HIV/AIDS Development Fund, Widows Self Help Training

Today was an interesting day. Extra food continues this week. I will probably put on weight this week. Sunday after the Ordination Ceremony I attended two receptions and had take home food for a couple of day. Tuesday Yakubu was hungry so we stopped at Friendship Cottage Guesthouse for a large plate of spaghetti and fish. Wednesday Pastor Ruth wanted to out to eat so we went to Tastey Menu and I had a big plate of rice and Spanish Chicken. This evening I went out to see what the Widows Self Help group was learning and they were baking corn cakes in a charcoal oven and frying donuts in a pan of peanut oil over a wood fire. (What I call 3 rocks and a pot cooking.) Their training is organized by Devine Comforter's Ministires Intl.

Widows in Nigeria and many other African countries have difficult lifes.  Many tribes to not allow the widows to inherit their husbands estate. Many had never been trained for earning money but only for the life as a wife. Life as an African Women is hard. Go out early to collect fire wood and water. Cook pound some corn or other grain to make a porridge for breakfast. Swipe the sand in their compound and start lunch, wash clothes, help with the planting, etc,.

When a man looses his wife he usually remarries. But widows are not seen as someone to marry. Also many of the widows lost their husbands to HIV/AIDS and themselves have HIV/AIDS.

They are here behind my house. I stopped over to see what they were doing and got to sample their donuts and corn cake. The charcoal stove is hard to regulate the heat and they used too much charcoal. The outside of the corn cake was a "burnt offering". The corn cake is very much like cornbread you get Alabama but a little sweeter and firmer.  The organization is going to donate 10 charcoal stoves to the widows in Northeast Nigeria. Each stove is just under $100 (15,000 Naira). This is a lot on money for these women.The training includes soap making, jewelry making,  cooking and money management.   But when you are worried about where the money will come from to buy food tomorrow, it is hard to think about saving a few Naira to help you make more money in the future.

We discussed the concept used by Heifer Project with animals and farming. That a group 15 to 20 of women would get organized as an association. The would decide who will get the first 5 stoves based on who was most ready operate a baking business. The other women would know who will be 6th and 7th and so on. When the first 5 pay back enough to buy another stove the 6th person gets a stove. When the first six pay back another $100 then the 7th stove is bought. All the women in line for a stove are watching the others and making sure they are paying back the loans and not out buying new wrappers. They were interested in the idea.

The organizers and I were talking and I mentioned my solar cooker. They said the poor widows could not afford a cooker. So I showed them my cooker made from waste boxes and aluminum foil. Tomorrow I will have to put it out and heat up some ramin soup.

Tomorrow they will be making soap. I have never seen the process, except on TV. The Spring of Hope HIV/AIDS Support Group was trained last year but have not been able to raise the money to buy the equipment. They asked me to find them $400 in America. I offered to arrange a Development Loan the Spring of Hope but the women that were doing the soap project wanted a gift that they do not have to repay. I told them that they did not want to start a business they just wanted charity.

Farah James the Director of Spring of Hope told me that they have a development fund that is a rotating loan fund but it is too small for the soap project. They have collected Naira in small bills from members of the group and those who contribute can submit a proposal to a committee to get a loan. If the committee agrees that it is a sound proposal and the member is in good standing then the money is loaned.

 The LCCN Deaf Centre is also talking about starting a development loan fund. So I suggested that Farah get with Pastor Ruth to explain how their fund works. The amount of money is small so they cannot keep it in a bank account. The banks here charge fees for everything you do in your account. You can easily use up much of your money in fees if you only have a few thousand Naira. They have a locked box. The box is in Farah's possession as the custodian of the money. Three other people have the three keys for the three padlocks. To get any money out you need all four people to be present.

Most of my day today I was either working on Yakubu's Visa Application or drawing illustrations for the pump repair class we will have before I leave. Going out to talk with the widows, Farah and getting some free food made for nice breaks in my day.  Drawing in a 95 degree room is a challenge to keep the sweat off of your paper. I bought a student drawing board, a tee-square, and a set of triangles. Now to remember back to my drafting class from 1972. At home I would just do it on CADD and take it to Kinko's to print on their large format printer. This is my sketch to show that the underground geology in this area can be complex and not like the simple drawings in the Lifewater manual we will be using for our class.

It is already past 11 PM and I have probably used more than half a tank of fuel in my little generator. Time to shut down the electricity and hope the Power Holding Company turns on the power tonight so I can sleep under a running ceiling fan.

Drivers License, Deaf Centre and other things

The last few days have been interesting. Sunday was the ordination of two of my friends. Pastor Ruth Ulea is now the first and only Deaf pastor in the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria and Pastor Adama Isa Raymond is going to be an instructor at Bronnum Lutheran Seminary. Adama spent two years at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. At end of her first year she came home and got married. Nine months later her daughter was born in St. Paul. While she is a Minnesotan and has a US Passport she still does not want to get too close to that Batura (White Man).

After the ordination I got in the borrowed Toyota Land Cruiser, Prado and headed for Jimeta with two members of the local Deaf congregation. This is the first time I have called it a congregation. Since there was no pastor I had been referring to Sunday Services at the LCCN Deaf Centre. Now I think I can call it a congregation. The Prado is Yakubu's mechanics car. What a piece Junk. At 60 Km/hr it just about shakes off the road. The brakes are soft and the tires bald and hard. Whenever you brake softly or make and easy turn the wheels squeal like you are pushing it to the limits. The three second rule is more like 6 seconds. But if you have a 6 second gap here it will be filled up with cars immediately. The transmission has to be double clutched for most gears and first has to be jambed in. The radiator cap is missing the internal parts so when the engine heats up the water just boils away. I now carry water with me when I use it. For short trips around town it is ok. This morning I will run to the filling station for get fuel for my generator and a few liters for the Prado. We will probably be giving it back to the mechanic today or tomorrow. Maybe, if we keep it he will actually work on the Land-ota that he has had for over a year.

The past couple of days I should have been making drawings for the pump repair class but instead I have been making a drawing of possible patio modifications for the Deaf Centre to make it a better place to hold services and better as a school.This is just a concept to get conversations started. To the immediate left (west) of the center is a public school pit latrine. The smell is not good. They had proposed a wall to block the smell a little, a new higher and more pitched roof over the existing patio and a gutter system for the existing roof.

I took this a few step further and made a storage room on the west end. I extended the patio to the east end of the building and excavated the east half to make stadium style seating. There are only three levels and they are wide enough for benches and desks for school or two rows of benches on each level for services. Foru services this is about 50% more seating. Currently, the Pastor stand in front of people who are seated on benches at the same level. To read her sign they have to always be looking up. This makes for sore necks. The wall on the east end is to block the morning sun during services. High contrast lighting is also hard for reading sign. Black boards can be installed on both walls for outdoor classes. The roof overlaps the existing building roof and a large gutter is added to the existing roof to take the water to the west and into the existing stormwater culvert. I just thought of one more improvement as I was writing.

Yesterday I drove to the Federal Road Safety Office to get my eyes tested, photographed and digital fingerprints taken for my Drivers License Renewal. The system in concept is good but the implementation is bad. You first go to the internet to start your renewal. They have entered all the old drivers licenses in the system and you just add the new information they are asking for. Then you go to the bank and pay your fee. Take the application and the fee receipt to the Federal Road Safety Office where they verify your information, do the biometric data, and issue you a 60 day temporary renewal. Then in 60 days you go back to the office and pick up your permanent license. That is the concept. The reality is that the website had my name as Edward Johnson Jay. Yakubu's name was Linus Bulama Yakubu and his birthday was also wrong. You cannot change your name or birthday online and once you pay you cannot change it at all. The online instructions is to go the office and they will make changes. I tried to do this but they did not understand and they went online and made me a new application and printed it out for me. I did have one advantage, I went to the head of the queue as a Batura. They printed out a new application for me and I went to the bank and returned. They told me they would process it and to return tomorrow. Of course I was not going to be available so I actually returned a week later. I then went back. I had been approved. The gave me papers to to the next office where the manager, initialed it and sent me back to the first office for the eye test. It is similar to the device we use in Minnesota except it has road signs at the bottom. I could not read any of the characters at the top but they asked about the signs which I could easily read. They gave me an 80% and sent back to the second office. Here he approved again and sent back to the first office to get picture, finger prints and they issued the 60 day renewal. When I leave here in 3 weeks I will give Yakubu my 60 Day license and a letter requesting that he can pick up my permanent license. I did not have to pay anymore than what I deposited at the bank. Three years ago I had to pay cash at the office and had to add an extra 1500 Naira to pay the driving tester not to give me a driving test. This was not my choice. It is what the manager said the extra 1500 was for.

Yakubu was with me at the office to renew his license. The internet network was down so they could not go online and change his information. He will have to return again.

We had the plans for the Demsa Health Clinic Improvements and our next stop was to give them to an estimator to see if his construction costs will be as high as the estimate we got from the Architect that designed the buildings. Yakubu was talking to him as we were driving towards his office. He was out and would return in 30 minutes. About that time we were passing Frieneship Cottage Guest House and Yakubu said we should have lunch there. They have good food but are slow. I got to the Police Barracks Round-About and went all the way around at headed back to the Guest House. Then Yakubu told me we would have lunch after the meeting. But since we were here he would call the man and tell him we would be and hour. When we went into the Guest House Bishop Ben was just signing into a room and the man we were to meet was having lunch in the restaurant. Yakubu explained the project and gave him the plans and Bishop Ben joined us for lunch. He had just been to my house looking for me and to Yakubu's office. Instead we enjoyed the air conditioning and a plate of spaghetti (spicy) and fish. We think they had to go to the river and catch the fish.

Today, I will drive to get fuel for and start drawing illustrations for the pump repair class. At 4 we have a meeting with the Deaf Centre and the Cathedral. With Pastor Ruth now having a call from the Cathedral and the LCCN Deaf Centre under the LCCN Headquaters we have some questions. Some people think that the Diocese will take over responsibility for the Deaf Centre and some do not. Church politics and get messy. Simple things can have complicated relationships.

Annual Convention

The past week we have not traveled to any water project areas. Monday and Tuesday was the annual pastors conference at Demsa Church. Wednesday through Sunday was the Annual Lutheran Church of Christ Convention. The church has a permanent convention grounds at Demsa. On Tuesday I stopped at the Pastor Conference to take some pictures of the Bishops that the Minneapolis Synod wanted. On Wednesday I went to the opening day of the Convention, then did office work on Thursday and Friday. Trying to stay out of the dust that has settled in my sinuses. Saturday I returned to the conference for the Bazaar and Sunday I came for the Consecration of the new Shall Holma Bishop and ordination of new pastors.  I will try to be brief and mostly give you pictures. If you double click on the pictures they will be shown larger.

Pastor Conference

The Pastors Conference was held at LCCN Demsa 1. Demsa is a town and also a Local Government Area (Similar to our county but it is the lowest level of official government.) It is located near Numan where the LCCN Headquarters is located. (Numan is also an LGA). It is about a 45 minute drive from Yola/Jimeta the Adamawa State Capital. I stay in an house in Jimeta on an LCCN Compound adjacent to the Jimeta Cathedral.

Bishop Ben of Abuja and Bishop John of Gongola.

I noticed that the Bishops were in a back room with their feet in tubs of water some kind of electric belt around their mid sections, another wire connected to their wrist and their feet in a tub of water with a bubbling electrode. I asked if they were electrocuting bishops or was this a new form of feet washing. It turns out that there is a company here doing Quantum Magnetic Resonance Body Analysis. They charge 1,500 Naira ( $9.55).  You hold a little device in your hand that is connected to the analyzer. After a few minutes the computer prints out the analysis. Then you go and they connect you to the detoxifier where the electrodes cause the toxics in your bodies to come out into the water from your feet.

In the old church building there was three more Analyzers working the Pastors. The one page of a print out that I looked at, showed that the Pastor's Liver Fat levels were high, Lysine levels high, Left Ventricular Pump Power was low, Coronary Perfusion Pressure high, Small Intestine Absorption Coefficient low, Gall Bladder Functions were low, and the Brain Nerve - Memory Index was half of normal. This was page 2 of a three page report. I did not ask if the detoxify foot washing cost extra or was include. I got to stand on a scale and see my weight. I prefer the scale at the old church it showed that I have lost almost 10 pounds. To calibrate they Quantum Analyzer they take your weight and height.

When I went to the Convention these snake oil salesmen were there and making a lot of money. I had laughed at their sales pitch and they told me with a straight face that the computer is powerful and the data is real. The problem is that some people believe that this is real technology. Just like the people that believe what they read on the internet. (Like my blog.)

My main purpose of going to the Pastor Conference was to get pictures of the Bishops for the Minneapolis Area Synod Companion Congregation website. After we finished at the Conference Yakubu had books to take over to the Convention Grounds where the Annual Convention would start the next day.

Annual Convention

The picture on the right  was taken the day before the convention and the one below it from a similar position was taken the morning of the first day. People continue to arrive for on Wednesday and Thursday. By Thursday night the population of Demsa is more than doubled.  One of Yakubu's jobs is to work with publications of the church. At the Convention his van becomes a bookstore. His daughter is taking a couple days off of her University Study to help sell out the the back of the van.

The stage is the center of activities. To the right of the stage is the youth band tent that provides music during breaks and for the various hymns.






 One of the speakers on the first day of the convention was the Speaker of the House of Assembly for Adamawa State. I did not get a picture of him but did photograph his license plate. D SPEAKer.

Security was high for this event. The Boys Bridge had their older "boys" stationed around the main stage area and there was a cadre of young men and one young lady in black suits with ear pieces standing in front of the pastors and guest area. Two young men followed the Archbishop where ever he went. The all looked very stern and were probably very hot in their black suits and thankful when the sun moved to the west and their assigned positions became shaded. In addition there were Nigerian police walking about both in uniform and in civilian dress. When the Speaker and other high ranking officials came to the Convention they were accompanied by an escort of heavily armed police officers.



 

Behind the stage is the stadium style seating for pastors and guests. Four women for the Lutheran Deaf Church in Denmark. Lily a former missionary who speaks many languages and several sign languages including Danish, American, Ugandan and French sign is on the right. Pastor Lida Lotte Kjaer is on the other end. The two young ladies are from the Deaf Church. They have come to see the ordination of the first deaf pastor for the LCCN.




 To the right and both sides of the stage are temporary shade shelters are set up each year. View of the main stage is limited from the back of the shade structures but speaker are located so people can hear what is happening at the stage and open area in front of the stage.

One busy area is the Clinic which is set up located in a tin building behind the shade structures. There is a continuous line of people, mostly women coming to see the free doctor at the clinic. Many of the people coming to the conference are from remote villages which do not have any medical facilities.

On Sunday the main two events are the consecration of new bishops and the ordination of new pastors. The Archbishop presided over the Sunday morning service and had a long sermon which seemed to center on that Nigeria needs to stay together as one people and everyone respect each other and

Consecration of the new Shall Holma Diocese Bishop, Rt. Rev. Dimga Jones Kadabiyu.

The consecration of  started after the church service with the Todi Dicoese Bishop, Rt. Rev. Clement Dago introducing Rev. Kadabiyu and reviewing all his history, education and assignments. He was then asked a series of questions to which he answered "I will with the help of God." Next his wife came to the stage and she was asked a series of question to which she also answered "I will with the help of God." Then, the rest of the Bishops came up and assisted in placing on the Bishop Stole and other emblems of his office. Once fully clothed as a Bishop he knelt and the Bishops prayed over him to complete the Consecration. 

Rt. Rev. Kadabiyu was just finishing his first year in his Masters program at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria when his Diocese called him to be their Bishop. The former Bishop of the Yola Diocese was working on his PhD in South Africa when he was called. Bishop Kadabiyu will have a little easier time as his school is only a 5 or 6 hour drive away from his Diocese in Jos. It will still be hard to finish his program.



 Ordination of Pastors

The last event for Sunday Morning was the ordination of new pastors. Including Ruth Ulea the first Deaf pastor to be ordained in the LCCN. She competed Seminary 20 years ago and her ordination has been delayed until the church was ready. Of the 21 or so pastors being ordained three are women. Adama Isa Raymond shown in the back row completed her Masters at Lutheran Seminary in 2012. She will be called to be a teacher at Bronnum Lutheran Seminary. Ruth's call is from the Jimeta Cathedral Church as a pastor for the Deaf Community and to continue her work as the Director of the LCCN Deaf Centre.




The ordination was officiated by Archbishop Babba. He first explained that they were ordaining the first Deaf Pastor and that as he spoke Rev. PhD. Sakinwa Moses will interpret Hausa to English for the Pastor Lisa Lotte Kjaer or the Danish Deaf Church to interpret into Sign.

After his opening remarks the Archbishop then asked the pastor candidates a series of questions to which the responded "I will, with the help of God." The their spouses were summoned and asked that they will support their spouses in their ministries, with the same response. The Bishops came forward and placed pastors stoles on each pastor and then the many of the pastors from the crowd came forward and placed their hand on the new pastors and blessed them in their future work.

Pastors Ruth and Adama with their husbands

After the Ordination I drove back to Jimeta in a Toyota Prado that we have borrowed from the mechanic that is working of the various vehicles that Yakubu drives. What I did not know is that you have to stop every 50 kilometers and add water. The radiator cap does not have a pressure valve so the system is not pressurized and boils the water out as you drive. I was giving a Deaf couple who teaches at the Remi School for the disabled a ride back to Jimeta and over to Pastor Ruth's house for a reception. I stopped within sight of the gates to Jimeta at the last village. There a garlic tonic seller gave us water for the engine. After about an hour the engine had cooled and we refilled it with water and slowly drove on to Pastor Adama's house for her reception.


When I went to bring them some water, we had used all our drinking water in the radiator,  Pastor Adama's husband said no bring them into the reception. I was hoping for some cool water and maybe a little cake. Instead we were brought Malta drinks, water and a large plate of rice, salad and chicken. I tried to get a smaller plate of food the thought of giving a guest less food was not acceptable.

We drove on to Pastor Ruth's home at the Federal University of Technology of Yola. Her husband is the director of IT at the University and has staff housing. His career had gone from operating radio systems to overseeing the fiber optic network being installed at the University.

At Ruth's house they had tents set up outside on two sides of the house with family and friends. Inside were more people a mixture of deaf, family, pastors, university associates and friends. The brought us another large plate of rice, salad, chicken and fish. We tried to tell them we had eaten at Pastor Adama's but they wanted us to ear again. We agreed to take away food. My plate made my Monday night dinner and will also be my Tuesday dinner.

The group of women from the Danish Deaf Church arrived and presented presents from the from the Danish Church and their own. One of the women had been here before on one the the Interpreter training programs that have been financed by the Danish Lutheran Church.

Before leaving the deaf got together for a picture and asked me to join them. I take a lot of pictures and I am always telling people to smile. But when I am in the picture I find it hard to produce a smile.

The picture to the right did not fit into a the story line. The lady in the middle and her husband are parents to triplets. They were sitting on the front of the pastors and guest area after the ordination. I stopped and asked them about their children and then drew a crowd of people taking pictures. The triplets are two boys and a girl. They were really small.

The Pied Piper in Nigeria. February 14

Garaha Lar

Pastor House 10º 25.5009’N  012º 50.9226’E

Meeting Place 10º 24.4550’N  012º 50.8742’E

BH1   10º 24.3554’N  012º 50.8073’E

BH2   10º 24.5114’N  012º 50.8724’E

Well1   10º 24.5183’N  012º 50.8701’E

Well2   10º 24.4638’N  012º 50.8579’E

Today we are driving north for an initial meeting to introduce the WASH Protocols to the village leaders of  Garaha Lar in Arewa Diocese. Arewa is Hausa for North. Our guide for this trip in the Arewa Diosese the Rt. Rev. Amos Bukata. We met Bishop Amos in Hong and proceeded to Garaha Lar. The road was initially an improved dirt road with areas of wash outs.We turned onto a typical unimproved bush road for another ½ hour or so. On the way in we paused at a village and looked out at a Dispensary building that Arewa Diocese had renovated and will have an opening on March 30^th. Bishop Amos pointed out a bore hole with a hand pump. He said he thought the borehole was good but the pump was broken. I did not take a GPS reading or any pictures as we thought we would be coming back the same way and we would have time to stop. We took another route back.

We arrived at Garaha Lar and asked directions to the Pastor’s home. The Pastor is a senior pastor in the LCCN. I was surprised by how good his English is. Most rural village pastors have little opportunity to practice their English they learned in school and they preach in the local language. He has had many assignments over the years and has chosen to return to his home village. He told us that the community was 99% Christian. Also they had a new borehole drilled by a politician and like many politicians it did not work. 

While we sat in the shade on the porch of the Pastor’s office, Yakubu pointed to the children at the gate and on top of the wall trying to see the White Man. As I approached the gate to snap a picture some of the children disappeared and a few continued to watch me, ready to run.  When I came closer, those that stayed looked away like they were uninterested. When I turned the camera around and showed them the picture they all wanted to have their pictures snapped.

After the Pastor gave us Maltina drinks for refreshment, we walked to a central area of the village where the leaders and others had gathered under a large Neem tree. Bishop Amos gave a quick introduction. Yakubu introduced Adams and me and then explained that we were from the Medical Board Water Department representing the WASH program. The concept that he stressed was that the village must participate in the program and not be a passive receiver of a gift. The water is their water any borehole in their community is their borehole. They will be expected to organize and collect money to help pay for the borehole and continue to collect money to pay for its repair and eventual replacement. After he was through there were some questions and he tried to clarify his remarks. They did not seem satisfied with his clarification. Bishop Amos then spoke for a while, I believe in Kilba the local language of the area. At the conclusion of his remarks the people seemed satisfied. We thanked the people and started our tour with the new politician borehole. 

 

As we were driving to Garaha Lar, I had noticed that the hand pumps had tires attached to them. This is a Kilba tribal area and I have noticed that the Kilba are resourceful and community minded people. Most of the villages are clean and orderly. The plastic bags that litter many villages do not seem to be present in Kilba communities. The design of the India Mark II and III pump handle is such that it bangs against the bottom of the pump head. This eventually, causes damage to the handle or the pump head. The tire is placed to bounce the handle off the tire rather than the pump head.

This borehole was drilled by what Adams calls a “so called” driller. They do not care about getting water and do not understand the proper techniques of drilling and pump installation. The pump was installed in November. They had not cemented the pump stand into the ground. It is already loose. The driller did use a Down The Hole (DTH) hammer to drill in the bedrock. The say that the little water they did get out of the borehole was dirty. The driller had used mud rotary drilling to the bedrock and had not properly flushed the mud out or developed the borehole. This borehole is a candidate deepening with a small DTH hammer. The pump and pump stand can easily be removed and reused on this or a new borehole in the future. 

The difficulty with deepening a bedrock borehole is lining up a large drill rig over the existing hole. A 4 inch diameter borehole with a 3.5 inch bit does not leave much room for error. The large trucks and trailers used here are lined up with no precision. To maneuver and level the rig to ¼ inch precision would be difficult. The second problem is that they do not have DTH hammers and bits small enough to fit through the existing casing. The smallest I have seen here is 5 7/8 inch.

I have been considering this problem for the past few years and had been working in the concept of cable tool drilling that used a heavy bit that is repeatedly dropped to crush the rock. In the granite around here a cable tool would probably drill less than a meter per day. I have recently learned that Lone Star Drill is offering a option for a 3 inch DTH hammer with a 3.5 or 3.75 inch bit with its LS 200 Portable Drill Rig. This portable drill can be more easily aligned with a existing casing. Now I need to find an organization willing to finance a pilot project to purchase and ship the drill rig over to Yola, purchase a truck to transport the rig and purchase a compressor to operate the hammer. All together I am thinking the projects will cost between $100,000 and $120,000 for a one year pilot project. I hope my fellow Nebraska native Warren Buffet, who just bought Heinz and his friend Bill Gates might have a little pocket change for a project this.  I eat Heinz baked beans over here every week and like their canned vegetable salad when I can find it.

 

When the children saw me taking a picture of the hand dug well they decided to give me some perspective. The children following me are multiplying and want to be in every picture. 

After visiting two of the hand dug wells, we went to the other politician borehole. It was also drilled to bed rock and stopped. This driller cleaned the drilling mud out of the hole before installing the screens, casing and the hand pump. The pump appears solidly installed and the borehole produces clear water. Unfortunately most of the water is probably in the weathered bedrock below the level of the pump. After pumping a short time the casing runs dry and they have to stop pumping and wait for the water to re-fill the casing. By the end of the dry season (May or June) it will get worse and worse until they get no water at all. The second problem is that the rod catches on something on the upper part of down stroke. This could indicate several things. The borehole is not vertical, the pump stand is not centered over the borehole, the operating rod joint are catching on the riser pipe joints or there is a problem with the pump head.  If a pump is properly installed the operating rod joints are a minimum of 6 inches above the riser pipe joints. We won’t know what is causing the problem until the pump is removed from the borehole. This pump is also a candidate for deepening but the pump stand is solidly installed and would be difficult to remove without a jack hammer. 

After seeing the second borehole we headed back to the meeting area and the crowd of children had grown.

I stopped under the big Neem tree and sampled some ground nut (peanuts) some women were shelling and purchased what they call pancakes for the ride back to Hong. They taste like pancakes but are greasier and more like large donut holes. I asked for 5 at 20 naira a piece and gave her a 100 naira bill. She put in five and started to give me the bag and then started adding more. I still had three left when we got home.

On our way to Hong we stopped at Wazhimamyi (10º 23.7737’N  012º 56.4102’E). Wazhimanyi is the home village of one of the LCCN Accountants, they have submitted a request a future water project to the Medical Board but had by passed the Bishop. We stopped and the Bishop and Yakubu discussed the project and Yakubu gave the proposal to Bishop Amos to be reviewed by their staff.

Next we stopped at the second Dispensary that the Arewa Diocese has renovated and looked at their well. It needs to be cleaned out and covered with a hand pump installed to keep the water clean. Even with a cover the water should be boiled or filtered before drinking. Household biosand filters would be an appropriate technology here. The problem with biosand filters are the initial cost of the filters. 

As I have said in past blogs. Rural farmers' first priority is to have enough water to live. Their second priority is to the water source close to home so that the time spent fetching water is minimized. Their third priority is having the water clean. Most villages are at the first or second priority stage in their development. More education on Sanitation and Hygiene are needed to move them on to water quality. 

After leaving the dispensary site we noticed a large flock of birds had been spooked out of two large trees. I looked again and realized they were bats. There are no large caves in this area. Bats sleep in the trees.

Clicking on the pictures will make them larger.

 

February 12th, Todi Diocese School and back to Ngbekendiwa

Today's trip was an initial visit to the Todi Diocese to visit their new school site which is has no water source and the fourth trip to Ngbekendiwa ti see how the community is coming at getting organized.

The school is located on the Todi Diocese Secretariat site near Beli. The Secretariat building is a little less than a kilometer from the Numan to Jalingo Road down an unimproved bush road.  The road from Numan to Beli is one of the worst roads in Adamawa State. The 31 kilometer trip takes almost and hour of pot hole dodging. There are lot of signs for the Federal Road Maintenance Agency but not sign of any work being done.

The facility is located on a large plot of land with the Secretariat building at the top of a hill. The three room school building is located about 200 meter from the Secretariat building and 400 meters from the only borehole in the area. When the Secretariat building was built in the late 1990's they had a borehole drilled to a reported depth of 100 meters without hitting water. Or it could be 100 feet and they hit water but never installed any casing. It depends on who you are talking to. I prefer the report from the Archbishop who was the Todi Bishop at the time, that they did not hit water. It could as easily had been drilled to 100 feet. They use both systems here and many times the wrong one is reported. Either is possible here on top of the hill. In 2008 we uncovered the old borehole and found that it had collapsed about 30 feet down.  The Adamawa geological map shows this area as Feldpathic Limestone. The school is not significantly lower than the Secretariat. The borehole is somewhere between 10 and 15 meters lower than school. The general slop is the north towards the Benue and to the west. 

We met with the School Principal and the new Todi Diocese Bishop the Rt. Rev. Clement Dogo. The Principal had contacted the LCCN Medical Board Water Department directly. Yakubu explained that the Water Department WASH program was designed to help communities and that funding was mostly reserved for communities. If a Diocese wants a borehole they are responsible for their own funding. Yakubu can contact various foreign funders but the majority are not doing Church Infrastructure at this time. Yakubu explained that they do not do any work without first having a geo-technical survey performed that would cost 50,000 Naira. The Principal and Bishop told us that they wanted a motorized borehole with an overhead tank. That in the future they plan to build staff housing with water for the staff, the secretariat and the school. They called us back on Wednesday and said they have the 50,000 ready and they want the geologist to come out for the geo-physical survery.

On our way back to the highway we stopped to see the borehole that is on the Diocese property and down hill from the school. The hand pump requires two people to operate it. The staff at the secretariat said they had fixed it several time but they do not use it so they did not know that it was broken. Mostly the local people use the borehole. The staff has tried to get the local people to help pay for the maintenance but they have refused. The indications are that the riser main has come loose and is hanging on the operating rod. What is amazing is that it still pumps a little water. Two people have to pump for a half an hour to get a little flow of water. I suspect the pipe is loose at the connection to the tank and on the down stroke of the handle the full pipe splashed a little water into the pump tank.

Next we headed a short distance down the terrible road and then headed north and east through bush roads that were better than the Federal highway to Ngbekendiwe.

Ngbekendiwe and the former Todi Bishop requested assistance from the WASH Program in 2011. The government and various politicians had drilled 4 or more boreholes in the community and none of them have ever worked.  In 2012 I visited with Yakubu and Adams to see the progress they had made towards organizing the community. They had raised an little money and were working on getting a Certificate of Recognition as a social cooperative in order to open a bank account. 

We met with the Lutheran Pastor, the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) Pastor, members of the committee that was formed in 2011 and a ram behind the Lutheran church. This year they have the Certificate and a little money in the account. Since they want to have a borehole with a solar powered pump, overhead tank and a small distribution system they have to raise a lot more money to meet the criteria of a 10% contribution. A 10% contribution is minimal contribution for a village of this size. In the same amount of time they have raised 50,000 Naira a smaller more rural village raised over 300,000 Naira. Most of the households could easily afford to contribute but they do not see why they should. All the other boreholes were free and did not produce any water. Why should they pay for a borehole that will not produce any water. One man in town had one point surveyed by a geologist and did not find an indication of water. The do not want to contribute to an effort they do not think will work. The Lutheran Pastor who had been working to get this process moving for two years spoke at length with the conclusion that after two years they had not made enough progress they should not continue. The COCIN Pastor argued for some additional time. In the end they agreed on waiting until the end of the month and before making a decision.