Last post from Kapoeta

This will be my last post from Kapoeta, as I am due to fly out between noon and midafternoon today.  I should be in Nairobi around 5:00 pm today, then due to leave for Amsterdam at 10:30 tonight.  Yesterday first thing, Francis and I put on a demo--we closed a cutout on a shorted-out transformer, as most of these guys have never seen or heard a fuse blow. I closed the door of the cutout slow so we could get a little fire going. There were many questions about transformers after the fuse blew, so we went over and opened one so people who had not seen in one could, and answered several questions about transformers. I thought it went well.  After the demo the guys went out to make a connect and I helped Francis work on the fuel system until lunch.  After lunch I went out with the crew to set a couple of poles. Right after work, I took James Lotiman out for a driving lesson--this time we took a wire trailer out so he could get some time pulling one around. We found a field and he got his first shot at backing one up--always a tough time but we got back to the shop in good shape. The first two pictures are of me answering questions about transformers.  The next two are of me removing the fault and putting the transformer back to normal.

most climbs in a long time

One of the problems that has been happening here is loose hardware. Not real common the a line that is only a little over a year old. I think it is happening because the poles are so wet when they were set and the heat is drying them out very fast. dosen't matter they are loose and we went out to tighten hardware this morning. I can not tell you how long it has been since I made that many climbs in 4 hours. In the after noon I helped Francis work on the fuel system manifold some more. It  was hot and loud in the generator house and by the end of the day I was beat. The first picture today is of John Kennedy sporting a new hat. In the next one you see Morris on the left and Daniel in the middle and Francis on the right working on the manifold. The last two are of me cutting threads on two inch pipe.

can see the end

I can see the end of the trip and I catch myself thinking about going home from time to time. This has been a different trip as far as the work is concerned but I have really enjoyed it.  I will miss the the guys I've worked with but I am looking forward to getting home. Francis has been just great to work with and I hope that I was able to help him get a little more done on the project while I was here.  I spent a part of my day helping the guys  learn the new meter reading routes. It seem to help and they talked about how much easier it was to read the meters.  As I said one of the first things Francis had me do was to drive the guys reading meters around. The accounts were in no order at all. It took at least 5 hours to read all the meters. Today we did it in two. Today I also spent some time building a remote base for a photo cell something we would just go to the warehouse and get at home. That is the kind of thing that makes working here such a challenge. I didn't take any pictures today but here are a few I took of Phillip Gai  and John Kennedy they played in a soccer game on Sunday note the nice flat grass field they play on. In the first picture the guy kicking the ball is John.  The guy doing the split in the second one is Phillip. The third picture is of both guys.  In the forth picture John is again kicking the ball. You can See some tipical houses in the background. In the last Phillip is heading the ball.

Slow Saturday

It was slow around here today, not a lot going on. I spent most of the day doing domestic stuff--baked bread, swept the floor in my area, did some laundry, that sort of thing--read a lot. The first picture is of the guy who does most of the welding around here, he works for a contractor here. Notice the fancy welding helmet--a piece of dark glass. I don't see a lot of people using donkeys to haul stuff, but there are a few. The next two are of the restaurant at Mango camp, where I eat everynight. In the first picture the guy on the left is Swalleh Rajab the general manager of the coop here--he lives at Mango camp. The other two guy work for World Food Program and are staying at Mango Camp also they are from Sweden.   They are real nice guys.

Where is John Dotson when I need him

Francis and I were working on the fuel system today. They have 3 fairly large fuel tanks and we were working on building a manifold system for them. It will be gravity feed into the generators from the tanks. It rained really hard today. There were some tool bags and some battery powered tools in the back of the pickup and I just got soaked getting them out and under cover. After the rain Francis and I made pretty good progress on the fuel system. We worked on it until about 7:oo pm and it was time for me to go get something to eat.  The crew is working on right of way clearing. John Owite, the guy who normally runs that, is off sick, so Jacob took it and the whole crew joined in. The drain pipe came with metric threads on the end so we had to cut them off because the values were American. So the first picture is of me with the cutter working on the drain pipe. The second one is of me tightening a check value to the drain value. Where is John dotson when I need him--he should be working on all these values and fittings. The next one is of Francis tightening a shut off valve. One of the pipes had a large welding bead on it and even though we ground and filed It down, it was quite a chore to get threads on it. The last picture shows us trying to decide what to do about it. In the end we got it threaded but it was a chore.

Left Eugene one month ago today

The time has gone by very fast; it is a month ago today that I left to come here.  I remember one of the first things Francis had me do was take some of the crew around to read the meters.  Today he had me take Steven Okeny around to set up a meter reading route. But today I knew where I was going and figuring a route was quite easy. Of course we are only dealing with a little over a 100 meters. Still I was surprised at my knowledge of the town and the roads. Other than that I spent most of my day hauling the crews around. We needed a hole dug and I took Augusta out to dig it. For this particular hole, a house had to be torn down so we could get it in the right place. I guess they are going to move the road and some houses were built on its right of way. The first picture is of Augusta.  All these guys always look younger than they tell me they are, but I find it hard to belive this guy is 21. The next picture is one of the reasons we built the new line. They are building a new building for the county. Notice the lack of backhoes and other equipment you would see on a construction site in the U.S. The last two are of one of the trees that had to be removed for a line that has to be built soon.  It was not real tall but was very wide. I would say it was about 4 feet at the butt and I'm not too sure about 50 feet tall.

Hot again

You would think that I would be able to take the heat better now than when I first got here, but in the middle of  the day it really saps my energy. We were busy most of the morning working on street lights. Like any small town I've been around, they are a big deal. In the afternoon we finished up the tap we had been working on. After work, I helped Francis a little bit with wiring the warehouse. John Kennedey tells me there will be a soccer match this Sunday. I am looking forward to watching it. Other than that, not a whole lot new to report on  from here in Kapoeta. The first picture is of the crowd that gathered while I was working on a street light. The next is just one of me walking back to the truck when I came down from the pole. The next one is of a woman smoking one of the pipes--you see them all over town smoking them. The last two are of some of the houses.  I took it from a pole just to get a different view of them. All the guys I work with live in places just like these.