Cornishman in Africa: Working Weak.

A week in Zambia.
It has been an interesting week. I returned from Chirundu on Saturday when it rained a lot. I pulled into the yard on my return, only to slide sideways towards the trees and to sink up to my axles in gloop. Oh dear I thought. No actually I didn’t. (I thought lots and lots of bad things that are not strictly, politically correct out here)
It seems the guys had been asked to dig drainage ditches either side of the track, but they had piled the topsoil and silt up on top of the drive. A bit like smearing 30cm of lard across a main road on a bend, then sitting to watch the ensuing mayhem. (The sort of trick I would have loved to have done as a child)
Sunday I spent quietly at home just catching up with jobs and getting the last of the Christmas presents. While the guys dug out my car and scraped the mud and silt off the drive then went with wheelbarrows to go and get rocks and gravel to make it passable again. Oh yes, it rained a lot. Sunday night, it was bed early, but I did not sleep particularly well because it rained a lot and I mean a lot.
Monday morning I set off to work in Lusaka, it was raining a lot, but by now I hardly noticed. On my way to work I cross a bridge over a small stream. The bridge is about 3 meters high and the stream constantly flows under it about 5 to 10 cm deep. It’s about 50 meters long 4 meters wide and is bereft of handrails and architectural flair.
As I approached the bridge, I was first surprised by the large number of people standing on either side (about 150 in all on both sides) most had umbrellas and those that did not had rather fetching yellow and red hats made of plastic. On closer inspection it became apparent that these were in fact Shoprite supermarket carrier bags being used for the purpose of keeping heads, hair or wigs dry. About 70% of the women over here wear wigs or hair pieces, which did surprise me. It’s a huge market with most women favouring straight hair.
Anyway the hair is totally irrelevant to anything I was talking about.
As I got a bit closer I was staggered to see that the tiny normally insignificant Ngwewere River had turned into a raging torrent second only in spectacle to that of Vic Falls. It was gushing about 70cm over the top of the bridge, a huge seething serpent of brown muddy water. I must admit I did think about driving through as the prospect of going round the long way did not thrill me. But after closer inspection I decided against it as it was too early in the morning to go rigging fancy safety strops and securing the car between trees so as not to get washed away. And whilst the car could have waded through if it was still, or slow flowing, I really did not want to end in the river upside down bobbing away downstream like a sausage in a water park. So I turned the car round and an hour and a half later I was at work.
I spent the day catching up, having been away the past week. Then had to brief on the situation in Chirundu, the problems the opportunities the challenges and the potential end gain. We had the opportunity to grasp a huge contract if we could act fast, and have fool proof systems in place to operate it. The customer had been badly let down by their largest operator, and were seriously in the soft and smelly. We had to move quickly and deliver if we were to get it. By the end of the day I had a new baby to look after and to control. This was going to be interesting. I left the office at 18:00 and was home again by 19:30 after having done some shopping on the way back.
Tuesday morning at 05:00 I was on my way back to Chirundu and I was actually quite looking forward to my new challenge. The drive up was without incident, but it still is a spectacular drive when you are not is a hurry, crossing the Slow but strong Kafue river then running along the flood plains before slowly climbing into the hills. The hills get steeper and the roads get wider (Thanks to a vast road building project by the Chinese) then before you know it you are on the escarpment and you work your way down into the Zambezi Valley. The scenery is breathtaking, my only sadness whenever I travel this road is the shocking lack of wild animals, the habitat is perfect. It’s just man’s greed that took away the rights of these animals to enjoy it too. Don’t worry I am not going to climb onto my soap box now. I’ll save that for when I’m having a real I hate Africa day. (They don’t happen often)
On Monday I had explained that I would need a whole host of equipment to take on this new contract and I was assured it would all be in place Wednesday or latest Thursday. I was instructed not to start anything until we had all the equipment and everything was in place.
Wednesday I had a call to say there were some delays in getting hold of the equipment and it probably was not going to happen this week. The manager for the contract company was joining me for lunch. By the time we had finished I had agreed that we could start that afternoon and everything was in place and would run like clockwork.
In truth with the systems I had set up there was no reason for anything to go wrong, it just would have been extremely handy to have all the hard and software so we did not have to do everything manually.
It was 17:30 before head office found out that I had started and then the phone calls started. Unfortunately both my phone batteries died simultaneously and we had a power cut ?
If we had not started that day the contract would have been awarded to another and we never would have got it back.
Thursday morning 05:00 the information was in their inboxes to prove that everything was in hand and running smoothly. We had at least started and got through the first phase of which there are four. By the time the next orders came through Phase two of the first orders were complete, and by 17:00 the first order was through phase three for now and temporarily out of our hands. Order two was at Phase one. So the cycle had started and it was only going to get faster and more furious. I was loving it, a real buzz.
By Friday we were into a rhythm and we were pumping, things were advancing under controlled pressure. I had to go back to Lusaka in the evening and was not looking forward to leaving the coal face.
It has been a good week, achieving a lot but always being wary for the inevitable “African Curved Ball”. I know full well that whatever happens next week will be totally different from this one no matter what I do to influence it.
That’s why I love living in Africa.

Denzil Bark.