Up! Up! And away…

March 9th at 9pm I will fly out and the mission will begin. As a case study for finishing my diploma at FAUP (Porto Architectural School), I've decided to volunteer and join A4A (Architects for Aid) in one of their humanitarian architecture projects. The projected on which I've been assigned is the construction of the LCCU (Lesotho Children Counseling Unit) centre in Lesotho. The building has been halted and an assessment, survey and new proposal and program will be drawn up in order that the building might finish to be built. Once this is completed a second trip will be organized and I'll be overseeing the building on site. The objective of this blog is to keep record of the work that is being done, both for the benefit of the members of A4A in London, FAUP to whom I'll also be reporting, my own record as well as friends and family that might want to know what I'm up to. Please comment on any post that you have an opinion, as this will undoubtedly help me in the completion of my thesis. Disclaimer: The information displayed on this site has not been previously edited or checked by any A4A staff and I'm the sole responsible for it's contents. A4A or any of the other involved organizations are not to be hold responsible on any account for what is published on this blog.

Thursday 2 August 2007

All alone, again…

It seems like ages since Camille left, but it also seems that it will take ages for the building to be completed! When we first planned for her to come it was supposed to be for helping me with the finishing touches but it seems that that slightly backfired… But thank you for the support and the help on all the projects some of which without you would I would have not managed to continue.

I have done my best and so has Ntate Sello, we are both working to see if we can deliver this building within an expected time frame!

Work on the roof was been carrying on today as planned. On one of the roundavels the bracing was put in the write way, but in the other (mainly because of the spacing) it was not possible to achieve my 60-60-60 angle division. Tomorrow I will check and discover if it will be possible.

So by now we have organised the roof, only diagonals missing, and after yesterday’s meeting with Linakane, it seemed as though we have overcome some of our divergences!

Stone has started to arrive today, and 3 extra men, have been invited to participate on this specific task. Three women have started to clean the thatch, to be used on the underside of the roof and a Thatcher, has also been employed but it might happen that he will be sacked, as the speed of his work is not top notch! The decision of trying to speed up work, at least for September 2007, has been taken and now we all hope to be able to make our work as good and quick as possible.

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