Met A Philosopher Today and Some Pictures

 Meet Isaac Bolingo. Christian Philosopher

Today I walked up to the Main Market to get information on three wheeled motorcycle based utility vehicles. I no longer take water along with me on these treks. I stop and buy it as I go. I noticed a shop with a lot of water outside and asked the man if he had cold Faro water. He looked up at me from where he was sitting with his one eye, smiled and said "Yes". He went inside the shop to a box freezer and got a fairly cool bottle of water for me. I gave him a 100 Naira bill. He did not have change and went to the next shop to get change I looked down at the note pad he had be writing on.

"Touch Time Never Lasts

But

Touch People Do"

"Who Care For Who, When

Who is Who"

When he came back I asked "Are these your thoughts." He said "Yes". I shook his hand and told him that I liked his thinking.

Marvelous and Dad

 I am being a little random here. Because before I met Isaac I met Marvelous. This is his Dad and him at the family business. They sell tools. I have shopped here the last couple of years. The shop is only a 100 meters up the road from the Cathedral compound where I live. They have always given the a reasonable price and I never felt like I should start bargaining. Today I needed a tap measure to measure the three wheel utility motorcycle I was walking to the market to see. Many time little kids will see a white person for the first time and cry but Marvelous smiled and took a hold of my finger. He will be a heartbreaker.

Marvelous and Mom

This year there are these three wheeled motorcycles with dumping cargo bodies on the back running around the roads. Most have been hauling water from pumps set up along side rivers and hauling the water into rural villages. A politician was running for office and had a bunch of these purchased as "rural poverty alleviation". When the election was over all them were sold off and the money never made it back into the government treasury. Or so the story goes. The little carts have a 200 cc air cooled engine, a 350 kilogram load limit, reverse gear and I have now discovered that they come with an undersized rear end, but it is less expensive and widely available in the Chinese and Asian markets. The ones hauling water had the cargo area stuffed with 25 liter plastic jerry cans of water.Well over 20 cans. That is 500 kg of water and all of them had a young man riding in the back to help deliver the water.

This is the first year I have seen these here. I have seen them in Korea and in Thailand. Now it appears they are available here. The used dealer told me he can get the new version from Kano for 380,000 Naira ($2,533). These used ones go for 280,000 Naira. My thoughts are these would be useful as borehole repair vehicles. We could add locking tool boxes, and rack to carry pieces of riser pipes, a winch, and maybe a hoist assembly of some sort to pull pipe with. If we get the more robust rear end (Everyone needs a robust rear end.) and other modifications I am guessing the price will be near $4,000.

Saturday was the monthly meeting of the Spring of Hope HIV/AIDS Support Group. I missed their March meeting and will leave before their May meeting. I got there a little early and this little girl was playing with a lady at the back of the room. I sat down against the wall. She wandered up to her mother who was seated across from me and then turned and looked at me. She screamed and ran back to the other lady. I was not the first white man she had seen but she was surprised by me. Everyone tried to get to stop crying and nothing worked. The took her into the office where other kids were playing with toys and she cried for about another 5 minutes. I put my phone around the corner of the door and took a picture of the kids. They are playing with a cheap version of Legos. 

Farah James is the Director of Spring of Hope. Today she was giving a talk on Malaria for the end of the International Malaria Week. People with HIV/AIDS are more likely to die of Malaria than most people. She emphasized the importance to sleeping under LLIN (Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Net). These new nets are expected to last 5 years since the insecticide is built into the fibers of the threads the nets are made of rather than being treated after the net were made. As she talked the kids would wonder out of the office behind her and play around her feet.

Those of you who have followed the HIV/AIDS epidemic have probably heard of "ABC". Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Condoms. Now there is SAVE.  Safe Practices, Access and Availability to Treatment and Nutrition, Voluntary Counseling and Testing, Empowerment. Click on the picture and you can try to read the bigger version of the poster. 

The group was less than half of the normal group. This is wedding season in Adamawa. Easter to June is the favorite time to get married. Do not ask me why, I did not ask. Most of the people are at weddings and half of the people who were here are going to a wedding after the meeting. That is why the little girl is in such a fancy dress for Saturday morning. Farah also announced that the first line HIV/Aids drugs are now going to be available in Adamawa. The had been available to those who could afford them but now the manufacturers have given discounts and the government has provided subsidies for the poor. Wow poor people who cannot find work because of the on-going stigma of HIV can now get the same life-saving drugs that he "big" people can buy. Actually, if the big people go to the government clinic they will get it free also. HIV is an equal opportunity killer if you do not ABC and SAVE.

This is Ruth Ulea. She lost her hearing as a teenager. Her father was stationed near the Christian Mission for the Deaf of Nigeria school,. He met Dr. Andrew Jackson Foster who after teaching her American Sign Language encouraged her to get theological training. When Dr. Foster died she returned to Yola and eventually, enrolled at Bronnum Lutheran Seminary. She graduated in 1994. Most of her classmate were ordained, one is now the Yola Bishop and one is the head pastor at the Cathedral. She has not been ordained. But since 1994 she has been providing Sunday School and a non-denominational Sunday Service, first in Jada 

Government School for the Disabled and now at the LCCN Deaf Centre and in two other communities. The Yola Bishops have always found a lame excuse for not ordaining her and have not provided any help to overcome their objections. So in Adamawa the deaf are not Lutheran.

I may have already published this picture. But I like it. This is one of the kids of one of the women that was attending the Easter Camp for the Deaf that was held around my house. That is my front porch in the background.

I have just about used up the fuel in my generator while writing this and a few other things. Time to shut down and get some sleep.

Sabon Gari District Church in Mayo Belwa

Goggle Earth Image from 2006. VES 1 is by the church VES 2 further up hill past the exist broken borehole.

I do not know how many times I have been to the area around the Sabon Gari District Church since 2008. The community is on the edge of the town of Mayo Belwa. But it is not in the Mayo Belwa Local Government Area. They are in Furfore Local Government Area. Across the highway and down the road a little way is the Secretariat for the Mayo Belwa Local Government. An easy walk from this community. But they do not get any services from Mayo Belwa. Furfore where their local government is located is about an hour by car south of Jimeta and they are about two hours north and east of Jimeta. Fufore LGA does not give them much services either.

The community got organized and hired a “so called driller” to drill them a borehole. He did not have a very strong rig and he did not charge a lot. He drilled down to his limit and had barely hit water. The people talked him into drilling deeper. After he drilled a little deeper he told them that his mud pump was not powerful enough to pump the mud out of the hole so he installed the casing and screen into the drilling mud and left. Long story short, they went through several “so called drillers” before they finally agreed to work with the LCCN WASH program and got the pump working. It did not last long as the pump stand and casing are misaligned and people pump on it from morning into the night.Today they told us that they hired someone from Jalingo in Taraba State to come and repair the pump and it is broken again. Adams and I agree that the rod is probably disconnected from the piston. I am going to figure the cost to put a small borehole pump into the casing that does not matter if it is misaligned. To give them the same amount of water flow as the hand pump which as about all this borehole will produce will probably be the smallest borehole pump made. Since the pump will probably cycle on and off as the water level drops it would waste a lot of expensive fuel to use a generator. A small solar system will make more sense for a daily operating costs. 

We were not in the area today to fix the pump.The community is interested in a second borehole and we had brought a geologist from the Upper Benue River Authority to do the geophysical survey to find a good spot for the new borehole. It had rained the night before and remained overcast to the weather was nice for working. Julius started by dowsing the area using two wires. If they opened up the water was getting less and if they closed the water was increasing. He first worked the area around the Sabon Gari church and decided on a spot. We set his equipment to do a resistance survey to determine the apparent depth to the water. 

I was first introduced to dowsing in the mid 1980’s when investigating a grain elevator explosion in southwest Minnesota. A local farmer informed me that there were old drain tiles running from the building that exploded out to a creek about a mile away. He grabbed some wire from the rubble and bent them into an L shape and proceeded to dowse for the pipe. He marked where the pipe was. I thanked him. Later that evening I took the wires and crossed back and forth where he said the pipe was and got the same reactions. I figured it was just my subconscious controlling the wires where the farmer had shown me. I continued doing cross sections out into the fields and found the outlet of the pipe about a mile away. Since then I have dowsed for wires and pipes, but I have never tried it for water. For me there was water everywhere and some areas where they diverged indicating less water. I would rather review aerial photographs and geological maps. But in built up areas like this the land has been disturbed and geological features have been obscured. I have an open mind. I still think there are some clues your mind is seeing in the area that makes you manipulate the wires.

After the finished the resistance test at the church site, Julius set out around the community looking for more areas that his wires told him there was water. He did not get much of an indication and decided on the second test area after about a half hour of walking around the area. This spot happened to be near the house of the man that was showing him around. This has already created talk about “why at his house. Why not at my house”. The second site is up hill and in from the dirt road that leads through the area. Its main advantage is that it is up hill. So when you walk to the site with your empty containers you are walking uphill and then downhill with the full containers. Most of the community will not have to walk uphill with their full water containers.The church site will be downhill for almost the whole community. 

After we finished the resistance surveys of both sites Julius choose we were invited by the Water Committee Treasurer to go to Twin Sisters Restaurant for lunch. They had four tables inside and two on the outside. The twin sisters are the Treasurer's sisters. I had my regular, rice with soup (red sauce, spicey, with two pieces of beef). Today they just had rice or pounded rice and soup.The area behind the sisters in where the food is dished up. I think the actual cooking is done out the behind the building where they can hand the food in through the window.

 As I was typing this into the computer, I was at my desk in the middle of the room under the ceiling fan. A young boy maybe 10 years old yelled from the street "White Man, How are you?" He was more polite than most of the street kids that yell through the fence. I noticed he was selling sachets of cool water. So I walked out to the fence and bought two sachets from him. The water in my frig was colder. so I put his in to cool down and went back to work.

Timbukum Another Government Project That Does Not Work

Timbukum

Our day started early. Yakubu Bulama showed up at a little after 6 AM. He is driving his old Toyota van today. The Health Board is using the Hi-Lux to visit one of the Community Based Public Health Care (CBPHC) sites. They are doing community surveys of the villages around the Bingia and need the four wheel drive truck. We will be headed south to the village of Timbukum. It will be several hours of pothole dodging. The section of road from Mayo Belwa to Ganye is one of the worst in Adamawa. Not as bad as the Lamurda road but much longer. Each way will be nearly 4 hours. Our original plan was to drive down the night before, stop at Dashen Bible College to look at their pump problem. Stay overnight in Ganye and meet with the Bishop in the morning before driving the last hour down to Timbukum. We found out that the Bible College did not have a problem and the Bishop was going to Yola for a meeting. So we decided to make it a long day trip.

Roadside Food Stand

I was up at 5 to shower and make some breakfast. We stopped and got gas, cool water to drink and some engine coolant at a station on the edge of Yola and headed out of town. Yakubu and Adams had not had breakfast. So we stopped at the first village outside of Yola to buy some roadside eats. The lady had fried yams, fried sweat potatoes and bean cakes. We got a small bag of the combination of all three and headed on. Yams here are a large tubular without a lot of taste. 

Yakubu’s van is 16 years old. As you go up hill the temperature rises and as you go down is lowers. We had to stop once on the way there and once on the way back to let it cool down. The mechanics here do not believe in thermostats. Most vehicles have had them removed. They also do not add coolant just straight water. I told Yakubu that the coolant helps the radiator from boiling over. He had purchased some coolant when we stopped for fuel. He added it to the radiator when we stopped the first time. The engine is behind the front seat and the radiator and fan is between the driver and passenger seats

 We passed the Bonotem Bishop in Jada as we were finishing the bad part of the road and he was headed into it. We arrived in Timbukum around 10:15. I went to look at the old pump that was slow to recharge back in 2008 when I last visited here and found it was still slower now. When you stop pumping you can hear the water leaking out of the riser pipes. Yakubu could not find the church chairman but a white man walking around the village drew a crowd. We spent about a half hour talking to the people about the hand pump. Then we got directions to get to the solar powered borehole.

Timbukum is a village north of Toungo in the south end of Adamawa State. At the request of the local church through the Bonotem Bishop the village has requested assistance in finding out why the Millennium Development Goal solar powered borehole and tank does not deliver water. This is one of the government projects that the village did not know about until the driller showed up and started drilling. The borehole, tank and tap stand are located at the government Dispensary. If you click on the picture you will get a larger picture you can see better.

Upon arrival at the pump we could hear the distinctive sound of the pump trying to pump water and air. The people present reported that in the morning they get one or two buckets of water then it only drips all day. It appears that the pump is set at the water table rather than below. We found water at 70 feet with the water level indicator. We shut down the pump and waited a half hour. There was no significant recharge. Also, indicating the pump is set at the top of the water. We decided to pull the pump but discovered that the power cable does not have any slack. It enters the borehole through the cap and is cemented into the concrete base. To lift the cap and pull or add pipes to the pump will require the cable to be cut and additional cable spliced on. We did not have the additional cable or tools to do this work. We could not determine the depth of the borehole without removing the pump.

After listening to the pump I climbed the tower to see how the solar panels were connected to the pump. The wiring job was very professional, with all loose wires secured. The circuit breaker that I turned off at the top of the tank had never been switched off since it was installed in 2008. After switching off the pump I laid under the solar panels waiting to see if there was any recharge. After they determined that there was no significant recharge we decided to pull the pump. As I swung around to climb down the steel ladder I smashed my right shin on something. I climbed on down and then we discovered that we could not pull the pump. So I went back up to turn the pump back on. It did not want to turn back on. Yakubu climbed up with a screw driver and I disassembled the case and cleaned out are the wasp nests and mud wasps nests and still could not get the circuit breaker to stay in the on position. I removed one of the two plastic bars that were holding the two switches together and pushed as hard as I could and it finally clicked into position. We will be leaving with the pump working the same as before. No worse and no better.

Best Case: The best case for this project is that the borehole was drilled to over 100 feet deep and the pump can be lowered into the water by three or more pipe lengths (30 or more feet). Lowering the pump will provide more water above the pump to be pulled into the pump. The pump will draw the water down in the borehole causing the water in the ground to flow into the borehole. Pumps will operate best at a minimum of 3 pipes under the water table in an aquifer that is quick to recharge. In slower recharging aquifers the pump will need to be much deeper. There are indications from the other water sources in the area that this will be a slower recharging aquifer. If the pump can be lowered then a water level probe needs to be added to the pump to switch the pump off when the water level starts to reach the inlet to the pump. This will create a non continuous flow but will increase the pump life. Pumping air is not good for a pump.

Worst Case: The borehole is drilled to less than 100 feet and less than three pipes can be added. A new borehole will need to be drilled. The first step in this process will be to perform a geophysical survey of the area to determine the apparent depth to water and the thickness of the water. Unfortunately, the location of the tank tends to restrict the location of the borehole to a reasonable distance to the tank for pumping and electrical wiring. Based on a short review of the general geology of the area it is anticipated that the borehole will be drilled through a shallow layer of overburden and into weathered and hopefully fractured basalt or other volcanic formation. The area is shown on some maps as recent volcanic activity. Recent in geological time scale. If this is true than it is possible that below the volcanic formation can be layers of formations which could be contain significant water. Drilling through the assumed volcanic layer will be quite costly. The geophysical survey will provide a more accurate estimation of the hydrogeology of the area. Since the village never requested or were not consulted about the borehole they do not feel it is their borehole. They may not be willing to spend much money to fix the situation.

We left Timbukum around 1 pm and headed to Dashen Bible College. Earlier as we had crossed a bridge we saw some boys in the middle of the walkway of the bridge selling mangos. We stopped and bought mangos. The were selling them at 10 Naira each. Fresh and tree ripened. We each washed one off and eat as we drove to the Bible College.

Dashen Bible College provides education to Evangelist and Catechists and also has a Secondary School. They have posted some of the highest scores on their various levels of exams in all of Adamawa. Their PTA had raised money and drilled a borehole on the school grounds. They had not consulted with the WASH Team and hired a driller without doing any geophysical survey. The borehole was successful but they had some problems with the pump. Back in February the principal had asked Gary of Global Health Ministries for some help. This was the first chance that the WASH Team had to come down this way. In the mean time the pump had been repaired. 

 

After a short visit we headed back towards Jada. We drove around Jada looking for a place to eat. None of the spots we found looked to clean. We headed back out of town when I spotted a small spot with cooking pots out front. It was a two table restaurant. The kitchen is at entrance. That is Yakubu's van out parked outside. They had pounded rice with sauce or vegetables. I had the red sauce with a couple bits of beef and a almost cool Pepsi. The even had spoons, forks and knives in a basket at the table. We were not in Numan. (That is a story from last years blog. Eating at a restaurant in Numan we asked for a spoon and knife and the waitress said “This is Numan.” )

 We also had time to stop in Mayo Belwa to see the pump that we have been working with for the last three years. It appears to have a broken rod. There is a rather long story about this pump, bad driller, followed by bad driller, and then the water committee chairman making off with the funds. The use is so heavy on the pump that it tends to break a lot. There may be an alignment problem The second bad driller had trouble aligning the pump over the borehole and ended up taking a cutting torch to the tank to make it fit. Then kids through rocks through the opening and jammed the pump. This year the rod is broken. I would not be surprised to find debris in the pump again. I think they need a new tank and head. The profits from the 2008 fair trade sale at Mount Calvary were used to support this project. Part of the stolen money.

In all we had a successful day. I am fairly confident of our findings in Timbukum and it is now three days later and I have not gotten sick from the roadside meals. I no longer limp and the shin only hurts when I twist the knee.

Ngbekendiwe - New Water Source Proposal

Ngbekendiwe: Try to pronounce that three times fast.  The "Ng" is mostly silent. With my level of hearing loss it is silent. The name means “place where grains are stored”. The village asked the Todi Diocese for assistance and the Bishop referred the project to the Health Board WASH Program. This was the WASH Team’s third trip to the village (my first). The WASH Program emphasizes community participation. In many past projects the participation was limited to contributing a little labor and collect sands and gravels for the concrete. The WASH team has learned that this limited participation did not produce community ownership. Now they are requiring a minimum of 10% up-front cash. People get serious when Naira is involved. But they have never been asked by a church or the government to participate in this way. This is something new to them. The WASH Team tries to emphasize that they are not here to give a gift to the village but to help the village to build create a sustainable project that they will own and operate.

Small Store near the LCCN Church.

This is not a very poor village, but not a rich village either. It has small stores and other local conveniences.  The village structures are mostly made of mud brick and thatch. There are a scattering of concrete block buildings with aluminum roofs. It is a clean and well kept village. There are several clay pits in the village for making mud bricks. This will be mosquito breeding grounds in the rainy season. The village lies above a tributary to the Benue River. This whole area was alluvial at one time. The village is a linear village along a small ridge line.

Dry borehole. Tank and all pipes have been removed.

The government has sent “so called driller” to install boreholes in the village. Mostly, around election time. Of the four that they told us about only one ever produced any water and the water is “salty”. Here salty means hard not necessarily tasting like table salt. Many time the driller can go deeper and get better tasting water. The trouble is that here they drill will not seal the boring between upper layer of “salty” and lower layer of water. 

Ngbekendiwe was about 1.5 kilometers long in this 2007 Google Earth Image.

 At today’s meeting the WASH Team met with the Chairman (also the local Imam), the Secretary and one committee member of the local water committee and the pastor of the local church. The other four members could not be found. They reported that they have formed subcommittees in different wards of the village and they have gone to the Local Government and received the proper papers to be a recognized social agency and can now open a bank account. They did not know how much money has been committed to do the project. Yakubu encouraged them to get the subcommittees working and collect the money needed to meet the 10% minimum. Open an account at the nearest bank and deposit the money collected. Soon the rains will start and they will be busy planting their fields. 

Yakubu , Adams, Chairman, Secretary , Committee Member and the Pastor

In earlier meetings they had been told several options creating a new water source. They had chosen to have a motorized borehole with a generator, pump, tank and a distribution system. The cost estimates they were given were general in nature. Specific, design and detailed cost estimating have not been done. I currently, have my doubts that this project will happen this dry season. The road to the village looks like a stream bed in many places. If they get the funds together by the end of April the new borehole could be drilled before the main part of the rainy season begins in June.

Back to Banjiram

Goggle Earth Image of Banjiram and the location of the taps. At the end of the blog is a view wider view.

My idea of by-passing the tank and pressurizing the water line to get water to flow at the remote taps was a little off base We went back to Banjiram last week to check out some details. One of the main items was to find the specifics of the pump data from the pump box. The box is gone. Someone had a use for it so it was taken out of the storage room and the paperwork is gone. Another was to check the actual distances the water had to travel. I was told 75 meter to a junction and then 150 meters in two directions to the remote tap stands. Actually it is 160 meters and 200 meters. These lengths make my idea not feasible except if you wanted to take 10 minutes to fill a 20 liter container.

Tank outlet configuration

 The next thing was to see what was buried underground. Once we had finished digging up the connection of the tank outlet to the remote taps Yukubu showed me the picture he took when they buried them. This is the pipe coming down from the tank outlet. The 2 inch pipe has two elbows to get around the foundation and underground it has a Tee. The right side stays at  2 inches and only goes about 6 meters where it goes into the School Tap Stand.

School Tap Stand with school in background

The school does not want the people from the town coming to the school to fetch water. They have allowed their borehole and tank to be used to supply more people in the village but they built two remote tap stands closer to the homes.

The picture on the left is the North Tap Stand and on the right is the South Tap Stand. You can see the school and the tank in the background of the North Tap Stand. Notice there are pots only lined up at the end two taps at the North and a well worn path to the school. The South Tap Stand has  buckets at all of the taps but mostly on the north end where the water comes in. The North Tap Stand is actually up hill from the school and the south is slightly down hill. We did an experiment and turned off all the taps at the School Tap Stand and we opened the tank. All the taps at the South got water. Only a little water on the North. Based on my hand level I am guessing the North Tap Stand is 2.5 meters higher than the borehole.

The two remote taps stands get little flow when the school tap stand is open. Resulting in people walking to the school every afternoon to fetch water when the tank is opened at 3:30.

I spent much of the weekend and Monday doing manual mathematical modeling of the piping system trying to come up with a solution that will work. There are also village politics involved. My best solution would not work because the farmer who owns the field will only allow one trench through his field. He had to be convinced to even allow one. He has a tractor plow his field. The plastic pipe will not withstand a plow hit.

Here is the solution I am currently proposing. We will still use a new pipe to by-pass the tank and pressurize the pipes with the pump. This should add up to 2 more meters of water pressure. But the 2 1/2 inch by-pass pipe will now continue down the trench along side the existing 1 1/2 inch pipe and go all the way to the north end of the North Tap Stand and connect there. In my models this solution started to work at a 2 inch pipe. But there are several unknowns that I could not put into the model. The exact elevations is one and the capabilities of the pump and pump controller. This was the first time since college I have run mathematical models by hand. Fortunately, I found a website that would calculate pressure drops for me. I several liters of fuel in my little generator while doing it. I ran the calculations for around 10 different combinations of pipes. If someone like me shows up in the future and sees the way this is piped, they will wonder "What kinds of drugs was the this guy on, when he decided to run the pipes like this?".

Just tot he south of this Google Earth Image is the dry river bed where much of the town gets its water by digging.

Waya - Long Trip - Several Challenges

 I written and re-written this blog a few times. It is always too long. I get too much into the technical details that would interest the people on the Minneapolis Area Synod, Water Committee but not what regular people would be interested in. Yes guys you are not regular people.

We started the trip to visit Waya from Jimeta in Adamawa state on Monday morning April 2. We traveled through Numan and up to Gombe where we stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe near the bypass junction. Clean place and the three of us ate for 850 Naira ($5.40). It was a quick lunch. Then back on the road for Jos. We had arranged for a 6:30 dinner meeting for the pastors, mission committee members and the driller from Jos. I was called on our way to Bauchi and asked to hold the meeting at 5:00 PM so people can get home before it got dark. The security situation in Jos makes travel at night difficult. I checked with Yakubu and my GPS, both said we will make it in time. We moved the meeting to 5:00.

As we were going through the railroad crossing on the east edge of Bauchi, a group of young men in safety vests, tossed boards with nails in them into the road and signaled us to pull over. We did. They told us they worked for the local government and were inspection vehicle certifications. This is a national program which authorizes the local government to certify vehicles and issue decals for the Local Government, State Government, Federal Government and other groups. Adamawa State was not yet doing this. We told them we were from Adamawa and would get the certificates when we returned. They said we could not pass until we paid 25,000 naira ($160). Yakubu told them we do not have that kind of money and explained to them that we were NGO's and were working on drilling boreholes in Bauchi State so their people could  have water. That they had educated us and we should now go. The young men were firm they wanted their Naira. We asked for their identification. They refused. We said OK one of you get in we will go to your office. They said no not until 4:00PM. We got out and hailed a taxi to go to the Bauchi Local Government offices. There we discovered the boys were working for a contractor for the local government tax collector. After an hour of arguing the head of the tax department called the contractor and asked him to come over. We ended up paying only 15,000 Naira and got the stack of certificates. Now it will be hard to get to Jos by 6:30.

We had our meeting with the District Pastor and the the District Church Mission team. Waya was not a concern to them. Then wanted to know when we were to start drilling in Polchi and Gadabiyu. I have not visited Polchi but did visited Gadabiyu last year. They said that the money for boreholes had been donated and they wanted the boreholes drilled. Yakubu explained the procedures to do the work. That the Water Team was part of the Medical Board now and the objective is to improve the health of the village. The village has to be prepared and have to agree on providing part of the funding, agree to maintenance, agree to sanitation and hygiene training and agree to building of VIP latrines if they do not have latrines in the village. They said the Danes did not have these requirements. The Danes do not require the village to give any naira just collect sand and give labor. We explained that our experience over the past five years is that naira was precious and labor or sand were of little value. If the village wanted to be part owners of the project they would donate a little naira. If they donate naira they will feel like they own it and will maintain it. I told them that we are not the White Man coming to help the Poor Nigerian. The Nigerian can help himself and we would help but we will not pay everything. The mission chairman seemed to understand but I do not think I made a friend of the District Pastor. It was now near 8 pm and the generator had little fuel. We arranged to meet the Catechist from Gadabiyu as our guide to Waya the next morning. We checked into our rooms to discover the water tank was empty that supplied the rooms and the barrels in the rooms were also empty. So we fetched water from the hand pump down by the main house and shared the little drinking water that was in our rooms. The next morning they turned on the generator and pumped water to the tank after we were at breakfast. 

 The next morning we were to meet the geologist at 8 to leave for Waya. They were there at 7. I am impressed with them. So far everything they have done has been professional and timely. Of course they wanted to leave and we wanted to eat breakfast. We did not know when our next meal will be. While we were eating they went to get camera batteries. We finished breakfast and needed to buy a little oil for the truck. The water truck is a 1995 Toyota Hi-Lux with a rebuilt 2.8 liter diesel engine. The only size of diesel engine oil the Total Station had was 4 liters. As we added the oil, the geologist called and we told them where we were. We joined up and then got another call. The Grace and Light Mission people had arrived back at Dogan Dutse Guest House with HIV test kits for their Yola office. We told them where we were and waited for them. The test kits were quite useful at the check points. When the soldier or police man asked what was in the bag and we said HIV test kit. He would look at me and I assume he assumed I was a doctor and would wave us through. Much easier than when our clothes or computer bags were on top of the piles.

Waya is a small village that was visited by a pastor from North Dakota a number of years ago. He was disturbed at the water the people were drinking. He decided he cannot help everyone in the world but he can help this one village. He has now contributed enough money to install two boreholes, two VIP latrines and provide sanitation/hygiene training in the village. VIP latrines are Ventilated Improved Pit latrines (not Very Important People latrines). The LCCN water program is part of the overall medical efforts of the LCCN to reduce illness and preventable deaths. Clean water at the water source by itself has a little effect on health. Clean water that is kept clean by proper sanitation and hygiene efforts have a greater effect. Hand washing, proper food handling and using a VIP latrine (followed by hand washing) will have the greatest effect on the health of the village. Sanitation and hygiene are harder to sell to the villages and the churches supporting the villages. Borehole water is seen as a status symbol and the cause and effect are immediate. When you are thirsty you drink water and quench your thirst. But for sanitation and hygiene the link between disease and sanitation is more remote and less easy to understand. When you get sick today it is harder to understand that it was caused by something you eat or drank up to 3 days ago. As long as I am up on my “Soap Box”, here is Jay’s understanding of the water priority for people living in rural villages: 1. Be able to collect enough water to live. 2. Have a water source as close to where you live and farm so you do not spend all day just collecting water. 3. Have clean water.

Hand dug well that is nearly empty. The water is muddy. Other hand dug wells had more water and were clear.

The village is split by a stream that floods during the rainy season. A single borehole would only help one side of the village. I changed my travel routine last year and visited the village on my way into Nigeria. Instead of flying from Abuja to Yola, I went by land and stayed a few day in Jos. The Jos District Church is the church that has worked with Waya in the past. The two churches in Waya are part of the Jos Distirct. Due to some confusion last year about two Pastor Emmanuels in Jos I was only able to visit Waya for a short time on a Sunday afternoon. I did not get in contact with the correct Pastor Emmanuel until Friday evening. During my brief visit I performed an initial survey and later created a draft project description and initial budget. It was 10% higher than the pastor had intended to donate. He said no problem, he can find another $1000.

Yakubu and Gary Sande from Global Health Ministries visited Waya last fall after the donor’s conference in Jos. They visited three villages. Waya and the two current mission out-reach areas of the Jos District (Gadabiyu anbd Polchi). Like my trip, their visit was brief in each village and they were not able to talk with the chief about the requirements of village participation, maintenance, sanitation and hygiene. I only visited 2 villages the third was too far for an afternoon visit. They started earlier and went to all three with the furthest village last and took back roads to Bauchi from there. They arrived late into the evening and totally worn out by the long day of driving on bad dirt roads.

 

We arrived at the less populated side village where the older Church is located with the driller, three geologists and their helper. We explained to the geologist that we did not want the borehole sited at the church because the Muslim part of the village would not use it. The geologist looked over the area and decided on three potential sites. While they were starting the geo-physical survey Yakubu went to the other side to speak with the chief. The chief had heard of the project and the village would be glad to participate. Wherever the geologist decide to put the borehole he will talk with the owner of the land and make sure they understand that it is a community borehole and he as chief fully supports the project.

 

We spent the whole day at Waya while the geologist performed surveys at six site. I spent most of the time in shade. In spite of SPF 30 sun screen my arms and neck got a little burned. This sun here is SPF 60. I had brought along a red and white checkered cloth. I soaked it in water and put it over my head to cool me and to protect my neck. I was told I looked like Yassar Arafat. As I walked up to the drillers they joked they thought that Al-Qaeda was coming. The kids would come to see the Batura but would not get close to me. For many of them I was the first white man they had seen. Others had seen me last year and Gary last fall. But they still would not get close to me until it was time for a picture.

The bad news is that the hydro-geology of the area does not look good. The basement rock is pretty solid and appears that the water is in the overburden and it the top few meters of the basement where the rock was weathered many centuries ago before it was buried. The plan is to drill through the weathered rock down into the solid material to make a reservoir to pump from. We will get the cost estimate for the work next week. We had hoped to find a site capable of handling a future solar powered borehole. But the rock fractures do not go deep. Even the hand pump may run dry. This is a site that my benefit from small check dams in the streams to force more water into the earth. The pro is a higher water table and less erosion. The con is that some loss of farm land could happen.

Little girl posed for me. I took several picture before a got a good exposure and good smile.

We ended the day at Bauchi with a visit to the Bauchi Church to talk to them about their project with Redeemer Lutheran of Minneapolis. Their companion congregation has raised enough money to install one borehole. The Bauchi Church has a mission field of six villages. All have similar problems with water. They want to put in six hand dug wells instead of one borehole. Gamakesa from the LCCN Rural Development Department had spent the previous day visiting all the sites. He will give us a cost estimate for the six hand dug wells with concrete walls, concrete covers and hand pumps after Easter. In general a properly built hand dug well is about half the cost of the borehole. The money that is available for their project will not cover 6 hand dug wells. They seemed to think that this was not a problem that Redeemer will furnish the funds. Yakubu went through the same conversation about participation that we had the previous evening in Jos. Then I told them that I was familiar with Redeemer Lutheran. That they are a small church in the poor part of Minneapolis. That they had worked hard for several years to save enough money for one borehole. I explained that Redeemer are involved with many programs in their own community. They feed the poor. They provide housing. They have youth programs and many other programs to help the poor in their community. Many of their members are poor themselves. They are a very active church that stretches their financial resources to the limits to help their neighbor in Nigeria and in America. It was hard for them to raise the money they have raised so far and do not expect that they will be able to quickly raise more money. (Sorry, my friends at Redeemer if I misrepresented you.) They were impressed that their companion was such an active church helping the poor. It probably is not my place to give the people a reality check. I have to be honest. People are always asking me to drill them a borehole. I look them in the eye and say "No". After their shocked expression goes away I tell them that "I will help you build your own borehole. Nigerians are capable of making their own boreholes. They do not need me or any other American to do it for them. We can help them by they must do it themselves."

Wednesday morning we left Bauchi headed home. Stopped at the Bauchi Church to say good bye to the Dean. His wife had hot water for tea and coffee ready for us and fried Irish potatoes. The night before he had said something about Irish and I heard coffee. I missed him saying potatoes. I asked if he was going to give us Irish Coffee? He knew what Irish Coffee was and laughed and said Irish potatoes. Yakubu did not know about Irish Coffee and did not know what was so funny. Adams, the Dean and I were laughing and poor Yakubu was wondering what the joke was. I explained it is coffee with alcohol. He asked they add a little alcohol to their coffee. We laughed again and said no, not a little. The Irish add a lot. (Sorry, my Irish friends but I have stereotyped you.)

As we were getting in the truck to head to Yola, Yakubu looked at his truck registration and insurance card. They had expired. We got past Gombe and we were stopped by the Gombe Vehicle Inspection Officers. Yakubu said "this will cost me." It cost us an hour and 7,000 naira. They had a manual typewriter with them and they typed up new registrations and new insurance papers on the spot. With as many people they had pulled over the wait was to get your turn with the typist. All very professional and official. Not like the young men in Bauchi. Like Bauchi any one with local plates were not inspected. We had plates from Plateau State.

Our final stop was in Lamurde. It was partially a waste of time. The Bible College was on holiday and the principal was not available. Global Health is interested in doing a borehole for the Bible College.The road from the main highway to Lamurde can hardly be called a road. Disconnected patches of asphalt. You spend more time on the dirt shoulder than on the road bed. Probably average 20 to 30 kilometers per hour. Finally, we stopped in Numan for an Nigerian lunch / dinner (pounded rice with okra soup and a little tuff meat. Got back to Jimeta before nightfall which is 6:30 this near the equator.