Saturday/Sunday Sept 29/30, 2012
I
was walking through one of two largest electric furnaces in the world today
thinking how fortunate I am to have a part in this project. For those readers, who don’t generally walk
through gymnasium-sized furnaces, let me paint a description with words:
I feel like Buzz Lightyear… no no.
Umm… Buzz Aldrin, or maybe it was Neil Armstrong. Yea that’s the guy I think...
the guy who walked on the moon and now no one believes it. Entering the furnace through a crooked
scaffold and up a dusty ramp, I step through thick clouds of dust floating
heavy over a rust coloured moonscape.
Vague shapes of men in their protective suits, respirators, helmets and
gloves take shape through my dirty face shield. Loose rubble rolls into jack
hammered craters as I make my way past pancake-flat mushroom-shaped deposits of
hardened nickel under each of six electrodes, between which man-made lightning
usually forks. Through my foam ear
plugs, I hear the deafening rat-a-tat-tat-tat thuds coming from strange looking
machines mining away at the cooled slag and nickel. Climbing the highest
deposit of nickel, I raise my flag and plant it deep in a crack, mouthing those
infamous words through my dusty respirator, “This is one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind…”. Then I
called mission control on the radio and they told me to get the hell out of the
furnace.
Back to the reality of being Kevin Nichol, I’ve been spending my nights in
a simple room, sparse with furniture and accessories. My luxuries include a twin bed and a single
bed depending on my mood, a flat screen tv on the wall, a fridge, a telephone, a recliner
and a single plug-in. Here in Brazil and throughout most of my travels in South
America, the showers are not piped in from a hot water tank like in Canada
where power and water come cheap. The water is piped in cold and an electrical
appliance is mounted on the shower Fawcett which warms the water in a coil when
you turn it on. Unfortunately, about two
weeks ago I was showering when the plug-in above the shower started popping and
cracking and a plume of smoke filled the bathroom. From then on, the electrical breaker has been
popping a couple times every shower and I have learned to quickly lather up and
rinse off before I have to slip and slide out into my room and reset the
breaker. I reported this to the owner
yesterday and an electrician is supposed to change the shower head today. It turns out my present shower head is rated
for 220 v but it’s plugged into a 110 v outlet. The thing about appliances here
is that they come in either or both 110v or 220v. The other day, my boss and I unpacked a brand
new printer, plugged it in and pushed the start button. It immediately burst into smoke and flames
and is now being used for parts.
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| Plug-ins in Brazil |
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