30.08.2012 - Thursday

30.08.2012 - Manyoni
A day off at last to recover a little from the strain of travelling and singing! Unfortunately however we can not have a lie in today eiter because some of us...

....have an appointment at the taylor's while others...

...are starting on the project "Manyoni-Well-2012". Yesterday we saw a well at Singida and had talked about how it could be improved. After this Elisabeth told us that there was a well in Manyoni too which was in urgent need of being secured and looked after (public authorities having been complaining about the desolate state it is in for a long time now.). In fact the well looks more like a cave or a notch with an opening of about 6 x 4 metres and a depth of about 9 metres

So the majority of the male singers go to the well early in the morning in order to make a plan. We are lucky to get a ride there in a lorry.

We pretty soon realize that we have to try to reduce the size of the entrance in order to reduce the risk of someone falling down the hole. The plan is to build a concrete covering. We buy the required material in town. Unfortunately there are no DIY-stores in Tanzania which means that we have to go looking for the parts allover Manyoni. This is why we can't start with the construction until the afternoon after having bought everything.

Since the wood (and thus the formwork as well) is very expensive (the latter not even being available at all) we are using the asbestos cement sheets which we find lying around for the formwork.

To begin with we are clearing the hole from all the litter which has been thrown down it "accidentally". As we unfortunately didn't bring any climbing gear, Daniel is making a harness for himself which he ties around his waist demonstrating straight away that it's working!

At the same time we start clearing off the mound next to the hole in order to obtain an even surface to put our covering on.

The crossbeams are cut to the correct length with the saw of a pocket knife - since tools (especially good ones) are very rare here.

Accidents can happen on any building site...a metal saw, which we need for the reinforcement, fell down the hole. Fortunately we can recover it from the well:-)

We are actually working under the expert instructions of Rainer, our engineer, who always seems to have everything under control;-)

The concrete ist mixed up on the ground in an old fashioned manner.

Even the bishop himself is lending a helping hand mixing and carrying concrete together with his son.

At half past eight at night we finish our day's work examining it in the flashlight. Considering that we had seen the notch for the first time this morning , had made the plan, looked for and bought the material and tools etc. we can really be proud of today's achievement.

Of course, the covering is not completely finished yet. But we can't perform magic... The concrete has to harden for a week now before the second layer can be poured on top of it. We are however confident that Elisabeth will be able to encourage "her" people to do this three-hours' job.

Finally we are cleaning ourselves and the tools.

In the evening we talk about what the two groups have been up to today. Daniel's shirt (!) is one of the favourite examples of local tailoring art:-D