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.

Sunday in Africa

Today is Sunday and we went to the hospital chapel for Sunday worship. This was a special celebration for the graduates of the mission's Bible Institute. Six men and ten women graduated from this two-year course and are now on their way to full-time Christian service. There were about 700 people in the chapel for this service. The sermon was by a man who had come from this area and went on to graduate school in Nigeria and now resides there. The message was very good and was a good challenge to the graduates who were challenged to "earnestly contend for the Faith". It was refreshing to experience the African style of music and to worship with these African brothers and sisters.

Later this afternoon we were joined by Hugh McKay, Earl Hartwig, and Jerry Callicutt. These men are specifically involved in engineering of the Hydroelectric Plant that will be built here if the project proceeds as expected. Earl came from HCJB in Quito, Ecuador and the other two men came from South Carolina. We had dinner together at the hostel, and did a lot of brainstorming. We will be meeting early tomorrow with the management of Mbingo Hospital to discuss the future power requirements of the complex. We have diligently spent hours creating two spreadsheets that are giving us valuable information in determining the size of the power feeders and switchgear for the hospital. We have gone over the past year's internal electric billing and now have some very useful information in the trends of power usage. This information we input into one of the spreadsheets, and the other spreadsheet will assist the maintenance electricians in doing their monthly meter readings. This should make things much easier, as the present log-books are very difficult to follow.
Monday will be the last full day for Tom, Gary , and Gene here at Mbingo, so we will need to make the most of it. Tom and Gene will be looking at potential routes for the high voltage power to the hospital; and Doug and Gary will be walking through the various buildings in order to map out the existing power structure, and to take some voltage readings. Doug will stay on here and will return to the USA with Hugh, Earl, and Jerry in two weeks.
It cleared somewhat today and we were able to see the night sky tonight, which was a treat.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we would get as much done as we possibly can, and then for our safety as we trek back to Douala on Tuesday, a drive of 6-8 hours depending on the traffic. This high country here is very scenic,and we will be leaving that all behind as we head for the coast and the oppressive heat. The next two countries we are heading to may not be as beautiful as it is here.

Tom & Gene were greeted by someone dispatching a black cobra. This was when they were on their way to their cabin last evening. They are beautiful creatures, but very deadly, so it was a reminder to be careful when we are out and about. I had posted the picture of the snake earlier, but decided to come back and revise the post to include today's activities and thoughts. Keep checking in.

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.

In Cameroon

We traveled from Detroit to Paris yesterday, then from Paris on to Douala, Cameroon. Flying over the Alps in Southern France, it was a sight to see. Once we crossed the Mediterranean we flew over the Sahara Desert. We arrived at Douala on schedule at just after 8 PM. Gene's one bag apparently got stuck in a baggage conveyor somewhere, as it was severely damaged. He tried to file a claim only to find out it needed to be done elsewhere. We were some of the last to leave the terminal to travel to the guest house and we were mobbed by people trying to carry bags for us or anything else they could do to get some money from us. This is pretty normal, so we know what to expect when we go back to the airport on next Wednesday. The temperature and humidity in Douala was very hot and heavy. We decided to forgo dinner and just crash for the night. A few mosquitoes chased us indoors from the nice outdoor breeze.
This morning we had breakfast there and then left around 9 AM for the Mbingo Hospital just north of the city of Bamenda. After a six hour drive we arrived at the hospital. The hospital is located in the high country which is very temperate. We were impressed by the haze in the air, which is the Harmattan dust that blows out of the Sahara Desert certain times of the year. Anyone with allergies could possibly have some problems, but it has not affected us. Doug and Gary are staying with Thom and Ellen Schotanus at their home, and Tom and Gene are staying in another guest house. After dinner at the mission hostel we all came back to Thom and Ellen's house where I am writing this. The WORK begins tomorrow. We should be able to keep up on the blog and email now.

Paris

We were unable to log onto the Internet in Detroit, so we are taking advantage of a free 15-minute session here in Charles DeGaulle International in Paris. The airport is out of the city and we are unable to see anything beyond the airport. The time here is 6:21 AM back home, but 11:21 AM here in Paris. We met up with Doug Dykstra in Detroit and had dinner at Chile's in the terminal there. The overnight flight was smooth but the A330 was very tight seating. We got a little sleep. We went through Security here and are in our gate for the flight to Douala, which leaves in about 2 hours. The only thing lost so far was a mini-screwdriver in Tom's carry-on. It is about the same temperature here as back where we got on in Harrisburg. but the terminal is very warm. The flight to Douala is just a little shorter duration than the one from Detroit. Next post will be from Africa. Keep checking in. We are looking forward excitedly to what the Lord is going to do in the next 3 weeks!

Starting out in HIA

We are sitting in McDonald's waiting to go through Security and on to our flight to Detroit. Tom, Eugene and Gary are checked in and our luggage is supposed to go all the way through to Douala, Cameroon. Next we meet Doug Dykstra in Detroit. Our flight is delayed here but we should have adequate time to make it up in Detroit. We appreciate you following along. Will keep you up to date on what's going on.

Africa Ahead

Wednesday, January 19, at 4:30 PM we will b e leaving from Harrisburg International for Detroit Metro, then on to Paris and finally Douala, Cameroon. We will arrive there at 8:15 PM local time (2:15 PM EST Thursday).
This is a survey trip that will take us on to Burkina Faso and then to Sierra Leone. We will be visiting three Missionary Hospitals on our trip to survey the power needs as requested by these missions. The next post on this blog will be tomorrow, once we meet at Harrisburg. We appreciate your prayers and interest.