Installment 36

Installment 36

I was out wandering around the two building projects today, with my clipboard and aire of superiority ……just out of Jembe reach when my phone rang. It was Fundi, and he alerted me to the fact that we had a visitor on site. “He has come with a complaint” Fundi said. “I don’t remember anything about a complaint in you initial bid documents.” I replied. “Make sure it is a quality complaint, and not one of those second rate Chinese ones that are prevalent in Kenya, before you accept it.” “We have not ordered one” he returns, but this one seems to be sawa (OK), but maybe you should be coming and seeing for yourself. So, always taking advantage of doing ’boss stuff’ I went over to the job shack and introduced myself. “Habari asubui, my name is Terry and this is my project, I hope you are impressed.” “I want to talk to you about a problem.” he begins. “Oh, a problem huh. In the case, I am just a visitor…..it’s that Jeff guy that you need to talk to…..how do you like his project?” I wisely responded. “My name is Rich Indian Person and I have been supplying your rocks, ballast (read ‘gravel’…..you’d think he’d know that only ships have ballast) and sand.” he continued. “If this is a problem, why do you do it?” I countered. “Supplying materials is not the problem, your roads are.” RIP says. “We are not owning any roads,” pipes in Fundi, “they belong to the District.” And I chimed in; “To my recent knowledge, there are no roads in Kenya.” “But your roads are destroying my lorries.” he insists. Suddenly it hit me, this guy wanted to complain about the roads. “It might come as a surprise to you, but you are so ‘yesterday’, I have been complaining about the ‘roads’ here for months.” I chided. “So will you be fixing them?” RIP asks. (Ah, now you are going to like this….I really was able to use my new found Kenyan ways.) “Yes, I will be fixing them tomorrow, in fact the repair team is on its way…in fact they are already there.” “Checkmate” he concedes, “turn about is fair play.” Imagine, a supplier of materials that consistently loads 10 ton trucks with 15 tons of material and then drives down the …dare I say it….roads, beating them to a pulp, complaining about the poor condition of the roads.
The guy across the ‘road’ has been encroaching for the last couple of years. It is platted as a 10 meter (about 33’) wide road. Now since the ‘road’ is basically ‘the field’ that hasn’t been plowed, neighbor is slowly trying to correct that, and has the ‘road’ down to around 4 meters. After all, you can’t have too much ugali, which as you remember is mostly maize, which will grow on the ‘road’. So now, Jeff has gone to the officials to get them to reinstate the whole pothole generating area. After all, you can’t have too many potholes….besides, they can be revenue generators….the price of lead is up.
Speaking of revenue…..yeah you knew it would come eventually….me being a ‘missionary’ and all…..we have 94 kids here….needing sponsorship……2 building projects to take care of the 94, maybe going to 400, that could use some help. And remember too, that pretty close to 100% actually gets to the kids…mostly in Kleenex, but in other things too. Almost no administrative overhead….not that I haven’t tried to get on payroll. You can’t do better than to ‘take care of the widows and orphans’….both of which are cared for here.  rehemaministries.com

Sandy says that I am down to 1 week. I personally haven’t noticed….or have I?? I wouldn’t have noticed, except that a lot of the people here are continually offering to help me to pack…….every since I came. I can’t wait to get home, but I really don’t want to leave….how does that work. This place sucks…………your heart.