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.
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