View Full Version : Southern Sudan Letters to the board
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
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
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
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
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
02-28-2007, 08:36 PM
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! :D
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???
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 bastards all full of my blood and somehow inside my mosquito net this morning.
I'll write again
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
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
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 Damn hot.
RWD
Yes we had a bit of rain the first trip out. On the farm we used to call it "cow pissing on a flat rock" Rain. I'd like to see some of it now. The road past the compound is about 40 yards away. A truck went by about 2 hours ago while I was on the front porch ... a little while later I had to cover my beer for the dust. Red dust floating on hot air ... It's everywhere.
Got some stuff done today. Dug up a 35 foot pole so we could move it to a new location. It was my last training pole. There is a guy near the power plant that has been in bugging us since he heard the genset start the first day for power. His place is close to the plant but not on any line we had planned. Of course the area has grown since the first trip and we've decided to extend service to the area. We'll set this pole near his place and rund the secondary to it for now. It'll be the first pole from the take off once we get more poles.
Tommorrow is Womens day. It's a national holiday ... I guess we won't see the guys. We'll work it though. We can get some staking done and some real work on the housing compound that has been building up. We need to work on the water tower. Fun fun fun ....
TTFN
RWD
LostArt
03-07-2007, 05:45 PM
Women's Day being a National Holiday.....wow. Wonders never cease.
So, do the women show up RWD? :D
A woman was at the shop when we stopped by this morning. Don't know who she was though. We went to the market and made a few womens days as we bought for several days worth of eating not just the daily bit the locals tend to buy for. They don't have refrigeration so they tend to buy at the market daily.
The schools were out in force today. they had kind of a parade It was neat to see hundereds of school kids celibrating womens day in a country where most women don't rate on the bottom rung of a septic ladder. Perhaps there is hope for this part of the world. Someday women may actually get to vote.
Monday is Fall of Yei day. I guess it's the day the north took Yei durring the Civil war. Who would want to celebrate that!
BigheadNC you have your incomming message blocked. I tried to respond to your message and it locked me out. Sorry.
RWD
Well I guess we got that wrong. It's kind of a turned around term. They Celebrate the day that yei was retaken from the northern army. Why they call it fall of yei day is well questionable. Maybe bad english.... I don't know. There is however a bit of confusion as to what day it will be celebrated. It turns out that it's actually the 13th but in many cases ... at the whim of the county commisioner ... they celebrate holidays eithe on the friday or monday closest to the week end or on the true date. We were told that sometime this weekend it would be announced on the radio which day it would be celebrated. I guess is the guys show up tommorrow morning we'll know.
Here is a story of this week and week end.
Thursday Lupe (Myks wife who is Nicaraguan) Leaves to go to Kampala to shop and pick up Lenin her nephew who is flying into visit from the Phillipines. (he is also Nicaraguan he runs the computer systems for a casino in the PI) Thy are scheduled to return on Saturday afternoon.
We had decided to do an expat brunch at the compund to welcome Lenin. Myk is leaving for Las Vegas on Monday for 2 weeks so we figured it had to be this Sunday.
So in preperation for our Sunday brunch (we were expecing 15 to 20 expats)Myk and I went out Thursday to buy Eggs after work. There were none to be had. Friday I gave a person 10 bucks and told them to get me 60 eggs. They went out after lunch and found there were still none to be had. I was a bit upset as I had given the money in the morning with the idea that it was best to buy food in the AM as all of the lodges ahd restaraunts would buy them up in the morning too. I let the person know that they were no on my Christmas list. :( Friday evening Brian a British Expat here came by with his girlfriend. I mentioned the problem.
Saturday morning Myk and I hit the road and found 60 eggs for the brunch. Success! :)
At 10:30 Myk and I make our way to the airport to pick up Lenin and Lupe. Two planes land from Kampala. The date was over booked so only Lenin gets off the plan. Next scheduled flight is monday..... The day myk flys out. We are worried that he will fly out on the plane she is to fly in on. She would not only miss the brunch but, Myk would have to figure out what clothes to take on his own!
Saturday early afternoon Brians Girlfriend shows up with 60 eggs! Now we have 120 eggs. Late Saturday afternoon the person I sent out Fridy for eggs shows up at the Gate with 60 more eggs!!! Needless to say we had enough eggs for the Brunch.
Sunday a special flight is made to bring Lupe and the airlines agent to yei. there are only 3 people on the plane. Lupe invited the local airline agent to the brunch. Lucy is a kick.
It was quite a feast. Mark made southern cheesy hash browns. I made refried beans Saturday afternoon. This morning Myk built the fire under the griddle and we put the beer on ice. Around 10:30 the first two expats showed up. Two Peruvians from the UN police. Myk starts out by making pancakes. Only one of the ahd had pancakes before. We have some imported mapel syrup. It's a winner. By 11:30 Myk leaves for the airport to pick up Lupe. Brian and Girlfriend show up and the beer starts flowing. I start making omelets and pancakes along with streaky bacon and shoulder bacon imported from Kampala. Then Audry shows up (American from Miami working for the UN Police) She's a kick too. Shortly after her an austrailian, two philipinos and a bangladeshie shows up. The beer and omelets, pancakes and hash browns are running freely. Around 1:30 Myk Lupe and Lucy show up from the airport. Lucy is a good girl ... I suppose she is in her mid 20's. I think she is form Uganda. We put a plate together for her and she all but refused to try the pancakes. Myk really had to push her to get her to take a bite. Once she did she had another plate and explained that she thought that the syrup was oil. She had never seen it before. Her experiance with gringo food has not been good until now. She has also heard of all of the "Strange" and Spicy foods we eat.
Phillip the aussy has not had pancakes for so long that is about all he eats. I think he had around 12 of them plus a 3 egg omelette. Please note that since we had a few extra eggs I refused to make omelttes of less than 3 eggs.
JJ showed up around 2 PM too. Overall we had about 18 people and all were well fed and some well watered before we shut it down around 6 PM.
Fun was had by all.
TTFN
RWD
Forgot to mention ... It did not rain Saturday morning it poured. Around 5:30 am the wind hit it was the dust storm from hell. About 6:15 the rain hit. Hit hard too. Around 8:30 Myk and I ran the system to make sure all was well. Tree limbs down but all of the lines held.
Fast forward to 7am this morning. I open the door to the office. There is a limb from the Mango tree behind the office inside the office. I guess it broke off and did a 180 and crashed thru the roof. Took out 2 sheets of tin and was hanging balanced on a rafter..... about 6 inches above the computer. The computer was covered with a tarp to keep the dust out. Thanks to the tarp teh computer was not damaged .... jst the roof. I spent the morning replacing the two sheets of tin and cleaning the limbs and gunk form the office.
I then took Myk to the airport. He was told check in was 10:30am we got there at 10:15 and sat in the plastic chairs in front of the airport shack over looking the dirt runway. The plane came in at 12:15. I had forgotten to send the guys out to dig holes ... Just like good linehands they were waiting in the shade of the Mango tree when I got back to the office. It was lunchtime so I went to get a bite. Thier official lunch is from 1pm to 2 pm. I left at 12:30 and returned at 1:30..... They had to finish thier scheduled lunch. we got 2 hole 1/2 way dug and one complete service drop installed and one breaker box installed on a drop we had put in earlier. I looked over two new requests for connection and approved them for connection later this week and drew up the staking sheets for them. One is a reed hut. I'm not real sure how to connect to it but we'll figure it out. It's only 20 feet from the pole so the drop won't pull the bulding over .... unless we get another big wind. The other is what passes for a butcher shop n the market. I hope they get refrigeration!
TTFN
RWD
Yep folks you heard it here first. Before any of the big news outlets! Hell I have not even told AP yet ...... Colera is back in Southern Sudan. Don't know how many cases so far but I'll keep you up to date for as long as I'm here!
We are back to teaching our guys basic sanitation again.
Use toilet paper not you bare fingers and wash your hands before you eat .... and after going to the latrine.
TTFN
RWD
spoil all the fun. I saw a quote on post a few weeks ... or was it months ago.
"I did'nt come here to "watch" the show ... I came here to "be" the show"
Swamp if I get to die doing this sort of stuff I'll die happy.
Got 3 poles set using pike poles today and installed 5 service drops and meter loops. I approved two more installs. We have to approve them before they pay for connection as these guys are so eager to get power they'll lie to get you to say ok. "I only 15 meters from pole" Go look and they should have said 15 meters from where you can see the pole. Had one guy come to me today and said he needed 3 connects. I told him to go to the office and pay and I'd stake the line into his place. I figured for 3 meters I'd extend one secondary pole to his area. He went in and when he found out he not only had to pay a connect fee but had to pay monthly for power used he decided he did not want power. Go figure.
RWD
What we were going to do today but we got some work done. We only had one install but we were able to get some secondary strung in the goat market. As for installs well that makes 10 this week. I hope to make it 12 or 13 by end of day tommorrow.
As for colera ... This morning I heard 65 cases and 3 dead. There is also an outbreak of measles and menengitis. Many of the guys are having relapses of malaria. The local pharmacy/clinic here is calling it tyfoid malaria. They have interesting ways of diagnosing things. One guy came in a few months ago and said he had to give a stool sample as they could not find out what was wrong. The diagnosis was syphalis. Since he was prescribed heavy doses of vitamins we let it go.
For Typhoid/Malaria they give Cipro and something else. Cipro is the wonder drug here. The only question is if they actually dispence cipro or if it's a sugar pill. The stuff is made in India and has no quality control.
ttfn
RWD
Dave@PSE&G
03-15-2007, 06:03 PM
You really need to just come home my friend.
No shit. (excuse the pun). Your's is a noble cause, but geez...:eek: Take especially good care of yourself, man.
For the most part and we wash hands all the time. Water and clenliness are the answere. Well that and mosquito nets too. It's not too bad really but I only had 3 of my 7 guys show up. My diggers are playing the game too. Hard hole ... Gosh I think I'm sick. Stuff sucks but! :) I made one more set today .. That means 11 sets for the week. I hope to be at over 300 consumers before I leave this time.
I can't express to those who have not been in this type of situation how fullfilling this is. Ok the food sucks but you know what .... We eat better han the locals and our guys eat better than the general public. To energize a place for the first time. There is no comparison ... As a christian I guess there are a few but not many, Like my daughters baptism.
I am not a stuck up type of Christian though. You dont get giardia from beer ... so drink beer. Did I mention we have good beer here?
We also had the first refridgerator in town. I remember handing Ice to one of the guys and they did not know what it was. he held it for a few seconds and dropped it saying it was hot and it "Burned" he looked at his hand for blisters then started touching it like it was a thing form mars. This is the egde of the septic pit. We can only make it better.
TTFN
RWD
billg
03-16-2007, 02:27 PM
God bless your endeavers. You are truely a rare individual in this day and age of "me, me, me - mine, mine, mine".
Well for now we only have one 400KW plant for the town and a 75KW here at the housing compound. Here in the compound we run the plant from 6:30am or so to 10pm at night. It's a Perkins. They make a decent plant but they did not engineer it for full duty use. Changing the oil is a bitch. When we first set it up we had to use a small bowl to drain the oil 6 or 8 oz at a time. Myk drilled a hole thru the frame of the unit and now we have a valve that when used with a hose it makes things a bit easier. Now I don't know why but they still fill from a cap on top of the motor. In order to fill it with oil you have to open an inspection port in the top of the case and using a 1.5 foot funnel you can almost get the oil into the valve cap hole. I'm guessing the guys who engineered it never planned on anyone using the machine long enough to need to change the oil.
The large plant is on from 6am to 11am then it's turned back on at 3pm till Midnight. This now powers the town and the lighting system. With about 180 consumers we are not even at 1/3 capacity of the plant. It's actually a CAT. It's made for full duty and it's easy to work on with only one problem changing the oil. The little elbow used to pour the oil back into the engine. I think it is set up for a hand pump to pump oil into it rather than oil from Jerry cans.
All this to say that we changed the oil in the perkins yesterday evening. It took about an hour and 6 liters of oil.
We changed the oil in the CAT today. It took all of 20 minutes using 40 liters of oil.
I like cats! all three types. Catipilar, The furry ones with ears and the other furry ones.
:)
RWD
Poles came out of the customs house today. We unloaded them today. We got 50 of the 30's which we do not need at this time and 15 40 foot poles that are what they call "Stouts" in this part pf the world. Problem is I need about 50 40 foot regulars and 20 45' regs. not stouts. I can only use 2 of the poles at this time. I'll replace two existing 35' regular poles with 40' stouts so I can hang a bank of transformers on them to ballance load.
The 30' poles are all stouts or heavies and we will need longer bolts to use them. I guess I'll go down to the local hardware store and pick some up .... Nauuuuuuuuut! (not)
Stouts are what we would call class 2 or 3 poles in the states. We will have about 20 banks in the air when we are done. I need them for those type of structures. I hope we get more poles in soon.
Just so you all know. We unloaded the poles from a 40' truck today. I tied a rope to the end of a pole and 15 guys pulled it outof the truck one at a time. Then they picked them up and carried them to the pole stands. I'm damn glad I was on the truck not on the ground. I'm 46 now and am 20 years older than out oldest worker. They don't believe me as 46 here is a worn out old man. Ok so I'm worn out but that does not make me old does it? Little or no gray hair and I have it all ... no shiney spots. I said the other day that I'm twice as old as most of you ... I think I'll watch you did the hole. Damned if I didn't get tierd watching. :)
Well tommorrow I'll inspect the pole closer. I'm going to reject one that I saw and I hope it's the only one. I'm also going to get the guys started digging up one of the future bank poles so we can at least get them set before Myk gets back from the NRECA anual meeting in LAs Vegas. I'm going to use the 35' poles as a gin pole to lift the 40' poles into place. Then use the 40' to retire the 35' from it's hole.
(we don't have a digger derick or a hyway digger. We use pike poles and shovels. How many folks remember how to do that?
TTFN
RWD
Today was one of those days where nothing really went wrong but you have to work twice as hard to get the same work done. I'm a bit worn out.
Today we installed 2 more meters. We prepared the way for 2 maybe 3 tommorrow. This included setting a 35 foot pole and anchor.
Early this morning I dropped two guys off to dig a hole near a mud sided place called the Tajita hotel. I'd guess here a hotel is another word for restaraunt .... unless it's like the old time places where you sleep on the floor of the dining room at bed time. One a longer term hand that I've been grooming as a groundman and the other a newbe. As I was driving by later this morning I decided to check on them .... 10:45 and no one is around. The hole is about 1/3 done as it is in soft soil (close to a latrine) At lunch I found out that the longer term guy had split for home and did not return. After lunch I did not send the newbe back on his own as we had to set a pole so we used him as pike pole fodder.
The other problem was three of the linemen decided they would take part of the afternoon off too. They got back about 45 minutes late from lunch. That blew my chance at a 3rd connect for the day. We only connect services from 11am to 3pm while the power is out. We don't let them climb an energized pole. We don't have any rubber gloves and 240 phase to ground is pretty hot for new hands.
I've ordered 6kv gloves and they are/should be here in the next shipment that left Miami a month ago. We still don't have a damn shot gun either. We have a few home made mechanical grounds and a hot clamp adapter for an extendo stick. The real stuff is on order still. Myk and I made a grounding buss in the substation that we use as a quasai fail safe but we can only do what we can do. We control the plant and the sub. We try to control private gensets from backfeeding but it's not like the states. Absolutly no government inspectors or NESC.
We also moved about 50 of the crossarms unloaded Saturday at the new power house compound/pole yard to the warehouse uptown. You guys would love teak crossarms. They weigh about 30 to 40 lbs and I've one that has a 30 degree twist in it .... I guess we ordered it for a tramp in the line.
Beer is comming down easy tonight so I have to be careful not to over do it. Heat is back. After a weekend of less than hot it's a bitch to get back to hot.
RWD
It is getting cooler at night. I actually got to use my top sheet last night. Well Ok it was early morning but it cooled off enough to actually feel cold for an hour or two. I almost left the sheet off just to revel in the coolness of the hour. Ok so it crossed my mind as I pulled the sheet over me and rolled back over. :)
One more set today and a pole installed to set up another set on Weds. We also drilled about 15 crossarms. Part of the de-energized time tommorrow will be used putting up crossarms on a single phase line to ready it for conversion to 3 phase.
I'll also get some diggers to start digging for the two poles that need change outs in order to install banks on them.
It's working! We are really making headway .... They are going to have a real power company soon.
RWD
LostArt
03-20-2007, 08:59 PM
Well, the last few posts sounds better buddy.....except for the heat, of course. I spent last weekend up in Pigeon Forge, TN with my aunts at a Quiltfest. Yeah, yeah, yeah....I'm sure the guys are laughing at this, but I actually do a little bit of craftsie stuff. How far is that from where you live RWD?
I called the Boss Friday evening when we arrived to let him know. He said, "That's good dear. Well, I'm going to the Jiffy Store to pick up a woman. See ya when you return." I laughed. He cracks me up at times. But, upon returning home.... I called to say I was near Valdosta, GA around 8:30 pm on Sunday night he says, "I was wondering when you were going to call me." We don't call each other when we are off for a weekend. We just don't. I'm sure we would if we were gone more than a few days.
Anyway, I had to laugh at one of my aunts. She had called ahead and told my uncle to let the garage door up. When we drove in her drive way the lights were on and the door was down! :D When we drove away I told my other aunt (that was driving), "I bet my husband has the lights on and the garage down. Wanna bet?" She grinned and said, "I'd lose."
And she would of! The Boss was up waiting on me at 11:15 pm. I walked in the bedroom and said, "What are you doing up? We have work tomorrow." He said, "I just went to bed. I'm not waiting up on you." I grinned and said, "You aren't? Oh..........REALLY?"
But, the joker held me until we both fell asleep.
LostArt
03-21-2007, 03:51 AM
Boy, I rambled on last night, didn't I? Laudie. Sorry about that buddy! Heh. Yes, it is STILL your journal! :D
Oh and Bob, read my PM just as soon as you can please.
Par for the course today .... I'll have a tale to tell this evening ... at least no one died.
RWD
Raised two poles todya and ripped one out too. Raised a pole near a restaraunt and There was a tree that needed to come out. The butt had been burned out there was not much left of the trunk. Well long story short ... Tree falls pole breaks and guy sitting in restaraunt comes running out. We only took out about 10' of roof on the restaraunt. Not a good day.
We have a meeting of the order of the golden grub tonight. Must go .... Beer .... Cold cold beer ..... Grubbers unite!
RWD
We set the pole and I decide that we need to trim this little tree about 6 inches form the ground. Knowing that we start at the top and work our way down. I tell one of the guys to start cutting with a machete (panga here) and took off with the rest of the guys to install secondary and ready a 40' pole for installation. About 20 minutes later the other guys shows up and says he has hired a chainsaw and it is on site ready to cut down the tree. Well as I said the tree had been burned out at the butt and was leaning away from the road and towards the brick building behind it. It was close to the restaraunt (different building). There was only about 6 inches of shell on the road side holding this big ol' tree from taking out the building behind it. None of the guys wanted to climb it. I don't blame them but we had to get it down. I pulled out the winch and got one of the guys to shinny up long enough to put a rope on it near the top. I took up the winch and the chainsaw guy went in and started hacking. Ok first these guys use chain saws to cut wood like a sawmill. They know nothing about cutting trees .... I'm smart enough to know I'm not a tree trimmer but come on. He cut a diagonal cut the wrong way so it wanted to fall toward the buiing. .. Me I took up more winch and the damn thing would not fall. I was real worried now that the rope would break and there was no way in hell I was going to tell someone else to climb the tree again. We had a tag line also so we flagged down another truck and set them up as an anchor and put a hoist on it to the tag line. Chainsaw guy cut a little more ... Then took off running. I'm not real sure he's stopped yet ... But the tree was still in the air. One of the guys started using the hoist. Now me I was going to use the winch to pull it diagonally away from the restaraunt. Yelling stop here has no real purpose other than frustrating the screamer. Once these guys start something they don't stop till there is a bang or a completed task. He pmade about 4 pulls on the hoist and it rolled towards the restaraunt. I just sat down and prayed. I had earlier made everyone get out of the two buildings. That was an hour or so prior to the fall and I hoped they were still vacant. We/I took out part of a canvas roof and about 10 feet of the corner structure of the restaraunt. A cop came running out as did the owner. Neither seemed real upset. I guess they were in the other part of the restaraunt.
The parts for repair on the restaraunt came up to 150,000 shillings. New math makes it about $80.00 US dollars. The only real damage was to the pole we had just set. We are real short on certain poles. I had one .... one .... only one .... 35 foot pole. It is now a 20 foot pole and a stub. Tommorrow I have scheduled a pole change out. I will be removing a 35 foot pole near a bank and replacing it with a 40' "Stout." The diggers are currently digging out the stump pole and monday or tuesday I'll be able to set my only free 35 foot pole.
Well ther was some secondary damage. My pride took a bit of a beating too.
Today we strung 2 spans of secondary and set two new meter sets. We also drilled and framed the crossarms for a single to three phase change over and moved the 40 foot pole to the shop so we could begin framing for setting it in the morning. I'll pull the single phase tap off line and we'll work the day with the line de-energized and grounded. The guys will put the crossarms on the A phase line and get it ready for stringing and I'll work with a bunch of them lowering the put on the dead-end and getting the 40' pole in the air. Once in the air we'll transfer the wires and re-hang the pot. This pole will be a 3 phase bank that we will install next week.
I'm running at a small disadvantage. My failed to provide me with a copy of the spec book so I'm not able to even mount the transformer bracket until he returns.
He will return on Saturday and I'll get the reaming I deserve.
RWD
Well we decided to change out the Sumi bank pole Friday. It turned into a pretty nasty suprise. We dug a new hole next to the pole. I had intended to raise the new pole using the old pole and a block and takle. Once we stripped the old pole of it's transformer we rigged the block and takle and put the pole into position on the ground. They took up tension on the fall line and the old pole started to pull over. Nope not because the new hole was too close. The old pole had rotted! It had around 18 months in the ground. I guess it did not get quality control in the TTI plant. We finaly got the new pole in the air using pike poles. I got the conducters transfered to the new pole and left the old pole tied to the new pole for the week end.
Monday we'll dig out the old pole and raise a bank on the new pole. Fun Fun Fun. Since I still have only a single phase of primary on the pole I'll Put the bank hanger on and raise only one pot. We'll also get the rest of the line ready for upgrade to 2 phase. It's lnoy a 4 pole tap.
While I was working the pole yesterday I got some of the guys to get two of the arms up. We'll get the other easy arm in the air monday and at least get the double arms on the dead end. If all goes exacly well We'll get the take off arms up too. We have to complete any work (secondary or primary) durring the hours of 11-3pm. I can pull the tap off line to work but the take off pole will need to be done while the power is off at the plant.
Now where can I get another 35' pole for the jigamoni tap?
RWD
Well, We connected 6 new consumers today. I spent several hours at the airport picking up Myk too. Some of the guys took advantage of that and were not around when I got back from lunch. I told the rest of the guys to make sure they knew they were off the books for the afternoon. We pay them to be there when we need them not when they want to show up.
Myk has not torn me up too bad over the pole but he is a bit upset. I'll live thru it but my ego and pride are a bit bruised.
Newest news is that the supplier we use for fuel is out of fuel. We may have to ration. Fewer hours a day untill they get some into town.
TTFN
RWD
Well we are still having issues with fuel but not enough yet to ration. We pulled the old pole out at Sumi bank today. I had the diggers dig around the old pole and Myk climbed in the hole and I took a wonderful photo of him putting his arm all the way thru the pole at about 6 inches below the ground level. Later I put the pole on the trailer and took it to the office compound. Once at the compound we found that we were a little butt heavy on the trailer. We picked it up by the butt and rolled the trailer back. I will tell you that moving the pole form the bank to the office pissed off the termites in the butt of the pole. Did I mention that termites bite! Damn, they are good at eating wood and biting people.
Anyhow They bite hard.
We did get it moved and the transformer installed. I had to put a set of dead end arme on the pole too. I think you may note that we don't have arms predrillled. Well I think I'll have to work with the guys on how to get the holes in the same place on more than one arm. Fought the double arming bolts all the way. I was a bit worn out at days end.
Went to energize the tap at about 5:20 and th efuse on the tap blew. Damn ... Went back pulled the fuse on the pot and went to the tap pole and reinstalled the fuse. After that I looked at the old fuse. Stress break! not an overload or short. Back to the pot pole and installed the fuse again and was in the barn by 6:20 and in the shower. Beer was good.
TTFN
RWD
Actuall hit 78 f. Last night. Comfortable and ... I needed a blanket. It rained for a few minutes yesterday afternoon. Cooled the area off much.
Today it rained a few minutes this morning. I was puting my gear on and the guys were trying to hide under a tarp. By the time I was on the pole the rain had stopped.
Hung the rest of the pots on the Sumi bank, Bank. We only have a single phase to the pole but all of the arms are in the air ready to pull wire early next week. Posibly Friday but I think we have a full plate tommorrow and friday with the Nile Bank Pole change out and 3 phase bank install.
Dave if your reading you'll know the Sumi line. it's only 4 poles plus the take off. Runs past the bus station and the Gas station that tried to catch on fire while you were here. We're changing it to 3 phase to provide 3 phase service to two or three customers on the tap.
We also moved one of the stouts up to the office today for the change out. Much done in order to prepare for the install tommorrow.
Good week so far!
RWD
Well we got a bit of a late start and did not accomplish all I wanted too but I had a bit of an issue today. We started the morning framing the pole in the yard. When we got to the site I had a bit of a work slow down.
Yesterday were were working on the Sumi bank pole and John got several calls on his Cel Phone. This morning I laid down the law. All Cels must be turned off durring work hours. They can use them at lunch but not at work. John actually let go of a rope he was pulling with Myk so he could answere the phone. He walked off as we were raising a pot with a block and takle. I did not see it but Myk mentioned it to me later. That was the second of two calls I know about that day that caused him to walk away from the work site. I was ready to fry him!
We got the pole in the air and I bought sodas for all as a pat on the back. Then I set up the work for the rest of the morning. I planed on having Wani and Cosmo drop a pot on the next pole down while John and I were transfering the primary and secondary to the new pole. Once I set things in motion John said I'm sick I can't Climb. I told the guys to stay with me don't drop the and told John if he was too sick to climb he was to sick to be on my jobsite. He sat back and did not move. I climbed the rest of the morning with Wani. Wani said John and some of the others wer upset with me over the phones and the fact tah I was explaining things in more detail with him (wani) and Akim rather than going over tasks with the whole group. I mentioned to Wani that I am only here for two more weeks .... I was grooming him and Akim to be Myks local foreman and since Cosmo and William had no mechanical ability and Moses needed more maturity and that John needed to acutaly work ... It was up to Wani and Akeem (Akim?) Myk needs to be able to delegate work and Wani and Akim are the only ones that "A" can understand ... and "B" actually do. John understands but wants to be the person delegating. If one of my foremans won't climb then he is a glorified groundman ... and needs to find a new job.
I told them I would be teaching climbing tonew people tommorrow.
As a result I wound up on the old pole and John and Cosmo wound up on the new pole for the arfternoon. Cosmo still does not know how to adjust a crescent wrench or squeeze a connector. John still refuses to listen and gives orders like he knows more than others. At 5:40 pm we clum down to the ground. It should have been a 2 hour job. 3 hours and 40 minutes later we gt enough completed that we could at least re-energize the tap.
Tommorrow we will complete the bank and energize 3 phase. The Dumb can be taught ... Stupid is forever.
RWD
Well we connected 4 more meters today. We also got the old pole removed from the Nile Bank. We did not get th pots in the air. We wanted to get the old pole out of the way for raising the rest of the pots. the diggers did not complete the hole until around 2 PM. Dropped the old pole at the site where I broke the pole last week. Finally got a 35' footer to get power to this guy that has been waiting for so long.
Tonight we went out to look at the town around 8 pm. 3 of the 4 folks we installed todya were still open and had their lights on. It was a kick to talk with them. We went to one of the local wetting holes to get a water and they gave them to us for free. It's nice to be liked at least part of the time ....
Got into a scrape around 2pm. There is an old guy who sits outside the gate and it seems that he got on the wrong side of a dinka this afternoon. They guy was going to beat the poor old guy up. One of our hands stepped in and it started to escalate. I called the boys into the compound to stop things so we culd go to work. The Dinka followed them in and continued to yell. He had crossed my line. I lit into him like a fire hose and ran him out of the compound. You don't mess with my guys ... on my turf. It was fun to see a Dinka run. We loaded up the truck and as we left he played cat and mouse with the truck ... I think he actually thought I was going to stop the truck.... he jumped out of the way and we went to work.
Fun fun fun in Yei town.
RWD
Well It's almost 8pm here. The week end went well. We almost finished a coil stand so we can unroll coils of wire that were sent on accident. Our first trip we got wire on reels too big for our reel stand. This time we got coils! Go figure. Myk found a hub and we are building a rotating platform so we can pull wire Tuesday.
Tommorrow I finish the install on the x-former bank at the Nile commercial Bank. Then I get everything ready to turn the Sumi tap into a 3 phase tap.
My time is getting short here. I leave Yei town on Saturday. It'll be a lot longer before I get back here again. Too much stuff to do at home and I can't put it off any longer.
TTFN I hope all had a wonderfull week end!
RWD
LostArt
04-01-2007, 01:14 PM
Don't be sad buddy. You have more than done your share there. Although I have certainly enjoyed reading this, it's time for you to get home and do some R&R time with the misses and little girl. Time flies too fast not to. I know you know what I mean.
Until then, keep us posted.
--LA
The uncoiler ???? We actually got the wire pulled sagged and clipped in on the Sumi tap. I made up the jumpers on the take off pole and Hakim got the dead end pole with the transformer bank put back together with the new 3 phase configuration rather than two pots paraleled on one pole. Worked a little late but we were all happy with the results as no fuse tripped when we re-energized the tap.
On our way back to the shop We had 6 sets of gear and all of the tools in the back of this small 4 door pickup (toyota Hilux) All of the guys loaded on too. Myk drove slowly back to the shop.
Once there a Traffic cop came up and said the "chief" needed to see the driver of the truck. Myk was busy so I went instead. I'll tell the story of getting my drivers license back tonight ...... I hope.
RWD
Well so far I don't have my license back. So when I went back yesterday evening at the request of the police "chief" He said "what is wrong with you ... you treat our people like animals. They were hanging out of the truck you must have had 20 people in the back of your truck ....."
"Nope only 8!" says I We had the back full of tools and the guys were sitting on the tools with thier feet hanging over the sides of the truck. He was being an asshole and I was not going to give into him. He did not "Say" he wanted money but he was not concerned about my guys I can guatantee that! One of my guys tried to tell him about the tools and that there were only 8 people and the "chief" told him to be silent! He said "I hold your life in my hands do not speak!"
I wanted to say "Who is it that treats people like animals? ..... but I realized the best thing was to keep quiet too. He took my license and said I could get it back today. So far it has not turned up. I went down to get it and "it" was not ready yet.
I called in a buddy. "Brian" is a Britt here that is with a group funding the police. He tells me all well be well.
RWD
LostArt
04-04-2007, 07:26 AM
Yikes! Do you ever remember having this much trouble there? Oh man. Sounds scary to me buddy.
LA I've stood back to back with another lineman trying to figure out how many of them we could take out before they took us out. I've almost been to jail twice and this one was just a guy trying to show his buddies he was a man.
Brian took care of it. He's the guy with the purse strings and the top dog knows it. The top dog let it be known that he was not happy about what the little dog did and I got my license back.
I bought Brian a few beers and we are all happy now. .... until next time.
Four more meter installs and two spans of secondary today. I should be able to get at least that tommorrow.
I'm looking frward to a home cooked meal and a nice bed. Getting out of this dust will be nice too.
I am sorry to leave but also needing to be home with the family. Kind of torn but ready.
TTFN
RWD
Ok so i'm on my way back to the real world. Leave this morning for Entebe, Uganda and tommorrow it's entebe-amsterdam, Amsterdam-detroit, detroit-Raleigh. I get into Raleigh around 3 PM on Monday.
Not much more to report here. Updates are in order I guess.
Fuel is still a problem. Diesel is only at one station in town and there are lines. We are unable to get delivery to the power plant (we have a 20,000 liter tank) So we are now filling the day tank on the generator every day with 55 gal barrels. It only takes 2 per day but it is a bit of a pain in the arse.
Marks truck is still operating but it is in need of the idler pulley for tensioning the power steering belt. We ordered one 3 weeks ago and found that it is on back order. A used one is comming up on the plane Sunday.
Mark is in South Africa with his wife. Francis is doing a fair job filling in but there are gaps. Mark has a big shadow.
Did get to see some interesting terrain Thursday. While installing service drops, I w driving near the market area. A tall pretty woman ... I'd guess in her early 20's was walking down the crowded street. She had long hair (unusual here) but well kept. She had a nice shirt and long dress on. I know it was a long dress because even folded over her shoulder from the front it came to her knees. From the waist band of the dress to her toes she was nude from the front. ..... I guess she was hot! ... I mean warm .... I mean needing to cool off ..... Honestly I did not look! ... too closely. ;)
Crazy guy is still here. Thats over 18 months in chains and walking down the street flashing the little girls. The other day he had a cell phone on a rope around his kneck. Go figure!
Crazy lady is still here too. Well I think it's her. She has part of a top on now so I cant see all of the identifying marks.
Time to go.
All of you take care this weekend and remember the reason for the holiday. Yes good Friday is/was a day off here in Southern Sudan as is Monday.
RWD
Well I made it home Monday at around 4:30 pm. I hope to find some time soon to adjust the new photo's. I'll post again soon.
RWD
scammy
04-10-2007, 10:19 PM
this time stay home ,,people care about ya here ,,,,,not there, you can be like the rest of us and make 150 jillion a year here,,,,,,scammy
It been a while but i just finished reading your last writings.
sounds like you got a lot done.
saw myk at the nreca convention said all was going well there and hoped to get some poles soon. talked like he might even get some usa poles, wouldn't that be great.
it was good to see that wani and akim are taking the bull by the horns. i always thought that wani would be the good one. he always did show the most drive and interest.
sure would like to know how hassin boogie is doing.
glad all went well good to see you get home ok.
take care
dave
Hassan decided he was going to work for his father in law. He now has the opportunty to drive a car and a motor bike on occasion. He says he's making more money but none of us really think it's true. I think the in law has a new worker he can rely on.
Akeem and Wani are tops now. Moses is a close third.
Folks I've been busy. Sorry about the long wait for photo's but for some reason most of my photo's diid not make it back on the camera. I thought Myk had downloaded them and had copies but ... He says he does not have any either. I'll still try to get onto photoshop and get some uploaded. Most of the good ones are gone though. The chevy nomad and the burn tree are some of the lost photo's.
Being home is noce but many items were left for me to resolve while I was away. I am now catching up.
Mutt, I found a CD of photo's in my kit that had your name on it. Did I send you a CD from our last trip or did I mess up and put it in my kit instead?
Let me know so I can get it to you if I did not get it to you.
Take care, RWD
LostArt
05-05-2007, 07:27 PM
That's a bummer about the pics RWD. Really sorry about that. Just send us what ya got. The main thing is you done some good and you came home safe to the family.
Glad to see ya back buddy!
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.