Trip to Ile Ife, Nigeria October 2011

Click on the photos and you can get the larger view.
We went back to Nigeria to check on the well projects. We wanted to see a well done by each of the three contractors. This one is almost finished. It just needs tile and paint. (And clean-up of the area.)


Discussing the project with the contractor, manager and site monitor.


We needed to verify the pump pressure so the contractor turned on the water. Women came from everywhere with anything that could be filled with water.



They were all smiles as they realized how nice it will be when the well belongs to their community.


The children carry much of the water here. They start young and do a good job.


More happy ladies who kept coming with more and more pails.


Men show they can carry water too.


It was fun to watch their excitement. This community will soon have the well turned over to them to use and maintain.






This is the same type well in a different location by a different contractor. It is next door to a very poor school. The tanks in the background were put in by the government. They never worked.



This is the school. American children need to see this school to appreciate what they have. The students and teachers will be happy to have clean water nearby.


I took these pictures of a place called Sabo. I keep trying to tell Elder Reynolds I would like to do something here if we get another project next year. It is filthy. They had a cholera outbreak last year.


It is no wonder they have a lot of sickness with children playing here in the sewage.


Here is the church at Ile Ife. It is a very nice building. We stayed in a compound just through the wall from the church.


These are my three hygiene team leaders. They are great women and are working very hard.





Our driver, Jamiu. We can cross "Indy 500" off our bucket list after traveling with Jamiu from Lagos to Ile Ife. He was an amazing driver, but very aggressive and FAST. (I won him over with my Costco snacks. He insists we ask for him as a driver next time.) We'll see.


Grace doing her hygiene training to those who will train in their communities.


She had good participation. It was fun to watch them as they learned about washing hands.


This is Grace's little girl. I could have put her in my carry-on and brought her home with me.


I don't know why I took this photo other than there are "cow slaughter slabs" along the roads. It is sad to me to see the cows tied up, watching the cow in front of them turn into someone's dinner. I'm glad we didn't actually see them killing one of the cows. And I'm glad my meat comes in wrapped plastic from the supermarket.


We went with the hygiene trainer, Patience, to a community. This community trainer is showing me his "Tippy Tap." I realized after he showed me that he only had a hole for the string and not a hole for the water to run free. I explained what he need to do to make it work correctly. He was proud of his work and will teach others in his community how to wash with clean water.


Max took this photo of a pet parrot for the grandchildren.


Here I am with the gathering I ended up with in Oke-Ola. I think we are saying Oke-Ola, so we all have our mouth's open. They are wonderful people....happy and friendly.


This is our team meeting with contractors, hygiene trainers, site monitors and site manager. Max is taking the photo. (Grace and her baby had to leave early.)


These women belong to the community that is not cooperating in doing what they need to do before we turn the well over to them. I was telling them if they don't participate in the hygiene training then we will lock the building and take the pump to another site to use where people WANT to have clean water.


They want the water; they just don't want to have to work for it. But these children deserve to have healthy water to drink.



Their well is almost finished except for the tile and paint. They may not be able to use it for a long time. Too bad. (Or they'll realize we are serious and get their act together.)


This is just a marketplace I "snapped" as we drove down the road. I smile at the mannequins who all have white skin.
We had a very productive trip. We needed to correct some problems and spent a lot of time telling those working hard what a great job they are doing.

Short-term Specialist trip to Ile Ife, Nigeria

This post is of our trip to Nigeria in May 2011. We were there to set up a program to dig deep well boreholes for clean water. Click on the photos to make them full-screen.

We flew into Ghana on our way to Nigeria. We had a day to go back to Koforidua to see some very special friends. The Ohenes knew we were coming, but others didn't. We gave them a real shock when we knocked on their doors. We were told we were the first couple ever to serve there that came back. It was a fun day.

This is where we stayed in Nigeria. It is a couple's house/apartment that has been vacant since 2006.It wasn't fancy, but was fine for what we needed. If we'd just have had power it would have been quite comfortable.
This is a water system put in by LDS Charities in 2004. The ones we have proposed will be similar to this one.
We smiled at the sign on the well. We don't put those kind of signs anymore. The only reference to the church is a small LDS Charities logo in one corner. We need to change this sign so the water committees can charge something for the water and be able to make repairs when needed.


This was our dinner for two weeks in a row. THE VERY SAME THING, OVER AND OVER. The rice was good. The chicken was very, very spicy. We were grateful for what we could get.

We had one day when we went to meet with the officials in the state government of Osun. We had to wait for three hours in a hot room to get to have this meeting. The meeting itself went very well.
This is Rasaki, our amazing driver. He could get us into and out of some very tight spots.

This is one place we visited. We decided it needed to be a project all by itself so we won't do it this year. They had a cholera outbreak last fall. The place was filthy with open sewers and trash everywhere.
They drink from shallow wells like this one that are all contaminated by ground water. We would put in deep wells, latrines and wash stations. I really hope we can work in this area next year.
This is one of many places we visited to see if they met the requirements for a deep borehole well. Here they are showing Max the system they have now.
This is where they get most of their water for everything but drinking. They drink from their shallow well.
This was a beautiful area out in the bush. The people of the village were very friendly and happy to show us where they get their water.
This place was at a school. We realized after I took photos and a GPS marking that they had a water tap and piped water just up the hill. We took them off our list.

These elders and two others lived in our compound. I was happy to know their house was about ten feet from my bedroom window. They were happy to have a missionary couple around.
This group of people were so excited about the idea of getting a water system. Someone grabbed a machete and started to hack down the greenery in the area they had proposed for the well. We told them to wait a bit and just pose for a "snap."
I learned I could take some interesting photos by holding my camera pointed down the wells. I also learned how the person who digs the well is able to get out after he finishes digging. I have many well photos.

I am doing a GPS reading and everyone else is getting ready for a photo. I would like to have had more candid shots, but I felt like I needed to ask permission to take a photo. Once I asked people they all started to get in a line.
These children belong with the group who had the dirty stream for their water source. This is the only life they know and they were very happy. They loved seeing themselves in the photo.
This is the other LDS Charities well we visited. It was working well and was a real blessing to the people who live nearby.


One more group of people anxious to have clean water brought to their community.
And one more group of children who wanted their photo taken also.


These people were in a very remote location on a very bad road. I kept watching the sky, hoping it wouldn't rain while we were there. If it had we'd have been there until the rainy season ended.


I couldn't get enough of the beautiful scenery. These palms have weaver bird nests in them. It made for a pretty photo.
This is Patience. She will be my Hygiene Supervisor for this project. She wanted to do something nice for Max so she made him two beaded ties. As you can see, he is thrilled and will be wearing them next Sunday. She also found out I knew how to crochet. She wanted me to teach her everything I could in my spare time. The last senior sister missionary there had taught her to make doilies. She was ready to make something else.