Morning all,
Another good few days with the remedial on the guard house and site bathrooms underway, pricing in for foundations and initial concrete work, and a roadway cut and crane hardstand underway in preparation for our container arrival tomorrow. (Monday)
We’ve just spoken to the truck driver on his way from Benin and he tells us arrival time will be dictated by how many other trucks are at the border when he arrives so we don’t know yet when he’ll be on site. We’re playing it safe though and have arranged for the crane and forklift to be here first thing Monday- even if he is waiting for a couple of hours at least we know he is here and can check all his strops and chains and make sure they are all safety rated. (Or, more likely, we can just stand well clear when he lifts anything)
We have a lot of loose sand in the area around the container unload pad and the dozer is just finishing off pushing the sand to stockpile to ensure the trucks/forklift don’t get bogged and we have some imported laterite going down as well. This is proving more intense than it sounds as we need to keep a constant eye on the guys. They know roughly what to do but are keen to stop, and do their own thing if we don’t give them supervision and support. See photos.
We also have six guys arranged to be on site first thing tomorrow so I think we’re all set.
We have some remedial underway by the levelling contractor- a number of large tree roots were left in the ground along with a few lumps of concrete so these are all coming out as per the original schedule. See photo.
We are also arranging for some additional trees to come down and the root holes backfilled since the latest plan showed the whole footprint moved to the South east for reasons unknown.
Thanks to Dave, our site identity card system is now implemented (the laminator and the spreadsheet work well, thanks Ralph), and we have started our site diary recording weather, who is on site, general activities etc.
The temperature is pretty good at the moment ranging between 15.7 and 37.2and relative humidity is only 11% according to our trusty weather station now installed. As I type this, it is 29.8 in the office- we try and leave the ac off so we can acclimatise better and this seems to be working.
Only in Africa- we have been having some trouble with our temporary water line to the office building and so to fix the connections blowing apart a couple of times a day so Mark asked on of the contractor’s guys to replace the 2X 50m lengths of hose with 1X 100m length. They went off to go and buy some hose and came back some time later and took off the 2x 50m lengths and replaced them with.......... 2X 50m lengths. When asked why, they said there were no 100m lengths in the shop. We’re still waiting for Mark to get his patience back following this incident, and many more like it!!
The pool is now up and running and a welcome relief from the heat.
We have a snake resident in our septic system on site apparently though the 3 of us haven’t yet seen it in spite of detailed exploration yesterday afternoon.
The African way-
This involves following process which is often there for the sake of it rather than a practical purpose.
They know that westernised countries have standards and process and feel they should too but often process in place but not the standard behind it.
As an example, the customs at the airport- you get checked coming through the main door of the airport, but if your bag is too big you push it around the side of the x-ray machine. They don’t scan hold baggage, but they still make you take your belt and watch off. Last time, I couldn’t be bothered to queue so just walked around the side of the detector with my bags.
At baggage drop off, you have to get something stamped- this should be a printed ticket but as I don’t have one, just give them my itinerary. Last time he stamped my hotel voucher.
You get documents checked again after the baggage drop off, but there’s a wide open door about 10m away that anyone can walk through.
You go to the customs area and get checked again by a guy at a desk, then you get checked again about 5m away to go through a door into departures.
After that, there is a further check about 8m away to go through into the gate area. Again, if your cabin bag is too big, they just wheel it round the side of the x-ray machine.
Once airside access is open, you have docs checked again twice, run your bag through another x-ray, and after that someone actually opens your bag and has a look inside.
Again, there’s nothing to stop you bypassing the whole thing and walking round the side of the building and onto the plane- no guards, no fences, no cameras.
It’s all quite entertaining though loses its shine at midnight when you haven’t had any sleep and its 35degrees, but as there’s nothing you can do about it patience is the key.
The client has committed significant cash to building control company to sign off some of the services and refrigeration which got me thinking.
From most of the buildings we have looked at around Niamey, there’s no way that anyone competent has done a thorough review or signed off on them, though I bet a lot of cash changed hands during the construction process.
Walls are never straight or level and generally have large cracks in them. Windows are never level. Steelwork is not much better and plumbing is hopeless. Electrical is very badly installed, to the point of being lethal and nothing works as you would expect it to. Our house is one of the better houses in one of the better suburbs and the standard is only marginally better than the big building on site. The bathrooms are probably worse than the new ones on the site office.
We will hopefully do a lot better than the acceptable standard, but will need to keep an eye on every tiny little detail as we go. People are incredibly keen to learn, and eager to do a good job but our idea of a good job and theirs are at opposite ends of the spectrum and we will be doing a lot of on the job training.
Anyway, that’s all for now,
