something new for me

The compound was short of fuel today so Cody and an armed guard and I went to Farasika to get some. Just as we pulled in, we saw that the front tire was going flat. After we got it changed, we saw that the spare was half flat so we pulled across the road to a place that had a generator and an air compressor. As they pulled out the air hose I saw that there was nothing on the end of the hose.  Since there is no cell service, I thought we were dead in the water. To my surprise they were able to pump the tire up to full pressure. If anyone can figure out how they did it without putting something on the end of the hose, send me an e-mail. I will tell how in next blog and give credit to any one who sends me the right answer. I have to tell you if I had not seen it I would not believe that it would work. The first picture is of Andrea, one of the Maridi lineman.  The scars on his forehead are done  to people of his tribe--I do not know why. The second one is a sign on the main road through Maridi advertising a barber shop. The last is of me and Oscar, one of the contractors who left to go back to Juba today.

not much new

I am still doing secondary wire.  We have moved on to an area known as the new market.  I have slowed down on taking pictures also. How many shots of me up a pole does a person need to see?  I feel like I have taken enough.  So I mostly take pictures of stuff I see that catches my eye. Today I only took 2. I will send them. We had a pretty good thunder and lighting storm this afternoon and had a nice sun set.  I took this on the back porch of the house I'm staying in.  The snail was very large.  I should have put something down to get some comparison--the thing was at least 3 inches long. That was all of the pictures for today

another day in Maridi

We spent the day in an area od Maridi know as the old market, running secondary wire. I belive we were able to finish all of them. I think we will move on to the  tap that will serve the Maridi radio station. John has finished pouring the pads for the breakers and I hope we get them installed next week. Other than that not a lot to report, just trying to get thinks ready so that when the generators show the system will be ready for them. The first picture is of a pretty normal spider in Maridi--the body is about 3/8 of an inch with a leg span of about 2 inches. The second one is how you get a hole dug in Maridi.  The last one is of an intersection that would be about like 10th and Williamette in Eugene. I don't know how the font got changed and cannot figure out how to get it back as should be.

sick no blog

I was sick last night.  I think I just got too much sun and did not drink enough water, but all better today.  Victor leaves tomorrow and we will all miss him, as he is a great guy. I worked on the getaways for the sub today and also ran some secondary wire.  I think we will be running more tomorrow. Other than that just plugging along. The first picture is of a street in the market district of Maridi, the next one is of an iron that they use heated by charcoal--my understanding is that they can still buy these irons--remember, no power. 

big night at the U.N. compound

Cody and I started to hang transformers today. We got a couple and then we had to put up a cutout for a tap. We were using the boom truck to hang the pots and, since there is only one truck, it can take a while to get out of the yard. All the heavy lifting must be done by that truck.

The big news today is that we got invited to the U.N. compound by the Bangladesh contingent They put on quite a spread for us , it was a very good meal. the first picture is of one of the line crews loading a reel of wire on the reel trailer,I have seen them load a full reel of number 2 acsr on it. The next two are at the Bangladesh party.

a slow day in Maridi

We had a quiet Sunday in Maridi. Victor and Bob made a fuel run to Farakasika which is about 25 kilometers  from Maridi.  They have to go there because there are no diesel pumps in Maridi.  The only way to get diesel is in jerry cans and the fuel is very dirty. John and I just hung around the house until the one of the crew guys came by and we went down to the reservoir with a bunch of the people who work here. They had a cook out and a few beers.  We hung out with them for a while; we didn't eat as we did not know that they were planing to eat and we had eaten earlier. We came home and John and I made pizza.  Some of the Bangladesh U.N. people came by and had some and invited us over tomorrow for dinner. They wanted us to come by before Victor leaves on Thursday. The first picture is of Jackie, the only female lineman on the Maridi crewm bringing a case of 16 oz.glass bottles of beer to the cookout. She carried it across the dam you can see in the back ground.  It has a blue railing--all together it was about 600 feet. The next is just some bananas growing wild by the side of the road.  The last is just a bunch of goats.  They are everywhere, and I mean everywhere, thousands and thousands of them.