Update

I don’t know if it’s been writers block, or just a semi-unconscious way of shutting down in preparation for my departure. Whatever the reason, let this serve as my best attempt at breaking the silence.

First, I’ll start with a peanut butter project update: the oven was delivered to the Nutrition Unit yesterday, four hours after the guy said he would be there, only to find it was too big to fit though the door. You might ask what one does in a situation such as this. Well, I don’t know about other places, but here you break down the door and the surrounding concrete wall with a sledge hammer, naturally. The wash area was “completed” last week. However, the mason’s idea of complete and our idea of complete differ slightly. And when I say slightly I mean greatly. That said, there’s more work to be done on that front before we call it good. And we can now add on to that list, reconstructing the gapping hole that once served as door. Along side all this, still waiting for the power authority to come out and pull down another line (what all that involves, I’m not exactly sure) so we can run all the equipment in the unit. Also needed to find a couple volunteers to train to do initial production for the study, and get a certification from the Nigerian version of the FDA. Suffice to say there’s quite a bit that needs to happen before we actually start making the peanut butter paste, but it’s all in the name of progress nonetheless.

As for me, I’m just using these last weeks to soak up the presence of people I’ve come to love and respect so much. That’s about all I’ve got.

Peanut Butter Part Two

Back in October I wrote a post about a peanut butter project Faith Alive had been working on; to date we have all the equipment needed to start basic production-oven (buying this week sometime), grinder, mixer, scale, etc. All of last week Stephen and I worked along side Julie and Krysty, two women running the project, to sort out logistics and other loose ends that have been keeping things from proceeding thus far.

This week will be more of the same, organizing, coordinating, sorting out details of the study, etc.. We’re hoping by the end of next week we’ll be ready to start production of the fortified peanut butter paste. Once productions starts, we’ll need to get a temporary certification from the Nigerian equivalent of the FDA. Once we have that we can take our study proposal to five local hospitals to do a trial with fifty clinically malnourished children. We hope to generate results close to Dr. Manary’s studies; that is an 80% success rate with children fully recovering after a period of six weeks. Our study will run for a total of two months, at the end of which we hope to produce the peanut butter product en mass.

On a separate but related note, if you’re interested more stories/experiences from Faith Alive, check out Stephen’s blog at: http://stephen_gire.typepad.com/nigeria/ Lot’s of great pics and stories to add to anything I’ve been able to convey.

Ghana-Must-Go-Go

Back in the 80's (1983 to be exact) the government of Nigeria forced over 800,000 Ghanaians out of this country, sending them back to Ghana. In the mad rush to get out of town, these one of a kind bags adopted the name "Ghana-must-go".
This discovery came to me one afternoon while I was hanging out in Blessing's shop. Some of her students were going through a large bag, almost identical to the photo on the left, pulling out bits of usable material scraps. Just a couple days prior I was thinking of all the stuff I would be bringing back, not knowing if I would have enough room in my suitcase. In passing I mentioned I might need to get a bag like that when we next went to the market. "Ghana-must-go?" she said. Ghana must what? "Ghana-must-go" she said again. I laughed. You're not serious. That's what they're called? "Yeah" Why? "Because the Ghanaians had to go." she replied matter of factly. Ah. Well, then, there it is. I guess I'll be going with Ghana-must-go.