Finding out my mission this month.

It does look like I will be doing several things. The main tasks will be to help with the current water program. Help get the compressor up and clean out a couple boreholes we think are plugged and can become functional if cleaned out. Help with moving the sanitation program forward. Help with the review of the design of the Deaf Church. I also hope to get some economic development done do not know what exactly that will be. Maybe, I can get some of the adult Deaf to work on recycling paper into cooker fuel briquettes.

The timing of this visit was not as great but may have been fortunate. I am here at the same time that Dr. Thompson has come for some training of the Community Based Public Health Program. As it turns out Yakubu will be tied up in the training this week. While he is not a direct member of the CBPHP, he is still very involved. It is hard to explain exactly what his duties are. He is the director of the WASH program and the LCCN Projects Manager but is also provides a lot of the logistics and coordination for the CBPHP and others. The plan for the week had been that we would travel north to install a pump pad and pump base for a borehole that was drilled this weekend. The construction frame will be disassembled from the last pump base that was poured last week in Wakka area and be brought to Jimeta tomorrow. We will gather all the supplies and tools tomorrow and early Wednesday morning load up and drive a few hours north to Gombe and then into the bush about an hour. Also tomorrow we will go to the driver license bureau an hopefully they will still have the license I applied for last year. Yakubu tried to pick it up twice last year both times they could not find it. I hope we have more luck. Since Yakubu cannot go with us, I will be driving. My 90 day temporary license expired last May. I have never been asked for a license at any check point but I would rather have a current license. A significant number of drivers do not have a current license. The new system requires and internet application and a print out to take to the bank to pay the fees. Most people do not have access to the internet and a printer.

Foundation for new Church for the Deaf

One of his current projects is the construction of the new church for the Deaf. They have dug the foundation and have started to bring in the blocks. A member of the Jimeta Cathedral is an Architect and plans to have construction drawings ready tomorrow. This being the first church built specifically for the Deaf it will be interesting to see if they take the lighting and sight lines into consideration. The traditional church has a pulpit above the congregation. This will not work will for a Deaf congregation. They would have to look up during the whole service. By the end they would have sore necks. Also the traditional pulpit would hid much of the Pastors body. Sign language uses the whole body not just the hands and arms. I paced off the foundation it appears to have the sanctuary at about 30 feet by 50 feet with a pastor office and a storage room at the back. The building beside the church will become part of the Deaf Centre. The Women's Skills Acquisition Centre is moving out the the Yola Diocese Secretariat Compound. The building on the left in the picture is used by the Jimeta Cathedral for a pre-school.

They did not know that there was a Danish NGO that has offered to finance a small solar installation to help provide lighting. The panels will have to be remote from the church. The picture does not show the tall Neem trees to the either side of the building. They took one tree out. There is not ideal location for the solar panels. If they are installed on a medium tower about 50 feet out in front of the church, they will be out of the shade of the Neem Trees by 10 AM and not be shaded by the two story school building until after 4 PM. These are pure guesses. I have not had a clear day since arriving. There is a combination of Harmattan dust cloud and some higher clouds has kept the sun at bay. I has helped to have fairly low temperatures. Today it only up into the upper 80's.

This picture shows the current Deaf Centre on the far left, the Cathedral's pre-school and the remains of the tree that was removed. It took a lot of labor to dig that big root mass out. I wish I had someone stand next to it. I am guessing it is five feet tall. A future project may be to tear down the current Centre and rebuild a larger building that can house multiple class rooms and work rooms for economic development.