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.