We have been a little off the radar lately. The counselors
with the West African Mobile Member Care Team recommended we take some time
out. In the meantime Jennifer has been diagnosed with cataracts. She has been
in Canada since early April in order to see the surgeon and prep for the
surgery. While she’s been away we have experience the height of hot season and
it will continue until the first rainfall.
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| Giant dust storm. Still no rain. |
Hot season is a dusty dry time and this year it has brought
meningitis with it. Many of you have probably seen this on the local news.
While we were vaccinated before ever coming to Niger, most Nigeriens never have
been. The government has tried to provide vaccines for children but the reports
I have heard suggest that some have still not been able to be vaccinated. A
nurse told me that meningitis usually impacts the young and the weak but this
year it appears to strike without prejudice. I was told that a student at the
Pastor’s business school excused himself from class saying he had a headache
and wanted to lay down. He never got up. I’ve heard similar stories from
others. The Pastor has brought a nurse into his school and the church to
vaccinate those had not yet received the shot.
Jennifer had her surgery this past Monday and everything
seemed to go without difficulty despite the horror stories she had heard before
going in. Before leaving the clinic the doctor asked to do an eye exam. Despite
the cloudiness in her eyes from the procedure, she appeared to have 20/20
vision! What the final result will be when her eyes finally be when her eyes
clear is yet to be seen but regardless she is very happy with her new vision.
If only she could finish with those drops…
The night before her surgery the power in the house here
started going haywire. Around the midnight I heard the ceiling fan speed up and
the air conditioner started making an awful noise. Power irregularities and
blackouts are normal for hot season. I started going through the house shutting
off everything I could. In one room a light bulb POOFED the moment I switched
on the light. When I finally reached the kitchen both the fridge and the
freezer were making an awful noise. I powered both down and waited five to ten
minutes thinking the situation would stabilize itself but every time I tried
the larger appliances they made awful noise. I resigned myself to going back to
bed without air conditioning. [Our daytime highs are in the mid-forties and it
doesn’t fall below thirty degrees at night.] I woke at five I tried plugging but
once more they made an awful noise and I was afraid they had both been fried. I
waited until seven and called the technician who fixes fridges and air
conditioners.
When he arrived around half past nine I tried to show him
the problem I was having and low and behold they both worked fine. I got him to
look at the air conditioner that had made all the noise and he figured it might
be low on freon gas. He added some gas and told me to run it for half an hour
see if it how it worked. I was happy to comply! Around noon I was work in the
room (of course I had “forgotten” to shut the air conditioner off) when
suddenly the fan started speed up the phone charger plugged in beside went POOF
and started to smoke, and the air conditioner started making a racket. I once
more ran through the house shutting everything off, mumbling unkind words about
the power company. I called my neighbour Jeremy and asked if he was asking
problems at his house. He said no but said it sounded like the time one of the
breakers at the clinic was going bad and sending surges throughout the
building. I called the electrician and when he finally arrived he said the main
breaker in the house was shorting and sending 380 volts from time to time
through certain phases of the house while shorting others down to about 100.
(Outlets here give normally give 220 V like Europe). When he finally installed
the new breaker it was almost nine o’clock at night.
The next morning, our worker found the water bill at the
front gate. He came to me saying, “Are you sure there isn’t a water leak some
place in the house? Your water bill is outrageously high!” In fact, the
readings covered a period when we had mostly been away. I asked him to check
the meter to see if was turning right now even though all the taps were off.
Nothing. “You know there’s water all over the outside wall by the kitchen,” he
said. Nope, didn’t know that. I called the landlords plumber who said he
couldn’t come until four in the afternoon. When he finally arrived and saw what
was happening he said, “Oh we got open this up right away and block this up,”
and started hammering away at the wall. He opened it up and found the broken
pipe capped and said, “Well, I can’t fix this today. Hopefully I’ll be able to
get the materials to fix it tomorrow.” We still have no water in the kitchen.
This morning the light won’t come on in the fridge and the
water bottles don’t feel very cold despite sitting in there all night.
I guess its just another hot season in Niger.
Despite the challenges God is good and there are many here
who would be happy just have some electricity and a fan that blows everyone
once in a while. Pray for Niger and for Jennifer’s recovery from surgery.
