The rejected stone...

The one and half kilometer road to our communal farmlands had always been a difficult one to go through. It had been a footpath since our forefathers' time.

However, 50 years ago, our fathers made it a motorable road. They did it through a self-help effort through the levies they imposed on themselves. It was not a solid modern road anyway rather, it was constructed just to enable them go to farm with a vehicle especially during the dry season. It was usually a difficult terrain to pass when the rains come heavily. This was because our soil was soft, slippery in the rains, and prone to erosion.

The texture of the soil is such that some parts tend to be more of limestone while some other parts are clayey.

Of recent, our generation decided to reconstruct the road, with a view to making it an all season road as much as we could. We still had to rely on self-help effort since the government was not yet interested in the road.

A seven-man committee was setup for that purpose. Their task was to raise money and see to the construction of the road.

In no time, the committee came up with their strategy of raising fund, not through levies but, freewill donations from ourselves, friends and relations. This system was a success as we raised millions in a record time though, still not enough to construct a modern tarred road.

This idea of freewill donation appeared to spark off a spirit of positive competition among us which led to the increased revenue.

The next issue was the modality the committee wanted to use in the constitution work. When they were called upon to speak, their chairman started, "We're going to hire an escavator to construction the gutters along the way so that the flood and erosion will not easily damage the road since our money is not yet enough for the tarring of the road".

The chairman's speech received an applause from the gathering. In the midst of the applause, I raised my hand to speak, and was permitted.

"I must commend the committee for their effort and foresight", I started. "However, I suggest the issue of hiring an escavator should be dropped", I briefly paused, and continued.

"This is because, hiring an escalator, though good, looks more like of a tall dream, looking at our our peculiar situation".

A cacophony of voices started from the audience, murmuring, that appeared to be wondering what I was driving at.

"The money so far raised is impressive but, if we start with an escavator, we may run into difficulty because it's very expressive to hire one for even a day.

"Let's use manual labour which is far cheaper than escavator to do the gutters. We can handle that particular portion that is worst then, later continue from there to other areas".

At that moment, noises of disapproval of my opinion rose, as many people became impatient of hearing me out. Although there were some that saw with me but, the vocal few didn't give them room to support me openly.

I had to stop talking though I had also wanted to highlight on the nature of our soft soil which was not friendly to heavy equipments especially, during the rainy season.

The chairman of the road committee didn't like my suggestion. He said though it appeared to make a sense, it didn't hold water at all. "The escavator is the way to go", he concluded.

The committee went to work and, problems started very early. To even get an escavator to hire wasn't an easy task. It took three weeks to get one, and its driver. To get the carrier of the escavator to the site of work imposed another challenge because these heavy equipments needed to be booked in advance before they could be made available.

By the time the escavator actually started work, rainy season had set in, which helped to soften our soil the more. In its second day of work, it got caught up in a muddy pit. All the efforts made to set the escavator free from the pit proved abortive.

To escape the rains that were becoming heavier by the day, a hurried arrangements was made by the committee to use the previously rejected manual labour to carry out the gutter work.

I refused to make any comment on the turnout of events. It was some other person who openly expressed his anger, pointing out that my earlier suggestion of using a manual labour in doing the gutters was a wiser thing to do, instead of the high profile use of an escavator that had turned out to be both a disappointment and a waste of fund.

Image source: https://images.app.goo.gl/5Y3M26XDfqFJeTGT8