The roof of Africa!

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…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

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!