It is Hot in Yola

Monday morning at 8 AM we headed From Jos through Bauchi and Gombe and down to Yola. Originally, it was to be me and a driver. At the wedding on last Saturday I met Mori's cousin David and found out he was going to take public transit down to Yola on Monday. I invited him along. Monday morning the Daniel the cook at Dogon Dutse asked if we could give his daugter a ride. David showed up with a puppy. We arrived around 2 PM. Due to a lot of road repair this is about half the time it took in 2006 and 2007.

Yakubu Bulama, the LCCN Projects Coordinator was surprised that I was here this early. Yakubu office is in a missionary mud brick house at the front of the LCCN compound adjacent to the Jimeta Cathedral. This is the house the Elisabeth lives in and has been well maintained. In 2009 I stayed in one of the bedrooms in that house. Last year we cleaned out the long vacant and nelgected one bedroom missionary house further to the back of the compound. Elisabeth was visiting from Denmark and living in the front house. Last year we convinced the Yola Bishop to connect the back house to the Jimeta Cathedral power system. Whenever the NEPA (nick name for the national power system) provides power or when there is something going on in the Cathedral I have power. Last year the refrigerator at the back house was working better than Yakubu’s. I could actually get ice in the freezer when we had power for more than 6 hours at a time.

The back house had not been cleaned since I left last April. A group of women had stayed there during a convention and did not clean-up after themselves. Surprisingly, my the spices, can of sardines, dish soap and flip flops I had left last year were still there. There is no budget for security in this compound. The Jimeta Cathedral has 24 hour security men. A few years back, Yakubu offered one to the security men to use the round hut between the two missionary houses for his family. Now they have the back porch, an attached room of the front house, in addition to the round house. Quite a few people sleep on the porch by the bedroom window. I think they have six kids. Usually, there are more than that around. When I stayed in the front house, they start rattling pans, pounding grain and getting the breakfast fire going well before sunup. In the back house I get to sleep until sunup.

The security man and his and his two oldest daughters came over with some brooms and started cleaning. I checked the water barrels and went to the street water venders and asked for 240 liters of water. By the time we had most of the house swept the water man showed up with 12-20 liters jerry cans of water on a push cart. The water is 10 naira per jerry can. This is does not sound like much but after all the conversions it is over $12 per thousand gallons. Check your water bill at home and see how much you pay. In the Twin Cities the average is less than $1.50 per thousand gallons of water.

We used all 240 liters cleaning the floors, screens, window sills, kitchen and furniture. We pretty much flushed the floors from the bedroom to the bathroom drain and from the living room and kitchen to out the front door. We had the place cleaner than I had it last year in about two hours. I paid them a 1000 naira ($6.46). I little later I saw the youngest girl and the two year old boy running around with 5 and 10 naira bills. They got paid by their Dad for mostly staying out of the way. The mother was in class. She goes to school each afternoon at the Cathedral school. The children have primary school there in the morning and the women have primary school in the afternoon. I pay the mother 1000 naira a week to come in twice a week and clean the house. Then I pay her to wash my pants and shirts. This little bit goes a long ways here. Later in the evening I went with Yakubu and bought some basics. Powdered milk, bread, serving sized cans of baked beans, canned vegetables, chlorine bleach, more sardines, canned tuna salad, tooth paste, noodles, a box of breakfast cereal, and a case of drinking water. The street vendor water is only for washing. I drink bottled water and then boil the street vendor water, filter the boiled water through a ceramic filter system and refill the empty water bottles. The bottled water is around 50 naira per liter. About 100 times the cost of the street vendor water. About 1000 times what I pay in Chanhassen. I drink a lot more of it too.

 I tried a can of tuna salad in tomato sauce for dinner. Forked the tuna fish out of the salad to made a sandwich and then eat the salad. I have eaten worse stuff, probably won’t buy it again. The next evening I walked over to the area on electrical shop on Hospital Road and bought a couple fuses for the refrigerator plug. Then went over to the food venders by the Specialty Hospital. Got oranges, bananas and three hard boiled eggs. The venders sit outside the hospital to sell to the families of the patients. The hospital does not provide food, your family and friends have to bring you food. Had a boiled egg sandwich for dinner. Replaced the fuse in the refrigerator cord and plugging it in. Fuse blew immediately. It looks like the relay is fried. I got the repair man over thursday morning. The compressor,capacitor and control relay are fried.It will cost 20,000 naira to fix or 3,000 to 5,000 for a good used small refrigerator. Next week we will buy a small used refrigerator. Until them I have a plastic wash tub with waterin the bottom, a 2 liter bottle of water in the water and wet cloth over the bottle. I set the tub under the ceiling fan when we have power. The evaporation cools the water down into the low 80’s. 80 degree milk from powdered milk is not nearly as good as making it with ice water.

Another women’s convention starts Thursday through the weekend. Power will be running most of the weekend. Too bad I do not have a refrigerator.  Next post will talk about the day I spent up in Shall-holma Diocese with the medical team.

The title was it is hot in Yola. According to the thermometer on my shortwave radio it was 93 degrees at 10 PM and down to 83 by 6:30 the next morning. Last night it was even warmer.