Back from two weeks in the bush….I de enjoy myself plenty. I no wan go for weekend for Kumba. (some pidgin for you, and plenty more to come,,,). Things are moving great with the project and it was really nice to spend the weekend in the village. Mark and I stayed there with Julius aka “Wise Dog” and Karen aka “Mommy”. It allowed us to become even more a part of the Barombi community. Its interesting because when you live and work and play and do all things with people, you come to know them more than you would imagine, and I find myself feeling like a Barombi man.
So lets get down to business…Things are moving very well with the project past anything I could have imagined when planning for the project in the States. Dr. Amin, the history chair from UD and Cameroonian, came with the other Immersion students to see the work on Saturday. He was very impressed and the other students, 9 undergrads here in country for one month for a cultural immersion, were very interested in seeing what UD students are capable of.
The light at the end of the tunnel is shining brighter than ever. The past two weeks have been a mad dash for the finish line. 95% of the pipes are connected and we were forced to return to town this weekend to purchase 10 more PVC pipes to complete the line. While our original estimates were pretty darn good, we made a sacrifice to the lake of some pipes (fell from a canoe when one guy tried to carry too many pipes after taking too much white stuff). We spent much of the last two weeks digging. Mark and I were up every morning at 6am to begin the digging. Once people saw us they too joined in. It was imperative that the digging be complete to lay the pipes ASAP. Two plumbers work with us to lay the pipes, as the galvanized iron pipes need bending (between two trees) and diced. Its better because they move much faster then we could as amateurs.
Three concrete tap stands are complete. We poured the concrete last Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The PVC pipes were connected to the iron pipe (to nearly complete the network) and high points and low points were installed (air release and cleaning valves). The work remaining includes: backfilling the trench (avoiding joints to test the line first, the completing), connecting the taps to the main line, finishing of the concrete structures (to make them look pretty), and constructing valve boxes and pillars to support the iron pipeline with concrete. We must also concentrate to sensitize to water management committee and train caretakers. The girls have been working on the filters and I really cant say much about them now because I have been concentrating all of my time on the pipeline. We work from early in the morning until mid afternoon, with a few small breaks for some palm wine or to get out of the hot sun. I will not travel with the Immersion students to spend most of my remaining time in the village. I want to be sure that every thing is correct when we leave this place.
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