Recent News

5 May 2010 – Half Pipes, Part 1

Hello,

I hope your Cinco de Mayo was all you hoped it would be. Ours was, guacamole and all. Lots has happened in your hemisphere. The Chief and Karen got married, Tom turned sixty, and some other very important stuff that is still classified. Here we have marked our progress in dug and filled trenches, workshop walls and armored cable.

Here’s part one, looking over its shoulder at part two.

Morning in Nairobi. Mr S making sure the perimeter is secure.

We're burying armored electrical cables in the trenches we dug. They are very expensive. In order to secure them people put concrete pavers over them in the ditch, or, there are hard plastic protectors you can buy at 255 shillings per meter. We have 450 meters of buried cable. So I came up with the idea to buy relatively inexpensive PVC pipe, cut it in half and and lay it six inches or so above the cable as a protector/warning system to anyone who might be digging where the cable is in the future. Costs about 40 shillings a meter. So I went to Eslon Plastics in the industrial area and got 40 pieces of six meter 2" class B pipe. I'll let you know how it works out.

Down the road, a guy pulling a cart full of cases of soda got whacked by a car. These are human powered metal frame carts that haul all sorts of goods around Nairobi, usually in heavy traffic areas. They are in the metal frame pulling and so get badly injured when when they get hit.

This guy was on the ground surrounded by the people you see in the right of this photo.

I went to Ian and Jane's lumber and furniture making shop in Kitengela and had the pipes cut in half lengthwise on their band saw. These two delicate smoke stacks caught my eye behind their place.

This is mahogany saw dust. My, my.

These luminous particles in the air made me think of wood sprites. Like the British kids who faked everybody out with their fairy photos in more innocent times

Sometimes they were everywhere.

George improvised a fence and began the long bifurcation.

Lots of people had a hand in it.

it took about a minute and forty five second for each pipe.

The lumber library, complete with at least one adult title, evidently.

Patterns.

A very short man from Mombasa who carves by hand.

Doors and bed posts and other things.

We bundled up the eighty pieces and tied them on the roof of the truck.

They kept slipping and nearly falling all the way back home.

I was cheered by these familiar faces near our place. Ani, Josephine, Nduko.

And, of course, Joyce,

who had gathered a certain kind of eucalyptus leaves to treat a skin eruption on Ani's scalp.

So long for now,

David

Posted on May 5th, 2010 by david
Filed under: Prayer Request | 2 Comments »

23 April 2010 – This and That

Just saying “hi.”

Here are a few photographs, randomly assembled, from the last few days.

We’ve been tinkering with the website some. The best way, I think to view this post is to click on the first photo, which will get big and then just use the arrows underneath the picture to advance to the next one, and so on.

You never know where a Yankee fan will pop up.

This in the window of a welding shop. Not sure what kind of alternative is on offer.

This was just down the hall from Auntie Tabby's counseling center. Lots of noise coming through. They were cooking.

Me. Stuck in the mud on the way to get Britt from the airport.

The crew that gathered and assisted in the hour long extrication.

Tony and I were having lunch upstairs here. You can see the old faithful pick up parked in the middle of the photo near Kinpash, the place where we are buying the guttering for the buildings. The "jam" is beginning to form.

Davinder Singh's place, where we are having our bunk beds made.

Some kids playing near Davinder's place.

Part of a new steel manufacturing plant being built on the Mombasa Road.

It's been raining here.

If you look closely you can see a huge bag of potatoes and a guy bent double underneath it.

Our lovely, to my eyes, completed tank stand and washing basins.

A rainstorm a few kilometers away dumping lots of water on Kitengela.

Me. Stuck in the mud on the way home from work. Another long haul out.

This is a human powered cart full of plastic containers, etc. You can see the second in command running alongside.

Sigi's Bar and Restaurant. Never been there. But soon, I hope.

Guys filling jerry cans with water for construction on the generator house.

David and I used to be fast friends. Now he cries nearly every time he sees me,

and can't wait to head on down the road.

One of the H-Tess guys cutting a fine 45 degree angle with just a stabilizer block for help.

A lot of hardcore laid out in front of a place in Athi River. Just like we've done here so many times.

A group of folks looking through a rubble pile for I'm not sure what.

Brit’s here. She says howdy. Monte’s coming.

“…the man journeying to his own country must not mistake the inn for his home.” Augustine.

Safe journey,

David

Posted on April 22nd, 2010 by david
Filed under: Recent News | 7 Comments »

14 April 2010 – Stand. Up.

Here’s a relatively dry update on the last week and half or so. Seems we’re on solid ground again.

A brief recap: When we left our waterlogged excavators last, we were dealing with lots of rain and some subterranean seeping blues. and

the compactor was bogging.

We were trying everything to keep the water from entering the excavation site, so we could get it filled with hard packed murram.

We finally got the balance tipped in our favor,

and poured a 6" reinforced concrete slab on it.

And built the stand for two 1500 liter water tanks to sit on.

It got filled with pulverized hardcore

and a topper of murram.

Joseph muscled the timber for the top slab over

and we sighted and leveled it.

Sister Agata, a new friend, approved.

So the sarcophagus stand was cured and raised.

Rogers, the other mason was working on another stand for a water tank which includes two sinks of our own design for washing clothes.

We used waterproof cement in order to get a really smooth surface.

Mildred advised us as to the proper height, etc.

Rogers' bike, all fancied up with colored wire,

and the nearly finished product.

The next few photos show the progress of the houses.

The first guttering. This represents the all important ability to harvest rain water, store it, and use it for our drinking water supply throughout the year.