The Process

Today is Friday, I wouldn’t regularly blog a day like today, as it is usually filled with planning and organisational issues, and doesn’t include a visit to Kwa Thema. This afternoon, Bernt and Christopher held a workshop with us to try and iron out any confusion and problems we might have, and to rectify the process orientated approach which we were confronted with yesterday. The day was highly successful, with Catherine bringing up a very valuable point, that this process oriented approach is how we normally work at Wits. In this example however, we have had some severe time constraints (I can’t believe that a quarter can honestly consist of seven weeks) and as it was originally described as a design and build project, we had to build, the design and documentation process thus had very little time allocated to it.

We have managed to procure some substantial external donors in this project, so that our group’s vision (including the volunteers) may be better realised with perhaps more quality. We are trying to make a large building function again, and saw R10 000 as a welcome, yet not completely adequate sum. Our design has taken the budget into account from the beginning. We could quite easily replace our balustrade with springs from mattresses, or steel plates which have had parts pressed out of them. Materials which the locals use frequently. We feel that this will undermine the significance and integrity of the iconic building, we have used steel because it is a tectonically light material, it can be as transparent as the structure is now, and when fixed properly will not be stolen, as sheet metal and springs will be – the community uses them.

We have procured sponsors to create a building of a certain standard, one which people will be proud of. We were therefore completely taken back when our quest for external funding was seen as a negative, this was especially distressing as we were led in hand to a potential materials sponsor and told to ask for sponsorship. Our involvement in this course was also welcomed at the beginning of the quarter with a statement about how beneficial we might be as we are students who are good at procuring sponsors. These mixed messages seem to seriously undermine us as students.