on the roof

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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