15 April 2005 - 19:18
Several months ago, the latrine in our regional house backed up, so we had one of our neighbors find us a "plumber." The "plumber" arrived with all the necessary tools of the (Mauritanian) plumbing trade - a piece of rebar and a sack. He tried shoving the blockage down the pipe with the rebar, gave up, took one of our cups and bailed the poo-water out, then declared the problem fixed and charged us 15,000 ougiyas for his 15 minutes of work (and exorbitant sum, considering that labor in this part of the country generally goes at about 200 ougiyas per hour). We made the guy come back the next day because the latrine was blocked again (or never unblocked, rather). This time, while we were gone, he dug down to the PVC pipe leading out of the latrine, cut a foot-long section out, cleared the blockage, then covered the hole with a concrete slab (without even trying to reconnect the pipes). Then he went inside the latrine and slammed his rebar into the latrine hole until it broke the pipe "to help it drain better" (which it did not do). Then he tried (unsucessfully) to charge us more money for his extra half-hour of work. Shortly thereafter, we noticed that 1) our latrine smelled really bad and 2) a mouse was somehow coming into our latrine through the hole (we could see his poo-pawprints on the tile). A few days ago, I pulled up the concrete slab in an attempt to solve the Myster of the Stanky Latrine and Poo-Mouse to find our "plumber's" handiwork. We are now in the process of trying to locate our "plumber" to get our money back.
A couple months ago, three of our lightsockets were not working, and a few of our lightbulbs were burned out. Since we have high ceilings, no ladders, and sparse knowledge of currents and wires, we had one of our friends send an "electrician" to the house. His equipment was even more ridiculous than the "plumber's" - he showed up with a screwdriver and a barrel. I just laughed and explained the problem to him. Half an hour later, he had replaced the burned-out bulbs and fixed ONE of the three dysfunctional lights with OUR scissors, OUR knife, OUR tape, and a light socket that he had ME go buy for him. He left, saying we didn't need to pay him, then sent our mutual friend to get money from us - apparently he was too embarrassed to try to rip us off himself. The single light he "repaired" went out two weeks later. I fixed it with my own leatherman, standing on my own barrel.
For several months now, we've noticed that the ground in certain parts of our compound is always wet. When I was planting bougainvillea yesterday, I discovered why. From what I can conjecture, our house once had an interior latrine/shower room. I think the latrine must have filled up, because the door and window of the room have been sealed off (dumb mistake #1 - why not just seal the latrine and still use the shower and extra space?). Apparently, when they sealed the room, someone left the shower on (dumb mistake #2), so they dug up the PVC pipe that feeds the shower room (and the kitchen adjacent to it) and cut it (dumb mistake #3 - now we have no water in that kitchen). Then, to stop the flow of water, they heated the pipe, bent it back on itself, and put a rock on top of it (instead of sealing it properly - dumb mistake #4). If someone had taken time to think before acting or do the job correctly, making just ONE less mistake out of those four, it would have saved me a whole day's work...
The pipe, I suppose, has leaked water ever since, and when I unknowingly removed the rock, the "seal" cracked and started spraying water. So I turned the water off at the main valve, contemplated trying to find a repairman, remembered our previous experience with Mauritanian tradesmen, and decided to fix it myself. Oddly enough, our local "hardware store" didn't have anything with which to cap or seal a pipe. Our neighbor came over to offer his help, which I had to decline after he explained that he intended to "seal" the pipe in the exact same manner as it had been done the first time. "We just need a bigger rock," he said. So, eight frustrating hours later, I ended up whittling a plug our of scrap wood and hammering it into the pipe. It's not quite as sophisticated as I had hoped, but you do with what you can here, and it works. Now, about that latrine problem...
