Progress on My Hut

Lohutok, Sudan
 
I went to Iboni this morning to take medicine to the community health worker.  I brought my camera and tape recorder hoping that the funeral was in full swing.  It was not.  I got a poor recording of some of the chanting.  I do not know if it is worth keeping.  I hope I can get better tapes later.  Martha  and Marcia were much impressed with my extra small tape recorder.
 
We returned to Lohutok.  All but the peak of my roof is on now.  I really hope they can finish the hut tomorrow so they can get the bonus.  I know they need the money more than we do.

Photo: My hut under construction

  I hope the crops will be ready soon also.  The yields should be good because of the rain we had today.  Today's rain should guarantee a good crop from the mountain fields and the earlier lowland sorghum fields.  It will go far toward producing a good crop on the later fields also.

Installing Doum Palm Roof

Lohutok, Sudan

  

The Digunas are amazing.  They pulled the pump up, put the new cylinder on and got the whole thing back down the well last night.  It is already pumping water today.

We went out to get the rest of the doum palm fronds for my house.  We got about 1 3/4 loads on the Land Rover.  The builders have collected quite a bit of bamboo as well.  Most of the framework for the house is up.  Installation of the roof is well underway.  All the bamboo and much of the doum palm is in place.

Photo: Installing doum palm fronds on the roof of my hut.

Tobia killed a squirrel-like animal when we were out getting doum palm.  It was the first time I have seen a spear used.

  

The Diguna truck that went to Juba returned today.  It had a few bags of grain, but they were apparently already sold to people on the truck.  I do not quite understand all the facts (or rather mystery) surrounding the grain deal.  I think I will wait until later to try to explain it.

Kabisa Trouble Installing the Windmill

Lohutok, Sudan

I drove Tobia and his crew to an area where they could cut doum palm fronds for the roof of my hut.  We got two and one half Land Rover loads.  I need to drive them there again tomorrow to get more.  They also brought some bamboo for the hut.  If they finish it this week, they are to get a bonus.

Photos:  Cutting and Loading Doum Palm Fronds

The missionaries here had a birthday party for me this afternoon.  Janis Arensen made a very good orange cake.  Arensen's gave me an Asterix comic book and McConnel's gave me a card.

The Diguna's had trouble - "kabisa" trouble as Phil would say - in putting up the windmill.  ("Kabisa" is Swahili for "utterly" or "completely".)  The welder broke down in the morning.  Then it appeared that the windmill pump rod was too long.  Therefore they first took the welder engine all apart and put it back together. It worked, but they left off the muffler and shields so it was kabisa noisy.  They did this in little more than one hour.  Then they cut a piece out of the pump rod and welded it back together.  This time it seemed too short.  We started checking and discovered that the cylinder was too short for the length of stroke of the windmill.  Tonight at 8:30 p.m. they were just starting to pull up the pipe out of the well to put on the other cylinder with a longer stroke.  (The cylinder is on the lower end of a long pipe that extends from the surface to the bottom of the well.  The cylinder is connected to the overhead windmill by a steel rod inside the pipe.  When the windmill spins in the wind, the rod goes up and down, causing the cylinder to pump underground water through the pipe to the surface.)  I think the Diguna's will need to work most of the night to finish the installation.

Photos:  Erection of New Windmill at Lohutok