Thursday 2/19/10

Thursday, 2/19/10 – I got up and ordered breakfast of oatmeal and hot tea. This is one of my staple breakfasts when in Nigeria, everything is boiled. Pastor Hosanna picked me up a little after 9 AM and we headed to the airport and exchanged more dollars so we could pay for the parts. (I still had not found the error). We drove after rush hour traffic it only took about 25 minutes to get to Unipump.

While we were waiting for them to gather the parts we took a tour of the factory. They have the capability to manufacture and galvanize the pump heads, handles, tank and base. The rest of the pump parts are imported from their factories in India. We picked up the parts and drove through downtown Lagos to the area where the buses accumulate another 20 minute drive. We got to within 2 blocks of the location and the road was badly potholed and flooded. We watched a truck drive through the water and decided we could not get his old springless Toyota through. We took an alternate route and bottomed out his car but got through. We found the bus that was heading to Yola and showed the driver what we had to ship. He said 12,000 naira and Pastor Hosanna said he was crazy and that he rides this bus many times every year and offered 5,000N. They argued at a 6 to 10 spread. Pastor told me to him 7,000 and to get in the car. The driver refused, finally we settled at 8,000. He probably could have negotiated better if a white man had not been there. I took a picture of the tools laying in front of the bus. Later that evening I emailed them to Yakubu in Yola. (Mercedes manufacturers buses in Nigeria for the West African Market.

We headed back to the guest house via the longest bridge in Nigeria. By now it was 3PM so we stopped at Real Meal Deals for chicken and noodles lunch/dinner. Tomorrow we will fly to Yola on Arik Airlines. They have a lower weight limit on luggage so I repacked all the heavy stuff into my carry-on bag. My big bag is now close to 40 lbs and so is my carry-on.

I decided to update my spreadsheet with the actual quantities of tools and parts and put in the 5% discount. I got a price of 201,742N. I called Engr. Hygi and he was away from his computer so I texted him my email address so he could send me his spreadsheet. Later he texted me that he found his mistake. I decided to proceed to Yola and talk to the State rural water manager on Monday to see if they are using R1’s on their projects. I am having Engr. Hygi send me prices for the R1 repair parts. I will figure and order for another 90,000 Naira of parts and tools and have them ship it to me in Yola. The rest can be refunded to me via a bank transfer. This way I will not have to dip into my reserve cash quite as soon.