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.
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