Monday, June 14, 2010

The Amy Blog

To answer Taylor's initial questions....

1. How to find galvanized pipe-We searched every store in Bafoussam, and we spotted it behind one of the stores.

2. How to put a 6 m (20 ft) pipe on the top of your car-Tie it to the rack of the car very carefully and enlist the help of the pipe cutters. This method works quite well even when the car gets stuck in a ditch during a rain storm for 2 hours. The bumpy Cameroonian roads were much worse during the storm, the frame of the car was lying on the ground, and one window was equipped with a disposable poncho. After a lot of shoveling, bouncing the car, burning rubber and hard work by Guy (our chauffeur extraordinare), Taylor (our fearless leader), Martine (our wonderful chef) and local children (who also made sure that other vehicles didn't hit us) the car was free. We decided to take an alternate route back, and the pipes arrived safely.

3. How to get the proper pipe lengths and thread everything--We walked down the street to the plumber who cut each pipe with a hand saw, while their stand kept falling over and used one of our great translators (Amy Chev) and Guy to get some complicated points across. When it started to rain we all moved into a stairwell, and the other plumber stopped watching the soccer game, which they can't get enough of, and helped us out as well. It took a long time, but now we know why those plumbers are so strong!

4. Saying enough is enough and coming back tomorrow-How about saying enough isn't enough and coming back that night with our headlamps. Well....we disturbed the locals, who are not used to people being up at night, so we need to work on this one some more.

In response to the World Cup questions, we gave the option of working during the Cameroon game or going back the next day, and received a unanimous come back the next day. Cameroon had a bit of a disappointing loss today, but we hope they come back in the next game.

The tank is coming along great! The masons who are helping us out with construction have good suggestions and methods, and have created a much more symmetrical tank than the prototype. It is awesome how easy it is to communicate ideas, how quick they pick up on the different techniques and how motivated they are to build not only a tank but a nearly perfect one.

We've been pretty lucky with the weather so far, and hopefully it holds out for tomorrow when we're pouring the foundation!

We've been working from sun-up to past sun-down (which is earlier here), but we'll try to post another blog soon.

--Amy Bucha and Amy Chev

3 comments:

Kellie said...

Amy! glad to hear you found your tank parts and made it out of all ditches successfully! can't wait to see pictures of the final product (and you when you get home!) Love, Kel

Sam said...

Way to go team! Keep up the good work and keep rockin the 'roon!!! Maybe your awesome energy will help Cameroon win their next game!

Gina said...

Roomie! Miss you so much and I'm glad things are going well so far. I hope you had a fun birthday in Africa and good luck with the rest of the project :)

<3 Gina