Nothing Works Around Here!

One of the things we have discovered, is how poor much of the workmanship and materials are around here. The structures of Hekima Place were built less than a year and a half ago and the plumbing is already shot. Some of the problems are attributable to the water that is so hard we had to put in a desalinization unit after about 6 months because it tasted salty and it was corroding the plumbing. But some of it is just shoddy work and poor materials. The local products you buy are cheaply made and don’t hold up. Rick was sweeping out the bugs one morning not long ago and the thin tubular handle of the broom just collapsed. In all honesty, though, most of the locals are very poor and if you made high quality goods to sell, they just couldn’t afford them.

Water tank repairs in progress

As a result of the poor workmanship, Rick has been doing a lot of plumbing repairs since he got here. The shower handles are poorly made and designed and come off relatively easily due to losing screws - he’s replaced two or three of those. Today a valve for one of the showers broke in the wall and water came spewing out of the shower flooding the bathroom floor. It’s Sunday, so, even if there is an appropriate replacement part in Kiserian, the store wouldn’t be open. To stop the flooding, Rick went up in the attic and shut off the water supply to the house. The girls staying there will either have to move to one of the houses that is not occupied during the school break or, at the least, they will have to go to another house to use the showers and toilets. Several of the toilet flushing handle assemblies have also broken, apparently due to corroded metal parts that attach the handle to the plunger. Rick bought several new handle assembly replacement kits and has been going round proactively replacing the corroded metal parts.



One of the two elevated tanks that provides the water supply for the compound developed a substantial crack. So water has raining down from above 24/7 for several days, creating a virtual bog beneath the platform. At first it was just a drip, but after a couple of days it was just pouring down. A pump keeps the tanks filled from the bore hole, so there was always a supply of water flowing. Today, men from the company that sold us the tanks came out here to repair them. They said the crack was a big one and was about 2 feet long. They’ve patched it and the tank is refilling with water.

Laundry Cows

I was out watching the guys work on the tanks earlier today and turned around to see the cows grazing in the middle of the laundry. I certainly hope the cows are clean!


One of the thorniest problems is the electricity. In the best of times the supplied electric power can cut out at any time because we can’t fix it. As I have said earlier, the generator comes on when the supplied power isn’t available. But the generator uses about 45 liters of diesel fuel per day and, with the cost of diesel fuel being what it is, running the generator is much more expensive than paying for the supplied electric power.  The generator has been running constantly for a week now with only a few short intervals of supplied electric power. When I explained the situation to Sophie today, she said she’d call someone from the power company and have them out here tomorrow. Someone came last week but claimed they couldn’t figure out what the problem was. I hope the next person can so better!

When the rains came, we discovered problems with roof leakage problems and with the gutters. These are purely a result of poor construction practices. One of the lengths of gutter on Yellow House fell off in a heavy rain. Upon inspection, you could see they had nailed it to the house with nails too short to support it! They repaired the facing on the side of the roof, but still have not replaced the gutter. The gutter on the back of Amani House (office building) came loose in a heavy rain but did not fall off. They did nail that one back on. Amani had serious roof leakage so that water ran down the front wall and left quite a puddle on the floor. The paint is now peeling due to the water damage. Supposedly the construction company will repaint. Another leak meant water came down the kitchen wall and puddled on the counter where all the small appliances are. The girls’ houses, too, suffered leaks. The construction company sent guys out here who applied tar to the places where the leaks occurred. Not sure that’s the best solution, but it seems to be working for now. There’s never time to do the job right, but always time to do it over!


All that said, it is a beautiful and comfortable facility, so I suppose needing to make all the repairs is a minor inconvenience. I'm just glad I married an engineer - next best thing to a plumber (and without the butt crack!).