Saturday, September 17, 2011

My Last Week at Allison Ramsey, for a while...

So yesterday was my last day at Allison Ramsey Architects - I start at Habitat For Humanity International in Atlanta on Monday. I will work there until Thursday, when I fly to South Africa.

Obviously, I am really excited about traveling to Africa again and starting a new job. I have mixed feelings though, mostly due to the fact that it has been about 19 years since I last changed jobs, and considering that I never thought I would ever work in one place for even 5 years. For some reason, everyone I talk to thinks that I might have some adjusting to do to the fact that I will not be the boss anymore - but my response to them is they haven't had to work for my clients for 19 years. I like to think I am trading an average of 10 to 12 bosses at a time for just one, or maybe two.

I am also a little nervous due to the fact that I am flying my dog and cat to Africa, and they will be following me after a few days, so I won't even be the person that puts them on the plane. I have never transported animals before, except in my car, and considering how many times my luggage has been lost by the airlines in my lifetime, my confidence level is understandably low....

Anyway, it was great spending the last three weeks in Beaufort working with the gang at Allison Ramsey. I can't express how proud I am of the firm that we have created together - we do an amazing job, and have such an incredible body of work - we just need to keep on sharing with others what we have done and can do! I plan to continue to be involved in Allison Ramsey at some level - and I will definitely be visiting when I am back in the States.

Some of "The Gang" - Past and Present:

Saturday, September 10, 2011

I am new at this...

I am new at this blogging stuff, so bear with me as I try this out. My name is Bill Allison and I am about to move to South Africa to work for Habitat For Humanity International in their Africa/Middle East Area Office in Pretoria. A number of my friends and colleagues have asked me to keep them posted on what I will be doing, and several have suggested starting a blog - so here I am. At the moment I am still in the US, waiting on my travel documents from South Africa. I am camping out, with my dog and cat, in Cooter's guest house until I leave for Pretoria. Cooter is one of my partners in Allison Ramsey Architects (the other is Bill Harris) and he and his wife Stacy are really super letting me live in their backyard for an undetermined time.


First: A note about the title of my blog, and a preview, I guess, of how I will be posting stories. I went to architecture school (Texas Tech) and, like many architecture students, got pretty burnt out during the process and decided for many reasons to do something different when I graduated than sit at a drawing board for the rest of my life - which is exactly what I felt would happen at the time if I didn't do something drastic. After exploring the Peace Corps and a few other options, a friend suggested I look into this relatively new organization called Habitat For Humanity, and gave me Millard Fuller's book, "Bokotala" about how he and his wife Linda started the organization in Mbandaka, Zaire (now the Congo). That book captivated me, and made me realize that building houses with Habitat would be a better and more relevant use of my architectural education than what the Peace Corps had to offer, so I applied, and was accepted to go overseas as an international volunteer. Habitat decided to send me to start their first project in Zambia, on an isolated island in the Kafue River Flats called Kabuyu Island.


Kids playing football on Kabuyu Island


As I write this blog I am sure I will spend a lot of time talking about what Habitat does and how they work, so I will not go into that now, but the title refers to one of the first houses we built on Kabuyu Island for a Man named Mr. Phiri. I am sure he had a first name, but he was older and a respected member of the community, and I didn't dare call him anything other than Mr. Phiri. As one of the elders on the island, he was on our Habitat committee, and because the project was new, I was young, and most of the people on this island had relocated there from other parts of the country where they had experienced difficulties, the people on the island were very skeptical of me and the whole program. Mr. Phiri was chosen to get one of the first houses not necessarily as an honor, but more as a guinea pig, or so it seemed to me. As the house progressed, I came to admire how hard Mr. Phiri worked, and as he saw that we were really building him a concrete block house to replace his grass walled and grass roofed hut, I began to be amazed at his joy and enthusiasm for the work that we were doing. The day I remember most was the day we finished - this man was so overjoyed that he completely lost his reserve and started to tell me and the two young guys that were working with me about how as soon as we packed our tools and left he was going to grab his wife and "initiate" each of the three rooms in the house to celebrate it's completion! It was a very funny moment, but now, after about 26 years of building, and mainly designing hundreds of homes for clients, I still recall it as the most joyful, most happy and satisfied reaction to getting a new house that I have ever seen.


Not Mr. Phiri's house, but the same design.


And of course - I got such a kick out of seeing how happy Mr. Phiri and his family were in finally having a permanent home. The enjoyment at playing even a small part in helping to transform peoples lives - that's one of the reasons I am going back to Africa to work for Habitat full time. I have quite a few other reasons that I am sure I will get to sooner or later, but this was a major one....


Please comment, ask questions, talk back. Don't make me do all the work - especially those of you who were pushing me to do this!