Today we were able to take the pump to get repaired…or so we thought. We headed up to C4KK early in order to have the pump to the repairman by 9 or so. Ended up being around 9:30am so not too bad but then the fun began. Chuck, Lewis, Bosco and repairman went into his office at 9:30am and I continued reading The Hunger Games (can’t seem to put that down!). I was basically lost in reading when I realized I was getting hungry, looked at the clock and saw it was 11am and they still weren’t out of the office. Hmmm, was he repairing the pump right now? That would be highly unlikely. So I continued reading, ate a Snickers bar (I can actually get these at our local grocery store, who would have thought!?) and waited. Finally around 11:30 or so they all came out of the office and then began talking next to the truck. I wasn’t really paying attention so I got the story later from Chuck. While in the office the repairman gave all sorts of excuses as to why the pump couldn’t be repaired but we just needed to buy a new one….nope not gonna’ happen. Then he said oh, ok then you can rent one from me while this one is repaired…rental price plus the repair on the old pump would have been equal to buying the same model pump brand new…nope not gonna’ happen. Finally he said he could repair it…ok now for negotiating price. That’s when the conversation came to the truck and basically they went over this same conversation over and over again….that’s just how Kenyan conversations seem to go. Finally an agreement was made and the pump SHOULD BE repaired by tomorrow at 2pm.
Whew! Then it was off to buy some lumber. Stop at the lumber place, ask if they have the right lengths, wait for an answer, get the answer (no), then ask about other lengths (yup) and finally pull the truck back and the lumber is loaded (4 pieces of lumber, approximately 35 feet of lumber). An hour long ordeal…but we were able to purchase some yummy pineapple, watermelon and bananas from a passing vendor 🙂
Once we made it to C4KK it was lunch time, skuma and rice. By this time I’m ready to head home (actually wanted to get back to reading!).
I’ll keep you informed when we actually get the pump and we are praying it is tomorrow as the kids need water. Thankfully our neighbor has allowed the kids to haul water and yesterday they actually pushed the ox cart down to the neighbors, loaded it with bottles of water and lugged it back home. That would have been a great picture…boys hauling the ox cart like little oxen!