One of the apprentices showed me a small job he had finished for a neighbour, and the work was neat. I felt proud, then immediately started looking for something he might have missed. The boy was waiting for my opinion while I stood there making a fine moment unnecessarily long. I did tell him it was good. He smiled in that way people do when they were trying not to need your approval. I remember waiting for my own master like that. It made me happy and a little uncomfortable, having that much weight in somebody's day. On the way home I nearly called him with another reminder, but there was nothing new to remind him about.

I have been saying I will finish the solar training when work becomes quiet, which is a fine plan if customers agree to stop calling at a convenient time. They have not agreed. Amina asked how many hours I actually need, and I couldn't answer because I had been thinking of the whole course as one enormous task. I checked the modules tonight and put two short sessions in the job book. I may have to move them, but at least I know what I'm moving. I don't want to become the man who recommends new systems confidently and keeps postponing the part where he learns them properly. The supplier's English is slow reading for me; it is still reading I can do.

After carrying equipment up and down the ladder, my thighs were shaking a little when I finally sat in the workshop. While working I had kept telling the boys to drink water, then found my own bottle almost full beside the tools. Very good supervisor, poor example. I drank and stayed seated while one of them put away the lighter things. The tiredness was ordinary enough, but I don't like the ringing in my ears after being near a generator for too long; at home I asked Amina to repeat herself twice. I was about to blame the children for making noise. They were noisy, yes, but that was not the whole matter.