Builders

The builders seem to have abandoned work on my house for now.  Possibly forever, I don't know.  They worked every day up to Dussera and one of them turned up every morning for a couple of weeks to flood the roof from the water tank up there to stop the new surface from drying too quickly and cracking but there's been no other work done.  There are still half-built pillars on the roof that were supposed to protect the steel rods left exposed and there is one big wall that needs to be protected with rendering to stop it leaking in heavy rain. That's not a problem at the moment but it will become a problem again next monsoon.  I've been told they are having trouble getting access to that wall because the neighbour doesn't want them on his land.  Short of abseiling down from the roof the only way to access it would be from scaffolding in next doors garden. 

In the meantime I still have builders rubble left on the roof and steps and don't feel much inclined to clear up until I'm sure they've finished.  I'm actually quite relieved not to see them on scaffolding outside the house, it tends to look pretty precarious here.  I walked past some newly erected scaffolding on my way home to lunch today, it is thick bamboo poles shoved into the ground for the uprights with slightly narrower (round) bamboo poles balanced across at intervals of around 5-6 cm for the platforms.  No safety barriers and nothing to catch things dropped from a height.  There was a builder nonchalently chucking mortar at the brick wall to build up a coat of rendering, most of it dropping straight off again down to the ground.  I went past as quickly as possible,

There is a plot of land on the other side of my house that is now home to another group of builders.  I have often seen the land-owner walking around this plot early in the morning and peering through my windows to have a chat with me.  He came along while I was eating my lunch today to have a quick look at what was going on and as usual he wanted to know what I was eating and what I was reading.  I'm not sure he understood my answer but I try to remain polite, it feels to me like an intrusion of privacy but I think to the locals it is a gesture of friendship and concern that we are eating enough.  There does not seem to be a sense of personal space here, maybe it's a reflection on the starvation, poverty and cramped living conditions common here. 

I also now have builders peering in to see what's going on in my humble abode.  One started waving his mobile phone at me and like an idiot I thought he was trying to gesture that he wanted me to take his photo with his mobile.  After a confused and confusing exchange of Pidgin English I realised he wanted to charge it.   There are very few electrical sockets in this house, I guess most people here have very few gadgets and don't need the same number that we expect in Europe.  One socket per room, all situated at shoulder-level next to the light switch, a good way of cutting down the electrical wiring requirements.  It took me a while to work out where I could plug in my charger where he would be able to reach his phone from outside as of course I had to get back to work.  We achieved it by putting it on a windowsill where he could reach it by climbing up onto the newly built wall, complete with wet mortar. 

I'm a little worried about the effect that the new house will have on mine.  One wall has no windows at all (the side with the neighbourly dispute) and the other side looks out onto the plot.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the walls of the new house will end up about a metre from my windows and block out most of the light and give me a charming view.  It also means that I won't get woken up by a cow poking her nose, chewing her cud and snorting through my window in the early hours of the morning, which may be a good thing.