IN LOCO FELLOWS BLOG SERIES #9: No construction background…yet an in loco fellow
Towards the end of August 2017, that is when I heard about in loco. I didn’t even have to think twice about applying for it but there was a challenge for me, one of the main requirements was that the participants should have “construction related” experience. I almost gave up but the fact that the project was about improving the lives of the underprivileged kept me motivated to pursue the application process.
I remember Pedro Clarke, one of the in loco architects and rise team, asking me why I applied for the program seeing that I am the only person in the interviews without a construction related background. I knew I needed make rise understand why I needed to be part of the team regardless of my inexperience in the field.
My passion for community involvement towards development, improving the less fortunate communities have always been my driving force. Not forgetting the most important motivator to me; my personal experience.
I had an opportunity to be provided a better life and education by a similar facility “SOS Children’s Village Maseru”. That is where the love and motivation to help others came from. Not only did SOS contribute so much towards my development over thirteen years; they also encouraged me to do the same for other vulnerable people around me. I guess the love and care that I got from SOS as a child is beyond measure and the nurturing that I received helped me grow to become an independent young adult. This is basically what I would love to see happening to God’s Love Centre (GLC) youth.
The program started in February 2018 with a Participatory Design Workshop (PDW). I was clueless about building and designing, but that did not matter because the experience was easy to follow and very interesting. It was exactly what I had done in school – community assessment. This is where we interacted with the kids and they were amazing. They were full of energy and excitement as they were given the opportunity to be the decision makers of how their buildings should look like.
Not only did we involve the GLC community; we also involved the community surrounding GLC. Our first visit to GLC was really emotional, seeing the real NEED that in loco will be providing solutions to. We knew we needed to work hard from day one, as fellows to fulfil the mission, and guess what, we are on the 10th month of the project running and things are looking pretty good.
I have been keen to learn from day one. I remember some of the fellows asking me if I ever imagined digging trenches, placing reinforcement and being a labourer on site. Honestly, I had never thought along those lines. However, it has been fun; especially with such a supportive team. Now seeing the building almost done just makes me so proud because I was part of team that started it.
In as much as I have learned so much in the construction side of things; as you can guess from my educational background, my role in the fellowship was not exactly construction related. I have been the link between the project and the GLC community and I have been highly involved in the capacity building of GLC. One of the things I did which I am so proud of is the Business Trainings for the youth of GLC.
We have established six business groups and two of them are about to be launched; an Internet café and Tuck-shop. The other business groups are already running and being improved upon with the help of professional mentors who we identified for them. For example, the Pre-school was already running at GLC, they want to join it together with a day-care facility and their mentor is helping the group to improve it.
Now that we are coming to the end of the fellowship, it is going to be sad to part ways. Relationships were established both with GLC and the fellows; however this is not going to be a goodbye rather a see-you-soon moment. I am going to miss GLC and the kids especially the sessions we had, but we have just started the program “I AM WHO?” that will go beyond January and that will grant me the opportunity to spend time with them. As for the fellows and the rest of the team, we will meet along the business lane because we are definitely going to need one another.
The fellowship has been fun, informative, and full of networking opportunities and definitely there has been great career improvement for me.
Sustainable Urbanisation in Africa
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
Guest Blog: by Lujia Zhu – in loco International Workshop participant
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.
