12th May – let the work commence !

12/05/18 Let the work commence

The early morning 06:30 swim to shake off the night is a great start to the day. I past just a couple of staff on my journey, 1 sweeping the pavings with a 12inch long switch, back breaking, the other gathering up last nights debris from reception.

Breakfast this morning, some freshly sliced pineapple, Apple juice, weetabix with cold milk, vegetable samosas, bread and spreads, and then, the habit formed, a flask of boiling water.  Once completed, back to the room to grab the iPad and check if we have any internet available, frequently we log onto the router, but no internet access. This is why the last three days blogs have been mucked up and delayed. The connection has been so weak that although I’ve uploaded to WordPress, the update process falls over or times out. Arrangements now for Catherine to upload and verify to WordPress with the text that I’m able to email out to her, hopefully I’ll not be so tardy now with keeping up to date.

The tractor returns during breakfast and we join in loading the last tank and all the fittings for Rakora. That achieved Tom and I head back across to Ndhiwa hospital school, Sam going to Rakora with the tractor and trailer. It’s only just after 10:00 but the sun is high in a clear blue sky, we locate the watchman who unlocks the staff room for us where all the fittings and our hired steps have been stored. We start work on the back of the classrooms we’re working on, thankfully in the shade. Barge board marked out at metre intervals, a string line set to dictate the fall and get into a rythmn of up and down the steps, move along and repeat. The ground is uneven and stony, the steps need footing to prevent accidents and it’s not getting any cooler. A small 18v cordless drill is doing sterling work driving the screws into place and we are soon seeing a length of gutter clips in position. One side completed we move

There were tanks in place at Ndhiwa hospital primary, one 6000lt and three 2000lt. Whilst they are on a good base, they have not been particularly piped together. The top third of the large tank would never hold water as the discharge on the smaller ones is below this level. Also the gutter had not been set with a string thereby not allowing a free flow of water. The guttering also only covered one slope, missing half of the buildings capacity. We had however harvested the guttering and old pipe work and now set to in the shade to install on a new building, due to house the staff room, office and another classroom. Whilst again it would only be serving half the potential of the building, it was not a part of the original project and we would need to purchase some fittings to install correctly. A string line up, closely followed by the running outlet and all the gutter clip location marked on the barge board. We would require additional clips as insufficient had been used originally and the two gutter joints were both broken. These parts we would pick up in HomaBay on Sunday 13th, where we would also need to find additional gutter joints for our new stock due to a miscalculation along with various pieces of ironmongery. So as much done as possible we packed up and secured everything away and headed into a ‘bar’ in Ndhiwa that we were given to understand belonged to the deputy head. Wrigglie tin roof and part walls, wooden benches and a table, but a young lady appeared, took our order, Tuskers for Tom and I, mango juice for Sam. Half an hour later, our legs almost recovered, a couple of boda boda’s were arranged and we were transported along the treacherous hotel approach track (it’s not just for the hotel, it do us serve a multitude of other properties).

Once back, for me, changed and head for the pool, still very green with flotsam, but when you consider the way the rain comes down, it’s not surprising. Just a quick 30 minutes does wonders, so back to the room to change for our evening meal.  Amazingly there is currently power (generator) and even some water to the bathroom. I washed my hair for the first time, that was a mistake, the water was brown from accumulated dust. Like in Belize, I should have just stood under a palm and used all that fresh water during the rainstorm. There is generally just the one each day, lasting from an hour or at times all night and the force is relentless, easy to see what damages the tracks and roads.

Evening meal, Tilapia again with mashed potato and orago (steamed maize flour, tasteless, the Kenyans take a large pinch, roll into a ball, the shape into a bowl and use to capture their food)

Wifi available, FaceTime message and look at Facebook, then for me that’s enough, I’ve blog to write and sleep to catch up on.

Let me know if I’m waffling too much or not giving enough detail of some things. I’ve not done this before and I’m sure it shows