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.