First Weekend and First Trip to the Bush

(Note the videos are fairly large run them only if you have hi speed internet)
Saturday I was free and planning on studying ASL when Mori talked me into going to a wedding with her and Ladi.  We drove across town to attend the wedding at a Church of Christ then on to a school about 10 minutes down the road for the reception. The large multipurpose building was air conditioned. The bride is from Adamawa State and a geographer with the National Centre for Remote Sensing. The groom is an accountant from here in Plateau State. They had two MC’s for the occasion one from Adamawa and one from Plateau. Each state was represented by traditional musicians. When that traditional singers and dancers from Adamawa started to perform some of the guest joined in and danced with them. One tradition is shower the couple and performers with new money. By the end of the reception the floor by the stage was covered in new notes. The food was buffet style except they did not have enough plates and even less silverware. They just wiped them off and gave them to the next person. I should have gotten in line earlier. I got a clean plate but used spoon. I wiped it down with hand sanitizer.

   On Sunday I was picked up after breakfast and attended combined English/Hausa services from 10 to noon at Majami’ar Almasihu congregation in downtown Jos. It was mostly in Hausa. My Hausa vocabulary consists of a few mispronounced greetings. The pastor asked the youth band to sing a song so I started the video on my camera and then found out it was the “Your Welcomed” song where everyone greets each other. I had to switch hands but ran the video for the whole two minutes of greeting people. Made sort of an interesting video.

  After the service I met with the mission committee to explain that I was there to see the Waya Church because St. John’s Lutheran of Jamestown, ND was interested in helping them with their water problems. 

This was puzzling to them since Waya is no longer a mission outreach area but is a church under the district church. So we discussed their mission outreach congregation and how they hope to work with Our Saviour’s Lutheran of East Bethel, MN on water projects in their outreach congregations in Polchi and Gadabiyu. We

determined that Waya and Gadabiyu were close to each other so we would visit both. 

   One church member volunteered his car, I volunteered the gas money and the church decided to buy snacks and bottled water at Mr. Biggs to eat for lunch on the way. We got two meat pies each and headed an d six bottles of water and headed out of town. We crossed out of Plateau State and into Bauchi State and drove on a nice highway for about an hour. Then we turned off onto a dirt road that deteriorated into washed out path. We were in an old Toyota station wagon. I kept looking behind us expecting to see the transmission as we bottomed out on rocks every few minutes. After 30 minutes we reached Waya where the Catechist was expecting us and a mess of kids were waiting. Waya is that the village of around 100 family compounds spread over a fairly large area and split in half by a stream. The stream is the main source of their drinking water for many of the 100 families in the area during the rainy season. A few families have hand dug wells, some of which have some water year around The stream dries up by January or earlier. Then they dig holes in the bank and ladle muddy water out of the six foot deep hole. This was similar to dozens of holes I have seen in Adamawa. I suspect that there is a significant perched aquifer that could be accessed by hand dug wells and a fairly shallow regional aquifer within the valley. A more detailed study of the village will need to be made later.

Kids at Waya

   After Waya we drove the ½ hour back to the road, went a few minutes east and then back into the bush for 15 minutes to Gadabiyu. The evangelist did not know we were coming and we surprised him. This is a much smaller community with only 20 households spread across both sides of a larger stream. The families on the north side have a hand dug well that is sealed on top and has a hand pump.  It was installed about a year ago by the LCCN Headquarters water man. It has a low flow now and needs to recharge after a few minutes of pumping during the dry season. It appears that the leathers on the pump are already in need of replacement. During the wet season the people on the other side of the stream do not have access to the well. During the dry season it is over a kilometer walk to the well so they walk down to the stream, dig holes in the dry sand and ladle out water. The need here is a clean water source on the south side of the stream nearer to their settlement.

We made it back to Dogon Dutse Guest house a little after 6 pm. Daniel had a bowl of noodles, sauce, cabbage/tomato salad and cold water waiting for me. I hope it was for me because I eat it. When I got to Lamurde cottage I was surprised to find water in the system. Eveyr evening they fill the water tank at the top of the hill with water and turn it off overnight. The water distribution system leaks. If they leave the water on then there will not be any left in the morning. I decided I better take a shower tonight just in case there was no water in the morning. I turned it on to a slight dribble and soaped up. That was all there was remaining in the pipe. Fortunately, I had put water in the emergency barrel when I got here.

Tomorrow I head for the heat in Adamawa State. 

Google Earth Coordinates

Dogon Dutse Guest House N9.93869, E8.89805

Majami"ar Almasihu Church N9.92205, E8.88661

Waya Church N10.14856, E9.36096

Waya Water Hole N10.14865, E9.36495

Gadabiyu Church N10.16894, E9.32692

Gadabiyu WaterHoles N10.16766,E9.33296

Gadabiyu South Settlement N10.16484, E9.33514

House in Yola N9.28042, E12.44845