One productive day

I rounded up my team. They scattered. Most were ready to go but one had to repair the generators. I carried some fuel to the dock to go in the little aluminum boat. The mechanic was continually delayed. The other three of the team were loitering, asking me to buy them coffees. I stole some bread and cheese from the kitchen, and got a lecture from the head chef afterwards. We carried a bunch of poles and other steel down to the dock, loaded them in the aluminum boat, and took them across to the other side of the lagoon. The steel tripod didn't fit into the Toyota, but it squeezed in enough to not fall out. We went back to the restaurant. The aluminum boat driver told me he was taking the powerful fiberglass boat with the two 80HP motors so he could fit more food. I tried to convince my team to help me bring more food down to the dock and load it. They refused. I went up and down those stairs like twenty times with tinned peas and sardines and milk powder and whatnot. The fiberglass boat left and I was dripping in sweat. The mechanic was ready when I started descending the food, but still nobody helped. We crossed the lagoon and tied the metal to the Toyota frame and drove. We got to Ozouga about 1h20 later. We set up the tripod on the ground, with the two 6m poles extending from it. One kid fed the cable through the poles while another guy moved the poles. I sledgehammered stakes into the sand at a distance from the center. We decided the tripod was misplaced to guy it well. We tried digging but had no shovel. Another kid spent a while fabricating a shovel out of a stove cover and a branch, since all I gave him was a machete and a rake. I raked, and it worked alright. Somebody cooked some chicken. We attached three guywires, carefully but surely; they lay on the ground. The mechanic still couldn't get the quad to go. We attached the poles to the tripod, I affixed the antenna to the top of the pole and installed the horizontal poles to the antenna, we moved the tripod to the hole, and then we gathered for brute force to erect the tripod support. It went up, but the 12m pole's own weight kept it from going up. The bend was permanent. We laid the tripod down and tried to straighten it by jumping on the bent bit with a big case just up the pole from it. It worked a bit, but not entirely. Enough. We devised a new plan, to push the upper section of the pole with wooden posts, so someone went to get bits of wood to attach to the end of the wooden post. I attached the radio wires to the battery terminals. We gathered again to erect the antenna support. I was near the base giving brute force, while others were pusing the upper ends with the modified wooden rod. The wood snapped and the metal all fell down. My wrist got a shock, and two of the four horizontal antenna bits snapped. Shit. We focused on the quad and discussed. Third try: Two guys pushing the base with brute force, two guys pushing the upper end with a newly-cut wooden post, and one or two guys each (a forest team returned in the middle of the erection) on two of the three guywires to pull. They lifted, we pulled, and we pulled and pulled and pulled. When it was partially erected, one of the stick guys ran to the third guywire to balance it. The tripod sat in its pit, we held it from three sides, and we adjusted tension to make the not-straight 14m upright post stand as vertical as possible. We attached the guylines to the stakes. One stake had to be moved. Somebody cooked some spaghetti. I attached the antenna cable to the radio and tested it by calling Yatouga. Loud and clear. Applause among the team. The mechanic got the quad started and left with one guy to find the other quad which had broken down several kilometers from camp. I cleaned up the tools and excess guywire and such, and raked sand over the bottom posts of the tripod. I fetched two buckets of water from the well in the forest, and bathed. We ate spaghetti and chicken. The mechanic said he wanted to bring the crappier quad back to do better repairs and fully charge the battery. I sat in the back of the Toyota and we raced the quad. It was ridiculous. It took just under an hour back to the lagoon. We called a boat, crossed to the Lodge, and dispersed. I showered and went to the bar. One Fanta, one rumandcoke, some peanuts, a couple of ginandtonics, French onion soup, a meal of fresh fish with rice, and plenty of conversation with the French expat. And now internet. I have a new FaceBook friend who gave himself a silly name so I didn't originally find him when I joined. And my sister posted photos of her New Jersey trip on MySpace. I think I'll go to bed now. Hopefully I can board a boat for Akaka tomorrow to discuss construction work with the Sao Tomeans. Or at least get a Toyota to the forest to get some wood and deliver gasoline to the guy with the chainsaw. But probably I'll be stuck here with nothing worthwhile to do with my day but surf the interent. Again. Dammit.