On February 16th a team of four
Romanian electricians arrived in Danja to tackle the electrical needs at CSL
for a month. Two of these experienced electricians also serve as pastors in
their churches in Romania. They responded to a plea made by SIM missionaries Rebeca
and David Beaton for electricians. Undaunted by the language barriers and never
having been to Africa, they and their churches quickly banded together to raise
funds to come to Niger (and to escape the bitter Romanian winter!). Despite initially lacking some of the materials
needed to begin work, their knowledge and skill have allowed them to rewire the
main fuse box in each building and to re-wire all the rooms in the main
dispensary building at CSL. Until about 20 years ago CSL relied upon
intermittent generator power and solar power, and before that kerosene lamps
and refrigerators. Since those early days the demands placed upon the power
supply have mushroomed with the availability of electric autoclaves, air
conditioners and refrigerators. To get a professional result, many of the
supplies have had to be ordered from Niamey, but the main problem all along has
been the lack of qualified electricians.
These men are a God-send! Gradually
the Romanian electrician team has tackled one problem after the next. Rooms that were frighteningly unsafe now have
grounded plugs and proper breakers. Wires arranged as masses of spaghetti are
now properly organized, and loosely joined bare-wire connections are now solidly
connected and safe. They were also able to determine the type and size of
high-capacity distribution cable needed to meet the current needs.
Unfortunately, they concluded that brown-outs and other low-voltage problems
will persist until a large-capacity cable is purchased and installed. This very
expensive cable needs to be purchased overseas and shipped to Niger by
container. We are praying that just as the Lord provided this amazing team of
electricians from Romania to serve this past month, that He will now provide
the means to cover the cost of the cable and a team capable of to install it
when it arrives.