Sylvia's Journal

What is it with bathtub installers in the hotels in the provinces here? During a previous visit in another town, the faucet was installed in such a way that it didn’t reach all the way into the tub and splashed all over the bathroom when inadvertently turned on.

Now, in my otherwise quite pleasant and spacious room, the bathtub is installed in such a way that they had to hack an edge out of the wall to slide in the tub and the reclining side of the tub is placed right under the faucet.

I wonder when I see such things what happened prior to the installation. I imagine there was no diagram and the installers themselves may have never sat in a tub like that. So how would they know that the side that slopes down at an angle is to be on the opposite side of the faucet?

But then I wonder, wasn’t there a supervisor or a contractor who inspects the work? Again I imagine the supervisor checking the plumbers’ work. Did they not notice? Do they themselves have no familiarity with modern tubs? Did they never check or did they notice and realized that it would be too much re-work?

The puzzle for me is that some workmanship is excellent and elegant, like the rosettes on the ceiling, and others is sloppy, like the three doors of my closets that don’t close and can’t even be locked despite the keys dangling from useless locks. Again, who was checking and if so, why weren’t those things fixed? I can’t help but think that these symptoms reveal much about why Africa keeps needing help, despite the billions of dollars poured into the continent.