Found this in a discussion of electric drills on the BA expats forum. Found the picture when I Googled
"hammer drill".
Far and away, this is the predominant tool used in my building. I often feel that I'm living in the stone age. Nary a day goes by that someone isn't smashing something with a hammer all day long. Those are the days when the term "third world country" really resonates with me.
Some years ago, when I needed kitchen plumbing work done, the plumber (who was matriculado) spent the first full day smashing all the cement off of the kitchen pipes. After the next day or two of fixing things up (though one of the pipes began leaking again about six months later), I walked into the kitchen to find him preparing to again cover all the pipes and fill the space in the wall with a massive amount of new cement. I transformed into a version of Edvard Munch's The Scream -- and possibly uttered one -- before asking him why he was doing that. He didn't really have an answer, although he suggested that I'd get cockroaches in the wall if I didn't fill it -- and cover over the pipes -- with cement. It seems that around here, that's just the way things are done.
Well, years later, I still don't have cockroaches, and now there's at least one apartment in my building that can save the other tenants from listening to a torturous day of heavy hammering should I happen to need more kitchen plumbing work.
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