Monday, March 14, 2011
We actually woke up in time to get to the airport by 5:10 AM for the 6:00 AM flight. It was a good trip to the airport at that time of day. We didn’t hit any of the usual Accra traffic that early. The clerk at the counter had a hard time finding all three of our names, but finally she allowed me to breathe when she made three checks on the piece of paper. You can’t take anything for granted in Ghana. It is not assured that you can get somewhere until you actually arrive there.
We were in Tamale at 7:15 AM. It was probably 95 degrees F at that time. I told the guys that it was as cold as we’d get today. I told them that it will get hotter the further we go in the African bush toward the Saharan Desert. We had a very productive visit with Jim Niquette, Director of the Carter Center. He had the bittersweet party the night before to celebrate the end of the Guinea Worm Disease in Ghana. It was a happy time, but it also means that a lot of dedicated people are losing their jobs because they made the impossible become possible (with God’s help, of course.) Jim and I are like brothers. We can complete each other’s work. Actually, Jim gets an idea and I get to fundraising to fight one disease or another. I am committing to Jim that our partnership will only get closer as he moves to work full time for Water in Africa after September 2011.
Jim Niquette and I also went to pay our respect to Dr. Andrew Seidu Korkor, the Director of the Ghana Guinea Worm Eradication Programme for Ghana Health Services. I congratulated him for the wonderful achievement of having a chart on his wall with ZEROS for every month since May 2010. That chart used to represent a lot of people in pain with Guinea Worm Disease. Now, it shows what can happen when people come together to achieve a common goal. He thanked Rotary for our partnership in the common goal.
We went to show Kenny and Jon the Tamale Rotary Center. They met Rotarians Adam Salifu and Alex Kpodo. We discussed issues related to Rotary Matching Grant 69066. We need to receive the draft of the progress report before I leave Ghana (hopefully). The Water and Sanitation training needs to be done for three boreholes in two villages near Kariga.
We had lunch with Dr. Seth Wanye, the only Ophthalmologist for about 5 million people. He introduced us to a doctor he is trying to get into Ophthalmology School for four more years so he can have some help. We also had lunch with President Robert Kunab-lem of the Tamale Rotary Club. We discussed the challenges facing that club and the difficulties that they’ve experienced working on our matching grants.
Robert and I spent a lot of time on the very last city to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease called Dipale. The Rotary Foundation has $31,000 that could be spent to fix the problems in Dipale with 3-H grant 57557. We discussed options for this city. I also stopped by World Vision in Savelugu to talk to Sampson who also has a passion to get the people of Dipale water. I explained that the windmill implementation in Dipale by Rotary had problems. I was able to get out my laptop and produce the specs for the installation of the windmill. World Vision explained that they were considering tearing out the windmill to be replaced with a solar powered pump. I explained that a 10,000 liter polytank needed to be placed close to the windmill. Also, the pipe of holding the pump in the borehole needed to be larger. A lot of the specifications needed to be fixed, but the best solution is to use wind power when the sun doesn’t shine and solar power when the wind doesn’t blow. Sampson understood the improper implementation points and was going to test out the potential changes that could get wind power and solar power working successfully together. Sampson and I both agreed that it was best when the people of Dipale had water to drink. I gave him a high five when we agreed that it was good to give people water to drink!
We finally made it to Walewale at 4:45 PM today. We unloaded the car and checked into the Moonlite Lodge in beautiful Walewale. Walewale is just like Palm Springs, California without the palms, springs, or movie stars. Walewale is probably 110 degrees F in the shade now. We rested and prepared our sermons for Bugiya tonight. We had a flat tire within two miles of the hotel in downtown Walewale. Jon, Kenny, and I found a taxi to drive us into the African bush town of Bugiya. What an experience that was!
We preached to a nearly packed church of men, women, and children. The key scripture was John 3 for my sermon. I told them that I preach at my home church about them so now I was going to preach to them about New Hope United Methodist Church. I preached about giving God thirty days to speak with faith and to walk with faith. I preached about baptism, salvation, and the joy of knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. It was moving service where we explained that we would finally baptize the members in the morning. We will probably have between 100 and 200 people to baptize in the morning. Our hands will get stiff writing down all of the names!
I’m tired and ready to get to bed. It is only 7:47 PM ET, but for me it is almost midnight. Good night. We are dreaming about baptisms, giving out bracelets, flip flops, toothbrushes, food, Bibles, and hope for a life with Jesus Christ at the center.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 3:34 GMT
We’ve had a wonderful day and it is only one half completed. We went out to Bugiya at 6:30 AM to check on the boreholes in the village. Bugiya has about three hand dug wells that have Nira pumps that do not work. It is our luck that we only bought Afridev and Mark II pump parts. We ask to look at any of the deep boreholes. We find an Afridev pump near our church in Bugiya. The bent metal rod prevented the pump from working, but the kids dumped rocks, stones, limbs, and dirt down the borehole pipe. We had to pull the all of the pipes and rods out of the borehole to fix it. In the meantime, the women were getting the church ready for the baptisms.
Michael with Water in Africa is the expert on the pumps. He bought the pump parts, but the amazing thing is how he used charcoal to heat up the pipe to create couplings from straight pipe. Kenny Lovelace decides to keep working with Michael while Jon Morris and I go to church.
We haven’t baptized anyone in Bugiya since we built the church in Bugiya in 2005. I guess I was waiting for the river to rise or something else to happen. I finally realized that the Mamprusi land will always will have a water shortage. We choose to sprinkle and/or pour to baptize. I used the Baptismal Service in the United Methodist Book of Worship. We had three large buckets of water on the altar in the front of the church. Many of the teenage girls in the church helped us to get organized. One of them kept the list of names of everyone baptized. We have a record of one hundred fifty-one (151) people baptized today. I’m sure we probably missed about twenty-five or thirty people. I baptized until my back ached leaning over to get the water out of the bucket to baptize. It was so wonderful to see the fruit of so much work over so many years come to be celebrated today.
The people of Bugiya worshiped together prior to the baptismal service. They were singing and dancing with joy. We brought maize today to share with the people after the baptism. We also gave them fresh water to drink with the repaired borehole. The borehole is deep and is high yielding. The other shallow wells will go dry soon, but the repaired borehole will give them water to drink until the rains come again.
We finally finished baptizing after a couple of hours. Our next step was Guakudow. Guakudow is a Muslim village where we are building a new church. The walls of the church are going up right now. The workers have the walls up to the bottom of the windows. The masons will need to mold more blocks to finish the walls up to the gables. The “mother of the church” is an energetic woman who is watching over the workers to make sure that every block is laid in the right place. We are providing food for the people of the village who help carry blocks for the masons or bring water for the concrete. We greeted the chief of Bugiya and Guakudow. Actually, Bugiya has a young and old chief. It is a long story, but we decided to see them both today.
I’m trying to rest and prepare my sermon for tonight. We are going to see the new church being built at Sindini. We will preach at Sagadugu. The joy is that Mary Kay Jackson is coming with a mission team from St. Louis, Missouri to join us in the worship service. They are also bringing food from Bolgatanga. It will be a treat to eat a meal after basically fasting in the Walewale area. Walewale doesn’t have any restaurants. The food booths are not safe for us unless I want typhoid fever or something worse again. I’d rather fast and pray than experience the joy of typhoid fever. The St. Louis mission team has about twelve members. They are also the Methodist team who baptized one hundred forty-one people in two of our churches in November 2010. I’m looking forward to meeting their pastor and team. Mary Kay Jackson is also the full-time missionary who is helping to tie our churches into the Ghana Methodist Church.
I’m going to send this update via wireless modem from the African bush. It is a first for me. Get excited! It is also a little scary how the African bush is changing. I’m not able to get any news from outside world right now. We are too busy trying to make news right here in Africa. Talk to you soon.
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