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.

Tuesday 11 September 2007

All about the panels

Yesterday not much happened apart from the fact that we managed to get bundles of thatch which we needed, so the thatching has now restarted, however we will need to get a lot more and be a lot more organized if we are ever to complete this building by its new date.

This week was supposed to be all about panels, and in a way it has also been, I had just expected to be able to focus on it, and have ended up having to multiply the minutes and hours of my day to be able to deal with everything.

The first frames and panel have been mounted on site, and they look good! Now we just need to produce another 43! We decided in the end that it will be safer to produce them all the same size as I was afraid that the longer sections might bend and deform. In this way it will also become easier to make and will speed up the process.

Tomorrow I will head off to Bloem to buy the materials we still need for the workshops and then I will try and rush back for the introduction with the kids at the LCCU.

But before I could even start to plan tomorrow’s trip I had to deal with small problem. It had been planned that Ntate Tau would leave our site and go and work on another project (where allegedly he is more needed), I could not let this happened so after a few hours I managed to get someone else to go and keep Tau… If there is any chance of achieving a miracle I need workers that can perform!

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