Morning all,
Things continue apace at this end.
Another short strip of footing poured today, 8.22m3 which brings us up to 57.18m3 for our first week. We got our first test cylinder results back today as well and they seem to be up to strength though with maths you can never be too sure. We have also measured the volume of the concrete mixer as well as the volume of a batch to try and alleviate my concerns over the quantity of cement being used.
We’ve also just badged up and inducted our 50th principal contractor's worker bringing us up to 82 people all up including us, sparkies, guards etc.
We continue with more steel being tied and shuttering being fabricated on site.
We’ve also commenced digging trenches for our drainage.
John, our new construction manager arrived today. We’ve already set up his email so please include him in any relevant correspondence on the project from now on.
Our container has now arrived with all our blucher pipe in it. Not sure why it was in a 40 footer as this was half empty.
As a special bonus, the truck didn’t break down on site or leak oil all over the ground. And it had everything in it that it was supposed to have.
We’ve taken a stand with this delivery and are refusing to pay any bribes, parking fees at customs, lunch money for the truck driver and crew, or Bloody cadeaux (present money) just to get the thing through customs and unloaded on site.
I’ve had about enough of being continually asked for cash relating to our containers. Unfortunately, we started a bit of a trend by paying reasonably significant (for here anyway) sums to the customs people and drivers/drivers mates and word got around so now people have come to expect it.
They were a bit surprised today to get nothing but in spite of this, we still got our container out of customs, to the site and unloaded though it took a bit of cajoling and discussion.
Al did a great job here for us in explaining to everyone why we are no longer a soft touch.
We’ll see what happens with the next one.
Stan and Lindsay’s drainlaying team turned up this morning as requested last week.
I had asked for 5 guys, plus the leader but he brought 10 just in case. Always nice to have some spare if we need it.
After a brief guided tour and a talk about what they’ll be doing and how long they’ll be working for us if they slack off (i.e. not long) we started 5 of them off with putting some wheel barrows together (see photo 2287) then unloading the truck when it arrived and sorting all the pipe and fittings.
They’re all very enthusiastic and seem to have a few clues which is good. The leader also speaks a bit of English so Stan, Lindsay and him are getting on like a house on fire!
We are also preparing for the National TV team who arrive tomorrow to film a news item on the site.
There’s been some local controversy with certain people telling President Tandja and the Government that nothing is happening here so the President is sending round the crew to prove them wrong and to show the rest of the country what is going on.
All the workers have been briefed to make sure that tomorrow the site is spic and span and that everyone is looking industrious and hard at it.
No different to any other day obviously.
I had a second meeting with the Chinese, this time the director of the bridge job.
They seem keen to sell me concrete, but the deal is going to take a while I think.
They have holidays from Mid-Feb and most of the ex-pats go back to China for a couple of weeks. When they return, they should be able to help us out. I’ll be sending them our specs, quantities required and rough dates in the next day or two and they’ll hopefully get back to me with pricing.
They’re due to complete the bridge project in 5 months so should work out well.
Our concrete placing materials are on a plane from Morocco and are due next week and our cherry pickers, Kelly floats, scaffolding and a few other bits are coming from Spain and other parts of Europe in a container.
On the domestic front, our first cook came last night and was awarded an 8 out of 10 but I’ve given him a second chance tonight, mainly because I can’t be bothered to call one of the others.
Unfortunately Stan and Lindsay’s front door decided to lock itself yesterday after the cleaner had been in so we had to get a handyman out to break in to it.
And yes, we could have done it ourselves but as all our gear is on site, it was easier to call someone else.
We sent our electricians round to villa 1 and 2 to sort out a few minor issues, and a couple of new locks went on to villa 1’s gate as we had no idea who had keys to the old ones.
You’ll also be pleased to know that I had the septic tank at villa 1 emptied so hopefully the conversation around night time smells will now be redundant.
And yes, I know you all wanted to know this....
That’s all for today,
A Bientot,
