We had power this morning from about 4 AM to 8:00 AM. I am on battery now. This week was not one of the most productive weeks I have had in Nigeria. I had a lot of time to sit and design things. Today is the postponed elections for Federal Parliament. Most of Nigeria will be going to the poles this morning. Some areas had errors on their ballot and their election have been postponed again. I am still trying to figure out their system. It appears that people come to the voting stations in the morning. They get authenticated in the morning and they come back at 12:30 to vote. Everyone that has been authenticated votes. I think you have to be at your voting station at 12:30. If you come late you cannot vote. This way no one can go vote at two places. During voting the roads between cities are closed. On the radio I heard there were check points in the major cities where they were inspecting cars.
The rest of this blog will be picture based. You can click on the pictures for a bigger view.
One of the purposes of this trip was to test the prototype borehole video camera I had developed. My biggest surprise was that the battery pack was my weakest link. I made it by soldering two AAA battery holders together to make a 3 volt battery pack broke while I was using the light for the camera as a light at night. The wires on the Radio Shack battery holder were thin and broke. Pastor Peter Dagwa (a retired technician from the Adamawa State Radio came over with his soldering iron and we built the above battery pack. It is quite fragile. But works. I am glad I brought the Harvey Plumber's Epoxy with me that I molded the parts back together. On Monday we are now scheduled to go to Dumne to view two poorly working bore holes and go to the Yola Diocese Bible College site that is under construction to video the dry bore hole there. (This is the third reschedule of this trip.)
Last week I briefly discussed the concept plan I had drawn in 2010 of a proposed office, warehouse, training, and guest house building for the WASH and other programs based out of Yola with Dr. Thompson. He wanted to see the plan but he was staying out on the other side of town and did not come here before he left. I had not included the Community Based Public Health assuming they would be based out of Demsa. However, there was interest from Dr. Thompson and some Medical Board members to be based in Yola. I spent the better part of Tuesday and Wednesday, when I had power or battery left, making the building a little larger and the warehouse smaller to add in some offices and storage for the CBPH program and writing an explanation of the concept of the building. The concept now has offices for the Projects Office, WASH, CBPH, Rural Development and Agriculture Office, Publications Office, and an office for the HIV/AIDS Coordinator. Several of these offices are part of the LCCN organization but have not been funded and have no staff or offices. The former staff have started their own not for profit organizations to provide services that they are passionate about.
This is an aerial view of the portion of Jimeta/Yola that I am staying in. I am staying in the house under the place marked Jimeta House. It is in the north east corner of the LCCN Compound that is to the east of the Cathedral Church. My house was featured on the last blog. The north edge of the picture is the start of the flood plains of the Benue River. You will see a complex of large buildings to the south and west of the compound. This is the Adamawa State Specialty Hospital. I buy my fruit and hard boiled eggs at the market at the gate to the hospital. Families have to bring food for the patients. So various food sellers set up market there every day. Fruit is probably a little cheaper at the market but this is a much easier walk. Speaking of the New Ultra Modern Market, it is the complex of many small buildings about a kilometer to the west of the hospital. To the west of the market you can see the edge of the Yola Airport. The City Cyber Cafe that I have been walking to use when I have no power would be about the center of the picture on the bottom edge.
This is my new frig. With only 4 hours of power it will keep water a little cool. The Lutheran Youth Fellowship is having a conference at the Cathedral later today. I am hoping I can get an extra 4 or five hours of power while they are running the big generator. Right now the only perishable in it is my last hard boiled egg. On Wednesday I made some tuna fish salad for a sandwich and put the left over in the frig. Thursday we had no power all day. I used up the tuna salad for lunch and dinner on Thursday. The dinner sandwich may have been a stretch how long you should keep warm tuna fish salad.
This is Mrs. Bongi inside the recently completed Deaf Girls dormitory at the Remi Foundation School for the Disabled. They received a large grant from the Federal Government (7 million Naira) to build dormitories for Deaf Boys and for Deaf Girls. The purpose of the facility is that the children will live in a deaf environment where the ASL they are learning in school will be their everyday language. When they live at home part of the day they live with ASL as their language and part of the day in a speaking world. They have trouble mastering ASL if it is not used at home. Remi Foundation with a grant from Denmark has held classes in ASL for parents of deaf children and interpreter classes. One mother was crying at the end of the parent's class. She said her son was a teenager. She has never been able to communicate with him. When he was bad she just beat him. Now she can talk with him. Another person went to a political rally and to his surprise on the side of the stage was one of the women that had taken the interpreter class signing in ASL. This was a first in Adamawa that the deaf were included in a main stream event.
Personal note to Barb. I gave the Gallaudet University Dictionary to Ruth Ulea at the LCCN Deaf Centre. She literally hugged the book and jumped up and down. Then when I told her that all the other books I brought were for her schools she danced.
The difference between the Remi Foundation and the LCCN Deaf Centre is that the LCCN Deaf Centre takes the poor children that cannot afford the school fees or did not get a scholarship to Remi. Also the Deaf Centre works with the whole Deaf Community (adults and children) while the Remi Foundation serve children with many disabilities. The LCCN Deaf Centre has Sunday School and Church Services in ASL and bible study in ASL. I will devote a future blog to the Deaf Centre and its needs. It does not have the national and international connections that the Remi Centre has.
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