March 15th, Several Items

No Playground Equipement

The compound I live on is the playground for the schools and the community. This year there is a large branch from a tree that has fallen. It made a natural tetter-totter

The former church school which was taken over by the former Military Governement is just outside the compound, then the Cathedral has built a primary school on the far side of their compound which is adjacent to this one. Within this compound the Cathedral operates a Pre-school. The other day I was on the back porch and the Pre-school let out for a break. The kids saw me and yelled "Bature" and they rushed me. In about a minute I had 2o to 30 uniformed 4 year olds clinging to me. After a few minutes I escaped to the front of the house and inside where the lady that was sweeping tried to chase them away. They kept returning to the door.

Wash Summary:

It is amazing that the trip is more than 1/2 complete. I have not accomplished what I had hoped. The next two weeks we hope to visit the 6 Bishops and the Arch Bishop to see how committed they are to the WASH Program. We need to see some action in both people working of organizing and funds being allocated to the project. I need to get the schedule of when the Diocese are having there conventions and try to talk to pastors. I suspect that the problem is that most will have the conventions when I am back in Minnesota in April.

The Peacemaker Has Died

His Royal Higness Chief Aliyu Mustopha, Chief to the Adamawa Kingdom, Lamido Fombina (Chief of the South) died after a short illness at the age of 88 On Saturday evening. He has been the Lamido Fombina for 57 years and has kept peace in the Adamawa Kingdom. During those years he has maintained peace between the tribes and religions in the area. He is a Muslim that has Christians in his family. The Yola Airport has been jammed with private flights coming to pay respects to the Chief of all class A chiefs. The televison and radio has been giving a play by play (I do not have either so I did not know anything until today.) We had power almost all day Sunday and for 4 hours on Monday. When we heard that all the important people in Nigeria are coming to town that explains the power.

Fruit

Here is another picture of the fruit. Girls were selling it on the side of the road near Garba Chede. We were trying to find motorcycle drivers to take us into the mountains to Bandaguri to meet with the Aikaku from that area. The nut of the tree grows outside of the fruit. The fruit at the nut end is edible. But the other end is very acidic. I think the nut end is pretty acidic. To make the nut edible you remove it from the fruit and roast it. The shell opens and the nut is revealed. It is one of my favorite nuts.