Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Medicine Tree Seeds
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuna Fish Salad Sandwich
This is some of the things in my cupboard. I have finished the oatmeal with two breakfasts left to go. The Vienna Sausages and beans made beans and weanies a couple of nights ago. The Heinz vegetable salad mixed with tuna chunks makes three tuna fish salad sandwiches. I have a bowl of the it in the freezer. The freezeer only gets power a few hours per day so it will stay cold but may not freeze. Lately, we get power from the national grid from around 1AM to 5 or 6 AM. Then I am connected to the generator at the Jimeta Catherdral. They have programs most evenings so I get generator power for a couple hours most nights. Last night there was no program at the church so I had no power. The 4 bottles of water in the freezer I had managed to freeze last week, when the weather was cooler and the Cathedral had programs everynight are thawing out. They are easier to drink that way.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, Out for a Walk, One-Eyed Buffalo
This morning was a cool morning with cloud cover. I decided to take a walk out the back (north) of the compound. I have been out the back gate a few times but always headed south back to the main road. Today I stayed on the backstreet and headed east toward the tool store that had range poles for surveying.
My first surprise was to find a technical bookstore. It is like a small student’s bookstore. Many of the books were published in the late 2000’s. They had two copies of Environmental Geology the sixth and eighth edition. The 8th edition was from 2008. The text on project management was from 2006. It was a good thing that I had only 6,000 naira on me or I may have spent some of it on books.
I made my way across the next main street east of the compound without being hit by any of what I call the Chinese mosquitoes. Blue smoke puffing Chinese motorcycles. They go every which direction and obey no rules. Most have two or more people on them. I just want to swat them like mosquitoes. I decided to continue down the back streets and found a "one-eyed buffalo". This is what they are called in Korea. It is a large diesel powered roto-tiller that has a seat and a rear wheel. They can be driven down the road pulling a cart, connected to a water pump or or even till a farm field. This was the first one I have seen here. Its tiller had been removed and a welding coil had been mounted above where the tiller was. When the machine shop needs something welded they drive out their one-eyed buffalo and use it for arc welding. They men in the area were amused when I called it a "one-eyed buffalo". Then I showed them the single headlight and it did the work of a water buffalo in Korea. I asked the men if these are used on the farms around Adamawa and they said yes. I asked where and they said on the Governor’s farm. They did not know of any other places.
I continued by walk to the tool store and looked at the range poles. When I looked at them, the quality was poor and the shopkeeper wanted 1,200 naira ($8). I was not sure I wanted to pay that much for something only had one use for. So I continued my back street trek. Heading further north to the next street north wondering what other surprises were waiting for me. I found a borehole with a hand pump and a sign saying it was a 2006 federal government project (N09.28105, E012.45306). The sign was beaten and rusted and the pump was not functional. that was no surprise. This pump is in a more residential area and would be a good candidate for repair. Since it is in a large town it is the responsibility of the Adamawa State Water Board. Of course it would not surprise me if the local water sellers broke the pump and that it would be broken again as soon as it was fixed.
I headed back to the house to get my camera and found my last surprise of the morning. There is a laundry shop about 100 meters north of the compound. I have been hand washing my clothes at night in a bucket. Last year I trekked south to a laundry about a 1000 meters away. I stopped using them after the first load of clothes smelled worse after washing than when I took them in. This laundry wants 150 naira ($1) to wash a shirt and pants. But if I brought them in on Monday I would not get them back until Thursday or Friday. I might give them a try next trip. I leave on Thursday.
After photographing the bookstore and the "one-eyed buffalo" I headed to the Specialty Hospital to meet with the "Spring of Hope", HIV support group. They hold their meeting the last Friday of each month. Today they had the doctor in charge of monitoring and evaluation of TB and Leprosy programs in Adamawa State talking to them about infectious diseases. It was mostly in Hausa but I could catch the drift of what he was saying as he switched back and forth from English and Hausa. The support group had a lot of intelligent questions and he gave them straightforward answers. After he finished they had a group photo with the doctor and then I was asked to say a few words. I told them what I was doing in Nigeria and gave them the standard “teach a man to fish, and help him to get the equipment to fish but I won’t fish for him” speech. Them I told them how glad I was to see that they have support groups and understand the importance of helping each other. I also told them that it is good to ask doctor’s questions. It is their health not the doctor's so it is good that that they understand how to protect their health. We then had lunch and I paid 1500 naira for an annual membership in Spring of Hope. They use the dues to rent an office, for conducting awareness campaigns/outreach and for emergency loans to group members to buy drugs needed to fight the opportunistic infections that many HIV positive people have to fight.
Farah (pronounced far-ah) james is their leader and a local activist on many matters. She found out she was HIV positive when her husband died of AIDS. At the time she was pregnant and passed the HIV to her baby who also died. She no longer has a paying job. She was a teacher but the stress of full-time work and fulltime activist was too much. So she quit her job. She is like me just doing volunteer work. But unlike me she does not have savings and a IRA. Her latest venture is to start a young women’s group for the Lutheran Church. She is headed to Jos with representatives from the other diocese to discuss how the church could start this new group. She used to live in the house that I have been living in. It is basically, falling apart. She decided to live with her Mother rather than keep spending money on fixing up a 60 year old mud brick house. I found out that she is hosting the women of the Lutheran Youth Encounter in her (or her Mother's home). LYE is a singing group that has been traveling Ghana and now Adamawa. They will be performing in Minnesota and Wisconsin sharing their travel experiences in May and later this summer.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Retired Governor & Ambassabor Juta
I met Juta during our 2006 trip when he hosted a party for Gary Sande and again in 2007 when the public health team went to his old compound for dinner. Gary is the Nigeria coordinator for Global Health Ministries and was a missionary teacher here in Nigeria. I think Juta was one of his students and later became the principal of the same school where Gary was the principal.
When Elisabeth was teaching at TCNN in Jos she met Juta a young man that was just returned for 6 years of studying in the US. Later he would be the Governor of Gongola State (which has now been split into Adamawa and Taraba States). After being Governer he became the Ambassabor to Zimbabwe. Recently, he had been working with development in the Delta region where the oil companies are getting the oil and the people are not. Elisabeth was also a teaching missionary in Nigeria and Juta became the principal of the Hong Secondary School that Gary had started earlier.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
John & Christiana Orume 50th Jubilee
Sunday March 21, 2010 Orume Golden Jubilee
Today we celebrated the 50th Wedding Anniversary of John A. T. and Christiana I Orume. They were married on March 16th, 1960. John had a long career in government before retiring in 1993 as the Permanent Secretary for Taraba State. When John was 14 he wanted to attend middle school. He found out that they only accept children that are 12 or younger. So he registered for middle school as a 12 year old. Since then the official records John indicate that he was born in 1936. He was also active in all the churches he was part of. From his early Christian education, he continued in the church where his government postings took him. When posted in Yola he and Christiana became members the church now known as LCCN Cathedral Jimeta. He was on the building committee chair and treasurer for the construction of the Cathedral in 1988. His hobbies are listed in the program as sports, gardening and animal rearing. Based on what we saw at his celebration dancing should also be included.Christiana was born of Mr. and Mrs. Basuku Ate. Her father was of Bama Jukum ruling house of Wukari. Chrsitiana attended Ebenezer Primary church school from 1954 to 1959. After marriage in 1960 she attended Administrative Officer’s Wives Course in 1962. She also has remained active in the church. At 19 she was the secretary of the HEKAB Women Fellowship and is currently, the president of the Lardi Women Fellowship. She has raised the families 9 children (7 daughters and 2 sons) and celebrated the births of 29 grandchildren.
The festivities of the day started at the English service at the Cathedral which were presided over by Bishop Edward Ishaya, Bishop of the Yola Diocese. We celebrated with a Thanksgiving Offering. John and Christiana came to the pulpit and John told a few stories of their lives and how they had stayed together for 50 years. Then as the offering started they danced down the aisle from the back of the church with their children and grandchildren. They then shook hands as people filed down the aisles to lace their tithes and offerings into the containers at the front of the church.
Later in the afternoon, they held a reception at their house in Jimeta. Dr. Bille was the Chairman and Bishop Edward Ishaya’s wife was the Chairwoman. Retired Archbishop David Windibiziri was a guest speaker as well as Bishop Edward Ishaya. After introducing the head table, visiting dignitaries and honored guests, John and Christiana were introduced and danced their way into reception area in their courtyard shaded by mango trees. After various speeches from friends and officials they cut an anniversary cake (with fireworks) and drink a toast from the same cup. Later we were entertained by a local traditional drum and singing group. As they were singing John and Christiana got up and danced. This become the naira dance as people came up the threw money at them and tried to get it to stick to their foreheads. Usually, in this environment that is not hard. But because of the Harmantan Winds with dust from the Sahara has blocked the sun for three days the temperature was cool.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Guyuk and Retired Archbishop Windibiziri
This weekend has been busier than most. Saturday morning Elisabeth and I drove from the Jimeta LCCN Compound (N09.27996, E12.44847) to Guyuk to visit Retired Archbishop David Windibizri and his wife Margareth at their home (N09.90310, E11.93101). Elisabeth and the Windibiziri’s have been friends since he was a pastor and Elisabeth was a missionary teacher and school principal over 40 years ago. David is writing a book on the history of his tribe, the Longuda. He has been working on it for many years. A few years back he had a fire at his home and all of his papers burned. Fortunately, Elisabeth had most of it typed into her computer. Since the fire David has not done much work on it. Whenever he gets started something else will come up and he will put it down. Elisabeth has invited him to go to Denmark for 3 months to work on the book. She has done research in the Danish archives and found information about Christianity coming to his tribe. In Denmark he will not have as many distractions. Elisabeth says whatever the results are at the end of the three months that is what the book will be.
The other thing that David wanted me to see was the bad water conditions on his side of the town of Guyuk. Normally, towns where a Local Government Authority is based has the best water supply and the area around the main part of town does have a good borehole, water tower and distribution system. It is only turned on a few times per day. Water supplies for towns with a population of over 10,000 are operated by the Adamawa State Water Board. The well that services Davids part of town broke many years back. They brought a cable tool drill rig out to the borehole but it broke.(N09.90014, E011.93134) To get water people either walk to the other part of town that has working water and wait for the operators to turn on the water or they buy it from local water sellers. The price is 15 naira for 25 liters of water. In Jimeta they charge 10 naira for water from a borehole. The Guyuk water vendors walk to a dry streambed about 500 meters from David’s compound. (N09.89826, E11.93109) They have dug holes in the streambed and inserted drums with no bottoms. They scoop water from the hole. Some use a funnel with a clothe filter to take out the big chunks. A few years back David had received some money from Minnesota to drill his own borehole. Unfortunately, he fell victim to poor contractors. They told him that there was water at 70 meters and they would drill to 70 meters. Water is at 150 meters in this area. He got a dry hole and did not have the money to go deeper. He wanted me to see the problems of the water and then see if I could do something. What needs to be done is to have conscience civil servants that will get the borehole fixed and this side of the town will have water.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
50 Minutes For Water
After 25 minutes my bottle had moved to the edge of the waste trough. I young man that had argued with me earlier brought his little bottle to join mine.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Fat Man On Little Motorcycle (March 6, 2010)
This me getting on the little Daylong 125cc motorcycle for our trip into the bush and then through mountain trails to Bandguri (N0.8.33031,E011.24217). These are designed for street use but are used to take people into the bush. This would have been a fun ride if I were driving a dirt bike. (And I was 30 pounds lighter). Being on the back I was able to take pictures and GPS readings as we went. When we first started I was holding on. The people around us were laughing and saying "He doesn't know how to ride." They do not hang on. After we got going and I had confidence in the driver, I rode with the camera in one hand and the GPS in the other.
We started at the west end of Garba Chede (N08.445965, E011.112891) and drove through through farm fields headed to the the valley between the mountains ahead. As we went through the farm fields the road turned to path and the trees on the edges got closer. When we reached the hills the fun started. There were uphills on narrow paths and downhill through streams.
An hour later we reached the village. Pastor Bunduku's driver took a short cut he knew in the town and passed us.
Monday, March 15, 2010
March 15th, Several Items
Wash Summary:
Friday, March 12, 2010
What is this fruit.
Monday, March 8, 2010
I am back in Jimeta.
The Bali Mission Project is a companionship project between the Jimeta Cathedral and Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in Excelsior, Minnesota. Since missions started in the Bali area the Aikaku (plural form of missionary in Hausa, Single is Aikake) have established approximately 200 churches in Taraba State. I have taken almost 400 digital pictures and movies during my visit to Bali. It will take a few evenings with power to sort through, reduce the size (the upload speed at the internet café is very slow) and post some on my blog and face book. This is a photo of Pastor Bunduku and me at Bandaguri. This is one of the more remote an hard to get to places. We took the short way by motorcyle. Just over one hour through stream, narrow paths, through several valleys and up steep hills. It was a rough hour each way on the back of a 125 cc Daylong motorcycle. I took a lot of short videos as we bounced up and down the hills. On Saturday after three straight days on motorcyles I had a red half moon on my forehead from wearing the hat backwards. My arms and back of neck looked like medium rare steak. During the visit I was able to meet 20 of the 24 Aikaku many of their wives and children.
I will be writing separate blogs on the Convention and my 8 days in the Bali Mission Field. Tonight at the Internet café I will be trying to catch-up on emails. Tomorrow, I will start on the administrative tasks of helping the LCCN organize a sustainable Water and Sanitation/Hygiene (WASH) Program.