Through 13 September

Not a lot of posts recently, though quite a bit has transpired.

By today we have set the forms for 100% of the south abutment and center pier, and have set the main body of the north abutment.  A fair amount of fill remains for the north side, but it shouldn't take too long.

Beyond the work progressing very well, there have been some neat opportunities afforded by the local community.

The first was the goat roast with the village elders.  This was a good time- we had an outdoor feast consisting of bread, goat, and Coca-Cola.  I still don't know exactly how the goat was prepared; since we had told the elders that we didn't know what to do with a live goat, they took care of all the prep work.  However they did it, it was delicious, and was served in copious quantities.  With the bread, the meal turned into goat sandwiches, which proved mighty tasty.  It was the first meal in a while that has been of a definite composition; at the restaurant it's anybody's guess as to what meat is being served at any given time.

Soccer games have continued; the crew replaced the rebar goals with improved wood and chicken wire assemblies.  The only problem now is that soccer balls usually only last a game or two on the street, but at only 40 birr (about $2), it's not a big problem.

Another sad event was the drowning of a donkey in the stagnant pond that remains from last week's rains.  I have already mentioned the steep slopes entering and exiting the wadi, and how much the animals seem to dislike it.  Last week, the trip down proved more than unpleasant; indeed it became fatal for one donkey.  During our off hours, a donkey cart was heading down into the wadi to get water (people are still drawing water out for washing, cooking, and even drinking), when the cart lost control and ended up in the water.  Though the water is less than a foot deep now, the donkey had become flipped around in its harness, and its head was held under the surface.  Despite a large amount of human assistance, the donkey could not be saved.  The locals elected to leave the carcass in place for the hyenas; when we arrived onsite the next morning, we were greeted by a fly-covered carcass.  Most of the animal had been removed, but to prevent the carcass from becoming a disease vector, we burned it with the addition of diesel fuel, which eliminated the flies.  The next evening, the hyenas took the rest.

We were also treated to the experience of the Ethiopian New Year.  It is now 2004!  Because of a 13-month calendar, you can become 7 years younger just by crossing into Ethiopia.  For the new year, which starts at 6 AM (Ethiopian midnight), the eve was filled with party-goers, fireworks, sporadic celebratory Kalashnikov fire, and general noise.  Nobody slept that night- the goings-on around were much too loud!  We were treated to a new year's meal of anjeira wot, which pleasantly came with chicken and hard-boiled eggs.  Similar to the goat which appeared in the hotel courtyard one day, then appeared on dinner plates following the Orthodox fast, 3 roosters had made their appearance well known during new year's eve night, but did not make it through new year's day.  An interesting economic note- the rooster seems to be the traditional new year's fare.  During the days leading up to the new year, the price of a rooster escalated from 40-50 birr to 150 birr, while the price of a hen remained 30-40 birr.

Which brings me to fried chicken.  A couple members of the team have been working on improving the abysmal cuisine, and have been working small miracles with the limited resources available here.  One of the recent victories was fried chicken.  Using the drawing shown below and a 100-birr note, one of the team negotiated with children to go get 3 hens from the market.  After the children ran away in the opposite direction with the 100-birr note, we started to write it off as a loss.  However, they returned shortly, only after the lady next door to the project scolded us for not consulting her advice on the chicken purchase.  She said that no good hen could be had for that price, and that we would only get skinny chickens.  She was, in the end, correct.  The chickens arrived, quite scrawny ("well-exercised"), and were handed off to the hotel cooks for preparation.  Following the plucking, etc., the pieces were battered and fried, which came out very well.  Unfortunately, the lean, tough chicken meat left something to be desired.  Next time, roosters it is.

Then there was the water line break.  The service line for the two houses nearest the project site runs, as it turns out, about 6 inches under our aggregate stockpile.  This turned out to be most unfortunate; as some aggregate was being taken out of the pile, water started bubbling out of the ground.  With water so scarce as in Negele, the loss of so much water(filling our 1000L tanks takes about 2 hours, so about 100 gallons or so per hour) attracted a lot of attention.  Due to the number of people crowding around the now growing excavation, we had to rope off the area while we dug the broken line out and called the water department.  After about half an hour, during which attempts were made to plug the pipe with wood and rags, the plumber arrived (on a bicycle) with a shutoff valve, screwed it on, and the leak was stopped.

We then turned our attentions to fixing the line.  The existing line was rigid pipe with threaded unions at each segment.  The threaded ends were not damaged, but the pipe was damaged, and so it had to be replaced.  PVC was the attractive solution, and we could have effected the repairs ourselves, but the water authority wanted to undertake the repairs, so we bought the parts and delivered them to the water authority office.  After some hemming and hawing, they offered a price for the repair effort, which was a bit steep.  Upon further examination of the document, we were being charged for "excavation."  As we were doing the digging and filling, we were able, after half an hour of negotiations, to cut the price by 60%.  During this time, we were also offered labor from a prison warden, who said that we could use his prisoners for free!  We politely declined.  Which brings us to an interesting note on the prison system here:

In the US, prisons are decidedly unpleasant places; however, they do often possess such niceties as cable television, hot meals, soap, beds...the list goes on when compared to Ethiopian prison.  Here in Negele, 450 prisoners, overseen by 10 guards, sleep on the floor, eat only anjeira, can shower but can't have soap, are available as laborers, and are shot if they try to escape.  If they have families, the families can bring other food, as long as it contains no meat.  Certainly not a very pleasant existence.

Back to the waterline...

In the US, if you take somebody's water away for the better part of a day, they become quite angry.  With the families next door, we experienced the exact opposite.  The men insisted on helping with the repairs, and the lady from next door brought out tea and biscuits at the conclusion of the fix!  One neat thing about plumbing here- there is no teflon tape to be found, so, instead, rope fibers (maybe hemp, maybe jute or twine?) are used.  When installed, they swell and prevent leaks.  Certainly effective!