Yessssssssss.
The taps are flowing. First time in 72 hours.
What did it take? It took us to act our our distrust of the building managers ( 'no, Zesco, they're coming'), and go directly to the utilities company, ask them to reconnect it.
Interestingly, the service there was pretty good. The clerk we talked to sought out the big bwana who then put in the order for a technician to 'rush back'. The clerk also gave us his personal number to get in touch in case it didn't work. 1.5 hour later, water is flowing in the pipes, again.
I took a bath.
I flushed the toilet.
And now, I tackle the dishes.
water, is life.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
it was almost like the village
Update.
48 hours, and still no water.
The story is that the bill has been paid. (I didn't believe it, until I saw the receipt.) Now we're just waiting for ZESCO, the utilities company to come back and reconnect the pump.
My friend Nsangwa - who just lives 2 doors down from me - took us to another friend's place to fill up our buckets.
It was almost like going to get water in the village, except instead of walking to the borehole, we drove. and instead of enjoying the process, i was too busy scheming how to make sure the building managers felt some pain of this whole situation and enforce some accountability. We could make them come down and carry our buckets up for us. We could publicly shame them by putting posters up on the wall. We could go in and use whatever water they had saved up from their flat.
In the end of course, I ended up appreciating that I wasn't pumping my water from a borehole, or gathering it from a stream every day. And that this was more of an inconvenience than it was a way of life.
It was just fun to think about how to introduce better accountability mechanisms into this system and how you could leverage the social pressure from 16 flats to change the way things operated. And it was also somewhat fun to consider that instead of working on a report, or working on a proposal, or coaching someone on my team, I spent 2 hours needing to fetch water; funny, there isn't a management book on managing time wisely that takes these things into account.
Anyway, I didn't scheme and I'm all hot air when it comes to making the building management feel the pain of our inconvenience. I ended carrying my own water back up to the flat, all 18 L of it.
Oh, yes, all 18L. I thought i had 40L saved up, but I had less than half. Interesting how when you have less resource, you adjust.
As in, i'm adjusting to the dirtiness of my kitchen. I have pretty much used up every single pot, pan, and plate i own. Twice. Ok. maybe three times. ok ok, maybe four times?
We've been reassured that it will be on tomorrow. First thing.
We'll see about that.
48 hours, and still no water.
The story is that the bill has been paid. (I didn't believe it, until I saw the receipt.) Now we're just waiting for ZESCO, the utilities company to come back and reconnect the pump.
My friend Nsangwa - who just lives 2 doors down from me - took us to another friend's place to fill up our buckets.
It was almost like going to get water in the village, except instead of walking to the borehole, we drove. and instead of enjoying the process, i was too busy scheming how to make sure the building managers felt some pain of this whole situation and enforce some accountability. We could make them come down and carry our buckets up for us. We could publicly shame them by putting posters up on the wall. We could go in and use whatever water they had saved up from their flat.
In the end of course, I ended up appreciating that I wasn't pumping my water from a borehole, or gathering it from a stream every day. And that this was more of an inconvenience than it was a way of life.
It was just fun to think about how to introduce better accountability mechanisms into this system and how you could leverage the social pressure from 16 flats to change the way things operated. And it was also somewhat fun to consider that instead of working on a report, or working on a proposal, or coaching someone on my team, I spent 2 hours needing to fetch water; funny, there isn't a management book on managing time wisely that takes these things into account.
Anyway, I didn't scheme and I'm all hot air when it comes to making the building management feel the pain of our inconvenience. I ended carrying my own water back up to the flat, all 18 L of it.
Oh, yes, all 18L. I thought i had 40L saved up, but I had less than half. Interesting how when you have less resource, you adjust.
As in, i'm adjusting to the dirtiness of my kitchen. I have pretty much used up every single pot, pan, and plate i own. Twice. Ok. maybe three times. ok ok, maybe four times?
We've been reassured that it will be on tomorrow. First thing.
We'll see about that.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
prisoner's dilema
Currently, the water is off in my building. It's been off since yesterday afternoon - "the pump is broken, we will need to turn it off so that it can be fixed. It will be back on on Monday".
It's not that i trusted that a 36 hour pump repair job would really take place, but if that's what they say, i guess that's what I had to go with.
So I stockpiled water, about 40 L of it. No, it's not a lot, but every single bottle and bucket, and pot was pretty much full. ( tells you a bit about what i have in my house).
And I've been managing, I've been conscious of water use - even more than normal. I've still been able to bathe, make coffee; I've made the critical decision between flushing the toilet or keeping the water for cooking; and my kitchen is starting to drive me crazy because the dishes are piling up.
Anyway, how I use water isn't really what I want to talk about. You see, I just got a knock on the door though from the building management. Every month, I pay about $8 in monthly fees that is supposed to go to grounds upkeep ( sounds fancy, but its really just some dude who sweeps every day). I didn't know that it was also supposed to go to water pump management, but it turns out that it is supposed to. It also turns out that the pump isn't broken, it's just the pump service fees haven't been paid and so the powers that be turned the pump off.
Curious.
Now, I'm being asked to pay the $8 in advance for September, so they can pay make up the shortfall in overdue fees and we can get the water back on on Monday.
So what should I do?
(Nevermind that its $8 and that's what most of you back home pay for your fancy lattes, or a single fashion magazine, nevermind that, its quite a bit of money here. And never mind, that this shortfall is the management's fault, and yet we're getting the short end of the stick. never mind that.)
(Never mind even, the fact that it probably means that they just haven't really paid the management fees so who knows what they did with the money we've all paid? )
Never mind. The more important issue is what I should do.
You see, I'm not going to be here in September. There's some dude in flat 13 who owes about 4 months fees, and a few other tenants who haven't paid up yet. I'm the only one that is being asked to pay in advance,and maybe I would do it and the water still won't come on. But if I do pay, and the other folks pay, then the water ' could' really come back on.
I'm stumped: should I pay, or should I not pay? If I pay, I'm supporting a system of lack of accountability and poor management and i might be screwed in the long run. If i pay, I might also be able to get the water back on. And all of this will hinge on whether or not the other folks will pay their arrears as well.
What should I do?
I've lived here for 3.5 years. I've learned to be incredible distrustful of almost every single interaction that involves money. Every business decision that I make is involves a bit of game theory that often hasn't gone my way. It's going to be a doozy moving back to Canada.
It's not that i trusted that a 36 hour pump repair job would really take place, but if that's what they say, i guess that's what I had to go with.
So I stockpiled water, about 40 L of it. No, it's not a lot, but every single bottle and bucket, and pot was pretty much full. ( tells you a bit about what i have in my house).
And I've been managing, I've been conscious of water use - even more than normal. I've still been able to bathe, make coffee; I've made the critical decision between flushing the toilet or keeping the water for cooking; and my kitchen is starting to drive me crazy because the dishes are piling up.
Anyway, how I use water isn't really what I want to talk about. You see, I just got a knock on the door though from the building management. Every month, I pay about $8 in monthly fees that is supposed to go to grounds upkeep ( sounds fancy, but its really just some dude who sweeps every day). I didn't know that it was also supposed to go to water pump management, but it turns out that it is supposed to. It also turns out that the pump isn't broken, it's just the pump service fees haven't been paid and so the powers that be turned the pump off.
Curious.
Now, I'm being asked to pay the $8 in advance for September, so they can pay make up the shortfall in overdue fees and we can get the water back on on Monday.
So what should I do?
(Nevermind that its $8 and that's what most of you back home pay for your fancy lattes, or a single fashion magazine, nevermind that, its quite a bit of money here. And never mind, that this shortfall is the management's fault, and yet we're getting the short end of the stick. never mind that.)
(Never mind even, the fact that it probably means that they just haven't really paid the management fees so who knows what they did with the money we've all paid? )
Never mind. The more important issue is what I should do.
You see, I'm not going to be here in September. There's some dude in flat 13 who owes about 4 months fees, and a few other tenants who haven't paid up yet. I'm the only one that is being asked to pay in advance,and maybe I would do it and the water still won't come on. But if I do pay, and the other folks pay, then the water ' could' really come back on.
I'm stumped: should I pay, or should I not pay? If I pay, I'm supporting a system of lack of accountability and poor management and i might be screwed in the long run. If i pay, I might also be able to get the water back on. And all of this will hinge on whether or not the other folks will pay their arrears as well.
What should I do?
I've lived here for 3.5 years. I've learned to be incredible distrustful of almost every single interaction that involves money. Every business decision that I make is involves a bit of game theory that often hasn't gone my way. It's going to be a doozy moving back to Canada.
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