Tour of the House

This post is a tour of the house I live in at the LCCN Jimeta Mission Quarters. Today is Sunday morning. My breakfast did not stay down so I decided to skip church and nibble on bread and sip tea for a while. Probably the anti-malarial pill on an empty stomach. It is suppose to be taken 1 hour before eating but that upsets my stomach too much. I may have taken too long to shower, shave and fix breakfast this morning after taking the pill and then ate too fast.

Click on Pictures to Enlarge.

The house is an old mud brick mission house built in the 1950's. There used to be two big Neem trees shading the front of the house. They were getting rotten and the roots were breaking up the porch. The Neem trees to the back of the house shade it in the afternoon. The back bedroom stays a little cooler than the front room.

 I am the only one that stays in the house for any period of time. Occasionally, it has been used by people when there is a convention at the Cathedral. People coming from far away and cannot afford a hotel room sleep on mats and mattresses around the compound. This last year it has been used for a monthly meeting a team from the Community Based Public Health Program.

In 2010 I purchased tool kits to work on pumps for the Water Program. One of there tool kits was stolen out of the house. I small child was caught taking a broken pump cylinder out of the house through a broken window. The tool kit was too big to fit through the bars on the windows. Someone with a key took the kit out the front door.

The house is connected to the same power as the church. Whenever, the National Power Holding Company  (NEPA is the old name but everyone still uses it) provides power to this section of town I have power. When the church is holding a service and their big Perkins Diesel Generator is on I have power. When these are out I have a switch that disconnects the house from the Church and connects it to the generator. I just have to carry it outside, check the oil and fill the fuel tank.

I have made two major purchases to make my stay here more comfortable. The little generator and the little refrigerator. The generator is big enough to run the lights, ceiling fans, my computer, charge a cell phone or two and most important run the refrigerator. It is a Parsun 1900DX, 900watt, 220VAC 50 hz. I noticed that the Parsun 1900
DX and the 2900DX had the same gasoline motor. I figured the 1900DX would be easier on the motor and last longer. So far this year I have only run the gen for 3 hours. I was working on reviewing the first draft design of the proposed Deaf Church when the evening meeting at the Cathedral ended. I wanted to continue so I started the gen.

The refrigerator is a typical (2.2 cubic feet, 62 liter)counter top model
 . It is small but meets most of my needs. When running is uses only 80 watts. When starting the refrigerator after the compressor has not run for a while the generator bogs down for a second then recovers. I have been advised to install a larger starting capacitor on the compressor.

If you click on the pictures they get bigger. In the freezer section I have three 750 ml bottles of water. Behind the coffee cup filled with cold tea is a small loaf of bread. Bread in this heat only last a day or two before molding. Under the cold tea is leftovers from last night. Under the freezer are 500 ml sachets (bags) of water and a bottle of Schweppes' Bitter Lemon. On  the bottom is my two pounds of M&M's (unopened), a mango, some opened tomato paste, and more water. In the door is a Malta, some bottles of Nutri-C drink mixes, half a can of peach slices in grape juice. more water and a partial bottle of Schweepes'. The bottled water cost about 50 naira each when bought by the case. The sachets of water cost about 3.5 naira each when you buy a bag or 20. The sachets say 50cl. But I can almost put two into a 75 cl water bottle. The Schweepes' and Malta are my treats. I like them but they make me a little thirsty afterwards. The Nutri-C drink mixes are little packets of powder that is recommmended to be mixed with 250 ml of water. I use closer to 500 ml. If I want it cold right away I use a sachet from the fridge. Otherwise, I use the boiled filtered water and cool it in the fridge.

View from Kitchen

This is a view of the front room. The kitchen is to the rigjt out of the picture. The door leads to a hallway with the bathroom to right and the bedroom straight back. I have pulled the round table under the window and where I get a cross breeze from the back room. In previous years I had used the table for the computer. Then I used the same power plug for the refrigerator and the computer. The front room is in an L shape with and alcove on the left. The back part of room through the arch is where we store the tools, pipes, and other equipment for pump repair. The refrigerator is at the edge of the alcove with the coils next to the windows that seems to have the most air movement. In addition to the heat of the sun on the roof this rooms gets the heat from the refrigerator, my computer and the ceiling fan that always on when there is power.

My A/C

View from NE corner of room

Yesterday it got to 102 degrees F (39C) inside the front room. Higher outside. I took a small dish towel soaked it in water and put it over my face and shoulders and took a nap in the chair. It was much cooler under the towel. Bature air conditioning. Right now at 9:15 AM it is 92 in the front room. When in the house I spend the most time in the front room.

View from Front Room

The kitchen and bathroom looks like an addition to the original house on the northside. The sun is currently to the south so it gets a lot of solar heat. The sink it no longer connected to the drain to the outside. The counter top is rotted around the sink. I use the purple (might look blue in the picture) tub to do dishes. The gas burner is where I boil water for my tea and my oatmeal in a teapot and also where I make my one pot meals in a little aluminum pan shown in the wash tub. I repaired the small electric oven but it 1200 watts. I have not tried using it with only the bottom element at 600 watts with my 900 watt generator. I would have to turn off all the lights. The tall aluminium cylinder is an old water filter. Three ceramic filters are in the top section. When I boil water I use it first for tea and oatmeal then I fill a thermos with hot water for later cups of tea. The remaining water I let cool then pour into the top. The water is filtered down to the bottom. I use this water for mixing with Nutri-C drink mix, rinsing food, cleaning my hands, and rinsing dishes (I will use the hot water from the kettle if it is still hot to rinse dishes also.)

The pantry and cupboard is the cleanest place in the kitchen.
This is where I prepare my meals.
The food in the top (pantry) is about three weeks worth of canned foods, rice, milk powder, and oatmeal. I have one can of Salmon. Cans of makeral in tomato sauce, sardines in tomato sauce, tuna in sunflower oil, hotdogs in brine, baked beans, fruit cocktail in fruit juice. Tonight's planned meal is beans and weanies with the rest of the tomato paste from last nights meal. If I feel better I will walk out and buy some onions to add in. I may start with a little boiled rice and then add in the beans and hotdogs. I live a simple life. I forgot my spices. Curry powder, thyme, salt, sliced dried ginger, dried peppers. I also will by the local version of ramon noodles.

The little light on top of the old broken refrigerator is my power indicator light. You can see the power disconnect switch behind the light. If the power is out and I am on the generator this light will come on when the power returns. Before added this light I would have to notice that there was lights on in the other house in the compound. The light is on in the picture from the front room of the kitchen.

Next is the hallway between the front room and the bedroom. There is a wardrobe. When it is over 100 degrees,  I wish I could step through it to Narnia. I keep my shirts and pants in the wardrobe and drawing equipment, foot powder and other small items on the shelves. The little bookcase is from my two pairs of shoes and my airport bag of meds, toothpaste and toothbrush.

The bathroom is to the right off to the hallway. The water is not connected to the house. The two barrels are where I store my water. The first barrel does not have a top. That is for washing, showering, The second barrel has a top on it. That is the water I use for boiling water. When I fill the barrels of water I add a touch of bleach to the boiling water barrel. The green bucket is my shower bucket I dip water from the washing barrel into the green bucket. I step into the shower and use a tin cup with a hole in it to pour water over my head. The hole just happens to be in the cup. If you hold the cup wrong the tiny stream of water flows into your face. The purple bucket in front of the barrel is the toilet flushing bucket. When I wash my hands the water goes into this bucket. When the dish water get dirty it goes in this bucket. When I wash some socks of underwear in the green bucket the dirty water and rinse water goes in the toilet flushing bucket.

The bedroom is in the back of the house to the west. On the left there used to be a bed with no mattresses. Now there are the two mattresses that I used to have on my bed. On top in my large bag where I keep my underwear, socks, medical supplies, chargers and other stuff. I live out of the bag and the wardrobe.

That is the tour of my house. It is livable for short stays and not in the rainy season. The roof leaks a little. A bad leak is into the kitchen mud brick wall which is expanding. It will not last many more rainy seasons without some fix. There is a committee looking at the future of the Mission Quarter. They want to turn it into a source of income for the LCCN. I think a guest house with some kitchenette rooms for visitors like me would be a good idea. I designed one on my 2011 trip. The bottom floor was the offices and warehouse for the Water and Sanitation Program, a Classroom, a water testing room, a pump repair room and a warehouse for pumps and pipes. The top floor was a guest house with two kitchenette rooms, a restaurant, and a patio on the west side where pumps can be mounted that go down into the warehouse where the pump cylinders are in barrels of water. Pump repairmen can be trained under controlled conditions. That was my dream of a West Africa Pump Repair Training Center. Maybe I should crowd source the $200,000 it would cost to build.


It is now 10:30. The rest of my oatmeal seems to be staying down. I guess it was just the pill. The English service is still going on. Hope it was not a combined service or I will loose power soon. The Hausa service will keep my power on for another 2 hours.
 My third cup of tea went into the refrigerator. It will need another hour to get cold.

Pastor Ruth and a public school teacher who had studied sign with Ruth came by after their service was over. Ruth brought over a bag a mangos. The are mostly green so they will last a few days. I have one ripe one in my fridge. I showed her my concept of how we can change the Deaf Church design so she can have an entrance into the sanctuary from behind the Altar.

I had a lot of problems posting this due the network going up and down. I also think my phone is overheated from the use of it as a hot spot. The room temperature is now 98F as we approach noon and 2 more hours to the heat of  the day.