Didn’t make it to site

Today I didn’t make it out on site, but when I phoned I was told that because it was pay day they would be leaving early and would not work the weekend.

Some of the men I was told are not form Maseru or Mazenod and haven’t seen their families for some time now… So I really understand that they don’t work tomorrow, however I asked if they could to compensate, work a few extra hours next weekend.

The response was positive! Great!

Zwane reappeared and came with Molope for a meeting at 13pm. I told them that the work done up till now was good (I just want them to change the window positions so that the courtyard becomes a secure place) and then I will show it to Lydia, and hopefully will carry on from there to start building it. I asked them also to give a copy to the building students so that they can start thinking about it.

The reason why I didn’t make it out on site today was that I spent the morning helping out at Sentebale so that we could deliver blankets and cooking equipment at the school for the blind. Sometimes you have to double out and help out with what you can, and plus I don’t think that they would have done any mistakes today.

And even if they had I now have the weekend to go and have a look at it and correct whatever is wrong.

Back to work…

Today work re-started on site, and they did a good job of it, the first wall of the House Mother’s room is finished and the second one is 60% finished… Tomorrow they tell me they will put up the bathroom partitions (the bricks for that arrived today).

But first thing in the morning I met the contractor, Mr. Linakane, and he gave me his first claim so that I could issue a certificate to the bank. I had a look through it and there are just one or two things that I need to clarify before I put my signature on that bottom line! They’ve done a good job up to now, and deserve every penny they are asking for but still I want to be sure about all of them.

In order to try and make up for lost time I have instructed them to start preparing all the things that can be done before the slabs on B are closed, so that as soon as they are ready we can proceed and not loose time with preparations. Tomorrow two guys will start preparing the reinforcement for the ring beam in block A, today they perforated the pipes (we didn’t manage to buy ready perforated ones) and they are now ready to be set, as soon as we get the geotextile!

At Sentebale today we had the hand over of the Eranger bikes, for the remote Red Cross clinics. The drivers were not 100% comfortable with them yet, but they have still to attend training. Then they will be taken up to the mountains and start serving their purpose. As Harper is away in the Uk, Baba (our multi talented handy man) had to do the duties of handing them over.

Went through Molope’s new version of Lydia’s house, he did a great job, and I just want one or two little changes done to it… Then I believe that we are really near to go.

-1

This morning it was still snowing, and when I got to site I was confronted with something I had never expected: a completely white building…

TED were there, ready to set out what they needed to dig. I looked around for Ntate Sello but could not find him any where, a few of our workers (the ones that live locally) were there but no sign of him. I phoned him and he told me that he was at home, that last night he’s car had got stuck and that by law you are not allowed to work in these weather conditions.

There was nothing I could say to make him change his mind and so I dismissed the boys. Five minutes later I regretted having done it, and was still quick enough to manage to pursue one of them to come back…

There was one little task that I wanted to do, even if we were not doing any new work today I was not willing to ruin our old one. So with him we swept the ice/snow and freezing water off the larger slab and covered it up the grass/thatch.

Meanwhile TED finished setting out and Andreas and Refiloe told me they were leaving. When we had finished with the thatch (it would later prove to be an unnecessary task, but better safe than sorry), I left and locked the site.

Luckily as I was driving away I recognized the two guys that Andreas had recruited for the digging walking back to the site carrying a wheelbarrow and two shovels… I stopped, turned around and asked what they were doing. They had a deadline and had to finish removing the topsoil by Friday! We now had a problem, I had no one on site, but at the same time was not willing to waste such a commitment and the chance to have something actually done.

We managed to find one of our own workers and, once I had everyone’s names I promised to come back at 5pm to check out had their work had been.

Between one visit and the other, I went with Baba to give some clothes (that he had collected) to the some orphans, decided to go and check if the children at the LCCU were ok (they needed blankets and I remembered they were some in the container, so I told them to use them, I also told them that if the weather was like this tomorrow not to let the children go to school), and then attended a QEII playground meeting.

Unfortunately at the moment we do not have enough tiles to build a complete playground with them but we might end up building one with a sand pit in the middle, still to be discussed in another, meeting… we decided on a time table for things to happen and now let’s see if we can follow it through. Tomorrow a group of volunteer girls will come and help wash the tiles.

When this meeting finished I rushed back to the site, only to be again amazed, but this time by the opposite. There was no trace what so ever of the snow!! It could have all just been a dream…

All our kit was there and a small amount of topsoil had been removed, our usual guard was back on site and I was happy to see that all had gone according to plan.

I do not believe it will snow or freeze this night but still, I wish the weather would become more favourable once again, as time is short and at the moment we have absolutely none to spare!

for more photos of the snow in Lesotho click here

Big test

In the last couple of hours a 15cm thick blanket of snow has just covered the whole of Maseru.

This will be a big test on our slabs… they were cast some time ago but I would still liked if they had covered them for tonight.

Yesterday they wet some of the slabs just before leaving site, that gave us small shrinkage/expansion cracks due to the cold night, I specifically asked them not to repeat it… I went around on my hands and knees checking them and they were only very superficial (a good scrub and they were gone)… But let’s see how they make it through this snow.

The snow will also test how wet it will get under our slabs and how much of it will come through the walls after when it starts to dry out.

But when I arrived on site today what caught my eye were the new partition walls that were being erected. Great that they are doing it already and great that I went there today. They were preparing themselves to align the two doors, if they’d done that I’d end up with no space for the beds! But that has been settled and it will proceed as planned.

Tomorrow will also be a big day as TED will go and start their work. Let’s hope that this snow will not stop that.

Wall or window

On the top right corner of all the drawings it clearly says that if any discrepancies are found on site please contact the architect.

I know that I don’t really qualify as an Architect yet but I still expect to be called up when these things happen.

When I went on site today, I noticed that the reinforcement for wall was hanging right on top of a window. That by my book is a discrepancy! But apparently not by theirs, they were just planning on moving the window…

And that is what they will do (because it is actually in the wrong place, consequence of the late change of plans), but if I had been called up we could have moved the wall and saved the extra work. But I wasn’t so and that is what will happen. Maybe next time they will do it.

However that was not the only thing that was wrong. The electrician decided that he preferred to install a sub-distribution board, and before I had any saying, he did it and they laid a slab over the routes, so now it seems to me a little to expensive to move it and as a result we have the SDB in the second boys room (in the position of the old one), I know that this room will also be shared by a house father but I would prefer that it was elsewhere!

But not all was wrong today. The ring beam in block A is complete. And tomorrow the poles will finally arrive. I also spoke to Ntate Linakane about the Sunshaders fire protection system. Tomorrow he will meet with them in Bloem and discuss prices. He will also bring back a model for me to have a look at. Also I’m still looking at alternatives for the canopy over the courtyard.

We have also started bringing the stone from the “quarry” and it is expected by the end of the week we will have most of the fill if not some of the slabs back on again.

Tomorrow some partition walls will start to be erected. Better go and have a look!

Back to square one…

Work on site has been progressing well!

Today I visited the site and am now happy to say that on block A we are nearly where we started… Well not quite…

We have now got 5 new slabs (with a properly made fill, DPM and slab thickness) and we have also started to put the reinforcing for the ringbeams. It’s nice to see some new work being done, as well as some of the “old one” being completed!

I spoke to Ntate Sello about some of the next stages, the roof (he says that if there’s a system that can guarantee a one off application that I have his full support in going for it!), the courtyard, the choice of materials, and it is nice that we are on same wave length.

He is not trying to cut corners and is actually trying to build higher spec than we had originally specified! With him on my side I’m nearly sure that we can convince the contractor on some of our choices.

We now await for a truck to go and pick up the stone that we have already collected at the “quarry” so that we can also finish the slabs in block B. Once this is done, both him and me think that work will ready speed up and we’ll be finished in no time… this no time is of course relative, ideally it will match the 12th of august (my departure date).

But for a Saturday site visit it was one of the most gratifying! The slabs are now at 50% and the ring beam at 33%. If all goes as planned we might be back to “square one” by the end of next week!

on the roof

As I had said yesterday today I went to meet the thatching people.

My first surprise was to discover that they actually will not do the thatching but will only supply the materials, all fine with me but you will do it then? Mr. Linakane told me that it would be done by specialists so who are they going to be?

But before I tell the rest of my meeting with the thatching company, I must tell you that getting in (and then, latter, out) was quite an adventure, as usual I tried to smuggle through without stamping in, there are only so many stamps you want in one passport, but today it didn’t work, so I got stuck in a 40minutes cue to stamp in.

Can’t complain too much… at least I got away without a fine!

When I finally made it to the meeting I was late (40 minutes, what a surprise) but I was still able to meet who I had to meet. I showed him the design for the building, which he liked and understood my preoccupation with the thatch on the canopy.

As I had thought, the pitch is not steep enough and he told me that in the best of years the thatch on the canopies would not last more than 2 years! (not much compared with the idea that a thatch roof, properly maintained, can last you a life time) We discussed some options including reed and metal sheeting… now it’s up to me to re-design this object. Aesthetically it will not be as nice as having a fully thatched building, however it will solve the problem of thatch shortage, and will give it a new, slightly more, modern look.

We also discussed the issues of fire-proofing as it is something that I’m really concerned about. We discussed the traditional methods and then he suggested that I should contact a Danish expert thatcher that has just started implementing his Danish approved method of thatching here in Lesotho.

This technology is called sunshaders and it basically consists of the insertion of a fire-proof layer in between the layers of mesh. I will do some research into it and if it proves to be a good solution and they are willing to teach some thatchers in Lesotho and in that way expand their client base I will be really happy to work with them and use the building for that purpose.

With the border controls it did take me all day to sort this out, but since it was such an important step in the process I’m only sorry that I wasn’t given access to them before.

Just another day…

I finally managed to meet with TED-Biogas. Yes finally because all the other times we met not much happened as a consequence… But today I managed to make them understand that we really need to start with their work next week.

They showed me their building program and it would take then, according to it, 44 days to complete their project. As we only have around 50 days till the 12th of August dead line I really needed to let them know how important it is for them to start! I think they’ve understood it and hopefully are willing to really commit to it!

But I had to squeeze this meeting in between 2 visits to the police to report that someone drove into the car (when it was parked) and then ran away! Annoying especially because it happened just yesterday before we where getting a new car!

But I then had another victory, although a slightly frustrating one, I finally managed to get hold of the roof (thatch) specialists. Frustrating because if I had got it yesterday I needn’t have to go tomorrow to Bloemfontein of course…

But as it didn’t happen tomorrow I will have to go and collect 4 more stamps for my passport!

3rd world pay

I had left this post for a day when I had little else to comment. Not quite the case today but I felt it appropriate to post it today.

Morning meeting with Lydia, Harper, Baba and 2 members of the American support group for the LCCU I had a meeting to try and understand what we needed to purchase and how we can program the move to the new LCCU.

It will not be the easiest of moves, but it will be one essential for the welfare not only of the LCCU but for the whole social services of Lesotho, this said it means that we have to do it is good as possible.

In the afternoon, (after not receiving the contacts for the Thatcher, which was something that I really needed!), I had a meeting at the QEII for the new playground. Next week we will meet and try and set a timetable to finish the project!

But this post is to focus on pay. Whilst the minimum wage here remains well bellow Europe, I spoke to Molope the other day and he told me how much he got paid as a student, working as a draftsman. I was incredibly surprised to hear that here in Lesotho, so called 3rd world, he actually gets paid more than in Lisbon or Porto working as a “Estagiário”! Plus not only do they get paid more, for a job with less responsibility, but they actually work less hours!

Hard to believe isn’t it?

Film, trucks and beams.

Quick dash to the site at 9am to meet Badru. Badru is a local filmmaker that has been employed by Sentebale to do short documentary films to update their website. One of the projects he is reporting on is the LCCU, so this morning we did a short interview and I showed him around the site.

It was a fortunate day for him to come as we had a bit of everything… Men down in the village collecting stone, steelwork for the ring beams, 3 deliveries of material and at lunch time we even cast some concrete (only one of the 2 slabs I had been promising though).

So if I’m not mistaken (as I had to leave for a meeting that was later cancelled with TED), we now have 4/10 slabs done and we wait for nothing but the electrician to finalize his work to cast the 5th.

The materials that we were short on arrived today. The trucks and the way they offload the sand and gravel on site is quiet impressive (for pictures click here). Deliverd today was not only 19mm crushed stone for the slabs but also 12mm for the ring beam. I had requested this smaller size because with the width of our block we would have struggled with the other.

The ring beams are being prepared and so are the “anchor columns” for it (small column stubs placed at 2400mm cc and 3 courses deep to better connect the ring beam and the wall).

Once this work is completed we can then start erecting the roof. And for that to happen tomorrow I will try and visit, in Bloemfontein, the thatch specialists. I’m getting a bit concerned with the pitch of the courtyard roof not being suitable for thatch. I am prepared to change it if necessary however I want to meet with them to see if we can keep as it works in a much nicer way with the rest of the building.

That said all that is rest for today is to report on two totally different events: Lesotho’s game against Uganda ended in 0-0 draw and was not one that was really worth watching (though since we had extra tickets we did invite two children that were wondering around at the entrance, one turned out to be a brother a player), and the curfew has now been changed to 8pm-5am, I believe it is because they realized that yesterday many of the workers got stuck with no transport or means to get home.

The saga continues…

Not much of an improvement last night with the curfew… a Peace Corp car was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hi-jacked! But the police was near and managed to reclaim the car shortly after but not before being greeted with a free round of bullets! (maybe from the guns that were stolen from the military before)

But the saga I was referring to was Lydia’s house, I went there today with Baba and Molope to finalize the “needs” brief! It is now done and Molope will work on it and I will supervise it. In the end when we arrived all she wanted us to do was to mirror the plan… Sometimes I don’t know!

When we were there they were making an inventory of the contents of the container, but it seems that once they got it all out, not everything would “fit back inside”.

I had news from the site and the 2 slabs that I had promised for today will only be cast tomorrow as we run into a little shortage of crushed stone, which has already been dealt with, but which caused the concrete pouring to stop earlier today.

Tomorrow Linakane will take my details to the roof specialists and hopefully I will have some feedback!

I also visited today the school for the blind, an interesting building, to see if there was anything that could be done to help out with their football pitch… It is in appalling condition, a real death trap. I’ll will try and contact the FA in the UK and the IBSA for some help on designing one, so that in August when Suzie and her friends arrive they can start work on it.

still as normal…

Although the curfew was declared on Friday night not much has changed, yesterday I avoided going to site just to see how it would develop, and since nothing serious seemed to happen. Today I decided to resume my life as usual (or at least between 6am and 6pm).

The trip out to site was as always calm, apart from the stop at the road block, and once on site work seemed to be proceeding well. We now have 3 slabs down, and by the end of tomorrow we will probably have another 2! (steel mesh was being placed into one of them when I arrived, being lifted over the wall and laid on the floor inside) Block A is speeding up. On Block B we are still organizing the stone but I hope that once we have got that on site it will catch up!

My trip to site today was also dedicated to thank the guys for the good job they have been doing! I decided to give them the copies of the photos they took and also some of mine! I gave them to Tau and asked him to distribute them at the end of the day.

I also visited Lydia to show her the layout for her new house. She was not quite happy with it yet so I decided that I will try and organize a meeting between her and Molope. He needs to get used to it at the rhythm that that project is going I doubt that I’ll have it sorted by the time that I’ve left, it might also be better to coordinate it that way…

State of emergency

We now have an imposed curfew between 6pm and 6am.

I’m quite annoyed by it but you can be sure that I will not be the first one to break it (today I even decided not to go to site just to see how things develop). It was declared after a small escalation two nights ago, still over the results of the elections! A few politicians on both sides were attacked and so as a preventive measure the government decided to take this action.

I am a bit concerned not because I feel threatened by it but because I’m afraid that if it lasts for too long it might cause further delays on the project and that is the last thing that we need now!

But I must say that was not the only thing that annoyed me today. My Dad always told me that I wants don’t get! So when I received a SMS saying that “I want to see the drawings(…)” I have decided to think about and see if I believe that I should do it.

If I don’t get stopped at a road block that is!

Rocks

Once more I waited for the contractor, and as it was already an hour past our schedule meeting I decided to make my time on site useful and go and help out with the collecting of the stones.

We had got permission yesterday and we are now collecting them in a little part of the countryside just next to the village. It was hard work but, someone had to do it! I was hopping that we could employ more people to help with this! Let’s see…

After an nearly 2 hours of stone throwing and picking I asked Ntate Sello to take me back, and when we arrived not only was the electrician there! But the contractor had been and gone without calling anyone!

But today was more than a little (frustrating) stroll on site (even if I did manage to see that the DPMs were now being properly laid), on my way there I was once again stopped at a road block!

When I had gone to develop the photos, that the guys on site had taken, I was told that a conflict might escalate (still result of the elections!), I hope that it was only an exaggeration but let’s see how it develops!

Mixed emotions

A day of mixed emotions so I’ll start from the beginning…

Went on site in the morning and it was with delight that I saw that they had already completed 2 of the 3 retaining walls, and that they had also cast one concrete slab… But not all was right! They had forgotten to leave space for the outlet for the water pipe (not too hard to resolve before the concrete settled) but unfortunately that was not the worst mistake… In doing what they thought would make me really happy, laying the new slab without my assistance (I was happy for the initiative however I just wished that they had looked at the drawings), they made a small mistake!

They did not upturn the DPM onto the walls… Luckily I got there before the concrete was dry and with a little paternal advice we managed to find a solution that would allow us to save the day. What we did was simple, and was to cut back the slab just enough to reveal the DPM, then we covered this gap with soft board (which we removed once the concrete was no longer dripping) and we will now paint a bituminous layer down the wall and fill this gap, thus connecting both DPMs. Problem solved 1 slab down 9 to go!

This was however a long task and Tau agreed that it won’t happen again, next time he’ll look at the drawings, but as he said it is from mistakes that we learn. He was quite sad about it though, but it was also thanks to his dedication and sacrifice of his lunch time that we got it right again.

From this I went on to my second thrill of the day, a meeting at Sentebale with the LCCU. As always it was quite a challenge, and this time I nearly lost control. I was upset because when they showed me a list of the furniture they needed some of it was for rooms that don’t exist. You cannot change the plans and a building every week! And some of these things could have made sense if they had been mentioned 3 month ago (not now that we have already started and agreed on everything). It was even more annoying because some of it seemed not to have been thought through at all. It is as if we have this space and now let’s see how much we can shovel into it!

Buildings are not like that! You can’t just add to something and in the end hope that it works (or looks ok for that matter)! I told them that, and after 2 hours of meeting it finally became clear that what they had written down was not actually what they needed. What they need is more coordination so that everything can work in what they have, and not create extra spaces, for accommodating what they want. Organizing instead of Adding is the solution for this one!

In a bad mood I went for my next meeting, expecting to get even more upset… But Molope surprised me today, and apart from one or two minor changes that I have already asked him to do, the plan is ready for Lydia’s house! He told me also that Zwane might have to stop working with us. And I told him that if he felt that he could do it alone I’d have no problem whatsoever with that, and would help him when he needed. So finally that one seems to be moving!
The final high of the day, was finding out from Linakane that we have managed to unblock the stone impasse and that we are now allowed to collect the stone in Mazenod! Great! Nothing is stopping us now from continuing and completing the fill in block B!

The sign!

Not much happened today so I have the chance of showing the sign that Standard Lesotho Bank has made for this project!

As I have said a few posts behind, I’m not sure this sign will last for long. The plastic film is easy to peal off and the tin sheet on which it is glued will do a lovely roof for one shack or another…

I spent my day drawing, freehand and on CAD, trying to sort out two of the three main type details that I need to complete. The roof, the panels (and the one that I didn’t do yet the sills), but I’m slowly getting there. It’s not that they don’t work I just want to do something that will be modern, with a traditional twist, but easy to build!

The students still haven’t showed up and I feel that Lydia’s house is falling a little behind schedule, but that was the way that we had planned that it would happen, so I can only do my best in trying to get the students to do it.

Tomorrow I will visit the site again and you can’t imagine how happy I am for that!

Blocks, mesh and electrician…

Three hours I waited for the electrician to arrive on site this morning… Yesterday I had been told that he would be there at 9am, so at the agreed time there was I waiting for him.

He didn’t show up until 12:30 and both Ntate Sello and I were both wondering of he would ever show. During this time however I managed to alert them for a small problem that was happening on the erection of the retaining wall.

Yesterday (late in the afternoon) we had received some blocks so today they had started the wall. They had not looked at the drawing/detail that I had issued them and so a small problem was arising. They were having difficulty in building the wall without continuous vertical joints in the pillars! It was easily solved by building a model (which I have just discovered is even better than a 3d sketch) with bricks so that they could easily understand how to do it.

With that done I continued the site inspection and was happy to see that block A is now nearly ready for the slabs.

Before the electrician arrived we received more blocks and steel mesh that we will need for the retaining wall and the slabs. The reinforcement for the ring beam will arrive tomorrow. But due to a lack of communication the round sections will not be pre-curved! We will have to do it on site… The drawing that I had given them did not have the radius or the diameter of the rondavlos (because it was not constant) but for material order the dimension of Ø6700 would have been good enough! They didn’t ask, I didn’t know, we didn’t order… so now they will just have to bend them on site! Not to difficult Sello tells me.

The Electrician eventually arrived and we discussed where to put the new conduits and where the switches were going to be located, and where these conduits had to go… He was not 100% fluent in English so I guess I might have to keep an eye on it to be sure that it all ends up in the right places. Ntate Linakane, drove him to the site and after went off to the meeting with the village chief to see if he could sort out our stone shortage problem.

However before he left I asked him if he could set up a meeting with the Thatch roof specialist so that I could discuss the details with him. Once this is done a crucial part of the project will be on its way and I can focus on some other issues like the children’s decorative panels, which not only will be nice but a lot of fun to make (for both children and me!).

I had a meeting with the students about Lydia’s house but one of them (the one that had the drawings to print) didn’t show up, so the meeting was postponed for tomorrow. I need to squeeze them a bit to get this one also moving… Up to know I’m the only one working for it and that is not how it is supposed to be!

Drawings delivered

Not much to say about today…

At about 10 o’clock I got a call form Ntate Linankane, saying that we had a bit of a problem with the steel company… He was telling me that they didn’t mange to manufacture the steels with the amplitudes we needed… It sounded worrying so I asked him to meet me at my office.

He came and when he was there he showed me a sample of what they could do. It looked okay… Just needed to be bent a bit more to get the angle right, but for some reason that I could not understand it wasn’t possible! So as I was trying to find a way to achieve the needed angle, he suggested that they could just get them like that and they would hammer them on site to its final shape! Great problem solved!

We then had a brief conversation of what needed to be done, and he seemed pretty confident that it all would happen on time! I told him I’d be there tomorrow to speak to the electrician and arrange for the conduits to be put in the right places.

But in order for that to be done I had to deliver the new drawings on site today. I did so and whilst I was there I also helped Ntate Tau to change the film in the photographic camera so that our inside view of project could continue to develop!

But before I went there I stopped by Lydia’s to give her copy of the contract for the building project. Whilst I was there I met a group of American students that are trying to help fund Lydia’s operating costs… It seemed to me as though they need to speak to Sentebale.

Well, maybe more happened today than I had said at beginning!

Oh Lord!

To my big surprise when I got to the site today there was no one there.

I had a look around, the retaining wall foundations had been completed and another room had been compacted and was now also ready to have its new slab laid. So why was no one on site today?

I phoned Ntate Sello and he told me that he had given the men the day off because we did not have enough stone to continue the fills. Getting stone has been a bit of an issue. Ntate Linakane was meeting the chief of this area to see if he could negotiate with him something that should be free. Stone is normally free to be collected in Lesotho, but this chief wants us to pay for it… If Ntate Linakane doesn’t succeed I will try a final strike. Baba and I will go and speak to him and explain how important for the whole community this project is! If that still doesn’t work I’ll just remind the chief that the patron of the project is his own Prince Seeiso, and I am sure that will do the trick!

So as there was nothing new to see on site, except for the SLB sign that had been put up (don’t think it will last for long!), I decided to drive back. On my way I stopped at a couple of places where I had been planning to do so but had never actually done it!

One of these sites was the Papal Stand. It was from this incredible structure that Pope John Paul II addressed thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Basotho (probably preaching about how the condom was an unnatural and sinful creation!! God forsake those how us it in a HIV/AIDS infest country). The structure itself is placed in an open field and as I was walking around taking pictures of it, something strange happened.

Before I tell this story I would like to stress how my reaction to the Roman-Catholic church has changed over the years. I was born and baptized a catholic (not my choice you see), and from early age I started to disagree with it. Not that I don’t recognize that in some cases they offer a lot of support to THEIR people. My disappointment was not even in the teachings of Christ. My quarry with them is the way that somewhere down the line they seem to have lost contact with its people and its original faith, transforming itself into a bureaucratical machine of the word of God. Christ preached love and freedom, this church preaches rules and what’s wrong. But I digress… I’m only making this point so that people understand that in some ways I have had my disagreements with the Catholic church, and when opportunity is given to me demonstrate their wrong doings (even if small ones) I take it!

So as I was walking around admiring this structure, for nothing else than it’s magnificent presence and it’s architecture, I was called by an official of the Catholic Church, who standing by a pick up truck close by.

I approached and greeted him, thinking that maybe he would like to see the photos of one of his sacred shrines. And out of nowhere I said that I as being extremely rude, impolite and disrespectful!

He said that I had not asked people for their permission to take photos. I apologized and tried to explain that I was not taking photos of people but of the structure. To which he replied that when they were there I had not the right to take photographs without permission. I apologized once more saying that I was not aware.

He still told me that I could not do it. That I could do whatever I wanted but not when he was there… Good old Christian love! I felt as though my presence was not a wanted one so I moved away…

God bless the Catholic Church for its kindness and hospitality… Amen!

Day off

I took a day off today. There haven’t been many days that I haven’t worked but to day was one of them.

After a week when we were threatened with rain almost daily, I reckoned that up in the mountains it would have snowed quite a bit! So after waking up and having the GREAT NEWS that Camille would come and visit me in July! I decided to head of to the mountains and see if my luck would keep up!

And I was not disappointed! Everything was white, and the ski resort was open! It’s not the Alps or Norway, but how many can say that they have actually snowboarded in Africa?

It was a beautiful site to see all of the high peaks of the Maluti/Drakensberg covered in snow. And it was also fun to glide down the slope (yes there is only one slope, at 3222m!)…

I decided to have a day off after the good news yesterday at the LCCU, things are starting to speed up. Tomorrow I will go back there to see what progress we have made, I also have to chase the 2 students for Lydia’s house.

They haven’t worked much I admit, but they were still busy with school… However I think that Lydia is really exaggerating with her impatience. It might be happening slowly now (it’s not my priority), but the students will design it and I will supervise it, so in the end she can’t complain too much, after all it is all being done for free!

So back to work tomorrow, but it was definitely nice to have the day off today!

More than expected

More happened today than I could have expected!

Yesterday I had tried to build a prototype for the playground at the QEII, but because the maintenance guys could not make it that was rescheduled for today. So at 2pm I showed up, as planned, and in a little over 2 hours, with very little resources we were able to do it.

When I say very little resources, I mean literally all I had was a cutter and 2 screw drivers… Later when I needed the sand and gravel Ntate Molosi helped me with a shovel.

With a jig-saw and not using an old drawer for shuttering I guess it could have gone better. However the result was more than satisfactory and both of us are now confident that it will work. In the process we discovered that if we make the wholes in the tyres (for the metal support) fractionally smaller than the screws there is no need for the bolts and washers! Cost saving! One of the advantages of doing these 1:1 models is that you can quickly understand what is needed and what is superfluous.

So as I was saying by 4:20pm I was finished, and eager to visit the site. When I had spoken to Ntate Sello he had told me that today they had started to pour the concrete for the foundations! I wanted to see it…

I decided to take the bypass, to avoid traffic, and managed to make it on site and still catch them there! The foundations had been cast in the two circular parts and ¼ in the long part. They had stopped because they feared they would not have time to allow for the first settling period before the day started to cool down.

When I arrived I found them covered, as I had suggested the day before, with the old thatch grass. Great insulating value, and as you can see in the end I did find a use for those old materials!

But this was not the only surprise they had reserved for me today. Two of the block A rooms are already compacted and ready to receive the slabs. Hopefully next week we will be able to speak to the electrician, so that the routes are set in and we’ll pour the concrete here as well.

The other surprise, to my delight was that they had started to underpin the gable wall. I have to say that this was a really nice surprise as I had been discussing the matter last night with my dad, also an architect and a lot more experienced than me. They had decided to underpin it with 3 “pad” foundations of 800x800 and all the way down to solid rock! They were asking me when they should fill in the bits in the middle, and I replied that with the way that they had done it, there were only now about 5 or 6 blocks which were not directly supported (45° force distribution).

So now that all these new features are nicely tucked away in straw…

Good night Concrete! Hope you stay warm during the night!

It is now on paper.

The contract has been signed, and now that it has been done I can say that I nearly screwed up.

But thanks to a bit of luck, and a good set of photos all was ok. With all the work that I’ve been having I forget to inform the contractor of a last minute change to the hour of the meeting.

I realized this last evening and started to try and get in contact with him, it was not until 8:55 this morning that I managed to get through to him and inform him that the time for the meeting was now 9:00!

All would have been ok if he had not been 1h:30m away from Maseru! But it seemed my lucky star was shinning on me and both Harper whose 10h meeting had just been cancelled and Dave Rose (Standard Lesotho Bank) were ok to wait for him.

So with a little help from the photos of the progression of the work on site I was safe!

Signed sealed and copied I now only have to give Lydia her copy…

Look who’s back?

Another day of rain (which is not that bad) as we have not yet received the crushed stone, are therefore continuing with the fill.

A compressor is now on site and we are starting to compress the final layers of the fill. As a way of reusing material, the contractor has asked if we could use the remains of the old slabs as one of the final layers of the fill.

I said that yes provided he could assure me that it would be as good as using normal gravel. So in order to be sure of his work he is now compacting the crushed concrete slab. Most of it was gravel anyway however the remains of the sand and cement used needed to be properly compacted.

But this was not the only major happening on site today! Our old friends TED-Biogas, showed up on site planning to set out their tanks…

They came but decided that needed to dimension it again and then check once more on the computer before setting out on site. However it was good, to meet them again, as I managed to give them our building program and discuss with him them the way I was hoping they would conduct their work in parallel with ours.

That is all for today. May not seem like much but it is actually two big steps in the direction of completion.

Lisbon ???

The electricity has just gone out… I’m now working on what is left of my batteries power… Today has been a miserable day, weather-wise and now a small wind storm has just picked up.

I woke and up and I had no electricity, I assume it’s reached a full circle! Anyway…

At 8:30am I was out on site to deliver the new building program. Work seemed to be progressing well and the fill of the ex-boys toilets was already nearly complete. The rain started to fall and in a way I am grateful for it as it will serve as a final test to any thing that hasn’t yet gone wrong!

I then headed out with Harper, Sally and Sam, to Malealea, where we were to go and have a look at the area and a few projects that Sentebale might be involved. These trips out into the wilderness, today more than ever (the road was a total wreck), have proven apart from invaluable cultural experience as a eye opening on the conditions that these people actually live in.

The schools that we visited where less than fit for purpose! The first had one of it’s buildings in such a shape that I felt unsafe just being inside it. The roof (tin roof, no insulation) was caving in and the fixings where such that the screws were as sharp as razors and sticking out of the bottom! In the room next to it, there were at least 20 children all gathered round a fire. All seems fine up till now apart from the fact that there was no natural ventilation and the room was filled head high with smoke (I could barely open my eyes)!

The next school we visited suffered from the usual “Modern Syndrome”, concrete block building unfit for purpose! The walls were soaked on the inside and all because no proper finish or waterproofing had not been provided on the exterior! I will not even comment on internal temperatures, as that is a battle lost from the start!

This school are trying to find funding for 5-6 (would be the best) teachers houses (they only have 60 students) and this is one thing that I will comment on now, and with which I risk being insensitive. But it is a fact that people in these conditions always ask for too much. As Harper normally tells me: “If you don’t ask you don’t get!”. I think that he is right but fact is that it somehow gets to me that they have their priorities wrong. Sometimes it feels as though they are more concerned about their own good than the communities and the children’s needs.

But the setting is beautiful, set up as a trading post in the early 20th century Malealea is now one of the prime attractions of Lesotho. It’s just a pity that in such a stunning place people are living (and being educated) in buildings that are far bellow standard.

A, B, A, B…

Not a musical compass or a rhyme structure…

A, B, A, B… is more or less the way how we are planning to go through the building process from now on. I will explain. After the meeting with the contractor and the foreman it was agreed that the best way to speed up the building is to divide it into 2 blocks and treat them independently. Block A (bedrooms) and Block B (common areas). Like this we will be able to advance work on block A before all the remedial work on block B is completed.

Apart from the obvious advantage in terms of time there is also an added benefit of having teams that will know what they are doing, as they have done it at least one time before, when they move on to block B! This will not only speed up the job but also (hopefully) allow us to aspire to better quality finishes and building!

So it has now been agreed that we will try and complete the building by the 10th of August. The contractor is committed and so am I so let’s all do are best and wait for the results!

The only factors still missing in this equation, and which I am already trying to sort out are when the other two contractors will join in. TED-Biogas hasn’t been too cooperative up to date, but Playpumps should not give me to much of a hard time.

Anyway it’s now time to roll up the sleeves and push on!

Big Bad Wolf?

Social life in Maseru is not the biggest thing and even when I manage to get out, as yesterday, I seem to bump into more work… At a party last night I met the Country Director for Habitat for Humanity (H4H).

After a small conversation I understood that this NGO even though the name would suggest it, is not currently working with architects here in Lesotho. So I proposed what had to be… I would talk to A4A and see if it would be possible to help them out on this one.

H4H is currently interested in building 50 orphanages and if this partnership goes ahead we might end up helping to design these same orphanages. I already made a suggestion to their prototype, one that could save them money and help them achieve their limited budget … However it is not up to me to decide on this project. I will suggest it and wait. H4H will send me a proposal of what type of work they would require from us and if A4A accepts to do it I will be more than happy to help them develop it. They are aiming at starting to build these in September so this whole project has to happen fairly quickly…

I also met at the same time a Basotho Film Maker, could be a future contact for Sentebale if they decide on doing a new documentary. It’s always better to try and foment local people as opposed to fly them over from the UK.

Today I had planned to go to the Museum and Archives at Morija. But before I this I went to meet Lydia, to discuss the changes to the plans and to check on progress on site.

The changes were accepted and progress on site seems to picking up some speed.

By the time that I made it to Morija I had already made some detours for photo-research and stopped by at Matsieng, the King’s village, where I was welcomed by the “Herd Men” (grown up Herd Boys) and given a taste of their locally brewed beer in exchange for taking their photos! (which I promised to give to them on my next visit)

At Morija the Museum is rather small but has an interesting collection of pieces that tell you the story of Lesotho. The Archives on the other hand are quite impressive and I will defiantly return to study them better.

On the way back I bought some food at one of the side of the road shops, and when I tried to give it to a really young Herd Boy he ran away as fast as he could, leaving his animals to trail behind him… I felt bad but I guess that I might have scared him!

Rock Bottom…

We have just hit Rock bottom but in a good way!
Digging down to the foundations, to lay the new retaining wall, revealed that the existing footings are actually set into the rock face. Cut into them and flushed in height.

This was great news as it meant that there is no possibility for rotation to occur (or at least any that we should seriously worry about). Best news so far! But not the only one of the day!

We also test the last gable wall for a footing and guess what? This time there was one! I guess the previous Contractor must have been really upset when his men made a mistake and put in a footing where there was no need for one. I can almost hear him “Footing here, you guys really like wasting money don’t you!”

But one man’s mistakes are another man’s fortune and in this case it means it is less a problem for us to resolve.

At 8 o’clock this morning I was out on site ready to assist with the setting out of the blocks. In the 3D sketch, of the retaining wall, I had specified that columns should be placed at approximately 2m CC (the real distance being 2300mm CC as was written on the plans) but as the contractor was showing me this meant we were one column short, at 2m CC.

I explained that that was the approximately part of the drawing that wasn’t being taken into consideration, and that instead of using the dimensions we should use blocks, so every 5 blocks we put a marking, and after one or two tries to centre it we managed to get the needed 8 pylons.

Whilst I was there steel for 6 of these 8 pylons was put in place and the rock face prepared (cut to be at the same height as the existing footing, or the filling of small gaps with concrete for the same purpose). Mesh was also cut into streches of 800mm so as to give 50mm cover to either side of them.

Next week we will cast them, and build the wall from it and that will be the end of this problem.

I’m sure it will not be the last of my problems but let’s go onto the next problem as this one has already taken too long to fix!

For more photos of the existing footings in the rock and of the steels being put up follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/pck.clarke/FootingsAndSteels