Blog for Tuesday November 9, 2009
Over a week ago they had been promised at the Namikango Mission the trailer from the U.S. filled with medical supplies and a new V-tractor would be there on Monday. It did not come on Monday, but “perhaps it will be here on Tuesday.” We left the states on Tuesday thinking it would at least be here by Thursday or Friday. When we got off the plane we were told it would probably be here Friday or Monday for sure. Friday passed without any word from customs, the clearing agent, or the trucking company. No trucks passed on the highways, as the country had been out of diesel fuel for nearly a week. We lay in bed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights listening for trucks on the highway not far from the mission. No sound. The nights were empty.
Now it is Monday morning and our first news comes early:
6 A.M. “The trailer will not be here today because the country is still out of diesel fuel.
8 A.M. “The truck is coming today. It will be here by noon.”
11 A.M. “The truck is in the truck yard in Blantyre and the trailer is hooked to the trailer.”
11:15 A.M. “The tractor can’t come. It doesn’t have enough fuel.”
12:00 P.M. “They found fuel. They will be here soon, soon.”
1:50 P.M. “It is coming. It is coming,” came shouts from an excited worker.
2:55 P.M. “Customs man arrives.” We can begin to unload.
4:15 P.M. “Everything is off except the V-Tractor.”
4:20 P.M. There is no plan to get the tractor down off of the trailer.” Phone calls to find a flatbed to unload it onto. No luck. Finally the nearby church building has a 4-foot high classroom built on the side that has not been completed. Since the trailer bed is only about 6 foot high perhaps we can put planks down, inprovise rope pulleys inside the trailer and inch the 2,000 lb tractor down the wooden incline.
6:55 P. M. Got it down. All in one piece. No workers killed, mained, or injured.
It is a good day. Time to go up and see if the email is working so we can see if we have any news from home.
Meanwhile earlier in the day two unknown people came up to Ann Thiesen, one of the American workers on the compound, and told her the watch-dogs had bitten them and she needed to bind up their wounds. “How did this happen,” she asked? “Oh madam, we were trying to steal your firewood and one of your dogs bite us. That is why we come to you to fix our wounds. It was your dogs that bite us. Now what is wrong with this picture?
I would add that the confusion of the day has made me a little crazy. While I said in the story it is Tuesday I know it is really only Monday. And while I said the trailer is hooked to the trailer, I know it was really the tractor that is hooked to the trailer.
ReplyDeleteDick