(Copy/pasted and slightly edited from a chat I had on gmail today because yeah, that's all I've got in me at the moment. I'm sick again, feeling completely drained, hopefully Jonny doesn't catch it. Also, disclaimer for Mom - everyone is fine now, except for me being sick.)

so jonny stayed up into the middle of the night last night doing whatever it is he does, and threw a last load of laundry in.

well, he goes to bed, and at like 4:45 or so, i'm not sleeping very well, and i start hearing someone calling my name from what sounds like outside. so i think i'm dreaming, but then i hear it a second and a third time. its jonny, screaming for me.

i jump up, wearing only my boxers, sprint down the hall towards the front, where he can only be if he's not in his room, which he's not, and find him in the laundry room.

the pipe that feeds the washing machine is completely broken off and water is everywhere, and he's trying to hold the pipe shut with his thumb but running out of energy. we can't shut it off, the part with the handle to do that snapped off too. if we take our thumb off it shoots water straight across the room at about 3 million KPH.

the water's about 2 inches deep at this point, fortunately the laundry room is sunken. i take over plugging and send jonny to get the guard and night groundskeeper. they show up to me in my underwear trying to balance on a small ledge so my feet won't touch the water, because while jonny was getting them i realize the washing machine is still plugged in.

so, i test the water with one foot, it doesn't shock me, so i yell at jonny to unplug the washer and yell at the guards to go turn the water off.

pretty soon they have it off but we're in 3 inches of water and its not draining fast. they tell me to call the super, who i do, and he dismisses me, says he'll call me in the morning. the guard / groundskeeper do a pretty good job of mopping the mess into the drain and then finally leave. by now its like 5:30am.

i try to sleep on the couch to make sure i can jump up if anything else happens, and am promptly woken up sometime after 6. the super tells me he'll get a plumber out, but it will take a while, as things in kenya always do blah blah blah.

i snooze on the couch for a couple more hours, then get started on fixing the internet, which is down, as it daily is, so that i can try to get my emails. then the day groundskeeper comes by.

he looks at it but his english isn't very good and from what i can tell he is telling me they are going to call a plumber now. "NOW?" i think - its already almost 10.

so i send the super a text along the lines of "dude can you confirm you've got a plumber coming? groundskeeper says they haven't called yet."

about 20 minutes later, its the super, and he's just shy of screaming at me about not trusting him, and he has it under control, and why would i question him.

he even has the idiocy to say its all "an issue that could have waited instead of me calling him in the middle of the night"

we get into this HUGE yelling match where nobody is listening to the other person, finally when i get a break in the convo i shout "LISTEN, I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU YELL AT ME ANY LONGER ABOUT AN ISSUE THAT YOU ARE LEGALLY OBLIGATED TO SOLVE ON MY BEHALF, IMMEDIATELY. GOOD BYE."

click.

so about half an hour later i get this text message:

"Firstly my apology, intention was not to shout at or upset u. I felt we had already communicated and I assured you it would be sorted today. Plumber was notified I am waiting for him to get back to me. I felt sms showed lack of faith. be assured I am concerned. suggest we should meet in person in the near future to agree on how to handle these kind of situations. my apology once again for the shouting match, totally uncalled for."

(boo. yah.)

so i send a note back politely thanking him for doing what i pay him for.

plumber shows up before noon, turns out its an expat i've played softball with here.
they fix it in half an hour, jonny goes off to tag along with Shannon on a photo shoot in a school in Kibera, i shower and make the mistake of coming into the office.

the end.