Survey Day

Saturday is almost gone now, but it was a very busy day. We met in the Maintenance Shop after breakfast and then we went up to the main power source for the complex at the generator shed. The entire hospital complex is fed by a single 225-amp circuit breaker, backed up by a 160KW 3-phase generator. The 220/380-volt source feeds more than 130 separate buildings throughout the complex. The distance from end to end of the complex is over 2 kilometers at the level of the main hospital, but it extends very much farther above the escarpment. We drove to the site where the new Powerhouse will be located, and observed the great distance from the top of the hill that will contain a new dam to hold back a reservoir of water that will carry the generator through the dry season. We then drove to the top of the hill and were impressed by the great view of the valley which is greatly hampered by the harmattan. The amount of work that will be done to provide power here will likely go on for over a year once it is started and will require a number of volunteer work teams.
Our job is to assess the amount of load required for the next 25 years at this facility, and provide an estimate of the power source to fulfill that need. We spent several hours this evening going over electric meter readings for the 60+ separately metered buildings, plus those that are not metered, and beginning to input this data into a spreadsheet that we can use to observe the trend of power usage over the past year, with the hope of anticipating what will be added to it for future growth. In the course of our study today we observed the great need for medical care in this area of Northwest Cameroon. The people are very friendly and the medical care given by this hospital is very well received. The hospital has approximately 250 beds and they are expecting to expand that capacity greatly in years to come. As I finish writing for today, it is well past midnight here. Hopefully the pictures here will give you a feel for what it is like here. Time is flying by very fast and the other three men coming from the US are hopefully already in Douala and we will see them tomorrow (Sunday - today, actually). If you have been looking for some movement on the SPOT GPS Personal Locator we are carrying, we did not turn it on today as we felt it isn't necessary to show many points within a distance of only a few miles. We are fine and are enjoying our fellowship with each other, with the Schotanus's, and with the staff of the hospital, who have been very gracious to us. When we leave here on Tuesday, you will be able to follow us to Douala and then on to Ghana and Burkina Faso and eventually to Sierra Leone.