Deaf Church Construction Update

August 23rd

 In the week I have been here, the rain has held off during the days. The carpenters have made a lot of progress on the roof. Here are pictures from Saturday August 23 and Saturday August 30th. The final picture is inside the church showing the bracing that is holding the trusses up as they are constructed. If you click on the picture they get bigger.

August 23

The rafters were built one at a time and in place. They started by nailing two long boards together to make the rafter. These are supported from the floor by temporary supports (last picture). Then more long boards are made and a large triangle with a center brace is made. When the all of the big triangles are finished they added more vertical bracing. Then the horizontal boards on the outside were added. The roofing will be nailed to these horizontal boards. Yesterday and today they finished the block work at the front and started the fascia boards. It looks like they will be able to finish the roofing next week. Then we will see how much money is left for doors and windows.

The block work is pretty good. The width of the front and back of the building are close to the same. Length of the two sides are a little different.

August 30

They made a small error when digging the foundation. The building is 17 meters long instead of the 15 meters in the architects design. This has allowed them to build four raised seating areas rather than the three in the design. In spite of extra 13% of building the construction is staying under the estimate.

August 30

After the roof, the next phase is to construct doors and windows. During construction they decided to make the windows larger. The eight 1200 mm by 1200 mm windows became 1200 by 1500 and the two windows at the front are up to 1200 by 2000. Almost 4 square meters of windows have been added. They will use locally made aluminum casement windows. The window maker will make windows to fit each opening. All the openings are square by sight. I measured a few and they only vary by a centimeter or two. There are several window making shops within a kilometer of the church. I am sure John has his favorite he works with. The windows and doors phase is the least expensive of all the phases. It and the final phase are the most likely to run over-budget.

The final phase, Finishing, is the most costly and the least will defined. This will include adding the Altar (was originally in the first phase,Substructure. Was moved because the design was disagree upon), electrical, plumbing, plastering the walls inside and outside, painting, installing fans and lighting. There is not an electrical or lighting design. These were put in as lump sum costs estimates. I am not sure how the building committee plans on handling the electrical and altar design. The plumbing only included the cost to install a sink and a toilet with a lump sum for connection. I do not know if it will be enough to build a soak away and to connect to the Cathedral water system.

The Copenhagen Deaf Church held a fundraiser this week. They had a bake sale, flea market, fashion show and other things. It looked like great fun and I would love to have some of the food at the bake sale. I hope to work with the Building Committee on some of the details of the electrical and altar designs in the next two weeks I am here. My work with the Demsa Health Centre is mostly complete and my water program work schedule is not heavy. We will continue to put together the parts we need to get the compressor functional and hope to test it on a couple local broken boreholes before I leave.

Weekend through Tuesday.

Click on picture to make larger.

This is the first time I have been in Jimeta in August. August and September are the two rainiest months. They get about the same annual precipitation as Minneapolis. The difference is that they have no rain in November through February, traces in March and April, the majority of the rain in Jimeta is from July through October. As you go south towards Taraba State the rains start earlier and last longer. As you go north the rains start later and quit sooner. A friend said they had heavy rain on Thursday here in Jimeta. There were a few light sprinkles Friday night and Saturday. Sunday was hot and humid but no rain. Monday morning we had a couple hours of rain with some heavy down pours. The crops look good here on the Jimeta Mission Quarters. The area I usually drive through to get to the old mission house I live in  is now okra, peanuts, maize, melons and greens. I am usually here at the end of the dry season when there is dust in the air. The picture shows the annual flooding of the Benue River. You cannot see the Benue it is farther north past the line of trees you see the other side of the flooding. Yakubu told me they will plant sorghum in this area in October when the water recedes.  

Saturday: I spent most of the day setting up housekeeping. The towels and the large pillow I stored away had the odor of mildew. The large pillow may not have been all the way dry when I left in April. I have two pillows and prefer the smaller one. I will probably soak the bigger stinky pillow in chlorine and water and set it out in the sun. Saturday afternoon I washed the shirts I had worn during my four days of traveling and the stinky towels that were under the pillow. It took till Sunday afternoon for things to dry. I have strung two ropes inside the house as small clothes lines.

The carpenters were busy building rafters on Friday and Saturday. By the end of Saturday they had the main parts of the rafters finished. I am assuming they will add more cross bracing. Currently they just have a big triangle with a center support. All of the rafters are braced from the floor. After they left I took my little 12 foot tape measure and measured the floor sections to compare with the plans. The original design had called for three raised seating level. They had built four that looked like they were around the same size as in the drawings. Theoretically this would have reduced the lowest level by about two meters. Somehow, the lowest level seemed fairly large.  I put my measurements into the sketch I had made on my computer of the floor levels and it did not make correlate with what was on my sketch. The sanctuary was almost 2 meters longer than the design. I checked my sketch against the Architect’s plans and they correlated. I must have written down the wrong numbers. On Sunday, I re-measured and confirmed my measurements. I decided to measure the outside of the building. The building as designed was to be 15 meters long and 9 meters wide. It turns out that it was built 17 meters by 9 meters. The pastor’s office had gained a little and the sanctuary had gained almost 2 meters. This is how they were able to build the fourth raised seating level. This has increased the seating capacity.

During my time here I will work with the building committee to design the Altar area of the church and the electrical plan.

Sunday: I attended 8 AM English service at the Cathedral and then left after the sermon and went to the 10 AM Deaf service at the Deaf Centre. Some of the youth were doing the bible readings as I showed up. Pastor Ruth was helping them with the religious signs that they do not use in everyday life. Pastor Ruth used a chalk board as a part of her sermon and made the sermon interactive. She asked 20 mostly young adults questions and incorporates their answers into the sermon. The women sit on the left and the men on the right. After the service they stay and talk with each other (or as the Brits would she the boy were chatting up the girls).

Deaf Church Construction Aug 24

After the Deaf Service Pastor Ruth and I went over to look at the construction of the Deaf Church. Due to the help of the people of the USA and Denmark the construction has gone quicker than most churches here. Usually, church construction here is slowly progresses as money is raised by the congregation. Since, there is not an established congregation, the construction has been dependent on money from donors. This is an evangelism project. The theory is, “If we build it, They will come. “  We hope that the building will help Pastor Ruth create a new congregation and also be a cultural and informational center for the Deaf Community of northeast Nigeria.

Monday: This morning started with rain from around 7:30 until 10. After the rain, Regina gave me a tour of her garden. They had planned on just planting corn. Yakubu advised them to plant cash vegetable. They have a large patch of Okra and several patches of soup greens, peanuts, and melons. People come over and buy soup greens or orka fresh off the plant.

Yakubu stopped over at Noon to plan the next couple of days. Tuesday we drive to Numan and will use the LCCN Auto Workshop to attach the trailer hitch. I crawled under the truck and measured the frame. It appears to match the hitch. While at Numan we will meet with the Health Board staff to schedule meeting for the review of the Demsa Health Centre Inpatient Building Renovations. We will also look to schedule meeting with the Health Board Director and Accountant on developing the administration of the next phase of the water program.  With these items scheduled we will know when we will be available for trailer driving lessons and for training with the compressor for cleaning boreholes.

Deaf Church As Built Sketch with benches and Altar area added.

 It started raining again at 1:00. More of a heavy sprinkle to light rain. I updated my sketch of the Deaf Church on my laptop until the battery went dead. The sketch to the right I have added benches and an Altar and raised pulpit area,. I will prepare several variations of the Altar to present to the Building Committee for them to have an idea of the possible designs.

While waiting for Yakubu to pick me up to go to the money changer, I worked on the question list for the Demsa Health Centre design review. It was after 4:00 when we went to the money changer.  The exchange rate dropped one Naria to 168 naira/$. Last week it was 169. It was too late to go to the mobile phone store to buy a data bundle for the internet. The local shop only had 200 Naira recharge cards and I need 8,000 which is a lot more than he had. Etisalat is my provider mobile internet provider here. For phones I have an Airtel line and a Etisalat line.

This week the Lutheran Youth Fellowship is having a convention at the Cathedral every evening from 4 to 7. They will be running the generator so I will have power until 7 PM without having to run my generator. Tonight the power went out at 7:08. When power goes out the ceiling fan that blows the bugs away from me stops and my laptop screen attracts them all. I am sitting on my bed inside the mosquito net typing on battery power.

It stayed cloudy all day with off and on sprinkles. It should be a cool night to night. Could even drop below 70. At 8 PM the thermometer on my radio says 77. Glad I used a blanket as packing material in the box with the trailer hitch.

Tuesday

We left Yola at around 9 and drove to Numan to the LCCN Headquarters Compound. All the streams, ditches and rivers are flowing fast and brown. The flood waters from the Benue can be seen from the highway. The picture is a river that is I have never seen much water in. Mostly people digging sand into trucks, or digging holes that fill with water then they either fetch water or or wash their clothes. This is the same river I had in my April posting about our trips to Hosere Wandu. We drove across it without a bridge.
 http://jayinnigeria2014.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/water-project-hosere-wandu-april-5th.html

We stopped at the workshop and Yakubu explained to the workshop manager that we wanted the trailer hitch attached to the Hilux. He then walked to the headquarters building to conduct other business. I stayed and worked with the mechanics to attach the hitch. It took about 45 minutes for the hitch and wiring. One of the flanges on the hitch where the bumper re-attaches was slightly bent and needed on hit with the hammer. Otherwise it was a perfect fit. I am impressed with the design and simplicity of this Drawtite trailer hitch. After installing I drove over to the compressor and checked that all the lights work and the ball was a perfect match.

I greeted the Archbishop with Yakubu and then we met with the Fidelis the head of the Demsa Health Centre Renovation Committee. We arranged that we would meet the whole committee on Thursday and go over the plans for the Health Centre Renovation.  We decided that we will pick up the compressor on Thursday and move it to the Jimeta Mission Compound.

On the drive back to Numan I remarked on how clear I could see the mountains on the other side of the Benue River. During the dry season the air is dusty and you sometimes cannot see them. We stopped on the road and purchased some roasted corn from two girls to eat as we drove on to Yola.

In just three weeks I will start my long trip home. This is the shortest trip I have made here in the last seven years.

I almost forgot. I fixed the antenna on my shortwave radio. Now I can receive the BBC and Voice of America. Before the short antenna limited my reception. I got a lot of Chinese, Korean and various African language stations. The Chinese and Koreans broadcast in English. It is interesting to hear a different perspective on the world news. The Chinese station follows the party line.

Arrived in Yola After 4 days of Travel

The plan almost worked.  The plan was to book my flight to Abuja, Nigeria on Ethiopian Airline (United express to Washington DC) and overnight in Washington, DC where I can visit my Granddaughter. The Ethiopian connection through Addis Ababa was scheduled to arrive in Abuja at 12:20 PM and the Arik Airline flight to Yola leaves at 2:20 PM.  The flights I have taken before through Europe have all arrived after 4 PM so I had to overnight in Abuja. I once made the connection on IRS airlines when their flight was running late. IRS is no longer flying in Nigeria. The Ethiopian/United tickets were $400 cheaper than flying through Europe. I did not book my ticket on Arik because I had not ever taken this route and I heard that immigration was doing health checks.  I did not want to miss the flight and then have to try to re-book.

The plan seemed sound except on this trip I will be traveling heavy. I had a Drawtite trailer hitch (with packaging it weighed 58 pounds) with me as over-sized luggage. United from Minneapolis to DC would not check my luggage through to Abuja because my layover in DC was more than 10 hours. So I ended up spending Tuesday night at Dulles airport with my luggage. The Ethiopian Air flight to Addis Ababa was a Boeing 777-300LR and new and comfortable airplane. Good food and service. They give you a sleeping mask, tooth brush and some socks.  

The transfer at Addis Ababa went smoothly; I even found a live electrical plug to recharge my computer. The flight to Abuja was a new Boeing 777-200. We arrived early in Abuja.

I had expected the immigration and customs to be slow. I was surprised that the health check was a form we filled out on the plane, that nobody read and a guy that took my temperature with remote thermometer. He just shined a light into the side of my head or on my ear from a couple feet away. It took less than a minute. Immigration lines were shorter for people without Nigerian passports. Customs wanted me to open the box and wanted to know how much it cost. I told him it cost $178 and I showed him a picture of the hitch. I said it is a big piece of steel than connects to a Hilux so we can tow a compressor and repair bad borehole. I told him I was working with a church to bring clean water to villages. He said “God bless you” and sent me on my way.

I arrived at the Arik ticket office at 12:30. The Governor of Taraba State had had a meeting with a large number of his staff members in Abuja. They had reserved all the seats on the Arik afternoon flight to Yola. While, I arrived at the Arik ticket counter with plenty of time, there were no tickets. I purchased a ticket for the Friday afternoon flight. I called Bishop Benjamin Fuduta and he arrange a room at the DRACC Guest House near the airport.  By taxi it is only a 15 minute ride.

The Arik flight has a limit of 20 KG (44 pounds) for you checked luggage. The box with the hitch was 26 KG and my suitcase was 21 KG. I moved as much of the heavy items (ball mount, ball, torque wrench and accessories) from my suitcase to my carry on. I was only 18 KG overweight and it cost me 9000 naira ($54). With the $200 excess luggage cost for the flights to Abuja the cost to transport the trailer hitch was $254 to Yola. This about the same as the cost of the hitch, ball mount, ball, electrical kit, and other accessories). This is still cheaper than the alternative methods of shipping we had found. 

When I went through security check at Abuja to get on the flight to Yola they x-rayed my carry-on and wanted to inspect it. When she saw the ball mount she told me it was too heavy that I would have to go back and check it in as luggage. I went into my story of just being a volunteer with the church to help bring clean water to villages and my over luggage was already checked and I might miss my flights. She finally, said “Go”. I took her “Go” to mean to go to my flight.

We arrived in Yola a little late. The box with the trailer hitch was last to be brought from the plane on a cart by itself. The new terminal building’s roof had been blown off in a storm. The baggage area was back outside. Fortunately, there was only a little sprinkle. Yakubu picked me up in the Land-Yota. 

Regina and her family had cleaned up the house and weeded the area in front of the house. Most to the sandy area around the house is now gardens.

We brought my luggage into the house and then went Luka’s Supermarket to get some drinking water, canned meats, oatmeal, breakfast cereal and other items to get me through the weekend. After we got back I realized I had no dish soap or chorine to wash the dishes. I will make a shopping list and walk to the local shops for the basics.

Regina and I fetched water on Saturday morning from the faucet by the pump house and I have a full barrel of water. The power situation is much improved. The church is hosting a youth convention and had their generator going until almost 8 last night. The power from the grid came on sometime after midnight and is still going at 11 AM. I may get ice in my little refrigerator.

Construction of the roof has started at the Deaf Church. I won’t see Pastor Ruth or the Vicar until Sunday. I will take some measurements and update the drawings of the floor levels from as designed to as built. 

Getting Ready to Return to Nigeria

On Tuesday morning August 19th, I will depart on the first leg of my longer than usual journey to Nigeria. Previously, I have flown Delta, KLM, Air France and Lufthansa to and from Nigeria. The flights have always arrived in the early evening and only once have I been able to catch a flight Abuja down to Yola the same day as I arrived in Abuja. This trip I am flying United to Washington D.C., Dulles Airport. Staying overnight and flying Ethiopian Airlines Wednesday to arrive Thurday morning in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. After a short layover I fly on to Abuja. The plan was to catch the late afternoon flight to Yola. However, it turns out that the late flight is scheduled to leave at 2:20 pm. I have less than 2 hours to go through immigration and customs and get my luggage over to the Domestic part of the terminal. Normally, this would be adequate. I have read that immigration is doing health checks on incoming passengers to check for Ebola symptoms. Customs may be curious about the over-sized box I am bringing with me.  It contains a DrawTite trailer hitch (It is called a tow bar in many parts of the world).

Global Health Ministries provided a trailer mounted air compressor to be y\used for cleaning a re-developing boreholes (drilled water wells). However, the Toyota Hilux truck they bought for the Pump Repair Team does not have a hitch. During my last trip we spent many hours trying to find a tow bar in Yola. Unlike Minnesota nobody have a boat that they trailer. There are no camping trailers and no trailer parks. There is no market for tow bars. We found that Toyota South Africa lists a tow bar as an accessory on its internet site but there is no information about the size or capacity.

We emailed and called the Abuja Toyota dealers and the Abuja Toyota parts distribution center and got no responses. A staff member of the Health Services Board visiting Abuja went to the dealer and they told him that they did not carry tow bars but it is "probably" available in Lagos. If it is available they can have it shipped to Abuja and we would have to drive to Abuja and they would install it. After over 4 months of looking, phoning, and emailing we gave up and I bought one over the internet from Etrailer. The first one that arrived was bent. The second only had a couple minor paint chips but it was poorly packaged. It was just in an over-sized box and have ripped through the box in several places. Adequate packaging for shipping on a truck but not for a plane trip. I wrapped it in bubble wrap and cardboard and packed it into the box with three layers of cardboard, foam panels and 7 small toy soccer balls as cushioning.

It will cost me an extra $200 to get it on the plane. United Airlines has told me that they will not check it through to Abuja because my layover in DC is more than 10 hours. I will have to get it at the United baggage in DC and see it Ethiopian Airlines will take it Tuesday evening for my Wednesday morning flight. If they take my luggage I will catch the Metro over to my son's house. If they do not take it, I get to spend a night in Dulles Airport with a trailer hitch.

I have brought along a torque wrench and the required sockets to install the tow bar on the Hilux. After it is installed I will be giving trailer driving and backing lessons and we will be testing the compressor on a couple of poorly functioning boreholes. It will not be hard to find a poorly functioning borehole. The majority of them were not properly installed, developed and need to be cleaned out.

My primary reason for this trip is to represent Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry during the final design of the Demsa Health Centre Upgrade and Renovations. In the picture below the building on the right is the outpatient building. It will get a new higher roof, upgraded electrical system, new plumbing, and ceiling fans. The building on the right have an addition added to it and will have wards for males and female patients, a maternity suite with two birthing rooms, and a surgical suite. The costs of the renovations and upgrades are going to be over a quarter million dollars. The funding is coming from the Minneapolis Area Synod Nigeria Health Care Campaign. They have a goal of $450,000 to of which Mount Calvary Lutheran of Excelsior has matched the first $200,000 that the synod has raised. This fund will go to several Health Care projects. These projects include the Demsa renovations, renovations and expansion of medical dispensaries, the Malaria prevention and treatment rpogram, expanding the Community Based Public Health Program, and funding the Water and Sanitation/Hygiene (WASH) Program. Most of my time on my last nine trips has been with developing the capability of the LCCN to operate its WASH Program. The compressor and trailer hitch are parts of that program.

 The other major project I will be working on while in Nigeria will be the construction of the LCCN's first church for the Deaf. Construction started just before my last trip. The foundation, floors and walls are complete. I will be making a wire transfer of $9,360 to the Deaf Church Construction account before I leave.  Along with what they have in their bank account, they should be enough to construct the roof. So far over $20,000 has been raised for this project from the United States and Denmark. I have coordinated grants totally $7,000 from the Mill Neck Foundation, the Mount Calvary Foundation, and the Evangelical Lutheran Deaf Association. Bread of Life Deaf Church has made two contributions and First Lutheran Church of Crystal had made two contributions. One member of Mount Calvary has donated $2,000 and a family donated $500. A Dioconal Minister who has traveled to Nigeria many times has raised $1,000 through her sales of products purchased from Women of Hope of Jos, Nigeria.  I have even had one ELCA Pastor donate. Most most of my brothers, sister, cousins in-laws, friend of relatives and a few Facebook friends have donated.

I will be updating this blog with pictures and other stories over the next month.