Crtd 05-05-24 Lastedit 14-08-20

Cutting and Planning

On Tuesday morning 24^th of May, after having been allowed by the Marine Superintendent of Marine Services Company Ltd to go to the docked MV Victoria, probably the largest passenger steamer on the Lake, to scan the torn remains of what was thought to be the best copy of the Lake Victoria Southern Portion map, I went with Jeremia to Daniels shipyard for final agreements and goodbye. Daniel was, one said, in the saw mill. There, the manager turned out to be absent and Daniel himself hade taken charge. He hardly saw us. He was in complete concentration on the wood.  The center of the wood is red (see All about mninga wood). The outer ring is of the yellow, soft, "sap-wood". The challenge is to end up with the maximum amount of purely red planks. The dhow requires 1 inch planks for the bottom, 7/8 for the boards and 3/4 for the decks and floors. By selection the logs for the different thicknesses on can minimize waste, loss of red wood. Planks resulting will have different widths. They will not be equalized. Instead, for every row of planks on the hull some planks matching in width will be selected. Since for security I want some small peep holes in the boards just under the deck, wide planks shall be used for the top row.
 

Silently on the background, so as not to disturb this holy work, Jeremia and I patiently waited until Daniel would spot us.

Picture: This man finally has his wood and clearly stopped thinking of everything else

Half an hour later the tension seemed to lower and Daniel came with us for a conversation under the trees.
Now, a new trick of mine came into operation. The day before, I had given Jeremia, who regards his brain as the only proper and hence exclusive medium for information, a school exercise book to record agreements and points to remember. Lo and behold! Not only had he meticulously recorded yesterdays issues, but he had added earlier questions and ideas that I had long forgotten.
Daniel flatly rejected my proposal for a second wheel in the mast top because it would block the gaff during gybing. I gratefully resigned. Then Daniel came back to the latest payment scheme agreed:

Whether I would be willing to split up the TSh 3 M to be paid after finishing the hull into two halves, one being paid after all frames and the bottom planking would have been finished. He was urged by Hamadi to come with the remaining wood money.
Was it TSh 9 300 000 after all???? I did not ask. Neither did I raise the point that not those 3, but today's TSh 4.5 million were for the hull, so splitting up meant he giving me back half of that to wait for the frames and bottom to finish. Daniel, from his part, did not seem to feel he was trying a trick on me. He clearly thought to doing a reasonable proposal. I flatly agreed and informed Kees about the new partial payment inserted somewhere end of next month. Trust. Too much? As a screw trader I had learned that business was risk taking, I told myself in silence.
The new expectations are now as in the right hand column below (left is what was told me at the time of our initial agreement, Christmas last year)

Since up to now almost nothing is done and Daniel stretched the expected durations a bit, the delay of the expected Grand Finale is 168 days over 150 days is 1.12 day per day. Instead of the 18th of April, these golden boys will have the most beautiful dhow on the lake ready for launching, testing and customizing at the 3d of October. I surely do not wish to temper their present vigor and enthusiasm with these figures.

My departure was late. Sunset was in the Serengeti, where there is a secure "stop over" camping near the road, outside the park's entrance gates (foreigners US$ 50, Tanzanians TSh 1500, that is, US$1.50)

Picture: Full moon from my Truck's bed in the Serengeti (try it as your desktop background). Add some hyena sound. I did actually meet hyena, but this was in Elizabeth park, West Uganda. click hyena.mpg

I saw no animals, not even before sunset, but watchmen pointed far, where they saw gnus.
Lions over here?
Not very often, there are too many people here, and lions fear them.
But after dark, with the wind coming from the side of the plain, I heard the same sounds as at the time I was living in a cabin near Safari Park De Beekse Bergen, Tilburg, The Netherlands, which gave me nice memories of my happy past. 

The next day, after twenty six games of mutual intimidation at twenty six police road blocks (NO, no money, no soda, no water, no air time, no lift - counting the issues with my right index finger on my left hand fingers, wisely limiting the list to exactly five, to avoid arousing their predator instincts by raising the impression of being uncomfortable by having to shift hands or go in a loop), having lost only one bottle of water to a rightly pitiful police guy who had been dropped for the day in a dry area, after routinely shaking off all thugs in the country border clearing area's and working my way around lengthy queues by entering official buildings through unexpected doors with unanticipated stories, I arrived clotted with the dust of the awful road at the Uganda side at Two Friends Restaurant and Bar at 23:00 hrs at night, where I was asked to postpone my report, because one was drunk and would feel sorry the next day not to remember it.