more top gear antics, but this time its serious…

Real issue today, our second generator has stopped working.  We have two but neither can run continuous.  In fact the one that has broken is underpowered so can really only run on a sunny day (when we also have solar feeding in) or at night time.  And we subsequently find out that is the problem it has been unknowingly overworked over years and had just had it.  Anyone immediate actions are to go hire another before nightfall when our main generator needs a rest.  There is only one hire place in town and luckily (spoiler alert I don’t know how lucky) it’s only about a mile away.  So I meet the Head Electrician there with my credit card and a wad of USD (obviously).  Paying was the easy bit, I noticed that transport and installation was extra.  Installation is no problem, but there is no real transportation.  Well they pointed to an extremely ancient four wheel trailer, which we could borrow for free (well sort of free).  It had a flat tyre so I was to take it to get fixed first (and pay, obviously).  

Now our ambulance doesn’t have a towing hitch, more of an eye loop welded to the bumper, so it was going to take some ingenuity to carry $20,000 USD worth of generator back to the hospital… On close inspection it seemed that the tow on the trailer had a little slot in it so we could poke a piece of rebar through it and the loop on the ambulance.  Perfect. 

So I headed to quick-fit.  Well a couple of guys at the side of the road with a compressor and some paraphernalia.  No other tools.  They used our jack and tools to get the wheel off (and borrowed them again to take a wheel off a moto).  And they were not quick either (as almost always, cloudless sky, 30 degrees…) but hey it cost me 250 local (a fraction under £2.50) and I was on my way again.

Back to the hire place and I turned in off the main road, a little bump as I got across the raised threshold of the security gate and parked up.  When I got out the guy was pointing frantically, following the bump (and I was honestly going slowly) I had lost the trailer… good job the generator was not yet on it…

So they loaded the generator onto the trailer with a JCB and we strapped it down.  We then put some more bend into the rebar to keep us hitched together and off I went.  I was leading with our head Electrician behind on his moto.  After a few hundred yards I was flagged down; “fume!, fume!” they shouted.  Now maybe I should have been looking in my mirrors and spotted this myself, but all my energy was focussed on the ground ahead and trying to pick the steadiest course through the giant pot-holes so as not to topple the load.  On close inspection the generator was rubbing on one of the tyres and creating smoke due to the friction.  Cue comical scene as our Head Electrician commandeers some passers-by and tries push the half tonne generator across the bed of the trailer.  Anyway he soon realises the impossibility of the task and waves me on.  I think to myself that the trailer has two wheels on each side so if that tyre lets go, I might be OK.  I also remember I am in Haiti, and pull away.

The comedy continues at the hospital as three people ‘help’ me reverse the generator into a tight little spot alongside the other generator.  There is lots of shouting and gesticulating, and I try my best to keep calm as it seems I am the only one who seems to realise that when reversing a trailer you need lots of opposite lock (my Dad would be proud I remembered that one!)

Anyway job done, there is power for the hospital tonight; as I feel the adrenaline start to ease I make for home quickly, and a cold beer, (this event happened before Lent started…).