Going off grid in Africa - Again!

By the way, I really HATE those stupid DIN mounted circuit breakers. My theory is that the panel boards in the US like Square-D are made for $40/hour electricians. The DIN rail ones are made for $0.20/hour electricians. That's pretty much all they have here. The nice Square D ones in the picture above, we sent over for the original construction.

 

Exactly. It takes forever to do and fills the box with wires that shouldn't be necessary.

 

Got termites? I've seen lots of bigger mounds, but this one is close to the road.



Today is my last day in Mango even though my flight isn't till Sunday. My host needs to be in Lomé tomorrow afternoon for some personal business. So, I'm about to start putting away my tools and will be packing this afternoon. There's a pizza party this evening so this is my best opportunity to be ready to hit the road at 7AM. I did the COVID test this morning at the hospital that's associated with the radio station. I think the swab might have come out of my right ear. Not sure but glad that that should be the last one for the foreseeable future..

 

I got my shots back in Feb. & March.

 

We made it to Lomé in nearly record time -- about 7-1/2 hours.


Some of the low mountains that go all the way from the coast up into Nigeria.


Two cows in a three-wheeler.


One of the most interesting spots along the entire road. It's one-way now, but was originally two-way. I still don't know why they cut the rock this way, but it looks cool.


Another Apsonic laden with livestock. These little 3-wheeled trucks with motorcycle engines are really popular here.


This wreck was about two weeks ago. They've already painted a road sign on it.


Another of the countless wrecks you see on every trip between Mango and Lomé. This one was fresh and we were caught in a traffic jam for 15-20 minutes.


My host/chauffeur dickering over the price of Fulani cheese at the roadside.


Lots of trucks are piled higher than this one. Most lean to one side or the other. Some are dog-legged as much as 4-5 feet.


I was told that this was a fatal head-on. One I saw earlier that I didn't have the camera ready for killed five people. As my friend here says, this trip is not something you take lightly.


Safety third!!


My digs for tonight through Sunday early morning. Very African atmosphere. Nice, but far from deluxe.


A pretty nice beach at the hotel.


And a 170º panorama of the pool.

Tomorrow, my host takes his daughters to the orthodontist, we get some shopping done, and we eat. He said that for supper, we're going to a restaurant atop a 22-story hotel. The next morning begins the ordeal of getting through the COVID, passport, etc. screenings at the airport, an 11-hour flight to Newark and my return to a place where I can understand what most people are saying. As of tonight, I'm still waiting for the results of the COVID test I had done yesterday morning.

 

That's a quote from Mike Rowe on "Dirty Jobs." I'd say that first here is finding provision for your family. Second might be finding contentment in your circumstances.

 

I'm back!! What a trip. As I got out of the car in our driveway, my adrenaline vanished, and I just wanted to go to bed. But first, I had to kiss my wife a few more times and show her the goodies I brought back for her including about 48 yards of African fabric.

On the COVID front, by noon Saturday, it was looking like they might have lost my test. My host told me it wouldn't be the first time that happened and, as long as I showed proof at the airport that I'd paid for the test, they'd either wave me through or do a quick test right there. It turned out to be moot because my host seems to know everyone. He called someone Saturday afternoon to look into it. We didn't hear back, so we went to the old airport where they normally do the tests, talked to some people there, made another phone call, and a half hour later, the negative test results were in my email inbox.



My host, guide, and friend looking for the right shoes. There were about two dozen of these big umbrellas festooned with shoes and sandals.

He showed me around town as he did his shopping and we had a wonderful lunch at a seriously luxurious hotel. It's the tallest building in Lomé, so we naturally went to the 27th (top) floor for a look out the windows.

WOW! We should have stayed here! But lots more money and no beach for the kids. The pool looked amazing, though.



Pork chops for lunch. Four of us ate for $30.



View from the men's room on the 27th floor.

Check in Sunday morning at the airport. Go through a security check at the front door. Not bad. Wait for ticket counter to open. Check in. So far, so good. Go to passport control. Smooth. Another security check. OH MY!!! I have three AA batteries in my flashlight!!! GASP! Can't have that. By the way, can I have a couple of those extra face masks in your carryon bag? So I gave him the batteries and a couple face masks. Shrug shoulders, scratch head, put shoes back on, and move along to the next adventure.

Arrive at gate area. Another security check. This is about 200' after the previous one and none of the other gates have this. Must be a U.S. thing. But it's not open yet. Once it opens, have another person paw through my stuff. Good thing I packed carefully so I could find what I need quickly.

Talk to wife on FaceTime while waiting at the gate. (I bought 60GB of cellular data for about $20 when I arrived in Togo. Even with tons of video chats and research for the stuff I was working on, I only used about 15% of it.) SO GLAD I got a SIM card when I entered the country!! Made me much more productive plus the benefits of talking to people back home via Facetime over cell data.



Plane took off at about 12:30 PM, right on time. I had a row to myself, the flight was almost all smooth, and the service was good. Much better than the overnight flight with dirty bathrooms going over there. After 10-1/2 hours in the air, we landed on time in Newark. Then I waited for my bags. And waited. 1-1/2 hours after the plane landed, the bags landed on the belt. Sheesh!!



Landing at Newark Airport.

The signs to the hotel shuttles are very vague but I followed what looked like the most promising route, going by "air train" to the P4 area. Called the hotel to ask about the shuttle schedule. They confirmed that I was in the right place. Sure nice to be able to understand people!! Checked in and crashed in bed asap. Let's see, I got up at 5 AM Togo time (1 AM EDT). Hit the sack at about 10 PM EDT.

Woke up at 5 AM, well before the set time for the alarm. Breakfast at the hotel. Shuttle to airport. Check in online. Drop bags. Go to gate and wait some more. Call wife while waiting for flight to Atlanta. So far, so good.

Arrived in Atlanta at gate A5. Depart from Gate A2. That's nice!! But before I board again, the Chick-fil-A at the food court is calling me.

Take off nearly on time. Now the fun starts. We start zig zagging. Dodging storms. Then we do a complete 180 and start flying an oval pattern over the Gulf near Tallahassee. Captain says there are storms over Tampa's airport and that's slowing things down. We'll circle and wait our turn. After about an hour of that, the captain tells us we need gas, so we're going to Jacksonville to fill up and wait out the storm.

Eventually, two hours after we were to have landed in Tampa, we took off from JAX. The takeoff felt like the pilot was in as big of a hurry as the passengers. Got to Tampa three hours late. Got bags, drove the 35 minutes home with my wife. Crashed in bed.

Our office manager ordered me to take the rest of the week off. I didn't argue.

 

Yeah, working in a language you don't really understand is pretty stressful.
Here are some Google Earth images to locate the place for anyone who wants to see it.


And a couple pix of the place.

 

Oh yeah! I had goals on this trip. Did I meet them? Well, some of them, but not all. They were lofty goals and I didn't really expect to get everything done.

(TLDNR version: It was a very successful trip!!)

1. Installed the replacement SMA Tripower inverter. The old one was stuck in an "insulation resistance error and wouldn't run. They have at lease one panel in each array that is leaking water when it rains or there's heavy dew. The inverter wouldn't clear the alarm. That actually took a large part of the first week since I'd never done it and was relying on advice from the guy in North Carolina who installed the system.
2. Also, in the 1st week, I addressed their battery issue. They have essentially destroyed their 48 lead acid batteries that should have been able to store 2,000 AH. Totally dried out. What they did was move the temperature sensor out from among the batteries to the outside because they were getting battery temperature alarms. So rather than find a way to cool the batteries, they cooled the sensor. I almost swallowed my tongue when I saw what they did. I think I have them convinced that new batteries are worth the cost, but it'll take them about a year to raise funds and get them delivered.
3. As it is, the system can still power the facility, but the battery capacity is so low that we had to put the studios on city power. I guided them in installing a really nice voltage regulator and simple transfer switch for the studio building. It is almost always on city power now.
4. But, with no battery capacity, they still could not broadcast in the dark or the rain. They needed city power to the transmitter room, too. Now they can be on the air all the time when the sun is shining, and after dark, they are on whenever the city is able to keep the electricity on. They have ordered a very large UPS system for the transmitter room to protect that $15,000 transmitter from all the transients that probably happen when the city power goes on and off several times a minute. I drew up a sketch to show them how to wire it up.
5. We cleaned all the dust out of the transmitter and washed the filter. Also replace the CR2032 CMOS battery in the transmitter.
6. I helped them download and install an app to let them monitor and tweak the transmitter from their computers. The old way of doing that involved Flash and MicroSoft has finally followed Apple's lead in banning Flash and even Adobe themselves have finally dumped it.
7. Once we got that app installed, I made an adjustment to stop the over modulation they were having. I also made them a check sheet for monitoring the health of the transmitter.
8. I spent quite a bit of time coaching their technician and advising on the importance of housekeeping and preventative maintenance. We also had some studio time when I showed him some shortcuts with Adobe Audition that will save him a lot of time in editing the audio files.

Those are the main highlights. The technician didn't want me to leave. He's a really smart kid, but not really experience in a lot of stuff he's responsible for. And he's terrifically busy.

All in all, I think it was a success. At some point someone (maybe me) needs to go there to replace two sets of guy wires on the tower. When we put it up, some of the wire I planned to use wasn't available. So we had the Togolese tower crew bring some with them. It's that wire that's starting to rust now. The American wire looks brand new.

The radio station and the people there are having an amazing impact on the community and the surrounding region. I am very humbled to have been able to take part in designing, building, and supporting something that God is using so powerfully to bring good news to people who would never hear it any other way.

 

Africa isn't done with me. Update on the knee locking issue I mentioned on the second page here. It still locks almost every time I straighten it. Apparently, that was the straw that broke the camel's back err ... knee. I got an MRI and it turns out that besides a big spur on the front of my femur behind my kneecap, there is no cartilage to speak of in two of the three parts of the knee and some of the bone is ground away as well. I'm amazed it doesn't hurt worse. But it will hurt worse pretty soon -- for a while. Three weeks from today I'm scheduled for a total knee replacement. Yikes! Not quite what I expected, but not a total surprise either. It's been bothering me for about nine years.