Update on Violence, Good Friday, Deaf Camp

On Friday I took a long walk up to Luka Shopping Complex by City Cyber Cafe. The worker there is from a village north of Kubi near the northern boarder of Adamawa. He told me that there was much worse riots in Mubi and north of Mubi. Homes were burned and people were killed. I will have ask Yakubu about this. He is from a village in the Mubi area. But here in the middle of Adamawa things have remained calm for a week. I have no problems walking out in the Jimeta area of Yola. Friday's walks covered over 4 miles.

We had power for a while today. I am about out of battery now and will head over to the Deaf Centre to be with them during their Easter Camp. I spent most of Good Friday evening there last night. After sundown I saw that they only had four kerosene lanterns for the area. Ruth told me the other day. For the deaf "No light, No Talk". I took over my largest borehole camera light. It put out twice as much light as one of the lanterns. The pastor from Lagos was having a discussion with two young men. The light made the conversation much easier.

Later the Cathedral turned on its old generator for their Good Friday night service. The service went from 9 PM until after 1 am. They had a Good Friday morning service from 9AM to Noon. With the generator working I went back to the house to plug and recharge my computer. Instead, I decided to take it back to the Centre and show the video of the camera going down the borehole. I had tried to explain what the light was used for but some of the young men did not understand. So I showed them the video and they understood better. Then I turned on the Galludet Dictionary and we spent the next hour looking at signs until my battery ran dead. We went to plug it in but found that there were people sleeping in the office where the only plugs were. The old generator is not as powerful at the new generator. With all the amps and lights at the Cathedral the voltage is too low to run the refrigerator. The compressor starts and runs. But does little cooling before it overheats and shuts down.

Today I got a ride to the big Luka Market over by the Police round about. I bought enough AA batteries to make a 12volt battery pack and connected it to the three 12 volt Ikea LED lights I brought with me in hopes of connecting them the solar cell at Bali.

This afternoon the Deaf Camp had a lesson on Marriage. Most of the participants are young 20 somethings and only a few are married. The pastor from a local Lutheran Church was giving the message with an interpreter. He was also using some sign as he spoke. As the deaf pastor was speaking as the next speaker I realized I was hearing sounds from the church sound system so I returned to the house to finish this blog posting. I will go over to the deaf camp this evening and will attend Easter Services with them tomorrow.

The Cook and her daughter preparing the Okra for the Good Friday Evening meal.

I have been overeating yesterday and today. I had dinner last night at the Deaf Centre. For lunch today they sent over a huge plate of food while I was building the battery pack. Now a bowl of boiled yams with a sauce just showed up. Between the chicken and rice Thursday in Dingai and all these meals this is more than I have been eating in a week. When I have been going to restaurants with Yakubu he would order the traditional Nigerian meals and I stuck with rice and chicken or spaghetti. Now I am eating the traditional meals.