A recent paper on Urbanisation in Africa by Cezary M Bednarski one of our architect mentors for rise in the city architecture competition for affordable urban housing in Maseru, Lesotho.
Click here to read the paper
August 2017:
I had just received a call from the Head of Programs from my former beloved school Lerotholi Polytechnic asking me to apply for some fellowship called In loco. I wasn’t interested until the Dean of the School of the Built Environment called, encouraging me to apply. I remember browsing on my small phone to check the fellowship out. By then, I had not decided what I wanted to do with my life in over 2 years. “This is a good initiative” I exclaimed, making my mind up to join Relationships Inspiring Social Enterprise (rise). I had previously organized some charity events in the past but this kind of community work that brings together entrepreneurship, construction, design and social welfare was new and thrilling.
September – November 2017:
I had a life changing decision to make; take a job with one of the biggest architectural firms in Lesotho or accept a position as an in loco fellow. After a lot of careful reflection, I decided to accept the in loco fellowship. I had initially felt a bit discouraged after being informed that the program would be postponed for three months, but i quickly regained my enthusiasm because I knew that this program would help me give back and grow professionally as an Architectural Technician.
February -April 2018:
The project kicked off on a high note. I got to meet 19 amazing fellows who were just as eager to learn and contribute as I was, which really inspired me to work even harder. The planning phase of the project was hectic for me with all the planning, presentations and revisions. It was exciting to create something that we would be building with the help of international students later in the year. I must have made quite an impression, because amongst all the fellows, I was awarded the project manager role first, along with another fellow, Katleho.
The rubber met the road during this time: all of our planning came to fruition, resulting in us managing the face of the program, the social media campaign, the lecture series, the film screenings, the donations and liaising with stakeholders. This was tiring and new. I think I almost reached breaking point while we were preparing for the groundbreaking ceremony. Eventually, we gained momentum and it turned to be amazing. It taught me how to plan and run a project and write press releases. I had never written a press release before, nor even plan an event where the Minister would be invited.
I remember my first film screening, it was not hard, as I have stood before thousands of people to address different issues. However what was new was conducting a discussion about Architecture in conjunction with our country, I was nervous but when I looked at the back of the hall I saw Daniela, director of rise smiling back at me and nodding her head, this gave me courage more than one could ever understand.
May-July 2018:
The construction phase began, as we had all been eagerly awaiting. My site foreman role was exciting. I had always wanted to work in the construction industry. Being a hands-on person, I knew my new role would help me understand my designs better as I grew in experience. This role did not go as well as I had anticipated. During this time, I remember having a session with the project coordinator and the director about my fluctuating performance and I knew they were right. Despite having had a shaky start, I managed to improve on my work output and led the team to meeting milestones.
August-September 2018:
I am confident that I can design and build a building from paper to ground up. This project delivered more than I could ever imagine on experiential learning. In August, we had various international students’ workshops which lasted for about a month. Martina, a friend I made during the workshops, was fun and full of life. She was an architecture student from Florida, USA. She had a million-dollar smile and she worked really hard on the project. These workshops brought exposure to our program and our country, they motivated me to further my studies and to do more. I was given another role, Health and Safety Officer, which broadened my horizons. I was shocked at all the hazards that were on our construction site and how important it was to address them before they cause harm to the fellows. I wasn’t a qualified Health and Safety officer but after reading the file that our mentor Willem compiled, I was confident to wear my green helmet. This role was far better than my previous role, it was new and challenging. It was in this role that I discovered my interest in learning or rather having a qualification in Health and Safety.
September 2018:
As I sit here with teary eyes, I have a few days before my fellowship ends. I am leaving this new home and this family that I have come to cherish so much. What keeps me strong, is the strength I have gained from rise, the construction project and God’s Love Centre orphanage. I am leaving all smiles bursting with renewed optimism and full of blessings from GLC. I leave a better person than I came in, with a better definition of myself. I am taking home the love and the team work that I acquired here. When I came into this program I wanted to achieve 3 major things which were construction, entrepreneurship and improving the lives of those at the orphanage. My team and I were able to achieve this and even more.
I have always been an extrovert and an optimist since I can remember, I have a huge personality at least that’s what I’m told. I am very confident and a leader by birth and firmly believe I can do anything as a woman like a lioness in the jungle. I am grateful for my directors and coaches who love me enough to always tell me when I am wrong and catch me when I fall.
Before I joined the fellowship, I had a secret fear that I’m not fit enough to be a professional architect and building contractor. For that reason, I had a tendency to be reluctant about sharing my designs on social media and not to take construction projects that came my way. Even when other people praised my work and capabilities, I convinced myself that they were just being nice. The in loco fellowship, however, transformed the way I see myself.
I’m Ramokoatsi Kobo, born on 17/03/1994 at Pitseng in Leribe District, Lesotho. I completed my high school in 2011 at Molapo High before I enrolled with Limkokwing University of Creative Technology pursuing Architecture technology from 2013-2017 ; I’m an Associate degree holder.
I joined JJN Design Studio based in South Africa in 2016, and got myself a chance to collaborate in Lesotho Tourism and Handicrafts architecture competition. The year after I joined Progressive Design Studio immediately after my graduation and that is where I found out about rise’s in loco fellowship program and applied.
The first two months of the fellowship I was introduced to how to make an elevator pitch and network, I equipped myself with tools needed on how to sell myself and ideas in 30 seconds. The skills learnt are all important but the one that stuck most in my head is BE PREPARED AND DO YOUR HOME WORK.
I broadened my understanding and the new way of gathering design briefs from clients through the concept called Participatory Design. It is an approach to design attempting to involve all the stakeholders in the design to ensure that results meet their needs and are usable. We used this approach to design a new habitat for the children of God’s Love Centre orphanage.
BUSINESS TRAININGS
One of the biggest contributions of this fellowship to my career was the business training sessions. After a couple of weeks we pitched business ideas in front of each other to find an interested person to partner with. I found my alter-ego who studied construction management. We formed a joint venture in construction and we have been mentored by our business coaches from day one with research and business planning. The idea of the business training sessions in a fellowship is to broaden our understanding in the business world, to become sustainable entrepreneurs and launch our businesses at the end of fellowship.
OTHER TRAININGS
There is a difference between paint and quality paint, “yes there is”. I got a chance to be a trainee at Thetsane Paint Centre which is the distributer of PROMINENT PAINT – the brand that adheres to international best practices and actively promotes the drive towards environmental sustainability. Through this training I’m now able to select paint based on the influences made by micro/macro climate; I know the fundamentals of surface preparation and calculations of DTF. I recommend the use of Prominent Paint Products!
I’m bold enough to say that if an accident happens in the workplace or anywhere, I can be a helpful first aider by preserving and promoting recovery to the casualty. The fellowship provided an opportunity for me to attend a First Aid Course offered by Oshem C at Montech Institute. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.
PEER TO PEER OUTCOME
What I most appreciated about my experience in the fellowship is being engaged with a group of international students who were passionate about the in loco project and truly shared generously their ideas, knowledge and time.
As the site architect, this helps me to hone my critical thinking skills to better understand how problems rooted from the design can be solved on a construction site. This role also helped me build my skills in public speaking and advocacy.
I’m not the same person thanks to this fellowship.
Preparing for a possible bad 10-day experience….
I had to make a presentation on Lesotho and rise International for my protective parents in order to get the permission to join the workshop. I pulled images from Google and screenshot traveling tips from various embassy websites.
Surprisingly, it was easier to convince my parents than myself. Africa, very much generalized in my mind originally—regardless how many countries there actually are, is both romanticized by literature and tarnished by media. The culture, the weather and the living circumstances are something that I was the least familiar with. Up until I boarded the plane from Johannesburg to Maseru, I was mentally preparing myself for a possible bad 10-day experience.
I fell asleep as soon as I sat in my seat, and woke up shortly before descending. Outside the window, beige rocky hills, cliffs and canyons stretched out beyond the horizon. Riverbeds flowed across like serpents and were occasionally interrupted by square shadows of tiny houses. For me, it felt like viewing a kingdom of the Grand Canyon from a bird’s-eye view and immediately, I knew I had made the right choice to come here.
First impressions of Lesotho
Right away, I was welcomed by the staff from rise, other international students and local people on site. Everyone had a great sense of humor and very unique characteristics and personalities. The defensive barrier I always wear while traveling quickly vanished and I felt I had found a new family.
With little previous experience on a construction site, I was encouraged and greatly assisted to start hands-on tasks on day one. One of the biggest lessons I learned was how to adapt to a resources-limited working environment. I was very much spoiled by the shop technicians at school where everything was organized so well that all parts and pieces had their own spot and all the bits and blades were sharp. On site, however, when all twenty people were fighting for three tape measures and two hand drills, I found myself easily getting stuck and not knowing what to do without the tools. And quickly I learned to think outside the box and approach things differently.
Freedom of religion and free thinking
Among one of my many favorite facts about this program is that rise International was not founded on top of any religious beliefs. I have long since been looking for volunteer programs in low-income countries and often got fed up by people trying to convert me to believe in their faith. I don’t mean to offend anyone or be disrespectful, but I appreciate that rise simplified the entire mission to a design project. They see a problem, and they are trying to solve it through design and architecture knowledge, whether it is to build a dorm for an orphanage or something else. And that is all I asked for—to put my energy as a recent design graduate into projects that I am passionate about.
Memories for life….
In just ten days, I met architects, filmmakers, artists, engineers and recent graduates who had brilliant ideas of what to do in the future. I went to workshops, lectures, brainstorm panels, and listened to people who have travelled half of the world and work between continents sharing their thoughts and stories. Even two weeks after the trip ended, I still think back on this amazing experience. Everything I heard and saw will certainly influence my decision-making in the future, and will always be treasured in my memory.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world,” Gandhi once said. As a graduate you think that you could never make a difference in the world, but you can. It all starts with your thoughts. They soon become words, which become your actions, which become your habits, which become your character, which become your destiny.
We are constantly making decisions that shape the rest of our lives. Each choice we make can forever affect our future, our impact on society, and the way others perceive us. That’s why it is so important to develop our characters. Even a simple notion can spark a lifetime ideal – positive or negative. When we help out our communities, we are influencing ourselves in a positive way that often follows us throughout our adult lives. Each tiny thought, word, action, and habit, changes your future.
I’m Lebohang Mosiuoa (Figas). The biggest decision that I have ever made was in 2012, when I had to choose whether to study Architecture or a Bachelor of Science. Since I was a little child, I had a passion for architecture, but I was good in sciences and maths in high school. While at primary and high school I spent most of my time on drawing buildings. I had to drop my environmental health science studies and join Limkokwing University of Creative Technology to follow a dream that I have had since I was a child and that dream was to study architecture. My career started in 2016, when I volunteered to join Habitat Youth Build with Habitat for Humanity Lesotho to construct a two-room house for homeless orphanage children at Mafeteng. Later that year, I was among the Limkokwing University Students who were competing to remodel and renovate Lhda Katse Lodge in which our team won.
in loco Fellowship
Learning is a never-ending journey of discovery that can only be enjoyed when it is put into practice. It should never be confined to books and rooms, but instead it should be shared with the world. I’m proud to be an in loco 2018 fellow. When I first heard about the program, I thought it was all about helping an orphanage by building a better place for them. Since it’s in my heart to help vulnerable people, I decided to leave whatever I was doing and join the in loco eight-month fellowship.
Experience at in loco
When it comes to your career, you need to put in the work and practically engage in it as you learn, because it sets the foundation for you to be a champion and the best at your craft. As someone who is practicing architecture, I never knew about participatory design before I joined in loco. In the first week of the fellowship we had a participatory design workshop, which involved the fellows, God’s Love Centre staff and the children. The important things that I learned about it is that, it forces designers to look at things from another’s point of view, it is very important to respect other people’s opinions. It helps designers gather several other facts about certain design situations they may not have been aware of. Because of in loco we now know how to approach design better.
It’s a dream of everyone who practices architecture to work with international architects. Our culture and style of approaching things differ. We learn lot of things from our international architects Pedro and Luca. Because of them, we now know about participatory design, which we never knew about before they arrived. Our local style as people who are practicing architecture in Lesotho, is only to hear what the client wants and never encourage them to take part in the design process. Also they challenged us to came up with a unique brick pattern (see below) that will give the orphanage buildings their own unique shape.
Nothing beats the power of learning by doing, because it creates knowledge and skills foundation that is rooted in your interest and experience of the subject matter. At in loco we practice what we preach, gaining the skills that we never had before. In my life I never thought I would lay a brick, fix the reinforcement and mix the mortar. We do everything by ourselves, but with the help of professionals. I’m proud to say, I can now build a house on my own, because in loco gave us a chance to unveil our hidden skills that I never knew I had before.
Afrisam cement gave us training about the good use of cement, like the quality needed when mixing mortar for plastering, bricklaying and also for concrete. Also I got an opportunity to attend the paint training with Thetsane Paint Centre. I really learned a lot from that training since in my company we are also specializing with epoxy products, but we didn’t know where they are sold in our country. We as Basotho people we use paint for the sake of painting, but we didn’t know the steps to follow when painting walls, ceilings and everything that needs to be painted.
The most important thing that we learnt at in loco is the business training. Even though we are in architecture and built environment fellowship, we are also taught to be successful entrepreneurs. These happen in many ways, like being able to listen to successful business people who come to give us testimonies on how they tackle business and how they started. The important thing that I learned from all of them is that you have to have passion in what you do and also you must have skills. You really don’t need capital to start a business, but as little as you have you can start a business.
Lastly, we learn more about entrepreneurship through the lecture series that are held every month by rise, where successful entrepreneurs and architects share their experiences and business skills to the students and inspire, graduates, lectures and the public. Also the film screenings that are held every month, whereby we have interesting discussions after watching the selected video. It also forms part of our learning as we share and discuss the problems and the solutions that face our community.
In the fellowship we all have roles that I think are going to help in our future. At the moment, I’m a logistics and plant manager. I make sure the tools on site are well protected, safe and clean. For me it’s quite a challenging role because, we as people are not the same, some are irresponsible and some are not cooperative. This kind of work requires a person to keep their eyes open all the time, because some materials might disappear and you never know where to find them. We now have our first two international students from India and Malta from the faculty of Architecture and Structural Engineering, who I believe we are going to learn a lot from them.
After the fellowship
Since I’m from a country of people who believe that, constructing a house is only for people who have money. I’m going to encourage the people to use locally available materials, like building with clay bricks. Lesotho is one of the coldest countries during winter and many people especially living in the urban areas spend a lot of money to warm their house. I’m going to introduce the cheap method of keeping the building warm in winter and cool in summer that I learned from the fellowship.
Adventure and Passion; the two words that come to mind when Mamanti Phothane Makara is mentioned (by the way that is my name). They tell me I am “generally” friendly and I have a charismatic smile and I believe them 🙂
I am very passionate about architectural design and interior life in general, but when I need to relax I like to tour and bike; I just love the feeling of the pumping adrenaline. In the biking language I am a “biker chick” well, let me not go much into the details of what that means, but for sure I am a biker.
On the side of my professional passion; Architecture, I am a proud member of the in loco program. I am learning a lot here and becoming better each day. Through the business trainings in the program, I am becoming a better entrepreneurial thinker; which is helping me in my existing businesses.
As I mentioned, I am learning a lot! I am grateful that I had the opportunity to be part of the First Aid Trainees who are supposed to always be ready on site in case of an emergency. It was not only fun; it was eye opening to the kind of person I am when it comes to dealing with emergencies and the importance of avoiding them.
Another learning opportunity I got was training by Afrisam, a cement manufacturer. We learned how to mix mortar and how to lay bricks. When we were told we are going to lay the bricks ourselves I must admit I was a little scared but the training made me realise that it is not so hard. The certificates we received after the training was the cherry on top; it made me feel like a professional in bricklaying.
Who would have thought that one day I, an Interior Architect, would be given a chance to be dealing with the procurement of such a prominent project but yes, in loco made me step out of my comfort zone completely. I am thinking outside of the box now as far as my career in the built environment is concerned. I am just a week into the role of a buyer for the project and I am looking forward to the next few weeks in this role.
Building confidence came in the package for me as well because one of the unexpected days I had to present to the representatives of World Bank and since that day forward the sky is limitless. I could pinch myself a thousand times; like, me presenting to such high profile people, wow! Not knowing that I will later discover that it was not going to be the last. The great connections we are making at in loco are amazing.
We are also expecting international students from the built environment to visit us in Lesotho and it is really exciting and we fellows are looking forward to meeting them. I am already thinking of places to take them if we get the chance. They will definitely bike with me at least once.
On top of all that, the most wonderful thing is to give back to the community. Having been given the chance to improve people’s lives and value to their wellbeing. Working closely with the orphanage only opened my eyes to the other side of the world and has helped me to value every opportunity that comes my way, and it really helped me to appreciate life as it is.
That is how much experience in the fellowship has been so far; full of learning, fun, out-of-the-comfort-zone experiences and a lot of self-discovery.
