Getting some work done.

On Monday, I got up around 8. Joan made cinnamon buns for us for breakfast. Yum yum! Daayibu, Bob and I did a little more work cleaning up the shop and I think we’ve pretty much organized it as much as it’s going to be for now. We had lunch: peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches for me. Some people had tomatoes, cheese or nutella in theirs.

Afterwards, I had a little lesson with Tim, John, Bethany, Joan and Sherri on the different tools I brought to work with and their uses. I didn’t go over everything, just the basics: Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, torx bits, allen keys, slip joint, needle nose and channel locking pliers, sockets, ratchets and wrenches, etc. We then went to one of the bookaroos (a little grass-roof hut where people meet to chat) where Tim, John and Bethany usually do their schoolwork with Sherri. I used the chalk board there to go over the different tools again, this time so they could take notes. And then I went over the four-strokes of a gasoline engine (intake, compression, power, exhaust if you don’t know), and then taught them the key differences between a gas engine and a diesel (no spark plug, add a direct fuel injector and glow plug, if you don’t know). That was all I wanted to cover that day. I didn’t want to overload them too much, plus they still had math and reading schoolwork to do.

Then I went into town with Daayibu riding on the back of his motorcycle. Sorry mom, no helmets around here! We didn’t go all that fast though. The road to Banyo from Wouram is unpaved and very bumpy so you can’t really gain that much speed safely. In town, we bought some gasoline and oil so I could start actually doing work. All of the shops in Banyo are very tiny one room buildings. They have stuff hanging up and laying outside the entrance, and then when you walk in, you can’t go much farther than four feet in until you hit a counter or wall with more stuff. When you buy oil, the guy working has a large container where it’s stored, he pours some into a liter size bottle, then he pours it from the liter size bottle into another bottle which you take with you. Our gasoline was pretty much bought in the same way except we had to supply our own container. Gasoline can be bought from the gas stations although I think if you’re going to the gas station to get gas, it’s to fill your car, truck or motorcycle. It’s not for just a little bit.

In town, I also bought for myself a surge protector. The room I’m in only has one outlet and if I want to use my external hard drive, I need to have at least two outlets. The guy originally wanted 4,000 francs ($8.40 or so). Daayibu bargained with 2,000 francs but the guy wouldn’t go lower than 3,000. So I got myself a nice surge protector with a bunch of outlets for a little over 6 bucks. Not bad. Although, I’m not sure how well it really protects against surges. Bob told me everything here is so cheap, if there is a surge, most likely my stuff will blow before the surge protector will actually do its job. I’m just crossing my finger nothing bad happens. He said surges aren’t really a problem anymore anyway. They used to be more frequent when they first moved here but it’s a lot better now. I’m not too worried. We stopped at a grocery store-again, it’s one room, no more than four feet of walking space. I wanted to get some coke since all we’ve been drinking for the most part is water. Occasionally there is iced tea or kool-aid to drink and in the evenings or for breakfast, Joan or Bob will usually put some water on the stove to make brewed tea from tea bags. But other than that, I haven’t had a coke since Bamenda. I bought two bottles, one for me and one for Daayibu as a way of saying thanks. Each bottle was 1,100 francs (about $2.40 or so). They’re 1.5 liter big so if you do the math, I think it comes out to about an average price considering if you go to a convenience store in the states and buy a 20 fl. oz. (2/3 liter if my math skills are correct) coke, it usually comes out to about $1.50. So it was definitely average price, if not, than better than my local convenience store.

Before heading back, we stopped at one more place so I could buy credits (minutes) for my phone. Bob said phones from the U.S. don’t usually work here but phones from France do. I brought the phone Julie and I bought in Amsterdam last May with me, since it’s the only phone I have that uses a SIM card. Since it worked in France/Holland, I figured it would probably work here too. Bob gave me the SIM card from a phone he doesn’t really use so that way I wouldn’t have to buy a SIM card. All I had to do was stop at a one person booth for buying phone credits. They have many all over town. Basically, you give the person the money you want to credit to the phone, they take your phone number, use their phone, call a number, enter your number, and then you get a text message letting you know how many credits have been added to your account. It worked! I bought 6,000 francs (about $12.60) to make an occasional phone call to home to say hey. It costs 300 francs/minute to call the U.S. so my phone calls probably won’t be longer than a few minutes at a time. That night, I called home and got to chat with my family for a little bit which was really nice.

When we got back to Wouram, Daayibu split his coke with me, Solomon (a very friendly guy who lives in Wouram), Daayibu’s wife and Daayibu’s mother in law. I saved the other coke to split with the Lokkers and put it in their fridge.

I walked around with Bob a little bit in Wouram, stopping by to say hello to a few people. We stopped at one particular spot where a friend of his was building a new house. The foundation gets laid out with a row of concrete blocks so termites don’t crawl up. Then every layer after is made from mud/grass bricks. They pay workers about 25 francs to make each brick, and then I’m not sure how much it costs to lay it all out. All in all it’s about $60 worth of brick material for this one, three room or so house that is being built. Once built, a wooden frame is assembled for the roof. If it’s going to be a grass roof, it has to be very steep for the rainwater to run off quickly enough so it doesn’t leak through the grass. If it’s going to be a tin roof, it doesn’t have to be as steep. Then, if you want to add an extra layer of protection, they use a sand/concrete mixture to cover the bricks on the outside. This way, when it rains, if the water splashes up from the ground, it doesn’t erode the mud bricks at the bottom. A lot of the houses here that don’t have that layer of protection have really pitted bricks at the bottom. Windows and doors are added in the last step. And that’s pretty much how the houses here are built.

When we got back, I started to work on a two stroke “Yamaha” generator that Bob had used a little bit about a year ago and then it died. I use quotation marks around Yamaha because it says “Yamaha – Made in Japan” on it, but Bob says a lot of name brand small engine equipment isn’t actually that name brand. Some outfit in China will use the Yamaha or Honda name, the exact same lettering/font, slap a made in Japan decal on it, and try to sell it as one. He’s pretty sure this generator came from China. He didn’t realize at first it was a two stroke engine (which requires mixing oil and fuel together) and he was just running straight fuel in it. It stopped working on him, and he figured he probably scored the cylinder pretty bad and that’s why it wouldn’t work. I used an insect sprayer to spray some gasoline down the throat of the carburetor and gave it a few pulls. It started up for a second until the gasoline was all used up. Just a quick lesson on engines, the same one I gave to Tim, John and Bethany: a gasoline engine needs three things to run: 1) Air/fuel mixture 2) Spark 3) Compression. Since I basically spoon fed the engine its gasoline, I knew it had enough compression and spark to run. Spraying fuel down the throat of the carburetor is pretty much my tried and true first step I always use to determine what’s wrong with an engine since it eliminates spark and compression being a problem. I did a compression check anyway and it got 100psi which is pretty good for an engine this size. Now I know the cylinder probably isn’t as scored as Bob originally thought. Before I could actually put gas in the gas tank and try to get it really running, the rope broke. It was getting dark so we called it a night. I came back to it today, fixed the rope, and the generator runs just fine.

Today started with a devotional in a bookaroo with Bob, Daayibu, Solomon, Yousefa (I think that’s how it’s spelled), a few other guys, Joan, Daayibu’s wife and Daayibu’s mother in-law. It went from around 9 to about 10:15. The devotional was done in Fufulde but I was able to follow along in my Bible and Bob explained a few things in English along the way. We were in John, Psalms, and Romans a bit but the focus was in Corinthians about faith, hope and love, but most importantly of all being love.

After the devotional, I fixed the generator’s rope. I took apart a Briggs and Stratton engine that had no compression so I could show Tim, Bethany and John the internals of an engine. I wasn’t able to get it as far apart as I would have liked by the time we were ready to do the next lesson but I at least had the piston/cylinder and valves exposed. I also went over 2 stroke gasoline and diesel engines, as well as calculating engine displacement and compressions ratios. After the lesson, I worked on getting the Briggs and Stratton engine completely apart. It turns out, whoever messed with it the last time it ran didn’t put it back together correctly. The crankshaft and camshaft were not lined up properly and that’s probably why it won’t run. Tomorrow I’ll put it back together and see how well it does.

In my last blog I mentioned the dishes not being washed with soap and water in between each use but I don’t think that’s true anymore. I think what happened the last time is that someone was done with a dish, put it near the sink to be washed, and then later in the day they wanted a dish again, there were no more clean dishes around, so they grabbed the same plate they had used earlier. I’ve observed more carefully today and yesterday and it looks as though the dishes are washed with soap and water in between each use. We do try to minimize dishes though. We use the same cup throughout the day. Near the water filter there are spots with everyone’s name plug two guest spots so you have a place to put your cup for the day. That’s all for now. Time to get dinner soon!