I have been staying in this house for the past three trips. It gets a little more habitable each time but also less structurally sound. The lack of electricity made cooking a little hard. The little 950 watt generator I bought last year is not strong enough to run the 1200 watt countertop oven. It main purpose is the little fridge, ceiling fan and the computer in the living room. The house is connected to the Cathedral power grid. They have two generators for when the national power is out and they have need of electricity. In past years the power has been out most of the time. Last year it was on about 4 hours per day, usually coming on at 2AM. I would get up and boil some water and put it in a thermos for hot tea and oatmeal in the morning. Last year I bought a little one burner stove to heat water and cook on. I have not gone to by cooking gas yet.
We got the house reconnected to the power on Saturday and have had almost continuous power. National power went out for a while but the Cathedral turned on their generator for the two services today. They shut down their generator at around 1 PM and the national power came back on at 8 PM.
The morning showers have always been a chilling experience. Not too bad when in March and April when overnight temperatures are in the 90's. Currently, we have cool weather with a mild Hamattan. Enough dust in the sky to keep the temperature down but not enough to stop the planes. Thursday was the worst. It was a brown haze day that you could taste the air and the shadows were not very distinct. Today is very light. I could probably heat water in my solar box. Back to the morning cold shower. This morning I got up and boiled a pot of water for tea and oat meal and poured the rest in a bucket added cold water from the barrels and had a warm shower. I could have had warm showers all last year with the propane burner. I just did not think of it until this morning.
For those of you who have not seen my previous blogs I have included a pictures of the old missionary house. If you click on the picture or for some people double click they will get larger. Built in around 1950 of mud brick. The concrete that used to plaster the sides has mostly fallen off, the rafters are rotting and there are signs that termites have made their way up to the rafters. The roof leaks and water is washing away the mud brick in a few places. In the kitchen, the sink is not connected to the outside anymore. If I use it I have to put a tub under it to catch the water. I mostly use the blue tub in the picture as a sink and then when the water is dirty I store the dirty water to use to flush the toilet. The large refrigerator does not work. The light on top of the refrigerator is hooked to the power line before the Generator cut-off switch. It comes on whenever there is power and I can shutdown my generator. The bedroom is just two beds. I moved a little round table and a chair it there from the living room. I use the refrigerator box for an end table by the other chair in the living room. I have the net up over one bed and my suitcases on the other. It is a spartan existence but I am only here for a few months at at time. I did not show the bathroom. There is no running water just two barrels. It cost about 87 cents to fill the two barrels and bucket when I by water from a water pushcart vendor. The water point is just over the wall from where I took the picture of the house. Unfortunately, the only unlocked gate is at the opposite corner of the compound and uphill from here. The vendor has to push his cart with 13 jerry cans of 20 liters each (572 pounds of water) up the hill and back down to the house. I am less than 100 meters from where he starts and he probably travels 600 to 700 meters to get here. For 87 cents.
Went to English service at the Cathedral today. I got an obstructed view seat. There was a large post between me and the Pulpit and another post with fans mounted on it between me and the video screen. They announced last week's service attendance at 3670. That was the monthly combined service with communion. After I went forward for the first offering I went to the Deaf Centre in time to catch the end of their service and their offering. Today they had 11 people at their service. When the Deaf Service was over the Cathedral was just finishing the second offering and starting the closing prayers. I got back to the Cathedral to greet a few friends as they left the service.
James from the deaf center stopped over this afternoon to ask the definition of a word he had received in a text message. We spent the afternoon together writing out messages and him teaching me a little more sign. ASL was brought to Africa in the 1960's by a Deaf African American professor. Dr. Andrew Jackson Foster. It appears that the form of ASL he brought was signed English rather than the native language of the American Deaf. This is used in schools and colleges in the US because they are taught in English. Signed English uses all the same words as English with the same grammar and sentence structure. English words that do not have an ASL sign are finger spelled. In technical fields there is a lot of finger spelling. ASL signs can convey the complete concept in a single or a few signs while signed English will add the signs needed to make the sentence grammatically correct. "Throw the blue ball to me." Is six signs in exact English. In ASL it would be "Ball-blue-throw" and you would be prepared to catch. The person would know that you wanted him to throw the blue ball to you. The word the has no meaning or use in ASL. For a person like me who is grammatically challenged I was hoping to avoid the complex grammar of English. But not here. The simplest example is the I and Me. In English and signed English these are two different signs or words with a bunch of rules on when to use which one. As I understand ASL I and me are the same sign you point to yourself.
Enough blogging for tonight. Tomorrow will the first work day. I think we are driving to Maya Belwa. It is dependent on if the truck is working better. Yakubu was going to take it to the mechanic Saturday evening. It has been hard to start and is blowing a lot of black smoke. If it makes it to Maya Belwa and back we will risk a longer journey to Pella on Wednesday. I have to apply for the renewal of my driver's license sometime this week.
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