Local Press

During the Handover ceremony a reporter from the national ‘Nation’ newspaper carried out a few interviews with myself and the university Vice Chancellor. Bellow is a copy of the article which appeared in the Nation newspaper on the Friday 17th 2 days later.

A Mzuni student reporter also published a small press release which was displayed around campus the following day.

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The Nation Article

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The student publications article

Final Building Photos

After the Handover ceremony I spent some days photographing the completed building. Hopefully the album of photos bellow give a good impression of all the exterior and interior views and new spaces. The photos are displayed to give a fairly sequential series of views on how people would enter and move around the building.

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View from key pedestrian route to the west side of the new clinic. This path is mainly used by students passing between the main campus and student dorms

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Approaching the clinic entrance (via phase 1) from the covered walkway

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The front elevation

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Entering the new, expanded waiting area in the phase 1 building

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The newly expanded internal waiting area

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Looking back to the entrance

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Mrs Nyasulu, the acting snr sister at the newly designated prescriptions dispensary

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The completed new reception desk, replacing the clumsy records area previously added into the corner of the waiting area.

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The new reception desk leads visitors out towards the new building

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The previous main consultation room has now been converted to the clinic ‘bed resting’ room, for patients waiting to be transferred to Mzuzu Central Hospital.

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The new dispensary in the previous nurses office

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Chance the Lab technician in the newly refurbished waiting area

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One of the new lab spaces

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Another of the new lab spaces, now used for samples collection

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January, the painter with his great umbrella!

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The khonde now connecting the phase 1 and 2 buildings

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Further view of the connecting khonde

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East elevation and slot windows into the new waiting area

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Front elevation seen from the phase 1 khonde

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The new semi-external waiting area

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New waiting area looking back to the phase 1 building

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Circulation within th new waiting area

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Some portraits of people using the new waiting area

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Morning light coming through the new slot windows in the waiting area

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The rear elevation, which is also accessed via the same level khonde

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Typical vertical louvered window detail

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Looking back along the khonde on the same elevation

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The drain and new flower bed give a pleasant buffer to the podium/khonde

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West elevation and student path

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One of the 2 new consultation rooms, now being used

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The other consultation room

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A treatment or ‘dressings’ room

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A new stores and Auto-claving machine space

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An examination room

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Further views of one of the consultation rooms

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The dressings room

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View through the building looking back to the waiting area

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A new tree planted in front of the building to replace the one we removed at the start of the project

Handover Ceremony

The Handover ceremony was marked by a formal ceremony with the University Council, Deans and Heads of Department. There were a number of speeches followed by a ribbon cutting. It was a really enjoyable occasion, with representatives from across the whole university, including students and journalists.

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Photo taken at the new building with the clinic staff, the ribbon waiting to be cut in the background!

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The Vice Chancellor and other members of the university council being given a tour through the refurbished existing and new spaces

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Moving out towards the new building

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The Chair of Council being shown the new internal clinic spaces

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The speeches ceremony

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The head table

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Bill Mvalo, the Trust Fund Manager

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The Chair of Council giving his speech

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It was great to be able to pay my thanks to the university for my sabbatical experience and to the RFF for funding the project

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The ribbon cutting ceremony with the Chair of Council

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Group photo with all involved

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A final photo with the student representatives

Final Preparations

A round-up of photos from the final 2 weeks leading up to the handover. A final push to finish all the existing clinic refurbishment works and re-organise the clinic spaces in time for the ceremony. We just about managed it in time and in the end it was just great to see the clinic staff moved across into the new building and seeming so delighted with the new spaces and newly arranged existing buildings.

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Making a start on the new reception desk, having created the new link door and taken down the existing office wall. It’s great to see the lovely big windows on this side of the building bringing the previously blocked light and views back to life

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5 courses up, 4 to go. We set the SSBs on a line of recessed ‘header’ burnt bricks in order to create a nice skirting detail and water-resistant (mop!) base.

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January the painter and Saddock smiling as ever whilst getting on with the refurbishment works to the new Lab spaces

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Henry helping out with skimming the top of the new reception desk in preparation for the new timber work surface

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A few days later I took great pleasure in carrying out the long-awaited work in removing the ridiculously placed previous records area in the corner of the waiting area, which was again covering the 3 lovely big windows.

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The new bright and open corner space to form part of the new waiting area now brought back to life.

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The brighter new entrance sequence

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The new more open and light waiting and reception area

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Dan working on the refurbishment work to the new Lab spaces. Creating a new ‘hatch’ between the Lab technicians office and waiting area

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Morning light in the waiting area

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Finally applying the thick black bitumastic paint to the entire perimeter of the elevated khonde

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I couldn’t resist a spot of paint graffiti before completing the bitumastic paint on the south side!

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January the painter and his amazing rainbow coloured umbrella

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Dan and Saddock finishing off the carpentry to the reception desk. We even included a DDA compliant step down section for children and wheelchair users, and of course a nice recessed shadow gap between the flush SSB brickwork and timber counter top

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people starting to drift into the new waiting area and use the new bench. I was delighted to see it!

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Morning light in the new waiting area

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People enjoying the new courtyard space, now formed by the existing and new buildings

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We even managed to remove the project timber workshop/temporary shelter in time for the handover. Dan and Saddock were delighted to be able to take all the re-cycled timber home with them to start making things for themselves

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Emily, our cook, preparing a final lunch of chicken and rice – no nsima for this one!

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We planted a new tree in the courtyard in front of the new building to replace the one we felled at the start. It’s a Kasha tree, which will grow a lovely big shady canopy and produces a bright yellow leaf which should sit well with the timber on the new clinic

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Mr Masosa and Chance the Head clinician and Lab technition helping make the shift into the new building and preparing the buildings for the handover

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Two of the clinic nurses helping clean the floor tiles before the ceremony

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We managed to carry out a degree of landscaping also around the building, just in time, which has already helped the building sit into its surroundings better.

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The completed new reception desk

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Lots of activity on the khonde as the clinic move across

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A well loaded truck carrying the left over timber back to the carpenters houses for their use.

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Lots of activity; cleaning, moving and sweeping, at the front of the building the day before the handover ceremony

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Chance enjoying his new office in the separate new Lab building

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Two of the nurses settling into the new spaces

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Mr Masosa already started seeing patients in his new office before even handing over, i thought this was great!

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Preparations for the handover ceremony

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A final photo with some of the clinic staff moments before the handover ceremony. I will be sad to say goodbye.

Refurb Works Begun

Along with finishing off final works to the main building; wall tilling, painting, mastic sealing, cleaning etc… I’m delighted to be able to push on with works on the existing buildings, which will really leave the clinic with a succinct and fully operable clinic scheme. Saddock and Dan have been helping with this. On Monday (a national holiday here also) we removed the small partition – revealing our new link door and creating a now fully visable link to the new building. We have started today building a new reception desk in here leading people to the new building. We can then move the existing patients records area, inserted haphazardly into the corner of the waiting area over to hear, making use of a secure room – the previous examination room. At the week-end we will dismount this, opening up this area as was originally planned.

We have also started remodelling the very original clinic building to convert this into the new Lab spaces and new waiting area. Myself, dan and saddock taking our hammers to this yesterday. The existing lab space in the phase 1 building can then operate as either a new Snr Nursing Sister office, or as suggested yesterday, the new HIV testing space

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Removing the lightweight partition, added post completion of Phase 1,opening the waiting area up once again to the lovely big windows here. Once the records space is moved, the lovely large windows on this side will also bring further more light into the waiting area

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Removing the stud partitions and re-locating doors in the original clinic building, to become the new Lab space. Chance, the Lab technician is certainly looking forward to the upgrade from 1 small room, to 2 larger Lab space, an office and a waiting area!

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Saddock swinging his hammer

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Dan, cutting the removed panels from the phase 1 building partitions to re-use here

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A quick sketch for the clinic to sell them the idea of a new reception desk to make a more welcoming entrance space. there were very much in favour. Mentioning my visits to some of the private clinics which I saw when I first arrived, helped them envisage a more modern ‘Medical Centre’ environment.

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The new waiting area to the right and Lab office adjacent.

Cycle to Usisya and Easter on Likoma

I haven’t generally been covering non-project excursions, but I thought i’d provide a quick insight into a recent bike ride and trip to the Lake islands over Easter. Myself and my friend Tom managed to get hold of some slightly better bikes (compared to our attempt on the Mzuzu-Nkhata Bay road) and set our sights on the 60km Mzuzu-Usisya road, which we knew would be hard going in the baking heat and a definite set up from the Nkhata Bay road.

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About 20km down, ‘Tumbuka-Tom’, chatting with residents in the Chikwena district whom he has been working with through the NGO Temwa.

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Local children

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As ever, we were fed fresh fruit/veg along the way. In this instance half a juicy cucumber. The photo was the best of a bad bunch taken by the local children! I’ll try and get some better photos to upload off Tom, ‘saddled up’, but sadly not in my undersize FCB Bike club top.

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After about 50km of hard going on very rough roads – but at least with better bikes this time (from Monkey Business in Nkhata Bay), we were finally confronted with the view and final descent into Usisya, a perilous downhill to the lakeshore. We set off together and I was down in about 10 minutes. At the bottom I turned around for the first time, but no sight of Tom. unfortunately he had got a puncture just after we set off (no chance of repair with a fully exploded tube) and he had to walk most of the way down!

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After a few nights in Usisya, I took off for the islands. First stop in the early evening was the smaller Chizumulu island, where the Chilemwe boat was mobbed by local fishermen selling huge bundles of fish to the local arrivals. The islands are generally known for their high quality and abundance of fish, which is transported and sold on the mainland, for as I understand, very good profits.

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View from the top of Chizumulu over the lower lying areas

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Local clothes making/repair industry

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The local hairdressers

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Over to Likoma and a typical lunch on a scorching hot day. Half a Butterfish, beans and nsima (with lots of nali – chilli)

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Larger Likoma on the right and Chizumulu to the left.

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The Likoma mission built in 1904 is certainly the finest building I have seen so far in Africa. A real feel of the great English cathedrals, huge naive with strong, thick columns, a beautiful cloister and various chapels added at later dates. Some lovely stone carving and detailing, generally attributed to Likoma’s proximity to Mozambique and the availability of Soap stone.

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It’s a shame the roof could not have lived up to the elevations and been built from stone/cement, using cross or barrel vaults. It would have certainly helped the internal temperatures, which with a full metal sheet roof radiating heat into the interior spaces, made the internal spaces unpleasantly hot.

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The front towers clearly built or extended at different times give an unusual asymmetric elevation, with the cloister alongside and additional chapel buildings.

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The beautiful Illala arrived on Friday for a local music festival which was taking place on the island. the Illala has sadly been out of service for a number of months now, replaced by the (not so sadly) high-speed Chilemwe, which literally sends the local boats flying in its wake! The Illala along with the Chauncy Mauples are the 2 oldest boats on the lake, brought here in the 1930’s and still providing the much-needed, yet limited service up and down the lake.

 

Emerging Views and Spaces

Here’s a collection of photos from the start of this week (6.05.15) covering works from the last 2 weeks, after returning from a week off over Easter. The week before Easter was a frantic push to get as much finished as possible; finishing all the floor tilling, installing the khonde drains, fitting all doors and varnishing these, final concrete/skimming works to the Khonde, fitting the sluice sink/carcass and fitting skirtings. I left Dan in charge for a week, which I think he really enjoyed and was in fact good experience for him.

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View from the carpentry workbench. I enjoyed observing yesterday how this primitive shelter has evolved into quite an active and well used space. The first bay for carpentry, with the above bench, the second bay full of ‘3-point’  brick stoves where all the university day watch-women cook their lunch and socialize and the third bay as shelf stacking for the remaining timber.

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View through the trees from adjacent ant hill (not such a common view, but I liked the elevated position!)

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View from the East end

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View of the front elevation. I’m waiting for a dry spell this week to slop the black bitumastic paint onto the fronts of the khonde to protect these. I’m also working on building some flower beds around the edge of the Khonde and to get these planted asap. I’ve met a lovely man Roy here who is the ‘head gardener’ and seems really excited about supplying us with some interesting species.

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The ever presence of the university security guards. The love to congregate around the temporary shelter, which is more of a ‘cook’ space than a carpentry workshop these days.

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‘January’ the painter has done a brilliant job of decorating all the internal walls and waiting area. No one accepts white walls over here, but we agreed to go with ‘soft white’ in the end. As usual the colour on the colour chart was totally different to the end result, but the soft yellow tone I think looks great and sits very well with the light oak varnish of all the surrounding timber.

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The waiting area with the new yellow/amber colour glass installed on the slot windows and the newly completed bench

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Window, bench, floor detail

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SSB walls with brick sealer applied

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View from Consultation Room 2 of the new waiting area. The external floor tilling now all complete and pointed and looking really smart.

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View of the end treatment room out across the site

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Expanded view of the same room. The freshly painted walls looking good

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The central treatment room on the north side, filled with natural light from the clearstory windows/vents

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Similar conditions in Consultation Room 1

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Expanded view of the new waiting area, windows and bench

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The same area looking back to the Consultation Room entrances

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Tilling and drains finished on the main khonde

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I can’t resist another photo of this guys used car parts stall in the hardware market. It always feels like stumbling upon an artistic installation of bits and pieces, as if each piece has been painstakingly arranged in harmony with the next. It deserves to be in the Tate!

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Classic hardware market art, this guy finishing off the twin socket

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Due to time and sourcing difficulties, the clinic have now agreed to proceed with the Chitenge curtains as a temporary measure, at least to enable them to operate in the next few weeks. I imagine they may just remain longer term. And and FCB building would not be an fcb building without some green somewhere.

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The drain to the north and tilling performing well in heavy rains

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the drain to the south also performing well

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Other drains around campus in full flood

 

2 weeks to go!

Photos and events from the last few weeks. I’m aiming to have everything finished in the next few weeks, so the countdown is on!

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The tiles are looking good, but fitting burglar bars on all the windows was definitely one of my least favourite jobs of the project so far. Using drill bits that are the wrong size and type (12mm timber drill bits just aren’t available in Mzuzu) combined with an old Makita drill made for slow and tedious progress. Slotting the rusty metal bars into the slots and back to fix them left my hands blistered and sore…. apologies, complaint over, they look quite good now and in some ways make the windows look more interesting from the inside and of course much safer.

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An option for Chitenge curtains got quickly rejected by the clinic, which is a shame as the patterns are so interesting which you find in the market here. There was some debate over using woman’s ‘national wear’ as curtain material. The clinic staff seem intent on using net curtains and heavy-duty material. I’m sure well come to some sort of compromise soon.

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The on-site Taylor: Mr Kaka (as are many people named from Nkhotakota!), sits here at his sewing machine all day. He makes many people’s clothes for them on campus and I was hoping to use him for the curtain making.

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Tiling continues on the south side of the building. I think the boys are getting better as they go along.

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We’ve made the opening and fitted the new door to the phase 1 clinic now, creating the all important link between the 2 buildings.

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Interesting to see the enormous full depth of the 230mm deep interlocking SSBs using on phase 1

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Dan and I laughed a lot about how long it takes to build and how quick it is to demolish!

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We got the frame in place fairly quickly, cast a new up stand at the threshold and had the existing piece of glass cut into the new window frame and door vision panel

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The new door in place. Saddock was hard to convince that the design would work, but we pushed through with it and the end result works really well and looks good.

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Saddock and Mr Kaka, my biggest fans of the Chitenge curtains

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A missive amount of effort the last few weeks from the carpenters finishing all the doors and hanging these. We’re just doing a final sanding of these and varnishing them at the moment to complete the activity.

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A short week-end trip to Sambani on the lake provided some spectacular storms and skies – and of course plenty of swimming

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Wezi fighting with the sinks somewhat. I probably annoy him checking these with the spirit level!

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Main light fitting finally being installed now we have the doors on and a secure building.

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A few shots from the hardware market. This chap’s having a good kip over lunch

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Smoked fish for sale

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Sinks in place – good job Wezi!

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lights in and working

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Banda was quick to make a chain for himself from the left over chains we used to hand the light fittings!

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Lots of a activity on the south side

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The rectangular external Khonde tiles going down very quickly this week

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We’ve had three metal drains fabricated for the Khonde drain this week.

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Connecting the 40mm sink waste pipes and bottle traps – almost running water in place.

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George laying the khonde tiles

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Wezi

March Progress

So far March has been a busy month on site, plus a visit from my brother and sister, my birthday and yet more transprt problems!

Here’s another photographic update from the last few weeks on site as the building gets closer and closer to being complete despite at times it feeling like a never-ending list of tasks! One thing I’m certainly learning, especially from being so involved with the building work itself, is that building is not quick! It requires many pairs of hands, a lot of team work and lots of energy and strength. Building the final west gable end wall and windows last week-end and this week, which after deliberating over for so long I felt it was only right for me to complete this, has left my whole body aching thanks to lifting all the SSB’s and cement into place! Perhaps not the most plumb wall in the building, but not a bad effort. After discussions with the team, we opted to part with the perforated screen wall for one that is more solid with open fenestrations. This in part has been due to the additional privacy walls introduced (partly a client request) and also for buildabilty reasons, this solution now seems to be work well and gives the building a really strong wholeness and cube-like mass under the ‘floating’ roof and provides the end users with the levels of privacy they require

The Dedza Pottery tiles were also finally ready at the end of last week after some delay in finishing these due to the ongoing rains the south of the country have still been experiencing. I had to go to Raiply again on Friday morning (for hopefully the last time) at which time the tiles were due to arrive . As ever I naively presumed this would be a simple operation of off-loading these. Unfortunately the company we used to collect them sent possibly the worse lorry I have ever seen, which got stuck on the site, about 500m from the clinic! We had to have a whip around for hands to help transfer these onto one of our better lorries and transfer them to the site… a rather long afternoon in the end, but at least by the end of the week all the tiles were safely on the clinic khonde and ready for laying first thing this week. See photos bellow of progress on this.

The carpenters are tirelessly pushing on with the big task of door making and we’re looking to start fitting these once the internal tilling is complete and we can properly cut these to threshold dimensions. They’ve done an excellent job on these, making them to a really high standard – far better than the doors you can buy in town, partly benefiting from the good quality timber we have from Raiply, but also and more so, a testament to their excellent carpentry skills.

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It was great to show some family around the building and to meet the on-site team and see all the hard work from everyone over the last 7 months

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A quick shot with my brother and sister before a lunch at Mzuzu’s ‘Green Vee’, where they serve a great ‘Condowole’ (A Cassava Nsima) Mpassa (a rather boney but fleshy lake fish) and beans

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Photo from one of the warehouse’s at Raiply for what was surely our final trip here in Chikangawa

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I always like the signs hung randomly on the premises at Raiply

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At the same time I was at Raiply this shipwreck of a lorry had finally made it to the site carrying the 15 tonnes of clay floor tiles – I’m almost certain it had a number of breakdowns on the way from Dedza causing its delay arriving on the Friday. It soon became apparent that it was not going to make it all the way to the clinic, having traveled over 600km, it was stuck in the mud 500m from its destination!

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The lorry was literally patched together with bits and pieces of old metal sheeting

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Plenty of people soon materialised (at the offer of 1000 kwacha) to help shift the 7,000 tiles from this lorry to a better one.

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Our new, recently hired cook Emily (should have hired her to save time right at the beginning) was particularly good at this task, she’s a great character.

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Stacking the tiles on the khonde

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All 7,000 tiles in place

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Some really beautiful colours and tones across the collection which should look great once layed.

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Starting work on the west end wall, flanking the new waiting area

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The rains have definitely quieted off now and almost back November temperatures on site. I will admit to some topless working on Saturday when things were a bit quieter and unbearably hot bricklaying with my back directly to the sun!

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It was a challenge stabilising the wall, which is in fact projecting from the main structure (another reason the perforated wall would have been rather unstable), every 4 courses I’ve fixed either brick force wire between window frames which I inserted after 4 courses, and 6 inch nails fixing the shorter return walls into the columns. Once the rear of the wall is plastered, this will add further strength to the ‘freestanding’ walls stability.

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A pleasant view looking through the treatment rooms from the waiting area and out to the university grounds beyond. I’m very pleased we opted for clear glass in the end to maintain these views when users want them. I’m currently discussing with the university tailor(!) about making some nice curtains from some of the interesting material I have found here in the Swahili market. I have also just ordered the steel for the burglar bars which we will need to install. Unfortunately these are a must in all new, and many existing, buildings here in Malawi.

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Demonstrating the setting out for the internal tilling to make sure that we minimise any cut tiles

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The new concrete work surface in the Autoclaving room. If funds are available I will ask (and of course help) the carpenters to fabricate under counter cupboards for these.

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Horizontal louvre window detail

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String and a spirit level are essential equipment when building a wall

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All doors almost complete now and looking great

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The new waiting area – just the bench and floor tilling to finish off now

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The internal floor tilling gets underway

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Some shots of the completed west gable wall. The roof really has the feel of ‘floating’ now, especially from this end of the building. I’m half tempted to remove the vegetation from the opposite side to enforce this aspect, but morally struggling to remove any more trees!

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Plastering the back of this wall in the waiting area

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Internal tilling moving on quickly

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First room complete!

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Setting out the external khonde tilling today. I’ve explored a few options for tilling over the drain, but I believe this will lead to tiles becoming cracked or broken along here. I think it’s also important for the torrents of water that will fall from the phase 1 roof to fall directly into a drain. The splash back from hit/miss tiles will be fairly sever here otherwise. I have drawn up designs for some 4mm gauge metal grates to be fabricated and installed along here.

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A much enjoyed Birthday celebrtaion on 4th March with friends at Mzuzu’s new italian restaurant/lodge.

Progress wk/begin 9th Feb

All Brickwork pointing is now finished, door making has begun and we even got the first of the glass louvers installed. See further comments on photos bellow. I also managed to cycle the 50km road to Nkhata Bay on an unimaginably bad bike!

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Some typical site sketches used to discuss the door detailing with the carpenters and work out timber quantities and cutting sizes

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I must send this photo to my zoologist uncle who I’m sure will be able to identify the bird. I’m not quite sure how Yotam managed to cath the poor thing, but I’m afraid to say it ended in the frying pan and eaten for lunch as an accompaniment with the nsima!

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The day watch-woman are still semi permenant  residents under our timber shelter and door workshop, spending their mornings preparing lunch.

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Ephriam, my office buddy trying on my sunglasses, as ever wanting to look more of a ‘mzungu’!? Ephriam is a good friend here who has helped a lot, in particular with the use of his car! We enjoy a few ‘chill’s’ (a nicer Carlesberg beer here) together in Nkhata Bay at the week ends.

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A familiar sight of Chibuku ‘Shake-Shake’ stacked on the back of cyclist’s bike around town. I tried it once with my friend Tom, who has become more of a fan than me. The drink consists of fermented maize, which makes it very bitty and slightly dubious in taste and texture – hence the ‘Shale-Shake’. is needed to mix up the bits with the liquor. The locals like the really old cartons, which have fermented for longer and contain extra kick! Other locals like to add sugar or honey and milk.

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Just one torrential downpour last week whilst I was in the office. We had a few problems on site as we were installing bellow ground drainage pipes which soon flooded and became clogged up with mud. We also had our first roof leak! Thankfully just on the khonde and attributed to a loose roofing nail which meant the rubber seal was not compressed properly. We decided to patch a few of these up with a bitumen tape for safety.

Funnily enough I was reading a chapter in a book I’m reading at the moment about roof’s which made a good reference to Frank Llyod Wright and stated: ‘To clients who complained about roof leaks, Frank Lloyd Wright’s stock response was, “that’s how you can tell it’s a roof”. The owners of (flat-roofed) Fallingwater used to refer to his house as “Rising Mildew” and a “seven bucket building” ‘!

Hopefully buckets wont be required at the clinic anytime soon.

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Roofing repairs

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Finish of the brickwork after pointing

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Dan installing the architraves on the additional windows in the Autoclave room

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Morton keeps going with the pointing

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Saddock seems to be a master with door making, and knocked up this work bench in a few hours. He’s made 2 already 11 to go!

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Door number 1. Dan and Saddock make these so much better than the one’s on sale in town. It’s great to keep making use of their expertise and carpentry skill.

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The cycle taxi’s waiting outside campus ready to take you to the local markets for supplies.

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Some finished walls after pointing

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I like drawing details on the walls to work things out and explain to the guys levels and sizes required. Here we’re building an in-situ concrete work surface for the Autoclaving room. We’ve built a series of piers and formed a shutter to cast a solid concrete work surface. We’ll then fit cupboards bellow –  a dream kitchen for some people!

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Pointing before and after

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The first glass louvers being installed

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Pointing finished on the front elevation

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First piece of glass fitted!

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A rather unflattering sweaty shot after the first climb out of Mzuzu on the Nkhata By road. The bike was about 2 sizes to small from, with an indescribably painful saddle and gears that I had to change with my feet! Tom’s bike was not much better.

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Great to do this road on a bike rather than the hair-raising mini-busses which speed along at 100kmph, whilst you’re generally stuffed in the back unable to see with a bag of stinking osipa (a small lake fish) pushed against your face. The views out towards the lake were fantastic. We had a brilliant 3-course fruit stop in one village where we were seduced by the sight of fresh Guavas. After we ate these the family brought course number 2, 2 perfect fresh avocados, fresh off their tree. Once these were down and we were about to set off, the bowel of Mangoes arrived! We set off again feeling healthier than ever.

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I’ve been wanting to get a photo of these guys for a while, who you see frequently on the Nkhata By road. They are manually cutting planks from recently chopped trees using an enormous double-handed blade. The 2 men, slowly and rhythmically spend hours slicing 1/2inch planks in the searing heat. It gets progressively hotter the nearer to the lake – and decent, from Mzuzu.

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Relaxing in Butterfly Space on the Sunday morning.