Today I have been bombarded with images of the way things work here in Dar. (or don't work here in Dar.) It all began this morning as I walked to the top of our school grounds to run and pray around our soccer field. (Our pitch is elevated at the top of our campus... not sure why... it usually only has the affect of allowing the soccer balls to roll a LONG way before we can retrieve them.) I stepped onto the pitch, and SQUISH!... mud everywhere. Did it rain last night? I'm sure I would have heard it... No, now I remember... there were firetrucks at school last night, emptying the water from our swimming pool!
Why did the swimming pool have to be emptied? Because the water was green.
Why was the water green? Because we had extra people in it.
Why do extra people make water go green? Because the Chlorine isn't working.
Why isn't the Chlorine working? We have no idea....
or had no idea...
After getting fed up with the pool, our coordinator took two bottles of water, put the on the desk of our building and grounds supervisor, and said, "Order water tests." His response? "We have already done this." He handed her a document two years old that said our water on campus was NOT SUITABLE FOR USE IN A SWIMMING POOL. In fact, it was "Not suitable for domestic use" at all. So why did we empty the pool? Because somebody filled it with the wrong water.
and where did the water go? Onto the soccer field... leading to a quickly scrawled email from our Secondary Principal... "The soccer field is closed until further notice."
My journey continued in the Teacher's Lounge this afternoon. Our Lounge is in our new Admin building here on campus... the one where the air conditioning has been broken for three weeks because the company installed a central a/c system and nobody in all of Tanzania knows how to service it. I noticed a hole in one of the walls in the bathroom this afternoon... a random hole in the middle of a tile with strange wires sticking out of it. What is the purpose of this hole? I don't know. Why is it there? I have no idea. What are the wires for? Who knows. And why doesn't this hole-wire setup go anywhere or do anything? Your guess is as good as mine.
Finally, on my way back to my office after homeroom this afternoon, I noticed some "maintenance work" going on outside one of the classrooms. (and by classroom I mean the old building that has severe termite damage... huge sections of it fall off daily. Not kidding. Pieces of the wall actually fall down daily.) What was the maintenance work you ask? Termite treatment? no.
Roof supports? Nope.
Replacement of broken glass in windows to make the room secure? Not even close.
It was patch work. Using a saw, one of our workers was widening a hole so he could repair it. Repair a hole in a building that is literally crumbling away because of the termites.
At least I can rest assured that our students here will be safe from "domestic use" water, overexerting themselves on a soccer field, wires that carry power and small holes in the walls of their classrooms.
2 comments:
oh. my. word.
so you're day was very tanzanian as well? good to know it's not just us. we did, however, move all of our boxes and stuff into our new house. the house that was supposed to be finished in september. but we don't have water yet -- just as good though, it probably wouldn't be fit for domestic use anyway...
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