Next to the last

day in Zaria. Thought I would post some
pictures that I found interesting.........

• 1 swing, 100s of kids

• Before looking North East. Picture taken from the tower at the 50 foot level on Monday.

• Same direction, North East, taken on Friday. To say it is a very hazy day is an understatement. The air is a combination of dust and smog.

• Sewing while you wait. A street vendor stopped in to do any sewing that is needed. He is making a key holder and hoping to sell it. Well worn old tools with a gentle smile. The facial scars are tribal markings made at birth.
  

• Some older kids from the water well area. Styling.........

• Yes, Please be careful with this! Sign in Internet control room at Hope House.

• It's all about marketing...........Seen in Zaria
  

Enjoy from Pete

Ahmadu Bello University

abbreviated ABU was where I lectured today. The university is big with an enrollment of over 20,000 and has a 5 year engineering degree program.
The invitation to speak was initiated by Steven, one of the university students I got to know from previous visits. I indicated to Steven I was willing to share my experiences with his class mates on engineering work in the USA and he took it from there. I was formally invited by Dr. Mu'azu, department head of electrical engineering to talk on any subject matter that would be interesting to electrical engineering students.
I titled my talk "Made in Nigeria" in which I stressed the entrepreneurial aspects of engineering work. I discussed economic justice and how it is important to their country in order to compete with imported goods. We discussed the lack of practical training in their education and it was echoed by professor Mu'azu that they need basic parts in order to build projects. I discussed the role Hope House can play in their education by being an incubator. One that provides a laboratory, tools, and parts for developing projects that these students design. This will be a major effort in both time and money to equip this technical center.

The talk was well received by over 50 students and once they got over the initial shock that they could be business men and women, the questions flowed.
In the question and answer session they were direct and honest with their concerns about competing with cheap imported goods. How they were going to get practical training and acquire the tools to write micro processor software were discussed. Hope House and the planned technical center will play a major role in making this happen. We have an informal understanding with the university to work together on these needs and this will be a big part of my future work. Dr. Mu'azu is planning on visiting Hope House tomorrow and I hope to have more time to discuss our relationship with the university. Nigeria will benefit from these young, intelligent, focused, and want to succeed engineers. All they need is the tools and guidance to get started, like I got 25 years ago. Email me if you would like a copy of the power point I presented.

The children came

to Hope House. They are brought by their parents seeking help in raising a child with special needs, a difficult task in any society but compounded by tough living conditions here in central Nigeria. As the pictures will show, the love of the child by the parent is very evident. Here is a couple of human interest stories of how the low vision conference is helping families.

The child care team of Anne and Barb worked with the children, aka 'playing' and teaching the parents ways to help the child develop skills. They brought with them books and toys of all colors, shapes, and sizes, which is surprisingly missing in many children's lives here.
Anne said she is going to visit the kitchen pantry to improvise / fashion some toys from can goods or what ever she may find. Come to think of it, I rarely see children in any typical activities other than soccer and that is with an improvised ball. No hide and seek, no trucks or cars in the dirt, no dolls, no make believe, and none playing with a pet animal. But I do see many on the streets selling peanuts or fruit that they carry on their heads. Apparently it is survival and no time for play........

Barb is 'playing' with a child who has albinism and is 19 months old. She started by using balls to determine at what distance she can 'see' or focus. Next she used an Elmo book that has big shapes and bright colors for her to look at. There is a high probability that this child has never had a book before. The black mat on the floor provides a high contrast for the child to see the toys.

This 8 year old girl traveled with her mother and grandmother from
Abuja, a 4 hour drive. She attends a school for the blind in Abuja and is a very good student. Having very limited sight, she has to put things within inches of her eyes to make any thing out. There is a possibility that surgery could restore her sight but the risks of losing what little sight she has if things go wrong has made the surgery unacceptable. Hope House has offered to have her stay during the summer school vacation period and learn how to use computers to accelerate her learning.

I'm proud to be a part of this good work......................................

Future engineers of Nigeria

have been attending classes at Hope House Technical Center. These engineering students are enrolled in both mechanical and electrical disciplines at ABU university. Most are in their 5th year of studies and will graduate this spring.

The Hope House Tech center was started to provide additional training and exposure to technology not normally taught in the university. I first became involved with 5 students in September of 2006 when, with their help, we installed the first amateur radio station for the blind in Nigeria. I was so impressed with these student's attitudes, intellect, and desire to learn that I wanted to do more teaching. During my visit in March of 2007 there was very little time that I could spend with the students due to their class schedules but we did manage to visit about their needs and wants. From this discussion it was decided to do future training in micro processor computer development which is the heart of almost every modern day electronic device.

For this trip things were going to work out well with their class schedules and my time here at Hope House. 8 students were able to commit to 3 afternoons of hands on training in learning the basics of computer controls. What would be a semester course was covered in 2 intense days to get the process started. The students preformed brilliantly! On the second day we were programming a computer chip using the hardware I brought with me.
Armed with this knowledge of how things work they can begin to identify opportunities to design and build electronic devices to solve problems. One student is going to design a water tank control system that will automate what has been a manual process. I have encouraged them to be entrepreneurs and control their own destiny and I think it starting to happen. By being engineers and solving problems then starting businesses to build the products will help create economic justice by reducing imported technology. Built in Nigeria!

The final day of training focused on a project for Hope House. Dirk and I brought with us hand held radios (walkie talkies) and a UHF repeater system. The radios are needed to enhance security and provide a way for staff to stay in touch with each other to become more efficient. The Ultra High Frequency repeater is a device that extends the range of the hand held radios. Being exposed to 2 way radio design was a new concept to the students and it is not taught at their university. After installing an antenna part way up the tower then soldering connectors, the repeater was turned on. It was an instant success. Andee could communicate from the far reaches of the city with only a hand held radio to the staff at Hope House! Another successful project that also taught by involving many in the process........

Even though the 3 days was not near enough time to cover everything I wanted to, we have the foundation started that I'm sure with their enthusiasm great things are going to happen. Besides, we have the Hope House Internet system to stay in touch with to keep the fires going......

The international low vision conference

started today with a large attendance. The Hope House retreat / conference center was the kick off point for this years conference designed to train health care professionals from all regions of Africa in techniques for eye care. Doctors, nurses, and educators from many African regions are in attendance to hear from the team of eye professionals from the US and Canada. It was very gratifying to see such a large number of people fill the conference center.

Dr. Linda Lawrence has assembled a great team of eye care professionals that are sharing their knowledge and techniques with conference attendees who will in turn use this knowledge in their home locales. After the opening ceremonies with speeches from government dignitaries which included the minister of health, groups formed to hear from the presenters. In the afternoon part of the presenters traveled across town to the ABU teaching hospital to work with the doctors there.

This is really a big event and a very important first for the Hope House to be the nucleus of learning and the facilitator of an
important health conference in Nigeria.

The rest of the group

has made it to Hope House. But before making the final drive to Zaria a stop was planned at ACCIF "All Children Charity International Foundation" in Kaduna. It is a NGO whose mission is to help children with disabilities.




Next stop in Kaduna was at the government run school
"Kaduna State School" which serves deaf and blind children. With an enrollment that is growing daily the children live in tough conditions. Current school population is around 1200 children. It is said that sometimes a child is just dropped off at the school and never picked up again.
Here Brad and Paul are interacting with some of the deaf children in the compound.



This is the 'kitchen' and the pots contain a porridge that will be today's lunch.







Now the team is at Hope House Sunday afternoon. They were delighted to see the all the improvements and have a shower. After a delicious meal together they went to work finalizing plans for this week's conference. Of course with the road warrior look it was early to bed.

At the gym

What started as a way to stay in shape was moved from behind Emma's quarters to the water well area. Nothing more than a bag of sand hanging from cross arms used for punching and pushing around, it serves a purpose. Then a home made bar bell was added. Kinda hard to change the weight........The barrel is for the younger ones to reach the cross arm.

I noticed from across the court yard the one with the orange vest using the "bar bells made with concrete" and tracked him down to get some pictures. Anytime I do that I can guarantee you there will be a crowd of friendly onlookers. This was no exception. That really put him on the spot and with good natured ribbing, his mates urged him on to put forth a massive effort that was almost there. Then Emma stepped in as the teacher and helped him with the technique to make it work.








After that Emma then demonstrated why he is so strong by lifting the bar bell without effort. Emma is Andee's right hand man for all the maintenance work around Hope House. He is extremely conscientious and tries very hard to make things work with limited resources such as using old tire inner tubes strips to warp around a leak in a water pipe. It stretches and seals quite effectively. We made a sign and hung it on his door..... "Rambo's Plumbing Service"




Anyway back to the gym. This pictures shows Emma doing an ABS sit up workout. Try that by holding your legs around the bar with your arms then do a sit up!

You can see the original sand bag hanging at the right of the cross arm. They say it is easier on the hands when punching if the sand is dry and loose versus being wet then dried out which makes it very hard.





Next another young man stepped up to show how he does his ABS work out. After first falling off the bar and shrugging off the laughter, he rubbed sand on the top of his feet for a better 'grip'
In this picture he is not holding on with his hands, he is actually doing a sit up with only his feet holding him on the bar.


Most everyone can get along fine without their flip flops for shoes. I have seen men digging a trench and leaving their flip flops off while working.

I hope you enjoyed this side of life at the Hope House where the little things are used to great effectiveness.

Pete

A new landmark

is now at the Hope House. The tower arrived yesterday around 3 PM and the workers started right away erecting it. They finished it in total darkness around 9 PM.

This tower will enable internet to be distributed into the city of Zaria where businesses need a good, reliable internet connection. Dirk will be engineering the system to also do WiFi hot spots at selected locations in the city. Hope House internet has developed a reputation of providing the most reliable and fastest internet cafe in the area and now this capability will be built out to more customers. Already people are lining up to receive the service once the equipment is installed.

As with any microwave signal, line of site to the receiver is important and having the antenna 150 feet up means more area can be covered. The tower is a product of a company located in Kaduna and is very well made.

Dr. Gani, Andee's father, is checking out the top section of the tower. Dr. Gani is the founder of Hope House and has been blind since childhood. His is a remarkable story and I will tell it sometime soon. Shortly after this picture was taken, the group gathered for prayer giving thanks and asking for safety of the tower crew.



The first section was carried by hand to the base location. This 20 foot section was lifted and set on the pre-installed anchor bolts. A couple of taps with a hammer and the tower base was set.

A gin pole is used to hoist each 10 foot section up then guided into place by the two workers.

Notice that they men are not wearing any safety belts and they have on flip flops for shoes!!













These 2 young men spent all the time on the tower without a break. Water was sent up to them on one of the sections. I did offer the boss the use of my climbing belt and safety lanyard but he politely told me the men did not need it. Funny, I will need it on the tower.........

Pete