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Phase 1 Completed!

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  Summery of Work in  Makoko  by Jack and friends: 1.        We created a missionary apartment that has 1600 watts of solar power with two strong batteries.  There has been a missionary scheduled to come and work with the  Makoko  people in December, and others have shown interest.  So pray that more and more Christians will continue to go to  Makoko  and invest in the beautiful people who live there. 2.       We proved that aquaponics can clean the waters of  Makoko while producing foods - with a working model.  This concept proof means that people can be expanded among the people.  So pray that a missionary would go and organize the food production.  In my view, aquaculture could transform the community into a destination spot in the world as it would turn the grey and bleak green with plants and cleaned canal waters.  But having a vision and spreading a vision has always been my Achillis-Heal   I will begin conversations with the University of Lagos about a partnership of aquacultur
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The Rise of the Cucumber!

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 Can you see the two new baby cucumbers coming up around the tomatoes?  I found the seeds in a dried cucumber hanging on a brick fence next to a busy street in Lagos.  The plant it came from covered about 30 yards of the fence!  I had little hope that the dried cucumber would produce productive seedlings (I had no idea how long it had sat dried on the wall)!  But things are tough in Africa and life wins in the most precarious situations.   So I taught God! how to plant seed and sure enough, he spotted them before anyone else when they arose from the grave.  Kind of like Peter who discovered divine love still alive on Easter day!   However, the saga continues...!  Do you remember Rattigan from a previous post?  Those suckers (rats!) came and ate about 50% of our tomatoes (I got the other 50%:), and about 1/4 of the germinated cucumbers.  They somehow know what I love the most!   So, as promised in an earlier post, I have now actively gone to war with Rattigan and his crewmen - as I knew
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We CAN clean the Makoko waters!

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 I now have evidence that we CAN clean the Makoko waters - improving the lives of thousands of children, women and men living in poverty!   Can you see the effervescent and clean water?  It came from the polluted lagoon.  This is after 4 days of full operation of the food system!   This fish tank has 8 Atlantic Cod in it.  Notice the clean water that is going in through the aquaculture system.  Notice also that the water in the upper right corner of the tank is clear and has green algae growing in it.  When we first pumped the lagoon water into the tank it was muddy brown with no algae.  This means, most likely, that the water would not support plant life (like algae) because of high ammonia (poison waste chemical).  Now the water is clean with a healthy amount of algae.   We can change the water - but we need to scale up edible plant  production!  Scaling up is not expensive and it will turn Makoko into one of the world's marvels of aquaculture (there would be no place like it on
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A Girl Working Sugar Cane

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 This girl broke my heart.  She was in the hot sun all day chopping and selling sugar cane from her canoe.  It's like a candy bar here.  She had a wonderful smile and disposition.  She was swinging a machete knife that seemed bigger than her!  Child labor is common.  It was Sunday when I took the picture so I hope she attends school on the weekdays - many don't.  Pray for her and the children of Makoko.  My friend Taiwo runs a local school and orphanage - you can help with Makoko education here . Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) If you would like to give financially with a card – go to the following page and find the heading called: ·         Aquaculture and Compassion for the Poor (ACP) ----------------- If you would like to write a check , write the check to: ·       Cross Connections of KC ·       PO Box 901945, Kansas City MO 64190 ·       This is the non profit that takes care of my accounting and gifts - Cross Connections is a NonProfit with the EIN 45-45481
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Let's Clean it! Stage One...

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 I have a three stage plan to clean the waters of Makoko - this is stage one!  We start growing food and cleaning the water at the same time.  This is a solution that costs very little with great payback in fresh food and health.  The above system would cost approximately 50 dollars.  The plants grow great in this tropical environment! We would begin to stretch the system in the canals that bring Lagos pollution into Makoko.  This would mean that we would be producing loads of fresh food throughout the city!  Those who cooperatively yield the fruit for the people, the people would in turn maintain their portion of the system! Our first cooperative Cistern (of 8) to feed the filters for drinking water Just a short preview of stage 2 and 3 (more later) We position oxygen aerators throughout the Makoko and the canals.  This completes the natural aerobic cleaning of the waters and prepares the water for plant growth.  They do this all the time in Kansas farms to keep the ponds alive and fr
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Sharp Shells on The Lagoon Floor!

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 The guys have been taking me out to swim for exercise in the mornings.  It's hard to exercise when your house is over water. So I've started going out into the cleaner waters of Makoko Lagoon to swim in the mornings.  If you look on a satellite photo, you can see the bridge that spans the lagoon and I can say that I swam to the bridge and did a 3/4 back flip off of one of the base of the bridge (the Lagos Ojoo Expressway) pilings.  The yellow circle is approximately where I think our missionary house is. Anyway, while swimming, I found sharp shell clusters in the mud.  So we gathered a bucket of them for the Aquaculture system.   These sharp shells will be placed between the plants in the aquaculture system and make a perfect medium for the water cleaning bacteria to live - bacteria hotels!   Below you can see we created an air bubbler by poking a small hole into the water pump hose that we split back to the fish tank.  This hole amazingly takes air from the outside and makes
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