I say it has been an interesting week, as each activity has had its own particular challenges. Firstly the tiling. I was tiling the worktop to the kitchen. Rather than using specially bought tiling adhesive, I was to use basic sand and cement as the tiling adhesive is expensive. In theory that’s not a problem as the tiles were being fixed to a concrete surface. Anyway, I thought I could get plenty done in the morning as I already had the tile saw set up over the weekend, the tiles were close by, and the cement was in the container which was also close by. I had been told the “sand” wasn’t far away either. So off I pootle with my wheel barrow and go to get the “sand” so I can mix some adhesive. I arrive at the “sand” pile and am concerned with what I see. The majority of African “sand” is the sand as we know it, but here it comes with added free stuff. I suppose it’s like going to the supermarket and getting a BOGOF, or maybe like cereal packets where you get a free toy inside. Well, the added free stuff includes: some odd bits of gravel - well actually quite a lot of odd bits of gravel, some even the size of golf balls somehow qualifies as “sand”; clumps of mud the size of a football also somehow make the grade as “sand”; roots and other bits of vegetation make the classification; and finally, if you’re really lucky, there’s the odd animal turd thrown in the mix too. Wow! I didn’t know African “sand” was so full of surprises. You certainly do get more than you bargained for. Take a look for yourself below:
African “sand”
Anyway, I managed to avoid most of the offending freebies when selecting my “sand”, then spent about half an hour picking out the gravel, and mixed some mortar to give it a go. I spread out the stuff and tried a tile, and it was rubbish. You couldn’t get a tile on flat no matter how hard I tried. There were still too many big bits of stone and gravel. I scraped the stuff off and discarded that mix. So I figured the best thing to do would be to sieve the “sand” and then used the actual sand (as we know it) to make the adhesive. So I drove to the compound, and found some wire mesh fine enough for me to make a sieve. However thankfully the store keeper found one that had been made earlier. It appears someone else had also discovered the added qualities of African “sand”. I then spent nearly an hour sieving the “sand”. And man it was hard work. Have you ever tried it? Has your bag of B&Q sand ever come with freebies? Imagine holding a bucket of sand and shaking it from side to side for even a few minutes. Yes with a sieve it does get a bit lighter as you shake, but African “sand” has A LOT of freebies.
Anyway, after a frustrating morning, I was determined to place a couple of tiles before lunch, and managed to get two in place. I then got back from lunch and found that one of the tiles had not stuck! Because of the heat, the working time for any mix is very short. Plus the water I was using to make the mix is warm. We have a water tank with
Finished tile worktop:
Wednesday was also an interesting day. I was fixing some new connections to site water main – 3” tees, straight connectors and a stop end. The fixing went fine, but I was definitely not confident in the quality of the Tanzanian products. The fittings are generally made of plastic and use a plastic collar to grip a plastic pipe, which then compresses a rubber “O” ring to give the seal as you tighten. For some of the joints, I could tighten the joint with my hands. For a pressure pipeline, this is not good. I did take the joint apart to check everything was ok, but the joint was still the same. My suspicions were confirmed yesterday, when we switched on the pump. The joints leaked like a sieve, and some even blew apart. You may ask, surely there are better fittings? Well no. They either have to be special orders or imported, both of which take a long time and are extremely expensive. The pipeline is only used to fill the site water tanks. The water tanks supply the houses and buildings. Once they are filled, the pump is turned off, and the pipeline left till it is needed again.
Thursday and Friday went fine, but I am curious about the Africans, and what they think of us westerners – or wazungu (singular – mzungu). Firstly, am I, an Asian a mzungu? A white person is a mzungu, but am I classed as a white person, or one of the Asians that live here anyway? Secondly, I am curious about the African work ethic. I spent Friday afternoon putting in drain pipes and backfilling trenches. During the whole of Friday afternoon, I was being watched by at first about 6 men, which steadily grew to about 12 as the day wore on. All were sat in the shade while I was working hard in the sun. On top of that, one of them was supposed to be digging a trench for me so that I could put a stub pipe into the septic tank. This trench is important as the stub pipe will be the incoming line for the next family house, which is currently being constructed. And since from today the first family house will be in use, the septic tank is now in use! Need I say anymore! Anyway this guy was just scratching around, not putting in any effort. In the end I had to finish digging the trench myself. What he had done, I could have done in about half an hour with a spoon!
Did they think I was crazy? What did they think of this English guy toiling in the sun? Was I their afternoon entertainment? Now I don’t know how to tell them to get back to work, so I just carried on. I talked to Dave about this later on, and they had a big problem with long breaks and lots of sitting around in the past. But what they do now is to give them a contract for a piece of work. For instance, if they need a trench dug from A to B, which is x wide, and y deep, then they speak to a “gang” and arrange a fee for the work. The gang can take as long as they want to get the work done, but will only get paid once it is done according to the contract. So if they do want to sit in the shade and watch a crazy mzungu, they can do. Though if they do want to work hard and quickly, and earn more money, then they can do that too.
I am just sharing my own thoughts and experiences. When we first came here, we used our eyes to see the physical differences between home and
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