Drive Time:
Katsina-Jigawa (Gumel) = 2.5hrs
Jigawa-Kano = 1.5hrs
Today we visited the Kadabiki community, situated in Kankara local government area of Katsina state. What a warm welcome from a unique village – the inhabitants are all pure hausa, but Christians! The church in the community is old but their faith is strong.
The primary healthcare centre (kadabiki Community Health Post) looked no better, with broken windows and hardly any hospital furniture – but the people just trudge on. The village Head, Tukur Mani Danmarabau thanked us profusely for bringing the solar concept to his village. One of the Ward Heads (Yahuza Usman) and the village Head’s wife were trained on how to use our solar lamp gift/phone charger.
The village Head’s wife is interested in becoming a Barefoot Solar Engineer but she and her husband agree they will discuss the matter at length - who will take care of the children? Can she be away for 6 months on a training programme? etc. Our local contact Gloria Mfon was simply fantastic, not only because she helped us navigate the cultural waters of the village, but also because of her infectious zeal to to serve rural areas.
From Katsina town, we headed to Gagarawa local Government Area in Gumel Emirate (Jigawa state).
A small entourage Abbas Jurimi & Maryam Haruna (programme Accountant and Programme Manager respectively of the Women Enlightenment and Empowerment Foundation – WEEP) escorted us to the home of the Director of Gumel/Gunduma Health System (Pharm. Hamza Maigari Kakudi) who set aside his weekend leisure and went with us to inspect the Makilili basic healthcare clinic.
But not before we paid a courtesy call on the village Head of Maikilili, Alhaji Ishau, with whom we sat on mat to receive a short but profound prayer.
We all trouped to the Maikilili basic healthcare clinic, which is approximately 11km off the Gumel major road. It is a new building, but completely off-grid. No electricity poles at all. As has become the trend, the clinic attendants work after dark with torchlights!
Again, we presented our solar lamp gift which we have come to realise is badly needed in rural areas. That, and mosquito nets. We received a round of applause from children, youths and adults, many of whom were seeing a solar appliance for the first time. The people up here are so appreciative.
The greatest surprise of all was an unplanned drive to the Niger border. Our hosts actually saw to it that we crossed over a few metres into Niger!! It was great conversing with a Nigerien Gendarme who spoke both French and hausa. We stepped on Niger soil at exactly 4.10 pm today. The border village is called Adare. After a few photo ops, we turned right round and drove to Kano
We got into Kano at about 5.30pm. Travel ended for the day.
Connectivity
Internt: GPRS connectivity from Glo. Still slow but a little faster than yesterday's experience.
Mobile phone: Glo & MTN work Ok
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