I received a call from our landlady this morning telling me that I need to be home this afternoon because there are men coming by to fix the windows. 1.Thanks for asking if this works with my schedule (which it didn't really) and 2. Aaron and I still hadn't been able to figure out what is wrong with the windows in the first place. A man came by for a reconnaissance visit a few weeks ago, but I had no idea what he was looking for and he just babbled away in Chinese to me, wandering around the apartment and looking at the windows while I just stared at him thinking I wish I knew what you were saying, but I just don't.
So I get a knock on the door this afternoon to find 2 men getting together a pail with what looks like cement. This should be interesting because our windows are metal framed and sliding glass so I have no idea how cement is going to help. So I let them in and when you have workers in your apartment I've learned, you leave the front door open (which I kind of like from a safety standpoint.) So I watch one of them unraveling his harness which is good, except he only has the top half and not the bottom of a full body harness. Given an option, I'll take the bottom any day of the week, because when you only have the top and you fall, you are going to fall right out of it! Then I see this rope with a carabiner. Again good, but what exactly is he going to hook on to? I look out these windows every day (it's how I check the weather) and I've never seen any hooks jutting out of the side of the building for him to clip on to and these windows certainly aren't going to stay in if he falls (see how much I trust the Chinese construction!) So the one guy puts on his harness, hands the rope with the carabiner to his friend then climbs out the window. What??? Are you insane? We're on the 22nd floor and you're dangling/standing on the window ledge out the window with nothing to support you, but the hope that your friend is bracing himself the entire time you're hanging out the window plus that if you do fall, he's not going to come flying out the window with you! All I can say is "China!"
Fortunately for all of you who missed this fascinating sight I took some pictures :) Please note that in the first one, the guy holding the rope, is using one of his hands to gesture with so he's only holding onto the rope with ONE hand!!
As it turns out, the pail didn't have cement, but rather some kind of sealant. They kindly showed me what was wrong and I discovered that water is damaging the wall underneath the window. So either water is leaking in at the base of the window or just the whole wall is leaking. So he used his sealant to paint the outside window ledge. We'll see if it works. Personally I'm a little skeptical!
That last picture is a) scary as all heck, and b) well-framed and interesting, almost like it's a photo from a professional article on China's lack of OSHA-equivalent standards.
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