Meeting II – meet the bishop and the engineer

Last week we visited the Bishop to ask for his permission to view a few buildings that we might use in a future project. Claudia and Dennis had worked in these buildings so they knew that they were almost perfect for the intended purpose. After a discussion with the Bishop he accompanied us to the buildings and showed us around. The buildings seemed to be a bit wore down but I thought they would still be ok after renovation, plus they seemed to be almost perfect in terms of size, location and ownership as they belong to the Ugandan Church which seems a reliable partner. We discussed a few crucial things that needed to be fixed and some necessary extensions. I also took a few pictures with my mobile so I could remember some details. We then drove back to the Bishop’s office where we discussed the next steps and got a figure for rental of the facilities. Before we left he prayed for us, which seemed to be a bit of an honour.

As it was obvious that the buildings needed renovation we then searched for an engineer in town who would check the site with us and make an offer for the renovation. We soon found one who did so the same day. He promised to make the offer until Monday evening. We then agreed on meeting on Tuesday to discuss the offer but unfortunately the engineer didn’t show up with the quotation so Dennis and I discussed the plan for the next one or two days. At 7 in the evening the engineer arrived at the hotel and handed out two copies of the offer which was > 10 pages, written in very small letters… Obviously this seemed to be my work for that night as we arranged to meet again next morning at 08:30 to go through and check all the listed work on-site.

So I ordered supper and continued my work. Phew, at 09:30 p.m. I was through the offer and had re-checked all the calculations. The total amount was calculated incorrectly. Additionally the offer contained several positions with wrong totals which lead to a new total sum that was 10% below the total of the print out.

 

supper and a detailed quotation that needed to be checked…