Due to funding we are now creating a 1-storey library instead of 2, so I had to re-do the drawings for the building and re-calculate the foundations, footings, re-do the roof plan, and sort out another rebar schedule. I also discovered I could put wire mesh in the floor slab instead of rebar which does the same thing but it is easier because you buy it in sheets and have it sized to your needs, it is then laid in the concrete. Also because it is a 1-storey building I was able to reduce the rebar, which means less worry for me and a more guaranteed quality of rebar. So everything had to be re-worked and re-planned. This needed to be done in a span of 24 hours so we could go back to council and talk to them about the underpinning of the existing building. So we did an exploratory dig. This includes digging around the existing building at a few points to see what the foundation looks like. So we dug at 3 points the north, east and west walls. The north wall had a rock foundation with mortar to hold it together, there was no footing and the mortar was disintegrating into dust so I could scrap it out which caused holes. The foundation at the north wall was about a metre deep. The west wall had a tree root growing into the building, which was causing it to bulge, the foundation is about .75m deep and again no footings and the foundation was rock with disintegrating mortar. The southeast corner had NO FOUNDATION!!! The building was sitting on the ground and that’s it! How this building is still standing I have no idea. So the front (south end) of the building had no foundation as you moved along the east and west walls to the north end of the building the foundation gradually increased to a metre. We found that just underpinning the building was not going to be enough, when you underpin a building you do it a metre at a time so that the foundation is never fully exposed. So after the building is underpinned we’ll wrap the foundation in chicken wire to hold it all together and plaster the chicken wire to the foundation. I met with someone from council and took them to the site and showed him the foundation and my plan to fix it, he smiled, nodded and said, “Sounds good”. My biggest concern was that I would become liable for the existing building if I fixed it, which is a common practice and I didn’t want to become liable for a building I didn’t construct that is over 50 years old. I was worried about excavation of the new building without looking at the foundation of the existing building. Council wanted me to attach the existing building to the new building, which I refused to do unless I saw the existing building. We also laid out the building using pegs so I was able to see what my building is going to look like.

Tuesday this week we are having a groundbreaking ceremony. This includes important people from the Nyanga Rural Council, School Districts and Library Committee. The District Council has asked me to help inspect and train their building inspectors for this project, as they have no structural professional on staff.

So by the end of the week, we’ll have a final budget, the existing building sorted (hopefully) and a plan for construction!!!!

The Problem

The spots were dug for this exploration; 1 along the north wall, 1 along the west wall and 1 along the east wall. These spots were chosen based on the condition of the floors and walls inside and outside the building as well as the exposure they would face during excavation for the new building.

The east wall dig was done near the south wall as the south wall had an exterior crack right round through the corner column and down the side of the east wall. It’s been discovered that there is NO FOUNDATION at all. The stone that is at the bottom of the building continues down about 300mm and that’s it. The condition of the stone below dirt is that the mortar has disintegrated into dust and can be removed using your finger.

The north wall dig was done in the middle of the north wall, both columns at the north wall have cracks right down the length of them where the wall meets the column. The interior floor is cracked right across the north wall and down the east wall and where the crack meets in the corner up the interior north wall. This dig shows us there is a foundation down about 1 metre, but there is NO FOOTING. There is concrete sitting on the earth about 150, 200mm followed by a layer of mortar, which has also disintegrated into dust and can be removed with your finger, followed by rock. It is hard to tell how thick the foundation wall is at this time.

The west wall dig was done about ¾ of the way towards the north wall. This dig again showed us that there is NO FOOTING, and the foundation was about 750mm down, which shows us the depth of the foundation changes from the south wall of the building to the exterior, why this was done is undetermined, it might have been to account for the change in elevation. This is a concern because at this time we are unable to tell how the foundation changes either by stepping the foundation down OR just a diagonal slope. The foundation here is also 150 to 200mm of concrete followed with a layer of mortar and the stone. The mortar here has also disintegrated but the roots from a nearby tree have grown into the foundation and have left a hole. The stone above ground has spots of bulging and indentation, which follow the holes in the foundation, whether this is from the tree roots or the condition of the mortar is hard to tell.

The Solution

Myself along with Pat Hallows (candidate for construction) together came up with a solution. First of all the south end of the building, which appears to have no foundation needs to have some sort of foundation, we thought 500mm down and the 300mm wide under the stone already there. From there we can underpin the building doing an alternate 1m and then going back to do the alternate so that the building is never fully exposed. During excavation for the new building the north, east and west walls will be exposed and so we will wire mesh and plaster the foundation up to the bottom of the columns, which sits on a ledge. This will also deal with the stone problem as well as hold the foundation together.

I have never seen a foundation or lack thereof this bad. Pat, my contractor friend said that the building was waiting for me to save it! BUT the upside is that I am learning all sorts of problem solving and coming up with new ways to do things, which making this fun, well a version of fun anyways.

I had planned to go to Harare for the weekend, clean up some quotes on the Friday, go to the AIDS clinic on Saturday, go to church Sunday and leave after that, this being Africa that was just not going to happen. I picked up quotes on Friday, did some photocopying, printing of more drawings, talk to some new people about rebar (reinforcement bar), write up notes for some contractors. But I had to wait until Monday to meet some rebar guys, wait until Tuesday to pick up the final quotes and Wednesday I had my car serviced. In 7 months I’ve traveled 20,000 km!!! I’ve turned into my dad driving around BC when he was bishop. I can’t believe all the driving I’ve done, but my car is still plugging along and in good condition. All sorts of new things are popping up like the foundation of the old building, moving the current ZESA pole, the current septic tank location and the condition of the tank and the list goes on.

MY BUILDING GOT APPROVED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!! AND I’ve found my Godsend to take over for me when I leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Monday, I meet with ZESA the electrical people to move the electrical poles, I apply to borrow the neighbouring plot to use for builder’s sheds, I met with Pat (my Godsend) to do some exploratory digging of the existing building to see the damage to the foundations and will underpinning be enough. The cracking and floor separation that had started has become worse over the last 2 months, the concern we have that during excavation of the new building the existing building will sink further or crumble with the disruption of the earth. We are also brick making!!!

So things are coming together nicely finally after much frustration, hard work and lots of learning.

This past weekend was a mess! Friday started with the usual burning but because of the winds the fire spread and got very close to some houses including mine, most people stood around watching while some of us grabbed water and fire beaters and tried to contain it, this was also scary because we were currently in the middle of a water cut! Friday we had a windstorm, which caused trees to fall over, and power lines to come down and cut off our power for 3 days which also meant no hot water. There is no hot water in the rural areas so you boil your water to get it hot or if you are lucky you have a geezer, which we do BUT you need power to heat the water in the geezer SO no hot water. This power cut was a mixed blessing because it meant we couldn’t work and were forced to take a weekend off, which meant I read 3 books in 2 days and didn’t turn on the computer as I wanted to save the battery. Sunday morning I woke up and went into the kitchen to boil water for coffee and the kitchen was FLOODED!!! So we spent a good few hours cleaning up the water only to have the water cut!!! So we now have the power lines fixed but no water. When ZESA came to fix the power lines, they spent about 8 hours doing so, they turned on the power only to have sparks come out of the line to our house and no power. So they turned the power back off, called in a few more people and sorted out the problem. So this weekend we’ve had all sorts of disasters but have survived them all!!!

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!