Southern Sudan Letters to the board

[RWD]

Well I made it here again. Jet lag and dust. Got in yesterday from Kampala. This trip was Raleigh - Miami ... Work in Miami a few days the Miami - Detroit, Detroit - Amsterdam, Amsterdam - Kampala Uganda, Spent a short night in a hotel in Kampala then Entebe - Yei.

Brought my camera again this time and I'll do what I can to post pictures. Heard tell that some of the boys have walked. I'm down to 6 linehands. Bougy split. He was one of the best.

Myk Mark and Lupe are fine. The new houses are ok. Hell of a lot better than the huts we lived in the first few times in. Mykes been adding services when possible. We're up to 135 or so consumers. We'll see where the numbers are when I leave.

Hot and dusty... Until today it's been 100 to 110 degrees. No rain. It sprinkled a bit today and last night. I hope it means cooler wether on the docket.

Still not long poles. They did get a shipment of 30 foot poles in just after I left last time. Some have been istalled and more need to be. I guess it's part of what I get to do this time.

While I'm here this time Myk is going to the NRECA annual meeting in Las Vegas. Lupe is staying here. Mark is also going to leave for a bit. I guess it's time for them to get some R&R anyhow.

I'll update as I can.

TTFN

Bob

[RWD]

Well the day went well. It was hot but productive to a point. We installed 5 meters and several service drops. Raised a lift pole and prepared a pole near customes for a 3 phase bank. The 15kva there is over loaded and since it's a 3 phase or single phase 240 to ground we are going to connect a bank to the Quadraplex to provide load ballance.

Hassan is really gone. I was happy to see Akim and Wanni. Luate John os still here as are the rest of the guys. Cosmos is one of those guys that trys to put round pegs in the triangle hole. He is about the lst guy I needed to climb with today. I mean .... how many times do you have to show a guy how to crimp a connecter! He does not seem to grasp that if the connector is sideways in the MD-7 it won,t crimp... right. I saw it today and Myk said this is the 4th time in less than a week. Forget about lefty loosey righty tighty ... ther is no reference.

It did rain last night. Cooled it down to about 95 today. Forgot to bring water on site today .... Won't forget tommorrow.

Got a call from the office today. 9 pm here is 1PM in Raleigh. Tis voice over IP is great! I guess problems abound. Earthlink is down and one of the new peices of equiment I purchased prior to coming went out as well. When it rains it pours. My dear wife is overloaded when I'm gone without the problems of internet and high dollar equipment. Swamp ..... want to buy a company to retire on? Just kkidding .... I like you and would not wish that on osama bin ladin.

LA puppy noses abound here ... too bad I can't touch. All work no play.

Take care all and please pray for my family as I play linehand in southern Sudan.

RWd

[RWD]

the beer is good and cold! Got a bit done today. Climbed with William the clown and Akim. We raised a bank at customs. We started at 11 am when the power was turned off and William and I raised the pots. After lunch Akim and I set the jumpers and at 3:30 we finished it and turned the plant back on. Shucks .... I was hoping to at least blow a fuse!

Ran out of planned work at 4:00 pm and I had them check thier gear bags and organize the tools. At 4:30 I let them go home for the night.

Myk and I are going to go back out to do a load check. I'm limiting my beer intake to 2 beers. We go out at peak ... 8pm. Two pots ... we think are over loaded so we'll have to check them out.

TTFN

RWD

[RWD]

Still not much rain. It was cloudy most of the day and cooler because of that but still hot. Installed 4 more meter loops, a lift pole and a transformer.

Last night we put an amprobe on the transformer at the BOSS (Bank of Southern Sudan) Peak here is at about 8pm. We have a 25 KVA one pole up from the bank. It read 90.2 amps. Today we paraleled anther 25 KV right on the deadend pole at the bank. Don't like doing that but what can we do. The largest pot we have in stock is a 25 KVA and until we get more primary built so we can spread the load we have to do things that really are not Kosher .... in the real word ... But then who said we were in the real world?

Looks like we may be seeing a strike in the morning. Today was payday .... a week after signing a new contract. In the contract it states that the pay is based on US dollars but at the exchange rate for Shillings on payday. For some reason the $ went down this week from 1800 to 1745 per $. This equates to about a 5000 shilling per month over all reduction in pay or about $2.50 US. Granted thats a lot for these guys but it's been in the contract since day one that way and ths is the first time it's gone lower in 18 months. They are up in arms. I'm going to ask them if they are men who honor thier contracts or ethically challanged. We'll see if we have a crew in the morning.

Beer .... I need a beeeeerrrrr ....

LA you lift up all of us ... Maybe not to the standards you've lifted the boss but we are better because you are here.

RWD

[RWD]

Some of you all are new to the board. I am a lineman working on a project in Southern Sudan. We are located about 100 miles south east of Darfur. After a 24 year Civil war the north and the south have agreed to disagree. The north (predominantly Muslim) and the South (Predominently Christian) have decided to try peace. We are here in Yei Sudan to electrify the capital of the state of Yei river (Yei town) Yei was destroyed durring the war. There was not a building left without war damage. Our office only had part of two walls standing when we moved in. Initially there were about 30K people. Estimates abound today. From 100K to 200K pick your source.

We now have 140 consumers conected and are adding on average 10 per week. And thats with only about 20% of the primary in the air.

Right now pole are th issue. Quality poles are hard to come by in Africa. Poles from the USA are by far the best but at an additional $300.00 per pole for shipping it's a bit pricey. In My opinion .. as a lineman ... well worth it. It does no one any good if the price and quality are less if you can;t get them delivered. The Kenyans seems to have problems with both quality and actually filling an order. They are only 8 or 10 moths behind on the initial order. How the hell are we supposed to build lines with no poles..... Go figure .... and then go do something to yourself that can't be mentioned on this board.

Ok I'm frustrated. TTFN

RWD

[LostArt]

Oh man....I know you are disgusted when posting some of the last few posts, but I had to laugh at your parting last few sentences in a couple of them. Oh man.........you do make me grin Boberoo!

So, does the company ship these better quality poles? And is it the delay in shipping or what?

And about this contract...I don't understand. You mean they are lowering pay due to the economics of it? Is the pay going up and down like the market? What is this?

OH! And how can I ship you some dag gum beer???

[RWD]

Had a nice long post and took a call on the VOIP when I posted it had timed out or something and I lost it.

LA Part of it was to say WE DO HAVE BEER! I just needed a few last night to make sure the mosquitoes got drunk as they ate my blood. Killed 8 of the *******s all full of my blood and somehow inside my mosquito net this morning.

I'll write again

RWd

[RWD]

Well this is the way it is .... I Yei. Since early in the civil war the south started using Ugandan schillings rather that Sudanese Dinars. Once peace happened the north wanted them to go back to Dinars but ... alas the south says that the Dinar is a strictly Arabic denomonation and will not accept it back into the market here.

We, in an effort to maintain a better standard for our workforce chose to base the rates on the US $. All moneys fluxuate against eachother. Normally the $ holds the best against 3rd world money. Usually the local currency will lose value while the $ holds firm. Example is that monday the rate might be 15 of X currency to 1 $ us. Next week it might be 16 to 1 $US. But the buying ower of the local currency is less so the extra 1 x helps the locals. Since we've been here that has been the case.

Now enter 2 or 3 other issues. The schilling exchange rate in Uganda is different that the rate in Yei. It's harder to move money here as the banks are expensive and slow.

nother issue. Bills of issue date older that 2003 get a lower exchange rate than 2003 or newer. Don't ask why just beleive. 1990's series an be a low as 1/2 the face value.

Next. The exchange rate is based on $100.00 bills. A $20 will bring about 2/3's of the value (shilling to $)

Add this up and it's best to buy shillings in bulk at the highest possible exchange rate. Then convert the $ value of pay to the schilling at the highest rate of exchange.

Also there are now too many $ in the town of Yei so the local excahnge rate changed to reflect that. The schilling grew a little bit more valuable. Hence the lower pay for the guys. This is the first time it has happend. Usually it has been the other way.

Now for the new kicker. The north in an effort to adapt have decided to introduce the sudanese pound. Who knows what the exchange rate will be? It'll be set initially but it will need to find it's own level on the international exchange. Until then it'll rise and fall in fairly large swings again emphasizing the need to tie the wages to the $.

Ok so thats why things are a bit messed up here.

If these guys had not gone on strick for real stupid things over and over again. Either Myk or Mark would have made up the difference out of pocket.

Example. Since day one we have provided lunch for the guys. We saw the guys were slow on monday morning and then found out that some were not eating over the week end so they could save money. We started making breakfast for all the next day. A few weeks later the remembered breakfast was not in thier contract so they went on strike until the contract was changed to reflect that breakfast was included.

Before you say "if they were hungry you are not paying them enough" We pay higher than the norm here. Also understand that this was the first work some of them had had in months. They had to "catch up." The employment rate here is about 30% employed..... thats men .... Who knows about the girls?

TTFN

RWD

[RWD]

US poles are the best in the world. Quality control is awsome. Renewable resource too.

Shipping is about $300.00 US from the states to here per pole. We need 700 to 1000 more poles to finish the job. that is a chunk of change just for shipping. Most poles cost around $100.00. (average)

Our supplier in Kenya also has many other folks to supply. We are not a priority as .... We have paid a deposit of 1/2 the price of the poles. Money in the bank for them and what are we going to do .... take or toys and go home?

RWD

[RWD]

I think it's been hotter but I don't know when. We are hot and dry ... Ok we have cold beer but it has not rained in some time and it's dusty. The guys are trying to dig holes by hand in this heat but it's taking much more time than normal. The heat makes everyone move slower but the ground here is much harder too. The soil is the same all over in these parts. There really is no "Rock" Or "sand" or Loam. It's all lattertite. The dryness has caused the latterite to get harder. It's taking around 2 days to dig a hole due to the heat.

We put up a service to a Tucal today. Got pictures but I need to let Myk download them and reduce the size so I can post. I've one set I want you guys to guess what car it is. Whats left is just a hulk. The others are of the tucal with a service drop and mast.

Hot here ... Time for bed but I don't think sleep ... Too **** hot.

RWD