Spanner in the works

Today has been another day of small victories – yes I’ve been DIYing again. I might need to be careful about continuing to blog about my small achievements in the fixing things department. I don’t want to build up any unrealistic expectations for my return home. That said I am much keener on maintenance and mending nowadays. I was thinking about the reason behind this new-found enthusiasm this afternoon. I think it boils down to the pioneer spirit. This might sound a bit odd so I’d better explain.

Living out in rural Kenya makes you much more aware of how easily we come to depend on other people to come to our rescue. The problem I was fixing today wasn’t especially complicated. Yesterday afternoon James, one of our security guards, told me that the starter rope on the generator we use for our borehole had broken. This really is a pain as the borehole is so deep that it needs a powerful electrical pump to raise the water up. We do have a back up generator but it does not generate enough power for this job. One of James’ jobs is to make sure the water tank that we use for drinking water is kept topped up. It runs out after about three days and, with about two hundred people to provide food and drinks for a day, running out of water is a serious problem.

There were two possible solutions to fixing the generator. Either replace the starter rope or attach a car battery to the generator to start it automatically. A quick trip to Oyugis, (our nearest ‘town’), this morning made the repair the only option, (there weren’t any suitable batteries for sale anywhere). There were plenty of ropes to replace the broken one. Whilst in Oyugis I also experienced one of the joys of Kenya. The idea of the happy, helpful African is, perhaps, sometimes an unhelpful and patronising stereotype, but it is, none the less, based in fact. Today a really helpful mechanic in Oyugis dropped the job that he was doing to help me locate a shop that sold decent quality spanners, (also required for the generator fix). It turns out that he was assisted by a French organisation to train as a mechanic and set up shop in Oyugis because there was too much competition in Kisumu, (a much bigger town about ninety minutes drive from Oyugis). He was very keen to point out that he, unlike many other people he knew, took great care of his tools and that he had in the past come up to our place to fix the Landrover. He was good company.

Anyway. Back at base, new spanner in hand I was able to make fairly short work of taking the rope starter bit of the generator apart and putting the new rope in. Certainly not rocket science but it was very satisfying hearing the generator roar into life at the first pull. Which is where the pioneer spirit kicks in. Back home there are relatively few occasions when failing to fix something yourself will threaten your ability to keep things going. Inconvenience perhaps. Failure to fix the generator today would mean that, as I type, we would have run out of drinking water. That kind of problem is a great stimulant to effective action. So, the generator is now fixed. I did eventually stop feeling smug about it and I’m now wondering what will go wrong next that I can apply my new enthusiasm and rapidly growing tool kit to.