Today I took the usual three bus route to Fushekruje, arriving at around 9AM. En route, we passed a gathering crowd of protesters and police officers in the town of Nikel. There have been demonstrations lately in some towns over access to electricity. Thankfully all of our tools are fed by carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
We were told by Fesnik, the general contractor, that he had two specialists to help us get the pussets and pipes in place today. I would have thought that these two specialists would be different from the two specialists he hired to cover the electrical conduit with mortar. Eduard and Colly are good guys, and very hard working men. Colly talks to me like I understand him, and Eduard rarely speaks at all. With their help and guidance we laid about 80 meters of pipe today. I learned how to install basic drain systems from my Uncle Norman, back in Seattle. They skin cats differently here.
Making a heap of one shovel-full of cement to four shovel-fulls of rur (or finely-crushed, clean rock), mix and adding a little water will result in concrete, ready to place. This takes two grown men about seven minutes to prepare. Getting concrete from one place to the next in a wheelbarrow is heavy, precarious work. Doing this around a job-site with around 90 meters of deep, wide, pipe-trench is artistic, skillful dance.
After work ended, four of us went for a coffee. Coffee, or going to coffee, symbolizes connection with a person who is important to you. Going to coffee is about checking in, leaning back, and talking about not work. It is a way to honor a person you admire, a way of making time together lasting.
On my way home I stopped in at one of the markets in Sauk for half of a kilo of cheese, a bottle of kos and a three-pack of salcica. I think the word is out on the hill about the guy who doesn’t try to run you off, and feeds you stabilized, pink, ultracooked, beef in a cylinder.
Hopefully word won’t reach the next generation of disposed of canines. But I have always been a sucker for a fur- wrapped face.
albaniacalling 