The Kitchen Faucet

Th plumber was here a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, well, for 7 hours. He left without installing a faucet in the kitchen sink. All of his tools were left scattered over the counter and in the sink. The problem was that the old faucet had a steady leak. Let me say that this was the newer faucet that had been replaced about two months ago because the older one had a tendency to fall apart occasionally. After the plumber had gone home, I tested it out. For about 20 seconds it showed a great burst of rushing water, a welcome change from the former puny trickle. Suddenly there was a large "pop" as water spurt out of the joint. I thought this probably constituted an emergency so I called Mme Mathilde, who contacted the plumber and asked him to return to my house. He turned off the water source and promised to return the next day, a Congolese holiday. Mr. Plumber did with the right parts and tools and all was well until last week.

While I was in Cape Town, the faucet developed a steady leak. It was losing quite a bit of water every day, so I thought it was worth it to mention to Mathilde. As usual, she sent the plumber right over. He seemed to have it all together, but when I gave it the test, it leaked as heavily as it did before he began. He sighed and proceded to take it apart again, but because it was getting dark, requested that he return the next day, which was Sunday.

When I left for church, the plumber was already working on the project. Evidently, the hot and cold water pipes that hook up to the faucet were old and not symmetrical, and at any rate not in the right place for the hook up for the new faucet. The plumber was having trouble trying to make the faucet attach to the pipes. If he forced it to attach to the pipes, he was afraid that it would break again. He asked me in broken French if it would be ok to leave the mess one more night in order to have the right parts to remove the entire pipe behind the wall and attach it the way it should be. Sure, I said. Do it right or not at all.

Monday. I left early before the plumber arrived, but when I got home, I was very pleased to see that indeed a faucet had been installed into the wall pipes. In addition, there was about a three foot long by six inches high gouge in the plaster above the sink, running parallel with the counter where he had removed the old pipes and replaced them. He had nicely replasterd over the pipes and arranged for a painter to cover the discolored patched area. I was pleased to see his thoroughness, then performed the standard test of turning on the water. What? It is still dripping! I called the garcon de la maison (house help) who assured me that the plumber had verified the full repair of the faucet.

Tuesday. Mathilde asked the plumber to come back once again and tighten the joints where he could. It's better, but not perfect. Nothing ever is.

Additional note: Grace and Jon VanderVliet just left yesterday. I'll do something next time on our teaching together. We had a great time together. It meant so much to have them visit me here.