Land Surveying According To Rose

Around this time of the year about a decade ago I entered the land surveying fraternity – now often referred to as Geomatics, as if Land Surveying wasn’t a confusing enough name for the layman.

Land Surveying, not Quantity Surveying, not Soil Surveying – refers to the gathering, analysing, interpreting and distributing of spatial information, according to Google. I like the simpler description, which states that it is the art and science of what is where.

I ended up to learning all these difficult descriptions, when all I ever wanted to do, all I entered the profession for, was to wear boots, cargo pants and drive a big bakkie – or a land rover. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that 10 years later, all I can afford is a Polo Vivo, not even a TSI but that is a story for another day.

There was a lot wrong within the profession at the time and there still is. I realized this as soon I started. My biggest challenge was that I could not find a firm to do my articles with, even though I did not have to be paid. The department that had sponsored my tertiary education would also sponsor my training for articles or board exams. Yet I still struggled to find placement.

My male colleagues did not have as much complications as I, together with most of my female colleagues had. By most I mean two of us, because there were only 3 of us in total that graduated that year. Later I tried to find out what the reason was behind the reluctance of firms to take female trainees.

I learned that as females: –

  1. We refused or could not carry the heavy Land Surveying equipment.
  2. We loved doing our nails which prevented us from fully participating on site in fear of ruining them.
  3. We had a tendency to fall pregnant – which we still do.

For this reason, I was determined to prove that I was different from all the female Land Surveyors before me, that I could do anything a man could and 10 times better. Boy was I wrong! It turns out I love my nails as much as the next woman, and the equipment was a little to heavy to climb Durban hills with on my back. However, the biggest challenge was that I could not simply urinate on the open fields on which we worked like a man would. A real bummer!

Even when there was a shrub behind which I could hide, the height difference between me and the ground was quite concerning. I would know, I specialize in measuring heights too. That is what Land Surveying is also about, measuring the height of objects above ground. All in all, squatting was a big risk, one I wasn’t sure I wanted to take. Not out of concern for my knees, this was 10 years ago so my knees were still decent.

Seeing how wrong I was, I decided to stop competing with men. I decided to do the only thing I knew men could not do, that is to talk. I decided I would walk into rooms that Land Surveyors tend to avoid, even if it is just chatrooms on social media. I decided to talk to anyone who would listen, about this beautiful profession of ours.

 I decided to talk on Tiktok no matter how ridiculous I felt in the beginning. I talk on the Durban based community radio Inanda 88.4 FM for 15 minutes weekly. I even got a chance to talk on Ukhozi FM in August 2024 for a whole 30 minutes – I got to tell all 7 million listeners of the biggest radio station in Africa about Land Surveying.

Remember though I am just a girl who loves her nails, I need all the help I can get to promote our profession. And to those who have been fighting and continue to fight effectively and in silence, one day the impact of your efforts will be as loud as thunder. You are appreciated.

Now in conclusion, a decade later, I have appointed myself the spokesperson of the profession. I do all these things to teach people about our profession, in hopes that it will be better understood, better appreciated and better recognized. I do this in hopes of helping our profession reach new heights.

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Land Surveying According To Rose

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