Two weeks home

Wednesday, June 17
We got home two weeks ago tonight, and it feels a bit distant. I've been cutting grass most days, making me feel really useful and productive. We've also made some visits to family and friends, so it has been nice that way. But when people ask, "So, what was it like?", I am at a loss. Nigeria is, as so many places on earth, a fully functioning, vibrant place, with people in school, people in love, people dieing, people working, that nonetheless those of us in the US know nothing about. There are, as is common everywhere, contradictions. There are many people working very hard to collectively deal with the needs of the people who live there, and yet there are those who will take advantage for their own personal gain. There are lots of efforts for long range improvement, by those who may not live to see the results, but they understand the concept of "the common good", and are content to contribute in the time they have. Others take the shortest view possible, as in here and now.
So part of this diary will be to talk at some length about the work my brother-in-law, Turner Isoun, was able to do in 8 years as Minister of Science and Technology within the federal government, to serve as a microcosm of the whole national, and in fact international, effort to add to the common good of humanity. I was introduced to significant efforts through visits he arranged for me to several different agencies and research projects. The first stop, I think, was to a biodiversity center near Odi, in the delta of the Niger river. It has been described in an earlier post, but deserves to be mentioned again. Research into vegetable, mushroom, meat, and fruit propagation is taking place there, with studies of methods to expand grasscutter and snail farming critical to improving the availability of high quality protein in the diet. Work goes on, but improvements take time, and represent a belief in long range research to improve the common good.
I also visited the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, on the outskirts of Abuja. Led by Director General and Professor O. O. Adewoye, it is working to improve the nation's ability to define, record, and evaluate engineering concepts with the latest computer aided tools, and to demonstrate their value to industries in the country. Designing a new machine years ago was done mostly by trial and error. More recently, some steps were developed using mathematics and drawing techniques to allow some conceptualizing and proof of concept before hard parts were made, but it was slow laborious work by hand. Today, with the advent of computing power, a design idea can be developed in software, turned into a 3D visualization, analyzed for stress and strain and material characteristics, and "operated" to simulate what it might be expected to do, all before parts are made. Once all looks good, instructions can be forwarded to machines which will make the parts necessary for hard testing. And this agency is developing a core group of individuals and tools to allow Nigerians to begin incorporating these tools into solutions for Nigerian problems, which I find very exciting. For example, there are lots of windmills under development around the world, and most are intended for regions with good to exceptional wind. Nigeria has wind, and it is quite dependable, but it is not of much velocity. So the students and employees of the agency have been doing solid modelling, aerodynamics, and strength of materials studies on modified designs to take advantage of low velocity, dependable windpower suitable for Nigerian conditions. Another example: a lot of leather is tanned in Nigeria, and a local seed extract is used for conditioning the leather. Obtaining that extract is not technically difficult, but is extremely labor intensive. Design efforts are underway to adapt existing milling equipment to do the job, with assurance that the equipment will be strong enough and reliable enough by determining weak links in the equipment and adjusting strength, materials, and forces based on computer aided analysis.
The key tools in use include math modeling using Comsol Multiphysics, Matlab, and Fluent, virtual manufacturing using Comsol and Unigraphics, and CAD / Cam design work on Unigraphics or similar computer drawing software. I was surprised when they told me that computer drawing software compatibility issues rarely arise anymore; that used to be a pretty major issue.

My next stop was the National Resource Institute for Chemical Technology in Zaria, where
DG Ebenezer Okonkwo and Dr. Turner Isoun

Dr. Miriam Isoun and a bio diesel neem oil researcher

research is underway to utilize the seeds of the neem tree. The Director General was Dr. Ebenezer Okonkwo, a very personable gentleman who took time to answer every inane question I posed to him. The tree itself is useful for reducing desertification in dry areas, and will grow quite nicely to heights of 50-60 feet or more. And all of the tree is used for something somewhere in the world. The East African name, Mwarobaini, is most descriptive, translating to "tree of 40", or forty different uses. You might want to Wikipedia the word neem and read some details. Our visit dealt with production of oil from the seed of the fruit, and other peripheral products associated with the seed. These include a natural pesticide, a moderately rich fertilizer, and unique compounds used in cosmetics, soaps, and the like. A funny story we heard had to do with the pesticide. Initial trials with local farmers came back with poor results - farmers almost immediately said it didn't work. With some questioning, it became obvious that the problem was that it didn't smell like a pesticide, so obviously it couldn't work. Add a little aromatic to make it smell like chemicals, and like magic, it worked great. Marketing at its best. Work is being done to commercialize it, so that in desert areas the trees will hold back the desert as well as provide a wide range of very saleable products, so our next stop was a pilot plant for commercial processing in Katsina, further north. (The forecast for the next three days in Katsina is for 100F, 100F, and 104F! A hot place!) A fully functional facility which is presently making fertilizer, oil, and pesticide, it is guided by a Nigerian team, with technical guidance by a gentleman from India who has lots of experience in neem processing.
This trip involved travel to the far north edge of the country, which was fascinating in itself. The people in the north live in ways well adapted to the heat and dryness, and gave us a feel for the length and breadth of this amazing country.

Our next stop was the National Space Research and Development Agency, perhaps the agency

nearest and dearest to Turner. The Director General, Dr. S. O. Mohammed, arranged for our visit, met us at the door, and provided us with a very capable guide of the site. During Turner's tenure, a lot of thought was given to improving communications and mapping / remote sensing within the country and with the rest of the world. Lots of proposals were made, but all involved accessing technology owned and operated by someone else. Why couldn't Nigeria have its own satellites, to provide photographic records, weather maps, and catastrophe documentation (remote sensing), and internet / television / telephone / etc. (communications)? And train capable technical people to operate it all? So early on, a remote sensing satellite was launched from Russia in September 2003, with help from the British. That satellite, with an expected life of 5 years, is still functioning. And an interesting outgrowth of this project has been the increased cooperation with other countries who have similar satellites. Every satellite can't be everywhere at once, so there is a joint effort to use any one of the member satellites in the best position to get the data needed at a given point in time. Several were able to cooperatively provide pictures of the tsunami in the Indian ocean in 2004! The communications satellite was launched from China in 2007, and went into operation in a geostationary orbit over Nigeria, under the control and direction of Nigerian technical people at several locations on earth. This has allowed the development of new skills and knowledge within the country, and has allowed Nigeria to be an active partner in space consortiums and infrastructure, rather than simply a customer of others' programs. The communications satellite, in late 2008, experienced a power supply failure, and lost its functionality.Throughout the launch, deployment, use, and failure, however, a great deal of value was identified in the program, so plans are in place to launch replacements for both the communications satellite and remote sensing satellite (end of life being imminent), as well as backups for both! So this is a technical success story of which Nigeria can be proud. And the skills learned in the program will contribute to the common good of the people of Nigeria.
Our next stop was Gamma Radiation Facility, directed by Dr. Franklin Osaisai. We met with Dr. Adesame, the assistant director, who gave a very clear description of the efforts underway at the

facility. There are three main areas of study. First, research is underway to use gamma radiation to promote storage and shelf life of fresh food. A low exposure can reduce or eliminate decay and sprouting, and provide a much longer usable life, improving the food supply of local people and allowing possible exports of local products. Work is also underway to use gamma radiation for medical purposes, and in the development of new medicines. Third, radiation is useful in hardening plastics, making tougher materials which are approaching the strength of steel as a result, and work is taking place to better understand the process. This is particularly useful in Nigeria where oil provides the raw feedstock for active plastics manufacturing industries. Nigeria has signed international agreements governing the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and takes that responsibility quite seriously.
Also, earlier in our stay, we visited the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, located in Port Harcourt. The university has faculties of engineering, agriculture, environmental science, law, sciences, management sciences, technical and science education, and post grad programs. Student population is about 17,000, on a spacious campus. It was originally established as a college in 1972. Turner became Vice Chancellor in 1980, and was charged with the task of conversion of the college to a true university. The school provides specially skilled graduates to deal with issues of the delta region, Nigeria, and in international forums, primarily in the sciences, and has added valuable professionalism and authority to many government and nongovernment initiatives. The contribution to the common good is obvious.
Turner has also been a longstanding member and supporter of the African Academy of Sciences, based in Nairobi, Kenya, and was editor of the academy's periodical for several years.
My sister Miriam has been the principal behind the Niger Delta Wetlands Center, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, since its founding in 1995. The facility as currently configured has a large conference center available for meetings and conferences, with about 10 motel style rooms for conferees who have come from a distance, some basic facilities to make their stay more comfortable, and a solar powered office, which is available for use and to demonstrate the technology involved. It has provided space for research being done in the delta region, and for local offices of some key allies in the effort to protect the delta ecology. As a nongovernmental

organization, the Wetlands Center has been able to petition for funding from foundations around the world, and use that funding to establish pilot demonstration projects in all sorts of areas and subjects. Work is underway in documenting the flora and fauna of micro- and macro-habitats, in demonstrating the use of renewable energy sources to reduce the environmental impact of human activity, and to establish environmental "safe zones" in parks and preserves, documenting and protecting to whatever degree is possible the biodiversity that still exists. Oil has not been the friend of Nigeria ecologically, and efforts to minimize its impact on the bioculture is difficult work, but it is taking place in moderate ways, which hopefully will provide for the common good longterm.
A few websites you might want to look at further:
http://www.rsust.edu.ng/
http://www.nigerdeltawetlands.org/
http://www.nasrda.net/
http://www.neemnigeria.com/

And last, a few funny pictures -

Jim and Mary Ann

To the market! (Revised)

To the market! When you need supplies in Nigeria, the most common mode is to visit a city market. The closest experience in the US is a farmers' market, where such markets are usually in a village or city of almost any size, or along the roadside. Nigeria has the same, just on a much larger scale, and a much larger array of products and services! Everything from watch battery service to furniture. I would suspect that 80% or more of consumer trade takes place in such markets.

Roadside stands are everywhere, and tend to group up into subject areas, which is interesting - two dozen stands all selling similar products. I'm told that clientele development is still important, so that a roadside shopkeeper will develop a customer base, and can survive quite nicely among lots of competition. As in this location -

All are selling onions (purple), yams, potatoes (tan), mango (yellow), and a few tomatoes (red). and there are probably 6-8 stands in this picture. But they have lots of regular customers, and all do OK.

And here. The jugs are palm oil, an extremely healthy oil made from a palm tree fruit from which oil is easily extracted, used for cooking of all sorts. Some fruit to the right is mango or oranges - Another common roadside sales product is building materials, in this case cement blocks, made and sold from this location. There is always a van or truck going past you can hire to haul them for you.

The city markets are different - they are huge! I mean acres, and usually arranged in long rows .

of small buildings, sometimes brick or block. Again, similar vendors will cluster together, offering similar items. Aisle ways are narrow, usually, but some areas are laid out to suit a specific need, as in a wide open space for carpet or furniture. Ready made and custom made to order clothing, hairdressers (all you need is a stool!), tools, electronics, fresh fruit and vegetables, of course, and

jewelry, prepared food, new and used building materials, lots of beverages of all kinds... literally, you name it. I must admit, it can be intimidating, but it can also be very funny. Like this -


(h/t to Matthew Wentworth)
This is a load of yams, coming from the countryside. You need to know that yams run 5 pounds or more each, and I would estimate that there are a thousand or more in this van, or perhaps 2 and a half tons of yams! In a Mitsubishi with a 1.4 or 1.6 liter engine! Amazing.This is a load of all sorts of fruits and veggies, fresh off the truck -








And the contents from the back, below. Bananas, pineapples, papaya, watermelons. The boxes in the foreground may be imported fruit, but this is pretty unusual, and are pretty pricey. Imported might include grapes, apples, strawberries (though they are also grown locally), apricots, and figs.



Onions and the small red peppers used in EVERYTHING -

The yellow large "bananas" below are actually plaintain, still on the big stalk as grown in the palm tree. Also carrots, cukes, tomatoes. Miriam has her money ziplock bag out to pay for her purchases -
Snails, usually collected in the woods, are a real delicacy, and quite pricey. Two or so make a nice meal -

And you need a watch repaired or a new battery? Just stop and see this young man -

Time for a new mattress? This guy has them -



And there are probably bedroom furnishings in the car to finish the remodelling. The mattresses, made here in Nigeria, are truly wonderful. I'm not kidding - they are similar to the very pricey memory foam we see in the US, but better. They provide an exceptional night's sleep, for around $75 for a queen size, without a cover. A local tailor in the market will make a cover from the fabric of your choice, at $3/yd, for $25 or so, so you have $120 or so in the whole thing. Why do we spend $1000 for a Serta innerspring mattress? I'm tempted to try to put one in our checked luggage...


Auto supplies? This fellow has cleaners, oil, hubcaps, and probably tires in the tent. And, nine times out of ten, a good mechanic to put on your parts or supplies.
This place below has similar products, with motorbike tires over on the left. I didn't get a good picture of heavy parts for sale, but we visited an area where they were repairing engines, alternators, steering gears, rear axles, and so forth.



So it is quite an experience to go shopping. There are more conventional western style stores, but they cost more, and don't have the local stuff as much, and are certainly not as entertaining!

We leave in 36 hours... With very mixed feelings. This has been a wonderful, enlightening, and eye opening trip. Will have to write our impressions in a future entry.

Jim and Mary Ann

Sunday notes

We have been in Abuja for a week or so now, though it feels like a few days. We start the morning most days around 7 - 7:30 with coffee on the back screenporch. An informal breakfast occurs around 9 - 9:30 after showers and the like, usually toast, cold cereal with yoghurt, and/or fruit. Errands and visits might take up the middle of the day, with a planned meal around 2:30 - 3 in the afternoon. A nap or some reading in the hottest part of the day from 3 - 6 PM might occur, with the news and a light snack around 7 - 8 PM to close out the day, with bedtime about 10 PM. And it goes fast!
Several things are planned for our remaining time here. Tuesday we will travel by road to Katsina via Zaria to look in on the neem tree project, described previously. We expect to arrive

Neem tree

early afternoon on Tuesday, spend the afternoon in field trips and discussion, stay overnight locally, and head home Wednesday morning, to arrive early afternoon. Thursday we plan to visit the space / satellite facility here in town, which is in place to provide ground based services for the communications and remote sensing satellites Nigeria has. The communications satellite had a failure this last winter, but it "came with a guarantee" by China, so they will be launching a replacement this fall. There are plans to add backup satellites for both units as well. The remote sensing satellite has been very useful in geological, GPS, land use, and similar work, allowing all sorts of mapping of land, rivers, temperatures, and that sort of thing, and has already exceeded its expected life. Anyway, we will visit the nuclear science gamma radiation center on Friday, where work on sterilization and medical procedures is ongoing. The last 8 years have seen the introduction of all sorts of "seed" technologies which allow and encourage all sorts of other work to begin. It is pretty amazing. It also provides reassurance to donors and investors that Nigeria is a dynamic place where there is strong opportunity for growth and improvement.
Last night, Miriam and Mary Ann were feeling sorry for me. I have had a few days of dancing digestion - just a generally unsettled feeling. So they made some wonderful fried fish with a Zatarain's coating mix supplied by Melinda Wentworth when she was here, some macaroni and cheese built by Mary Ann, and a very nice salad of cucumbers, avocado, and onion with a mild yoghurt dressing. Very nice. I think of myself as a fan of hot spicy food, but even a good thing can be overdone, and I really think that was causing some of my distress. But ...I intend to continue to challenge my system to adapt! Diseye, Ilse, and Hella joined us for dinner, where Hella showed

Diseye and Hella

a bit of uncertainty about her first taste of ice cream, and a decided preference for watermelon. It was a lot of fun, with lots of baby-watching and -passing. We had gone to the grand opening of a new local park, a beautiful place full of local flora, along a small creek, right in the middle of this

large city. It was very nice, and we were able to meet the woman, the widow of a national hero in Nigeria, who had spearheaded the construction of the park. She was a very gracious and kind lady who took a minute to talk with us, and to accept our compliments on the result. It was put together in cooperation with the Nigerian Palm Society, and contains 365 different species of palm, "one for each day of the year". It also includes an extensive nursery, providing stock for people to buy for replanting at home. We've got lots of pictures, which I will try to include.

And Mary Ann on the back deck of the Abuja house, and a few views of the city from the hill where the house is located -

Love to you all,

Mary Ann and Jim

A few notes on our daily activites

A random listing of activities and observations:

- It is 37.6 degree C at the moment, Friday noon. Figure that out in degrees F.

- We had Nigerian fast food last night, from a lady down the hill on a corner, cooked on a small wood fire. We had rice cakes, fluffy, ultra thick pancake-like things, no evidence of the rice grain left, a bit sweet and nicely oily. We had bean pucks, for lack of a better word, similar to a hushpuppy or donut hole, made from a bean something like black eyed peas. Good. We had a small cup of hot stew, or sauce, in which one could dip the bean or rice dish. We had something called avocado pear, an oblong fruit which had been boiled lightly, and which had a large seed. You kind of sucked the flesh, 3/8" thick, off the seed. Interesting... For dessert we had vanilla ice cream with your choice of fresh pineapple, banana, maraschino cherries, and Nutella. Very good all around.

- Wednesday night we had an outstanding storm - wind, rain, very loud thunder and bright lightning. Fun. We have a back screened patio at the Abuja house, where it is nice to sit and visit or read. Or to watch a storm, which on Wednesday, came from behind us. The wind picked up, the trees swayed, the flowers on the flowering trees flew around, and the rain began. It was heavy enough at times to wooosch around the corners of the building in sprays, and kept up for perhaps 20 minutes. The temp dropped 31 degree F, from near 100 to below 70F. Great time.

- Mary Ann and Miriam have been doing the market runs. Most food is sold by small shop owners who either grew it or know the person who did. One staple is the yam, a large (~5 lb.) root crop. It is different than a sweet potato, which is also popular. The yam is very similar to potato in texture, with a bit more flavor and no sweetness. We have seen the little transportation vans full to the roof with yams, so full they are sticking out the windows, on the road. Very little in imported foods; though they are available, they don't make up any appreciable part of the diet. Lots of fruit, lots of starchy vegetables, some greens usually intended to be cooked, rather than eaten raw. However, tomatoes and cucumbers work fine for a fresh salad. Let's see - fruit: pineapple, orange, lemon, avocado, bananas (the best you've ever had), mango, papaya (sometimes called paw paw), apples, watermelons, grapes, honeydew melons, strawberries. Vegetables: onions, potato, yams, cassava (Wikipedia it), sweet potato, plantain (a type of unsweet banana), various greens to be cooked, garlic, lots of hot and mild peppers. Milk and milk products are not really common, because of cost and spoilage, but a drinkable yoghurt is very popular and very good, and can be used in many ways where you might normally use milk, and it keeps much longer. Great with cereal, cookies, on salad, and so on. Protein is mostly from fish, goat, and chicken. It is relatively expensive in the grand scheme of things, so it is incorporated into stews and sauces, and actually the quantities most people get is perfectly adequate. Beef is curious - available, but range fed, so it is a "manly meat", no melt-in-your-mouth steak. We had steak one night, though, raised specifically for local steak houses, and it was very good.

- The man came to mow the lawn yesterday. The lawn is green and growing, the result of the rainy season.

- There is a songbird here we hear each morning and evening, which has an amazing repertoire. Best described as variations on a theme, somewhat Philip Glass-like. Repeating end phrase of 3-5 notes, then starts over with a slight variation or different key, ending with the same 3-5 notes. I love it.

The advent of the cell phone has changed the place. All phones are prepay format, and very reasonable. Recharge cards available everywhere, in large and small denominations. Four or five carriers, and phones are not tied to a particular carrier.

- Bottled water is readily available, and tap water in many cities is perfectly safe and tastes great. Bottled water comes in a variety of containers, from a heat sealed poly bag of perhaps 12 oz. (you tear off a corner and pour it into your mouth), to 20 oz "pop bottles" to 5 gallon carboys for in the home. People drink a lot of water, and a lot less soda/pop. Lots of fruit juice, and some beer and wine. Almost no one smokes.

That's enough.

We are enjoying our stay. A couple activities lined up - a man in the area wants to talk to me about methanol as a fuel for transportation, another will stop tonight for an introduction to his new computer, which we brought from the US, and next Tuesday / Wednesday we all will make a trip to Katsina in the north to look at Neem tree projects. So it is quite an experience, one we will not forget.

Love, Mary Ann and Jim

Nigerian Conservation Federation

A short post about our visit to the Nigerian Conservation Federation site in Lagos. Miriam had a morning meeting at the facility, and we were to go from there to the airport to fly back to Abuja, the capital, so we all got up at a reasonable hour and went to the property together. The federation owns some acreage, and has put in elevated walking trails out through rainforest / ocean savanna. It might be altogether a mile in length, with branching walkways off the main loop, going to birdwatching sites or the like. So Mary Ann, Chris (our driver), and I walked the path. You remember the old African jungle movies, where the guy was slowly, tediously hacking his way through the overgrowth with a machete? That's how it was. Thick, dense growth, with most of the firmly rooted trees and plants used as climbing supports for vines and ferns. The palms providing moist pockets for ferns at the bases of each frond was pretty amazing.

As you might have noticed in the picture above, there is also a treehouse along the pathway! Must go up 50-60 feet or more, most of it inside a vertical ladder cage. No, I didn't.

We crossed paths with a monitor lizard - hard to see in the picture below, but he is there stretched out horizontally on the tree trunk. They enjoy eggs, mostly - bird eggs, so birds have had to get ingeneous about where they lay them, like in houses, or cars, or such.

Back at the center, we laughed at the peacocks - silly creatures, with REALLY small heads -

and then we came face to face with a really large

tortoise. He just came wandering out of the brush, seemed quite intent on getting across the lawn, stopped now and then for a few mouthfuls of a particular flowery weed, and finally ended up under one of the buildings in the shade (buildings are 4-5 feet off the ground, on concrete pillars). Amazing creature, and didn'r seem the least bit concerned about us.

A few other pictures -

Palms can grow this big in less than a year.

All for now.

Love, Mary ann and Jim

School in Port Harcourt

Playtime

A high point of our visit to Port Harcourt last week was a stop at the school Jamie spent time at when she was here 18 months ago. It is a private school, run by a woman and her daughter. The woman, Debrovka, has been here since the mid - 60's, having moved here from Croatia with her husband. This, then, has been a lifelong effort.

Debrovka

Debrovka's daughter, Monica with Mary Ann in their home

It is certified by the country, charges tuition, and has a very good reputation, but Debrovka has tried to maintain the neighborhood character of the place, taking local students over those more able to pay, but who live further away. The streetview is very deceiving - there are perhaps 12 classrooms, educating 350 students in grades preprimary (2-3 yrs) to 7th or 8th grade, as well as Debrovka's home. They use a sort of master teacher/apprentice system. There are older, more experienced teachers who teach 1 or more classes, but also oversee 3-4 classroom level teachers.

Monica with the "master teachers"

The building is in a central city location, with limited land, on a side street. The grounds are neat and clean, the buildings in good repair, built in a sort of Nigerian style - open windows, air flow from outside to a central courtyard, concrete construction. We had collected a lot of miscellaneous school supplies, from pencils to inflatable globes to wall posters of letters/numbers/geography, and a number of small books and DVD's. We also wanted to make contact with each of the children, so Mary Ann had come up with friendship bracelets, adjustable multicolored string bracelets. We met each class, and M.A. did a topnotch job of explaining why we wanted to meet them, and that we wanted to be friends, and cared about them. It was pretty rewarding. The children, of course, were amazing. Even little ones would, in unison, say "Good morning, auntie" or some such. Very well mannered, but not at all wooden - you could pick out the serious ones, the frightened ones, the mischievous ones.

The third from the left is a good example of a mischevous kid! But she was fun!

We visited the oldest students last and two of them remembered Jamie. Really nice - they said she was kind and helpful, and taught them alot (!).

The next post will deal with Miriam and Turner's home in Port Harcourt, their "real" home.