Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Years in Azedebo

Out in KT I dont get much of a chance to let it all hang out.  New Year's was suppose to come and go like all the days leading up to it.  I'd have a  small habasha feast with the fam, have a few "fingers" (make a peace sign with your hand then squeeze your index and middle finger together; you now have two fingers of moonshine when held to the glass when a pour is being made) of local brew and pass out before 1130 pm with an ipad/ dog on my chest.  It certainly started that way...  

I awoke to whipping gale force winds  trying can opener my corrugated roof from its rafters.  The wind's that spew out of mountain range directly in front of the school plot, is responsible for such attempts on a pretty regular basis. However, last night, there was a boom, then another and then the sound of metal sheets being wrenched off one another.  Directly following that 1 am alarm, (I hit the imaginary snooze and conked back out) the slow screech of dry hinges and the echo of a bellow from my 67 year old father finally got me moving.

Sigamo was gingerly working his way up a rickety wooden ladder to reach the remnants of his pirated Middle Eastern satellite feed.  Upon seeing him half way up, he explained that he was eventually going to pull himself up to the roof and refasten his teetering dish in the 50 mile per wind.  Well, at that hour of night, and with that weather he wasnt exactly feeling up to it.  So I played the role of a good guest/handy guy.

I rang in the new years with a dense clutter of stars smiling down on me as I scuttled up and down a few cobbled together sticks for 45 minutes.  In the end, we somehow ended up successfully strapping down an Ethiopian "dish" platform with scraps of old electrical wire and my extra hammocks rope.  For good measure, I toted up a few 40 or so pound stones to assist in making sure the sail of a satellite ( it at least 5 feet in diameter) didnt get antsy.  Our work made it through the night, and the dish is working today just fine. Happy  ferengie New Year pops.

Its funny, most of my new years of past were, events, and memorable in their own right, though the memories from lasts nights festivities will surely stick with me a little more effectively.  Possibly because they were not lubricated with cheap champagne or Goldshlagger, but more likely because it was a good little adventure in Azedebo family bonding.

The following day was spent tending to the usual.  Almost all the cob is now ready for application, the roof is primed for corrugated above two of the four classrooms, and the floor's foundation will be complete by tomorrow afternoon.  

Enjoy, I mostly did.  

The boulders I shlepped up to the roof, and my hammocks rope help holding the dish's platform down.

Dad holding the ladder, and getting a kick out of me capturing this wake up on camera

I slept through New Years, but had a productive 1 am.

Perfecting the corrugated rood supports
46 hands working away.
Trimming some rafter fat

Another days work

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