EdUKaid

A few weeks have gone by now but it seems that the establishment of a normal day, a planned day, is something that I have to be patient about. It is not so much the extent of the handy work around the house, but when the local plumber in Mikindani is only given the title because he is the only man in Mikindani with tools and not a plumber because he knows anything about plumbing, then things are bound to take time. Furthermore, it is not possible to buy spare parts in Mikindani so when things break I need to get into Mtwara, the larger town in the area approximately 45 minutes on bike or 20 minutes on the dala-dala (bus). It also seems that a small problem tends to grow into a bigger problem, particularly when the plumber does not understand the most basic issues about plumbing.

To give an example: our water supply has been somewhat unstable and the pipe going from the septic tank into the house has been leaking a little. On this pipe we have a tap so that we can turn of the water when the tank is over spilling. This tap then broke leading to a small leak. I went into Mtwara and bought a new one (UK steel by the way). I gave it to the plumber who simply had to replace the old leaking tap with the new steel tap. Some how he actually managed to break the steel parts into two, which then made him go home and weld the old tap and the new tap together. This worked for two days where after the tap (or taps!) broke. I had already bought a new tap so I just sent for the plumber to come by again to replace the old taps with the new tap, again a UK steel tap. This time round the plumber succeeded in making a leak in one of the connectors on the central pipe two or three metres from the tap that he was working on. He then turned the main water supply off, leaving the house without water and decided to take all the connectors apart rather than just then one that was actually leaking. He convinced himself that the problem could only be solved with a new connector, which by chance we could buy directly from him as he had one at his house, a 10-15 minute walk from our house. 2 hours later he came back ready to replace the connector. For a real plumber this should not be a problem but when the plumber himself does not know how the connectors work and where the different cascades are fitted into the connectors in order to prevent leaks, then things a little longer. After two hours and four attempts of opening the water supply and closing it again due to leaks with the connectors, the plumber hit an ultimate low when he broke another one of the connectors when trying to fit the pipe into the connector. Now we needed another connector he said…

At this point in time I had run out of patience with the man. I told him to stop what he was doing and simply connect the pipe without connecting the stop etc. He did so and the leak was gone but so is the stop on the pipe, which means that the water can now flow both in and out of the house rather than just into the house. Of course we then had an exchange of words about payment which is not easy when my level of Swahili and his level of English are equally low. During the conversation I came to the conclusion that I had taken the right decision in telling him to stop his work when he claimed that sometimes water from our septic tank would run to some of the other house, even though there is only one pipe from the tank and that pipe goes directly into our house. So now I have hired a new man to fix the water. He is very cheap, well actually he works as a plumber for free. His name is Kennet Christensen. But for now I am taking a short break from the different task of plumbing as my left thumb is in need of rest to heal because I have also been hired as an electrician. However, trying to adjust a fan without turning the fan off is not the best idea, at least not when there is plenty room for fingers to get in through the “protective” guard of the fan. My own clumsiness, or the self-fulfilling prophecy of an office-man taking his hands out of his pockets perhaps. Let see when I get going with the water supply. At least the only danger is that I will get wet.