Digging ditches

Internet access has not been particularly reliable or fast since I have been here but that may all be about to change. There is a programme to provide internet access to all the schools and public buildings (I think) which means laying new fibre optic cables around the whole country. In the UK this would be done by a few people with a lot of machinery, but here it is done very differently.

Firstly the ground was scored with 2 parallel lines measured by pieces of rope. A few days later a team of men arrived with pick axes, shovels and hoes and began digging a ditch. There was one man every 3 to 5m and within 2 days a ditch about 1.5m deep had been dug from the tarmac road, up the hill and to the hospital. Apparently the men dug through anything they came across including our water pipes and the foundations to the hospital. Next the cables were laid, again by hand. This time the men walked with the cables over their shoulders about 10m apart along the length of the trench they had dug. The following day groups of women arrived and filled the ditch in again with the dirt they had dug out.

The workers all stayed in large camps by the side of the road, in home made tents made from plastic sheeting and cooking of wood fires for the few days they were working in the area, then moved onto the next place.