highveld hell

a cold front had hit the highveld. it was freezing cold, the icy wind relentlessly sawed through my layers. my hands were numb and aching, and slow to move.

tom and i were due to cut and assemble our shutterboards for our tagging kwathema project in the architecture workshop. we arrived to find a power failure across the campus.

to pass time we ran some errands. we delivered our dxf drawings for laser cutting to laserfab in troyeville. rupesh was unbelievably accommodating – he was so passionate about his job and showed us around the factory. the automated laser cutting machine was fascinating. it was precise, moved sharply, jerking backwards and forwards, laser beams pulsing through the sheet metal with the ease of a needle and thread through a piece of cotton cloth.

we returned to wits to find the power still out. we needed to make another plan for cutting the timber. i was concerned that i would not get back to kwathema today if we were to cut it by hand – i would be letting my group down if i didn’t. but we signed out a circular saw and two clamps and headed to tom’s house.

we needed to work outside, in the blistering cold. we worked fast and warmed ourselves with intervals of rooibos and homemade shortbread. our hands ached and stiffened at their exposure to the cold front chill. our feet became numb and toes swollen. i thought often of how cold it must have been on site in kwathema – the wind was so eminent for its relentless gusts. i hoped that my group would survive it all. i called often – probably more to relieve my guilty conscience than for my concerns of their warmth!

i left tom’s house just before the night settled. my heater on full-blast, blowing dry air into my face and onto my feet.

YO, YO, YO It's freezing! First working Day!

Mood: Cold

Song in mind: Unknown-"Khona ba lambile"

Site: Entokozweni Primary School

Mission: Peg out site and begin digging

"Global Warming," my foot-they should call it global colding. Man, was it cold this morning. I literally had to be ressurrected from my bed thic morning in order to get to Kwa-Thema.

The previous week, we had performed the presentation of the concept of the step and hop to the principal of the school and now was the time to build it. "A huge task ahead," my partner and I thought-especially since we weren't confident about the bricklayers we had employed for this task but "SIZOBONA PHAMBILI!" (we'll see when we get there).

We began pegging out the site in order to position the structure. This was not an easy task as it was sooooooooooooooooo cold! I could barely feel my fingers and as for my toes, hmmm, I don't wanna talk about it... We, however, managed to get the layout right and we left the bricklayers with clear instructions of where and how deep to dig the foundations. Khula, otherwise known as Kuras, and I left to buy materials at the Cashbuild nearby and brought them to site later. We, then went to see the progress at the bigger projects: Chess Park and Beer Hall.

At lunch, I bought Kotas (pronounced "quarters" for those verbally challenged fellow brothers and sisters of lighter pigment). The Kota is god-sent. It consists of a quarter of a loaf (dirrrr!), chips, cheese, russian and vienna-it's a Kasi Delicasy!

When I arrived at Ntokozweni-God forbid-I discovered that one of the staff members had requested the workers to move to another side. Due to time constraints, Khula (please, don't be deceived, it does not mean COOLER) and I took up the pick and spade and worked on the project physically as well. If you think that now we had made progress, go ahead and read up what happened the following day....

Final Week-"...honkga ho sa bola..."

Mood: Cold
Song in mind: Unknown-"Khona ba lambile"
Location: Chess Park
Mission:Lay Concrete Tiles

Yep, the final week had arrived-uncertainty and stress were beginning to settle in. This was contributed by the fact that we also had to focus on our paired projects, meaning that less time was dedicated on the bigger and main sites: Chess Park and Beer hall. The pressure was accentuated further by the fact that we were broke and already over-budget. It was a difficult issue as a group having to decide whether to compromise on quality and stay within budget by improvising or to consider the end-users of the product by giving them a product that’s durable, aesthetically-pleasing and something that the community would be proud to take ownership of. To tell tell you the truth, though we are over-budget and the project is about to be completed, we are still arguing about this and have agreed to disagree.

We were fortunate enough to have had the concrete tiles delivered to the site during the weekend and were therefore able to resume laying the tiles out.

A Cold Start to the Last week

Today was freezing. Completely, unbelievably burning cold, but we continue to toil for the greater good of humanity and because we only have about 5 days left. This morning we met in the architecture workshop and Catherine and Gareth drilled holes into the abacus blocks which the children painted at our workshop on Saturday. We darted off to KwaThema, and were greated by a bleak, freezing 8:30 in the morning beer hall. Mr. Cindi made us coffee, while we wondered aimlessly around the building, all our strategic planning reduced to a cold sludge, slipping around in our heads.

Gareth got started on the remaining uprights in our balustrade, because that is very important to finish. Catherine drove Mr. Cindi around and went to the shops a couple of times, and I filled in where I could. We received a truck load of crusher stone today, the second step in our landscaping scheme. It looks fantastic spread around the front of the building. It looks so good, we are getting more. Catherine and I also managed to mark out the primary lines of the basket ball court, and the ANCYL guys built a one course wall next to our new grass.

Today 4 of our plants were missing. Mr. Cindi says that people jealous of our project have removed them in spite. Well its a good thing then that we still have 5 more left in the tray, ready to replace those lost.

Ahaka and I had a very successful meeting with Linda, a local sign writer, about our recycling container project. We have designed a bright, colourful, information packed sign which will hopefully send out a clear message about the advantages of keeping your public space clean. The sign was influenced by the many painted around the township and the way they use people in portraying the message instead of heavy text. Linda was fantastic, completely enthusiastic and positive. We will surround the sign with red bricks to demarcate a place where recycling could take place, hopefully our glass bank will arrive in time. We have also tried to organise a group of council rubbish bins for the site, hopefully they too will arrive before Saturday. We had kotas today for lunch, kotas, a reinterpretation of ‘quarters’ (of a loaf of bread), are bread with chips, cheese, polony and a Russian sausage. Heavy stuff.

Tomorrow will be 9˚C, need I say more.

Interview Sound Clip (Open with QuickTime):

Joseph Cindy on the community's reaction

http://web.omnidrive.com/APIServer/public/z6wuGYW3nhTkLJbpd8agz2yP

Video:

21 May 2007 (low quality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4FhB1RgJhk

silhouettes

Last night the temperatures dropped to just above freezing, and brought a different mood to the project. I arrived at the Chess Park at 12 to find a huddled group making plans for Saturday, but the students were all off dealing with anything that didn’t involve standing around in the wind. We found Guy and Catherine, and a group of tough guys from the Youth League at the Beerhall, which now has gravel laid along the street edge, giving it a detached and even monumental quality.

Mr Cindi is sure that the gravel won’t be stolen. Four succulents were, overnight, but as he points out, shoveling gravel into wheelbarrows makes more noise, and he’ll wake up and stop it.

In this relative calm before the launch on Saturday, all the decisions and gestures that make up this project seem to take on a sort of clarity. There seem to be many, many minds and hands at work, and yet no real centre. Just some obvious ground rules. A budget. Design by consensus, but with allowance for changes and contributions. A timeframe, and of course, marks, for the students. But although there has been very little discussion about the visuality of the scheme, Tom sent through an image today that captured the commonality between the projects so clearly and simply.

There’s the Launch, it says, in big letters. The event looming large. And then there are these two big projects and the cluster of five little ones in the middle, each really unique and clear. A family of projects.

What makes us imagine these moments as something linked? Is it the structure of the teams, or just a process of working on them at the same time? and what is being conveyed in these silhouettes? Something to do with the simplicity of each project, but also the fact of it as a built project, something weighty. The shadow of all the weighty decisions behind it.

Freezing

Our group met at Wits early this morning so we could get an early start at the beerhall. We’ve got so much still today and with only 5 days left I’m starting to worry a little bit.

We arrived in a bitterly cold KwaThema just after 08h00 to commence some hard graft. After a quick meeting and a few laps around the beerhall I was ready to start! I have my hands full this week as I need to get the balustrade finished- this is going to be problematic considering we don’t have all of the flat or round steel!

The day that I had to erect the balustrade uprights I was forced to leave out 5 of the uprights because of not being able to drill into the concrete at those specific points so I made it my mission today to get these remaining 5 uprights installed. Today I started getting to know January Msiza a little better- this guy is amazing! He is such a fine welder and does absolutely everything you ask him to do with such a good attitude. I’m really glad we found January because if this balustrade is going to get finished by Friday we’re going to need someone with his skill.

I was standing up on the first floor to the beerhall structure and I was freezing! It’s been a long time since I felt this cold. I didn’t anticipate the weather being this bad so I didn’t dress warmly. As I was battling with the installation of one of the uprights, Mr. Cindi approached me with a woolen beanie to keep my head and ears warm! It was such a nice gesture- Thanks Mr. Cindi!

Now that my head was warm I had no excuse to slack off. January and I finished with the 5 problematic uprights and began welding the handrail onto the uprights. I can’t even tell you how satisfying this was- to finally see this balustrade being completed gave me a great sense of accomplishment!

I needed to get cracking on my paired project with Sifiso so I took a little bit of time out to find a painter. I asked Lawrence if he knew of anyone who would be willing to paint the poles outside the shops near the civic centre- he told me my best bet would be to ask one of the ANC Youth League guys. I got chatting to Lunga, a member of the ANC Youth League who was helping us at the beerhall. I had noticed how he and some of his friends were just standing around so I commissioned them to paint for me. They’ll start preparing the poles for paint early tomorrow morning.

Pipe Down!

Some people say that South Africans get bad service because South Africans don’t complain. On Thursday I heard so much complaining, projected at Cashbuild employees, it warrants a comment.
I often hear fortunate car owners complain about taxis. Some of the volunteers on our site have told me that they rely on taxis to get to our site and the Welder’s partner has told me that he relies on minibus taxis to get to our site. Therefore, taxis indirectly help Team Chess park.
Cashbuild has delivered every material that we have ordered from them. If it wasn’t for Cashbuild’s materials there wouldn’t be a foundation and foundation walls. Therefore, Cashbuild directly helps Team Chess park.
That's why I found it disheartening when I heard a member of Team Chess park shouting at Cashbuild employees over the phone. The complaint was about a late delivery, yet we are not behind schedule. Therefore the complaint was unnecessary.
If you don’t understand the logistics involved in getting materials to site, please exercise a little bit of patience when a delivery is late.