ETHOS: Boa Bakundu: Small work, weekend in Kumba

Thursday June 25, 2009

It has been very nice to work with small crews this week. We’ve really gotten to know these men very well. They are also consistently hard workers. Our first job was to clean out the sedimentation tank near the catchment. It had about six inches of dirt, mud, and leaves that had collected inside over the last seven years. While Moses finished cleaning, we cleared the area around the catchment. We pulled roots, cut down plants, and moved hundreds of rocks. The experience took me back to my childhood days of building dams in the stream in front of my house. (Shout out to Carl and Zane) The area looks much better now as you can tell from the picture.

Friday June 26, 2009

The same small crew, the same positive results. Today we dug out a section of line near a 90 degree bend, chiseled out a pipe at the sedimentation tank, and completed some rough plumbing at the aeration chamber. We also learned of the death of Michael Jackson on our walk up to the catchment. People in Cameroon loved his music as much as people in the US, if not more. We didn’t believe the news at first, but more people confirmed it later in the day. The walk to the catchment is how we get most of our news. On our hike the day before we learned that the US soccer team made it to the finals of the Confederations Cup.

As we trekked back home, we met up with Benjamin, Josephat, and plumber John. So, back up the hill we went. (Another 10 km day, yay!) The plumber looked the work over and Benjamin seemed very impressed with the job we did at the catchment. Plumber John’s first offer to do the remainder of the plumbing was 115,000 CFA. We felt this was still too much for maybe a day’s worth of work. Our counteroffer was 50,000 CFA. Surprisingly, he accepted. (Pretty dang good negotiating if you ask me)

Monday will be a big work day for the project. The plumber will arrive and begin his work. We have required that he finishes by Tuesday at the latest so that we can test the line on Wednesday. Villagers will be doing some community work as well. Partial backfilling by each quarter will keep the line in place during testing. Other groups will be filling sandbags for areas near the stream crossing and catchment. Finally, another team will be clearing some brush in front of the sedimentation tank. We hope that by Wednesday, the water will be flowing. J

We returned to Kumba in the evening.

Saturday June 27, 2009

I finally got around to checking my email today. It’s hard to believe how much you miss when you are away for two weeks. Most of the day was filled with running errands. First, we all got haircuts at Spirit’s shop. Then, we stopped at the Amin’s place briefly before changing out the

last of our project funds for CFA’s. We then strolled over at Josephat’s hardware store to make our final payment. He was extremely happy to see us today. In the evening, he treated us to Classy Burger. This time, we even had a real hamburgers. Delicious.

After getting back to the house, we met with Dr. Amin and Derrick at a local bar. They were interested to hear our opinions on village life and how the project/experience was going. They were surprised to learn that we plan to have water flowing to the tanks by next weekend.

Sunday June 28, 2009

Today will be very boring and relaxing. We plan to have lunch with Mark’s friend who works for a local NGO. After lunch, we will pack up for the village. We are returning to the village this evening so that we can be there when the major work starts tomorrow. We will have to find a place to watch the big soccer match tonight. I’m sure we’ll have many friends cheering for the USA. Until next time…