Final touches…a lot of work, cold and rammed earth!

All my day was spent finishing Sentebale’s kitchen. Before anyone asks the LCCU is at a bit of a stand still at the moment. Still waiting for the compressor… I did meet Ndate Sello and he told me that he was doing his best to get that compressor to the site. It seems that it has a flat tyre and no one told the guy in charge of it to fix it so that we can have it, his boss is away so he will not do it out of his own initiative. But Ndate Sello told me that he would handle it. As he is the foreman I have decided to let him try and if he does not succeed I will have to do it myself.

So to make the most out of the day I decided to finish the kitchen. Finding the appropriate parts for it was no easy task, some of the bits are not for sale and others are only non-standard sizes, so some of the details and fixings are experimental ones. Even though I managed too solve most issues the washers they use for the taps are paper and it seems that we might need a rubber one to stop the leakage in full. When I finished all the work today it was already too late to get some so I will have to do it another day. The old remaining wall cupboard is now painted orange and it gives the kitchen a warm modern look. Just need to wait for the telecommunications people to come on Monday and rewire the space and it will be complete. But as it is it is now operational and that’s what really matters.

Monday I will also embark on another excursion to the mountains with Harper, this time our objective is to assess how best the Red Cross can spend their money refurbishing this one clinic. I know that I should stop accepting extra work but since I’m here I might as well do my best and help out as much as possible.

The cold weather that we have had in the last couple of days seems to be moving away or at least during the day. In the morning I still have to defreeze the ice off the car but in a couple of hours it is warm enough again to be outside with only a sweater.

My day was also marked by the reception of two letters. One from the Architect I met yesterday, restating the wish to continue some of the discussions that we have started previously, which will be nice and will also give me the opportunity to enquire about the way this country’s architecture has been evolving. The other was form Thea Guest, Sentebale, following up on a discussion that we had started months ago, during my first visit.

The topic of the discussion was rammed earth construction. And now that I have seen some more examples I do believe that there is both an intellectual justification and practical reason why we should maybe try and import this technology to the country. Traditionally some of the Basotho houses were built with thick load bearing mud walls. The rammed earth wall could to some extent be seen as a modernization of that technology.

Even though we might be a little to late to implement it in our project I will discuss this with a few people (experts, partners, A4A London) because as a principle, if the weather and geological conditions allow for it, this technology, with it’s added thermal benefits, could have a great impact on this country.

But let’s not get our hopes to high yet, let’s wait and see what happens.