Solar Cooker, Canned Hot Dogs and Tomorrow to Dumne

 Hot dogs come in a can here. Refrigeration is not reliable except if you live where you have a good supply of electricity. Those places are few and far between. Since I do not have a regular kitchen I eat a lot of stuff from cans. They sell small cans of baked beans. I cut up a couple of the hotdogs and have beans and winnies. They sell a canned vegetable salad that I mix with a can of tuna fish and make a tuna fish salad sandwiches. It make about three sandwiches. The vegetables include potatoes, carrots, peas and other things. It is a different kind of tuna salad sandwich.

This year I took one box that large water bottles came in and opened it up and taped on some aluminum foil to make my solar cooker. In 2009 I took couple  boxes and cut out an intricate design from the internet for a solar cooker, carefully glued on the foil and it work pretty good. This year I took the simple route and about 15 minutes and made a cooker that may actually work better. The sunniest days have been when we were out somewhere cooking ourselves. Today the sun came out and I decided to move the cooker outside at 2 pm with some Ramon noodle like stuff in it. When I checked it at 3 the noodles were fully cooked and the water was gone I added more water and the spices. Adams showed up and it was time to drive to the shop that was making riser pipes for us to use tomorrow. I brought the cooker inside and later in the evening I had warm noodles.

Tomorrow we head back to Dumne with two vehicles and two pump teams. We are going to try to fix two pumps. The Danish pump that we worked on two weeks ago and did not get it done and the pump that is hard to pump and has little flow. It we are lucky we will get both pumps fixed and will be able to go see the third pump that has been recommended to be replaced.

We spent much of today trying to buy parts for the repair. There are few parts available. Most of the dealers had access to pumps and rods but the riser pipe was hard to find. The dealer we used most often has raised his price to 3000 naira per pipe ($20). Adams is not used to paying this much. His pipe appears to be schedule 40 and is actually 3 meters long. He did not have 10 pipes; Adams made a deal with another dealer and we saved around 20,000 naira. The problem is that he was making his rising main by cutting some lighter weight 6 meter pipe in half and adding threads. When I looked at the pipe I figured out why we have been having trouble with the 3 meter rod joint not matching the 3 meter pipe joints. The 6 meter pipe they are cutting in half to make 3 meter riser pipes are actually 5.8 meters long. So each section of pipe is about 2 inches shorter than the rods. When you get to 10 pipes the rod joint is more than 20 inches up into the pipe. We plan of putting in 14 pipes at the Danish borehole at Dumne. This means the last rod will be misaligned by over 2 feet.. We have a rod that has had about a foot cut off of it that we will use as we reinstall the pipes. We may have to cut the end off of another rod and cut new threads onto the rod. This will make the job a lot harder. in the future we should not use this substandard pipe. We the extra couple bucks to get the right stuff and make the work easier for us and for future repair people.

It is after 8 pm and they just shut down the generator. all the bugs that were flying around the light are on on my laptop screen, in my hair and otherwise being pests. I will not review this post. Until later this weekend, I have 8 days left before I return to Minnesota.

Yola Diocese Combined Choir Practice

This evening the Yola Diocese Combined Choir was practicing out my front door. Background music while I eat my tuna salad sandwich. They are practicing for a choir convention in Lagos this weekend.

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.

Communuty Based Primary Health Care Program, Wakka Leaders Meeting April 14

The plan was to leave by 6:00 AM. We did pretty good. We got off by 6:30. Yakubu was driving the Hi Lux. Dr. Chidama Barka (local Consultant to the CBPHC Program) got the front seat, Albetha Yakubu (Community Health Extension Worker who is going to be assigned to Wakka as one of the Mobile Leadership Team) and I were in the back seat. We drove from Jimeta/Yola to Numan where we picked up Manzo Gaji (Community Development Officer to be assigned to Wakka as the other member of the Mobile Leadership Team), some cold bottle water, some fried bananas and some bean cakes (Yakubu did not have any breakfast). He squeezed into the backseat with Albetha and me. From Numan we headed west on the Numan to Jalingo Highway to near the border of Adamawa and Taraba States.  Driving this highway you have to choose which pot holes to hit and which shoulder to drive on. 

 

Just before Mayo Lope we turned onto the dirt road leading to Wakka and waited for the  Bishop Denhem Abba (Todi Diocese) and Fidilus (the Secretary of the Medical Board and a Community Health Extension Officer for the LCCN). From here we headed into the bush on a dirt road (one lane but wide enough for two vehicles to pass in most places). Crossing 4 dry river or stream beds and bouncing up a trail between two large hill, we arrived in Wakka new District Church a little before 10 AM.

This was not a “Water and Sanitation Hygiene” visit, I tried to blend into the background so the Community Based Primary Health Care Program would get all the attention. Of course being the only white person in town running around like a Japanese tourist taking pictures, I did not blend well. The purpose of this visit was to meet with the leadership of the area and introduce the CBPHC team. The concept of community based development is to have a bottom up program where the community is responsible for developing their own community. The CBPHC team is there to help them. This is a slow process. The team spends a lot time meeting people, gaining their trust and learning about the area and the people. During this time they are making notes about resources, talents, leadership, and needs. After a time they will start having meetings with different groups to see what the people think their needs are. They will not just meet with the leaders but will seat with the youth, with the women, with families, with clans, with business people. Most villages have formal and informal leaders. The school headmaster is a formal leader. But the women may consider a woman teacher as a more important leader for them. There may be a village member who is a businessperson in Yola or Lagos and is the person that provides much of the financial support to the village. It is these relationships and more that the Mobile Leadership Team (MLT) will be seeking out during the first month they are in the village.

The meeting was mostly in Hausa and also in the local tribal language so I clapped and laughed on queue. The meeting was held under the shade of a group of Neem Trees in front of the primary school. The temperature was in the upper 90’s with a nice breeze. The local leaders included the Lutheran Pastor, Lutheran Evangelist, Baptist Pastor, 4 Imams, the local chief (pictured standing in green), the women’s leader, the youth leader and various other people. The Women Group from the church sang a song. After many introductions and song the concepts of the CBPHC were explained and that this visit was to meet with the leadership to get their input and answer the best we could their questions.  The next meeting will be for the whole village to meet the MLT. We closed with a prayer from the pastor and from the senior Imam. Followed by more singing from the women.

After the meeting I went over to the primary school take a picture of the sign saying it was a polling place and I found this black board on large tree.  

A new larger LCCN church was being built at Wakka. When we arrived the walls were up and the steep rafters had been built. A truck load of metal roofing arrived just after us. When the meeting ended half on one side of the roof was on. By the end of the day the roof will be complete. The church sung at the meeting were standing in the shade signing praises to the new roof.

We had lunch at the District Pastor’s compound and then left by the trail to the north and east to Mayo Belwa. This was a one-time experience. Everyone in the truck agreed that as bad as the road was leading to Wakka from the Numan-Jalingo Highway. The trail to Mayo Belwa was much worse. Coming to Wakka we crossed 4 streams or small river beds (this is the end of the dry season). I quit counting the streams beds and rivers we crossed at 8 on our way out to Mayo Belwa (most with steep drops).  The route may have been a little shorter but is was much longer in time and bruises as we bounced through the deep sided stream beds.

 

The only interesting thing on our way out were three balanced rocks. I asked “Who put those rocks up there”? Everyone laughed with me and said God put them there.Then we stopped to take pictures.

For the Google Earth users. 

Numan Market area where we stopped N09.45654, E012.03530,

Wakka turnoff from Numan-Jalingo Highway. N09.24920, E011.68746

Wakka Church N09.15868, E011.81334, 

Wakka Primary School N09.15738, E011.81328, 

Three rocks N09.15063, E011.82450

Mayo Belwa where we entered from the bush N09.05858, E012.05044

Does anyone use the coordinates that I give? If you do please hit comment and tell me. Otherwise I might stop adding them.

Video of 3 minutes of Sunday School at LCCN Deaf Centre (23 MB)

This is a three minute video of Sunday School at the LCCN Deaf Centre. I went to the Cathedral for English services after recording part of their Sunday School. Later they had church services. There were over 20 people for the service. Ruth has been holding Sunday School and church services for many years. She has finished Seminary almost 20 years ago but has not been ordained because she has to do her one year internship. Her's is the only Deaf place of worship in Adamawa State. She is married with 5 boys. The youngest is 7 years old. It would be difficult for her to spend more than a few weeks to a month at a time away from home. We will be exploring alternate ways for her to be credited for her internship. 

I think I should have made the video smaller. It is uploading at about 40 kbps which translates to 2 hours of continuous uploading. I hope power keeps up because I do not have a strong enough battery to go that long. NEPA held up for the hour and 44 minutes for the upload. Power ended about 5 minutes after the upload ended.

New Google Earth Aerial Photo of the Jimeta Compound

The new aerial photograph on the LCCN Jimeta Compound was taken Sunday December 26, 2010. Church is being held. Click on the picture to enlarge it. The Cathedral Church and primary school is on the west side (left). The LCCN Compound is on the east side. They park their cars on the LCCN Compound during church services.

I am living in the building called Jimeta House. If you want to explore on Google Earth the coordinates are N9.280456, E012.448382. The aerial view is much different than the view on the ground. The trees are tall and most have no branches for the first 10 to 15 feet. When you are on the ground the place looks more open. I can easily see the Deaf Centre from my bedroom window. These trees are called Neem Trees. They are also known as the medicine tree. Almost all parts of the tree is used for some kind of medicine. They are evergreens but with leaves not needles. As one of the few evergreens they are a major shade tree for Africa. They are currently dropping their fruit and seeds. Two women come by every day or two and collect the seeds. They will make Neem Oil from the seeds to sell in the market.

The only open gate is by the church. The LCCN Compound gate is locked except on Sunday. The people I buy water from are on the north side of the compound. They actually get their water from the borehole on the compound. The fill a push cart with12 to 14 20-liter jerry cans (528 to 618 pounds of water) push it around the east side of the compound. Up the hill to the entrance by the church and back down to the house. I try to order water on Sunday when the other gate is open and save them 1/2 of the uphill push. I pay them the going price of 77 cents for 240 liters. Which is much more than we pay in Minnesota.