One day more in Nigeria.

I have come to the end of the trip and as usual all the work piles up at the end. I spent the last three days mostly working on a Power Point presentation for Pastor Ruth Ulea to use when goes to Germany and Denmark next week. I put it into my Drop Box. You can download the presentation at the following link.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rnpiik5ffelkb0c/Pastor%20Ruth%20Ulea%20Show.ppsx?dl=0

Tomorrow I will fly to Abuja and stay overnight. Then Wednesday I fly on Ethopian Airlines to Addis Ababa and on the Washington D.C. I am scheduled to have an overnight layover but instead I am going to stay in DC for awhile. My wife is flying in and we are staying at our son's house and playing with Sydney our granddaughter.

My trip had three purposes. Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry paid my airplane ticket. They needed someone to have a face to face discussion with the Demsa Health Centre Renovations Building Committee about the plans to renovate the Inpatient Building and add a surgical theater. That was a one day meeting and then a few days of reviewing the notes and writing up what was decided at the meeting. Pretty technical and boring stuff. Basically, the expansion for the surgical Theater will need to be a little bigger to make the flow of people, equipment and supplies work.

The second project was to carry a DrawTite trailer hitch for the Toyota Hilux truck, get it installed, teach some trailer backing lessons, train the water team on using the compressor for cleaning out boreholes. My previous posts have had pictures of my traveling with it. Thhitch fit perfect. Only had to hit one part with a hammer once. DrawTite made an excellent product and E-Trailer.com provide me great service. 

The backing lessons have not gone as well. Yakubu had an accident and he burned his right hand. With a manual transmission it is difficult to try to back up and not use your right hand.

We took the compressor out to the Fulani Centre at Bronnum Lutheran Seminary. We were told they had a broken borehole we could fix their pump and train on flushing the borehole with the compressor. Unfortunately, the pump was not on a borehole but was mounted on a hand dug well. We fixed their pump but did not get to use the compressor.

On Friday we went out to the village of Mabakaure on the road to Numan. They did have a borehole. I was deeper than we expected and to get the air jetting tool to the bottom we had to lower 15 feet of air hose down the casing.

The flushing went well but we had gotten a late start and could only flush for 90 minutes. The water repair team wanted to quit after only 30 minutes. The water blowing out of the borehole looked clean. But when you put the water in a bucket you it was still a little brown so we continued.

My last project was to continue working on the Deaf Church. The money for the roof was transferred the day before I left on the trip. When I arrived on Friday August 22nd they were already installing the rafters. By September 11th they had completed the roof. The roof came in under budget. There was enough money left to pay for the exterior steel doors and the aluminum casement windows.

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.

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.

Trip to Gorobi, March 25th

Click to go to Go Fund Me

Click to Enlarge

Gorobi is a relatively large community on a rise in a large mountain basin northwest of Jimeta. The town has two District churches located on either side of the rise. They report that they do not have a borehole in the town. They have the structure built for a water stand but no tanks. It was built back in the 1990’s or earlier. They have multiple hand dug wells which dry up or have low productivity in the dry season. They also have several low places where they dig down into or next to a dry stream bed to reach water.  We looked at 6 of the wells and two of the water holes. I had visited Gorobi in 2008 when I spent 10 weeks learning about Nigeria, the water needs and the people. Not much has changed. My 2008 visit was at the end of a long day of visiting villages and was fairly brief the visited the large waterhole near the community and a couple wells.

Yakubu Bulama, Ruben and I left a little later than we wanted to and drove to Mayo Belwa. There we dropped Ruben off to go and repair a pump in a nearby village. The town water committee chair met him and the road off on a motorbike. We continued on through Mayo Belwa, out of Adamawa State into Taraba State to the town of Zing. There we headed west on a dirt road for 25 minutes and back into Adamawa State to Gorobi. We met with most of the Water Committee that has been formed under a tree near the school. They had elected officers and members. The members include two women and two “youth”. In Nigeria, a Youth is anyone under 30. It is common that a community will only include male elders in their committees. The Water Program encourages the inclusion of women and youth.

They have taken as census to the number of families on each side of the town, about 200 on each side. Bulama has visited several times and the town has not made much progress. This was an improvement over previous visits. He went through the program with them again and emphasized that the next step is to have a geo-technical survey done by a geologist at a cost of 50,000 Naira. It is the community responsibility to pay for the survey. This will determine the next step in the project. With the census, community maps and the geotechnical survey date the Water Program can recommend various courses of action to help the community with water, sanitation and hygiene. It will be up to the community to determine what they want to do and how they want to pay for the work. Currently, the program requires that the community provide a minimum of 20 percent of the funding (not including the geotechnical survey).

After meeting under the trees near the school we all piled into the Water Truck and toured most of their water sources. Since we got a late start, I did not have a chance to wander about the town and look at the water sources they did not show us.

The first well was dug on the east side of the community near a seasonal stream. It was flooded and never cleaned out. It is now towards the end of the dry season. There normally not enough rainfall to effect the groundwater levels until June. Most of the wells had a little water at the bottom. They could all use cleanout and deepening.

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As we approached one well I saw these children resting in the shade of a mango tree. 

Click to Enlarge

As we got closer I noticed a pair of sandals in the branches.

A young man was enjoying the shade and breeze in the leaves.

The first water hole we looked at was south of Gogobi the same one I had seen in 2008. The hole is a little bigger now. I was there later in the dry season (May 9^th, 2008) and there were many more people at the water hole waiting their turn. The wells were almost all dry so this was their main water source. Today they are able to still fetch water from some of the wells. Since the water at the bottom of the wells are only a couple inches deep it takes a lot of skill and persistence to fill a container of water.

Water hole south of Gorobi

The last place we stopped was northwest of town about a kilometer. This was the former farm of the Gongola State Water Board Manager. It had a large water tank and the remains of several borehole. Gongola State has been split into Adamawa and Taraba States. I suspect that when the government approved the building of this large water supply it was for the people of Gorobi. It is approximately, 100 feet below the town in elevation and about 1 kilometer to the center of town. 

The chairman of the water committee said that he wanted to drill a new borehole and then pipe the water to the town. I tried to explain to him that it will take a big generator and big pumps to pump the water up the hill through a kilometer of pipes. There were some boys loading water jugs onto a push cart. I asked him how hard would it be for him or me to push the heavy cart to the top of the hill. We agreed that people our age could not do it. I told him it is the same for the pump. We need a powerful pump to push many carts of water up the hill every day. It would cost a lot of money for the pipes and a lot of money each month for the fuel.

 Today was a windy day here as the rainy season approaches the winds tend to pick up. I asked the chairman about the winds. He said they are strong today because of the storms building. I asked about other times. He said the winds are always blowing in this valley. Where they are located, the valley narrows and rises. The valley is a break through the mountains that the river flows through. This area could be a candidate for having a small scale solar – wind combination system.  Could be an interesting project.

We headed back to Mayo Belwa and stopped for a late lunch or early dinner at Twin Sisters’ Restaurant. This is a small place with 4 tables inside and 4 tables outside. This is the third or fourth time I have eaten here. Today they had pounded corn and a soup (sauce) made from pounded melon seeds with two small pieces of meat (Beef most likely, I do not ask.)

After lunch/dinner we got back to Jimeta about the same time Rubin was getting back. The pump he had repaired was only two months old and the seals were worn out. He said there was not signs of sediment and that he had tested the pump before they had installed it two months ago. I he says it was new. The sellers of pumps here are not trustworthy or not knowledgeable in their product. I suspect the former. There are a lot of pump cylinders here that have been cleaned and re-painted. The seals may work well when you test it in a bucket of water but when you inspect them closely the seals are old and worn. In this village they pump on the one borehole from before sunup to after midnight. Good seals will need to be replaced every year or sooner with this heavy of use.

Later in the week I check Google Earth and there are possibly three separate shallow water table around Gorobi. I suspect the highest on is to the south of town.   There is a seasonal stream that has a relatively large catchment area to the south. The stream flow to the west when it encounters the hill that Gorobi is on.  Southwest of Gorobi there appears to be a natural restriction between the hill to the southwest and the hill that Gorobi sits on. You can never be sure what is occurring underground but this restriction may caused a natural underground lake.

The Twin

The seasonal stream to the east of Gorobi appears to be 20 to 30 feet lower than the seasonal stream to the south. After this restriction the stream flows to the north and west and goes the water hole where the abandoned farm is. This area appears to be almost a hundred feet lower than the area south of town. Google Earth’s elevation data is not very accurate. It estimates that the water hole to the south is only 10 feet lower than the center of the town. I would guess it is closer to 30 or 40 feet.  If I am still here when they do the geotechnical survey and I am able to go along I will take my GPS with a barometer and take some elevations readings based on air pressure difference. If they are taken within a few minutes of each other the estimated elevation difference is fairly accurate. My new Nikon has both a GPS and a barometer in it. The GPS locations are recorded with the pictures but the barometric pressure is not.

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.