When in Africa...

Last week I really enjoyed reading blogger friend, Gattina's post on installing a fridge. You can read about this here.   I could relate to the fact that servicemen don't come on the day or at the time you arranged with them. This has happened to me in South Africa where we have our home. Gattina also explains how, when the old fridge was removed, the plug was also taken out. When the fridge installers arrived, they  couldn't install a plug as they weren't electricians. Do read it; it's hilarious!

You will also realise how different things are in Africa (this is not South Africa, I'm talking about here but the third-world country where we live as expats) to Europe and other first world countries out there. I mean, to have to call an electrician to install a plug would get you laughed at here. Well, not actually laughed at; you'd just be ignored.

Yesterday my dear husband came home with two new ceiling fans. Grant, who can turn his hand to anything, did a stint as an electrician in the nineties so it went without saying that he'd install the fans, electrics, plug-switches and all!


Back to the ceiling fans, one was for the kitchen. That fan had burnt out while we were on leave and I've been cooking in a sauna since we arrived back. The other is for the entrance hall/large salon where Mirriam does the ironing. The kitchen leads off this room and I've been asking Grant to replace the fan, which had also burnt out,  since I returned in January. With this one working,  it would help the kitchen to be a little cooler especially now that it has a new fan of its own!

So here he was with two brand-spanking new ceiling fans, Made in Pakistan and ready to be installed.

Because our ceilings are incredibly high and also because we only have a six foot stepladder, the first problem encountered was how to get up, remove the old fan and then install the new one. Fortunately Grant is over six-foot (sorry, not working the conversion now!) and with his arms he was able to reach at a stretch, as the photos show. Grant also had a plan (learnt from his rigging experience!) to use a rope as a pulley.

He stood on top of the stepladder and reaching up, cut off the wiring and removed the old fan. He passed it down to me, who almost bent double with the weight of it! I staggered out of the kitchen to the corner of the salon where I gingerly lowered the dusty fan onto the floor. (Grant has since taken both fans downstairs; we'll offer them to  to the "Rag and Bone man" when he next passes this way on his donkey cart.)

Grant descended the ladder, threaded a sturdy rope through something on the fan (don't ask me: I'm a woman and don't take note of these things, except to photograph them!) and told me to hold one end of the rope while he climbed back onto the ladder guiding the fan as I pulled on my end. G E N T L Y!

Grant looped one end of a rope through the top of the fan and placed the other end of the rope in my hands. While he held the fan (and climbed the stepladder), I had to pull my end of the rope. GENTLY!

The Health and Safety Officer checks on the rope's stability

Throughout the proceedings, Shadow was constantly under our feet. He clambered up the ladder behind Grant and sat on the top step. While Grant was explaining to me how to pull the fan up to the ceiling, he, self-appointed Health and Safety Officer, checked on the stability of the rope.

Grant held the fan with one end of the rope looped through the top. I had the other end of the rope and pulled  GENTLY until he said I had to stop. (I was always the most obedient child in our family and in the classroom; some things never change, do they? LOL)

One thing that bothered me was that there was a ragged hole in the ceiling. Grant assured me that once the fan was in place, the electrics connected, he'd place the cover over the hole and I would see it no more. True to his word, now that the fans are in place (and both working perfectly) there are no offending holes in the ceiling. BTW our ceilings are concrete (remember the roof above our flat from where I take many sunrise and sunset photos?) so I didn't relish the thought bits of cement falling on my head...

No safety rules here, except that we did turn off the electricity at the mains. Grant is standing on the top of a steel step ladder and guiding the fan to the opening in the ceiling. I was instructed to LEAVE the rope at this stage!

Connecting the electrics

Thank goodness Grant is tall. Standing on the TOP step of the ladder he could reach up and close the offending hole

The new ceiling fan, installed by my darling husband...

Eewgh!

The new switch with it's brand name and country of origing displayed

I couldn't remove this photo, try as I might.  I think this photo is rather cute, but I heard Grant muttering something about a "nuicance when one is trying to do a job"

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The Health and Safety Officer is called in to check on the tools and components of... another fan! *sigh*

The Health and Safety Officer takes a well-deserved rest!

The second fan was a piece of cake to install! (Well, sort of, it was still soooo heavy when I took the old fan from Grant that my knees buckled - lol!)

The Arabic for fan is mirrhooha (singular) and for fans is marawe (plural) The Arabic for ceiling is segeeff.

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