Marriage and Blessing of Their Children of Mr. & Mrs. Godopwa Hakiyina, Guyuk, Nigeria

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On Palm Sunday I drove up to Guyuk with Pastor Ruth and nine of the Deaf that normally attend her services at the LCCN Deaf Centre. We would have had several more but when I showed up with the truck, a few had decided to go for some food. We were late so we did not wait for them. We added a bench to the bed of the truck and headed north at a little faster speed than I normally drive.

When we arrived at LCCN 4, Guyuk, they had already started the Sunday Service and were at the Annoucements. The announcements at churches can last a long time during the wedding season (April-May) and Holy week. All the local and regional weddings, prayer services, inter-faith services and much more are announced. The printing of bulletins is not affordable.


The church is relatively small but is located on a large compound. On the right side is a shade structure for the overflow crowd. I am sure they are in the process of saving to build a larger building. They have piles of concrete block along the front wall and areas where sand is being stored to make more blocks. The normal way new churches are built is to save some money until you have enough to make a batch of blocks. You then buy cement, collect sand and make the blocks. They may make and store the blocks for several years. When they have enough blocks and enough money to buy the cement for the foundation and walls they will build. Then when they get enough for the roof they will build the roof. The next stage would be to buy windows and doors. Finally, they will add the electrical, plumbing, plaster, paint and furnishings. The entire process can require years. But rather and putting the money in the bank and letting inflation and fees eat it up they make concrete blocks.

Pastor Ruth changed into here robe and stole and joined the local pastor at the Altar. She will not be officiating at this marriage but will assist the local pastor.  Being Palm Sunday the Women's Fellowship, the Gospel Singers and the Youth Band had prepared special songs.

The marriage and blessings was worked in to the service. This is the second marriage as a part of the Sunday Service that I have seen here. It saves the couple a lot of money. This is a rather new procedure. I was told at the first one I attended in March, at the Cathedral that is was the first anyone had seen. The Yola Diocese Bishop happened to be scheduled to officiate at that Sunday's Service so he performed the marriage.

The local pastor performed the rites of marriage and blessing of the children with the help of an interpreter. Part of the ceremony was mixed with various parts of the service. The couple and wedding party had to get up and move to the front several times. At one point the wedding party performed a song in sign. This is an adult version of 'Jesus Loves Me". I edited it down to the last verse. The interpreter was a little behind until he figured out the song.

Toward the end of the service they had the offering. The offering box had two holes one for the men and one for the women. It is a bit of a competition as to which group gives more. They walk and some dance up to the box while the youth band sings. When the men have finished, their offering side is covered and the women come forward. Next week they will announce the totals during announcements. After the regular offerings they had a special offering for the couple. The couple stood by the donation baskets on top of the offering box and shook hands with everyone as they came by and put money in the baskets.

During the second offering I went outside to get some water. The truck was parked in the sunlight. The one sachet of water that was in the truck was will over 100 degrees F. I moved the truck to some shade and used some of the water to cool of the dark bench that was in the back.

 Instead of going back into the church I joined a group of young ladies at one of the windows. All the windows and doors had people standing at them. The view from this window as not bad, but you could not read the sign from the interpreter or see much of the pastor when he was kneeling before the Altar. 

After the service the best man organized everyone for pictures. I did not know the couple. I was just the driver for the people from Jimeta and tried to stay out of the pictures. It is hard to do when you stand out in the crowd the way I do you. I always seem to end up in the picture. 

After the first picture a successfully avoided the rest of the pictures. I will have to go and buy a flash drive to put all their pictures on give it to Pastor Ruth to get to them.

After the pictures at the church we drove over to the mother of the bride's compound for a snack, soft drink, and reception. The best part was the half frozen sachet of water that I was given. We excused ourselves after about a half an hour and thanked the family. 

We drove over to Retired Archbishop David Windibizri's house. He was in Jimeta at a meeting. We greeted his wife and spent a few minutes then headed back to Jimeta. This time at a more reasonable speed.

On the way back, we stopped in Numan at the LCCN Headquarter's Compound to pick up a package for Archbishop Babba's son Paul who lives in Mississippi. I got a chance to see the compressor that Global Health Ministries had purchased for Water Program. I had been working on finding a trailer hitch for the compressor but did not know that it had a very specific hitch and ball requirement. I had been told it was a two inch ball. But the trailer connection specified that it must be a 25/16 inch Class IV ball. The chances of finding that ball and hitch here is slim to none. Now we have to create a plan B. 

Waiting in Numan for the package.

Click on picture to do the the donation site.

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Water Project Hosere Wandu, April 5th.

Click to enlarge. Fried Yams.

(Updated April 16th and 18th. Clicking or double clicking on the picture will make them larger)

We got a pretty early start on Saturday Morning April 5th. It was before breakfast so we stopped along the road to get a bag of water sachets,some fried yams and fried corn cakes. They are cooked in peanut oil and then tossed with local spices. Not exactly sure of what is in the spices. Last year I purchase some at a shop and used it in most of my dishes. This year I have been using curry. We are traveling early so Yakubu Bulama can get back to Yola for a wedding. He is the Chairman of the reception. Like a MC.

Corn Cakes fried in oil.

Hosere Wandu is out the old back road to Mayo Belwa from Yola. It is in the Yola Diocese. They have an existing borehole with an electric pump in it. It was another that was installed with the help of a politician seeking re-election. According to the community theirs was the only one that had water. It was used only a short time before it broke. We never get the complete story the first time we ask. You have to continue asking different people, in different ways and getting different stories. Eventually, you get a pretty good idea. The current story is that the pump has always had water but only works for a few minutes and then no water. From the looks of the pump we removed, it appears that it was either a used pump or it had quite a bit of use.

The road is under construction and according to Bulama it used to be a rutted single lane road. If a truck or car approaches you one of you had to turn off the road. Usually, the smaller of the two vehicles. Now it is a wide gravel road up to the village before a wide river crossing. It appears to be in the process of being made into an asphalt road. I say this because they are putting down material that normally goes under asphalt. I have seen roads like this stay gravel for years and degrade into washed out rutted roads before the asphalt is laid down. Mayo Belwa is the home town of the Governor.

Mayo Ine is the town before the river. It has a functional Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Water Project. One of the largest, best designed and functional we have seen. The vast majority of MDG water boreholes in Adamawa State are not functional. Turns out it is the home town of the mother of the  Adamawa State MDG Director.

View Up River

Just after Mayo Ine we crossed a wide dry river. In a few months only boats will be crossing. The route we cross is about a half kilometer long. The bridging of this river will be difficult.The road on the other side of the river was yet to be improved. The construction company PW Construction (We think PW stand for Poor Works.) is setting up a construction camp just uphill from the river.

When we returned on April 15th they were starting the new crossing down river of the existing crossing.

Bulama greeting the local elders.

We arrived before 9 AM and after the greetings we proceeded from the main part of the village to the existing bore hole and removed the pump. The wires for the pump were found
inside the casing. The borehole has a 4 inch diameter casing and a 3 11/16 inch diameter pump. Water was only 7.4 meters under ground and the bottom of the borehole was at 37 meters. The 1 horse power pump was installed at the bottom of the borehole. They told us that the pump had run but water would stop after seven buckets. Seven buckets is the local phrase meaning little water. We have heard seven buckets at several other boreholes.

We removed the pump and went back to the main part of the community. There we discussed the next steps in the program. We told them we would take the pump back to Yola to take it apart and inspect it. The other thing is that we believe it is too powerful of a pump for the borehole and it was installed to deep. It was at the bottom of the borehole where any sand and silt that comes into the borehole will settle and go through the pump. After the pump repair team and I had finished talking about the pump went to Mr Bulama and said we were ready to go back. He told us the

women have been cooking and out lunch is not ready yet. If we leave now the women will not be happy. The men agreed and that if the women are not happy the community is not happy.

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While waiting for lunch to be ready I walked over to the church and saw some chicks and a hen scrounging for insects in the roots of a tree. Before I got my camera ready they saw me and ran out of the roots. I think they know that when a Bature (white man) comes to town one of their kind becomes lunch.

Our lunch was chicken in a red sauce (mostly palm oil with spices, ground peppers and ground tomatoes). It was served family style with rice (no silverware, you grab the hot sticky rice and form an edible spoon). They brought and extra bowl for the Bature. Otherwise Bulama and I would be sharing a bowl of rice and a bowl of sauce and chicken. The ladies were also fixing food for the men but they were having a local vegetable based sauce. I was told it is real spice.

We took the pump back to Yola and on Tuesday the pump repair team dismantled it. The motor looks good but the pump section is shot. We could not get the impeller section open but from the parts that fell out I am guessing it was run dry too long. Most pumps have automation cut-off if the pump runs dry. Some the the less expensive do not.

Flushing and pump test set up.

Today (Monday the 14th.) the repairmen went to the market and bought a 1/2 horsepower pump and tiger pipes (a thick plastic pipe) to install it. Tomorrow we will return and use our 1 HP pump to flush out the borehole and try to get the screens cleaned out some. We will then install the new 1/2 HP pump in the borehole. I will update this blog with the results of tomorrows work.

Update. On Tuesday April 15th, we went back and used a 1-HP pump to try to flush the borehole. We pumped at over 60 liters per minute. At that rate the water was emptied from the borehole quickly. We waited 10 minutes and pumped again. We repeated

Pump Testing.

the process all morning and into the afternoon. We informed the women to bring their buckets to get the water we flushed out of the borehole.  We got a little dirt out but I do not think we achieved much. We installed the smaller 1/2 HP pump. It operates at just under 30 liters per minute and empties the bore hole of water in about 4 minutes. After resting for 10 minutes you can get another 4 minutes of pumping. This is a slow way to get water but it still works. In the future the Water Program will have a contractor drill a new borehole on the other end of the community. While they have their compressor there they will use it to clean the screens and then test this bore hole again. If it still runs dry when pumped we will either abandon it or install a hand pump. Installing a hand pump is the most likely. Until the final solution is reached they will manually operate the pump to prevent it from running dry and destroying it. Also, another chicken gave their life for our lunch.

Women lined up their buckets, pails, tubs, and
jerry cans when they heard we were pumping.

Local Church.

Round Hut at the entrance to the Pastor's
compound. This is where he hold meetings
and where we had lunch.

Graineries.The rocks stop the termites.

Always Smile, Caroline. LCCN Deaf Centre End of Term, March 4th.

Click on picture to enlarge.

Today was a double celebration. First was to celebrate Caroline. Caroline was killed in a traffic accident in Denmark. Her grandparents are members at the Deaf Church in Copenhagen, Denmark. They held the funeral services at her grandparents church. Money was contributed in her memory and the family sent it to Nigeria for the LCCN Deaf Centre to use it as they wished. They decided to buy sports uniforms with the money and school supplies. The shirts had Caroline's picture on the front with "Always Smile". The back says LCCN Deaf Centre.  The children were very happy to have sports uniforms like the kids at the Cathedral Academy. 

When most of the kids had shown up the went out to the open area and the teacher lead them through some stretching exercises and then they tossed a ball around the circle, then each tossed it high into the air and tried to catch it. The little kids did not toss it very high. 

  

Pastor Ruth got her sports uniform on and joined the fun with a little volley ball without the net.

After the sports time we were waiting for parents and other dignitaries to show up for the end of term celebration. A former teacher who had left to have her second baby came around the corner and the kids rushed her. Later, I learned that she is married to the present teacher. The baby is being held by another staff member while the kids surround their former teacher for a picture.

After the parents showed up we started the program. There had been some confusion on the dates of the program. It was scheduled for Saturday be too many people could not come. So it rescheduled for Friday. About half of the parents were able to make it. It started with a prayer and then they gave all the parents a copy of the story about Caroline and read it while it was translated into sign.

The children then sang a song about dedicated to Caroline.

The teacher addressed the parents and thanked them for forming a PTA and introduced the officers of the PTA. He encouraged them to participate with the school and their children's education.

(At this point a little disclaimer. I have not reviewed the videos of the parents speaking. I believe what I have written below is mostly accurate. I hope to put together a more accurate presentation after I return to the US and have access to a better computer for video editing and high speed internet.)

Next the parents were asked if they had any comments they wanted to make. Several parents stood and thanked the teachers and the staff. They all said their children were communicating with them and with others better, they were studying hard and were eager to learn. Some of the comments included that their deaf children are learning more at the Deaf Centre than their hearing children are at the public schools. Also that these children have special talents that the teachers have brought out in the. One father, who is Muslim said that his child has more problems than his deafness. That the doctors told him that his would not be able to learn, would probably not be able to walk and play. But he has blossomed. He is communicating, running and playing with his deaf friends. He is even learning to read and some writing. It was inspirational to hear what a difference this deaf school is making in these children's lives. One parent is a Pastor and evangelist that was sent to Yola to start a Four Square Church. His son got sick and lost his hearing over a short period of time. He is so thankful that the LCCN had created the Deaf Centre and his son is now the one the communicates the most with whoever comes over to their house.

Farah James with Pastor Ruth

One non-parent was in attendance and also spoke on how with her work in the community she has gotten to know many of the Deaf and the children attending the Centre are prospering more than other children. She said that all of these children are Special. They have special talents and qualities that other children and the hearing public will never understand.  (They are Special Children, Not Special Needs Children. That was my interpretation.) Farah James is the director of a local HIV/Aids program, Spring of Hope and has recently been recognized as a leader in the field. She reminded me that I had missed her support group, Spring of Hope HIV/AIDS Support group meeting last Saturday. Their next meeting is after I leave.

After the parents made their comments, I was suppose to interview the parents and ask them if the school was having any positive affects on their children. But they had answered all my questions in their comments. So instead I thank them for their comments and encouraged them to continue to be part of their children's educations and to support the Deaf Centre and its mission to help all Deaf People. I also said a word or two about the reality of funding for programs like the LCCN Deaf Centre and other charitable programs. That funding was being cut back in the US and Denmark. That more programs will require higher matching funds from parents. The more the parents support the Centre the more successful the Centre can be in seeking funds from other sources. The Deaf Centre is a mud block building from the 1950's or earlier. It some structural issues and it is located next to the pit latrine of the public school next door. I hope that it replacement and relocation will be the next project after the Church project is finished.

The Patron of the LCCN Deaf Centre and the Cathedral Deaf Church, Mrs. Bidil Lautrai wife of former Bishop William Lautrai spoke next,  about Caroline and how the Deaf Church in Denmark will be happy that Caroline is being honored here today. She also encouraged the parents to support the Deaf Centre and the Deaf Church project. She also challenged the Vicar of the Cathedral Church to show more financial support for the Centre and the Church project. It was good that the Vicar was in attendance to hear about the good work the Centre was doing for the children. The Deaf Centre for years was just that building out behind the Cathedral on the Mission Compound.

Finally, we had closing prayers. The Vicar Rev. Thiophilus Shadrach said a prayer followed by a prayer from one of the Muslim parents. The schools has about half Christian and half Muslim children.

Pastor Ruth Ulea with the supplies purchased with the money left
over after the sports uniforms were purchased. 

I am writing this on after the Sunday Service. There were 25 people in attendance at the Deaf Service under the tin roof on the patio of the Deaf Centre. At the end of the service most of us walked over the the Specialty Hospital to visit one of the young ladies father who is seriously ill. On the way back as we walked down the street with everyone signing a boy yelled out to us that his little brother who was hiding behind him was deaf and attended the Jada Special School. School is out and the children are on break until after Easter. We stopped and Pastor Ruth asked him his name. He clung to his brother's leg and did not respond. He was either frightened by all the attention or he has not learned any sign. Pastor Ruth said there are over a thousand students Jada and they do not have enough teachers or even enough food to feed the children. The school is free but unless you already have some signing ability you cannot learn. She had hoped things would improve since the Governor's First Wife is deaf. But she has not been able to improve things there. The Governors Second Wife is a doctor and has been put in charge of HIV/AIDS funding. Still the best programs are operated by local and national charities like Farah's program.

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Now if you have read to here and you appreciate the work I am doing and wonder how you can help. It is simple, help me by clicking and donating to the Deaf Church Walls Fund. We are trying to raise $5,000 from small individual donations. It is really going slow. This fund is just to build the block walls of the Deaf Church. Just as important as donations are so is SHARING. When you donate you can help to multiply that donation by clicking the Facebook or Tweeter or other sharing  buttons. Tell your friends that you have donated and that they too can help the Deaf see the Word of God. Please Donate and Share. At the current rate we will be in the rainy season before we reach our goal.