Wet Cement

Last Week, the school decided to install one more tank as a solution to Nairobi's failed city status via its inability to supply enough water to the deserved recipients. The tank, quite a large 24,000 litre capacity tank, had to be supported on a concrete base, and a concrete apron had been constructed at the tap. The new tank already had water as the apron was been constructed, and the contractor decided to seal the apron area with a paper and some stones as the apron dried.

I was surprised to find some bright students using the tap despite the drying cement.The students had decided that they couldn't wait for the cement to dry well enough, and that the older tank which is a couple of metres away was supplying water at too slow a rate. The bright university students continued around with their watery business, oblivious of all the details on ground.

The contractor, not one to be put off easily, decided to patch up the area damaged by use of the tap on wet cement, and reseal the tap apron again. A few hours later, the bright students were back again and more determined to prove how bright they were by not letting the cement dry. Now we have to use a new apron with a broken floor due to the above actions of our bright students.Perhaps some of them are a group that attempted to light a fire under an LPG gas cylinder during an infamous campus strike.(luckily, some brighter students put out the fire before they could flatten a few buildings)

Well, the bright students who will not leave wet cement to dry are not in a league of their own. In and out of campus, they are joined by a league of other former and current campus, high-school and other idiots who have no time and understanding of how cement functions.

You will find their foot prints embossed in pavements , their cars stuck in road constructions site they did not see amongst other places. Such people also exhibit a behaviour that leads to them taking the shortest line between their source and destination of travel. They cross barbed wires, tape , grass and drive by the side of the road to get to their destinations faster than the rest of us.

We seem to be in such a hurry that we can not wait for the cement to dry, but at the same time, we seem to be in no hurry to pour more cement.Government and company projects take a significant fraction of our lives to start, despite our love for wet cement.(Anything longer than a few months out of a 50 year life is a significant fraction)

So what is your contribution to the marks on the wet cement? Is it your inscribed name, your foot print, damage, admiration, the cement, the time or the plans?

Comments

Unknown said…

Gives us a lot to ponder on.... hmmmm bright students, bright Kenyans .... is being bright really intelligent after all....
KUDOs Kioko

22 October 2009 at 08:11

The Scape 🐈 said…

Thank you, louiza

2 November 2009 at 16:08

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