Entry #31 Going Up or Coming Down

We have had the unfortunate luck of being placed on the first floor of our building. I say unfortunate because we get to experience all the noises and disturbances that come with a busy city up close and personal. This noise has been amplified by the construction of a new apartment directly across the street from us. Construction often starts at 5 a.m and the earliest has been 4 a.m. I must say that it has been a little disconcerting to see how an apartment building is constructed in this country, since one can make the assumption that the building we are living in was built the same way.

From what we can observe there is a lot of concrete and re-bar involved and not to much else. We were surprised that we didn't witness any deaths as there is absolutely no safety gear worn at all. Most of the workers seemed to be wearing what looked like their Pj's with sneakers and a scarf on their head. One man was cutting the re-bar with a power tool and wearing cotton gloves for protection. Zoe and Isaac liked to watch the sparks fly as he cut metal with no safety glasses on. As the building grew the scaffolding around it grew as well. However, this isn't the metal scaffolding that fits together snugly. This was pieces of wood tied together with rope!But what's most alarming is the fact that when you see a building half way done you're never sure if it's going up or coming down.

The really good news is that it looks like a new building will be going up on the other side of us next year!

Scaffolding Kuwaiti style!

This picture was taken in a dust storm and you can make out the operator wearing his safety scarf!


The site of the next construction site!


This picture shows the bottom of the new building. Construction workers had just spent days laying out the brick parking area and then another group of workers came along and ripped it up to put new piping in.

The nearly finish product. The strange thing is that when this building is completely finished it could be up to six months before the water and electricity will be turned on. This is what happened as we waited to get into our current building.