work-environment, here in Mogadishu.
I snapped #030 early this morning while passing near the terminal building
on my way to meet up with the bulldozer driver. Naturally, I had to stop to
capture the spectacular vista. In four months, it has only sprinkled three
times, so this morning's lengthy shower actually settled the dust and
created this great photo-op. This may be my best Somalia picture yet!
#031 & #032 shows the size of the Cat D-8L. Two days ago, I found this
monster machine under wraps on the property next door, and since we had many
hundreds of yards of dirt to move, and some significant grade changes to
make, I made a deal with the owner/operator. This is by far the largest
machine that I've seen here, and the guy accomplished more in one day that
our previous efforts (with other equipment) had produced in 3 or 4 days. He
was pleased and we were very pleased!
#033 shows Chris Sears filling our little Toyota Water-truck. George, the
Ugandan soldier in the picture takes very good care of us -- often taking
the fill-hose out of a larger water truck to fill our tank. In this
instance, he used the discharge pump on one of the water trucks to fill our
tank. In exchange for his willingness to help, we often reward George with
"scratch-off" cards for cell phone minutes. He was out of minutes on Easter
Sunday, so it made him particularly happy that we gave him $5.00 worth of
minutes, so he could call home to Uganda to visit with his wife and 3 kids
-- his youngest two are twin boys.
#028 shows our masonry crew as they're making a 4'-0" grout pour on the
security station at our front gate.
Nur, the young man on the far right, is very bright and speaks english far
better than the other four boys. Today, he explained that he has acquired
his language skills by attending a private school, here in Mogadishu. I'm
guessing that might be a pretty expensive education, so I'm anxious to learn
more about his family and his background.
I was very pleased, today, when Nur told me that the trowel skills I've been
showing him makes his job "much easier." Spreading the proper amount of
mortar on a block wall "American Style" was a completely new concept for
them. I wish I could have recorded the expressions on their faces when I
showed them how it's done in California. These "masons" were trying to
first pile the mud up extremely high, then they'd attempt to pound the block
down. Until I showed them a better way, they were producing the 1" thick
bed-joints that is typically seen on the block construction, here. We're
saving lots of cement, and we're getting a lot more done!
That's all for now,
Russ
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