pck 4 a4a

last post... I promise

2009-02-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

I had promised I would not come back and write again on this blog, however last week I was fortunate enough to return to Lesotho, with RRA and A25 for another project (for information on that project please follow this link www.back2lesotho.blogspot.com ).

Having had the opportunity to visit the the building one year on was great! All the memories, the challenges, the joy it all just strolled past.

Anyway, I could bore you for hours if I were to continue... So here are some photos I took that day! http://picasaweb.google.com/pck.clarke/LCCUOneYearOn#

And this post I promise will really be the last one. I guess it's time to move on! (even if I know that the LCCU will always have a special place in my mind).

Bye bye

2008-02-15T10:41:00.000-08:00

Lesotho

and the LCCU are now far... More than a day has passed since I last saw the building, and I wonder, how long will it take to finish? And what will it finally look like? Will the children like? And will it serve their needs?

I know that I have left it in good hands but still I would have liked to see it finished… I know I will someday and I hope it will make the difference we all hoped.

Thank you guys for all the work you put into this (on site, in the office, and everywhere), and thanks for all the good times! Lesotho, and this building for Sentebale/LCCU is an experience that I will always keep close to my heart.

I write this “final” post only now because as I arrived yesterday morning in Paris I discovered my grandmother had passed that same night. So I am now in Lisbon... Goodbye Avó! Although I am not a great believer, and I suspect that you were not much better, you are now closer to Avô, where ever that may be.

Photo Session

2008-02-12T23:42:00.000-08:00

I have done all that I could to try and get most of the things covered before I left. If I had had more cooperation I would have been more successful, but not always (and especially not here) everything happens the way it should do!

Tomorrow I will however leave with the feeling I have done my best! Let’s just see how much I can get done tomorrow?

But today I will post a new photo gallery (click here) as it might have been the last day I had to take some nice photos of the building in the sun… The weather has been very unusual for this time of the year!?

1st Poles

2008-02-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

Finally the first signs of a canopy start to appear. This morning we spent 4/5 hours putting up this canopy.

It works well and with a little site tweaking we managed to gain a little extra headroom which will be crucial once we get to the steps.

I really hope we manage to make a move these next 3 days as I would really like to leave with the feeling that this problem has been completely solved.

Trials and tribulations…

2008-02-08T23:01:00.000-08:00

It all started yesterday as I realized, by tests, that what worked well on paper actually doesn’t work in reality! I even had 100mm to spare (on paper) but, it is just not possible…

So the canopy cannot sail under the roofs eaves and be mounted on to the walls, only solution is to hang it from the rafters. It is actually a more elegant solution, and be using a flexible joint it is also possible to avoid any extra wind pressure which might affect the roof structure.

So now that the holes for the floor brackets have been enlarged, the wall ones abandoned I spent most of the day organizing metals braces and other bits (not successful in all cases) to see if tomorrow I will manage to try them out!

a different view

2008-02-06T23:28:00.000-08:00

It looks quite different now that the ceiling is up. Strange it divides the space a lot more! I will wait till the front is finished to have an opinion.

Apart from that I spent the day organizing brackets bolts and anchors so that tomorrow we may start the canopy! Really looking forward to that!

What hats are for…

2008-02-05T23:23:00.000-08:00

Today I discovered much at my own expense what hats are for!

We finally managed to get the roof finished! We had already closed it and today we finished spraying it…. No wonder that spending 6hours looking up at the roof had its affects on my skin.

A test on a sample of the grass proved it efficacy as the non-treated portion burned fast and then the fire actually stopped when it didn’t manage to penetrate the treated thatch.

Also we finished the installation of the lightning conductors! SO now 4 long masts hover over the LCCU keeping it safe!

Two victories in one day I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

All covered.

2008-02-04T23:37:00.000-08:00

I woke up unnecessarily early to meet the Thatchsayf people. As it happens I forgot that they would be coming over from Jo’burg and calculated their arrival from Bloem instead!

So I waited and waited and waited… Eventually around 12:30pm they made it across the border, which means that the work that was supposed to be finished today will carry on during tomorrow.

The chemical they spray can stain the slabs and the exterior walls so I spent the afternoon, whilst overseeing the spraying, being sure that that didn’t happen!

Coming round

2008-02-03T23:03:00.000-08:00

As we come round the last corner of this 11month long marathon I am starting to realize how much we have achieved, how much we can still do and how much we haven’t!

It has been a long ride, up and down… but worth every second of it! Tomorrow we will start work, and hopefully finish, the fire proofing! That will be one step closer to sleeping soundly at night!

The retaining wall is still coming along, but we are now short of blocks… it seems that however calculated how many we needed missed by more than half. Ah! Not really a surprise after such a long time! But still another delay…

Hopefully we will make up for it soon and continue to bring this wall round to the front of the building!

By chance

2008-01-31T23:37:00.000-08:00

After the last few days trying to pin down contractors, suppliers, etc so that the project can move on, I managed to bump into Ntate Linakane today!

As I was walking around Maseru trying to find a suitable steel angle to use as a baseplate for the poles in the courtyard I went to Cashbuild and alone and behold who was standing at the door with a lot of materials… It was Ntate Linakane and Ntate Sello, buying most of the bits that we needed to finish the building.

After almost a week of chasing I had managed to just find him at a place where I had no idea I would… Great thing it happened!

I helped them load and then took part of it to the site, where things are slowly starting look like they might be finished after all.

Base for safe

2008-01-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

A blowtorch was used (exceptionally) again today but this time I was there just to make sure nothing wrong could happen.

But to be honest the threat was close to zero today. The torch was used to weld the copper cables for the earthing of the lightning conductors and it was used outside and at some distance from the building, but still I was happy to just overlook it!

So that done, stage 0.5 of the fire protection is completed. The bases for the Masts are now in place and once the concrete has properly cured the masts will go up next week.

On the rest of the building work is still on going at a desirable rate, especially the electrical works, however due to material shortages once again we have not been able to start the canopy…

Preparations

2008-01-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

The next two and a half (final) weeks of my stay are starting to look quite busy.

With the biggest part of the building already completed, major works I mean, going around doing the bits and pieces will not be as easy as I hoped…

Two days ago we started setting out the retaining, and yesterday it was started. The combing of the thatch has also started and that will be slowing down the whole progress until it is finished. The ceiling is being prepared, the lightning conductors, fire-retardant, playpumps and all other bits and pieces are lined up to start this coming week.

Coordinating all this and getting the canopy done as well is going to be chaos, but I do look forward to it!

Ceilings up!

2008-01-23T22:38:00.000-08:00

The new electricians have managed to solve all of the left by our old friend, still one or two issues that we are not sure how to do but by the end of the week they should be done!

The roof is also starting to be combed down and that is something that needs to happen as next week we will be spraying it with the fire retardant!

The ceilings and that is the one that has made the biggest change today have already the frame in place, and by looking at them I think that maybe I would like to leave it open. But let’s see how it looks when finished…

All is coming to an end and the next weeks look like they are going to be a bit of a rush to get everything finished.

Workmanship and contributions

2008-01-21T23:48:00.000-08:00

The rhythm of the work on site has slightly slowed down, well maybe it hasn’t but now that the roof is finished and most of the glass installed, the other jobs do not look as such great feats…

The boys toilet is being done up and should be finished also quite soon, and the doors are being mounted. However not all is going according to plan. The previous electrician seems to have left us with a small problem at hands…

The conduits for the electrical cable have been badly installed and are bent in ways that we are having a bad time trying to sort. I hope that we will manage to sort this out soon, but if not we might still end up having to cut up some slabs.

Now on a completely different subject. We are currently in the process of trying to make a list of all donors and their contributions to this project. I have received from time to time comments from people how seem to have been involved with the LCCU, so please if you read this, just let us know your envolvement.

Closed

2008-01-19T12:51:00.000-08:00

This is a small step for construction but a large step for the LCCU!

We have finally closed the roof… After weeks, months of agony and disaster we have finally managed to close the roof. I have decided to save the roof dance for once it is truly finished but just the idea that we no longer are going to have to and look for thatch, and that if it rains inside will be dry cheers me up!

Thank you guys! Now we can really focus on finishing this building!

Glass, gates and poles

2008-01-17T23:49:00.000-08:00

Trying to coordinate the little bits that are still missing you sometimes realize that you still need to redesign a few things…

After meeting with the electricians yesterday, today was dedicated to the steelworks and the lightning conductors. All went well, but I realized that with all the amendments that this building has had, the security gates that I was going to ask them to make were actually bigger than the openings! Ops… So back to the drawing board, and now it’s all sorted out again!

With the lightning conductors all has been agreed and in the next week we should actually start to install them.

The rain kept away until this evening and that is clearly good news as the roof is almost done now! And with the Glass being fitted already it is really starting to look good.

Getting closer…

2008-01-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

When I first saw the LCCU today I thought I might have to get my dancing shoes and my little german hat, as it is nearly time for the roof dance!

At a closer look, I realized there is still one or two days left of work before I can even contemplate this but we are getting there.

A very good surprise has been the new team of electricians that has joined our project… They believe they can finish within our time frame and that can only cheer me up, what really annoys me is to hear from them what I already knew, that the previous one was incompetent!

So as work carries on to complete, we have also continued our task of trying to update the inventory of what we have and what we have not… but at a more challenging location this time.

It drains like a fountain…

2008-01-15T23:01:00.000-08:00

Today there was a massive downpour of rain and it served to test our courtyard’s draining system… Surprise surprise! It works well!

But before I did any of that I went to Matsieng to help Jamie with the inventory of the stuff for the LCCU. A lot of stuff was there but not all that we hoped to find… Hopefully we will find it elsewhere otherwise it is more expenses that we will need to incur in.

So once that task was finished we did the aforementioned stop at the site. The courtyard drains fine, and Ntate Tau has nearly finished all but one of the window frames. The material for the ceiling has been bought, and so has the cement for the aprons, all is going well but if we do not have a few dry days we will not be able to close the roof!

Please let it be dry for the rest of the week… Please!

All sorted

2008-01-14T23:04:00.000-08:00

My bags have finally arrived and nothing had been stolen or broken, maybe the smelly cheese that was in it kept the thieves away. Who knows?

As a result I have been able to update the blog and a couple of posts from last week are now (finally) online!

As usual I went to the LCCU today and progress is now evident at every passing day! The roof is nearly closed and it is now only fair to start believing that for once we might actually make it. The walls are also almost all finished and ready for the finishes, with Ntate Tau working hard to finish the frames in the courtyard. The canopy is the single element which has not been started but that should pose no serious problems and I’m fairly relaxed about it’s execution.

All the partners are aware of our progress and we are currently drawing up work schedules so that we can get all the loose ends tied before I leave.

Jamie Yates, has just joined us here at Sentebale working as a volunteer during his gap year, and will be helping with the move to the new building. Hopefully things will start to move and I will still see some of the interiors already organized and habitable. If not others will and then I will receive pictures!

La Vache!

2008-01-11T19:48:00.000-08:00

First of all let me apologise for the delay in this and the last posting!

I wrote them both on time, but since I have arrived I have been a little bit out of contact… Airlink managed to loose my bags even when I personally checked them in at Jo’burg! So now I have very little hope in seeing them…

But work goes on, as it can, and little by little progress on site seems to be showing. I hope to have the roof closed by next week but let’s just wait and see?

Yesterday and today we had a new presence on site! A cow! Not that it will do much work but at least it’s helping to graze the grass which is quite long by now!

I hope my bags will turn up tomorrow otherwise it will be more than just a charger and few days of work that I will loose, but nearly 5/6 years of my life and work! All stored on my hardisk which I stupidly had sent through in my checked luggage!

back once again like the renegade master...

2008-01-09T17:07:00.000-08:00

For the first time in my now long list of travels between Europe and Lesotho, I was impressed, and not disappointed with what I saw from the sky!

The new LCCU is further ahead than I thought it would be, at a closer look not as ahead as it should be, but it was certainly a big improvement on what I had last seen.

From the sky and even close up the external walls are now painted and as soon as the frames have also been done it will really easy to picture what the building will look like! The thatching is also well on its way, with only a Roundavel missing! What is considerably behind schedule is the electrical installation, but that does not really surprise me! Let's see if it is this time that I get new electrician.

Maybe the lightning bird did make a difference! 5 weeks now to try and finish this one...

Hamerkop

2007-12-03T13:02:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is just better to play it safe. Even with the lightning conductor masts approved this morning sometimes you still need that little extra…

I will leave in a couple of hours and will return only in January. All has been organized so that site will be checked frequently and I will know the results but as I have learnt its better safe than sorry and this time the site will be kept safe by my very own Hamerkop bird.

The Hamerkop myth is a very interesting one. It is believed that lightning is caused by a nesting Hamerkop so in order to prevent lightning from striking it was usual to have a Medicine Man help you site your house, then to compliment this you would install a statue of one to fool other Hamerkops that your house is already taken.

I have never been much of a believer in anything but many times locals know better!

The roof of Africa!

2007-11-29T21:55:00.000-08:00

Well not quite this one… The roof of Africa is a rally which is raced in Lesotho and this year it started today!

The main streets of Maseru where cut off for the bikers to do their time trials, that done traffic resumed and they headed of to the mountains as I headed off to site.

Work on the reconstruction is progressing well, although I am still having some problems with the contractor. But that is nothing new anyway…

Staring at a blank wall…

2007-11-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a productive day having had teams from Micon and also Playpumps visit the site, but today I was left staring at a blank wall.

Just before I left the office yesterday I phoned Linakane and discovered that the assessor for the insurance company would visit the LCCU today. When I said I wanted to meet him he seemed anything but happy about it! So when I asked him at what time he was coming I assumed he would lie!

As he had told me 3pm I geared up for 2:30pm only to discover that his lie ran a lot deeper. 9:30am was when he took the guy there so of course I didn’t manage to meet him!

I’m annoyed by it not only for not having met the assessor but because I do not like to be taken as a fool!

Hail

2007-11-27T23:06:00.000-08:00

The weather is going crazy!

Look at that, this is the middle of the summer! Anyway the day was not dominated by these bizarre meteorological events but by trying to clarify the Building Regs and organizing a fire plan.

The Building regs in Lesotho have a small glitch (in the way that they have been worded) which would actually meant that thatch would be an illegal material but as even the government is building with it and all the traditional house are like that I have been trying my best to demystify this…I've got one letter saying that it is acceptable but maybe I will be luckier tomorrow.

I also took the Security Unlimited Fire Chief to visit the site. And he will now help us elaborate a good evacuation and fire protection plan.

Gamble

2007-11-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

This past week was all a bit confusing.

Work carried on site and the contractor decided to gamble that all will be approved as before. I do hope so!

He has managed to work at a reasonably good speed and all I want now is for the assessor from the insurance company to come so that we can strip down those walls and get on with it.

No work this weekend (pay day) so that gives us a little more time to organize and try and conclude everything before the next big push!

Candles

2007-11-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

In the light of the recent events I was a bit nervous whether we should celebrate my birthday with candles but I decided that taken the proper precautions it would probably be safe!

Now seriously! And please do not be offended by my sometimes inappropriate humour. I’ve spent the last few days collecting data and trying to find ways of improving the fire resistance of not only the thatch but of our building in general.

We are now very close to a decision and I do hope that it comes soon as we are all eager to continue to work at a good rhythm! (precautions will be taken of course!)

Go ahead

2007-11-18T17:06:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I met (once again) Eng. Lebohang Phooko on site.

Once more it was very helpful of him to come and assess the site. From our findings the building did not sustain any major structural damage from the fire. There has still been considerable material damage but the structure is OK and that is great!

Part of the reason is that being thatch, low density material, the fire consumed itself quite quickly! And then the fact that we had screeds and render on the walls also helped to protect the structural elements.

So with that crucial information the contractor is getting ready to go ahead. However we are still waiting to see what the final decision on what measures will be taken to make the roof safe!

All cleared up

2007-11-15T19:41:00.000-08:00

This would be a good thing, had the insurance company advised exactly the opposite!

I tried to prevent the contractor but still he decided that he couldn’t wait anymore and that something had to happen… One of the reasons why the insurance company has not assessed the site yet is that he has not put in a claim for it yet.

I’ve been chasing him but I hope that this and a confusion between him and the broker will not cause him to loose his claim.

All still in the air

2007-11-14T20:33:00.000-08:00

I have not been able to gather much information about what is going to happen.

I went to site this morning and had a look around. The damage is not as bad as I had thought but still I will let an engineer decide that (it will be done I hope Saturday).

Whilst I was there I gathered all the workers, and over a can of Coke, had a chat to them, thanking them for all their hard work and explaining the importance of not letting this knock us down, and that now we have to be even stronger and push even harder to finish what we have started.

Up in smoke

2007-11-13T21:44:00.000-08:00

If God exists he must be a mean little being!

Two fires in less than a year and this time it was at the new LCCU! Everyone is OK, it’s just material damages but still we were so close…

Block A is almost intact, the roof did catch fire but it was possible to control it in time. Thank you to the Moshoeshoe 1 airport fire brigade for replying to our call for help!

But Block B is all burnt down. The plumber was welding some pipes when the fire ignited. Accidents happen to all but it is just so unlucky that it happened now. I guess it’s better now than with kids in the building but still we were nearly there…

Time now to assess and regroup and decide what to do, who knows this second time around the fenix will be reborn quicker!

God probably just doesn’t really care about the ones that work hard and suffer… or maybe he’s busy with something else, but then again I’m not a believer!

for more pictures click here

There is (still) hope

2007-11-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

The reason why I have been absent these last few days has only been that up to now work has been going on smoothly so there is not much to report.

The thatch is slowly going up and by the end of the week we might have closed the roof of Block B, which is exactly what we need. Not to stop the rest of the work we have been painting and digging and preparing all the other bits which are also necessary to organize before we finish.

Not much to say, and in a way I hope that it continues that way!

The Lapa

2007-11-08T21:09:00.000-08:00

The Lapa, a traditional feature of a Basotho home, is a kind of small yard defined by a small wall, it has many features and serves for different rituals and preparations durinhg a normal day. We do not have a traditional Lapa (although are internal courtyard is an interpretation of such) but now the entrance has also been defined by a small platform and a stub wall will soon be built on it.

The rest of the work is carrying on as planned. Some more thatch arrived this morning and we are now at 75% of Block B. Paint on Block A is speeding up and the Plumber and Electrician are doing their best.

If more thatch arrives tomorrow we should be able to close it by next week.

The funniest event of the day was whilst I was delivering tables and benches to the new LCCU there was a group policemen stopping cars, they did not stop me but when I reached the top of the hill there was another waving at me. I assumed he had been radioed by the others to stop me and check for my (unexisting) licence to transport oversize objects in my car. I nearly didn’t stop but as I slowed down and saw him running I decided I’d better do it.

He immediately got into my car and told me to drive fast! Puzzled I told him I couldn’t because of the load… But he told me that he was trying to catch a couple of thieves! So even with all the load I managed to take him down the hill before the robbers ran away and help him save the day!

Not just us

2007-11-07T22:09:00.000-08:00

This morning I decided to visit the site for the new Cultural Village at Thaba Bosiu.

It is a much larger project than ours, but it’s also using thatch so I wanted to see how they were faring. Like us they have also run out of thatch, but with a team of 25 thatchers they are able to make up for any delays as soon as they have more. One of the small structure is completed in 3days and the larger ones in a period of up to 10days! Oh who I wish it was the same on our site.

What I do not wish, and I have to say was really surprised to see, where the kind of lack of attention to both detail and construction methods that I saw here. In the large structure I saw spans/openings of up to 2m without a lintel (some of them were already giving in). The depth and thickness of the foundations is also something that I would be concerned if I was involved with that project. But the worst problem of all is the location of some of the chalets, some are only 2m away from a 20m high land slide!

Is it possible that no one knows how to properly site a building?

Business as usual

2007-11-06T16:06:00.000-08:00

After all the thrills of this last weekend business is now back to normal.

Yesterday the thatchers managed to grass another long section of the courtyard. Quite impressive! It gives me hope that maybe we are finally on the right track for completion!

This morning they were working on the exterior of the sae section but the weather is not in our side. Who now seems to be on our side is the contractor. We met early to discuss what will be the next steps for completion. We have 4 weeks and I want to see the building finished before I leave. It was agreed that he would order and organize all the materials we still need to complete the building by the end of the week!

The people that I had asked Friday to come and fix the Pump have finally shown up, and by the end of the day the pump should be working again.

Fit for 2 princes

2007-11-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the last stretch to get the LCCU in shape for today’s show and tell!

I woke up early and rushed to pick up the steel guy. Then I took him to site to start work on it! The idea was to get a section of it looking as finished as possible so as to show what the finished product might look like!

When I left the LCCU, to drive up to Butha-Buthe for a discussion about ideas of how to develop some sites up there, I was not quite sure if we would pull it off… But we did the Extreme make over was complete and a success! Thanks everyone for such a good job yesterday and this morning to get it looking so good!

The panels on the walls were a success and they will be even better now that our patrons have also made some! Everything went as planned although there was a bit of a snapping frenzy at one moment, but even that seemed to blow over quickly.

“I’d like to live here” was about the best compliment we could have got for all our work. I’m only sad that we could not use such a great opportunity to have Princes Seeiso and Harry open the building. But we will continue to work hard and hopefully soon it will not be just a section but the whole building which will be looking that great!

For more photos of today and latest LCCU photographs click here

Look who is here…

2007-11-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso, have just paid a surprise short visit to the New LCCU site today!

This short visit is part of their current trip to the country to check up on Sentebale’s projects. For reasons that you will certainly understand I was not allowed to mention or comment on this trip until now… (in fact this post will only be published once it has publicly been announced where they are).

But that said, it was great to have them visit the site! One of the reasons why we were trying so hard to finish the building by November was to make it coincide with this visit, unfortunately it was not possible.

But still they visited the site, hard-hats and all, and I believe they liked it. Although we have not finished yet, we are now at a stage when it is possible to imagine what the building will look like once it is finished. And hopefully by Sunday when they will come again it will look even better!

Cleaning up

2007-11-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

Aided by a group of Boys (they were more Men than boys) that Lydia had organized to help me, this afternoon we swept the site clean.

Picking left over materials, paper and plastics which had either been left on site by the previous contractor, or by the current.

The electrician, the plumber and the tiller were all on site today and they seem to be moving in the right direction! I will show you photos as soon as it looks more presentable.

Now with a clean site I hope it will motivate the workers to be more proud of their work and take a little more care with what they are doing!

“the signs they are a-changing!”

2007-10-31T23:43:00.000-07:00

Between driving off to site to organize the sign people and also trying to get drawings and ideas ready for the weekend, I must say (once again) that I am exhausted!

I started off by driving the sign people to site! Then sorting all different sorts of things that need to be addressed before the weekend, and when I noticed what time it was again I had to be off to site to take the sign people again!

As soon as I arrive there was another Bakkie, this one with the contractor! We were both meant to be back in Maseru for a meeting but we eventually made it, and it now seems that we will manage to do something during November.

Thuso Centre

2007-10-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

A hectic morning trying to organize some aspects for the LCCU and then a drive up to Butha-Buthe has exhausted me completely.

If all goes according to plan this weekend we will be able have a pretty good idea of what the building will look like. I have pushed for the light fittings to be bought and have managed to go and see the guys that are doing the steel to see if they just push it a bit!

But sometimes you cannot fight a lost battle, let’s see how it goes. I refer to this short example of what sometimes happens when someone that does not know what they are doing makes a decision. Look at the photo and tell me how are you meant to get to the Thuso Centre now that the road has been cut off by a new allocation of land?

Promises

2007-10-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

If the construction of the LCCU progressed on promises, it would actually be finished long time ago!

Today as everyday I got more promises… Promise from the electrician that he would come tomorrow. Promise from the plumber that he would finish with the fittings tomorrow, and the eternal promise/hope that we will have thatch on site tomorrow.

But the sad thing is that I know that out of all these promises tomorrow probably none of them will be fulfilled!

Shop shop shop!

2007-10-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

I spent most of my day going from hardware store to hardware store!

In the morning I went with Pete (K4L) to buy some parts to try and attach the goals at the blind centre to the floor, but although in theory it would work perfectly, the reality was that the ground was either too soft or too hard!

But during this trip I did manage to have a look at the carpet tiles that I wanted, after a bit of persuasion I managed to take the catalogue (which I promised to return by the end of the day, but forgot) and went to site to check the colours with the walls…

Surprisingly the bets match was a brown that on its own was not that attractive!

Whilst I was there I got a call from Ntate Sello to meet him at Build it, which I did and we then spent a few hours looking for taps and tiles, pans and basin… the Full Monty!

In the end he did not have money to buy everything today so we will resume this task on Monday!

The roof dance.

2007-10-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

When I was still in London working for JLA I had a German friend who once told me that back (at his) home when you complete the roof of a building the contractor and the architect go up on the roof and do a roof dance and proclaim poetry!

I wonder if this tradition came from joy or desperation! The kind of despair that makes one so thankful when something is finally over that they literally climb the roof and go ape!

In my case, although I am not German I will surely be on the roof once it is finished, and yes it will be out of despair!

Today once again the contractor has his phone off and I cannot call him! I do not know what he is doing all I know is that I do not have thatch again, and if that was not enough some of the plaster needs to be redone as it has lost it’s grip to the wall.

But my favourite upset of the day has to be the fact that the electrician has decided, for the second day in a row, not to come to work! You will never guess where he went, but I will tell you, it is an ugly, big building with Doric columns on the front porch! Can you guess where that is?

Fittings, thatch, pipes and steel

2007-10-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

Morning was spent looking for light fittings so that we can start mounting them on site. Unfortunately when I arrived back to tell the electrician about my findings he was not there.

The roof solution for the canopies works well on paper now, and I just need to be sure that it works… Today it was not possible because there were still other issues to solve specially concerning the ridge. As it is the roof in the different parts of the same block are at the different levels and Ntate Sello was trying to get them to match. But I spoke to the thatcher and I do not think it is worth wasting 2days work just to adjust it 100-200mm.

This said it would be nice if they matched but it could just go the either way and we would still 100mm higher but on the other side. So better just leave it as it is.

So once that was sorted I decided to run a few tests to see if we had the appropriate fall in all our drainage pipes… Water down the pipe and will it come out the side?

Yes! They worked, so I can say that I’m pretty pleased with that.

My last task for today was organizing to buy the necessary steel sections so that the Ntate Letchesa could start manufacturing them... all went well and the frames will actually be slightly cheaper than I had imagined so another good thing.

Up or down…

2007-10-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out a solution for the different canopies in the building, both in and inside.

And every time I think I’ve finally found the solution the change in heights between the blocks makes me have to re-think it all over again! So yesterday I did what I should have done first. I measured exactly what my margins and tolerances are.

Now I’ve redesign it and it works on paper. Later I will discover if it also works on site!

Yesterday screeds

2007-10-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

A morning visit to site yesterday allowed me to see the screeds in Block B being done. I discovered then that the screeds are not really sand and cement screeds as you would normally expect…

Because I had asked for a 50mm screed as opposed to the traditional 25mm they have decided to mix crushed stone in it, thus effectively transforming it into another thin concrete slab, this one is however finished with a trowel and its final look is that of a normal screed.

Not quite sure what effect this will have on the overall performance of floors but I hope it will not be bad.

Colour test

2007-10-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

A fortunate mistake in communication between me and the contractor ended up by creating the solution for the interior door frames.

Having specified a tone of cream that was very similar to the interior walls, I failed to explain that by frames I meant the mouldings and not the metal frames themselves…

So not to waste this paint I asked the foreman to make a test and use it for the internal frames… The result is quite good, or so we believe!

Not again.

2007-10-16T01:14:00.000-07:00

After a meeting this morning I had to redesign the kitchen layout for what is now either the 3rd or 4th time… I wish we just all reached an agreement and stuck to it!

Besides that my morning was filled by a visit to the LCCU to show Richard Graham, Comic Relief, Sentebale’s involvement and the progress on this project.

The changes today had not been many but I think he was happy with what he saw. The steps on the courtyard (the other side) should now be finished and that gives the space a new more complete look, if we forget that there is no roof in half of it!

Hat-trick!

2007-10-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

Not tries or goals but of things that finally got done on site!

1-0 Today I managed to get TED to come out and we decided how we would proceed with the sewerage pipes! No major issues there, just something that needed to be done!
2-0 The caps for the thatching have been made and they look a lot better than the original one than by the thatcher. These ones were made by a cap specialist!
3-0 The steps have been corrected and although they are not perfect they do look presentable now…

And that’s it for the day, can’t complain too much I guess.

Stepping out!

2007-10-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I was too nervous to even think about going to site yesterday, but today as I arrived I noticed the steps were not quite right!

Looking at them they are drifting “slightly” to the courtyard, although I know that they will not fall in, I had to ask them to change them! I hope that by tomorrow, once they have been adjusted it will be a bit less noticeable…

Well it was not that bad from a distance but up close it was quite appalling!

But whilst I waited for Ntate Sello to return so that we could have a final agreement on that matter I decided to help out the women who where sorting and tidying up the thatch. As it happened there were 3 of them carrying it all the way from the sorting ground (at the entrance of our site) to the office room (now converted into a store room) and there were 3 wheelbarrows just sitting there…

With a little organization we manage to set up an assembly line and that little task progressed better and with a lot less effort! If only all our problems where this easy to solve!

It will get better

2007-10-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

The roof guy showed up early this morning and the structure has now been changed to what it should have been from the start.

Later in the day I returned to the site to meet Ntate Linakane and I noticed that there was a problem with the screed between the girls’ bedroom and the toilet. If I had been here to control the screeding of the floors they would have been screed at different heights to avoid water going from the bathroom to the room, but this didn’t happen and it seems we will have to cut a gully to avoid this from happening.

Not the end of the world but yet another (small) problem.

The setting out of the steps went well and they should be cast during the weekend. Thatcher moving fast and that is what we need.

Bracing, pipes and thatch

2007-10-11T09:36:00.001-07:00

It should not have been hard to repeat what they had done on Block A and do the same on block B but strangely enough they didn’t managed. I met the roof guy today and he then decided that he will come around tomorrow and fix it.

The plumber was there as well and we finally managed to discuss where, how and what to do with pipes. He works fast and that seems to be one chapter where I don’t expect many problems.

A quick chat on the roof with the thatcher was cheering as he says that he feels that they should be able to roof Block B in 10 days… Let’s see how it goes…

And here we go (again)

2007-10-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

19 days, 5 capital cities, 7 planes and 27761km later I find myself once again standing in the same old site looking at the same old problems.

During all this time I only managed to have little contact with the site, I phoned a few times but now it’s time to start again.

A lot changed during these nearly 3 weeks that I was offline! I finished my thesis, Camille passed hers, England revived their RWC campaign, Block A now has a full roof and doors and windows are being installed.

But even before I landed I saw once more that I would not be able to keep my promise and complete the building for the first week of November. The shortage of grass is still haunting us, and only slowly have we managed to find enough for our project.

As soon as I landed I went to site to check on the progress… the courtyard is finally looking good, the number of steps will have to be increased and we still don’t have the poles for the canopy, and the changes in Block A are impressive. The roof structure in Block B was braced in a strange way though…

The weather has been miserable and unfortunately that has also set us a back a little…but on the other hand the grass is greener, and the volunteer house for Sentebale is also nearly there!

the end

2007-09-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

Jo'burg airport 18:56

Sitting here I realize how hectic these last few days have been... meetings, panels, drawings, site, thatch and all the rest. It feels like the end of a cycle but also the beginning of a whole new and scary one.

Although I will be back in less than 3 weeks to try and (finally) get the LCCU finished, I feel as though I'm leaving...

This morning when I visited the site a truck load of thatch had just arrived and that gives me hope that by the time I'm back we will be able to get on with it. In the mean time I have left the site in the hands of Baba and Sally, who will keep the pressure on the contractor and hopefully send me back some info and photos so that I can keep an eye on it. It will be a kind of virtual master of puppets if it all goes well, with me being able to still manage the site from thousands of Km away... Marvels of the modern world!

This is the last post which will be transcript onto my thesis so it is my last chance to thank everyone. I'd like to thank Camille and my family for the patience and staying behind me even when I had to change my returns, my teacher Luis Urbano (FAUP) for giving me the chance to embark on this task, to A4A, Martin and the Sentebale team (yes Baba, you too are Sentebale) for all the support I needed and all the good times, to Pete and Susie (K4L) for housing me when I was "homeless", all the workers on site, Ntate Linakane and Ntate Sello for the good job so far (let's speed it up now), all my other friends and people which have supported, helped and been there during this experience, I'd also like to thank specially Harper, Sally, Sam and Oscar for making my stay in Lesotho such a great one!

See you all soon!

Frames and session3

2007-09-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

Session3 which was meant to be held yesterday had to be rescheduled for today, as my car had to be serviced and the clay was inside…

Yesterday was nevertheless important as we finally managed to meet the contractor and get a go ahead with the plans to organize for the move in. Let’s just hope that he keeps his part of the deal!

Today I visited the site early on and the poles for the roof where all up, and all we need now is to brace them properly! The frames Tau was making around the windows look good, and I can only wait until he does them in the courtyard.

The panels’ session went really well, today we used forks to make the patterns, the result was much better than the others. We now have close to 100 panels and we still have a few more bags of clay…

Tomorrow I will go back to help the children to make more, but I still need to finish to organize for the weeks I will be away.

Session2

2007-09-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

Session two went far better than session 1!

Although with fewer kids and less panels produced I have to say that the results were much better. It is easier to supervise a smaller number and the results have then to be better.

Still we are a few short (when I say a few I mean close to 80!), some of yesterdays panels got damaged this morning, or late last evening when it was decided that they couldn’t be kept where they were…

So in the light of this event and fearing further damage and neglect I decided to bring all the panels to the Sentebale office and see if we could salvage any!

Session 1

2007-09-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

Not a bad start… 42 done 108 to go!

The children managed to understand quite quickly what they needed to do. In a few hours we managed to produce quite a considerable number of panels. My biggest worry at the moment is how many will survive?

Of the tests I made all my samples survived, but I did it under a quite “controlled environment”. It was only me so I managed to keep the consistency of the clay all the way through. With 20-30 kids this is something that is hard to do… They were so keen to do it that I’m afraid that they might have ended up mixing wet and dry clay and not taking all the air out, or cutting the patterns too deep.

Time will tell and if we are lucky there will be some nice ones that will survive to tell the story. In the end they had fun, as Harper, Sally and Sam could see, and that is what matters.

Panels aside, and the plastering problem solved, today was also important because I managed to finally speak to the contractor. He is up in the mountains and is trying to organize the thatch we still need to finish the building. Monday he will be back and we’ll be able to hopefully set our eyes on the deadline.

Chop, chop, chop…

2007-09-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

Fortunately the children were late from school so I had time to pop to site, my morning had been chaotic and spent between buying clay for tomorrow and getting a tyre fixed (just before I was about to leave I noticed it was flat).

This visit to site proved to be one of the most important so far. If I had managed to go early in the morning, I could have avoided it from start but I still managed to stop the mistake anyway.

All the building has been plastered with 2-3 coats (the third one is not exactly as I would have wanted but it performs well nevertheless) but today when only 6m were missing on the exterior wall, they tried to cut a corner. They claimed that the first coat could not be applied because of the sun, but as soon as I explained, it took very little time to convince them that it could not be like this. I would not certify such work, and they understood that they could not get away with it. So chop, chop, chop, let’s take it all off, and do it again properly.

As soon as I can tomorrow I will head out there just to check if it is now up to standard. It would be a pity to spoil such a good job at this moment.

This sorted I got back to the kids and we had a nice introductory lesson, about Litema. As I may have already mentioned, Litema is the traditional form of decoration used in the Basotho households. It originated in the XIX century with the introduction of the plough, and roughly resembles ploughed fields, hence the name. I have decided that it would be nice to introduce this in the new building and today we started a 3 day workshop with which at the end I hope to have produced enough panels to use on the building.

The children enjoyed the session, and some of them picked up the idea quite quick. It was also interesting for me that many of them did not know the meaning of this type of art. Luckily ‘Me Lydia was keen to explain it to them and hopefully from now on they will be more interested in it.

All about the panels

2007-09-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

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!

Site visits

2007-09-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend was all about showing Mike and Vicky around different projects in Lesotho. We kicked off with a visit to the LCCU.

The visit went well, with Mike (who had visited this site months ago, even before I’d ever seen it) thinking that the change was huge. Unfortunately it was not as good as I hoped but we’ll get there….

After a site visit, with hundreds of photos, we visited the SOS children’s village and the QEII playground.

Then on Sunday we visited the K4L site and had a small brain storming session of what are the different options for that site.

I still managed to get hold of Ntate Linakane on the phone and he told me that the grass is available. Let’s see how much. The Steel guy will meet me tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to seeing if the panels work well on the walls.

1month after

2007-09-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

By chance I ended up going to the QEII hospital today, which was actually quite fortunate, as it gave me the chance to check on how it is aging.

The tiles are reacting better than I expected but might have to one day be taken of or replaced, and the paint has worn off a little, nothing serious! The nicest change was that some of the doctors got together and bought a see-saw for the kids.

The LCCU is still trailing and today there were talks of setting a new deadline. I will not say what it is as the last 3 times I didn’t manage to keep to it. But it would be great if this time we could.

Frames and A4A

2007-09-06T21:42:00.000-07:00

I went to the lab this afternoon and although they told me that the water is ok for consumption I did not manage to get the full report yet.

But let’s flashback to the beginning of the day! I went to site to meet Ntate Linakane and discuss the next steps in the construction as well as the possibility of completing one section as a sample for the rest, and I ended up helping with the setting out of the frames.

Only when I saw the 12:10 plane take off did I realize that I was late to pick up Vicky and Mike, A4A, who will be here on a 5 day visit. Oops!

I picked them up late, hoped they don’t mind, and during this weekend we will take them around the projects in which they have been involved.

I wish the LCCU was a bit more completed but I hope they will still be impressed with the progress!

Analysis

2007-09-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spent the day trying to tie up some of the (still) loose knots.

One of these is still the water situation. With Playpumps laying bellow the radar we have decided to start moving on to plan B, which in reality was plan A…

When the contractor priced he priced also for the water pump. Later when Playpumps said that they would donate a pump, we were happy and decided to go for that. As it seems that they will not be able to deliver. We have already moved back to sorting out this issue.

However before we do any trench digging or erect the tower, the water needed to be tested for quality. This was the task I started yesterday and completed today.

Yesterday I went to the water Lab, got the appropriate containers and arranged a time to deliver them back, and this morning I went to collect them and have already delivered them.

Fingers crossed now for the water to be suitable for drinking!

(results come back tomorrow)

Something was missing…

2007-09-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today the mountains, which have been our constant background, were gone! It has been so dry and windy in the last couple of days that the air is full of dust and visibility is now no more than a few kilometres.

Unfortunately this was not the only thing that has gone missing. Yesterday I visited the site to check up on the thatcher’s progress, I cannot say that I was surprised that he wasn’t there. I did how ever strange the fact that our watchman was no where to be seen. To be fair he might have been inside the courtyard, as he claims he was, but I somehow doubt it! So how did 5 bags of cement have disappeared?

It is not the biggest theft ever, and Ntate Sello has already reported it to Linakane, but still it is sad and serious that it has started to happen. I hope the watchman takes his responsibilities a little more seriously from now on!

As for the building, all still the same, moving but moving slowly…

At the end it was just too late…

2007-08-31T23:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got held up by all sorts of little bits, concerning the Sentebale guest house, so by the time I did manage to have some time it was already too late to go to site.

I did manage however to meet the welder and with him we discussed the detail for the frames that will be mounted on the courtyard. The QS also returned an amended version of the claim and like that it was a lot easier to check…

On site work was going well, the door frames should now all be up, and all the partition walls are now done. All that we got left now is plastering roofing, and the courtyard.

Where, by the way Tau has already started to lay the foundations for. Speaking to both the contractor and the foreman, it seems that they are keen to at least have half of the building as an example that they can follow once I’m gone.

In the afternoon I went to meet the welder and since he was working at an old site (which I had visited with Martin nearly 6months ago) I decided to have a look around and see how that work had matured. The walls still look new and that really gives me confidence that our building might look the same in 6months time.

You could say that I’m not ambitious, but I am trust me. I have seen many buildings, less than a year old, with cracks that were not your average hairline or shrinkage crack, some had serious structural problems!

And it did move fast!

2007-08-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Amazed was I when today the dome nearly completed…

I had seen it start two days ago, but had not looked at it since, so today when I went to site in the morning and it was 5 courses away from being complete, I was more than surprised!

The structure is self supporting and easy to build, when I asked Christopher (TED) what was the biggest they had ever built he said 4,5m radius. I think that there’s potential here for something else, it just needs to be refined and maybe it could be used a simple and cheap housing solution?

There were also some big changes on the rest of the building. The roof structure (not braced, yet) is up on Block B in all of the small section and in 1/3 of the large one. The thatchers have finally showed up, all four of them, and that also seems to be picking up speed. And Tau and his men have nearly finished the last partition walls. The foundations for the courtyard have also started to be dug.

The QS showed up today and promised to bring me tomorrow, the emended version. He also claims that that is the way that they always do it… Maybe it’s just me, because this is my first time checking this sort of documents but I do believe that the way I asked him to do it is a lot better.

Orange, green, and yellow…

2007-08-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

An early morning site visit (I had gone to drop off Liz at the airport, gave me hope that one day I’ll also be on my way to the airport) proved quite useful, as they were setting out the last walls in the kitchen area.

I also caught a glimpse of the thatcher, didn’t quite manage to see how many guys he had with him? Not really a problem, as it will be possible to calculate how many they were…

And in the Afternoon I received claim nr2 from the contractor. I had a quick look at it and have decided that I will not check it, until it is properly done! Who ever did it, just didn’t care anything about what they had doing and have mixed, previously claimed amounts with current amount! A true mess!

Both these events were important, however the biggest achievement of the day, was the decision on the colour scheme. Well not quite the decision (as I still need to go and find exactly the colours that I want), but the “go ahead” from Lydia on the overall colour scheme.

As agreed the scheme will be a simple, traditionally inspired (picture shows one house with a similar scheme), orange/terracotta for the walls, yellow/beige for the frames and light green for the doors and windows. The interior will be painted a light crème and the carpet tiles and vinyl tiles might be of changing colours.

Sills, roof and dome

2007-08-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

I have since learnt that not all things move at the desired speed. Now that I know this I am a much more conformed person.

Yesterday I visited site and as there was little of interest to report I chose not to do so and to use that occasion only as comparison point for today. It was with some surprise, and also a bit of joy, that today the roof structure on the front of Block B has started to go up. Also the interior window sills have started to be put in place in Block A, and in the general things are starting to look a bit more finished (there is still miles to go, but the spirits, at least for today, were high).

A new thatcher also showed up today (4 were meant to come), but I must say that their progress was not that noticeable.

The biggest change of the day was the start of the Biogas dome. I met on site the guy that started TED 20 years ago, and he told me that he would be accompanying this build step by step as part of the training of the men that are doing it. This makes me feel more confident both with its quality and speed.

So things are slowly moving in the right direction, and with a little bit of luck we might soon be starting to see it close to its final shape.

Sometimes things come back to haunt you

2007-08-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

Not all days can be fun and joy…

My day started off as my night had ended. Quite and adventure I must say, last night Harper had 2 flat tyres and after picking up the passengers (last night), today we drove back to give him his fixed tyre so that he could finally drive back! Nearly 24 later he was back in Maseru and I was off to site…

When I visited the site, expecting the same kind of progress as I had encountered yesterday, I not only did not find it (what was I thinking anyway?) but I also noticed that we are having some problems with the plastering.

On the tops of the walls especially in the round sections, the plastering has cracked. I suspect the reason for this is in part the omission of the wall plate. Not that it avoids cracks, but because if it was there the poles would have been free of plaster and would then be able to slightly shit their position as the wood expands and retracts due to changes in humidity.

Maybe I should have been stronger and not have conceded to that change of detail, but my thoughts at the time were “we need to move on”. I still believe that we do, and I do hope that once the roof is on, and before we paint that maybe we will be able to resolve this minor issue and that it will not come back to haunt me (again).

Best day so far

2007-08-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

I would like t start by saying that it was not (entirely) Ntate Linakane’s fault that we did not meet last Tuesday, in fact he did end up coming but someone had told him that I was not here and then forgot to tell me about it…

Today we did meet and at the arranged hour! The meeting was really productive and we have agreed on a lot of issues that were still pending. Next Tuesday we will meet again and try and set a date for completion…

But this was not the only thing that went well today. When I visited the site, it seemed like something really special was happening (or maybe I just learnt to expect less, who knows?). The thatcher finally showed up, and had already done a bit of work.

I spoke to him and he explained to me how he will go on about it. It’s quite interesting! The thatcher works with an assistant, whilst he is placing the bundles on top and sowing them down the helper is tightening the sisal rope to assure that the bundles are nicely into place. They start at the eaves (bottom) and slowly make they’re way up to the ridge (top). Once the metal flashing is fixed they will then comb the grass down to finish it. Whilst this is being done the inside is gradually being coated with clean combed grass. In this way a nice thatch finish will be visible from both sides.

The Structure for the roof on block B is also being put up at good rhythm and I’m really less sceptical about it than I was with block A.

And if this was not enough progress for one day, the last slab has finally been cast! (when I left at 3:30pm they only had about 3m2 to finish, so I assume that by the end of the day it would have been finished!)

If the next few weeks go as today there might still be a little bit of hope for this building after all. (it will not be complete unfortunately, but it will be at a stage when I can comfortably move on and not look back too much over my shoulder)

The other side

2007-08-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

Work on Block B looks like it might finally get on its way!

Today when I visited the site hoping to meet Ntate Sello and discuss the courtyard and the “DPM sandwich”, I was very happy to discover that the Roof Structure man was back and had started to erect one of the roundavlos.

It should have started last week, but anyway I’m actually happy that it started now… I already had to rectify a small detail, an maybe if they had done it lat week this week we would be discussing the same problems as we had on Block A. What is past is past and now we should only look ahead and carry on to finish this building ASAP.

Ntate Sello was not there, he had to come to Maseru to buy extra materials, but he told me that I could show Tau how to do the “DPM sandwich”. Upturning the DPM is not a standard practice in Lesotho, and it had been causing great problems so in order to make everyone’s life a little easier and allow us to move forwards, we have devised a solution that avoids the use of mesh! It’s actually quite simple, behind the existing plastic DPM you paint a Bituminous layer (2 coats, one pure paint, the second, at right angles, mixed with ruff sand, then over this mix you sprinkle extra sand, the whole purpose of this recipe is to provide a good key for the plaster), now that you have your Bituminous layer you upturn the plastic DPM and cast your sand and cement screed. After that you can cut the excess plastic DPM because (hopefully) the pressure from the sand/cement screed plus the 50mm overlap of DPMs will be enough to make it continuous. It is not an ideal solution but I believe it will work!

This is supposed to be last month here, to finish the LCCU and go home, but never have I received so many requests for new projects. I cannot start them and follow them through to the end so I’ve sent them all to “London”, for A4A to decide whether it is possible for them to commit to these new proposals.

No show (once more)

2007-08-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

Do not be scared by the picture!
This fire started today behind the Sentebale office, but thanks to Patricia’s sharp eye, we were able to put it out (nearly 1,5 hours later) before it reached our fence. However the title of today’s blog does not refer to this but to another not unusual but annoying event!

It is not the first second or third time that I get a no show by the contractor! (I waited all day, called about 3 times and still ziltch)!

No wonder work does not progress at the right rhythm, but I honestly don’t know what I can do to make him work better!

On site, which I visited just before it closed, work was slowly on its way with not much progress being noticed between yesterday and today. Met the electrician and decided to change a few plug positions in order to make the building phases more efficient.

Also in order to make things more efficient and less time consuming I have decided to cut down the number of decorative panels. Now they will only be fitted on the two long walls, simplifying the fixings and also making it less expensive.

One of my tests finally survived, and although it was the one made of simple clay (commercial) with mesh on the inside I’m happy that I now have a formula that works. I will try and come up with a refined mixture using local clay (crushed) so that we can make the panels virtually costless.

The reason why some of the other panels just cracked was the fact that when clay dries out it shrinks and harder backings would not allow it to shrink naturally thus causing it to crack! It is in fact unbelievable how much they actually shrink: the sample was 295 and shrunk down to 280. I will need to measure on site and then make the fixings in such a way that they can absorb these (possibly different) shrinkages.

Back (once more)…

2007-08-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder for how long this build is actually going to last… I’m disappointed but not surprised.

From the list of tasks that I left to be carried out this week, very little which can be seen has been done! It’s a disappointment because it means that in no way will it ever be near completion by the time I need to leave. And I don’t understand it, every day that goes by is a day on which they are loosing money, so why don’t they speed it up and get done with it…

Of course it doesn’t help if your thatcher doesn’t show up, or you run out if stone just two loads short of the top, but surely more could have been done this past week. Even when I phoned on Tuesday and Thursday I had the impression that it was going better than I have seen! Ok one slab has been cast and the other should be cast tomorrow, but these are things that should have finished month ago! The exterior plastering is also on it’s way but then again that is not a major achievement…

Tomorrow I have already organized to meet Ntate Linakane and maybe we will be able to talk it out, but even that I doubt.

And this was not the only disappointment of the day, another small project that I started with Camille has also slightly side tracked due to client changes, but in end I do hope that it will look ok.

The only joy of the day (although not 100%) was to see children playing in the refurbished Football pitch for the blind, it needs one or two finishing touches but at least it reminded me why I enjoy doing this. To see people (children) smiling and enjoying themselves!

Away for a week

2007-08-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

Once again Baba is in charge of the site… Work has been set out and hopefully when I return block B will be looking more like a building and less like a hole!

Contractor for a day

2007-08-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

I picked up the truck at 8:30 am, as had been organised yesterday, and by the time I had arrived on site and that truck was already on its way to load some stone another truck popped up at the entrance!

Yesterday we had none and today we had two! It was bound to happen! So Ntate Sello and I just did what needed to be done, we organized for one truck to stay and collect the stone that we’d already quarried and together with the other truck we sent off to buy the stone at another place.

Thanks to Sentebale’s willingness to speed up the project it was possible to pay off the stone and profit of the fact that we had 2 trucks! In total we managed to bring to site 10 loads (60m3) and tomorrow we will do an extra 7 which should allow us to have enough stone to complete both fills.

Somehow I cannot understand why it had taken so long to organize everything, I tried and it was easy… So now let’s just get all we need so that then we can cast the slabs and start cruising to completion!

Accidents do happen

2007-08-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

The most tragic accident happened today, luckily it was not on site and none of our people was injured.

I would like to share my deepest sympathy to you and I hope that you will recover soon.

In the mean time I will try and relieve you of some of your worries and work load.

It was in this spirit that I have decided to order a truck for tomorrow 8:30am. This morning when I visited the LCCU the truck had not arrived there so I have now, and in the light of recent events, take into my own hands the responsibility to source a truck to allow us to carry on work as normal.

I had gone to visit the LCCU, with Andreas from TED to discuss the water issues, when I discovered that there was not truck yet organized. I also met the thatcher, who gave me the good news that it would only take him 3months to complete each block… and by the time that I made it back to the office I received the news that there had been a road accident with a victim.

After that I decided that both for work to carry on and for people to be able to recover that I had to take it on me to organize the next couple of days. To start I have organized a truck for tomorrow and we will see how we take it from there on…

On to a more cheerful note, the QEII playground opening ceremony was today and it was with great pleasure that I noticed that the NEW hospital superintendent was very happy that we had built the playground here in his hospital!

The inauguration kind of reminded me of Expo98, when by the time people were making nice speeches about the success and goodness of the whole event there were still contractors and cleaning people finishing up on the other side of the park. This because just minutes before the ceremony I had been there fixing the swing to the tree! I had to insert a floor tile into the tyre to prevent the little kids from falling through but I think it will be a success. Judging by its short life today it will as children were already knocking each other over both to play in it but also from playing in it! Maybe I’ll have to dismount soon, if something serious does happen…

Up, up but nowhere…

2007-08-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

I finally managed to get through to Ntate Linakane and he promised me that tomorrow I would have a truck. I do hope so!

On site today plastering continued slowly, and with a lot of hard work and setting up scaffolding on unfinished fills we managed to complete the ring beam on block B.

I also asked Ntate Sello if they could start clearing out a 2,5 metre perimeter around the internal courtyard so that we can start to prepare to also cast those slabs. It has still not been decided if their will be a small retaining wall on a strip foundation or if the the perimeter slab will sit on a rock fill with pad foundations for the poles (that will support the canopy) but I do wish that we go for the wall solution as it will mean less work.

Linakane does not seem to interested in the bonus that we have offered him if he decides an end date and completes within it, but tomorrow I will try once more and negotiate an end date.

Work on the Football pitch is ongoing, and it is looking better day by day. At least there are things that are going the way we planned and those have been keeping me busy whilst I wait for those trucks…

100

2007-08-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

I had timed the blog perfectly with my school obligations, today I would have been writing about how well the build had gone and how happy I was with what we have achieved, instead I’ll have to write about one of the most frustrating days ever!

I spent all day trying to call Ntate Linakane to see if we could sort out the truck problem! Unfortunately his phone was either on voicemail or with no ring tone, I assume a network issue as I tried every 30 minutes. Although my will is to just go ahead and order the trucks and then deal with it as it happens I’m afraid it might cause further problems so I did not do it. But I do not know how much longer I can wait!

The whole day was not wasted anyway… Pete and Susie (K4L) have a couple of friends over, Paul and Rachel, and they have decided that they wanted to revamp the football pitch at the Blind Centre. Over the weekend we had discussed alternatives of how to it and today we set out to buy the materials needed and they have already started it.

Another achievement of the day was to finally manage to speak to the guy that drilled the borehole at the LCCU. I learnt the capacity (18 L/m) and the depth (50m and water 9m) of it and this will for sure help us in discovering why we are not being able to pump enough water. In the next couple of days I will meet with TED to discuss this.

So all in all, the day was not that bad but not as good as I had hoped, when long ago back in March I started both the project and this blog. But slowly we are getting there…

Doing what we can…

2007-08-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

We do what we can but without a little cooperation I cannot produce miracles.

The truck broke down yesterday, today we had a poor turn out on site, and we have not bought enough grass for the roof…

I keep thinking of ways to save time and build faster but without Linakane supporting us, Ntate Sello and I cannot work, and without the workers showing up we cannot continue, but even if they had today, we could not have done much, without a truck we cannot complete the fill for the two missing slabs!

We cannot relly on one truck and a contractor that does not sort out the problems when they occur, so if by 12pm tomorrow he hasn’t done his job I’ll do it for him! I’ll just hire 2 trucks and expense him! This situation cannot continue like this.

But in the mean time we do what we can, Ntate Sello has started to cast the ring beam on block A and I have asked him that as soon as that is finished to start the roof in the round section that has a slab. The plastering has continued at a good rhythm, and is looking good (only one window that I had to ask to be redone as the mix that was used seemed to be too strong and it has cracked up, or maybe t was an end of the day job, when they just tried to save some time and added water to a dry mix), but we need to sort out the other issues if we are ever to complete this any time soon!

A boy (16-17 I guess) has now been employed on site, he works as hard as the rest of the men, he had originally come to replace his father whilst he was sick and now been given a job. A nice gesture and double example of doing what we can.

Self standing

2007-08-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

The diagonal bracing was today completed and the roof now stands on its own and looks a lot more stable.

When I arrived at 10:40am on site this morning they had already done 3 of diagonals, and were just about to start the last… It was good that I came anyway, as they were preparing to just sit it in the wrong position, too difficult to do it the right way it seemed, but with a little incentive and monitoring I managed to convince them to chisel it into position.

The end result is quite pleasing, they do not interfere with the space and give it quite a modern look. I was sad I had not arrived a little earlier, as there is one of the poles that is too low and will have to be shaved so as not to interfere with the top of the wall detail, but considering how hard it was to get all the bracing done I guess I mustn’t complain (I even got a free brace that I hadn't asked for)!

The stone that arrived yesterday was started to be placed in the whole, (the pipes having previously been wrapped in geo-textile and left to sit on the foundations, but this flow of stone was to be stopped as our truck broke down! Tomorrow maybe they recon it will be operational again…

Let’s just hope so! Monday I will meet Ntate Linakane again and hopefully discuss a new end date.

roof bracing click here

The mystery of the rotating house

2007-08-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

A note on another project, but something that I feel that I should not go without mentioning… Work at Lydia’s new site has started, in the end the contractor that was not awarded the job got this new one (I’m really happy that we choose the one we did). But although the workmanship is not great I still cannot understand why her house has rotated 90 degrees and is now nowhere near the site!

It upset me because not only I had made my best to make the house as rationale as possible but I had all the time the constraint of keeping the curved walls as a memory of the old house, but now that it is facing south/west I cannot see what is the point of having done so. Good luck to them but a house can not just be rotated and sat on any old site…

All alone, again…

2007-08-02T23:56:00.000-07:00

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.

Hands and knees

2007-08-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

A hand full of blisters is all that I have to show for an afternoon of really hard work!

Camille and I spent the last few hours of her stay laying floor tiles and hammering/clicking them into position! When I had thought of this I had thought that it would be a 2 hour max task, but by the end of it, the hospital gate had been closed and our hands were already in pain!

Yesterday I had gone to site but had discovered that not much had changed! I wish that soon we will start to see progress so that hopefully we will manage to recover on some of the lost time.

The roof and the neighbours

2007-07-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

Back from a weekend trip to the “Afro-European” city of Cape Town I was really happy to see that the roof braces have now started to be putting into place!

The roof truces have now started to be reinforced with the horizontal braces, although not exactly the way that I had thought but the way that has been done actually works quite well, so I guess I will leave it that way.

When I was leaving the site I met the next door neighbours that showed and told us all about their house. I was pleased to know that their roof was also strapped down and that in 17years of strong winds all the problems that she has had have actually been the thatch flying off the structure!

So my mind is now quite rested as far as the roof goes but the holes on the other side are still there! No stone has been bought I suppose although I saw a truck delivering just as the sun was setting and we had left the neighbours house.

Guess it is necessary to sit down once again with the contractor and re-align our building phases.

Red, yellow, green and blue

2007-07-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

Painting the tyres was fun as well as rewarding!

The playground at the QEII is now (once the paint has dried properly) fully operational! We might still lay the floor tiles next week but now they can start using it.

The children really enjoyed it and although we wanted some of tyres left black the enthusiasm was such that they all got painted!

But I must say that that was not the only thing that I saw that both pleased me and looked nice. When I visited the site late this afternoon, Tau had started with the top of the wall detail. It looks great! The wall looks separate from the roof and we managed to avoid a messy finish using only plaster!

I also had a quick look at the metal straps (earlier I had a returned phone call from one of the UK expat architects, that told me that this was one of the standard details, and that as long as the straps were properly embedded in concrete and properly nailed down I shouldn’t worry too much about it) so I had a look and they had actually been round tightening it!

The roof and wall junction is looking okay, the interior plastering on B is well on its way, so as soon as the poles arrive and are installed we can move forwards onto A!

for more pictures click here http://picasaweb.google.com/pck.clarke/PaintingQEII

Recipe

2007-07-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

“Plastering Mixturure (ho Lila)

Donkeys and horse’s refuse/dung and cow dung
Selokoe type of sand (it’s a bit sandy and clayish)
Mixture
10L Selokoe sand
5L Cow dung
5L Donkey’s or horse’s dung
+/- 20L of Water
After putting the mixta on da wol, collect some water in a basin and dip fingas in da water and sprinkle on dat surface and smoothly rub on da surface to make it look gud. Do it ova & ova again a few times.”

Not quite sure if this is the way to go on with the panels. Not quite sure if this is the kind of mixture you want children to be playing around with.

I got this recipe from one of the women that every 3months has to re-plaster there houses at Ha Kome cave village. This village has been established in 1824 as a refuge from the cannibals and ever since they have re-plastered and maintained there houses. The plaster mix that they use has therefore proven its way… Not like mine…

My last test did not work that well! Of the 3 panels all 3 broke, the worst being the 30% cement… I now have some commercial clay, but I will also filter and test some other mixes as well as backings…

Something had to give…

2007-07-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

After 3 hours of tense discussion, Mr Linakane decided to just drive off…

Ntate Sello and all the rest of us were left there looking at his car drive off wondering what had happened! Ok the conversation was not going that easily, can’t really say that it was going his way… I was not prepared to give in on this one.

I don’t care if the top of the wall detail is not going to be as fine as I had expected… Don’t even care too much if the windows are crocked (not saying that they are, but really couldn’t care too much if they were…) but I do care if I feel that roof is not properly secured and resistant!

So as I insisted, and insisted, that I would not feel comfortable if we did not brace it my way. When he drove off I thought it was the end of it, specially when I called him and he didn’t pick up, but soon after he called Ntate Sello got a phone call, and since he had already understood my point he managed to reach an agreement.

I will not get all that I asked for (the purlins will not be put in, and to his defence, I did visit quite a few sites and never saw any) but the bracing will go in every other one, thus making it more rigid. Diagonals will also be put in place and like this I think that I will able to sleep at night…

Just for the record, the discussion was mainly about the fact that he though that I was over-designing/spending (we are both on the same side, he should understand this) by wanting to brace it 9 times as opposed to 7!!!!

It was a morning well spent nevertheless! And it seems we are in for a long battle now…

Because I don’t like to finish on a negative tone, I’d just like say thank you to Liau and his friends for having finished today the concrete for the playground!

A little bit longer…

2007-07-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to meet with Mr. Linakane today… he got held up at Leribe… So I will have to wait a little bit longer to sort out the roof problems.

At the site work was carrying on as usual, Tau still plastering the inside and Ntate Sello has started to collect grass for the roof.

Whilst at the LCCU work has been carrying on slowly and meeting with the contractor has been a real challenge, work at the QEII hospital today went on until 7pm! Just a little bit longer they said!

It is nice to see this kind of dedication! Thank you Liau, you have been doing a great job, and if not for lack of labour and problem at Cashbuild to pick up extra materials I’m sure you would have finished today… But it was great to arrive at 6pm at the QEII and have to wait a little bit longer so that you could finish your work!

The last thing that seems that will go on for just a little bit longer is my stay here. (I will call A4A and discuss that tomorrow) I had not predicted the delay that we have on site and I feel responsible (in a good way) to stay here a little bit longer and see it through!

However I can only stay until mid-September, and that’s already stretching it to the limit! I’m sorry that I won’t be coming back as soon as I had promised, and I know that I will be tight (on time) to complete writing my thesis but some times there are things that you just feel that you have to do!

The stand still…

2007-07-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

A quick morning site visit served to confirm my fears… The roof is still the same…

I decided yesterday, after another favourable opinion for the metal straps to leave them in place. But I had already instructed for the bracing to be up in position. This is crucial for the stability of the roof. But the contractor feels differently and so far nothing has been done!
This morning Ntate Sello was asking me to please sit down with Ntate Linakane and decide what to do for the roof as he needs to carry on! I told him that my wishes are the same as his and that the sooner we carry on the better… but that the roof needs to be properly secured…

Apart from that all seems to be proceeding well… Tau is making good progress with the plastering, and the stone for block B I believe has been organised, although I will only believe it when I see it!

Monday I will therefore meet Mr. Linakane and explain to him that despite what he thinks we are both on the same side!

And today we built a playground…

2007-07-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite but we did make a good start at it! And if we had had a few extra pairs of hands we would have!

Camille and I spent all our day at the QEII hospital helping Liau (a volunteer from the Lerotholy polytechnic that accepted my invitation to come and help us on this project) build the playground! It was exhausting but fun! By lunch time we had already managed to set out all the tyres and pour crushed stone over then.

By the way, the playground, which we fought long time for is a simple, concrete slab on a crushed stone sub-base, with a tyre fence. It is quite simple but I think the children will actually like it once it becomes operational.

So as I was saying, by lunch we had already managed to make our sub-base and placed all the tyres in the right positions. In the afternoon, we started pouring concrete, but not even with the help of two of Liau’s friends (thank you so much for your help, all of you, hope to see you on Monday) we managed to finish the concrete.

Monday we will restart and finish this process. Then, next Thursday the children that will visit the clinic will be invited to paint a tyre! It will be a nice moment and it will contribute to sense of ownership of the place!

Although we didn’t manage to finish it today, I learnt a lot about construction, about pouring and levelling concrete, about making smooth, and about the way that some people are actually willing to give back to the community all that they have received!

more pictures of the construction click here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pck.clarke/PlayQEII

And the beat goes on…

2007-07-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

Still not sure what to do about the roof, today I took a teacher from the Polytechnic to have a look at it.

At first he said that it looked weak, but after coming up on to the roof and looking at it properly he was quite confident that it would hold. We then took a sample of the strap to another teacher, this time a structural engineer, and he said that it would be fine! He actually told me that traditionally there are no straps what so ever, that the roof is not attached at all, just sitting on top! Don’t know if that should reassure me or scare me…

The spacing of the bracing has also been an issue… When I confronted the contractor with this, he replied back that that was the traditional way, and that was what he quoted for! I told him that he also quoted for a wall plate, so where has it? He said that if I insisted I could have my wall plate because it was cheaper… I DON’T WANT CHEAPER! I WANT SAFE AND RELIABLE!

Tomorrow I will try and contact another architect, and get from him another opinion, but I can’t wait for too long, time is running out! Work on other sections, such as plastering is proceeding at good rhythm but the roof is rather crucial!

Rest of day was spent chasing suppliers and finding materials. Tomorrow we will start the playground at the QEII. I’ve managed to persuade a student to come and help us and he has organized a team of 3…

It will be good to actually do some manual labour for a change and put my brain to rest!

Wall-plate…

2007-07-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

To wall-plate or not to wall-plate that is the question?

The roof has been causing me (daily) headaches since I first saw it. In one of my last posts I spoke about the need for purlins and braces, I also mentioned that the wall-plate had been omitted…

I had not been too worried about this as we had a ring-beam, but it has since been flagged to me that the metal straps (and nails) might not handle the diagonal strength properly…

I must say that that is a scary idea but when the contractor and the “roof specialist” tell me that the wood will splinter if we nail through it, I now have a problem to resolve?? To help me with this I have asked a teacher from the school of architecture to come and see the site tomorrow… I will also consult with few more architects, which have worked in the country for long, and then try and make a decision…

But that was not the only issue that I tried to solve today regarding the roof, in the morning I drove off to Bloem and I picked up a sample/model of a fire proof system, I feel that it is one of our best options, now I just need to convince the contractor that it is so!

Apart from dealing with this today was also the day that we finally decided on a start day for the QEII playground. If we manage to order and receive all the materials tomorrow, on Friday we will lay the concrete, then a week from that we will paint and glue the floor tiles.

It will be good to see something finished for a change!

Happy birthday

2007-07-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

It was only too late that I realized that Mr. Linakane had not shown up to the meeting we had organized. Unfortunately today was a public holiday, the King’s Birthday, so it will have to wait until tomorrow…

The celebration was up at Butha Buthe and it was a privilege to see all the dancing and singing as well as the military display. Whilst this was going on work on site carried on as usual (or at least during the morning), I do hope that the day has been an inspiring one all around. Tomorrow I will check…

Happy Birthday King Letsie III! May you help your country and your people prosper…

Poles, Braces and Purlins

2007-07-16T23:56:00.000-07:00

Much discussion has occurred, both here and “internationally”, about how to sort out the roof.

Like I said last post when I visited the site, the roof had been put up but still there were no provisions for bracing or diagonals. So after a lot of thinking and realizing that details are of little use, we spent the morning up on the roof, showing exactly where the new poles were to go, explaining their functions and trying to convince them of their necessity.

It is all more difficult when the roof-guy does not speak English, Tau helped us translate, and then Camille and I marked out on the walls, pole by pole whether it was no have a high or a low “A” and where the diagonals are to be placed. Like this there is less margin for error, but as soon as the posts arrive I will be sure to be there once again to be sure that they installed properly.

Apart from this work on site is carrying on as usual. We are still struggling to find stone to fill up “Matla’s craters” and preparation for the rendering has now started. The only other slight mistake that I encountered was that they forgot to pre-form the space for the pipes in the concrete (in the boys bathroom) but I’ve been told and believe that that will not be much of a problem.

Since we were up on the roof, we made a little mock up of the new solution for the connection of the walls to the roof. Before this detail was to be resolved by the wall plate and another piece of wood, it was a fine and elegant detail, but since the wall plate has been omitted (for reasons that I still cannot explain) I had to think about a new detail. What I’m trying to achieve is a crisp line separating the roof plan and the wall, this will now be done by a stepping back of the render. We made two tests and then Tau build us a small portion and it seems to work. Not as elaborate as the original but I guess that it might work all the same.

Driving back to the office I noticed that the demolition of Lydia’s house had started, so I stopped, asked and was not amazed when I discovered that Lydia had asked them to start but that they didn’t study at the polytechnic nor know whether they would get paid for it or not… I guess some things never change!

roof…

2007-07-14T22:01:00.000-07:00

For the first time I was really surprised, when I reached the site!

Maybe I would have been surprised any other time that I had been away from the site for 9 days… But nevertheless today I was surprised.

Much has changed and now, on block A, the roof structure is 3/4 up. But unfortunately not all was done as I had left detailed…

The roof structure was mounted without a wall plate, not a major issue (since there is a ring beam, and that will distribute the forces evenly) but still it would have been better if it had been put in. Sometimes I ask myself why I actually do details? I do them but then the “specialists” always end up doing whatever they are used to doing!

The horizontal bracing is still missing (and they were planning on economizing in this field, a non-option I’m afraid!), and a few diagonals have been neglected, but with a little “assistance” it will not be too difficult to put them in, and the fact that now the roof is coming on does make a big difference!

The LCCU , at least when you look at block A, now looks more like a building, and I can start to understand what exactly the spaces will be like. The windows have now been changed to match and that also did wonders for it.

However, on Block B, we are still a little behind schedule. Although the partitions for the toilets are now done two slabs are still missing… We are still struggling to find enough stone to complete it, but I think the contractor is now considering buying some. I need to speak to him as this is not the only thing that he needs to buy!

By now it seems that it will not be possible to complete it on time but I still have a little hope that if luck is on our side and we carry on as now, or a little bit harder, we might still make it!

more roof pictures

Back in Town

2007-07-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

15:30 arrived back in Maseru (after a slow stroll through the border, rules have changed in the last week) and rushed straight into a QEII hospital meeting.

It was not possible to decide much, as many members were absent, but al least now all the tyres and tiles are ready to be used and the tools to do it sorted out.

We arrived so late partly thanks to the still ongoing chaos of renting a car. Once again thanks Avis for such a lousy service that I never received!

But also because, last minute, the meeting in Maputo was pushed forward a couple of hours. So by the time we left Maputo (15:00, yesterday) the delay was inevitable.

That meeting however went well and we go got verbal confirmation that it was ok to build on this plot of land (a formal letter will follow next week) and now the guys back in London can start preparing for the next stages.

So all went well and when we arrived back here in Maseru, I was told that progress on site has been good. Can’t wait to go and confirm this tomorrow!

Strangely familiar

2007-07-11T22:50:00.000-07:00

After a great weekend up in Tofo, we now drove down to Maputo for the work part of this trip.

Like Inhambane (closest town to Tofo), Maputo is an ex-portuguese colonial town of stunning beauty. It is strange to have travelled half way around the world and to come across cities that look vaguely like home.

It’s not exactly the layout or the setting but something does bring back memories of Porto, Setúbal or Lisbon. But unlike their European counterparts these two cities now have nature taking over. Here green is green, and is slowly creeping up on the entire city. This gives these places however a certain charm that is hard to explain…

Back to the reason of the trip, “Meninos the Moçambique” a Mozambican counterpart of street child Africa.

In early 2006 A4A got involved with them to design a new childcare unit and training centre for younger mothers and children. This new centre will be in the Bairro Luis Cabral, one of the most impoverished neighbourhoods of the city.

Since that date both organizations have been waiting for a “parecer favorável” (authorization) for construction on the site from the Urbanization Department.

Due to my knowledge of Portuguese and willingness to visit the country it was agreed that on my trip I would stop by and meet with both Sr. Abdul Faquir (Menino’s Director) and the Director of “Urbanização”.

So today I met Sr. Abdul Faquir, and from him I discovered not only that Menino’s have been trying to pull some strings so that the process can move faster and that it now seems to be paying off. I also learnt more about the organization and their plans to expand.

We then visited the site and some alternatives, close to the original one. Although the Bairro is in quite bad state, one of the materials used, reed, gives it a much nicer look. This reed is available all over the country and is used in many different ways , from walls to roofs. A good example of it, in the same neighbourhood, is an abandoned school. If I had know before I might have thought of trying to import some to Lesotho, as we are having a bit of difficulty in finding some.

After this we went to a builder’s merchant, the available materials are much better than what we can find in Lesotho. Here the industry is divided between what is imported from South Africa, the natural (local materials) and the materials that remained in the Portuguese tradition (the factories are still the same only the ownership changed). The array of materials is therefore “huge” and A4A should be able to find a bouquet of materials that will suit the projects needs.

The last meeting of the day, and probably the most important of the day, had to be re-scheduled for tomorrow as the responsible architect was unavailable.

I hope to meet him tomorrow and to know from him something new (it’s been a year and a half so far and no progress), to see if his 3 week long promise for a “Despacho” (decision/document) will come through.

more photos of mozambique click here

Hands-a cultural thing

2007-07-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

Camille arrived yesterday, and thanks to Baba’s help it was possible to meet her at the airport.

Now I will have an extra pair of hands to help me on whatever I might need, on site, office, mixing concrete or playing with clay…

But before this starts I will now have a well deserved break. We started by a short visit to Kruger (and profiting from the fact I need to go to Maputo) will continue in Mozambique..

Kruger was great, the changes in landscape are amazing, no worse than the animals…

The only reason why I mention it is the traditional inspired architecture of the rest camps. “Skukuza” (where we stayed) was nice and modern with thatch being the key to this success, but at “Lower Sabie” this was taken even further and I saw something that can be a good alternative in case we cannot find Spanish reed… simple wood!

Instructions

2007-07-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday was chaotic. Sorry for only posting now…

The day kicked off with a few visits to sort out some of the materials for the playground, then a visit to site for a final inspection.

I will be away for 1 week (half leisure half work) on a visit to Mozambique. So for this period I have left a list of work that I would like to see carried out on site until I get back. Baba will also keep an eye on the site and let me know if anything looks out of place.

But after that it all went hectic! Avis had promised me a car but a last minute phone call to the manager changed the whole scenario but not without charging me first…

This adventure would only finish next morning at Johannesburg airport.

A day of tests…

2007-07-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

After spending the morning collecting tyres for the QEII playground and digging for clay I spent the rest of day doing some tests with the material.

Yesterday I had already bought some wood and mesh to make some test panels. I’ve now made one reusable wood form that will be used for the panels.

I made tests using pure clay (found in Lesotho, and just remixed until it got soft again) on a mesh backing, one with 10% cement and one with 30% cement.

Until now the results were not very successful, but I will have to wait and see when they are completely dry. The pure one seems to be the one that is having a better chance of survival although when I mixed it in it was not the one with the best consistency.

I guess that I will have to go back to my original idea of going to see how it is really done.

The other test was more successful though! I went to the QEII and since I was the first to arrive I decided to make a test with the tyres to see if we had enough?

We had 33 tyres, big ones and small ones, and with this number it is now possible to close the playground! All the ones that we’ll get donated will be used for toys. With the test I also managed to convince them of the use of concrete.

We will then pour a thin slab that will be possible to break (with a sledge hammer) in case we need to dismantle the playground… however rumour has it that will not happen before 2009, so one more reason to use the concrete!

The meeting then went on as usual, and in the end we all agreed that it is likely that we will start on site in the next 2 weeks.

Need to place the orders for material and try and sort out all those bits that are still missing tomorrow morning.