Pictures fom November 14th to About 19th

My last big post was on November 14th just after the Dedication. I sat down last Saturday and wrote a post while the internet was down. A few days later I read it and it was bad. Now it is the following Saturday. Most of the day I spent reviewing plans and getting plans ready to go to contractors for bids. Then as evening came I decided to look through my pictures and select some to share with less words. I will be mostly chronological.

This is 1,520,000 Naira. One of the companion churches asked me to bring $3800 to give to their companion church here. We had it converted to Naira at 400 Naira to the dollar. In May I only got 305 Naira to the dollar.

This is the 14380 Naira from the Fair Trade Fair held in October at Mount Calvary. It was donated to Pastor Ruth to use in support of the Deaf Community. Her church weekly offering is so little each week it does not cover much. This will give her an emergency fund.

On the 16th we drove to Demsa with the Geologist and his geo-tecnical survey team to perform a resitivity/conductivity test for ground water at Demsa.

If you look closely or double click on the picture to make it bigger you will see that a 100 meter tap measure on the ground. When they get set up they will pound metal rods into the ground and force a current through the ground. When the rods are close to the meter it will measure the resistance and conductivity or the soil near the surface. As the rods get further apart the path of the current goes deeper, They record all the readings at put them through a computer program to make a map of the earth resistance at various depths. The lower the resistance to current flow the more water. Even without the computer the geologist said a borehole 45 to 75 meter deep will produce water.

 While the test was being performed and after I had shown Ernest all he wanted to see I walked around taking pictures. This is the new covered walkway between the buildings. Above is taken from near the surgery theatre down to the corner of the building and angle to the left to go to the Out-Patient Deparment.

This picture looks back to where the last picture was taken from. You can also see the water tower we relocated on my last trip in May. They now have two tanks on the tower.

 From the same place you turn the corner for the walkway to the In-Patient Wards and waiting area.

Turning around further is the walkway to the Out-Patient Department with a drive through. They could have made the drive through wider and higher.  This walkway is a great improvement over trying it push a wheelchair or trolley (gurney) through the mud in the rain season. In the dry season walking in the shade is nice, too.

This panorama shows the two building and the covered walkway. The In-Patient still has a few items to complete before it is ready to use, The electrical design was changed so now a junction box has to be added where the power comes from the generator to the two distribution boxes and on through the covered walkway to the Out-Patient Department. Also the connection to the power grid needs to be completed and the UPS system installed. Besides those major things there are a series of checklist items to be fixed. One problem yet to be solved is that the LCCN donated a large generator to the center. It is a 75 KWA and they probably only need a 20 KVA for the near future. If a major surgical ward and other specialty wards and housing for staff is every completed then they could use this large of a generator.

When the facility was originally built in the 1990's the road to the facility was to the East. The two buildings are oriented facing a central courtyard and in the far background of this picture a gate to the old road. The local Chief expanded his palace and blocked the road. The Local government with foreign assistance built a new road to the West of the buildings through the property. It cuts the property in two large pieces. Now the main entrance is to the back of the building.

On Friday the 18th we drove out with the drill crew and Ernest from Ernest Networks to look at installing a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system at the Demsa In-Patient Department. While Yakubu showed the drill crew where to drill I gave Ernest a tour of the In-Patient Department. He will be installing a system will have 4 large deep discharge batteries and a charger/controller/inverter. When the power from the grid goes out this system will keep light on in the surgery and two delivery rooms and essential equipment. While someone walks up to the generator house to turn on the generator. At night it can be used to keep some lights on all night in the in-patient wards. At first we were also going to have solar panels to charge the batteries. But when connected to the grid and generator the solar would rarely be needed and not cost effective.

The drillers realized that they had not brought the correct drill bit with them. They called back to Jimeta to have the correct bit brought out. They got the rig set and then went to the town for lunch while waiting for the bit.

The construction committee held a meeting at Demsa while the driller was drilling under the watchful eye of Adams our drilling supervisor. While we were meeting and planning the remaining items that needed finishing Adams came up and said they had hit clay and stopped. The hit water between 15 and 20 meters and had lots of water down to 56 meters when they hit clay. The driller say when you go south from here the clay is closer to the surface and not water above the clay. You have to drill to over a 100 meters to get water. We stopped at the clay and added in graded gravel filter pack and set three 5 meter screens then 6 inch casing to the surface. They filter packed to near the surface and then added cuttings. After this settles they will return and grout to the surface and install a pump.

 Saturday afternoon I walked up the street mostly for exercise and found a vendor with cheap multi-band radios. I bought one for 2500 Naira and extra batteries for 500. Less than $10. I could not find my nice radio before I came, I like to listen to BBC at night on short wave. On my way back I passed a vendor who was just taking some chicken off the fire. I did not have a camera with me. The whole chicken was 1500 Naira. Just under $4. But these chickens have little meat. He cut it into pieces and wrapped them in a plastic bag. This made three meals for me. The first was rice and mixed vegetables with the neck, back and a leg. Then I had raman noodles with three more pieces added. The last day I just heated it up and had it with some bread.

Chicken, rice and vegetables. One pot less dishes to wash.

The power just went out which means the bugs will be attacking my computer screen and me. I just made a pot of rice with curry spice, jollif rice spice and a can of sardines in tomato sauce. I will publish this and go under the net for supper in bed.