New Generators

Two of our generators have been down since yesterday. We have three, and normally we only need one, except for when the kitchen is using the oven, or when the sauna stove is on. With only one generator running, we could not keep the air conditioners on, except for in the accommodation containers, and the generator still tended to overheat. There was no sauna, and when the chef was cooking, we shut down most of the main building. Today the generator repairmen came with two brand new generators. They were accompanied by a local crane crew. First they had to cut open the roof of the generator shelter, and remove the tall exhaust pipe extensions. Then they hoisted the broken generators out and lifted in the new ones. The exhausts and the shelter roof were installed and welded, and the generators connected to the electrical system. It was really astonishing that the maintenance guys managed to do all of this in just about six hours! By dinner time the new generators were up and running. They have better output than the old ones used to have when they were working, and are much quieter. The only setback was that the peach (or apricot) tree in our front yard was destroyed by the crane.

At 1100 we went to talk with the chief of NDS. After the meeting as we were leaving the building, one of the NDS intelligence officers came running after us. He pulled a half-full tube of Norwegian processed cheese with shrimps from his jacket pocket, and asked us "Can you tell me what this is?". I told him what it was and asked where he had gotten it. He said that there were some men in the bazaar who are working at Camp Marmal and go through the garbage there, and sell whatever they find.


The peach (or apricot) tree had to give way for electricity.