COL PEETS CHRONICLES
Volume 1 – 2015
Yes I’m at it again but this time Pamela is coming as my handbag which is the reverse of our first trip to Congo in 2007.
The whole trip will have us visiting another organisation in Nairobi Kenya, Afrilift, and another project looking at water collection similar to what I did in Goma. After Goma we will fly to New York to visit Evan, Moira and the kids in their new home in the Bronx. Ev is Associate Pastor at the Elements Church and studying for his Masters.
I’m sure Pamela will not believe her eyes when she sees the way the HEAL Africa compound has developed. When she “dragged “me there, the hospital had one block building, a number of shipping containers for admin, IT and stores and tents for wards. There was no flowing water, no washing facilities in the wards, all of the beds were old and sagging and most didn’t have mattresses. Now practically all of the buildings are concrete and block, the beds are new with mattresses and sheets, all wards have a hand washing station, flowing water is available either from underground storage or elevated tanks and the whole site is clean. Thanks to Paul Bakes from Brisbane, the IT and communication is world standard within the site (pity the outside is not) with an optical fibre backbone. And Sonic Healthcare has been a particularly generous partner by sending one or two containers of donated equipment each year along with technical experts to train the local pathology staff. HEAL Africa now has one of the most up to date pathology facilities in Africa.
I can’t talk of the improvements without mentioning the Goma Work Group. This is made up with likeminded Aussies with a passion for HEAL Africa and other people in the South Kivu District. Because of the structures put in place, the education of medical and support staff is well coordinated and thus the standard of the local staff is much improved. One amazing soldier is Barbara Ferguson from Sydney. She has a great heart for one of the most downtrodden groups, the pygmies, and has worked tirelessly to improve their lot. This includes purchasing their own land and building a village and school.
One thing that has been lacking for all of my time going to Goma has been reliable power in the hospital. The town power is generated in the city of Bukavu some 150 Klm from Goma and comes via overhead wires around the lake. The voltage should be a regular 250 volts at 50 Hz but, if available, usually runs below 150 volts but can quickly spike up to 270 volts with devastating effects on the equipment. When the power drops out there is a stand-by generator that is older than me (believe it or not) that can only support a very small section of the hospital; hence doctors take their mobile phones into theatre so that they can be used as torches if/when the light go out.
Thanks to the generous support of a bunch of banana benders via one of the Goma Working Group teams, a 200KVA generator has been sent as a replacement for the old beast. One of my projects this trip is to build a concrete foundation for the new machine house along with inbuilt cable ducts to link the generator with an automatic changeover device.
Transporting the generator will produce some amazing photos that I will send later as in true African fashion this will be interesting. The generator weighs 3.5 tons and a special crane was used to get it into the container at Sonic’s Sydney headquarters. In Goma there isn’t a great choice of cranes. The two that I know of are very old and belch lots of black smoke when lifting skin off custard. My plan is to lift one end of the unit using two 5 ton jacks and slide a number of pipes under the skids it sits on then again using the jacks lift the other end and insert pipes there as well. Now we can pull the unit out of the container using a 4 wheel drive Jeep and adding more pipes as it rolls along. We will need a ramp or pile of pallets outside the container as a landing. Then the machine can be “lifted’’ and carried to its new home. Lifted could means 50 guys lifting 50 kilos each or maybe a crane that can then bump along as it travels up a really bumpy unpaved road.
We will be meeting a team from Brisbane in Goma that includes a number of Doctors, Paul Bakes, and an electrical engineer and some admin people, so the Vegemite I take will be appreciated.
For the last 8 years I have been able to fund my travels and projects by myself but with the Australian dollar so low I am looking at you, my intrepid readers, to find it in your hearts and wallets to help with some project funds. I am needing $2000 USD to build a new house for the generator. This is for materials and labour. The labour funding is really appreciated as will keep up to 20 families going for at least a month.
If you can help please transfer, by direct deposit, into my working capital account BSB: 814-282 Account No:30917695 with your name in the comments bit (if you want to or just Goma). Fortunately we have been able to fund our travel, visas and accommodation.
As a clue of the joys of volunteering in DRC, the transit Visas for Rwanda have gone down in price to $30USD each way whilst the DRC visa for 1 month (it’s either 7 days or 1 month) are $533USD. This is made up of $100 Admin Fee, $250 Flying Visa Fee plus $183 I month stay which translates to $686.45 Australian). Add to this over $1000 for accommodation and transport once in Goma and you will see where my project money has gone.
Any money left over will be used to pay for a needy person’s medical costs.
We leave on 25th March so please think seriously about some support.
Thanks in advance and God Bless you all.
Col
Yes I’m at it again but this time Pamela is coming as my handbag which is the reverse of our first trip to Congo in 2007.
The whole trip will have us visiting another organisation in Nairobi Kenya, Afrilift, and another project looking at water collection similar to what I did in Goma. After Goma we will fly to New York to visit Evan, Moira and the kids in their new home in the Bronx. Ev is Associate Pastor at the Elements Church and studying for his Masters.
I’m sure Pamela will not believe her eyes when she sees the way the HEAL Africa compound has developed. When she “dragged “me there, the hospital had one block building, a number of shipping containers for admin, IT and stores and tents for wards. There was no flowing water, no washing facilities in the wards, all of the beds were old and sagging and most didn’t have mattresses. Now practically all of the buildings are concrete and block, the beds are new with mattresses and sheets, all wards have a hand washing station, flowing water is available either from underground storage or elevated tanks and the whole site is clean. Thanks to Paul Bakes from Brisbane, the IT and communication is world standard within the site (pity the outside is not) with an optical fibre backbone. And Sonic Healthcare has been a particularly generous partner by sending one or two containers of donated equipment each year along with technical experts to train the local pathology staff. HEAL Africa now has one of the most up to date pathology facilities in Africa.
I can’t talk of the improvements without mentioning the Goma Work Group. This is made up with likeminded Aussies with a passion for HEAL Africa and other people in the South Kivu District. Because of the structures put in place, the education of medical and support staff is well coordinated and thus the standard of the local staff is much improved. One amazing soldier is Barbara Ferguson from Sydney. She has a great heart for one of the most downtrodden groups, the pygmies, and has worked tirelessly to improve their lot. This includes purchasing their own land and building a village and school.
One thing that has been lacking for all of my time going to Goma has been reliable power in the hospital. The town power is generated in the city of Bukavu some 150 Klm from Goma and comes via overhead wires around the lake. The voltage should be a regular 250 volts at 50 Hz but, if available, usually runs below 150 volts but can quickly spike up to 270 volts with devastating effects on the equipment. When the power drops out there is a stand-by generator that is older than me (believe it or not) that can only support a very small section of the hospital; hence doctors take their mobile phones into theatre so that they can be used as torches if/when the light go out.
Thanks to the generous support of a bunch of banana benders via one of the Goma Working Group teams, a 200KVA generator has been sent as a replacement for the old beast. One of my projects this trip is to build a concrete foundation for the new machine house along with inbuilt cable ducts to link the generator with an automatic changeover device.
Transporting the generator will produce some amazing photos that I will send later as in true African fashion this will be interesting. The generator weighs 3.5 tons and a special crane was used to get it into the container at Sonic’s Sydney headquarters. In Goma there isn’t a great choice of cranes. The two that I know of are very old and belch lots of black smoke when lifting skin off custard. My plan is to lift one end of the unit using two 5 ton jacks and slide a number of pipes under the skids it sits on then again using the jacks lift the other end and insert pipes there as well. Now we can pull the unit out of the container using a 4 wheel drive Jeep and adding more pipes as it rolls along. We will need a ramp or pile of pallets outside the container as a landing. Then the machine can be “lifted’’ and carried to its new home. Lifted could means 50 guys lifting 50 kilos each or maybe a crane that can then bump along as it travels up a really bumpy unpaved road.
We will be meeting a team from Brisbane in Goma that includes a number of Doctors, Paul Bakes, and an electrical engineer and some admin people, so the Vegemite I take will be appreciated.
For the last 8 years I have been able to fund my travels and projects by myself but with the Australian dollar so low I am looking at you, my intrepid readers, to find it in your hearts and wallets to help with some project funds. I am needing $2000 USD to build a new house for the generator. This is for materials and labour. The labour funding is really appreciated as will keep up to 20 families going for at least a month.
If you can help please transfer, by direct deposit, into my working capital account BSB: 814-282 Account No:30917695 with your name in the comments bit (if you want to or just Goma). Fortunately we have been able to fund our travel, visas and accommodation.
As a clue of the joys of volunteering in DRC, the transit Visas for Rwanda have gone down in price to $30USD each way whilst the DRC visa for 1 month (it’s either 7 days or 1 month) are $533USD. This is made up of $100 Admin Fee, $250 Flying Visa Fee plus $183 I month stay which translates to $686.45 Australian). Add to this over $1000 for accommodation and transport once in Goma and you will see where my project money has gone.
Any money left over will be used to pay for a needy person’s medical costs.
We leave on 25th March so please think seriously about some support.
Thanks in advance and God Bless you all.
Col
