Well I’m back in Nyanga and working away. The soil samples came back!!!!!! I have the results after what seems like months it’s done and I am now drawing the structural plans of the building. I’m going to say that again I am now drawing the structural plans of the building! I love that I am drawing, getting back to what I’m good at and what I know. Even though I am doing manual drawing, which I love anyways, it’s calming for me, I pop in a movie, turn on the computer, sit down and just draft away. I was up until midnight drawing and I didn’t even notice the time, I was just in heaven. It’s just soothing and relaxing. I forgotten about my drawings because I have been working in all the other aspects, making sure this person had the right information and that person was doing his job and reading and researching about plumbing and electrical and the latest in HVAC systems so that I understood what was going on when I talked to them and could ask questions. There is a reason that contractors are in the 30’s or 40’s and not their 20’s. By that stage of their career they know these things so they can do what needs to be done. I’ve learnt so much and I love it but I had forgotten that I also had drawings and calculations of my own to do. When it comes to my job I am a perfectionist, I want everything to be right and perfect and everyone to be the same. My roommate also tells me I am a workaholic and it makes her look bad (I think she works just has hard as I do) but the thing is I never seem to be caught up I seem to always be a few steps behind, I thought things in Africa happen slower, maybe it’s just me. Anyways I am back in Nyanga for a while which means less interruptions so this is good.

This business of soil testing has been a HUGE headache. First off I went to the Agricultural Lab, they said no they didn’t do construction soil testing try Soil Labs. Soil Labs doesn’t exist anymore so I went to the Ministry of Agriculture to find out if they knew, they suggested the Chemical and Mechanical Soil Testing then they sent me to I went to Engineering Soil Analysis Lab and they sent me to SIRDC. SIRDC does all sorts of things, they are a government facility that does Environmental, Agriculture, Construction and the list goes on. The gentleman I met with there said they could do the work and showed me the package, he said he’d have to get a quote and let me know. I was so excited I has spent over 2 days and had drove all over the city and FINALLY someone could do the work. He called me a few hours later and… it was going to cost the earth for 3 tests and I thought, “Are you NUTS?” So back to the drawing board, I went back to the building code and thought there has to be another way and I noticed a table, which had soil classification and the load that the soil can carry for each class. I talked to a farmer friend who also does minor construction and he gave me the name of a lab, that if I gave them the table with the classifications and asked them to test the soil and classify it, they would do it for a whopping $20/sample of a kg. This was music to my ears, I was so excited and happy and thought about time!!!! So they are going to test my soil and have the results back to me in 5 days!!!!

An NGO called SODIS has a method of purifying water. The basics of this system are using the suns UV rays to purify the water. It takes about 8 to 12 hours. Apparently they have an office here in Zimbabwe where 3 million people in rural areas are using this system. I have yet to find this office or anyone who has heard of SODIS, but the upside is I found the brochure online with pictures of how the system works and how to implement the system. I had the brochure translated into Shona and made 54 copies for the families at the AIDS clinic who are in a high-density rural area and get water-purifying tablets from the clinic. They tablets are donated but they have a chlorine taste, which the Shona aren’t fond of and at some point someone pays for it, this system is way better and they don’t have to worry about the taste. So the clinic is July 3 so we’ll try it out and see how it goes. The concern we have is that during winter (right now) there isn’t enough sun to do the job, so I’m trying to find the Harare office of SODIS and find out what they do during this time of year. We are also looking at a large-scale system to put this in the library. So stay tuned for an update.

HAPPY CANADA DAY FROM AFRICA!!!

Well the last week or 2 has been busy, frustrating, exciting and difficult. It began with a trip to Harare where on the way I met with the high school drafting teacher to collect the architectural drawings. The next morning we had the drawings blueprinted and I started my hunt for a soil-testing lab and to find a place where I could acquire the rest of the construction codes. I went and met with some Mechanical Engineering students, and we talked about how they could be included in the project; how their electromagnetic mechanical system could be paired with an HVAC system and creating a solar water heater. During this discussion I met with their dean, who told me he had a teaching vacancy for 2-second year classes if I was interested. I wrote a list of questions for the students to find the answers to about their system and the capabilities of their system and told them we’d meet again in a week to see what they had come up with and what we would be able to do. I took my car in to have the bits and pieces fixed that couldn’t be fixed in Zambia, what I thought would be a day or repairs turned into 3! I met with the Electrical Engineer, who helped me, design an electrical system based on the Solar Aid equipment and specifications. I then planned my trip to Zambia. Due to time constraints and to just make my life easier, I flew. It’s an hour flight each way, which is much nicer than the 8 hours and the border is simple, just a form, a stamp and a fee and you’re off. Before I could fly out I had to go back to Nyanga to pick up some information, drop off some information and have a meeting, which I was able to do in 24 hours. So Sunday morning I caught the red eye (well red eye for me) at 6:45am, I spent Sunday preparing and getting re-acquainted with Lusaka. Zambia is in winter like Zimbabwe but it’s like Victoria in August, it was crazy hot. Monday morning I went and met with Chris a wastewater and biogas engineer. We talked about a design and plan that would include plumbing, wastewater cleaning and re-distribution and turning waste into a biogas to fuel that a generator would use to run the electricity. He took me around and showed me 3 different kinds of systems he had designed, although the technology and idea is the same each project is individually designed. We talked about low flush toilets and motion sensor sinks, he gave me some local company’s to check out for both and by local I mean South Africa. From there I went and saw Trevor, the Solar Aid guy, I wanted him to look at the electrical plan, ask questions and find out what has happened by way of electrical technology in the last month. He was really excited to see me and was pleased with we had come up with. He was able to answer all my questions and asked me if I wanted a job! He needed someone to do design and research. From there he took me to meet a solar electrical distributer and we learned about the latest in solar and environmental lighting. The latest lights are 3 watts and ¼ amp. They last 50,000 hours where if you run them 12 hours a day it lasts 11 years. I was a bit skeptical about this so I did some research and it’s all true! So he is sending me the specifications so I can pick my electrical. Trevor wanted me to stay an extra day to do some more showing around including the environmental, sustainable house he and his wife built but I had a plane to catch. I was back in Zimbabwe the following evening, spending a total of 36 hours in country. Back in Harare I had a day and a half to meet with the Electrical Engineer to finalize the plans, find someone who had the codes I was looking for AND to meet with the Mechanical Engineering 4^th years students and their dean. We discussed more ideas, I had some of my questions answered and they are now working on a plan with their dean, myself and another professor supervising. So I’ll meet with them again in 2 weeks to see what the design looks like. My biggest headache was finding someone, anyone who could give me access or had the codes that I needed for some follow-up work. The building bylaws for Zimbabwe follow the British Building Standards, the Central Africa Standards and the South African Building Standards. I went to the Institute of Engineers, they sent me to the Construction Institute, who sent me to the Institute of Architects, who sent me to the Zimbabwe Standards Association who sent me to their head office and… they had the codes. However it wasn’t as easy as I thought, this included looking through catalogues for each standard, picking out the ones I wanted writing them on a form where someone would find them for me. It’s like a library BUT you pay for each book you take out and you are charged based on the number of pages in the book. Some standards you can buy but I thought I’d rent some first and see what I could find. I am now back in Nyanga and have a “to do” list as long as my arm. This morning I took soil samples from the site to take into Harare to have them tested. I was given 3 people to help me and by help me I mean they did all the hard labour and I just supervised. We took 8 samples, 4 locations at 2 different depths.