November 27 to December 3

This was my last full week in Nigeria on this trip. We continue to move forward with the two Demsa Projects. This week we got the plans for the Demsa Training and Accommodation Halls out to two contractors. One company has the man who did the cost estimating for the proposal as one of partners in the contracting firm. He knows the budget and that is his advantage. I am not sure but the architect who drew the drawings, he may also be associated with this firm.

The other contractor is a retired government executive who now is partner in a construction company and other things. He is also a church member who wants to give to the church. He did a women's dormitory building at Bronnum Lutheran Seminary which was funded by Luther World Federation, He lost money on that job for several reasons. One of the main reason was the job was in Euro's as the funding and the work was in Naira. During the work the Euro lost value to the Naria and the Euro cost of the project went up. This project is bid and is to be paid in Naria. The contractor is better protected from changes in the international market. The risk goes more to the funder as currently the Naria is a all time high compared to the Dollar. This should be a short term project and should be completed in 2 to 3 months. Global Health Ministries has asked me to be their Project Coordinator. My job will be to keep the project moving in Nigeria so we can take advantage of the weak Naira.

 Training Hall is a simple structure with one training room two storage rooms and two toilet rooms.

Accommodations Hall has two dormitory rooms each with two bathrooms with a shower, toilet and sink. The two rooms are facing opposite directions so if we have men in one and women in the other they will enter from opposite ends. Originally they wanted to have two building on either side of the Training Hall but the budget could not afford the extra cost.

Sunday

The week started with Sunday Services at the Church For Deaf. The Cathedral in the adjacent compound starts their services at 8 and the Church For Deaf starts at 9. Parking for the Cathedral is in the Jimeta Mission Compound. The cars continue to arrive until 9 or later. Above is the view from the front of the Church For Deaf into the compound toward the house I live in.

Above is looking from the Church For Deaf toward the Cathedral. Most of the Cathedral is hidden by the trees. You can see the slanted roof. The building under construction are restrooms on the bottom and offices above.

I arrived early there was only one man cleaning the dusting. I walked back into Pastor Ruth's office. She and others were busy wrapping gifts. When she saw me she tossed me out of the office. As she got me to the door I jumped out the door like I was being thrown. Paul, her husband came out and we talked and then went into the church where people were starting to gather.

 After a while people were showing up. A young lady got up and started a song. She was joined by a young man who seemed to be half a sign behind her. She rolled her eyes. It is customary to have songs before the service as people arrive.

 The kids were working hard to find something to entertain themselves while waiting.

Not much outside going on.

This little girl decided the Batura should provide some entertainment.

Pastor Ruth started the service a little after 9.

 Pastor Ruth had typed up some sermon notes for the visitors who did not sign. (Me.  I was joined by older man late in the service.) Lilly from Denmark does sign in Danish, American and other signs.

 I gave my little friend my notebook and a pen. At first she moved the pen without writing. Once she figured it out she worked on several of my pages. Some I had already taken project notes on.

Today is the last Sunday of the month. This is the first communion service a the church. At first it was a little disorganized but Pastor Ruth got the two servers organized and people figured out how to take communion and return to their seats.

Short video taken during communion.

 At the end of the service Pastor Ruth have plaques to Lilly Krarup and me. We were the two fundraisers and also pressured people to have Ruth ordained.

After the service the older man that came towards the end of the service with his son came to the office. I did not catch is full name. His son lost his hearing due to spinal meningitis at a young age. He had thought the religion was closed to his son. But now he says "The doors have been opened." He was excited that his son can now go to church and understand what is being said.

I asked Lilly Krarup from Denmark what she thinks the next need of the Church For Deaf. She said there needs to be another Deaf Pastor. Ruth needs to find a person with the passion for Christ and we need to find funding to send him or her to Bronnum Seminary. We also discussed the need for a new school building and a hostel for children who live out in the rest of Adamawa so they can go to school.

I spent most of Sunday reviewing the drawings Yakubu was to take to contractors on Monday and writing up instructions to the contractors. There were a few missing measurements and a set of windows that need to be replaced by door. I also gave them information about the soils and slopes so they would not come and want extra money because the foundations had to be dug out of sandstone.

 I the evening I took a walk down towards the new market. Along the way there was an area where men had gathered to socialize and play games. Probably talk about their wives.

 A little further down was a women cooking bean cakes. As I got there she was adding oil around the edges of the batter. Then she started flipping them. The ones on the end were not over the fire and did not flip to well

 In the evening there are men who cook meats over wood fires. This is where I got my chicken I mentioned in a previous blog. Tonight he did not have any chickens.

 These two men were just getting started and were cutting up pieces of meat to get cooking.

On Tuesday I went over to get some pictures of the kids the the LCCN Deaf Center School.

 These are the three students in the Junior Secondary School. They told me they were JSS2. The older girl in the picture has shown a lot of leadership skills over the last couple of years I have visited.

 There teacher told me they were JSS1. There are two more students but they have gone with their families to another location. They are Internally Displaced Persons due to the Boko Haram insurgency. Ruth hopes they will come back next year. The meet in the western half of the old
Cathedral Nursery school building. It is a concrete floor with corrugated metal walls. The wood studs are falling apart. and wall boards are coming loose. The Nursery School relocated into the new buildings in the Cathedral's compound. This was fortunate because the LCCN Deaf Center did not have enough room for three classes.  My camera makes the ceiling look higher than they are.

These are the five students in the upper section of Primary School. They meet in the eastern half of the tin shed that was the Cathedral Nursery School.

These are the five students in the Nursery and lower half of the Primary School. They meet in the little classroom at the LCCN Deaf Center building. This old mud brick building has a storage room, classroom and small office.  

Ruth was busy moving into her new office. She is having some book shelves made and more shelves for the storage room. 

At mid morning the schools takes a break and the kids have some food to eat. Looked like mostly noodles.

Monday before Lilly Krarup returned to Denmark she visited the school and gave the students pencils. At the end of the day the teacher took the pencils so they students would have them the next day. But this girl was having none of it. It was her pencil and she wanted to keep it. She cried and cried. Her mother came to take her home and she would not go without the pencil. Her mother said fine and walked away. Someone picked her up at took her to her mother. Tuesday she had her pencil back and was happy. I did not see what happened at the end of the day.

Friday was the only trip to the bush on this trip to Nigeria. The one way trip was 108 kilometers (67 miles). We left Jimeta with Yakubu and a driller from the drilling contractor to survey the road and myself. We took the long way because the rains this year made the short route through Mayo Belwa impassable for the drill rig and compressor truck. We picked up Gamekesa, Numan and then hit the bad roads. The Numan to Jalingo Road is a major road in need of major repairs. 

We spend more time dodging holes and unpaved sections than driving straight. We took the Billi turnoff and had decent dirt roads to Billi. After Billi it was minor dirt roads. Two tracks through the bush. Sometimes it was only one track as usually only motorcycles traveled the route.

We stopped at the new borehole site. They had been drilling there in the early part of the rainy season and their compressor malfunctioned and a large storm started. The abandoned the hole and went back to Jimeta before the roads became impassable. 

From there we went to Sanaboki where there is a borehole with a hand pump. The pump barely provides any water. We will return later in the day. 

Next stop was Watame. The borehole here was tested and found high in lead in a single test. I told them that it can be a lab error and we need to retest and provide a blind blank sample. For now they are not drinking the water. This borehole goes dry in the dry season. They had planned to drill a deeper borehole nearby but have delayed that until the lead issue is addressed.

Near the borehole they were drawing water from a hand dug well with a mosquito net over it. Yakubu asked why. The net was damaged and they were using it to keep the ducks out. Apparently some ducks got in and had a hard time getting the vertical lift to fly straight up and out. 

From Watame went to Wakka the main town in the area. Earlier in the year they had changed the a pump on a borehole in Wakka from a Mark II to a Mark III and installed the old Mark II in the school well. It was not working because the water level went too low already. 

There was a lot of trash in the well. 

The borehole with the Mark III had been cloudy after the installation. The contact said it was still bad so we drove there and found it clear to the eye and people were using it. The Mark II and Mark III pumps are identical above the surface. The difference is that the Mark II has a 65mm cylinder and 32 mm riser pipes. To fix the cylinder you have to remove all the riser pipes with all the water in the pipes. If you have a deep borehole it takes two or three strong men to lift the pipes out of the borehole. The Mark III uses a 65mm riser pipe. You can remove the working parts of the cylinder through the riser pipe without removing the pipes. A man on a motorcycle can come and make most repairs for a Mark III. A Mark II requires large pipe wrenches, clamps, vises. Too much to carry on a motorcycle. There is a third type of pump that I prefer but is not used in this part of Nigeria much. It is the Afridev Pump. It comes with two tools. Like the Mark III, you can remove the working parts without removing the pipes. The main difference that there less moving parts. All the bolt heads are the same size, nothing to grease and the bearings are nylon and easily replaced. The Mark II and III head require a variety of tools and a bearing press to replace the bearings.

We returned to Sanaboki to see if we could repair the pump at the borehole. When we had looked at it earlier we theorized that the low flow could be worn out rubber, leaking foot valve, or leaking pipes.

After disassembling the pump, we found that it had a large hole in the riser pipe by the pump cylinder. Most of the pumped water was going back into the borehole. The village happened to have two extra pipes. 

We changed the pipes, reassembled the pump, and greased the chain in the pump head. When we left they were pumping water like a new pump.

Saturday I went out for a walk at Noon. Power was off and my lap top battery was dead. I decided to walk to get some new recharge cards for my data modem. At the same time I stopped into Ernest Networking to look at the Inverter, Charger, Controller we were buying for the Demsa Surgery UPS system. Then I went across the street to a shop outside the old market and purchased a 1000 Naria recharge card ($2.50) for 1.5 Gbytes more data. 

On my way back I decided to walk through the market I found a women selling live fish. I should have taken a video. 

Tomorrow is the Cathedral Harvest Festival. Pastor Ruth to the congregation that they will have Sunday School at Church For Deaf and at 9 AM go over to the Cathedral for the Festival. This is the event that the Church For Deaf was asked to donate 100,000 Naira as their contribution. 

Last Week November 20 to 27

Last week was a lot of office work and strategizing. The week started with the first Deaf service in the Church For Deaf. On Sunday November 20

Singers before the service. It is traditional here to have singing before the formal service begins as people come in. At the Cathedral I can hear singing up to a half hour before the 8 AM service.

Pastor Ruth Ulea rings the bell three times. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to start the service. As mentioned the Dedication posting. The bell is an exact replica of the bell used at the Copenhagen Deaf Church to start their service.

Pastor Ruth's Sermon

 Following the service they make the announcements. If you make them at the beginning you will have some people not arrived yet. Just like in the US there are people arriving late. During the announcements she told the congregation that they have been invited to participate in the Annual Thanksgiving/Harvest service at the Cathedral on December 4th. The Committee organizing the event has decided that the Church For Deaf should contribute 100,000 Naira for the festival. When they do not have visitors the weekly offering is under 1000 Naira. So the committee has decided that they can afford 2 years of offering.

When I saw the letter I just laughed. I told Pastor Ruth that the comma after the 100 should have been a period. They were only asking for 100 Naira. She just rolled her eyes at my joke. 

After the service is a chance to socialize before they head their separate ways.  

On Tuesday we went back to Demsa to visit with Doctor Stanley to discuss the placement of the proposed Training Hall and Accommodations Hall and where to put the demonstration latrines. We started with the latrines.

 Doctor Stanley wants renovate the existing two hole open pit squat latrine into a Ventilated Improved Latrine. Currently it is an open top latrine with two sections over a large diameter pit.

 It is getting full and the holes are too small to be used for pumping out. The walls and slab will be removed. They will hire a truck to come and vacuum out the pit. Then they will build the pit walls higher by a meter and build an new foundation and slab, that will have proper sized and shaped holes for a person to squat and defecate and urinate at he same time. Since this is suppose to be a demonstration of what could be built in a remote village the walls will not be built of concrete blocks but could be built of wood and galvanized metal with a galvanized metal roof. The other half may even be walls of cornstalks tied together or weaved grass mat walls. This will end up being a raised VIP Latrine, demonstrate what you do when there is hard rock and you can not dig a deep pit or a high water table.

Another demonstration latrine will be built a little closer to the area for the families of the people in the In-Patient Ward. It will be a double vault composting latrine to demonstrate what has to be done when you cannot dig a pit at all.

Doctor Stanley then showed us the area that he thinks will be the best place with the least interference with clinic operations. It is on the east edge of the property.

The site will need a road made which it major disadvantage but the road will also service the generator building and might be built with funds from the renovation project. There are items of construction that will benefit both projects. The drilling of the new industrial borehole will free-up the current borehole to have a hand pump installed and used as a day use pump and used to training pump repair technicians. The VIP latrines are to be used by visitors and families of the patients. The center needed a road to bring fuel and service the generator and it can pass by the training and accommodations halls.

 

 After finishing discussing where the building would be located Yakubu and I went up to the new borehole site. 

View from the borehole back to the water tower and In-Patient Department. Sometime in the future water tanks will be built near the pump to provide additional water pressure. This is near the highest point on this section of the property.

This is a panorama from south to north. You can see the water tower over Yakubu's head on the right side of the picture.

 That evening I started water boiling and went back to the bedroom to type up notes. When I went back to the kitchen the big bottle of gas for the stove had run out. I got out my 2 Kilogram bottle and attached the burner to finish dinner.

I still had some of the chicken left that I bought Saturday. So I cooked up some chicken ramen noddles added some extra spices and some chicken parts.

The next day I took a walk and went by a dealer or stoves and told him I would like to connect my small bottle to the big stove but the fitting were different on the regulator for the big tank and the where the burner screwed into the little tank. He said no problem the dealer next to him has the solution. He had a regulator that screw into the little tank and I just move the gas hose to the new regulator. The Batura price was only 3000 Naira.($7.50).  Of course the following day the little bottle ran out of gas too. But the dealer had told me where the cheapest price for gas was so I got it filled for 1000 Naira. Now I have enough gas to probably last me through the next trip.

When I went to check on  my solar cell for my lamp that was outside recharging on a plastic chair on the porch. A tiny Praying Mantis jumped off the chair. I got my camera and this is the best shot of him or her climbing back up the leg of the chair. The picture to be true would be rotated 90 degree. 

The main activity for the day on Thursday the 24th was the election of the new Archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria. The General Council Meeting was happening at the Cathedral in the adjacent compound. The delegates had been seated, accredited and nominations had been completed before I made my way to the balcony to watch.

 The top three nominees would move forward to the first vote. The top nominee was Rt. Rev. Dr, Musa Filibus the Bishop of the Mayo Belwa Diocese and former Director of Development for the Lutheran World Federation. In second was Most Rev. Dr. Nemuel Babba current Archbishop. In a distant third was Rt. Rev. Amos Bukata the Bishop of Arewa Diocese.

 The vote and counting took well over an hour. They were two votes short of the accredited delegates count. Finally, the decided two people had left. The first vote eliminated Bishop Bukata but neither Bishop Filibus or the Archbishop had the 2/3 vote of the delegates to win. Bishop Filibus had a large lead. During the second vote I went back to the house and got on Facebook. I noticed that some people were congratulating Bishop Filibus before they could have counted the votes.

When the votes were counted it was Rt. Rev. Dr. Musa Filibus that had been elected the next Archbishop. He will be consecrated at the next LCCN Convention in February.

The Archbishop graciously congratulated the Archbishop elect.

This was Thanksgiving back home. Tradition is turkey, second helpings and leftovers. I followed tradition.

 One exception to traditions. I was cooking in the dark with the light from my Ikea solar lamp. The flash photo makes it look a lot lighter than it was. I have two burner going. One with rice,onions, peppers and spices. The other with the leftover beef ramen for the previous night. This is not the leftovers that are traditional.

 When the rice was nearly cooked down I added the water from the can of turkey I brought from home and then when that was boiling added the turkey and cooked it down.

The only thing I forgot was to have the Crasins I brought with for desert. I had them in my oatmeal the next morning. I had plenty of leftovers. Friday night was the same meal but with power and light.

Saturday night I was thirsty for a Schweppes Bitter Lemon and went out to the local stores that sell beverages. I did not find any to I bought some Malta. As I left the second store I saw a vendor with a pushcart filled with plastic sandals or flip flop. I bought a pair that said Nike for 500 Naira. I love it when they start to say one price realize they are talking to a batura and a higher price emerges. But at Only 500 Naira ($1.25) I did not haggle. The flip flops I had been wearing around the house were several years old. They had broken last year and I had sewn them back together. The first week I was here the left foot toe strap I had sewn back on broke again. I had been flopping around with these for a couple weeks.

Well that was my week. It is now late Sunday Night. I have 10 days left in Nigeria. We will be getting copies of the plans for the Training Hall and Accommodation Hall out to contractors this week and hopefully get the design of the VIP Latrines to the review point. Time for a cool shower and bed.