EdUKaid

Last year I wrote a blog about how I was directed down a new career path and quickly becoming a plumber/electrician/mason due to a lack of skills amongst the local plumbers, electricians and masons. A year on I am picking up the training where I left of last year. Not because I want to but simply because it always ends up being necessary.

Another organisation in Mikindani has very kindly donated their property to EdUKaid as they closed down their operations in the South. The house has been empty for a good 8 months which means it is very dirty with dust everywhere. This can be cleaned up relatively easily of course but we have had to construct a bathroom upstairs as this is where the rooms for accommodation of staff and volunteers will be. Now that involved masons, carpenters and plumbers. For a long while I went about thinking: I have finally found some people who actually know what they are doing rather than simply claiming to be plumbers, masons and carpenters because they have some tools. Everything went right with the construction of blocks for the walls and the subsequent building of the walls. The floor was laid also and it was even made with a slope to direct the water from the shower into the drain. The plumber put in all the pipes hence connecting the toilet, the sink and the shower, whilst also making sure that the drainage went right and the water would flow into the cesspit outside in the garden. The carpenter came by and he constructed the doors and put these in no problems at all.

I should maybe have known from experience that something had to go wrong, however, overseeing the work made me believe that this time round things were different as the workers knew what they were doing. In the end I was to be proved too naive. As the house had not been used for nearly 8 month the water supply had been disconnected. When the plumber was ready, we reconnected to the main water line and opened valve. The water flowed happily into the house and in the kitchen we could open the taps and water streamed out but alas no water in either of the bathrooms. Nearly three hours was spent in vain digging up pipes to see if there was a leak as no leak was found yet there was still no water in either of the bathrooms. It took a while for us to figure out where the fault was. By chance Ally Muksini, our project assistant, went over the pipes once more and look and behold the arrow on the stop pointed in the wrong direction, meaning water could never flow into the bathrooms in the first place…

Knowing this we could begin the work but taking out a stop or turning it around takes a great deal of work as it starts a chain reaction. The pipe going into the stop is screwed one way and the pipe leading out is screwed the other way which means you need to practically take out all the pipes and start from the very beginning again. Doing this took an hour or so and then we opened up the water again. This time we had water in both bathrooms, in the new one upstairs literally water in the bathroom as two pipes were leaking massively. Now trying to fix a leaking pipe should be relatively easy but when the plumber has used cement for tightening the pipes or connections, it is not so easy after all. But hey we found out that the slope in the floor was alright. We could see how the water dripping from our pants proceeded to run into the drain. And hey it is always hot down here so a little water to soak your clothes does not really matter.