Installation

These guys we were working with, the same ones that work here at the compound are relentless at getting stuff done. Every night, we were holding flashlights to keep working until at least 8pm. The sun sets at 7pm at the very latest. We were doing cement lying and light post installation until about 9pm the first night. While I’m trying not to die from Attack of the Mosquitoes, Part 1, the workers are using levels and tree branches to stabilize this 25 foot light post. They will also use whatever means necessary to complete a task. Osmos, the main electrician, errr the guy who did most of the wiring and difficult installation parts, was found standing on a kerosene tank about 2 feet high, barefoot, with a 9 inch bowie knife in his mouth, used for striping wire, trying to figure out how the current circuit breaker type wooden box was wired. He was in this position for the last day in a half.

Some of tools we used included a box cutter handle with a piece of sharpened steel welded to the end, used for wire stripping and basic cutting. Bamboo ladders are very common here, and although it held my weight, I still don’t trust them. The first night, we couldn’t use a drill of solder iron or anything because the generator wasn’t working. So we were ‘drilling’ holes into these plastic box covers which we were designing for the controllers with candles, nails, and drill bits. Heat the metal, melt the plastic… I never thought I would use a drill bit to drill a hole, but instead of using electricity, I used a candle and brute force for power. I think we used a tape measure once. All other measurements were done using methods like ‘eye balling it’ ‘measuring by hand length’ ‘educated luck’. In the end, the installation resulted in electricity for both hostels, the convent, the classrooms, and the entire main residency. It looks very professionally done, and I am happy to say I assisted in designing and installing it.

the humor, more than half of the communication was done via grunt and hand motion. this percentage was followed by just understanding the project. finally 5-6% was done in spoken English. As you can imagine, this caused us to redo parts of our work a few times. frustrating at times, but still pretty funny/impressive.