Spring Cleaning Comes Early to Talek

The team writes about painting and interior maintenance -

Brad and Maurice

After spending most of Monday removing the posters that were plastered to the walls throughout the clinic, Brad, Tina, Joyce, Mary, Gretchen, Kathy, and Chuck (who joined the painting as work on the incinerator progressed) were eager to get back to actual painting on Tuesday. Of course, with twelve rooms, three hallways, and a large open porch in the clinic, not everything was quite paint-ready yet, but Maurice and his professional painters were already hard at work.

Hanging the curtains to dry attracts some attention

Gretchen and Kathy took down all of the curtains to wash them and keep them out of the paint until everything was dry. In true Maasai style, they washed them in two buckets with cold water that turned chocolate-brown in no time, and then hung them on the fence to dry, which took less than an hour in the dry breeze.

Maurice and his painters were thrilled with the rollers we had brought, as they had never used anything but brushes, and the team wished they'd brought even more tools and supplies to help with the task.

How to paint high places in Kenya

This was particularly true of ladders, which don't seem to be very common in Kenya, leading the team to stand on paint cans, desks, bedside tables, and wooden benches from the hallway patient waiting area to reach the top of the ten-foot walls.

As the painting progressed in earnest, a disagreement about best practices arose between the Webster painters and Maurice and his team. The professional painters were used to thinning the oil-based paint with large amounts of turpentine, making the paint nearly as transparent as water, which didn't cover newly primed sections of the wall. It also released huge amounts of noxious fumes that were almost unbearable. At the end of Tuesday, the Webster team reached an agreement with the painters: Because the team had purchased plenty of paint, everyone would use it unthinned, which is generally unheard of in Kenya where almost everything is stretched as thin as possible to maximize resources.

Once that was resolved, the remainder of the week progressed without incident with more cleaning and painting, plus repainting of many areas.

Joyce and Tall Moses

Even with unthinned paint, some areas had to be repainted three or four times to have complete coverage. William, Moses, and others from the clinic staff contributed significantly to the effort, with the very tall Moses washing the highest spots and everyone pitching in on any task at hand. Jill and David, a couple from Hoboken staying at the Mara Leisure Camp with us, also lent a hand on Friday after hearing about our project during mealtimes.

Replacing window hardware with the only tool available

Dick spent most of Friday and Saturday installing notice boards, including hand-sawing miter joints, and repairing and installing new window hardware, with little more than a Swiss Army Knife.

Everyone at the clinic was thrilled with the brightness from the fresh paint, and several remarked that they were looking forward to continuing our efforts with regular maintenance in the future.

New friends Jill and David probably never expected to be painting in Kenya during their vacation