Always Something Interesting Here!

OK, so I am working at the sink and hear this rackety sound, which turns out to be a pick-up towing a set of wheels so wide they have to be hand- lifted over the rocks lining the “roadway” through the compound!  From my kitchen window (my porthole to all things interesting here), I see at least 6 - maybe 8 - young, healthy, strong African men working on the process of moving a “container!”  

Jack 'er Up!

Now you need to understand that containers in the past have come maybe once every six months, bringing anything too large to transport personally, such as bicycles, sewing machines, appliances, crates of medical supplies, furniture, etc.  But since they cost more to send back than to keep, the compound has many containers around.  (Remember, Galmi was a mission station back in the 1960's!)  Some empty containers are at the shop, a few have been tucked away out of sight, some have been covered with the "mud-cement" mixture that becomes the outer surface of dwellings here, and some are just standing like sentries outside the missionaries' homes.  Gardens have been planted around them, one was made into an artist's studio, but most have just become a not-much-noticed part of the landscape one sees every day here on the compound.  There is much beautiful to look at here on our daily "comings and goings" (and I am enjoying a beautiful hibiscus on my way to school), so the containers don't get much attention.  But NOT TODAY!!!  


Apparently, the one framed by my window has a new destiny!  And it must be an important one to take so much manpower on a lovely, relaxing, Saturday morning!  Here is the process I see:
          1.  Dig out around the container - by hand
          2.  Swat gnats!
          3.  Jack up one side.
          4.  Swat more gnats.  (At least they were not bees!)
          5.  Keep jacking up and moving wheels to center.
          6.  SUCCESS!!!

          

Wheels Under!

Only TWO Wheels???

          7.  Attach tow bar to container and pick-up.

Attaching Towbar

          8.  Check for obstacles.

Obstacles?

          9.  Pull 'er out!

Bye-Bye Container

Bye-Bye Hibiscus!

Mission accomplished!  Only casualty:  one beautiful hibiscus!  The former art studio has gone to the village, and I say, "Good luck pulling it through the narrow paths that separate dwellings up there!"

But more fun than watching the removal of the container was watching Phil "interact" with all of this!  (Sorry, no pictures.  Use your imagination!)  First he is the "casual-observer-with-coffee-mug-in-hand." Then I see "consultant" as words are exchanged.   As coffee mug is set aside, he moves into "geologic field examiner," exemplified by kicking mud in a few places, and finally, we see "engineering inspector," as he steps back to watch the results of all the labor.  The final role is "historian," which should produce such amazing pictures that National Geographic will be compelled to offer us large sums of dollars, euros, British pounds, Nigerienne "cfa," or whichever type of money we happen to be dealing in that day!

So . . . as can be said of life here, "Never a dull moment!"