Fwd: Josh made a blog entry.

Well I (Joshua) have been slow to post to the blog, I know, but here ya go:  For the last month and a half, the Shinar Family has been adjusting to life in Banyo, Cameroon and everyday we love it more and more.  (That is with everyday getting hotter and hotter as we enter dry season by the way).  This place is wonderful, from the amazing sunsets and mountain scenery to the ENGLISH speaking people and sincere believers.  We have already made numerous true friendships with the locals here. 


It seems like the needs here in Banyo exactly match our passions; nursing, engineering, and sharing the love of Christ through our passions.  I have been working extensively on the power systems.  We basically provider power to the area servicing 30+ houses and businesses, the hospital and radio station.  We actually use a lot of power relatively speaking.  We use around 7MegaWattHours per month as a community.  I relentlessly diagrammed out the whole system to fix some of the problems we were having.  I've really been able to apply my electrical engineering degree and make some needed improvements and $$ savings!  We'll see, but I'm hoping to have dropped the hospital electrical bill in half by the end of the month.  That's an extra $500 per month that the hospital can put into patient care.

Patrick and I taking down a faulty 25mm Aluminum power line.  To his left is the radio tower. 

Beautiful solar halo while working.

I have put together an extensive plan to provide some technology/internet/intranet solutions to the community.  We are hoping to get funding from the various local sources as early as next week.  We hope to provide educational materials (Khan Academy, Medical, and Biblical) to our part of town and the local secondary school in phase 1.  Phase 2 has hopes of providing this material to the whole city through mesh networks.  We are hoping to start training a local technician to be able to maintain the system when I am gone.  There are lots of micro/small/medium business opportunities that arise from such a system and I am hoping that God will send a entrepreneurial spirit or two to start up some businesses here.  I'm wanting to start teaching more and more about tech and business here to try to get some exciting projects off the ground.  We are also trying to put a phone system in using our new Internet backbone.  Hopefully the hospital can shell out some of it's electrical savings money on some SIP phones!  You would be amazed at how much time/energy/money is wasted without a little technology.

I often take Charlie on a walk right as the sun begins to set.  As we climb up the hill, Charlie and I say "Sannu" to each of the ladies at the visitor's housing who each rejoice as if their prodigal son had returned each time they see Charlie.  

We continue up to visit the local hangout and greet our friends,  across to visit Charlie's play friends (Charlie's choice),


and back to the generator house to catch a late evening reading of the hospital's electrical usage (Daddy's choice). 


Then it's time for a movie before bedtime.  The above picture is actually a time lapse video of Charlie watching Dora the Explorer for an hour.  Notice no movement whatsoever.  : )

We are trying out a new teacher for Charlie this next week.  She seems very apt and excited about teaching.  Charlie continues to amaze Lori and I with her love of learning.  She's a smarty!

Tomorrow we celebrate the opening of the new maternity ward at the hospital and Dr and Ina's 50th wedding anniversary.  Over 200 people are coming including the King of Banyo.  It will be a celebration to remember!