BACK TO MY ROOTS

I like to build stuff but watching people build stuff is even better. So I am lucky to have a house being built behind our house. The house we live in, built on 18 perch (1 perch is 25 square metres), belongs to a Sri Lankan who is working in Italy. The one being built belongs to his brother(13 perch). And the one next to it (also 13 perch) is the father's, who will give it to his daughter as a dowry when she is married. We are also lucky that the father has property leading up to this house(another 18 perch).

These windows are made on site. Power tools are few and far between here. This is due to the fact that the prices are not that far removed from Australian prices. However, I have heard the sound of an electric planer which they use when fitting the windows and doors. No cordless drills for fitting the hinges and handles, all this is done with a screwdriver. Usually one between three.

I have seen various methods of painting and usually it just involves different size brushes Here I did see a roller but this is rare. We may see this as unusual as rollers are a time saver, but here the price of one worker with a paint brush for 1 day is less than the cost of a roller. The bloke in the right hand doorway is the chippie, hanging the windows. Now as far as saftey goes, it's all about perspective. As you can see, the painter only has bare feet. This is alright - he is only painting The chippie, however, has safety sandals. It's all about the safety.

Fortunately, the house we are in has circuit breakers. This doesn't make me feel any better when Prince is checking the points with his trusty tester. Back home you can just touch the insulated wire with the tester to see if it is live. This one has to be jambed in the power point. I couldn't see the guys next door being worried about little details as this. Hello worksafe!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do admire these guys for the quality of work they produce with what they have to work with. Take this water tower. These are used because the water pressure is too low to be of any use. So the house has a pump which pumps it up to a tank at the top of these towers. It is then gravity-fed into the house, so the higher it is, the better the pressure. What seems to be the third storey of our house is actually where the water tank is.

So they have built this tower and I have not seen a glimpse of a level, plumb bob or any other instument used to ensure this remains plumb. But it is. These photos are taken from the second storey so there is more that is not actually seen (notice the roof of the adjoining property). When they build these it is done in small sections. They mix the concrete on site. They sieve the sand, add the gravel then mix it on the ground and pass it up by bucket, all the while balancing on that bamboo scaffolding.