The Engineer asked a good question, and thanks to Jonathan's questions when comparing maps and news articles, I can suggest that the coordinates for Matopeni are approximately:
Latitude: 1°15'46.41"S
Longitude: 36°55'54.06"E

It is outside of the Nairobi city limits, and Stephen tells us a major sewage line goes through the slum, as does a water line, and they get fresh water about three times a week. In Swahili, it seems that Matopeni means "muddy place", so the ground is probably part of a flood plain for the Ngong River and other Nairobi River affluents.... (Stephen, please correct me if I'm wrong).

Great work, team!

Manuel

Dear all Neighbours,
Most of the questions raised to me by the engineer aid have been answered by Manuel.Manuel thank you for your good answers.However soils in Matopeni is not cotton,its loamy,rocky soil.We are very far from the Rift valley and earth quecks are rear.The first floor should be seperated by concret slab.The most relearble building material are Blocks.Not very expencive coz we are Near Quarry where they are produced.Above all Brethren alike the statement made by the author of the questions "If you do nothing, you will be surrounded by a growing wall of faeces and if you doubt this just walk around the perimeter of any of the squatter areas in any of the towns to see what i mean."Idont agree with this as far as Matopeni village is concerned.
Be blessed all,
Stephen

Hi Stephen and Manny

Thanks for helping to answer some of these questions. I've sent Geeta an email and she'll be onine either today or tomorrow to give an architects point of view as well. (I think we need opinions from all angles here.)

Stephen, I'm sorry about what one of the engineers has said about the latrines. The info they haven't got yet is the outside area which will include latrines that are plumbed into the main sewage line.

Geeta - as well as the document, how are you getting on with the outside part of the plan re: COLA and latrines? I think we'll need them pretty soon now as the engineers will definitely want to see them as well. I orginally supplied them with the original drawing plans. They are also looking for specific measurements that are not as yet attached to the plan. Could you provide these for us? I think what might help as well is if we could have a final set of plans for the entire school once build to accomodate ALL 700 children. I'm sure this will impact on what the engineers suggest material-wise. I know it's a tall order Geeta, but I think now is the time that we look at this in earnest. Can you give me a realistic timeframe when you can expect to look at these and deliver? This will help me and everyone else when I'm communicating with EngineerAid. Also, the life of this action is nearing it's end and would like all plans etc finalised before we close this up.

Jonathan - I like your idea about PumpAid. I'm going to seriously look into that, make contact with them and see what advice / help they can offer the school. I haven't been ignoring your posts, just been a busy bee as per normal! ;-)

Phew! Ok guys, thanks again for all your hard fantastic efforts so far. I'm already putting together a response for EngineerAid and will send it off once Geeta has had a chance to reply and respond. I'll add a copy of my response on the action so that you can all see where we're at!

Chrissie :-)

Wow... in the US we just celebrated Thanksgiving, and I'm very thankful for everything that is coming together. :-D

At this moment, though, we are going to need support from Stephen and his local team.

Stephen:
I suggest you quickly check with your local water company for the plans/maps that show where the sewage line is going through, as well as the requirements for making our latrine installations...
If they have GPS coordinates for the existing latrines, it's even better! :-)

The engineers and I also need a drawing (hand sketch or computer generated) of the 5 plots of land... it doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to show where the streets are, with arrows showing what direction and approximate distance (3 blocks... 100 feet) to get to the quarry, the river, the sewage line, the fresh water line, and the police station). If possible, could you also include distance and direction to the old (present) school?

Gheeta: while we are waiting for the drawing, let's assume that we are using 4 contiguous plots that are 20X60 feet... the fifth plot would be for athletics, I guess....
Stephen, would that be a 40X120 square foot rectangle or an 80X60 square foot rectangle?

Well, I have smoke coming out of my ears from so much thinking.... I'm sorry about loading you down with work, Stephen.... but this information is usually collected by the civil engineer or arquitect before the plans are drawn up....

Question for stephen: just in case, do you think the Quarry owners would donate a larger plot of land for the school (maybe 120 X120 sq.ft.), next to the slum? This might have been looked at earlier in this discussion, but it might be worth a re-visit, since now the school would bring positive advertising for the quarry and its owners (Stephen, as a sales point, you can even offer a free webpage on the Matopeni site, with the owner's biography... ) :-)

Manuel

O.K., Now we have some definitions that architects and engineers want.

If Ron reads here, then he probably could gives us an approximate statement of material requirements, e.g., so much block, so much cement for foundation, so much rebar (steel rods) for reinforcing the concrete, etc.

Will update my SketchUp of Matopeni Preparatory School to reflect change in material.

Manuel Questions
The Quarry owners even if they accept to give or sale us land,its not an ideal place to locate our school,Theres alot of explosion of grenates and all sots of noices produced by Quarry Machines that can interfear with learning process in school.
Sewage line is in the infront of the pressent school even water not even 10 metres away and the installation formalities is not a big deal.We can get plots lets say 40 by 120 fit or 60 by 80 depending on Aproximation Gheeta will come up with.Otherwise iwill try level best to get you Hand written map for Matopeni.Surely i have not managed to get the real map as i had promised am sorry for that and not cofortable with how Third world countries opperate (with or without area maps.

Jonatan,
I have checked with UN-HABITAT meeting as per your advise and told that the occasion is fully booked.Otherwise thak you for your concern

Thanks, Stephen for the quick reply. :-)
I understand your observations on the quarry...
Noise can be a big problem... :-(
I was just thinking about property with "clear title" that you could obtain... :-) I, too, come from a developing country and know how hard it is to get information and maps.... :-) I even worked in a small "secret" town that doesn't appear on maps! but everyone knew it was there..... ;-) the land belonged to the government, so no one wanted to invest in the town...

As for the map, just remember you can refer to where something is on the photograph (satellite image) I uploaded... :-)

Manuel

Dear neighbors!
Here are some 3D sketches of toilet block and outdoor sitting area for students to eat and sit in shade.
Some considerations for Toilet block design:
1. Toilet block consists of two sections with separate side entries: one for men and other for women.
2. According to the availability of the water to flush we can use pan or water saving WC
3. Roofing material could be corrugated sheet or RCC depending on the availability of the material. If corrogated Sheet roof is used, false ceiling is proposed

Consideration for Cola
1. It is semi open space designed for students for outdoor sitting. It can be used for tiffin breaks or other leisure activity.
2. Roof material proposed is colorful corrugated sheets.
3. The sitting area is provided with inbuilt wooded or cement benches
4. The structure is supported with pillars. Each shade consists of 4 structural pillar and rest, false pillar for decoration.
5. Slightly raised platform in the cola/covered area could be used for stage programs run by school for students and other community activities for the village as well.

Dear chrissie!
I didn’t get your point about school design for 700 students immediately. As neighbors decided before, First phase design was for for 197 existing students. I am still not satisfied with the information about the land we have or we are looking for. Size of plot is not clear, orientation of plot is not clear, what are the existing features we have around the plot also not clear ……The present school design has provision for further extension but without fixed plot area what can I say?
I wonder how engineers are working without consultation about design.

Dear neighbors!! Please review the sketches and send some constructive comments. I will wait to hear from you all.
Have a nice weekend!!
With best regards
Geeta

toilet block.zip

Geeta,

I hope that this is constructive. You have the block divided 50/50, yet my experience tells me that such design fails to reflect a difference between pointers and setters.

Jonathan

Thanks, Gheeta, for the new designs... :-)
You commented you still didn't understand how much land we had available... and if I understand correctly, Stephen can negotiate for as large a plot of land as we can get the donations for.... :-/

So... we are asking you to "dream" and try to estimate what our requests to major donors should be... 8-)

Thanks! Oh, and I've included design images and more pictures in the Matopeni Preparatory School Website

[img align=right hspace=15]http://www.nabuur.com/uploads/img_45733ad127730.jpg[/img]

Dear Gheeta,
I would like to thank you for your good job actuaally it looks fantastic to have such a school in a slum village like Matopeni.Or should i say The school will look like a small heaven when the construction will be over?.That being said the land size is not aproblem here the community is willing to sale as much land as we can afford.The feartures around the identified plots are temporary structures that can be demolished to give as room to expand.Probably from your sketch which size of land do you think we should have lets say start with and long term.Ican organize for it dont worry. Any way will it be possible Gheeta to have the exact measurement of each room.This will help us work out the cost of the building Material with the local engineer and Engineer aid people and still reflected in the BP.

Manuel,
Thank you for updating the web and friends section,it communicates to the outside world what is happenning and what has been achieved,
Stephen

Hi All, and especially Stephen and Geeta.

Geeta, thanks for the sketches - these will really help. Stephen is right in what he says - land really isn't an issue - the community can provide as much as we need at a price. With this in mind, would you be able to give us some measurements for the sketches. I promised EngineerAid that we would contact them within the week and this time has now elapsed. Is there any chance we can measurements ASAP. I can then contact EngineerAid to let them know this first part and advise that we don't as yet have the future plans, but what they may well include. Hopefully they will be able to give us some good advice on the structure etc.

COLA Geeta, permission to slap me, but the cola is a covered eating area. Under the shade (which are fab in the design by the way!!:-)) should be long trestle tables with chairs. Don't know if this means the shade design needs to be tweaked slightly?? Sorry!!

Please let me know Geeta if you're struggling at all - we can all pitch in to help!

Chrissie :-)

Dear chrissie!!!
Thank you for your response. Could you please send me some pictures of COLA. What i understood from cola was outdoor covered(roofed) sitting area for students. It would be helptful if you send me some pictures.
About the measurements about the design its no problem. I can send it. Are you talking about the measurements of school block for 197 students? or for school design for 700 students ? Actually for 700 students i need to design I mean i need to design extension blocks. and integrate it with main block.
Are we going to estimate for 700 students?? or as said before we are going to start from smallar scale that is start from school for 197 existing students?
If its clear,there will not be confusion to work on.
Best regards
geeta

Dear NABUUR Volunteers.

Today it's International Volunteer Day.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your dedication and invaluable support towards finding solutions.

The time and energy put forth into your volunteering work really make life changing differences for other people.

As NABUUR grows we are honored to work with passionate volunteers such as yourself, as you are the ones who make it happen.

NABUUR and all those involved celebrate you today, and we look forward to a long and continued collaboration.

It couldn't be done without you.

Warm regards,

Siegfried Woldhek

CEO NABUUR.com

Wow, Manuel. I took a look at Friends of Matopeni Preparatory School http://matopeni.ateneo.cc/friends.htm
and there is my name in the same text with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Alex Silar. 8-)

BTW: Nice sketch. The image of the school is taking shape. Geeta really gave us a foundation (building blocks) for a good start.