water they are getting from their new borehole. They no longer have to walk a few kilometers to get muddy water from a hand dug well or further to a poorly performing borehole. They do not know that the flow is low and the pump will only last a few months before it breaks. I am sad to say the Community Water Committee has been stolen from again. We got there and saw that they had bought an India Mark II pump rather than use the AFRIDEV pump they already owned. The contractor convinced them that they needed a new pump. Unfortunately, “Buyer be Aware” is a good motto to live by here. They drove to Jimeta and bought a pump tank and pump head from a dealer that is only a kilometer from where I am living. I walk by his shop on my way to the internet café and we bought the pump and bad pipes for Pela from him. He gave them a pump head that I do not think was new. It is hard to tell because the contractor that installed it may have messed it up. The pump handle was installed completely wrong. It is scrapping on one side of the casing, missing the washers, missing the spacer and has no lock nuts. The chain looked like it had been re-welded and had no grease on it at all. The original contractor had not properly installed the base. The base should be buried in a large mass of concrete, especially for a deep AFRIDEV pump. It was buried in rocks then a thin slab was poured around it. The first pump of the new pump broke the slab.

The new contractor had problems lining up the connecting rods. Instead of fixing the base problem they cut out the guide bushing and made a larger hole in the pump head for the pump rod. Now that the contractor has taken a cutting torch to the bad pump head it cannot be returned. The contractor flushed the borehole for 40 minutes. I had told Linus of the water committee that flushing should take several hours due to the high amount of mud in the borehole.

The pathoscreen test has gone more than 48 hours and has not shown the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria. Both the Secretariat borehole and the Dashen well had turned black in less than 18 hours. We decided not to spend the $30 to have a laboratory run a fecal coliform test on the water until after the next flushing and chlorination. I have written an action plan for them that includes removing the entire platform and pump base, buying a new pump base and pump head, reinstall the base and building a new platform with Adams supervising the work. Five days later Adams will return with a compressor to surge and flush the borehole until the water is clear. Then he will add the chlorine and supervise the installation of the pump. All of this is at an estimated cost of 100,000 Naira. They spent almost that much on the last contractor. I wanted to take a picture of the newly installed hand pump for the blog and to use to show work that has been accomplished by a water committee but I was so disappointed in the work that I will get the picture when we have a quality product.

Small World

When I first arrived Yakubu was given a gallon of raw unfiltered honey from Bali. I took a cup from the cupboard and put some honey in it for my tea and oatmeal. I never looked at the cup. When I used all the honey and looked at the cup I was surprised to find it was a wedding gift from Rojoice and Dana. They are Nigerians living in the Twin Cities and attend St. Phillips in Fridley.

Dana got his name from Dana College in Blair, Nebraska a little north of Omaha. Several of my wife's cousins went to Dana College.

Dana was came to Nigeria a week after I did. I ran into him after church at Jimeta Cathedral.

Bille Blowing Rocks From Borehole Video

Adams came to the office and showed us a video he shot on his cell phone. He had never shot video before. We said great can we get a copy. He did not know how. I found a cable and connected it to my computer. It required specific software we did not have. Yakubu then started going through a box of parts for an old phone he had that shot video. He found a little USB device that we could not figure out. Then I looked closer and figured it was a memory card reader. We asked Adams if his phone had a memory card. He did not know. So we took his battery out and there was a memory card. It fit in Yakubu's reader and we have the video. I edited the 2 minutes down to 16 seconds and here it is. The local school is near the borehole. The kids had filled it with corn stalks and concrete block pieces. Adams went out with a big compressor and blow out the hole with a 1 inch line. When you see the splash that is a rock flying out and up 15 to 20 feet into the air.

Back to Pela and the Arewa Diocese Secretariat

Back to Pela and on to the Arewa Diocese in Secrtariat Kala’a (N10.254555, E13.01706)
Friday June5th:

Today was a day trip to Pela and Arewa Diocese Secretariat. At Pela we took pictures of the completed borehole and platform and took water samples. Two weeks ago we went to Pela to install the pump we ran out of sunlight with the platform mostly complete. We left instructions on how to finish it with the mason and more instruction for the principal. When we arrived we found that they had completed the work and the principal had the area around the borehole cleared and stones laid for about three feet around the platform to form a hard surface. The edges on the area were designated by large rocks and a path from the road down to the borehole was also made and designated with stones. If the path and area around the platform had not been constructed these areas would have been planted with maize or ground nuts.
The masonry work was lacking in skill. The mason we had been planned to be used was at a training class so we used a cabinetmaker that used to work for a mason and a man that said he was a mason. The cabinetmaker was the better of the two for deciding what to do and how to do it. However, he was technically the helper. The area at the end of the trough was becoming a small mud hole. I pointed this out to the principal. He said that they are buying some banana trees, guava trees, and mango trees and plan to plant them in the area downhill from the end of the trough and channel the water to keep these trees growing. This was one of the suggestions that was in the papers we had left with the principal.

We then continued on to the village of Kala’a where the Arewa Secretariat is going to build their Secretariat. They had hired a driller that was in the area doing two other boreholes. They advanced the driller 150,000 naira to drill the borehole. Nobody was on site when the driller was there. But it is the same story we have heard many times. They setup, drilled a little ways hit a rock and say it is too hard for their drill rig, filled the hole and went back to Yola with the advanced money. However, since they were from the Upper Benue River Development Authority (UBRDA) they suggested that the Geologist come out and see if there is any water. The Diocese advanced someone money to do a geological survey. Someone came out one day again with nobody from diocese around, they declared that the area only had enough water for a hand pumps. No written report was ever given. The site is a wide flat valley, with many large Shea Trees and other trees. It is mostly farmland. There are streams on either side of the valley and mountains all the way around. Adams immediate statement was that there should be water here. On the way in we passed an old and productive hand pump and a few hand dug wells. Adams knows the people at the UBRDA he will contact them to find out how deep the boring was and which geologist went to the site and if they actually did a geophysical survey. If the site cannot sustain a high flow pump then I suggested low flow solar pump with batteries that are charged during the day by the generator powering the Secretariat and then continuing to pump at night.

The diocese has built a building which they will use as the temporary Secretariat until the new one is built. The foundation for the Secretariat has been dug and they have ordered a container of portland cement. The design differs from the other Secretariats. It has five one story wings from a central two story pentagon shaped building. They are going to build the foundations for the whole facility and then build one wing at a time. When all the wings are built they will build the central two story structure. I did not hear what all the wings are planned for but on is offices and one is for Women Groups. I asked what the building for the temporary offices was going to be used for. Bishop Amos said he had a use. I asked what. He smiled and said raising chickens. To me it looks like a small church without a steeple and cross.

From Kala’a, Yakubu continued north to Mubi to visit family, Adams is going back to Hong to visit family and I am headed back to Jimeta with Bishop Amos. On Sunday or Monday Yakubu will drive to Maiduguri another four hours on from Mubi. He has to pay almost 30,000 naira at the UBA bank there to get the proper receipt so he can apply for an interview at the US Embassy in Abuja. The next interview dates are the same time I am flying home. If he gets an interview date on June 18 or 19 we will share the expenses of driving to Jos on the 16th or 17th. I can then buy stock from Women of Hope for our Fair Trade business. On the 18th there will be three of us driving to Abuja to share the expenses (A missionary named Phil is looking for a ride from Jos to Abuja on the 18th). If he cannot get those dates I will have to cash in one of my last $100 bills and buy an airplane ticket.

The Work and Gongola Secretariat Spring

Thursday June 4th

This week has been a bit boring. I have been writing and cost estimating. I have less than 2 weeks left to get a few more documents done. At that time, I hope that what I have is enough information to interest donors to provide the start-up costs and ongoing support necessary for the program to become self sufficient. I must admit that I have not created a detailed plan and followed it. It is more like a made a rough pencil sketch. I have been adding details, to parts of the picture without the time to step back and see what I have created a landscape or an abstract Picasso. Maybe it is a paint by number with a lot of the numbers missing. When I leave here it will be up to the LCCN to decide if they want to fill in the numbers and continue to create the program.

Based on an insightful comment from one of the reviewers in Minnesota I have written an organizational chart showing the entire program under the control of the LCCN Health Services Management Board to provide transparency and uncomplicated the management structure. I have created a Capital Expenses Start-up Budget (without a timeline) and estimate for staffing support needs for a ten year timeframe for the program to create enough project income to support the staff without outside donor support. I still need to create and outline for an operational budget and a paper on how to finance the program. Since, we will be doing a day trip tomorrow to see the finished borehole at Pela (They were still working on the concrete when we had to leave.), take a water sample and going to the future site of the Arewa Dioceses in Kala’a to review possible borehole sites. Next week we will have out last day trip back down to Bonotem Dioceses to take water samples at the Dashen and at the Secretariat. So I have four days left for working on the program if we drive to Abuja and stop in Jos or six days if I fly to Abuja and skip buying fair trade at Women of Hope in Jos.

Gongola Secretariat Spring (N9.66009, E11.97756): On Wednesday June 3rd, we drove to the Gongola Diocese Secretariat. They have moved into the Secretariat earlier this year. The Secretariat in on a hill in the long Gongola River Valley. This might be one of the windest places in Adamawa. We were there to see if the spring located 600 meters from the Secretariat was a fissure spring that was barely reaching the surface. Unfortunately, when we emptied the water from the spring we found two seeps coming horizontally out of the side of a layer of sandstone. We found out that the spring was created by the Fulani about three years ago. They were camping in the area and needed water. They observed the green grass and vegetation that needs year around water so they dug there until they had a constant pool of water. We dug deeper and found the two seeps shown as holes. We widened the holes. The Fulani may have originally created the holes to increase the water flow. The men that dug out the area were not here. I estimate that the seeps produce ½ liter or less per minute. This is less than 700 liters per day and not enough to supply the Secretariat and the neighboring village. We were disappointed. The seeps may have been from a fracture but it could be a long distance away. Below the seep level we found a layers of soft sandstone, a thin layer resembling shale ,relatively dry sand stone below it, then a clay resembling bentonite. Below the clay was a hard rock. All of this in two feet. We went back to the Secretariat for lunch of small catfish in red sauce, rice and beans.

Week May 25th through May 30th

I have not posted for a week so this a long post even though I have not done much this week.
Mostly, I have been preparing for the Church Business Meeting and texting back and forth with people in Dakusung and Mayo Belwa (Sabon Gari B church). I have found that text messages are more accurate than the interpetation of the two different English languages.


Draft Water Program: Thursday is the first day of the LCCN’s semiannual business meeting of the General Church Council. In a previous meeting I was told that they approved that the LCCN should have a water program. At the donors meeting last Fall it was decided that Mission Afrika from Denmark would work with the LCCN Mission Department in the Mission areas and the Minneapolis Area Synod and Global Health Ministries would do the water in the dioceses. I think that this generic approval was based on their past experience with programs. The Danes have already dispatched a missionary to the Mission Field. They have been working on hand digging a few wells, similar to the past programs. The program that we have been working on is considerably different than past programs. Previous water programs were run by foreign missionaries with some Nigerian employees doing the manual labor and some management. The program we have been working on envisions no direct management by missionaries. I suspect that there will be some management at first but hopefully not on a continuous basis. The bulk of the work will be at the dioceses level with the headquarters coordinating finance, providing training, providing technical advice. In the past the communities have had little responsibility for their new water supply. They were required to form water committees but many slowly disappeared after the water supply was installed. The model we are working on gives the communities most of the responsibility and the LCCN and dioceses work for them more as a contractor, advisor, and banker.


Friday, Yakubu and I gave the bishops and some members of the Executive Council copies of what we have done so far and spoke briefly to the delegates who remaining after lunch on Friday. One item we emphasized was that the program was not just water, but includes Sanitation and Hygiene because the mission is to improve health and clean water is only the start. The Archbishop then did a monologue on the importance of sanitation in Hausa. From his hand gestures he was getting pretty literal in his examples. The documents we gave them total 18 pages (I removed 4 pages of spreadsheets Wednesday morning). I suspect that this is a bit more information than they were expecting. The cover letter to the bishops is from the Water Program Planning Team in Yakubu’s name to emphasize that it is not just something the “Bature” did. Unfortunately, after the 20 copies were made I noticed that when I changed heading from my CIA letterhead to the Water Program Planning Team letterhead on the first page but I forgot to change the page two heading. So in small type on the top of page 2 it still says Citizens Into Action, Letter to Bishops, page 2. The letter is not written in the Nigerian style so I think they know that I wrote it.


Weight Loss: I have lost some weight this week I probably have lost some every week. But this week I have been more sedimentary and still losing weight. The pants that were tight in April are loose now. I am probably down to a 37 from a 39. This week’s weight loss is probably from eating from the street vendor on Friday night. By Sunday afternoon I was starting Imodium. My bacteria from Haiti and Thailand are fighting the Nigeria bacteria. They will eventually form a new co-existence, hopefully not against me. For lunch I have been solar cooking a Nigerian version of chicken Ramon Noodle soup. I just do not add the spice package. I am getting back to normal. Wednesday I walked about ½ a kilometer and back to the plumbing supply market to buy some fittings for making a WFA Baptists Bolivian manual driller.


Thursday Stroll: Thursday I went looking for a new diesel motor for Dakusung. I knew there were mechanics on a street about two blocks east from here so I headed there. I turned south down that main street and kept checking shops for about a kilometer and half. Then I decided to head back to the area that has hardware and tools, about a block from where I originally, turned. They had one shop but not much useful. When I got back to the main street I headed east and found a series of shops that had a chinese engine that is not the same as the original English engine but will work. They will need to drill new holes in angle iron that held the old engine. The cost is around 32,000 naira ($220). Nothing is priced here. I am guessing at the price based on my experience that whenever they see a Bature the price jumps up. They give me a price and then when I go to leave they give me a lower price. The lower price is probably where they would start with a Nigerian.


Generator: I think I am starting to master the generator. After the last of many repairs it ran one night for 3 hours and then the next morning it would not start. I took the spark plug out and noticed it had a huge gap. I do not have a gap gauge but this was lots bigger than 0.75mm. So I sanded the black off the plug and closed the gap. The engine roared, much faster than before. I went in the house to work. When I went to turn on the voltage stabilizer for the printer it started beeping and flashing a high voltage warning. The generator was putting out over 300 volts. The ceiling fan was really spinning and the lights were pretty bright. I was just glad to have power and did not notice these little clues. The idle setting on the motor was maxed out just to get it to run with the large gap. We readjusted the speed down to get 220 volts with two fans and the refrigerator running. This morning I could not start it. So I removed the plug, sanded it off and one pull at it started. Gas is down to about $2.65 per gallon. A gallon will run the generator for about 4 hours.


Sabon Gari “B” Borehole:I have been texting back and forth with Linus at the Sabon Gari “B” church. He said that the water level is 8 meters from the top of the borehole. But he thinks that is because of the rainy season. It has not rained for three weeks. There is a driller in town that has a compressor. The Yola compressor man wants 30,000 naira to redevelop blow out the mud and redevelop the borehole. Most of his time will be driving there and back. The driller that is already in town said he would redevelop the borehole for 25,000 and then install the hand pump the church has for an additional charge depending on if there is enough water after he blows the mud out of the borehole. Linus texted me back to say that they have installed the hand pump and are using it. That tells me that they did not disinfect the borehole after working on it and probably did not clean the pipes that have been sitting behind a building for the last year. We will be driving by in the next two weeks so I will take a sample and see how clean it is.


Saturday: This place is crowded. The Choir at the Cathedral is “Launching” their campaign to raise 5million naira to buy 35 seat bus ( about $1000 per seat). Friday night they set up a two large canopies in the area west of the house and lots of chairs. Another group has set up about 6 smaller canopies directly in front of the house. This is a wedding reception. Everyone was hard at work at 6AM Saturday morning moving chairs and decorating. The wedding reception went from 1 to 5. The band was up against the house. If anyone had called me today I would not have been able to hear them. The area is now littered with the Styrofoam food containers. Nigeria jumped into the plastics age without the development of garbage system. Metals are recycled. Glass bottles are refilled. Plastic is everywhere, plugging the storm sewers and the piles will make great breeding habitat for the mosquito. Today, is the last Saturday of the month and is the monthly Sanitation Day in Adamawa. Everyone is supposed to take time today to clean up the liter. However, there is no plan to do anything other than make a fire and burn it.

Friday May 22 - Pella Bible College (N10.13240, E12.92761)

Pella Bible College is the second of three projects being financed by Global Heal th Ministries. This project is to provide a water source to the bible college and the people living near the bible college. This project is to help the students to have more time to study and become evangelist by providing a clean water source closer to their homes and the school. Currently, the closest borehole and hand pump is about a 10 to 15 minute walk. The borehole was finished two weeks ago in fractured basement formation. Two other attempts failed when the contractor who said they could drill the borehole. Got to the basement and quit taking our money with them. Yakubu is still trying to get money back from one driller. Most of the money for this borehole is coming from a Danish Dairy Farmer. Citizens Into Action contributed last year to keep the work going and Global Health is adding some this year.

Thursday drove to Numan to see it there were any tools we could use in the water storage area and Yakubu had to go to the bank there. Back in Jimeta/Yola we bought the pump, riser pipes, eight 50KG bags of cement, wire mesh and some more tools. We used a different pump shop and got the pump and pipe for less money. The pump was new and even had an installation manual inside. The pipes were a problem. The pipes arrive in pre=threaded 6 meter lengths and are then cut into 3 meters and the cut end in threaded. The threading was a problem. Some were short others could not accept a coupling. We did not check under the plastic caps on the pipes that were pre-threaded and did not check the threads on the couplings. As we drove away from the shop I shoved a pipe out of Yakubu’s way so he could shift into third gear and took the coupling off. It only had two threads. So the unscrewed each coupling and returned two pipes. Thursday was a long day, but Friday was longer.

We left Jimeta at 7:30 for Pella. I have not been carrying my watch and forget my cell phone so I am not sure how long it took. With a stop in Song for fuel and a stop at the Shallholma Secretariat, it was probably after 10 AM when we got there. The school had been told to get sand a gravel to make concrete for the base two weeks earlier. Cell phones do not work in this valley. Yakubu had text messaged them to tell them we were coming. When they leave the valley they will get the message. We should have waited for confirmation that they knew we were coming. They had not started to collect the gravel or sand and the students were on a labor day where they leave the school and work for someone to earn some money to support them at the school. The principal was at his farm and we did not see him until almost sun down. We had to find a mason, use Yakubu’s Toyota van to drive to the river bed and haul sand and gravel back to the site. I suggested that for future projects we make a list of what has to be done before the team arrives at a site and have confirmation that it is done before we leave. It was past noon before we had diggers and a mason to start digging the foundation. The total of the mason tools was one small trowel. At 1:00 set the pump base in the first hole they dug and backfilled with concrete. Then they started digging on the rest of the foundation. Most pumps I have seen have been built on floating slabs that break in a few years. We tried to follow the recommended design from the SKAT Foundation. The borehole is on the side of a hill that will give it a natural slant. All the rest of the leveling is being done by eyeball. We gave the pump base 4 hours to cure a bit before we set the pump on. Normally you wait several days. We had problems with some of the pipes couplings. They were oval on the side not connected to the pipe. We were putting down 6 pipes and had to reject three when we could not thread them together. There is an new lesson I did not get at pump school. Test that the pipes thread together on the ground before you hoist it up into the air to thread onto the pipe already in the borehole. With all the delays we got the pipe in the ground and chlorinated just after dark. We secured the pump with a bag and instructed everybody not to use the pump for two days. Then after two days pump until you can no longer smell the chlorine.

As we headed back to Jimeta I said how good a cold Fanta would taste. We stopped in Gombi and Yakubu and Adams went looking for a cold anything. About 10 minutes later they had cans of pop and Malta. Then Yakubu went to a street vendor and got some food. Suya is a spiced beef cooked on metal wires over an open fire. Most of mine was fat and gristle. We arrived back at Jimeta and little before 9:00 PM.

Tuesday & Wednesday, Dashen (N8.58445, E12.13394)

Tuesday and Wednesday, Dashen Bible School Well Rehabilitation

A little background material. Dashen is a Bible School for the children of evangelist who are posted at remote sites that do not have schools. Their well runs out of water every year. Global Health has authorized a project to deepen the well add concrete around the well to prevent surface water from entering the well and adding a new hand pump so they do not dip dirty buckets into the well. The deepening was in some fairly hard rock. They broke through to a lower pressure aquifer and had to quit digging as the water coming out of the fracture was faster than the electric pumps they had could empty the well. The formation the water is coming through has a clay content which is making the water cloudy. We are hoping that with use the clay will wash out of the rock and the water will clear up.

Tuesday we went to Dashen in an effort to save money we were going to repair rather than replace the pump. We ended up wasting money since we could not make the repairs. The pump was an old Unimade that had been converted to using a closed top cylinder by Grundfos. It used 10 mm rods and all we had brought were 12 mm. I looked at the combination of 1 ¼ inch with 2 inch pipes, Unimade head with Grunfos cylinder (and no repair parts for the Gunfos), 10 mm and 12 mm rod and said “We will come back with a complete pump where all parts match.”

The people there were going to pump out the well before we got there so it was less water to chlorinate. They wanted to hire a man that pumps water with a centrifugal pump to dewater the well. The water level was 41 feet below the ground. I told them that it would not work. That water cannot be pulled by suction more than 30 feet. They did not believe me. I explained that water turns to water vapor when you try to pull it with suction more than 30 feet. We agreed to hire four men for 1,000 naira each to use buckets and pump the pump to draw the water down as much as possible. So we headed back to Yola to buy a pump.

The next day we returned and found them with pipes down the inspection door connected to a pump at the surface trying to use suction to pull water over 40 feet. They were trying to figure out why the pump was not pumping water. I told them to stop wasting fuel and turn the pump off. I looked at the pump and announced that this type of pump can only pump water from 30 feet. They seemed to accept that explanation since they had been running the pump for more than an hour without getting any water. We installed the new India Mark II pump and tested it. Within a few minutes buckets were appearing from the homes. We went about cleaning and putting away tools.

When we went to see how the progress was going on emptying the well. They were not using the buckets. One guy was pumping. They said it cannot be done that the water comes in too fast. We had enough chlorine to disinfect 1 meter deep of water and now we were going to have 3 meters. Adams said that only Yola sold chlorine we would have to go back to Yola. I said chlorine is used fby women to washing clothes, all the larger towns have it. So we drove on to Ganye. We found a shop with a whole shelf of ½ liter bottles of bleach. It was locked up. The next store had 2 bottles for 150 naira each. We found a pharmacy that had a good supply but they wanted 180 each. We checked with several other stores and finally came back to the pharmacy and bought 4 bottles for 170 each.

Before driving back to Dashen we decided we had better stop at the Bonotem Diocese Secretariat and greet Bishop Lerum. We discussed Dashen, Shada and the Bonotem Diocese Secretaritat borehole with the Bishop and said we will be back to retest his well and to chlorinate it. Then retest later. As for Shada and their Blister Spring water source I further explained the Rower pump and told him that if Shada is interested I will look into getting a Rower pump on my next visit. Bishop Lerum told me that he had 5 places he wanted me to visit on this trip. That many people were upset last year when I did not visit their village. I told him that visits to the dioceses was not the purpose of the trip. The purpose was to get the main water program operating so we can start getting clean water to people. If I stop that work to go out on visits it will delay getting water to people. I started with visits in 2006 and it will now be 2010 before we start to do much work.

Back at Dashen they kids that were not in school were busy filling buckets. Rather than doing the chlorination we had lunch with the principal and one teacher. After lunch the teacher came in and asked that we wait until 7 pm to chlorinate so everyone can fill as many buckets as they have so they can have water for the two days that the chlorine sits in the well. We said that was a good idea and we gave instructions on how we wanted the chlorine splashed into the well.

Monday May 18th Numan

Monday May 18th Numan, Meeting with the Archbishop

Monday morning after breakfast I spent time taking pictures of birds from the back porch of the Numan Guest House while waiting for Yakubu and Adams to drive from Numan. Our plan is to straighten out the water equipment storage area and get the pipes Adams thinks we need to fix the pump at Dashen. The well has been deepened and a new concrete apron placed around the well. They have an old hand pump that was working. We were going save some money and try to repair it rather than getting a new one. I will skip ahead to Tuesday here. We drove to Dashen and found out that the threads on their rods do not match the cylinder or rods we had and so we need to replace everything. Back to Yola to buy the parts and on Wednesday we will go back to Dashen and install the India Mark II pump on the old Unimade base. We only got the pipes we did not straighten the storage room. Back to Monday.

I spent part of the Monday morning trying to get the old desktop computer used by the LCCN office to accept new USB 2 flash drives. (If you ever want to send computers to Nigeria or any other African country. I suggest laptops. They have significant power issues here. Desktop computers need a lot of power.) They had typed a report on a newer laptop but the printer does not have a USB port and the laptop does not have a printer port. So they want to transfer the file to the old computer to print it. I transferred the file to a CD but the CD drive did not read the file. About that time the Archbishop declared that I had to go to have lunch then come back and talk with him. We went to what was said to be the best restaurant in Numan. I ordered the goat with white rice and beans, Yakubu had fried rice with beef and Adams had pumped yams with a sauce. I got a spoon and Yakubu got a fork and Adams had his fingers. We asked for water to wash our hands. The girl rolled her eyes and got a little pitcher. We asked for soap and got nothing. We asked for more cutlery and she said “This is Numan.” Finally, they brought a kitchen knife for the white man.

After the best lunch in Numan, we met with the Archbishop with a draft executive summary of our work so far. He was very pleased and told us to continue, that we are doing the right things and we can share it with the diocese bishops. He will read the summary and study the mission and vision statements before he leaves for Israel on Wednesday. He was very impressed with the organizational charts and said he wanted the Medical Board to have things like this. After working in Dashen and Pella we will get back to filling in the huge holes in the program.

Part of the work we are proposing is to form a Water Program Planning Team. Currently, it is Jay, Adams, and Yakubu (J.A.Y.). The rest of this week will be project work for the three approved water projects. Dashen Bible School well rehabilitation, Pella Bible College bore hole construction and the Billi Clinic borehole activation and distribution system.

Sabon Gari B District Church (N9.05679, E12.06749)

Sunday May 17th Bishop Abba, Kristian and I went Sunday service at the Sabon Gari “B” District church (aka LCCN #3 Mayo Belwa). The community is across the highway from Mayo Belwa in the Furfore Local Government. Last year I had visited the area to look at the water situation. They were one of the few communities that had organized and were trying to solve their own problems. I thought that this was good and that they deserved help because they did not ask. The profit from the 2008 Fair Trade Fair were donated to them. 136,000 naira ($800 converted on the black market). The Todi Diocese Pastors’ Wives were holding their meeting at the Church that weekend and were also guest at the service. The tradition is for guest to stand and introduce themselves. The leaders talked for several minutes each and then each of the over 30 wives stood and introduced themselves. They also had a song for the church. Because the Bishop and guest from American and Denmark were also at the service all of the singing groups had special numbers they had rehearsed. The pastor told them to only sing one verse and he will stop them because things had taken so long and there was a lot left to do. He cut his sermon very short. Pretty much a summary. We skipped the fourth hymn. Then the offerings started. It is traditional to have an offering for the guest when a group is at your church. They had also scheduled an offering for the church construction fund. The do a “one by one” offering where each person walks (or dances) to the front and put their offering into a container while the youth band plays. With the third offering they have a competition for different parts of the community. The Bishop got involved in encouraging people and he danced to the front and held the bucket and got the crowd moving. By the third offering the young boy on the drums was dripping with sweat. I got a hand fan from a girl that was singing but was under a ceiling fan and went over an started to fan the boy. I think I may have clipped his head once or twice. When I did that some women came over with cloth and wiped his brow and helped with the fanning. All in all we got out of the service at 1:00.

After a little lunch we met with their water committee. Again it took a lot of talking to get them to tell me the whole story. Last year I was not able to talk to any member of the water committee. I was left with the impression that they had a good borehole, had paid for it themselves and they were collecting more money to build an elevated storage tank and pump. This year the story is different. They told me there is no water in the borehole. After a lot of questions they told me that they hired a contractor to drill the borehole for a couple hundred thousand naira (This is really cheap). He drilled to 40 meters and said he needed more money to go deeper. They got him to go to 48 meters. He said his equipment cannot flush a hole this deep so he installed the screen and casing into the drilling mud and left. I asked “how do you know that there is no water in the borehole”. They told me another driller told them that they need to go to 80 meters and they can break-up the concrete platform, pull the casing and drill deeper. That is why they are sure there is no water. I summarized it for them. They asked someone who make money drilling to tell them what to do and he suggested that they drill. I compared this to taking your car to a transmission repair man for a noise and he tells you that your need a new transmission. Of course driller in Nigeria will always tell you that the answer is to drill more. They had decided to drill deeper and were in the process of collecting a 1000 naira from each of the 100 families in the area to pay the driller to go deeper. With the 136,000 naira that they received from my organization they would be able to pay for the drilling. The chairman’s mind was set on doing the work. We continued the discussion using an independent person to flush the borehole and determine if there is any water in it. It took a while but a woman on the committee realized what I was trying to say. She tried to explain it to the chairman. The concept of an independent consultant is not part of the culture. They thought the second driller had better equipment so his opinion would be better. Our consultant does not have any equipment so how can he be good. The chairman finally consented to have Adams come out at flush and test the borehole. I told them my schedule and that we will call them when we figure out what the cost to flush the borehole.

Dakusung (N09.21152, E11.88525)

It is now Saturday May 23. I will be adding several post. Now that I have internet again.

Last Saturday (May 16) I was picked up by the Todi Diocese driver and went to Bishop Abba’s home for breakfast (my second for the day) with the Bishop and the General Secretary for Mission Afrika, Kristian Skovmose. Mission Afrika is the new name for the Sudan Mission. They do not work in the modern country of Sudan so the old name was confusing. He is not here as the General Secretary but as a bee keeping consultant. He is giving workshops at all the divisions in Todi Diocese. This is the 5th time bee keeping has crossed my path in the last year. I found out that the local bee keepers do not use the bees wax and the LCCN wood shop produces a large pile of saw dust every month. I am thinking mix a little bees wax with the saw dust and compressing very hard and we have fire logs for cooking without going to the bush

After breakfast Dishop Abba and I went to Dakusung and talked to their water committee. Last year they had told me that they had not had water for 10 years. That the diesel engine powering their pump had broken. They had sent it to be repaired and it never returned. This year the story was that the Local Government had come and replaced the riser pipes in the borehole and now they do not have water or a motor. After a little talking they said that after the pipes were replaced they got less water than before but the motor was not working good. They wanted me to give them two new pipes and a new motor. We continued to talk. While we were talking the motor showed up. The person they took the motor to at the local government told them he could repair it if they paid him. The took the money and then when the local elections came he was not in the government any more they went and retrieved the old Lester single cylinder motor.

I explained to them that replacing the 2 pipes would not be hard. But the two missing ½” stainless steel rods that connects to the pump at the bottom of the riser pipes also have to be replaced. This created a lot of discussions with some people saying the rods are in the village and others saying they were taken by the repair people. The large group split into smaller groups with lots of simultaneous discussions. Some rather heated and all were in Hausa or the local language. Finally, I asked did the borehole produce water after the two pipes were removed. The people doing most of the talking would make good politicians because they did not answer my question and kept “on message” saying that two pipes are missing. So I continued to have them stand in the sun and I kept repeating my question until they all agreed that after the two pipes were removed they still got water. So my next leading question was “If the motor is replaced will you water?” The answer was that two pipes were missing and they would not get as much water as before. Finally, I asked “Is better to replace the motor and have some water or to continue to have no water”. After repeating this question several times I finally got the people to agree that some water is better than no water.

Finally, we had a consistent story and agreement that some water is better than no water. So we convened the water committee under the shade of a large Neem Tree. The committee is mixed with both Muslim and Christian members, mostly men but there were two women. I told them that my purpose to be in Nigeria was not to work on specific projects but to work on helping the LCCN create an overall water program that would include creative ways to help finance things like replacing the motor. They told me that they have collected 8,000 naira ($55) to repair the motor but do not think it can be repaired. I agreed with them and told them I would look into the price of a new motor and talk to people about getting a loan for the community or some grants. They were interested in the loan. I told them that at this point it is only an idea to use micro-finance model but change it to community loans with a longer repayment period coupled with grants and other innovative repayment programs.

Quick Try

The City Cafe has been down. I tried and failed at Numan to make a post work, Now I will try using the MTN cell phone modem.

More later if this works.

Chickens, Catfish, Singers

Thursday 5-14-09
I left Minnesota on April 15th. So today is the last day of the first month of the trip.

Yesterday I visited the Yola Diocese Secretariat. Bishop Edward Ishaya was out in the future chicken house and future school dormitory. His office was too hot so he moved out here where the breeze was cooler. They are building a school for 9th through 12th grades. The current Lutheran Secondary Schools in Yola end at 8th grade . They had enough money to put up a few dormitory buildings but cannot go further. So the plan is to add chicken wire to the window and use them as chicken houses to help raise the money to finish the school. Just outside the chicken/student housing are four concrete fish tanks with 6,000 catfish. The waters are calm until you toss in a hand full of feed.

The Cathedral is hosting a national gospel singers convention from Wednesday through Saturday. The sing all evening and have speakers also. The evangelist was loud and passionate up until after midnight. Then the cd vendors that have come to sell their wares cranked up their speakers until 2 AM. People are camping out here. The group of women started a fire and got a pot of pounded yams going about 8:30 am. This afternoon the goats where up on the pots eating.

May 11th, Pictures and Epiphany

I finally got my mosquito net up.

Biker Chicks

These guys have 6 boxes of chicks they are delivering somewhere. They ran out of gas and stopped to buy a liter from the Black Market seller across from the Jimeta Cathedral.

Saturday I went to the market but because of the rain the usual group of women cooking were not there. This is the only one. She was up against a building under a roof. The other women had cooked at home and brought only the products.

Epiphany

As I continued to work on the Pump Training Program, I recalled the 4 questions to ask before you repair a pump from the pump school I took in Texas. While I had realized that the cart was before the horse. Now I think we may not have bought a horse to push the cart with.

Do you have permission to repair the pump? (We have been assuming that the Local Governments would welcome our help. ASS-U-ME Maybe we should ask a few of them.)

Do you have the right parts and tools to work on the pump? (Simple answer is NO. Do you have a cost estimate to buy the parts and tools? NO Is there a plan to get the financing necessary to buy the parts and tools? NO Is there a plan for storage and distribution of the parts? NO)

Is there water in the borehole? (We better make a plan to find this out before we send out crews to fix pumps that cannot pump water.)

Do you have the knowledge to repair the pump? (We will after we have the class but without the tool, repair parts and permission we may not be able to do the on-the-job training necessary to actually learn how to do the job for many months after the school. UNICEF trained people on pump repair a few years ago. They had no plans to get them tools so most of the people never fixed any pumps. “Teach a man to fish.” But if you do not help him to buy a fishing rod or help him get access to the river to catch any fish, he will be a hungry fisherman.)

I had been working on outlines and details of a pump training program and at the same time working on an overall program and switched to designing a Pump Repair Program for the 6 diocese that will have the tools, parts, transportation, and financing in place before we start turning out repair teams who cannot develop experience because the trained them before we had the program together. The initial emphasis on the pump class came from an email that said the class was scheduled for May 23rd and 24th. As it turns out this was more of a wish than a schedule. So now we are going to concentrate on designing a WASH (Water and Sanitation/Hygiene) Program that is phased in with overlapping tasks.) One of the first tasks is to get an grasp on the cost of tools and repair parts. Tonight I will buy three hours on the internet and email several pump manufacturers to see if I can get some cost estimates.

“Is there water in the borehole.” Is a more complicated question than it looks. “Which communities have boreholes, hand dug wells, traditional water sources or no water source at all?” is a question no one has a grasp on. So we are designing a simple questionnaire that will give the dioceses some clues and a place to start. Last year I visited less than 10% of the communities where the LCCN has a presence. The sampling was not by any means random some sites were selected because they had water problems. Other sites were selected for other reasons.

UNICEF is supposed to have a program where they supply pump repair parts and the Adamawa Water, Environmental, Sanitation and T??? group is suppose to find vendors who will sell the parts for a small markup. Think this may be a “Wish” program rather than a real program. The LCCN is actually well positioned to operate the program as the 6 dioceses are dispersed throughout the State.

I better quit this blog, turn off the generator and walk out to do some shopping. I am out of tea down to my last can of fruit salad and the tomato paste is getting fuzzy. Time to feed it to the goats. I also need some tape to start taping things to the walls in the office so I can see my progress.

The generator was almost out of gas. Off to the black market gas sellers. A gallon of gas is about $3.82 at the price I paid to buy naira. That will run the generator for about 4 hours. Almost a $1 per hour for electricity.

Neem Tree in Bloom

Neem Trees In Bloom

The LCCN compound is full of mature Neem trees. They have been dropping leaves and growing new ones at the same time and now little clusters of white flowers are appearing in the branches. The neem seed oil is a natural pesticide. The leaves and bark are used in natural medicines. A biology lecturer that was here to see Mr. Bulama said all parts of the tree have some medicinal value.

Pella trip did not happen Friday or Saturday and I have been trying to call Bishop Abba back every few hours for the last 2 days. He called me Thursday. He is the Glo network and I am on MTN network. These two do not seem to like to talk to each other. Most of the time either network is overloaded. As of Saturday I have gotten through to the Glo network but it says the subscriber is not available. This means the Bishop phone off or his is outside the Glo network which is most anywhere in the bush. So Friday after the cleaning lady finished moving dirt around, I re-swept the floor and mopped again. I had given her the left over rinse water from washing clothes on Thursday. It had plenty of soap. She uses one small bucket of water for the whole house. By the time she is out of the kitchen the water is so dirty that she puts down as much as she mops up. I probably used the equal of 3 or 4 buckets of water. I put clean water on the floor. Mopped it up. Took the mop outside and squeezed it out. Then continued. Yukuba came back from a meeting and said he had never seen the floor this clean.

Saturday was quite. Had power late last night so I heated some water to boiling and put in a thermos. I used it to make oatmeal for breakfast with honey. I little later I walked through the market outside of the Hospital and through some back streets to the laundry doing my shirts and pants. The workers were there but the people who take in a give out the clothes were not. I went got some gas from the corner black market gas seller. I asked how much for a gallon. He said 800. I said I paid 600 two days ago. He said 700. I said I will wait and walked away. He came running after me and we got down to 650. I went and got the gas can and added a gallon to the generator. Then walked back to the cleaner. This time I picked up bananas, oranges and a coconut on the way.

I got a lot of work done on the water program. Handwriting because no power and the gen is almost out of fuel. I finally started it late this afternoon. To get the refrigerator under 60 degrees and to do video editing that takes full power mode on the lap top. This evening the Girls Brigade choir was practicing outside so I took a video. When they finished another mixed Brigade group practiced at the front patio of the house. So a took another video.

Long Post Monday through Thursday

We passed this car on our way back from Numan on Tuesday. There are no sharp turns or this car would fall over.

Monday Rains, May 4th

The work I had hoped to accomplish today was delayed by rains. The rains started around 7:00AM and rained fairly hard for an hour then went to a steady light rain to drizzle. The security man’s family that lives in the circular hut behind the house were busy filling their containers with water from the roof. When the rain got to the drizzle rate a large lady was walking around inside the compound near the wall gazing at the ground like she was hunting for something. Then she took a little hoe she and started digging. She looked like she was chasing a mole or something. Randomly, she would chop at the ground along a line then made a sudden turn. After a while she opened the container she had and started to plant seeds. Her planting was a little less random. She was planting in the area that the cows and goats like to graze in so I was wondering how she planned to keep the animals away from her crops. About then I bull and three young bulls came wondering in. She threw rocks at them in a rather ineffective manner, most did not go further than 5 or 6 feet. Finally, the larger bull decided she was not a threat and went into the area she was planting and decided to eat the corn seeds from her container. I young man jumped over the fence and I went out of the house and yelled at the bull (from a safe distance). This bull did not seem too well behaved. I found a large stick more like a small branch and banged it against a tree. The wet stick hitting the wet tree hardly made a thud. So back to yelling and swinging my stick. The young man was rather accurately throwing rocks which probably had more of an effect on the bull that the chubby white guy with a stick.

Later, as we were leaving for the Yola Diocese Bible College construction site. Mr. Bulama went over and talked to the lady. It turns out she is not right in the head. After he talked to her for a few minutes she insisted on having the key to the house because she wants to live there. She being twice as big as he is and holding a hoe Mr. Bulama told her he did not have a key and would see about getting one when we returned. Fortunately, she was gone when we returned this evening, just a lot of boys playing football.

The future Yola Diocese Bible College (N9.61805, E12.56116) is about a 50 minute drive from Jimeta near Song. It is on top of a hill in a raised area well above the Benue River Valley. The former Yola Bishop is the driving force behind this project along with a Danish donor. He had hired a contractor to drill a borehole at the site so they would have water for construction. The contractor got to 30 meters and his rig broke. He put a piece of casing in the top of the hole and left with the money he had been advanced for the work. I have heard this story over and over again here. Mr. Bulama hired a geologist to review the site. He did some conductivity and resistivity measurements and wrote a report that was brief on details but concluded that there was not significant water in the top 100 meters. From what I have read of this area I would expect several hundred meters of sedimentary rocks with the potential for ground water. Since the school is located on about the highest point around I am not surprised that they did not find water in the top 30 meters. The geologist report indicates that there should be multiple layers of sedimentary rocks beneath the site capable of holding water. Some may be under pressure confined by layers of clay or shale. At this point they have started construction of six buildings to house the students and their families. The cost to ship water into the site would be prohibitive. They are stuck between a rock and a dry spot. They have little choice but to continue drilling deeper and hope to find water.

Tuesday, Mission and Vision Statements and Trip to Numan (N9.47048, E12.03290)

Tuesday was a productive day. The Mission and Vision Statements I wrote in typical American style along with some possible goal, equipment lists, and a form for collecting water information had been reviewed over the weekend by Mr. Bulama and today we sat down and worked on them with Adams. We made some good progress changing and editing. KIV is “Keep in view” an abbreviation for something that you want as a main point in your paper. We worked on this for about two hours and then as most discussions tend to it wondered to the Dashen project and that they needed to buy new pipes for the pump. I told them that I saw pipes last year in the storage area at Numan. So we jumped in Yakubu’s van and headed to Numan and the LCCN Headquarters. When we got there we found out that the Archbishop and his wife are headed for their son’s college graduation in America and would not be back until May 15th. This gives us an extra week to work on the draft program documents. We found the water equipment storage shed in a bigger mess than last year. About a third of it has stacks of mattresses and other things. The piles of equipment are even more disorganized than last year. We crawled over and among the items until we found some pipes and connector rods. Adams did not remember which type of pipe they were using in Dashen so he said he would drive there next week look at the pipe and drive back to Numan and get the right pipe and drive back to Dashen. I suggested we take both types of pipe that are at Numan and take them to Dashen. If one fits we fix the pump and return the other to Numan. After a little discussion they agreed to try make only one trip. We had to stop at a black market gas seller to get enough gas to get back to Jimeta. They wanted 700 naira per gallon ($4.82/gallon at the official exchange rate or $4.11 at the black market money exchange rate.) I understand how the black market in gas is much higher than the price of gas. I have not figured out why people will pay so much more for American money than you get at the bank. It must have something to do with money laundering. I have been told that the money laundering laws make it difficult to exchange significant amounts of money through the banks.

Wednesday The Black Market

We made it back to the Yola Bible College site on Wednesday. The site is about 150 meters higher than the Benue River. It is now 6:30 PM and we have had light rain since 2PM. The generator is almost out of fuel. We have not had power since Tuesday morning. I expect to be in the dark soon. I was hoping the rain would stop so I could walk to the black market gas sellers and buy a gallon of gas. The price has been between 580 to 700 naira and I have heard people paying 800 for a gallon of gas. Yesterday the vehicles for the medical department sat in line for the National Petroleum station all day and did not get gas at the controlled price of 65 naira per liter (246 Naira/gallon $1.69/gallon at the official exchange rate). The people running the black market for gas are making so much money it is hard to get gas stations to sell to the public. They can sell to the black market at a much higher profit. There is no shortage of black market gas only at filling stations. We found a station open on the way to the Yola Bible College site. They were selling gas for 115 naira per liter (435 naira/gallon). They had about 20 10 gallon plastic cans at the station to fill for the black market. It is illegal to fill these plastic containers. They had the young men who had brought the containers move them into a place more out of sight. When we drove back to Jimeta the gas station was closed. But there were some people willing to sell you gas from a plastic container for 700 naira per gallon.

I had dinner of leftover gas meat. Gas meat is meat that is cooked with propane gas rather over and open fire. Dr. Bili bought me the gas meat Tuesday evening on our return trip from Numan. He says it is more hygienic than the meat cooked over the fire. I had some last night and put it in the freezer where it stayed cold enough to keep. It like the taste. It is cooked with onions and spices. Wrapped in small plastic bags and then put in Styrofoam containers. This double wrapping keeps the flies off the meat while it is waiting to be sold and keeps it slightly warm. After dinner I turned off the generator and reconnected the power. To my surprise there was power. It lasted about 20 minutes and now I am finishing this in the dark. The screen is attracting gnats.

Thursday

The contractor that was going to Pella today to drill the new borehole is waiting for a new bit for his down-hole hammer. They expect to drive to Pella tonight and start drilling early tomorrow morning. Yakubu is at the Yola Diocese business meeting for the next couple of days. I am using this break to do some work on the house. I am reattaching the frame for the mosquito net and washing the bottom sheet for the bed. The sheet was so dirty that I was laying on the top sheet. As the rains come the nights can get chilly enough to need a sheet over you. Yakubu got a mosquito net from the LCCN HIV/AIDS coordinator. She is another person I need to get to know. Lunch today is going to be round noodles I solar cooked then I added some tomato paste, thyme, a little milk (mixed from powder), and a can of sardines. That went back in the solar cooker for an hour. The sun has come out so after a remove this meal I will toss in some water and rice for my dinner. The rice was done in two hours. I walked to the market and back. Did not find what I wanted at a price I was willing to pay. Added some canned salmon to the rice for my dinner then walked to the internet café.

Bali Sunday

Sunday May 3, 2009 Bali Sunday

Today was Bali Sunday at Jimeta Cathedral Church. The plan was that there would be a second offering on this Sunday to help finance the Bali Project. This has been announced for the last two Sundays. The Vicar who is the Chair of the Bali Committee is away as a guest pastor at another church so they have invited a guest pastor to officiate and give the sermon today. The guest pastor is Bishop Edward Ishaya who is a big supporter of the Bali Project. He decided that there would only be one offering and all the money would go to the Bali Project. They argued with him that is not how they do it. Their agreements were in vain. He is their bishop and he had his way. The English service filled the church and people were seated outside. I estimated the attendance at near 2000. Following the sermon they started the offering Nigerian style. They placed two large plastic drums at the front of the church for the offering and two smaller containers for tithes. Then as the youth band played and sang the people walked to the front in dropped in their offering envelops of dropped in money. They started with the people outside, then the balcony and from the back of the church to the front. I was last with an enlarged version of the check from Mount Calvary Bali Committee to Jimeta Cathedral Bali Committee for One Million One Hundred and Sixty Thousand Naira ($8,000). The presentation was made again after the Hausa service offering.

Bishop Ishaya’s sermon was on honesty. He discussed his three favorite apostles because they were honest to the core. (Peter, Timothy and another one. I am writing this on a rainy Wednesday and forgot the third one.) It was a very good sermon about if you are truthful how people will trust you. If you are truthful you are not afraid to ask questions when you do not understand someone. In his closing he told the story of a family who had a son that kept coming home late and worrying his parents. The father was tired of the son’s lies as to why he was late. He hired a lie detector. The son came home late and the father asked him what he was doing. The son said he was just over at a friend’s house to study and lost track of the time. The lie detector stood up a slapped the boy. The father said I know you were out with those bad girls. The boy said “No, Daddy. I know those are bad girls I never go out with them.” The lie detector stood up and slapped the boy again. The boy decided he better not say anything. The father told the boy “I knew you were with those girls. When I was a boy I never worried my parents. I never ran around with bad girls.” The lie detector stood up a slapped the father. The mother started laughing and laughing. Her eyes were tearing and she fell on the floor laughing. Then she composed herself and stood up and said “Like father, like son.” And the lie detector slapped her. Because he was not the boy’s father. A family based on lies will not be a strong family. The people may not have heard the moral of the story because they were too busy laughing.

1 day and 24 minutes later

The storm last night was blamed for slow internet service today. It took all day to download
Google SketchUp 7 to replace AUTOCAD. But it is now done. I had to restart 3 times this morning. Time to go have some dinner and listen to the choir.

Rain and Internet Problems.

It rained relatively hard from 11 to midnight last. The sand absorded it and it just looks moist this morning.

My AUTOCAD drawing software went out. One of the other softwares that I thought I had transferred to this computer was Google Sketchup 7 3D. I do not find it. The file is 32.6 MB. I had it 75% downloaded last night when the internet cafe closed. I was hoping it would pick up from there this morning. It did not. I had to start over and over and over. They have been having problems with the internet this moringing. After over an hour I am 3% downloaded. It is frustrating but air conditioned. When I finally get out into the heat it will be hot. The rain last night will add to the humidity. I was sweating before I left the house this morning. The walk here is only 1.4 kilometers.

Wow I am up to 6% only 2 hours to go if the internet stays up.

This was the first morning that I walked. Mostly I have walked late morning, late afternoon and evening. As I walked there were ladies frying breads in large pots of oil or in cast iron forms. They have a tub of batter and ladle the batter into the oil or the form. The form is like our muffin pans but with shallow round indentions. They put a little oil in then a ladle of batter. After a few minutes they flip the cake over. I guess you could call it a fried breakfast cake. They keep frying and package them up for sale the rest of the day. I have eaten these on previous trips. Sweet, kind of like a small fat pancake. I think they have peanut meat in them. Peanut meat is probably the wrong word. I think it is what is left after the oil is pressed out of the peanut. They pound that to a flour and add it to the batter. It least that was what Pastor Gideon's (Demas District Pastor) wife was doing last year.

I was in a hurry to get to the internet cafe an get the download going so I did not stop for pictures. Next time I take a morning walk I will take some pictures.

14% we are flying now. Now it has slowed it less than 2KB/sec. Now 4 and back to 2. The fstest last night was short times I got up to 15KB/sec.

A choir started practice outside the house before 7 am this morning. The moring football game went on as usual. Soon boys (young men) where sweeping the sand in front of the house. There are large canopies seating around the compound. I suspect when I return these will be set up for the big final day of the choir competition. I will get some video and try to upload a small bit.

15% This is like waiting for water to boil but you can only turn the stove on to low.