Trip Summary

I was asked to write a Reader's Digest version of my last 2 1/2 months in Nigeria for a newsletter. I figured I would write a summary blog on my last day here. I am mostly packed and ready to head to the airport in about 5 hours. In all this was a successful trip. There were some frustrations. I had delayed my trip a few weeks so I would arrive after the Health Board had there two weeks of administrative training. Their training got delayed two weeks. At the end of the trip there was problems with transferring money to a driller and that delayed the drilling of the Waya borehole to the very end of the trip.

I should introduce myself for those who do not know me. I am Jay Johnson. I am a professional engineer. I am a retired Lt. Colonel from the US Army and Army Reserve. I have traveled extensively in my military and professional careers. Since 2006 I have been traveling to Nigeria annually. The first two trips were short two week visits with the Minneapolis Areas Synod / Global Health Ministries Public Health Evaluation Team. Starting in 2008 I visited by myself for visits of 6 week to 10 weeks. In 2008 my purpose was to start learning the people and culture. I visited all the Dioceses of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria and over 100 villages. This is when I composed my three priorities for village water. 1. A village wants to have enough water to survive. 2. They want the water as close to their village as possible. 3. They want safe water.

The Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria is based out of Adamawa State. Adamawa is a rural state in the northeast part of Nigeria on the border with Cameroon. It is mostly savannah. Deforestation is almost complete except in a few preserves and hillsides too steep to farm. They have two seasons. Dry season is from October to June. Rainy season is from June to October. In the southern part of the state the rainy season is longer and in the northern area it is even shorter. In the capital Yola the annual rainfall is about the same as Minneapolis. Except it is concentrated in a short period of time. Farming is mainly a rainy season business. We have had several rainfalls and the countryside is turning green. The vacant farm fields are now busy with people with hoes, or cattle pulling plows and tractors plowing. The sorghum has sprouted in some areas and the maize is being planted. On weekends the people from the cities head to their villages and plant their crops.

My original purpose in coming to Nigeria was to start my retirement career as a non-denominational water, sanitation and development consultant. All of my trips have been centered on clean water and sanitation, but have included work in community development. The three main organizations I work with are the LCCN Health Board Water and Sanitation/Hygiene (WASH) Team, the LCCN Deaf Centre and Spring of Hope HIV/AIDS Support Group. Over 90 percent of my efforts are with clean water.

This trip had a slow start as my main contact Yakubu Bulama the Water Coordinator for the Health Board and Projects Coordinator for the LCCN was working with the Health Board Administrative training for the first two full weeks I was in the country. I spent these weeks setting household in the old mission house on the LCCN Compound and visiting with the Deaf Centre. The guards at the Cathedral Church in the adjoining compound called my house the "falling down house."

 My travels this 10 weeks has probably totaled around 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) by road in public transportation and in LCCN owned vehicles. This was the most dangerous part of my time. Many of the drivers are not licensed. Some went from riding bikes to driving cars. Others drove motorbikes and drive their cars the same way. Few know the rules of the road. When I got my license I paid an extra 1,500 Naira ($10) so I did not have to talk to the driving examiner. The manager just gave me my license and told me that was what the extra money was for. 

Water accomplishments: There are more accomplishments than disappointments. Some of the disappointments are actually accomplishments (or steps towards accomplishments.)  The main two accomplishments were fixing the water distribution system at Banjiram and drilling two productive boreholes at Waya and a third at Polchi. (Waya and Polchi are in Bauchi State and are mission villages of the LCCN churches in Jos, Plateau State). We also were able to go to Timbukum, in the southern part of Adamawa State to start the review of the non-functional solar powered borehole that the Nigerian Government with money from the US Government had installed and never worked. We found that the pump was installed at the very top of the water table. The next phase which will do done after I leave will be to determine if the borehole is deep enough to lower the pump to under the water. We be a preliminary survey of the broken water system at the Government Secondary School in Hong that the PTA had asked for our assistance. In Pella we got to review the large hand dug well near the LCCN Maternity Clinic to determine the possibility and estimated cost to clean out the bottom of the well, cover the well and add a hand or powered pump. This is a highly productive well that has had continuous water for several decades. The water was over 6 feet deep. The hardest part of this project will be to find pumps capable of de-watering the well so the well diggers can enter and remove the several decades of debris that has accumulated.

Disappointments: We performed a geophysical survey of two points in the community around the Sabon Gari B District Church on the edge of Mayo Belwa. The survey indicated that there was not a significant amount of groundwater for a productive borehole at the two locations surveyed. However, there are several productive motorized boreholes operating in the area. The next thing for the community to do is to go to the owners of the productive boreholes and find out how deep they are and if possible measure the static and dynamic water levels. Likewise, the geophysical survey of the area where they want to install a borehole at Gada Biyu in Bauchi State found very little indication of groundwater. We have asked the geologist if an improved hand dug well might be possible. This village may require some more innovative system for obtaining water during the dry season.

Other Work: LCCN Deaf Centre is moving towards being able to serve more of the Deaf Community of Adamawa. Last week the Yola Bishop requested that the paperwork for the Ordination of Ruth Ulea as the first deaf pastor in the LCCN be forwarded to the Jimeta District Church. By tradition a candidate's home district is suppose to call pastors.Ruth's home church is in Arewa Diocese in Hong. They have sat on her application because she does not serve their community and for some other reasons. The LCCN Constitution on specifies that a District Church will call a pastor. In Ruth's case she provides Sunday School and church services in Jimeta and several other locations in the Yola Diocese. We fixed most of the roof leaks in the patio area where Ruth holds Sunday Services and I bought 7 sets of jewelry and some bracelets that some of the women make to support the Centre. They normally sell them for 300 naira in the local market. I talked them into sell them to me for 500 naira. I will be putting them up for bid on a website for a minimum of $10 (1,570 naira) with the profits going back to the Centre. I have started work on some concept designs for improvements to the LCCN Deaf Centre and improvements to the location that Church services are held at until a new church can be located, designed, financed and built. I was able to attend a meeting of the Spring of Hope HIV/AIDS Support Group. A part of the group has been trained in soap making. They only need $400 to buy the molds and ingredients for their first batch of soap. They have test marketed some of the soaps in their home villages and found that market to be more viable than in the more competitive Yola market. I hope to raise the $400 as a micro-loan when I get back to the US. I have made progress on fixing my "falling down house". The main opening that rats and mosquitoes come in through has been screened. There are two major roof problems that are washing away some of the mud bricks in the kitchen wing that will need attention soon or the kitchen wing will fall down. For the first time in the last three trips I have been able to stop and shop at Women of Hope store in Jos. I will be leaving the country broke but I purchased 71,000 naira of their merchandise. It will be for sale at the Mount Calvary Annual Fair Trade Fair the first weekend of November. I have a great tan from the elbows down and since I have driving the last month the left arm is now balanced with my right arm.


I almost forgot. After three years of sitting in Gaye Guyton's living room. The boxes of books that were collected for the Remi Foundation, the books I collected for the Bronnum Lutheran Seminary and the LCCN Deaf Centre arrived in Jos and I picked them up Saturday when we were there for the Waya borehole drilling. They were all distributed on Monday. The Deaf Centre library went from about a dozen books to almost 100. They are considering allowing the students to take some of the books home to read overnight. I have been in locked libraries at schools. Most schools to not have a library at all. The Jimeta Cathedral school has a room in their new expansion designated for a library but does not have books. The culture of reading is very small. Most students only read text books and some have workbooks.

Last Post Before Returning to Minnesota

Drill Rig at Waya, Bauchi State, Nigeria. Air Hammer into weathered and then solid granite.

Before taking you on my trip to Jos, a quick update on the Banjiram project. The water system operator has reported that once the solar powered system had a full day of sunshine that all the taps at all three sites are working.

After several delays due having problems with money transfers we finally headed for Jos and Waya. Yakubu left first on Friday May 11th. His mission was to continue working with the Jos Church and their mission outreach communities of Gada Biyu and Polchi. He also arranged to have a geophysical survey of the two sites performed. Adams and I waited in Jimeta for the money to get transferred to the driller from the Health Board so he could mobilize his drill rig to Waya in Bauchi State. For various reasons the money transfer was delayed and delayed. The plan was that we would drive to Jos on the first day of drilling so we could be there when they installed the Afridev pump. Adams had never seen an Afridev pump installed and we wanted him to participate in the effort. Yakubu arranged for us to stay at the Sacred Heart Pastoral Centre also known at Bishop's Court. The Nigerian Board of Accountancy is having testing of new accountants in Jos and the Lutheran guesthouse and most every other place was full. He told us to come up on Wednesday May 16th. We got on the road at 6:25 AM and made it to Jos 8 hours later without anything interesting happening. We were stopped by the same Vehicle Inspection Officers that had stopped us during the April trip. We showed them the papers they had given us and they said your papers are good. Most of the Police and Army Check Points waved us through when they saw a Butura (white man) driving.


Thursday morning we could not start the truck, The 80 amp fuse for the cylinder heaters had blown. It took us a while to diagnose the problem. A local mechanic got us started and took us over to his vehicle electric repairman's shop. He wired across the fuze and we gave him money to find and buy a new fuse. They were a little perplexed that we wanted to put a new fuse in. They normally just wire across the fuse and call it good.

We arrived at Waya the next morning to find that they had just started drilling and would not finish the drilling of the first borehole until Friday. We could come back on Saturday for the pump install.

Friday I spent by going to the Mashiah Foundation to buy quilted products and some jewelry from Women of Hope. When I arrived I asked Mary Beth Oyebaye if the health clinic has started operating yet. She said the building was not ready to house a health clinic but they are using it for their school. They have 70 students including the orphans they work with and this year they invited the children from the neighborhood. The have Nursery School up through 9th grade.

 I toured the school and was impressed by how the teachers and kids were interacting. Not the "I talk and you listen" approach that is used in most schools in Nigeria. Then she showed me her pride and joy, the library. It was packed with books. Both reference books for the teacher and lost of books that the kids can check out and take home. Most libraries I had seen at other much larger schools were less well stocked and dusty from not being used. The common belief is that if you let a child take a book home they will not bring it back. So the books are protected from the children.

Vivien with the teacher's reference books behind her.

Saturday, Adams and I went back out to Waya and having to break into the truck because I had locked the keys inside. Fortunately, they were sitting on the passenger seat. We pried the corner of the door open and hooked the keys with a wire. From then on every time we got out of the truck Adams would ask me if I had the keys.


It turns out they were not ready to perform the pump test and install the pump. We went through the procedures they would use to install the pump and went to look at the pump stand they had built. On Monday when we were back in Yola they performed the pump test and installed the pump.The pump test was a short term single rate test. They pumped at 85 liters per minute for 2 hours and never ran out of water. I hand pump will only pump 15 liters per minute. The borehole was drilled through weathered granite into solid granite to a depth of 25 meters.

The drillers were not drilling on the second borehole. They had run out of diesel fuel. They fuel they went and bought had a lot of water in it and was not useable. They were waiting for more fuel from Bauchi.
We left and returned to Jos by noon on Saturday. They started drilling an drilled to solid bedrock. This borehole has a much thicker layer of weathered bedrock and more water than the first borehole. Based on the pump test of the first borehole, either could be converted to use an electric pump rather than a hand pump sometime in the future as Waya grows and they can afford the cost of fuel to run and submersible pump.

After returning to Jos, I went to the Hillcrest School Staff compound to pick up 7 bins of books we had shipped from Minnesota. The books had been collected by members of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church for the students at the Remi Foundation, LCCN Deaf Centre, and the Bronnum Lutheran Seminary. We put two bins in the back seat and tied the other five into the bed of the truck. I was worried about rain and drove around Jos looking for a shop that sold tarps or plastic. I randomly drove down streets filled with all kinds of shops. After about 15 minutes I happened upon a sheet of plastic along the side of the road. It fit over the five bins in the bed of the truck.

I caused myself a lot of stress. I did not fuel up on Saturday night. We were told the diesel in Jos was 170 Naira per liter and in Bauchi it was 165. We thought we had enough fuel to make it to Bauchi but planned to get a few liters before Bauchi. We left at 6:25 on Sunday morning. All the fuel stations were closed. As we got out into the sparsely populated area between Jos and Bauchi it seemed I could see the fuel gauge drop. 20 kilometers outside of Bauchi the needle was below the last mark. I had been driving slow to conserve fuel and was getting a little tense. Ten kilometers outside of Bauchi we came to the first filling station in the past 60 kilometers and they had diesel at 165. We got 50 liters and headed to Gombe for brunch.  The rest of the trip went without incident other than a Highway Patrol Officer who asking us for money for water. I offered him a sachet of water and he laughed and waved us through. Later a young, I think female, Army private asked me what I had for "Baby on Sunday". I looked around the truck and said I had my wish that she have a nice day today. She laughed and waved us throw the check point. Only at two of the check points did the police or army personnel ask what was in the seven boxes.

We arrived at the Jimeta LCCN compound at 2:35 PM. With some help we off loaded the boxes into the house. That evening I sorted the books and set aside one bin of primary school books for the LCCN Deaf Centre. We had not told them about the books. Monday morning I took the bin of books over to them and a note with suggestions on how they should use them. I wrote that books sitting on a shelf does nothing. Books in childrens hands turns into education and encouraged them to designate some of the books the kids can check out over night. The immediate reaction was that the books would never come back. Then Ruth said that she will talk to the parents and will stamp each book with the Deaf Centre stamp. Ruth and the teachers were thrilled. Their little library of the dozen books I brought last year just got looking big.

Mrs. Bongi stopped by with a van and picked up the rest of the books for the Remi Foundation School for the Disabled. Later, Sekenwa Briska from the Seminary stopped by and picked up the Seminary Books. He had recently received his Ph.D from Luther Seminary in St. Paul. He had shipped 75 smaller boxes of books to Ghana through a friend. He was now trying to figure out how he would get them from Ghana to Nigeria.

I drove to the airport today to buy my ticket from Yola to Abuja on Arik Airlines. They had an office in the terminal. The terminal was gone. Torn down and a new terminal was under construction. I went to the IRS airline office and asked them where Arik was.They directed me to a building about a half kilometer away. They and a temporary office. You get your luggage checked there and they drive out out to the plane in a small bus. Wednesday I fly out of Yola at five and out of Abuja at nine. I will be back in Minnesota Thursday morning.

I Ain't As Young As I Wish I Were. LCCN Deaf Centre

There are two reasons I wish I was younger. It seems that it was easier to learn new things when I was younger. I have never been good at Languages. I still have trouble with English. Learning ASL had been challenging. The Deaf Community here uses American Sign Language with some local modifications and many also use ASL Exact English. ASL is not English. It is a native language used the the Deaf in America and other places that have adopted it. It is recognized as a language and many Universities teach it as a foreign language. Most people who speak in ASL.will read and write English.

The second reason is because I try to do things that I did when I was forty and then pay for it. I was helping repair the roof on the shelter area next to the LCCN Deaf Centre when a pulled a muscle in my back. The rest of this week I have had to have help with moving my generator and I walk around like an old man. Fortunately, this week has been report writing and waiting for money to be transferred.

Monday night we had a typical May rain storm. A lot of wind and maybe a quarter inch of rain. Between the wind and the rain it broke one of the scraps of wood used to hold up the roof of the shelter attached to the LCCN Deaf Center. This is the location where they hold Sunday Services and do many other things. To me it looks like a group of pre-teens put it together. The columns are 2X4's and all different heights. the beams holding up the tin roof are 2X 3's and are not full length. The roof stops at the edge with no overhang. The rain blows right in.

I wondered over to the Centre Tuesday morning. Ruth Ulea who is the centre's director showed me the broken beam and told me that the rain now pours in through the roof. I noticed that the carpenter was still here that I had hired to be some work over at Elisabeth's house. I told him to stay there I was going to my house and will come back. I think that is what I more or less signed. I went and got some note paper and my tape measure. Then I went to the Cathedral where there were some piles of wood from the recent construction. I asked the Church Secretary if I could take some of the wood to make repairs to the shelter. He at first said he would ask the works committee when they met later in the day. I took him over and showed him what we needed. He told me to take up to three boards from the pile. The carpenter and I measured the lengths we needed and went to scrounge in the pile. We found one piece long enough for the broken spot and a couple shorter ones. One piece still had parts of a door jamb nailed to it. I asked him if he had any tools. He said he can borrow some. We went over to the small shop near the Cathedral and had him pick out a good hammer, saw and tape measure. He selected the nails he thought he might need and we went back.


We first replaced the broken board with the longest of the boards we found and then continued to replace the rest of the string. To slide the newer board into place the roof had to be lifted. That was a young man's job but I did it and the young man slide the board into place. That was not good for may back. After we got the roof better supported I told Ruth that is was better, but the whole thing should be rebuilt. The roof extended out a few more feet beyond the edge of the concrete and the slope of the roof increased. This weekend I hope to draw up a design.

The carpenter had bought about 10 times as many nails as needed for this job. He continued to fix the railings around the shelter. We used whatever board we could find in the area. Some were not very straight. Then he climbed up on the roof and cleaned it off and pounded in the loose roofing nails. Then continued on up on the roof of the building. Neem trees are all around the front of the building. They provide shade year around. Most trees do dormant in the dry season. Neem trees stay green and are continuously dropping leaves and twigs. The roof had bee dammed up by the accumulation of debris on the flat roof. 

Tuesday was the first day back at school. The Deaf Centre has 11 kids enrolled. 7 had shown up on time. One came a little later. The kids told him that they had their picture taken. He wanted his taken too. Ruth told me that the tuition for the kids is 3000 Naira per term and some cannot pay it. Her two teachers do not get a salary. They get a small allowance.  Of 4,000 Naira for the teacher that just graduated and 5,000 for the more experienced teacher. I am pretty sure this is a monthly allowance and it is mostly paid by Ruth doing fundraising from a few people. I am thinking about forming a support group to help fund tuition for the kids and allowances for the teachers. 3000 Naira tuition is less than $20 per term or less than $60 per year at the current exchange rate of 157 Naira to the dollar. The saw I bought for the carpenter was 3000 Naira. The annual allowances for the senior teacher is 60,000 Naira is $382.

The other thing that needs to be done is a new roof for the LCCN Deaf Centre building, a generator (at night if there is no light there is no talking) and a new extended shelter be built that can keep people drier during rainy season Sunday Services. Maybe build an Altar for communion. I am guess-t-mating the cost of this will be around $3000 to $4000. It would be nice if we could get these improvements done before Ruth is ordained. But this is just my free opinion. You get what you pay for.

There is a informal group of people who are working on getting Ruth Ordained. She graduated from Seminary 20 years ago this November. Her classmates included current Yola Bishop and the Senior Pastor at the Cathedral. But there is a lot of church politics involved and a little prejudice from some older pastors.

There are people in Denmark Deaf Lutheran Church and people in the US who are putting pressure on the Archbishop to get this matter resolved. This is not the forum to discuss this issue. I will leave it at, there is still Tradition, Church politics, and people who are frightened of people who are different..

Banjiram Last Visit During This Trip

Crowd at school taps before we added the 3" pipes.

 These are the before pictures. The borehole and tank are at a government secondary school. This is what it was like at the 10 water taps at the school everyday at 3PM when the water was turned on. There are 16 remote taps closer to the home. The flow at the remote taps is very little and does not last long. Most people walk the extra 200 meters to get in line. In a previous blog I discussed my redesign of the distribution system to try to get more water into the system each day and get it out to the village at the remote taps. Those who have followed my since 2009 have heard my three water priorities.

Crowd waiting at the ten taps at the school.

1. Have enough water to live.
2. Have the water close to home so you do not spend as much time fetching.
3. Have good quality of water.

On Thurday and Friday May 3 and 4 we went back to Banjiram to bring them the pipes and parts to improve the performance of the distribution system. The modeling for the re-design of the system starts to work with adding 270 meters of 2-½ inch pipe. It works better with 3 inch. Due to supply and demand currently the 3 inch pipe is cheaper than the 2-½ . I had been told that the buried pipes going out to the remote tap stands were 1-½ inch pipes. We only purchased fittings that would connect the 3 inch to the 1-½ inch. It took most of the morning to get the right pipes and the right lengths onto a truck to transport it out to Banjiram. The 6 meter long pipes that shop was selling were actually 4.92 meters long. We had to measure the pipes and recalculate how much we needed. We now needed 78 of the 4.92 meter pipe and they were still cheaper than the 2-½ inch pipe .

They did not have 1-½ inch tees so they sent out some boys to their other shop to get them. They finally, came back and tossed them in the bag of parts. I should have looked at them. They were 2 inch tees. It really did not matter because the pipe in the ground was actually 1-¼ inch. It also took a long time to get the 78 pipes from his other warehouse and loaded onto a truck. We made sure the driver knew where to go and we headed out at a little after 11. Our trucks had been parked facing each other. He went one way and we headed in the opposite. We had to get fuel and make a stop in Numan to deliver some paperwork to the Health Board Director. We did not know that the truck driver was headed to his house to get a second rack for his truck. He did not like the way the pipes were hanging on back of his truck with only one rack. The pipes showed up about two hours after we got to Banjiram. While we were waiting for him we had the people start digging a wider trench for the pipes and explained to the plumber what we were going to do. He was unconvinced that it would work, The pump in the borehole was only a 1-¼ inch pipe so he reasoned that it was too small to push water through a 3 inch pipe. I tried to explain to him. He just shook his head. He was being paid he will make the connections.

We off loaded the pipes by the tower and when the plumber was ready the men, women and kids all grabbed pipes and took them to the trench. On Thursday we connected assembled and buried all the 3 inch pieces and decided on what parts we needed to finish the work on Friday. We also looked at the existing leaks in the system and made a list of repair parts. We rushed back to Yola and started searching for the parts just before sundown. The shops were trying to close and get home before dark. Most of what we needed were found at the third shop we tried.

Friday morning, Yakubu could not come with us so I was the driver. Adams and I located the final parts and were on the road to Banjiram by 9. We arrived and called the plumber to drive down from Guyuk about 15 kilometers further up the road. Everything went smoothly until we started trying to repair the 20 year old valves and coupling that were leaking. I have to give the plumber credit. He was able to hammer and force these old rusted fittings loose. The leaks were because of the misalignment of the pipes as much as the age of the parts. Some of the old buried pipes had to be moved a few inches. We had hoped to be finished by noon so we could pump some water during peak solar power. We were finally able to get the leaks down to a few minor drips at just after 2 pm. 

Everyone stepped back to let me get a picture of the water.

Five hours of pumping had been missed for the day. The sun was past it peak and there was no water in the tank. Usually the tank is half full when the system is opened. At 2:30 we turned on the water to the distribution system. It now had to fill 260 meters of 3 inch pipes. The North Pipe stand that used to have only 2 of the 8 taps working had good flow at all 8 taps after taking 30 minutes to fill the lines. The South tap stand that usually had 5 taps flowing only had two. We had the women at the North Tap Stand singing and dancing and the women at the South Tap Stand looking for a rope to hang me with. Finally, Adams checked a valve that the operator had told us was wide open and found it was closed. A few minutes after he opened it the South Tap Stand had 4 of the 8 working. It was not late in the day and past the peak solar time. Adams explained to the women that the pump had been off all day as we worked on the system and there was not water in the tank. He told them it will be better tomorrow. (When we would be safely back in Yola.)

The next day as I sat in the LCCN Cathedral in Yola at a wedding ceremony for 5 couples a lady came and sat down next to me. She said "I am from Banjiram. You are a brother of Banjiram." She must live near the North Tap Stand.

Line for water at the artesian flow while we worked.

Night Flow Tank: Before the sun get high enough in the sky to start the pump and after it gets to low for the pump to operate the water in the borehole flows out of a 2 inch pipe welded to the casing. This artesian flow it collected by women from early in the morning until the pump starts and after the pump stops they are fetching late into the night. The operator asked me if there was any way to pipe this flow into the distribution system. I tried to explain to him that the forces underground that is forcing the water up to the surface is barely enough to get it to the surface and since the borehole is at the lowest place in Banjiram the force is not enough to move the water up to the taps. He would come back and ask again and again. I told him that since water only flows by gravity down-hill the water would have to flow into a tank and then be pumped out. We did not time the water flow but estimated it to be 10 liters per minute. For the 16 hours of  no solar power the artesian flow will be around 9600 liters. I have asked some of my geologist and engineer friends to calculate what he flow would be if we could lower the outlet by 4 feet. The first estimate is that it could add as much as 50%. The second response was that it would not be significant. Both from geologist. The civil engineers and mechanical engineers who specialize in fluid flow have not responded yet. I think it is somewhere between. I will have to wait to get to my fluid mechanics books at home. My gut feeling is that it is closer to the Neal’s estimate of 50%. If we can achieve 15 liters per minute we could build a 15, 000 liter underground tank. Purchase a small pump than will lift the water up into the elevated tank every morning and we would have nearly twice as much water to feed the distribution system. Currently, the system is opened only once per day at 3PM until the tank is empty and the pump stops pumping. With the addition of the overnight water the system might be able to be opened twice a day. The other option is to have a hand pump on the overnight tank and people could pump the water anytime they want to.

Concept of the Night Flow Tank

Night Flow with lowered inlet.

Hong, Large concrete tank on rock outcrop on the right and small red tank.

This week has been busy. Monday and Tuesday was planning for Thursday and Friday. We were suppose to get all the parts needed for Thursday to install the improvements I designed for Banjiram. But we ran into problems and got nothing actually purchased. Wednesday we headed to Hong and Pella up north and east of Jimeta. I wanted to cancel the trip and concentrate on getting ready for Banjiram. I am now glad we did not.

Adams showing Gamakesa the old hand dug well

Hong. Hong is the seat of the Hong Local Government Area. The Government Secondary School PTA has asked us to advise them on improving the water from their borehole and improve their distribution system. Adams has gone up and flushed the borehole and had the electric pump repaired and tested. Yakubu now wants to see the distribution system. They assume it is no good after being in the ground for forty years.Nobody knows where the pipes are, sizes or anything other than there are two tanks. The original tank was  built by the Lutherans up on a large rock outcropping on the side of the hill. It was filled from a large hand dug well. The hand dug well was in a building that has now fallen down. Adams and the drillers thought it was an old borehole until they started digging it out and discovered the old well. A smaller tank was built when the borehole was added. Most of the teachers and principals are new and have little information.

Gamakesa on top of old concrete tank

This is a little unusual project. It is for improvements to a government facility. But many of the students are Christians and Lutherans. Also Gary Sande who works as the Nigerian Coordinator for Global Health Ministries was the missionary that started the school back in the 1960’s. People still talk about Mr. Gary and his Volkswagen Beetle bouncing down the roads. (I claim literary license on the validity of these statements about Gary and his Beetle.)

Hong GSS borehole

We found the 6 inch borehole with steel casing to be 77 feet deep with water at 19 feet. It was reported the when the pump runs the borehole will run out of water. They you have to stop the pump and wait for the water to return. But, no one that was there had been at the school when the pump was running.Everyone is assuming that the existing pipes in the ground are leaking. No one has been at the school since the pump quit working a long time ago. The pipe could be good. One problem is that it is all galvanized. Which means that zinc can leach out. A part of me is hoping that when a leak test is run that it will show leaks and we can install some heavy duty PVC pipe. When I started asking question about how they wanted to improve the system they had not yet thought about what they want to do with the water when the rebuilt pump is installed. I asked a few leading questions to get them thinking. I will need to sit and think a while to determine the series of questions that they need to consider before a distribution system is designed. 

Maspalma Samson explaining resistance survey.

After we had finished I decided to go back to the borehole and see how much my altimeter on my new GPS and changed in the hour since I took the first reading (2 meters). While I was taking the reading a young man in a red vest came up and introduced himself. Maspalma Samson is a geologist with the Nigerian Geological Survey who was from Pella and has lived in Hong. He has mapped and entered the geology of the area in GIS systems. He was here collecting water samples for his Masters in Environmental Science. He had heard we were coming to the area when he had been in Pella collecting samples. I called to Yakubu and Adams to come back under the tree. They were headed back to the Admin Building to have a look at the pump and were in a hurry to get finished and on the next task. I introduced them and after a half hour of conversations, exchanges of emails and phone numbers we were on our way to find old people.

Mølgaard's cook with wife, son and daughter, approx. 1977

Picture: Elisabeth Holtegaard, whose car we had borrowed to make this trip, had given us a picture of a man and his wife who was believed to have lived in Hong. The man had been a cook for various Danish Missionaries. When Elisabeth had told them she had meet the wife a few years ago at the LCCN Annual Convention they wanted to thank her for all the help she and her husband provided many years ago. They collected some money and gave it to Elisabeth to give to her or if she had passed on to her family. I thought we were on a Fool’s Errand. We found man who knew where some of the elders sit under a Neem tree in the afternoon. None of them recognized the picture. 

Pella: Our mission in Pella is to estimate the cost to clean out, cover and install a hand pump on the old hand dug well near the Maternity clinic. We had brought Gamakesa with us. He is the expert on well digging. As we drove into town on the new road we decided to first go to the Bible College where we had installed a pump in 2009. They were happy to see us and told us the pump was working good. We pumped the handle once and water started flowing. They had planted a little garden at the end of the waste trough to use the spilled water. When we went back to the car I saw this motorcycle wheel with some strips of tire tubing going to a little wheel in a mud housing. I asked what was? It is the blower for the forge for the black smith. They had taken a fan wheel out of something and formed a fan housing out of clay. It was still wet but they spun the wheel and air blew out of the little hole by the ground. This is the smallest forge I have ever seen.

Blower for the Blacksmith forge.

They gave us some groundnuts (peanuts) for a snack. Gamakesa told me they did not have a NAFDAC number. I guess most of the white people he had been working with only ate things approved by the Nigerian version of our FDA. At first the joke as lost on me. I had been eating local food for several years now. We thanked them for the snack and went back to the main part of town.

It only took us a few minutes to determine that the 4 foot diameter well was 21.85 meters down to the water and the water was 2.3 meters deep. As far and anyone knew well has never been cleaned. There could be another 2 meters of buckets, bags, rocks kids tossed in and whatever from last 40 years. Gamakesa thinks it will take 7 days to get cleaned out if he can find pumps powerful enough keep the water pumped down so the workers can dig.

As we were about to leave Helena the Nurse Mid-Wife in charge of the maternity clinic talked us into staying and having some coffee. She said the water was hot and ready. We sat under a mango tree and I commented that it was too bad that the ripe mangos were so high. A little while later we saw some kids with a long stick knocking down the few remaining ripe mango. They brought over a pot filled with mangos. Helena washed them with salt water and we ate fresh mangos. We showed Helena and others the picture of the couple we were looking for and she and everyone else said they did not know her. About then the local Pastor came up to great us. We offered him a mango but he was on his way to meet with the chief at his palace. We showed him the picture. He took one look and said he had been with them when he was in Jos. She is now a member at the Gombi Cathedral. They will be able to find her there. She is old but still very lively. Amazed we thanked him and Helena and headed for Gombi which on our way back to Jimeta anyway.

Cook's wife at Gombi Cathedral

Gombi. Gombi is the home of the Shall Holma Diocese. The Gombi Church is now there Cathedral. It is only a kilometer out of our way. We parked outside the gate because the Boy Brigade was practicing and no cars were allowed in. I told them I would guard the car so they can go into and ask questions without having to explain why they have a white man with them. As I was sitting on a large tree root an older lady walked up and went through the gate. It was the lady they were looking for. She was coming for Wednesday evening bible study. Yakubu explained to her that Elisabeth Holtegaard wanted to see her and gave her money to come to Jimeta. If we had not stopped for coffee with Helena we would not have met the pastor and the lady. If I had not decided to go back to the borehole for a second measurement we would not have met the geologist with knowledge to the area that could be of great help to us in the future.

Cook's wife and her son in Jimeta

On Thursday while we were in Bamjiram the lady came to Jimeta to visit Elisabeth with her son that is shown in the picture. She brought along pictures of all her children for Elisabeth to take back to her friends in Denmark