Drive Time
Ilorin (Kwara state) - Aladi/Gudugba 45mins
Aladi/Gudugba - Agbadu Bunu 4hrs
Agbadu Bunu - Nasarawa Eggon 5hrs
Nasaraw Eggon - Abuja 2hrs
We've made it to the finish line. Not a scratch, not a hitch from the start of our 36-state road expedition (May 26, 2010), right to the very end (June 11, 2010). We did a total of 9,309km.
It has been a very humbling and eye-opening experience - meeting with, listening to and sharing ideas with rural and semi-rural communities for the 17 days we have been on the road. Grassroots people are working hard and suffering, and bearing it with dignity. Someone needs to tell their story. Someone needs to teach them how to fish, instead of throwing the odd fish their way.
Today (at stop # 35) we met a farming family hidden away in the heart of Kwara state. Sustaining themselves on home grown crops (guinea corn, cassava, yam, shea nuts, beans etc), they were proof positive that farming is the answer to ending hunger and poverty.
To the head farmer, Oliver Boor (he asked a LOT of intelligent questions about solar), our gift of a combined solar lamp/phone charger solved 4 of their their major problems:
a) Because they do not have electricity, the new solar application would ensure they could now work into the night - with bright light - sacking their produce and pounding (such as cassava and bean pods)
b) the phone charging facility of the lamp would also ensure their phones were permanently charged so that could call the city (Lagos) and negottiate prices for their produce ahead of time
c) Using the solar lamp would mean a huge savings because they would no longer have to buy so much kerosene.
d) For their health, their eyes would be less strained, and they had already made a connection between kerosene fumes and the chesty coughs some of them suffer
We helped them make a link between using solar and enhancing environmental sustainability, underlining the fact that kerosene is a harmful fossil fuel whose fumes contributed to environmental degradation.
Meanwhile, at stop #36 (Nassarawa state), our hearts bled when we saw the work being done by an NGO, the Okphwuo Foundation. Headed by Chief Ajegena, the foundation runs a tedious mobile clinic service, getting around on decrepit motorbikes and having to cross large areas of water just to get to poor communities in need of health services. Mr. Ajegena says a proper mobile light is one of the problems they face - a kerosene lantern is crucial to his job in examining & treating patients in far-flung villages that are not even connected to the national grid. Yet kerosene is so expensive, and the Foundation cannot afford it because villagers are unable to pay for health services, despite medication being heavily discounted. A vicious cycle.
Mr. Ajegena and his wife Cecilia (a volunteer and environmental health officer) were therefore thrilled to receive our solar gift, and we wished we could do so much more. You wonder why there are people making such sacrifices every day of their lives yet no-one seems to be paying attention.
We visited some of Ajegena's patients at the Foundation's site, and were sad to see a young Fulani herdsman, lying half conscious from a serious bout of cerebral malaria. Ajegena was sure the boy would eventually be fine, and told us that malaria and typhoid are the greatest killers in the many communities he travels to.
That gave us an idea - maybe on the next Solar for the Masses regional expedition, we could pack in a whole load of sponsored mosquito nets and give out to people along with solar lamps...
Connectivity
Internet: Glo Mobile works in very unexpected places. It was consistently available throughout Kogi.
Mobile: In Aladi, GLO & MTN work only in patches, and outside the house (a spot a few inches away from the gate)
In Agbadu (Kogi), GLO saved the day. It worked while MTN had no signal at all. However, in other Kogi villages (Oke Bukun, Ayegunle Igun, Odo Ape) MTN & GLO both worked.
In Lokoja (capital of Nasarawa), GLO was again the network that worked.
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