Notes from the Edge / May 2001

This was meant to be last month's contribution, but due to technical difficulties (my computer took a nosedive off my table, and I lost access to everything on it until mid-April) it didn't happen. Just think of it as running on A.S.T. (Armenian Standard Time), yet another step on the road to cultural assimilation.

You know how 'they' always say to be careful what you wish for-you might just get it? They're smarter than I ever thought. Just last month I was whining about my lack of work, and here I am up to my ass in alligators, frazzled at the edges and still trying to get my SPA together.

I thought I had it all done. I had the price quotes, the mayor's letter of support, the local language translation, photos and documentation, a snazzy binder and everything. It was in budget-written, printed-it looked good to me. I even had brief thoughts about using my suddenly free time to construct a scale model of the sports school, with working doors, detachable roof and color-coded rooms. It would be sort of Barbie's dream house, only different. No pink, for example, and no Jacuzzi.

Hah! And if you want to make God laugh, make a plan. It turns out the roofing material most commonly used in Armenia (that gray corrugated stuff that's just about everywhere) is made of-you guessed it!- asbestos. So, remembering that nice young man, Charles Dunlap, and his talk on the various pollutants abounding in Armenia, I got a chunk off the roof, broke it into a manageable size on my porch and trotted it into Yerevan for testing.

You remember there's BAD asbestos and not-so-bad asbestos, and I wanted to know which I was dealing with before confronting my moral dilemma. Whether we should use the cheaper (and possibly carcinogenic) material and do the work we'd planned, or to go for the pricey (and safe) alternative and be forced to downsize the project. For my counterparts, it wasn't a question-they were willing to go cheap and dangerous all the way. No matter what the tests said.

Looking at the daily conditions here, this should come as no surprise. Armenians are used to living with danger in its immediate and palpable form: earthquakes, embargoes, conflicts, road and vehicle conditions, driving habits. It's hard to worry about effects that may crop up twenty years from now when you're concerned about the leak in the roof that is slowly but surely undermining the structural integrity of your building right now. Little chunks from the ceiling drop down on us from time to time as it is. And everyone uses asbestos, anyway, so what's the big deal?

The big deal turns out to be that asbestos isn't eligible for SPA funds. Bad asbestos, not-so-bad asbestos, it makes no difference. It's not eligible. My specimen is still being tested (I've got that morbid curiosity) and I can let you know the results, but as far as this project goes it's a moot point. We're not using it and, thanks to USAID guidelines, I'm free from my moral dilemma. I suppose I should be grateful.

We'll be using aluminum now, which is twice as expensive, and that means everything changes. Everything. Currently the budget is almost a thousand dollars over the limit, for example, and all those lovingly detailed and to-scale floor plans and elevations may be for naught. (Not to mention the other problems Marlena found with the rough draft, all of which need to be fixed before the due date.) Can you hear God laughing yet? Can you?

And that was where my table broke, my lovely little laptop fell down, went boom, and henceforth ceased to operate. I'm guessing God got his entertainment value from me for the day. I'll always maintain that the Higher Power (whoever that may be) has a sick sense of humor-and as far as I'm concerned, the evidence supports my premise. The good news is that I managed to splice my SPA together from disc and memory, back on budget and in time, with all the lovingly detailed floor plans and elevations redrawn. I gave up any ideas of building a scale model and that's probably all for the better. It's been handed in to await it's fate at the hands of the committee. By the time you read this all the excitement will be over and we'll either have the funding or not.

The other good news is that my computer is once more humming nicely along, thanks to Aram. And the report on the roofing material indicates that it's not nearly as toxic as I'd feared. 15% not-so-bad asbestos, and the rest various relatively inert binders and fillers. Hardly toxic at all, really. And considering how much of it is around, this is a very good thing, indeed. And a vast comfort for my morbid curiosity.