I’ve been back in Nyanga for 60 hours and I have hit the ground running. I’ve been putting together the construction documentation, consolidating quotes, conference calling, meeting with distributers, meeting with council and the list goes on. I went to council to ask about an inspection schedule. Council said that I would need to hire a structural engineer to do some of the inspection, as no one at council is qualified. I told them I am a structural engineer and they said that I could do the inspection along with them. This seemed odd to me that they would allow me to inspect my own site, but I wasn’t about to argue.

Now, it's been a week, since I've been back and I've been madly trying to get the rebar (reinforcement bar) schedule sorted, I had forgotten how much rebar goes into a building and my schedule was 2 pages long consolidated and 4 pages broken down into sections like columns, footings, concrete slabs, etc. Then I went to meet with a contractor who lives in town, who I go to for advice, opinions and help and he said that they are having troubles with quality of steel that the Chinese are turning out rubbish rebar because they can sell it cheap but the trouble is then it needs to be tested by Zimbabwe Testing Association and you may end up putting twice as much rebar and your columns and slabs may become 2 or 3 times as thick. This I thought was nuts!!! So I now have to sort this out. This contractor has agreed to help me out, he has been doing this for 30 years and so knows much more than I do especially when it comes to the Zimbabwe system, this makes me feel much more relaxed and calm. Our chat today also included quotes for materials like plumbing and electrical and the products I shouldn’t be using. For example there are 3 possibilities for gutters; PVC (plastic), zinc and chromadex. Now my preference is PVC because it has a long life and doesn’t need much or regular maintenance. I went to 2 plumbers, one said it wasn’t available the other said he look into it and see what he could do, but it shouldn’t be a problem. The plumber who said no said to use chromadex. I had never heard of this so I asked my contractor friend he said, “stay away from it, the paint chips, it’s expensive and it needs regular maintenance, the man who wants to use it must be an agent for them”. I knew this would happen at some point that someone would use my lack of plumbing knowledge or electrical or whatever against me. For a long time I was researching everything so when I met with people I could ask questions and have some idea what they were talking about, but this became too much. I’ve said it before but this is why contractors are in their late 30’s early 40’s and NOT mid-20’s. But thank goodness for my contractor friend and he helped me out and so we talked for 4 hours about all sorts of construction materials, methods, Zimbabwe construction and I left feeling a mixture of frustration and relief. I go back to Harare tomorrow for the weekend to sort out some FINAL quotes of materials I can’t get in kamusha (rural area) like low flush toilets and LED lighting and sort the final plans for the rainwater harvesting and waste water management. So wish me luck, I’ll need it. Also it’s AIDS weekend already, where does the month go? So I’m going to find out how the solar water treatment is going and are they using the pamphlets that we gave them in June, thanks to David Ford’s genius idea.

I’ve been back in Nyanga for 60 hours and I have hit the ground running. I’ve been putting together the construction documentation, consolidating quotes, conference calling, meeting with distributers, meeting with council and the list goes on. I went to council to ask about an inspection schedule. Council said that I would need to hire a structural engineer to do some of the inspection, as no one at council is qualified. I told them I am a structural engineer and they said that I could do the inspection along with them. This seemed odd to me that they would allow me to inspect my own site, but I wasn’t about to argue.

Now, it's been a week, since I've been back and I've been madly trying to get the rebar (reinforcement bar) schedule sorted, I had forgotten how much rebar goes into a building and my schedule was 2 pages long consolidated and 4 pages broken down into sections like columns, footings, concrete slabs, etc. Then I went to meet with a contractor who lives in town, who I go to for advice, opinions and help and he said that they are having troubles with quality of steel that the Chinese are turning out rubbish rebar because they can sell it cheap but the trouble is then it needs to be tested by Zimbabwe Testing Association and you may end up putting twice as much rebar and your columns and slabs may become 2 or 3 times as thick. This I thought was nuts!!! So I now have to sort this out. This contractor has agreed to help me out, he has been doing this for 30 years and so knows much more than I do especially when it comes to the Zimbabwe system, this makes me feel much more relaxed and calm. Our chat today also included quotes for materials like plumbing and electrical and the products I shouldn’t be using. For example there are 3 possibilities for gutters; PVC (plastic), zinc and chromadex. Now my preference is PVC because it has a long life and doesn’t need much or regular maintenance. I went to 2 plumbers, one said it wasn’t available the other said he look into it and see what he could do, but it shouldn’t be a problem. The plumber who said no said to use chromadex. I had never heard of this so I asked my contractor friend he said, “stay away from it, the paint chips, it’s expensive and it needs regular maintenance, the man who wants to use it must be an agent for them”. I knew this would happen at some point that someone would use my lack of plumbing knowledge or electrical or whatever against me. For a long time I was researching everything so when I met with people I could ask questions and have some idea what they were talking about, but this became too much. I’ve said it before but this is why contractors are in their late 30’s early 40’s and NOT mid-20’s. But thank goodness for my contractor friend and he helped me out and so we talked for 4 hours about all sorts of construction materials, methods, Zimbabwe construction and I left feeling a mixture of frustration and relief. I go back to Harare tomorrow for the weekend to sort out some FINAL quotes of materials I can’t get in kamusha (rural area) like low flush toilets and LED lighting and sort the final plans for the rainwater harvesting and waste water management. So wish me luck, I’ll need it. Also it’s AIDS weekend already, where does the month go? So I’m going to find out how the solar water treatment is going and are they using the pamphlets that we gave them in June, thanks to David Ford’s genius idea.

We haven’t had water in 5 DAYS! I smell really bad even with washing my face, brushing my teeth, deodorant AND perfume!!! We have a geezer for hot water BUT it’s limited because we need city water to fill the tank and then heated and then comes into the house. Today I finally said “ENOUGH” filled the bath half with hot water and let it sit all day to cool then filled it the other half with hot water to have a bath. This is using most of the reserve but after 5 days I NEED TO BATH!!!! When I say hot I mean HOT, it’s scalding and it takes about 2 minutes to get that hot. I haven’t been able to do laundry so I am taking my laundry back to Harare and doing it at friends, well that’s not really true, she has domestic help so she’ll do it. I tried to do it once and she got upset thought I didn’t like how she did laundry or worried she would get in trouble because I was doing her job. Anyways it’s hard to get use to but it’s the way it is over here. It’s like taking laundry home over the weekend from University and getting mum to do it.

It’s starting to warm up here FINALLY! The nights are still cold but the days are really sunny and hot. ZESA has been touchy as well, we went 3 days without power and then it came on Friday for the day and was off 5:30 until 11pm, and none on Saturday until 9pm and today it’s been on 12 until I don’t know. I’m telling you I have mastered cooking on the gas. I’ve learned to cook all sorts of stuff in the gas; cheese sauce, potato wedges, meat, rice, burgers.

The drawings are all complete and printed and submitted to council for approval. All construction in Zimbabwe must include as “shed” on site. This shed is really a wooden shack that is used as an office. We appealed to council to extend it and use also to store the brick press and all it entails and make bricks inside and store the bricks. After much debate and negotiations we were granted the approval.

I have spent the last 2 weeks in Harare doing the not so fun part of my job. A big part of the project is using local products and being environmentally friendly. Since I am out in kamusha (the bush or rural area) we can’t get plumbing fixtures, electrical or mechanical SO we are getting bids from around the area specifically Mutare (an hour away) and Harare (3 hours away), which is still in the 800km radius of getting local materials. This is the environmental regulations for local products. So I had to get 3 quotes for each system, since I am not familiar with professionals here I asked around. This was harder than I thought. It included driving around Harare to 3 different industrial areas; Workington, Southerton and Msasa. These are the areas of trade industry, I took a fellow engineer (a Shona male) for help with translation because sometimes people have a hard time understanding what I want and I sometimes have a hard time understanding the accent and the phrasing. These areas have a few white people and NO WOMEN. So I stood out as a woman and when we walked into a place the engineer I brought was who they would talk to and I would cut in and tell them what I wanted, I was very specific and gave them a stack of paperwork so that there was no misunderstandings and gave them a timeline and emphasized it several times during the conversation. Most places were shocked that I was the one giving the information and after a while, my friend was becoming known as my personal assistant, I thought; “hey there’s an idea”. He also made most of the follow up calls because it’s even harder for me on the phone with accents and getting some people to understand what I want and the phone network is worse than useless. Then he really became known as my personal assistant. Of course none of my due dates were followed but progress has been made. I am just waiting on a few leftover systems quotes. I have become quite popular in the industry as the woman contractor. Some of the engineers I have been working with say I have a better network then they do.

I am back at home YEAH and full speed ahead!!!! I missed my bed, walking instead of driving, and just working on the project instead of doing administration work. I must say I am missing my personal assistant.

Something I’ve really noticed over the last few months and why I brought my friend along is that Shona people translate Shona into English so sometimes what they say and what they mean isn’t the same thing. Sometimes it comes off rude or the mix and match and you just haven’t a clue what’s being asked or said. It’s hard to explain over a blog but trust me it’s frustrating and sometimes really funny.

Well things have been busy as usual. I wanted to have the drawings finished and submitted by last week but it didn’t happen!!! The plumber is stuck out in a mine somewhere and the mechanical guys are just slow. So we are delayed AGAIN. The concern is that the rainy season will come and it will make it harder to build. I have suggested we start making bricks and trusses and such to at least have them ready to start building when the permits come through because the bricks take 2 weeks to cure (drying at a specific rate to reach maximum strength). So we are currently in a holding pattern. On the upside I’ve been asked to do some drawings for a school in Uganda. This is exciting but a bit hard without seeing the lot and not having the Ugandan building code but I’m figuring it out and plugging away.

Church seems to be the way to network in this country. I was meeting with the Electrical Engineer (from church) and was asking if he knew anyone who could install the electrical and generator, he introduced me to someone from the Shona congregation, I met with him and I think he may be more of a perfectionist than I am, he is excited and eager to help out and would be willing to train someone in Nyanga on maintenance and repair. When I needed a plumber I asked the Electrical Engineer again if he knew anyone and he said there was someone from the service I go to who could do it, so I met him and found out he’s an environmental plumber, that he was eager to do waste water management, rainwater harvesting and use low flush toilets, motion sensor sinks and would train someone in Nyanga to do maintenance and repair. He also comes with an impeccable reputation; while I was talking to him I discovered he is also a perfectionist. I was really excited and eager to use him as well, the trouble is so is everyone else. He is popular with the mining community and doing the plumbing for them, which is why I’ve had a hard time pinning him down. But it will all get sorted… eventually… I hope. The mechanical engineers are from the family service, they are newly graduated students and with the help of the Dean, a professor and myself have been plugging away at this project, the trouble is they are a bit slow and need a lot of attention. I am happy to help new to the field students as it a leg up for them when they apply for jobs and a good learning experience for both them and me.

For the plumber and the mechanical guys I had to go to the meteorological station and find out some weather information about Nyanga. This included: temperature maximum and minimum, annual rainfall, wind speeds, and sunshine hours. Now this isn’t as easy as going to google, the information is not posted online, you have to go to the station and fill out a form. The choices include; a monthly statement over a 30 year period (long term), a monthly statement over a 1,3 or 5 year period (short term), an annual statement over 30 years and finally an annual statement over 1,3 or 5 years. All this of course you pay for, so we started with monthly statements long and short term, and then moved to annual statements short and long term. The cheapest was going to still be steep so I went to the weather station in Nyanga and asked them what to do, they were able to give me a one year monthly statement for temperatures and rainfall for free but the wind speeds and sunshine hours were not kept at the local stations but at the main one in Harare so I went back to Harare and asked what it would cost for just the last 2 parameters (each item like annual rainfall is called a parameter) and was given a price I could live with. So after 2 weeks and lots of negotiation, I had all the information I needed to pass on to my people.

My poor car has been abused once again; my roommate backed up into my car instead of driving forward and smashed the rear window, and trunk so it wouldn’t open. So it went back to the garage where in 10 days it was fixed. The problem was that they couldn’t find the right rear window so it took some time to find one.

So this is what the Uganda project is all about. They want to build a number of small block schools with 2 to 4 classrooms that they can put all over the rural areas, where there isn’t a need for a large school but a desperate need for a school. The plan includes 2-4 classrooms separated by 1-2 storerooms. It’s a simple plan but one that means the difference between an education at home and having to walk miles or no education at all.

The weather finally is warming up, summer is just around the corner, and we are in a place like spring but more winter. Almost time to bring back the shorts!

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.