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.

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.

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.

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

Click to Enlarge

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.

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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.