Pictures From This Week March 19 to 26

This week has been a week of setting up the house and a lot of walking. I have walked to the Market most days.

The Harmattan dust has gotten light enough for me to use the sun. My 2011 solar cooker was still in the house. I brewed a liter and a half of tea while I fixed, washed and sun dried some cylinders for the India Mark II hand pumps.

Reconstruction continues at the Cathedral. They are about finished with the new ceiling tiles, then the electrical. The main setback is the new windows. They want to be able to have Easter service in the Cathedral. They can finish most things but the windows. We will see in less than two weeks.

The brass and percussion sections of the Boys & Girls Brigade Band continues to practice at the side and  back of my house. I tried to upload a video of the percussion section but is does not appear.

One morning on the way to shop I saw a bunch of kids playing in the pews. I gathered them up at the back pews for a picture. As I was about to take the picture the tall boy sees us, comes running up to get in the picture and yelled "Wait Grandpa". What I wish I could do is get a video of the kids looking at the picture in the camera.

 Sunday the Cathedral Bells started ringing at 6AM. The Boys Brigade post guards at the entrances and on the roof of the toilets from my point of view he is standing on the canopies. The Youth Band started singing greeting songs a little before 8 AM. The crowd moved in for the next hour. The service started around 8:15. This is a combined English & Hausa service. There will be little English. Also today representatives of the Christian Pilgrims Commission have come to talk about the Federal Government decision to stop paying for pilgrims. Last year over 20,000 Nigerian Christian Pilgrims went to the Holy Lands. They fill chartered planes for the trip. One person told me they thought the costs was something like $500 per person. Archbishop Babba who is a member of the Commission made the announcement. Being a pastor he took about 1/2 hour and being the funny person he is he had the crowd laughing. He encouraged the church to collect their own money and send some of the leaders or elders or pastors to the Holy Lands each year. My thoughts were to not support the people with the ability to support themselves but to send regular members and youth. The youth are the future of the church.

After the Commission the Yola Diocese Bishop installed the new District Pastor for the Jimeta District. Rev. Raymond Edwards. He is not the pastor at the Cathedral. The choir had a special song for the day and the Women's Fellowship had a song. The sermon started around 9:30 and Communion started around 10:15. Of the around 3500 people there many had left after the offering and maybe 2000 thousand were left for communion. The Pastor told them to be orderly and that not everyone can be first. So a majority jumped up into the aisles to get in line. They had several extra pastors present so they had three lines. I went back to the house for water and discovered that the power was on. I quickly plugged in all my electronics for recharging. Then went back to get in line. The service ended a little after 11 and so did the power.

On Saturday Yakubu, Teresa, the trainers from Kenya and I went to the market. I showed Yakubu the propane burner I wanted. He went to a vendor and got him down to 3500 naira. As of Saturday I had an empty propane burner. Monday Adams and I were to go to the Yola Diocese Bishop's new quarters to measure the depth of the water and depth of the borehole. Adams had to go to a government meeting on his pension. The government is trying to clear the roles of the deceased pensioners. The Diocese sent a bus (van) to pick me up. I got stuck in the sand  by the house. They gathered guards and everyone else and pushed it out.

Unfortunately, the diocese had not asked Yakubu and Adams to be involved with choosing the driller or making sure the borehole was properly drill. It was drilled on a slant and I had a hard time getting a weighted tape measure down to the water. We have no idea the depth of the borehole. Today (Tuesday) we are suppose to pump test the borehole. I think we may not be able to accomplish this until we find out how deep it is. On our way back, we stopped and a cooking gas peddlers shop and filled the tank. He saw me and said 2000 Naira. I told him we will go to the market and fill it for 1500. He took the tank and filled it. Then he asked for 200 more. I gave him 100 more and he was happy.

Cooked chicken noodles on the new stove. Last night and this morning I will have my first hot oat meal breakfast.

Power lasted this morning from 4:15 to 7:05 enough time to reduce the pictures, upload them and write this post. I am going to publish it unedited. I edited it Tuesday night. There were not too many typos I found.

March 22nd - LCCN Deaf Centre – Two people named Abdullahi

Earlier this week on my way to the market I stopped at the LCCN Deaf Centre to see if Ruth Ulea was there. The teacher who signed back that she was working off-site. I took this picture of the students, the teacher and a mother of one of the students.

Today Ruth and the teacher came over and I struggled to communicate with them. I only have two classes in ASL (over a year and a half ago) and the Nigeria ASL has been separate from the US ASL for many years. Like all languages this separation had created differences. Similar to the differences between Maine's version of English and Cajun English  in rural Louisiana. This is a natural progression of language. When I was stationed with the Brits in Bosnia we had the same problem. The General I worked for would say “two peoples separated by a common language.” It helps that Ruth speaks and can lip read English and Hausa. She lost her hearing as a teen.

After they left I realized I had forgotten the teacher’s name. I had met him last year when he was home from Jos University where he was studying Special Education. I went over to the Centre and asked him to write down his name. Ishaya Yakubu. Class was over for the day and there where three kids left to have their parents come get them. Ishaya told the youngest child to sign something to me. I did not know and figured he was signing his name. My comprehension of finger spelling is slower than this little guy was going. I need more practice. He kept going and going. I got lost after about 15 letters and the last letter was Z. He had done the alphabet. He is the center kid in the picture in the row closest to the camera. He has the odd smile trying to imitate me as I tried to get the kids to smile for the picture. Say Cheese does not work. He looks lighter than the other kids for two reasons. He was closer to the door but also he is Fulani. Fulani are more light skinned. His name is Abdullahi Adamu.

Abdullahi was born deaf and living with the Fulani who are nomadic herders.

March 20th the New Ultra Modern Market

The new Ultra Modern Market opened in Jimeta in 2009 or 2010. The police came in and moved all the vendors and their carts off of the street so both lanes were open to traffic. Last year this was working pretty good. But this year they have come back. Both sides of the street have been invaded by peddler carts. The center medium was made too wide and they have occupied it. This is Occupy Jimeta with capitalism. There are so many people selling the same thing it is a wonder anyone can make a living.

I have walked to the market almost every day this week to get this or that. The inside is row after row of shops and vendors. They seem to be clustered in areas but not necessarily. Finding things at the lowest possible price is the game here. I am not good at the game so I do not try to hard. If I take 1/2 and hour to save 100 Naira (63 cents) I figure I wasted my time. High quality products are expensive and usually deceptive on the quality.

Today (Thursday) I decided to get some more small notebooks, pens, a small cooking pan, and price some burners. With no electric power I have been eating cold food and would like to have a propane burner. The medium sized one is 4000 Naira ($25.47). To fill the propane tank is another 1500 Naria. That will give me one burner for the rest of my stay. I had been looking at an electric hot plate but they are around 2500 Naira and require electricity. I have an immersion heater and a small electric oven I fixed last year.

I walked around the market and ended up at the meat market on the west end. I only by canned meat. I shot a short video at the meat market. Outside in the street is the other meat market that is shown in the pictures.

March 19th - Adip Hotel to the House

On Sunday I overslept and missed church services. The hotel is a short walk to Redeemer Lutheran. Early in the afternoon we found out that the trainers from Kenya have been delayed again. They had flown from Lagos to Abuja but because of the Harmattan dust cloud over Yola the planes were not flying in. They were sitting waiting for news at the domestic airport in Abuja. The news was bad. The flight was cancelled. Teresa contacted Bishop Benjamin. He arranged for them to be lodged at the Catholic Guest House near the airport. The current plan is that he will rearrange his schedule and drive to Yola on Monday with the trainers. If he cannot do this he will pay for a bus ride to Yola. He was coming to speak at the Gongola Diocese annual convention later in the week in Guyuk. If he drives them here, he will be a day early. The week long training has now been compressed to 4 days. Teresa and others called all the students who were not already on the road to come Monday afternoon instead of Sunday. Since they do not need the room I decided to stay another night. 

It is now noon on Monday and we have not heard if the trainers are on their way. It is a long drive from Abuja. We are assuming that they are on the road somewhere.

Yakubu on left, resting.

Market at one of the kitchen shops

 Yakubu came mid afternoon on Monday and picked up Teresa and me to buy 30 cases of water for conference and to take me over to the house. We also stopped at the Jimeta market for Teresa to buy some pots and pans. Numan is a small town with limited shopping. We got to the house around 4:30. 

Teresa & Yakubuat a bedding shop

The Women’s Fellowship is practicing songs on the front porch. My front and back porches are favorite gathering places. There still was no water in the barrels. But the water sellers were still working at the borehole just outside the compound. We yelled to them to bring a cart of water. The house was cleaner than in past years but with the Harmattan dust it was still needed some work. I cleaned for a while and then decided check my food stores and walk to the store before it got too dark. The cans of vegetable salad I left here last year does not expire until this month. The nearby stores did not have dish soap so I walked about a mile to a Micoh Supermarket. A store of about 200 square feet inside and some outside storage of large items.

On the way back I stopped to buy some hard boiled eggs from a lady the peddles food outside the Specialist Hospital. She is one of around 20 peddlers selling to people who have family or friends in the hospital. She wanted to know what I brought her from America. She has been kidding me about taking to America for a couple of years. I keep tell her that my wife said I could not bring women home. She says I need two wives.

Back at the house I get out the IKEA solar light I brought along. Good thing I charged the battery. This year there is less power. The church had a fire and they hope to have repairs completed in time for Easter Sunday service. They had to replace the roof, all the ceiling tiles and the electrical system. These were all things that needed to be done but they were not bad enough to spend the money on. The fire is believed to been caused by a fault in the electrical system. When they are finished It will look like a new church inside.

Until the church is back running they will not be using their generator. I will be dependent on the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (NEPA). I washed all the dishes, rinsed them in a weak chlorine solution and set up the mosquito net, took my first cold shower and went to bed.

March 17th - Jos to Yola - What is in that box?

Today there is only one goal. To get from Jos to Yola. Pastor Ansom picked up at 6:30 sharp. He checked my out of the lodge and took me to the bus park where I got in a bus (15 seat van) of the Adamawa Sunshine Transportation Company. The first clue there could be problems was when they push started the bus. It kept running but the shifting was difficult for the driver. Unfortunately, with the pot holes and many check points the transmission has to be shifted often as we slow or stop and accelerate back through the gears. At each checkpoint I peer out from behind the large box I am taking along with me. The policeman or soldier looks a little surprised to is a white man on public transportation. Then they ask what is in the box. I explain it is donated items from America and show them the TSA seals on the box. Sometime the driver says clothes. One soldier wanted to see documents. I should him a letter I had prepared that explained what was in the box and where they were going. He noticed my slogan “The CIA that is helping people.” and asked if I worked for them pointing to the CIA and smiling. I smiled and said yes. He laughed and waved us through. 

When we got to the middle of Bauchi at the military check point just in front of the Peoples Democratic Party zonal headquarters the gear box gave a bang and the gear shifter was no longer doing anything. The engine shut down and the conductor jumped out to get some men the help push start the bus. The driver tried to jam it into gear but nothing was happening. They pushed us to the curb. Now here we sit in front of the main political party zonal headquarters, just beyond their entrance road. People were gathering for a big meeting with to head of the party scheduled to arrive. My big box in the window of the bus. Security was not happy. The driver called a mechanic. I could hear him sawing and hammering under the bus. The puddle of transmission grease in the street told me this van was not going to move.  Finally, they told us to push it back beyond the entrance to the PDP building. People were arriving by the car load and the line to get through security was out to our bus.  Here we set with a bus full of bags and my large box. After about an hour and a half they called for another bus. Soon a truck load of soldiers showed up. The Captain shouts “What is this bus doing here. Where is the driver. Move it. Move it Now.” The people had been unloading the van and their luggage was on the sidewalk. They explained what happened and showed the Captain the transmission fluid on the pavement. He told us to push it back into the parking area for a nearby store. Soon the newer but slightly smaller van showed up. With only a 2 hour delay we were off and I was glad we were away from the biggest target in northern Nigeria. 

Loading baggage into new bus

This new van was not as long or wide as the last van. My feet barely fit between our row of seats and the front seats. The seats had more padding which was good since we had most of the journey left to go. After a few hours without being able to move my knees my old soccer referee injury began to ache in my right knee. An hour later we arrived at the Numan bridge over the Benue River and another check point. The two year old that was two rows back could not hold his pee any longer. They handed him forward and I lady held him up to the window as we crept slowly up to the check point. Some of the vendors sitting along the road quickly covered their wares.

At the check point, an Army Corporal with fancy sunglasses and an attempt at a New York accent asked me where I was from then asked for my passport. He looked at it and one of my older Nigerian Visas then asked about the big box. I told him there were computer donated in the US going to Yola. He said “Let me see them”. I told him that I have documents and he said “I don’t want to see documents, I want to see the computers.” So we emptied bus and got the box out. It had been opened and inspected at the Minneapolis airport so it was sealed with TSA tape. We found an old saw blade on the ground and cut open the boxes. There were four computers also with TSA tape and each marked as inspected. I told him. “See, 4 computer each sealed by the US Government.” He was satisfied and my knee was no longer hurting. I thanked him and told him I really needed to get out and stretch my legs. He gave me a big smile. We loaded back into the bus and headed into Yola. I turned and apologized to the people in the van. The laughed and said no problem. 

I had been texting Yakubu my progress whenever I had a cell signal. As we approached Yola I sent him a message but the status stayed at sending. Finally, I checked my account balance. My prepaid account had 0.30 Naira. I takes 5 Naira for a text. Now I can only receive calls and texts but I cannot send. Yakubu called me and I told him where were and I did not know where bus was going to finally stop. When he called again, I told him we were now turning on to the road to the market, he said he was not far behind. The bus stopped at the Jimeta “Ultra Modern” market right at 5 PM as the market was closing. The streets were jammed with motorbikes, peddlers with wheelbarrows filled with merchandise, people and cars. A few minutes later Yakubu drove in the cluster of vehicles. We tossed my box and bagging in the back of his truck and headed down the street to the Jimeta Cathedral compound. 

The kids of the security man that lives in the round house between Yakubu’s office and the old mission house I live in, saw me coming and started jumping up and down. Their family has been working on cleaning the house the last few days. No one had been there in almost a year. They had it pretty clean for having had two Harmattans this year. But there was no water in the water barrels. I will stay at the Adip Hotel for the night.

March 16th Dogon Dutse Guesthouse and Bats, Bats and more Bats

I had breakfast of oatmeal, toast and tea. While eating Pastor Amson called to tell me he was coming with a member of his church who works for a driller and could familiarize us with the drillers and part supply in the area. They arrived as I was finishing the last piece of toast.

The driller, Michael Josiah Sande, is a partner in the company Supel Jos. They have 2 drill rigs, 4 compressors, and their own equipment and staff to perform geo-physical surveys. He has over 15 years of drilling experience working for European and Nigerian companies. They only drill after they have completed a geo-physical survey. All of the area from Jos to Gombe is primarily “basement complex”. Boreholes with an Afridev pump installed run between 500,000 to 570,000 Naira and are normally 25 to 40 meters deep. He told us that there are few drillers in Bauchi and Gombe area. They mostly hire drillers from Jos. There are many drillers in Jos. Due to the current security situation they are not drilling in Bauchi city but will go up to the edge of the city. His company is one of the drillers that have contracted for UNICEF.

As for the availability of pump parts He told us that you can buy any pumps or parts you need in Jos but they are expensive. In Jos you pay 70,000 Naria for a Afridev pump. He has a supplier in Kano who will ship a pump down to Jos for 60,000 Naira.

I am happy to see that they are using the Afridev pump. It is a little more expensive than the India Mark II that is the common pump in Adamawa. But it is a stronger pump with less parts, the handle is adjustable for the depth of water in the borehole and it is easier to maintain. A person in the village with a two simple inexpensive tools can pull the foot valve and piston without removing the riser pipes. Replacement of the leathers and gaskets on the foot valve and piston are the most common repairs made to a pump. The India Mark II takes a team to repair the pump. To get to the foot valve and piston the riser pipes with the cylinder attached have to be removed from the borehole. If the foot valve does not leak and the steel riser pipe does not have leaks the pipes will be full of water adding to the weight. With a deep borehole it takes three men to lift the pipes and the job can be dangerous. Once above ground it the cylinder has to be disassembled to get remove the piston and foot valve.

Another problem that is solved by using the Afridev pump is that the riser pipes are made of PVC with stainless steel fittings. We have been finding the galvanized steel riser pipes used in Adamawa have rusted through and have to be replaced. In one borehole last year we replaced more than half of the riser pipes. The piston was in pretty good shape but more water was leaking out of the riser pipe than reached the top. The people had to pump hard to get little water.

Borehole with electric pump.

Yakubu Bulama, the Water Projects Director, had also asked me to look into the pump problems they were having at the guest house. The water and other programs that I have been working with have emphasized self reliance. I started the discussion of the guest house water before Michael had left. Pastor Ansom explained the situation that they had two boreholes drilled in 2004. One did not have enough water for an electric pump so they installed an Afridev hand pump. Michael had fixed the Afridev last year and trained the maintenance man in routine maintenance and repair. The other borehole had an electric pump that pumped water up to the storage tanks above the guest house. The pump is operated manually. In the dry season the pump run dry and if the operator does not shut it down soon enough it can burn out the motor. Pastor Amson has had the motor rewound before and was wondering if a hand pump could be installed. Michael said it could be done but it would be less expensive to install a pump that has a low water shut-off and overheating protections with a new controller. He said that the cost would be between 45,000 and 50,000 Naira. The Afridev would be 60,000 Naria plus the cost of the riser pipes and the building of concrete platform. Pastor Amson also took us to the pump in one of his hand dug wells that also supplies water to the storage tanks was not working. Michael suggested that the controller may be the problem here and not the pump. The guest house maintenance man who also operated the water system came over with his tools and they determined there was power going to the motor. The motor was trying to spin the impeller but was just torqueing the riser pipe. We pulled the pump and cleaned debris from the screen and from behind the screen. After reinstalling the pump in the well, the motor ran and pumped water. To keep this well operating a float system that turns the pump off before air and any floating debris can enter, should be installed. Michael said that float switches are available in Jos. Also, Michael suggested that the well should be cleaned and chlorinated. A better cover needs to be installed that will decrease the amount of insects and other debris from entering the well.

Clinton and Pastor Ansom

At 5PM Pastor Ansom stopped by with Clinton the guard dog. This picture does not show how large Clinton is. In the daylight he is menacing in the dark he must look like a monster. People do not go outside after 10 PM when Clinton is working. Later in the evening as I was waiting for the bookkeeper to pay my bill bats started to appear out of the haze of the Harmattan dust. First there were a few merging out of the haze and blending back into as they head for their hunting grounds. As I stood there the few became dozens and then more then more than I could count. Wave after wave of bats continued for the next half hour. They were still zooming over when I was driven inside by the mosquitoes.

March 15 – Travel from Abuja to Jos

Today the diocese’s driver Joseph picked me up on his way to work and drove me to the Nynanya Church. Bishop Ben was waiting for me. We walked over to the Bluewhales Transport Company bus parking area and Joseph drove up the shoulder the wrong way with my bags. Bluewhales drives vans and small buses from Nyanya to Jos several times per day. They put the large box on the back seat as a paid passenger. The cost was 1000 naira ($6.37) each (me and my box). They wanted to see the receipts for the TV in the big box. I told them that it was not a TV but donated equipment for the Charitable Trust in Adamawa and they were brought in American. I showed them a copy of the official looking letter I had written and put in the box. They were happy with that and told me to have the letter available. 

The bus holds almost 40 people if you do not count the kids on laps. We were full except one seat when we left the bus park at at noon. My seat was a tiny one between the side door and the front door. My computer bag took up most of the leg room and my man purse was in my lap. Yes I carry a bag on these trips. It has my gps, hand sanitizer, multi-tool, hand level, camera, notebook, pens, and the rest of my mobile office. You can see it on the table in the restaurant at ECWA in the previous post.

About a half hour into the trip the driver stopped at a market. The peddlers in the area attacked the bus shoving all sorts of items through the windows at us. The man in the front seat and the tall man sitting on the jump seat over the engine both loaded up on fresh bananas. The prices out in the country are lower and the food fresher than in the city

After about 15 minutes another man got in for the one vacant seat. The bus erupted in shouting. The passengers were upset that with the security situation the driver was putting on a man that was not on the manifest. Most of the people did not know that the driver only had the first page of the manifest with 24 names. The driver ignored all the yelling and the man held is own in the seat right in the middle of the bus. The driver let everyone vent for a while and then turned up the radio. 

The first couple military check points went smooth. Then just before a check point at a railroad crossing the Federal Road Safety stopped us. The driver showed them the fire extinguisher and his drivers license. Then the officer looked at me and told the driver to get out of the bus. They went to the back of the bus and opened the boot were the rest of the luggage stored. They were back there for a few minutes and then we went on. I figure he had to negotiate a little. We went through several more check points and a little ways outside of Jos we started stopping to let off passengers. It seemed like about every quarter mile we stopped. 

Canada House at LCCN Guest House

Finally, we reached the bus park but the driver kept going. He told me that he was driving up to Dogon Karfi dropping people and then coming back. Pastor Amson was waiting at the bus park and flagged down the driver a few hundred feet down the road. We got my bag out of the boot and passed the box out a side window. He brought me to Dogon Dutse area if Jos to the LCCN Guesthouse. I checked the location on my smartphone GPS and it showed lodging called Christian Guest House. I am impressed with the accuracy of streets on the maps (maps are licensed from Tom Tom by Sygic). I am the only guest at the guest house. They usually host more travelers and conferences. But due to the security situation the business is very low.  Amson has a member of one of the churches here in Jos coming over Friday morning to discuss drilling in Jos area and the availability of parts here in Jos. 

March 14th - Day In Abuja

This morning Bishop Ben picked me up with his driver Joseph at just before 11am. We drove out past Nyanya into Nasarawa State to visit Kyungchum Drilling Services to find where they buy their borehole pumps. The technician that buys the pumps was out on a job site. We called him and he directed us to Senior Star Man International Limited. Kyungchum is owned by a South Korean company who does geophysical surveying, borehole drilling, water analysis, borehole maintenance, tank construction and other services. They have branch offices in Gwagwalada (near Pai) and Maiduguri (near the north end of Adamawa State).

After visiting with the driller for a few minutes we drove back to Nyanya to visit Senior Star Man International. The name is bigger than the shop. Bishop Ben requested the boss be summoned so we can talk. It turns out that the owner’s brother is an importer of pumps and according to him the pump sellers from Yola come to him for pumps. It is a little hard to believe because his retail costs are about the same if not higher than at Yola. His card claims he does boreholes and installation. The parts I could not get in Yola to repair the Mark II pump cylinder he had at his other shop in Abuja for 1000 Naira each ($6.40). It would only take 20 minutes to get them. Bishop Ben tried to talk him down on the price but he said he usually sells them for 1200 and had already given us a discount because we were doing God’s work. Having a white man in the room makes it hard to do the regular battering on price. We told him to get 20 of them and bring them over to the church. It was an easy walk from his shop to the church. The Nigerian 20 minutes is like the last minute of a basketball game. From his shop to the Nyanya church is a 5 minute walk or a 15 minute drive. Waiting at the church front porch was much cooler and a little quieter than waiting at his shop. The parts showed up about half a hour after we got to the church.

Nyanya church is now the Cathedral for the Abuja Dioceses. On the other side of Abuja out near the airport they have a bigger plot of land where they plan to build the Secretariat building. My talk with Bishop Ben was fairly wide ranging but we kept coming back to Pai. One thing that the Abuja churches want to do is to build a clinic at Pai. The chiefs have given them a plot of land a few hundred meters outside of Pai. They have started building a dispensary building and have walls part way up. They have run out of funds. After they build the dispensary they hope to add an overnight ward and staff house. When I asked why a clinic he told me that the child mortality rate is very high in the area. Most births are at home with traditional birth attendants. There is little or no prenatal care. If there are complications the nearest hospital is in Gwagwalada. During the rainy season the road can be very difficult to travel in anything less than a large truck or a four wheel drive. We discussed whether they should be looking for a maternity style ward rather than just a overnight holding ward. This will be a better discussion if there were medically trained people involved.

We discussed sanitation and building of VIP Latrines. (VIP is ventilated improved latrines). We encourage people to build and use sanitation facilities but many church facilities do not have them. If we seriously want to reduce childhood mortality we have to reduce intestinal/diarrheal diseases. Simple hand washing with soap will have a bigger impact than a new borehole or improved well. Using a VIP latrine and washing your hands after will have a huge effect on child mortality. This is a hard sell. People feel thirst and can equate thirst with illness. You cannot taste or feel the bacteria or viruses that cause a similar set of symptoms. The cause can be today and effect can be tomorrow the connection between sanitation and illness is not as obvious as water and thirst.
When a team from the church comes to a village and drills a borehole, installs a pump and teaches some people how to fix it when it breaks, the amount of goodwill that translates in evangelism is high. But the effect on childhood mortality is minimal. The water is collected in contaminated containers, stored in containers without protection from contamination. The big payoff for public health comes from maintaining the water clean as well as the food you eat and the hands you eat your food with.

Bishop Ben told me something new to me. That in the past the dispenser would greet their first patients in the morning with a short devotion, pray for their healing, and give a short class on prevention. The patients were pleased that they not only got some pills for their illness but someone prayed for their healing. In all the dispensaries I have visited I have never heard about this. Of course I have never been to one early in the morning and have never asked. The dispensers we have talked to probably thought the devotion as a routine not worth mentioning. But we had asked several about teaching out in the village and few have gone out. As I think about it I do remember something going on at the porch of the Numan dispensary as I walked to the guest house restaurant for breakfast. Note to self: Ask Fidelus if this is a common practice at dispensary.

March 13th Abuja and Pai

Normally on my way to Yola in Adamawa State, I fly into Abuja the Capital of Nigeria. Stay overnight and fly down to Yola the next day. I usually hope to see Bishop Ben (It is getting easier to call him Bishop now. I was part of his installation in 2010 and have known him as Pastor Ben since 2006. In the church I was raised in he would just be Brother Ben.) This year my mission I have given myself for Abuja is to find out how the Citizens Into Action (CIA) can help the Abuja Diocese, find if there are any distributors of pumps and parts that we can deal with for a lower cost than the retailers in Yola and if possible buy some seals for the Mark II pumps so we can repair cylinders. I would be happy if we get the seals. Then in Jos I hope to make a contact with a driller or two before heading down to Yola.

ECWA Guest House

ECWA Restaurant

I got up this morning to see the ECWA Guest House in the sunlight and have breakfast in their restaurant.Bishop Ben picked me up around 10:30. He had spent the morning coordinating the next phase of the journey of the Song visitors to Pai and making sure their guide knew how to get there. If I had not been in town he would have guided them. The last two times I was in Abuja Bishop Ben was out of town. Today I will accompany him out to Pai and I can talk along the way. This will be my second trip to Pai. The first trip was in 2008 when I spent a few days in Abuja waiting for my luggage to arrive from Amsterdam. While there we took a day trip out to Pai to see the Bible School, their mostly dry hand dug well and the new government drilled borehole. There was a man collecting money from people collecting water. This was to have money for maintenance. Of course it is broken now and there is no money to fix it.

Church in EWCA Comp

(For new people reading my blogs I need to tell you the difference between a well and a borehole. In American we call everything dug down to remove liquid from underground a well. Here and in most former British colonies a well is a hand dug hole lined with rocks or concrete. When a drill rig is used to drill down to the groundwater it is called a borehole. Water is collected from most wells with a rubber bucket which is designed to fall over on its side to collect water when there is only a couple of inches of water in the bottom of the well. Many wells are now being covered and fitted with hand pumps to help maintain the sanitary condition of the well. Boreholes in the bush and some in the cities usually have hand pumps. A few have solar powered electric pumps and some have generator powered electric pumps. Solar power have a high initial cost. Generator fuel has to be hauled into the bush and is expensive. If the fuel for the generator is supplied by the government then the generator is not run very often.)

Back to this trip. I accompanied Bishop Ben on this trip without a water and sanitation agenda. We had about a hour and a half ride out to Pai to chat. I was more interested in how the new dioceses was coming together and also in the group from Song who had driven two days to Pai, will spend two days of evangelism in the villages and then drive back to Song. As we drove out to meet up with the group from Song we diverted into Gwagwalado where we met one of the village chiefs of the Pai area. He directed us to the regional chiefs house. Bishop Ben had brought him a 25 kilogram bag of his favorite rice and wanted to great the chief. As we arrived at the house Bishop Ben’s phone rang, there was trouble with the group from Song. They had stopped short of Pai.

On of the two vans from Song

We met up with the group at a market on the main highway not far from the dirt road leading to Pai. We stayed there for more than a half hour as there was a disagreement of some kind. After leaving the market we hit a long line of stopped traffic. We drove along the shoulder past dozens of semis. As we approached the junction we found out that there was a military checkpoint at the junction. We merged back onto the blacktop not wanting to show up at the checkpoint out of the queue. The road to Pai is a seven mile dirt road with many areas of washout. Some time we are only traveling a few miles per hour. Thank goodness for power steering. You are constantly dodging holes and ruts.

At Pai we met with the groups at the Pai Bible School. This is a school for adults who have no education. They spend 4 years learning to read and write in English and Hausa, basic math, social studies and bible studies. They have enough theology to work as a lay evangelist. The school is not certified by the government. The students have enough education to enroll in 5th grade and in a year they can test out of out of Primary school.

The Abuja Diocese would like to establish a higher level bible school in Gwagwalado to better equip the graduates and evangelist. In Gwagwalado they may also be able finish their primary and secondary schools while getting a higher level of instruction from pastors coming from Abuja. Some of the students will go down to Adamawa and enter the Dashen Bible School and College and get their primary and secondary school certificates and become a certified evangelist or catechist. Some of the graduates have been employed in the area as evangelist in one to the more than a dozen villages in the Pai area. The area is split be a small river. In the dry season you can walk across it. I the rainy season you cross with a canoe. There are 4 churches on the Pai side of the river and 3 on the other side. In addition to the churches there are preaching points and meeting areas. Currently, there are 4 trained catechists and 10 evangelists working in the area. Two men are down in Adamawa going to school to become certified evangelist. (one at Dashen Bible College and one at Pella Bible College). Most of the LCCN Bible College trained evangelist are from Adamawa State and do not speak the local language and are not familiar with the local culture and customs. By sending Pai Graduates down to Adamawa the Abuja Diocese will have native speakers as certified evangelist.


Most of the people in the Pai area speak Bassa or Wari as their tribal language. The trading language is Hausa which is also the trading language of Adamawa State. So evangelism for adults is can be in Hausa. When we were discussing the language problems I mentioned that the morning TV show had a discussion of children not learning their cultural roots. He said that was true in his house. He is Ga’anda and his wife is Kilba. They speak Hausa at home. Their children speak Hausa. When they visit his home village the family speaks speak Ga’anda. He said he has more problems in Abuja and Lagos with pastors. Many members of the church in Abuja and Lagos are professionals with college degrees some with Masters and Ph.D’s and mostly communicate in English. Most of the pastors coming from the Lutheran Seminary have a diploma in religion and some are now getting a Bachelors degree. Their English skills are not to the level of their parishioners’. The other problem is that they are not used to the metropolitan culture of the Capital. Bishop Ben is a from a small village just outside of Ga’anda but has a Masters of Divinity from Wartburg in Iowa. (If you think this blog is wandering, you should have heard our conversations. We both are masters of tangential conversations. I more than him.)

Bishop Ben on left with opening prayer

After introductions of the evangelist and some explanation of what was going to happenere, the visitors from Song were broken into small groups. Each group will accompany an evangelist to a village. They will spend 2 days in the villages and then come back to Pai and report on their visits. It would be interesting to go along on a village visit, but Bishop Ben has to go back and I have my mission in Abuja to accomplish. My work supports evangelism but it is not require me to preach. We all serve in different ways.

Well with rubber bucket

The people of Pai brought some food out for the visitors. Bishop Ben and I passed on the food and returned to Abuja. I had shown him my smart phone with the GPS and maps of West Africa. The dirt road to Pai was on the map. He showed my his Samsung smart phone and asked if he could get the maps on his phone. As we drove down the bouncy twisty dirt road I play with his cell phone. He had his Bluetooth turned on but did not own a blue tooth device. I turned off the power consumers that he did not use and checked out his phone. It has GPS capacity but does not have a decent GPS app. When we finally, got on the highway I put away his phone but my stomach was still bouncing and twisting. We stopped along the highway for a little dry heaving. I have not had motion sickness for many years. We got back to the hotel I laid down to watch the evening news and woke up at midnight.