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.
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.
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