Monday

Today, there were 7 of us working here along side of some of the missionaries and local workers. We started out the day with breakfast at the hostel and then a meeting with the leaders of the mission hospital. Hugh started off explaining the extent of the project as relates to the hydroelectric portion, and some of us explained what we were working on as far as the electrical power portion of the project. The hospital is expecting to grow considerably in the next 5-15 years, so we are sharpening our pencils. After the meeting Tom, Gene, Hugh, Earl, and Jerry went to the area where the power plant is expected to be built. Gary and Doug teamed up wit Jesse, the head Electrician for Mbingo, and we went to the sub-station to do some voltage and current readings. We then traced the six feeder circuits to the various buildings and in the afternoon we worked on the existing CAD drawing from the hospital to draw in the existing path and sizes of all the main wiring. It took hours to do and will be useful, both to the hospital for their existing maintenance issues, as well as for determining how we will run the new wiring to re-feed all of the buildings. In the process, Tom ended up getting some major dirt in his eyes. Since we were in the right place at the right time, the Lord provided an Ophthalmologist who could treat him right away with no later effects.
This evening we watched a recording of the Steelers beating the Jets to advance to the Super Bowl. Tom, Gen, and I will miss the Super Bowl as we will be in Sierra Leone that weekend. Will have to watch another DVR recording, I guess...
Tomorrow morning three of us (Tom, Gene, and Gary) will be finishing up our time here at Mbingo Hospital, and will be riding back to Douala. We will have to make an early flight on Wednesday to Ghana and then on to Burkina Faso on some local African airline, so we will have to be on our toes to make sure we have enough time to get our tickets at the airport, as they can't be printed out ahead of time.