Drive Time:
Portharcourt – Odi 2.5hrs
Odi – Irri 1hr20mins
Irri – Benin City 1hr40mins
We had spent the night in Portharcourt after yesterday’s visit to Eeken, both in Rivers state.
Today, on our 26th stop, we were privileged to serve a rural clinic (Odi Health centre) situated in the popular town of Odi in Bayelsa state. We were given the choice of going to another healthcare centre in Sagbama (also in Bayelsa state), but we opted for the historic Odi.
Odi’s popularity comes from the time the predominantly Ijaw community was razed to the ground in november 1999 on the orders of the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Soldiers destroyed Odi town following the murder of 11 policemen by some youths from the community. The conflict had been an ongoing battle in the Niger Delta over indigenous rights to oil resources and environmental protection. Except for a bank (First Bank), the Anglican church, and the health centre, evrything else in Odi was destroyed by the Armed Forces.
We were pleased to see signs of the community’s regeneration, with buildings cropping up where there was once ashes.
And so our pictures today are all about Odi:
a)the house of the Militant leader, Ken, who sparked the Odi crisis (we hear Ken was killed a couple of years ago)
b) the rusted signpost of the Odi Community Health Centre
c)the mother who was delivered of a baby boy last night
d)the clever but crude contraption which the nurses used as lighting during the delivery (we were incredulous)
e)the evident joy (another ‘Solar Lamp Dance’) expressed by Florence Enadeghe (the clinic’s Midwife) when she got a replacement light in the form of our combined solar lamp/phone charger.
If the whole ‘event’ were scripted, we couldn’t have acted it out any better!
The Irri Healthcare centre (Delta state) was our 27th stop. Here, our efforts were blessed by Arch Bishop Apena of the Bethseda Gospel Mission. All on their own, the clinic staff also rallied and presented Team Solar Jooce with N1,000 and two cans of a malt drink – to show just how much they appreciated graduating from a kerosene lantern to a solar-powered one.
Things are moving along nicely. Spent the night in Benin city.
Connectivity
Glo Internet: Superfast HSDPA in Portharcourt (& most of Rivers state) + Bayelsa (even in Odi community). Very moderate EDGE service in Benin (Abuja Quarters area)
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