This week, we have also been dealing with the surveyor issue. We gave up on the original surveyor, since it seems like he is simply unable or unwilling to do what we require. So on Monday we found another surveyor who came highly recommended and asked him to do the project. He told us he definitely could, it was just an issue of whether he would, since apparently he is afraid to go into Kibera. On Wednesday Chelina and I escorted him to the site so that he could see for himself that there is nothing to be afraid of. It seemed like it was going to work out, although it was going to cost significantly more than the first guy.
But then we started hearing that he was still uncomfortable with the project and there was probably no amount of money we could offer to get him in there. So it seemed like we were back to square one. But by Friday a solution seemed to be in sight. Then engineer will be coming on Monday, and he will be able to tell us the most important things we need to know about the site. So we’re just going to skip the surveyor and do a design-build project instead. Basically, that means that we’re going to take the drawings that we have and just start building, using the expertise of the contractor and the on-site architect to make adjustments as we go.
Incidentally, after the second surveyor fell through, Chelina called some of the people she knows in Nairobi to see if they could recommend a new one. Although we had already decided to skip the surveyor, yesterday she got a message from one of her friends, saying he would call a really good guy that he knew – the same surveyor who we had spent all week trying to convince to take the job. So that makes about eighteen different people who have asked him to take this project, but none of it will persuade him that the people of Kibera are not dangerous.
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