Salaam alaykum,
We’ve mainly been tying steel and making shutters over the last couple of days so poured only 2m3 on Friday to step up some of the pads in the strip footings.
We’ve also decided that most of our workforce needs a rest. They’ve been going 7 days a week since we started and are showing signs of fatigue so today (Sunday) will be their rest day. Most didn’t want the day off as of course they don’t get paid for it but their productivity is understandably way down and they’re all knackered. The exception is Stan and Lindsay’s crew who only started on Thursday so they’ll be working through till next Sunday.
The drainage crew have been really good so far- very eager and enthusiastic but also keen to learn the dark arts of drain laying from S&L.
In three days the guys have dug out approx 18 m of drainage trench at 1 m depth and also unloaded the container and have logged and stored all the blucher materials.
Now this crew are up to speed, we’ll be getting another 5 of the leaders mates to come in on Tuesday bringing our drainage team up to 2 gangs and 12 guys.
A few days later, assuming everyone is working well, we’ll get another 5 and split into 3 gangs.
We’ve bought our own tools and wheelbarrows over here which, so far, the guys are looking after. We’ll also be buying them safety boots in due course.
The guys have also asked to be paid monthly which makes it a lot easier for us than the daily pay situation we were expecting. We’ll be paying 2000FCFA to the guys and 2500FCFA to the team leaders per day which equates to about nz$6.30 and NZ$7.94 respectively.
John has arrived and is getting to grips with everything. He is well used to the local situation and how things work in Africa and is coming up to speed with the project.
See attached photo of him inspecting some boxing. I’ll be progressively handing things over to him over the next couple of weeks to ensure he doesn’t get swamped. This will free me up to get on with other things which have been postponed or just not done. John’s French is pretty much fluent having grown up and worked on various jobs in Francophone Africa.
Our project sign is up-see photo, its been printed locally on what looks like tarpaulin material but it’ll do until our project sign eventually shows up. This has been quite a big issue for a few people here as it is important for status that the projects details are displayed.
We’ve also been busy making blocks on site to raise the height of the wall around the compound area to match the new wall we have built.
Our logistics office is now complete and Al will move in there just as soon as the wireless internet connection is in. Now we have some gear in the compound, we have a guard permanently stationed there.
The weather remains hot and sunny. Most days we’re up to around 40 degrees with about 15% humidity so it is bearable but the windy season has now started. See photo 2309 of Stan and Lindsay attempting to check levels in the typically dusty conditions.
When the wind starts, it picks up the really fine sand and dust and we all just end up getting sandblasted. According to the locals, It’ll only get worse- hotter and windier until the start of the wet season around June/July. Now there’s something to look forward to.
It’s going to be really hard on gear. Even the stuff in the office suffers- I poured half the Sahara out of my laptop this morning.
I had a French exam yesterday morning to asses which class I’ll be joining. Both Dave and I start our classes after work next week and it will good to widen our vocabulary. Dave’s aim is to be fluent by the end of the project which is quite achievable given that most people here don’t speak much English. He does very well without much French but it’ll make a huge difference.
Only in Africa part 12554- john and I were down at the hardware shop buying some shovels and wheelbarrows and there was a truck and trailer parked up on one side of the yard, engine running and driver in the cab. The driver of a small flat-deck van decided he couldn’t wait for the truck to pull away so he attempted to drive around it.
The gap between the trailer and our car on the other side of the yard was huge so plenty of room to get past but nevertheless, the van driver managed to scrape the back of his van on the trailer on his way past, so he stopped.
Then tried going forwards again, with more scraping.
So he tried reverse but turned in to the truck to got even more wedged.
We started laughing at this point.
Rather than ask the truck driver to pull forward, one of the hangers on in the yard came over and tried to lift the back end of the van round to free it from the trailer.
We laughed a bit more at this point.
Needless to say, he couldn’t do it on his own so he called over a few mates to help. Eventually, with 5 or 6 of them, they managed to lift the back of the van and move it away from the truck almost swinging it into our car.
Then the truck pulled forward, which John and I found even more amusing but the locals didn’t see the irony of it at all.
That’s all for today,
Alaykum a salam
