The first structure is up - don't worry, it's only a temporary shelter to work under!
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Project Limpopo - First day on site video diary!
Hey, this is the first video blog from site. I have a couple more from the first few days on site. Hope you enjoy them!
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Project Limpopo: Day 1-3
Hello from South Africa!
Well its day 3 of Project Limpopo and this is the first time I’ve been able to get online to update the blog. We don’t have Internet at the hotel so these updates might be a bit more intermittent that originally thought.
Day 1: I’ll start from the beginning then…The journey over was fine. We all boarded a late night flight to Paris and then to Johannesburg landing only an hour late at 11am on Sunday morning. Only one bag went missing but luckily it has been delivered today. It got stuck in Paris! After picking up the Bakkies at the airport, we set off for Tzaneen. It was raining when we landed in Jo’berg (felt very like England) and it was one storm after another on the road trip to Tzaneen. The students were all travelling in a luxurious coach and from what I’ve heard; most of them were fast asleep. We arrived about 5hrs later after a few pit stops on route. The final part of the journey was through a stunning mountain range, twisting and turning through the valley densely laden with very very dark rain clouds…luckily they didn’t break whilst we were driving through them.
Day 2: We had a reasonably lazy start today with a 10am meet to leave for site. It was a well-needed rest after about 24hrs constant travelling! The journey to site is very interesting, its one straight road south of Tzaneen, going through industrial areas, banana and mango plantations, rural villages, many potholes, all surrounded by glorious mountains that stretch further than the eye can see. It’s a much greener place than Jouberton, partly due to the amount of rain they’ve had lately. The soil is really rich and great for growing produce so there are so many farms growing bananas, mangoes, avocados and some purple fruit which we’ve yet to discover the name of! There are many stalls littered along the side of the road selling the fruit, we haven’t plucked up the courage to stop and buy some yet, however we have tasted the mangoes and they’re soooo good! Think I’m going to become addicted to them!
The journey goes along tarmac roads, to roads with many potholes, to then dirt roads and then just dirt tracks leading to the site. It takes about 45mins in the Bakkie and so far we’ve come across cows in the middle of the road and monkeys! The monkeys usually run away very fast however the cows like to take the time and can be quite stubborn! A beep on the horn usually gets them moving though!
First impressions of site: On coming into the village of Calais (pronounced Cal- leece – a bit like the singer) you cross a bridge over a river where locals are either fishing or washing their clothes. We round a corner past the secondary school and the new village clinic; a left turning at the village graveyard brings us onto site. The site seemed a lot smaller than we imaged. However, we realised half of it was covered in maize plants so we couldn’t see the boundaries clearly. The tree in the centre seemed a lot bigger. There is also a significant slope, which we didn’t know was there when the plans were drawn up! Luckily it has been leveled now but it caused a few design changes. Two long drops have been dug to create the site toilets, at first they were just holes - we thought we’d have to become pros in swatting! But today the toilet units arrived so it’s slightly better. A shed has also been constructed next to our night watchman’s hut to store our materials and tools. It all dawned on us how much of a task we have on our hands and there is so much work to do. I just try to keep remembering that we’re ahead of Jouberton at the moment so we’ll definitely get it all done! We also got a chance to visit the children that will be using the school once it is built. They’re so cute and they really need the facility. Currently they borrow the local Catholic Church during the week that is dark, hot and there’s only enough room for about 20 of the 60 children who attend the school. They have significant amount of play equipment but its rusting and needs replacing. The kitchen is located outdoors, under a tree – literally just a pot over a fire. The school will really benefit these children and you can really see how the money everyone has donated will help. Day 2 ended with a bit of setting out of the toilet block on site, the journey home and then a bite to eat at the local steak house – their specialty is monkey gland sauce – no one would actually say if it made out of monkey glands or not, but supposedly it tastes nice!
Day 3: We had a much earlier start today at 8am, we’re trying to break the students in slowly, by next week we’ll be aiming to get on site for 7:30am – so a 6:30am start! On our journey to site we got a little lost – well not a little, quite a lot and managed to end up near some game reserves adding an extra hr onto our journey, combine that with an almost empty fuel tank, it was a little worrying but luckily we spotted a petrol station, filled up and got some directions and eventually got to site.
Today was to be a whole PR day on site as Education Africa was coming down from Jo’berg and a special lunch was put on for the locals and us. We were officially welcomed to South Africa by EA and the locals accepted us into their community. On a quick note, for us to be allowed to work on the site in the village, our contractor had to go visit the Chief of the local tribe. To allow us to work on the site we had to pay the Chief a goat! Love it!
After the speeches, we had a great lunch and got to play with the local children, it is amazing how much fun digital cameras, watercolours and paper and a ball can be. It was so much fun and a great experience for everyone. They were really sad when we said we had to go but the heat had begun to get to us all – at 37degrees today it was almost unbearable out of the shade. A quick detour to Cashbuild on our way back to Tzaneen to pick up the tools needed to start digging the toilet block tomorrow and then a chilled our evening in front of the TV.
Just to fill you in too…progress on the ground works is moving fast, today they had leveled all of the different rooms and digging commences tomorrow. The contractor is even working over the weekend to get it done. Hopefully the concrete will be laid early next week (fingers crossed it might also be free – negotiations are currently in progress) and then the rest of the build can properly begin. A lot of materials have been ordered and final quantifying and costing are happening tomorrow and Thursday.
Right I’m going to sign off now, as this is already an epic entry! Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully will update you again in a couple of days.
Helen x
Thursday, 24 March 2011
3 DAYS TO GO...EEK!
Hello All,
Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. Things have been rather hectic. The design for the school is now complete and the drawings have been signed off and printed. The lead architect flew out to South Africa last weekend to begin getting the site sorted and fingers crossed the slab laid. From what i've heard so far, a small hut has been built for our 24 hr security man to live in, the toilets aka. long drops have been dug and installed, a 5000lt water tank has been brought and filled for construction use and mains electricity has been brought on to the site. Everything seems to be progressing well. I reckon the slab won't get laid this week but hopefully it'll be down next week. Just keep thinking where we were at with Jouberton and we managed to finish that so all will be fine!
In other news, the students all had their final briefing last week and were issued their PPE gear. It looks awesome and we're all going to look great on site. Thank you K2 for your generous donation, we're all going to be very safe now! Also yesterday the rest of the team kit arrived so hopefully from Saturday you'll get to see some pics of us all in our Project Limpopo team kit.
Everyone is getting very excited now about going, bags are almost packed and final check lists are completed. Next time I blog i'll be in South Africa, so until then...see ya!
Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. Things have been rather hectic. The design for the school is now complete and the drawings have been signed off and printed. The lead architect flew out to South Africa last weekend to begin getting the site sorted and fingers crossed the slab laid. From what i've heard so far, a small hut has been built for our 24 hr security man to live in, the toilets aka. long drops have been dug and installed, a 5000lt water tank has been brought and filled for construction use and mains electricity has been brought on to the site. Everything seems to be progressing well. I reckon the slab won't get laid this week but hopefully it'll be down next week. Just keep thinking where we were at with Jouberton and we managed to finish that so all will be fine!
In other news, the students all had their final briefing last week and were issued their PPE gear. It looks awesome and we're all going to look great on site. Thank you K2 for your generous donation, we're all going to be very safe now! Also yesterday the rest of the team kit arrived so hopefully from Saturday you'll get to see some pics of us all in our Project Limpopo team kit.
Everyone is getting very excited now about going, bags are almost packed and final check lists are completed. Next time I blog i'll be in South Africa, so until then...see ya!
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
3 WEEKS TO GO...PROJECT LIMPOPO
Hello...right things are ticking on and the departure date is approaching ever so quickly! There is lots going on this week including the construction test run! This will be happening on Thursday so hopefully I will have some photos up by the end of the weekend to show off the skills of the team!
This week the PPE clothing was all ordered and is currently being produced. It has been kindly donated by K2 Consultancy and it's going to make us all look 'dashing' out on site! At least people will see us with our hi-vis vests on! Other clothing and the hoodie order went in this week, generating about another £2,000 towards the fund. Congratulations to the 5th year team for organising all that.
The design is in its final stages and this week the drawings will hopefully be signed off with only small changes to make. After this we plan to start ordering materials and sorting out the construction process. We have a long list already compiled of all the processes and tasks which need to take place in order for the school to be built. We just need to organise it and hopefully it'll all fit within 6 weeks! With a bit of help from K2 i'm sure we'll be fine.
Progress is being made out in South Africa too. This week work begins on site and from Wednesday the site should begin to be flattened and the setting out can begin. The aim is to have the slab laid the week before the phase 1 team arrive. Mr J Edmonds will be out there to monitor this process so fingers crossed it all happens on time.
Last week we updated our budget and had to come to the upsetting conclusion that we may only be able to afford to build 2 out of the 4 classrooms :-( Please, please, please donate any money that you could offer as it may mean we could build all the classrooms. If you would like to donate materials, we would also be grateful for any contributions. I've also added a sneaky pic of the design to give you an idea of what the individual classrooms may be like...hope you like it.
Will update again next week.
Helen
This week the PPE clothing was all ordered and is currently being produced. It has been kindly donated by K2 Consultancy and it's going to make us all look 'dashing' out on site! At least people will see us with our hi-vis vests on! Other clothing and the hoodie order went in this week, generating about another £2,000 towards the fund. Congratulations to the 5th year team for organising all that.
The design is in its final stages and this week the drawings will hopefully be signed off with only small changes to make. After this we plan to start ordering materials and sorting out the construction process. We have a long list already compiled of all the processes and tasks which need to take place in order for the school to be built. We just need to organise it and hopefully it'll all fit within 6 weeks! With a bit of help from K2 i'm sure we'll be fine.
Progress is being made out in South Africa too. This week work begins on site and from Wednesday the site should begin to be flattened and the setting out can begin. The aim is to have the slab laid the week before the phase 1 team arrive. Mr J Edmonds will be out there to monitor this process so fingers crossed it all happens on time.
Last week we updated our budget and had to come to the upsetting conclusion that we may only be able to afford to build 2 out of the 4 classrooms :-( Please, please, please donate any money that you could offer as it may mean we could build all the classrooms. If you would like to donate materials, we would also be grateful for any contributions. I've also added a sneaky pic of the design to give you an idea of what the individual classrooms may be like...hope you like it.
Will update again next week.
Helen
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
4 WEEKS TO GO...PROJECT LIMPOPO
With only 4 weeks to go the pressure is mounting and the stress levels are increasing. I've already heard of one of the 5th years experiencing insomnia...William get some sleep!!
However, last week a lot of progress was made. Firstly, the design was originally created on a 2.4m grid to allow for layout of superstructure, heavyweight walls and modular lightweight walls. This works on the method that a standard sheet of material (8x4) is used as a modular element. It was decided that to improve this grid it would be expanded to 2.5m. This now allows for ceilings to be laid from above (rather than the awkward get the board on the back and struggle manoeuvre we experienced last time!) and also allows for a bit of flexibility when building the lightweight wall cassettes. In other design changes or developments, the gabion (heavyweight walls) finally gained a price and we can now budget them in and they were confirmed to sit in line with the trusses rather than infront. This does mean a few more details to draw but the aesthetic is a lot more pleasing.
The detailed drawings are coming along smoothly and all packages are coming together. The groundworks drawings were sent out last week to the contractor in South Africa to price up the clearing works and laying of the slab. We're still waiting to hear back from this, hopefully won't be too long as its due to be laid in just over 2 weeks!
In other news, fundraising this week received a major boost. The 5th year team designed the annual Architecture Hoodie and have been generating orders left, right and centre. All orders are now in with a total of 275!!! Think that has beaten the past 2 years records! This should gain about £2500 for Project Limpopo if all orders are paid for, a massive congrats to the 5th years! and the hoodies look awesome too, check out the image below.
The 2nd years have also been rather busy ordering the team kit which includes a rugby jersey, polo shirt, a navy t-shirt and a white t-shirt. All are being printed with Project Limpopo and Nottingham logos. However the white t-shirt is being sponsored by K2 Consultancy who are also generously funding our PPE clothing as well as the t-shirt. Over the next couple of weeks every team member will receive a small kit of PPE gear from K2 which includes a printed high vis vest, printed hard hat, goggles and gloves. Keep your eye out for an update of me looking 'good' in my safety gear!
Think that's about enough for now, in the next week there is quite a lot going on. On Thursday we're hoping to review the initial budget and produce a construction programme. Depending on the outcome of these tasks there may be value engineering involved too. K2 Consultancy will be on the phone to offer some help if we need it hopefully!
I hope you are enjoying the blog so far and if you would like to know anymore please don't hestitate to get in touch on h.jones@k2consultancy.com and if you would like to donate to this worthy cause please visit www.justgiving.com/Helen-Projectlimpopo.
All the best,
Helen
However, last week a lot of progress was made. Firstly, the design was originally created on a 2.4m grid to allow for layout of superstructure, heavyweight walls and modular lightweight walls. This works on the method that a standard sheet of material (8x4) is used as a modular element. It was decided that to improve this grid it would be expanded to 2.5m. This now allows for ceilings to be laid from above (rather than the awkward get the board on the back and struggle manoeuvre we experienced last time!) and also allows for a bit of flexibility when building the lightweight wall cassettes. In other design changes or developments, the gabion (heavyweight walls) finally gained a price and we can now budget them in and they were confirmed to sit in line with the trusses rather than infront. This does mean a few more details to draw but the aesthetic is a lot more pleasing.
The detailed drawings are coming along smoothly and all packages are coming together. The groundworks drawings were sent out last week to the contractor in South Africa to price up the clearing works and laying of the slab. We're still waiting to hear back from this, hopefully won't be too long as its due to be laid in just over 2 weeks!
In other news, fundraising this week received a major boost. The 5th year team designed the annual Architecture Hoodie and have been generating orders left, right and centre. All orders are now in with a total of 275!!! Think that has beaten the past 2 years records! This should gain about £2500 for Project Limpopo if all orders are paid for, a massive congrats to the 5th years! and the hoodies look awesome too, check out the image below.
 |
| Annual Architecture Hoodie 2011 |
Think that's about enough for now, in the next week there is quite a lot going on. On Thursday we're hoping to review the initial budget and produce a construction programme. Depending on the outcome of these tasks there may be value engineering involved too. K2 Consultancy will be on the phone to offer some help if we need it hopefully!
I hope you are enjoying the blog so far and if you would like to know anymore please don't hestitate to get in touch on h.jones@k2consultancy.com and if you would like to donate to this worthy cause please visit www.justgiving.com/Helen-Projectlimpopo.
All the best,
Helen
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