Thursday, December 6, 2012

Not another birthday party!

Yup, another party, this time for Carrie. We started the day at Tumaini. The Stiles family came along to sit in on one of Dale's classes and get a tour of my "new" and "old" office. Tobie was really impressed with the large classrooms and the very nice chairs in the new Science Building. We walked around and checked out everything on campus -- even the convenience store to see if they had dark chocolate Smarties -- no luck. After Dale's class we all returned to the apartment to begin the daily apartment maintenance. The light switch on Stile's kitchen has been slowly failing and finally it just gave out and decided not to go on any more (get it? I thought it was pretty clever). Anyway, Caleb and I headed back to our favorite electrical supply place and got a nice switch. We also got some more yogurt and cashews. The switch took some convincing but it went in just fine and hopefully will survive the 11 days left.

After that adventure, we all took the afternoon off for school and preparation. At 4 we headed to the Huruma Orphanage on the other side of town. There we played soccer, made pipecleaner bracelets and drew our favorite animals. These kids are just a bundle of energy and it is most fun to just get their names, find out how old they are and do a little project with them.
Following that we had Carrie's Birthday dinner at Sai Villa up the hill. The surprise of the evening was that the dinners were ordered at 6:10 and arrived at the table between 7:05 and 7:15. Previously, dinners showed up over a half hour span for just the 7 of us. We are used to that now. It was fun to just enjoy the stories of the day and the great presents and cards everyone had. Even Carrie's folks left a card hidden in the apartment for her to find today.
Now the interesting part. Remember the running water in apartment C-1 below us? Well it appeared to be stopped this morning and we thought someone with a key had been contacted. Wrong! By afternoon it was obvious that the water still flowed from the front door. I had assumed that someone with the tenant's phone number would have been called. Silly me! Well since it was still flowing, Caleb and I walked around the back side and could clearly hear the water running and see the sink full of water and the water on the floor. From Caleb's best estimate it covered the kitchen and living room floor and down the hallway about 1/2 way into the office. The bedrooms appeared spared. We found the water cutoffs but there were no markings so it would have been difficult to figure out which one was which without trying each one. Then we looked behind the C-1 kitchen and there was a nice brass shutoff valve. I shut it and the water stopped. I also tightened a stem leak on another valve. But apparently no one is able to maintain these apartments and the guards don't even know who to call. The water has slowed from the front door but the wet carpet and furniture is safely locked behind high security pad locks. No one is going to get in to steal that mold! I will leave a note on the door to explain what happened and hopefully next time they will leave a key with a neighbor or maybe a phone number to contact in case this happens again.

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