It took
about 5 weeks before we finally could reorganize the house. Several towels that
had been in the backroom in the mud and stones had holes when we took them out.
One orange T-shirt has a black spot that I cannot get out. But hey, there is no
use crying over that one. Instead, we celebrated with a nice dinner and wine.
The washing machine did not show any damage after it was thoroughly cleaned but
it refused to run. A technician will have a look at it tomorrow (November 2).
Since the
water pipes all had been broken we had to fill containers with a hose. We had containers
in the CR and a huge container in the kitchen. Of course that all worked
reasonably fine as well knowing that we simply had no other options. Nevertheless
I cannot explain how happy we were after the new water pipes were connected and
we had running water again. No more need to heat up the water before taking a bath
for example.
 |
| The yellow pale for the kitchen, gallons waiting to be filled. |
The furniture, all stored in the bedrooms could come down again and that too was great. For over 5 weeks I only had a dining chair here to sit on and that really caused me an aching back. Also, those chairs are not exactly comfortable when you get visitors. Oh well, we survived and everything is almost back to normal now.
However, the compound itself and the other apartments are still a mess. Fortunately, the last
truck that picks up all the dirt will leave tomorrow. Altogether there were
already over 30 truckloads taken out. That made the sloped way to the road very
slippery during the rainy days. As far as I know, nobody fell and that is a
blessing in disguise as I may say. Overall it is just amazing that there were
no injuries. Loads of big rocks had come down with tremendous speed and easily
could have harmed somebody. Or even worse! In one of the former posts, I added
this picture of a rock that was about 80 inches long and 30 high. One of the
guys who were clearing up spent hours drilling the monster into smaller
pieces before it could be taken out.
 |
| Some of the smaller rocks waiting to be taken out |
 |
| Parts of the concrete stairs simply vanish |
From here on
the other apartments can be cleaned and probably there are things to repair.
All back doors need a replacement that is for sure; not one did survive. It will
be a matter of weeks before we can welcome our new neighbors and there is a possibility
that we will move so that this apartment can be redone. The tiles have been
here ever since the place was constructed. That means that all inside is over
30 years old (as well as the residents). It came to my mind that the disaster
at least has resulted in a facelift for the compound and that in itself is
just a good thing.
 |
| Part of the wall fell apart |
 |
| One of the back doors that needs replacement |
Being in a
kind of ‘messed up’ place does not mean our ordinary life could not go on.
Friends of course had their jobs and I went on writing and also built a website
(well… my good Dutch friend Margreeth built it). A site made in the first
instance about my writing but it also has a page with pictures, a page for
blogs and a place for discussions. If you enjoy my blog posts here you might as
well like the site. Please leave a comment, be it positive or negative; I can
sure use your feedback in order to improve the website.
Love the ones you’re with and be
loved in return.
Post a Comment