Thursday 29 May 2008
Day 15 – Sun 18/05/08
A day of relaxing and recovering from the night before. Some went horse riding through the surf on the beach and up the dunes towards the swamp. Neville was unfortunate enough to be rolled off his horse which seemed to take a disliking to the breaking waves (no injuries incurred), whilst Richard drew the short straw with a lazy horse that needed to be pulled along by the lead horse. The sunset provided a beautiful end to the day.
To Neville’s great relief, and to nobody’s expectation, John arrived from Johannesburg with Neville’s bag.
Fotini, Charlie and Andy went diving. The underwater fauna was amazing and included rays, crocodile fish and a large purple octopus.
Mike spent a large part of the day in a hammock. Petrina, Anna and Mike all had massages to relieve the aches and pains that have been building as a result of all the hard work.
Day 16 – Monday 19/05/08
‘Halfway there’
A unusual day at the mid point of the May trip. The morning had been declared a school-team holiday in recognition of the full-moon. There was only a small contingent of 6 keen volunteers on site this morning, who continued the work on steel-fixing for the floor. However, due to one of the usual African mix-ups, the supply of tying wire ran out half way through the morning, so even the keen volunteers found themselves with little to do other than perfect their Frisbee techniques.
The rest of the team arrived in time for lunch on site (2 types of crab in sauce with rice and peanuts). A surprise bonus was provided by Andy who treated everyone to doughnuts which he had purchased earlier in the day from Seed’s new bakery in Tofo. Andy had also taken the opportunity to buy a new hat in the hillbilly style – nice.
After lunch and some more honing of Frisbee skills, the tying wire arrived, allowing us to make good progress in fixing steel for a good part of the floor by the end of the day.
Full moon party tonight at Dino’s. Details to be provided by those who can remember anything about it.
Day 17 – Tuesday 20/05/08
‘Back on a Roll again!’
Today was a very productive day as described below. All the team arrived to site for 7.00am. Breakfast wasn’t served until after 7.30am so everybody got to work on completing the floor slab reinforcement. Breakfast consisted of an omelette, bread roll and “egg balls(?)” which tasted like donuts with a “custard” sauce.
After breakfast Gary brought the team to see an almost complete school which is a similar layout to our one. Chris is to put a proposal together for completing it. Gary is to price it up. It was good to see the school and it has given everybody a better idea of where we’re heading with our project.
Ian from Underseas joined us today for work. It’s always appreciated having extra bodies on board! We got back from the site visit at approximately 9.45am. We then went about finally completing the reinforcement for the floor slab. Once the reinforcement was complete, we started digging a couple of trenches in the southern end of the school. The trenches were then poured with concrete and will act as foundations to some internal walls.
We also started to assess the construction of the concrete path of the veranda on the eastern side of the school. It was decided that the palm tree stump would have to be removed from the southeast corner in the first instance. We then broke for lunch which consisted of matapa and rice and some bananas.
After lunch a team of a few people set about trying to remove the tree stump mentioned above. It was very difficult and even some of the local kids gave a helping hand! A friend of Juliao helped us out with his 4x4 vehicle. We tied a rope around the stump and then to the back of his vehicle and finally pulled it out.
Gary arrived again during lunch and moved the mixer to the southern end of the site. He and the locals and most of the team started pouring the floor slab. Gary got very enthusiastic and the pouring moved along quite rapidly. Before the end of the day, approximately one quarter of the most southerly room (or area) had been poured.
With the tree stump gone, work begun on the foundations for the veranda. This will most likely be continued during Day 17. There will also be a lot of concrete pouring to do over the next three days or so. However, we expect a second mixer to be on site by Thursday. Some of us got a lift home on the back of Gary’s truck. However, due to a non-fully inflated wheel, some of the team unfortunately had to walk.
Day 18 – Wednesday 21/05/08
‘Good Manners!’
The day started with our usual 30 min walk to site, followed by two “Mango Beach” dogs (which eventually spent the whole day on site looking after us!). The weather was a bit cooler today with some light showers in the morning.
Ian from Quest Underseas joined us again to offer his assistance. Libby was still not well, having a pain in the back.
We had omelette for breakfast-most people’s favourite- with bread and crispy pancakes. In the meantime Chris talked strictly to the Mozambican workers about yesterday’s “inappropriate” behaviour which made some of the female members of the group feel a bit uncomfortable, and warned that there would be “severe” consequences for those who would not comply!!
To everyone’s disappointment the concrete mixer broke this morning, which meant we had to go back to our initial method of concrete mixing: manually (our worst fear!!) Fortunately it was fixed by Gary, our contractor’s magic hands by 9:30, so back to normal and to a higher production rate!
Concreting of the floor slab, finishing the foundation trench of the eastern veranda (by placing stones and compacting them) took place. The trench for the foundation of the northern veranda was also excavated and filled with stones which were also compacted.
Later that morning a few Mozambican Governmental officials arrived on site in an apparently luxurious 4x4 (!) for a short visit. They expressed their satisfaction and appreciation regarding the progress made so far.
We had our lunch early at 11:30 (rice and two options of sauces, one with chicken and beans and one with vegetables) as arranged by Chris who had foreseen the shortage of sand therefore concrete mixing would not have been possible before the delivery of another supply. A new load of sand was delivered at noon.
The concrete mixer broke again right after lunch-magic didn’t last long! - so back to manual mixing again… grrrr!!! Group members were rotating on carrying out tasks in order to ensure that work load was equally distributed.
A new delivery of cement (104x50 kg bags) arrived on site and was unloaded and stored directly in the storage room.
A hectic afternoon followed with concrete mixing taking place. Buckets filled up with concrete were transferred to the floor slab through our unique “human chain”! There was some tension between us and the Mozambican workers, regarding the method of mixing concrete, but this was resolved immediately. Overall 1/3 of the floor slab was done by the end of the day. A very productive day despite all difficulties!
Tools and supplies were checked against the inventory list and we set off back to Mango Beach where we enjoyed our dinner of chicken and chips (not very common as we usually have seafood) and watched the Champion’s League football final, Manchester United vs Chelsea .
Day 19 – Thursday 22/05/08
‘Up we go’
Mattias ‘the iron-man’ Stridh could not have had a better day as day leader. With the old inefficient cement mixer broken, a new sand delivery on its way, the team fit (also reinforced by John, Petrina’s boyfriend) we could now get things moving a bit quicker.
While waiting for the sand delivery and a brand new larger cement mixer, we hand-mixed some mortar and started off with the block-works on the southern walls. Neil held a short introductory lesson on bricking and the whole team went off putting the blocks up. In just a few hours, the walls took shape and for the first time, the school developed vertically and was no longer just a big invisible useless junk of concrete in the ground.
Just before lunch we had both sand and a new mixer delivered and while a few continued with the joy of blocking, others had the less fortunate and strenuous task of providing the cement mixer with a steady flow of raw materials and shipping the concrete out to the floor.
After an extremely efficient day with everyone busy at all times, we finally ran out of rocks for the concrete with only 15 minutes left of the working day. Just enough time to pack up and clean the gear. With new materials delivered at 07:00 in the morning, we can look back on this marvellous day as one of the most productive and most enjoyable so far. In fact, the day was so perfect that one could not think of anything that could make the day much better except eggballs. I can confirm that we did not have Santa’s eggballs for breakfast.
Day 20 – Friday 23/05/08
Straight after breakfast the morning saw a rapid start to the days work. Whilst a few team members were on block-laying duties, the majority of us worked on concrete to continue filling the floor slab. Buckets of sand, cement, stones and water were all brought to Francisco who fed them into the new mixer. The concrete was then shovelled into wheelbarrows and poured into the floor slab. This new system was super-efficient, with the only limiting factor being the speed of the mixer. At this rate we’d finish the entire floor slab by the end of the day!
However, a late delivery of sand threw a spanner in the works. This was frustrating, but we’re used to it by now. An extended break from 10.30am lasted until 11.45. This gave us a chance to relax a bit and play some Frisbee with the kids. Some new Bitonga words were learned, which had the children in hysterics as usual.
Unfortunately Chris, our fearless leader, injured his back early in the day pushing a wheelbarrow. He was out of action for the rest of the day and this was a reminder to everyone not to overdo it by taking on heavy loads. A few of us have been feeling the strain on our backs – all this digging and heavy carrying is taking its toll.
After lunch we again carried on with concrete mixing and block-laying, until again we ran out of a key ingredient – this time it was stones. Again we had a chance to interact with the children, teaching some of them to count in English, and we were able to go home slightly early.
All in all, this was a very productive day, although we know that more progress could have been made if deliveries had arrived on time. Mr Nando, our supplier, has a monopoly in the area so there’s not much we can do about it if things don’t always arrive on time. He does have some great excuses – apparently his drivers often manages to get ‘lost’ even after being to the site several times (and it only requires one turn off the main road!).
Day 21 – Saturday 24/05/08
The usual start to the day, with the walk to the site at around 7. The walk is beautiful with peaceful views over the marsh which is scattered with people farming or carrying materials across the on their heads. We are now able to greet the locals with our minimal knowledge of bitonga – not sure of the spellings but uwade = good day / atemenru = see you later / bongile = thank you. The local people, who are usually tending to their crops or washing clothes by the well as we walk to work, are getting used to seeing us on a daily basis, and are definitely taking an interest in what we are doing. We have even been invited back to dinner by one lady, and I believe that Mike has received marriage proposals from those that frequent the local village shop.
We arrived in time for breakfast - predictably eggs and bread, but the chef’s repertoire is extensive and difficult to predict – will it be omelette, prawn parcels, egg balls, boiled eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, crispy wafer like things? All provide an excellent start to the day!
Our mission for today was to steam on with the laying of the floor slab, and we set about this with great enthusiasm. We are now gelling very well as a team, and operate as an awesome concrete making machine! We were held up by the predictable unpredictability of the materials supplier – Mr Nando – who Chris texts about fifteen times a day to remind him of what we require. Unfortunately Mr Nando has not quite grasped the concept of timely deliveries, and his thirty minutes often turns into hours. Having run out of materials in the middle of the morning we were forced to sit back and wait for the delivery. In this time we played Frisbee and chatted with the kids who are highly entertaining.
Lunch comprised sardines (a treat) and the strange spaghetti dish which tasted less soapy this time around. Following lunch we accepted a ‘backie’ from Antonio to the end of the road, from where we piled into a shappa to take us into Inhambane – a bumpy ride shared with locals, not dissimilar to a rollercoaster ride meandering to avoid potholes and flying over bumps in the road.
Our main mission in Inhambane was to connect to the outside world, although our attempts were hampered by the limited number of computers available. Some of us relaxed in a local café whilst others spent their time engaged in some testing haggling in the central market. Mike and Dave meanwhile, had wandered off to find the bakery, picking up a friendly dog on route, who proceeded to follow them into the shop where mayhem ensued.
We returned to Tofo aboard a shappa, this time we travelled in luxury, as we had the shappa to ourselves, and there was no need to sit on each others laps, or for people to be hanging out of the door. Having arrived in Tofo, somehow still alive and in one piece, a few of us continued our shopping spree at the local market, whilst others relaxed in a café with a local Mozambican beer. We all reconvened at a bar-restaurant called Bamboozi, the boozi of bamboozi being the operative word! A few stragglers arrived home in the early hours escorted by a pack of local dogs – Canus Africanus – reputedly the oldest dog in the world.
Day 22 – Sunday 25/05/08
(????)
Day 23 - Monday 26th Huge Milestone!
Monday morning comes round again! To some its feels like we haven’t had a weekend, kayaking yesterday was pretty tiring and a full day away from Mango Beach.
We now had one load of stones and two loads of sand on site ready for a big push on the concreting, if the net delivery of stone arrives this morning we may just have enough material to complete the last 1/3 of the floor slab in one go. Our progress had been hampered in the past because of the unpredictable deliveries of materials, this is Africa after all.
The next stone delivery arrives just as we are finishing our breakfast, the small stone has to come some distance and means the truck has to leave at 4 in the morning to arrive with us in time. The idea that we may finish the floor slab today encourages the team and we fall into our concrete mixing rhythm straight after breakfast like a well-oiled machine.
The locals were completing some blockwork and preparing reinforcing for the pillars while we were storming through the concrete.
Lunch seemed to come very quickly today, we must have been enjoying ourselves! Lots of sleepy people a lunch today having a snooze after our food, until the rain arrived and we retreated to our classroom / canteen.
In the afternoon the locals prepared some shuttering for another 3 pillars and we poured the concrete for these. The slab was completed about 2.30 to cheers and photographs. This signaled an early afternoon, there wasn’t much more we could do as we were running out of sand again… Mr Nando and his evil delivery monopoly was keeping us back again!
We left site in groups, allowing some people back home early while a few stayed behind to tidy up the site. We all had a chance to relax on the beach or at the bar in the afternoon, before very heavy rain sent us running for cover.
The progress we have made up to now means we are a week ahead of what Chris and Gary were expecting. This means we may be able to take it a bit easier for the rest of our time here. Gary told us that if this school project was let to local contractors it would probably take 6 months so he has been really pleased with our progress.
A day of relaxing and recovering from the night before. Some went horse riding through the surf on the beach and up the dunes towards the swamp. Neville was unfortunate enough to be rolled off his horse which seemed to take a disliking to the breaking waves (no injuries incurred), whilst Richard drew the short straw with a lazy horse that needed to be pulled along by the lead horse. The sunset provided a beautiful end to the day.
To Neville’s great relief, and to nobody’s expectation, John arrived from Johannesburg with Neville’s bag.
Fotini, Charlie and Andy went diving. The underwater fauna was amazing and included rays, crocodile fish and a large purple octopus.
Mike spent a large part of the day in a hammock. Petrina, Anna and Mike all had massages to relieve the aches and pains that have been building as a result of all the hard work.
Day 16 – Monday 19/05/08
‘Halfway there’
A unusual day at the mid point of the May trip. The morning had been declared a school-team holiday in recognition of the full-moon. There was only a small contingent of 6 keen volunteers on site this morning, who continued the work on steel-fixing for the floor. However, due to one of the usual African mix-ups, the supply of tying wire ran out half way through the morning, so even the keen volunteers found themselves with little to do other than perfect their Frisbee techniques.
The rest of the team arrived in time for lunch on site (2 types of crab in sauce with rice and peanuts). A surprise bonus was provided by Andy who treated everyone to doughnuts which he had purchased earlier in the day from Seed’s new bakery in Tofo. Andy had also taken the opportunity to buy a new hat in the hillbilly style – nice.
After lunch and some more honing of Frisbee skills, the tying wire arrived, allowing us to make good progress in fixing steel for a good part of the floor by the end of the day.
Full moon party tonight at Dino’s. Details to be provided by those who can remember anything about it.
Day 17 – Tuesday 20/05/08
‘Back on a Roll again!’
Today was a very productive day as described below. All the team arrived to site for 7.00am. Breakfast wasn’t served until after 7.30am so everybody got to work on completing the floor slab reinforcement. Breakfast consisted of an omelette, bread roll and “egg balls(?)” which tasted like donuts with a “custard” sauce.
After breakfast Gary brought the team to see an almost complete school which is a similar layout to our one. Chris is to put a proposal together for completing it. Gary is to price it up. It was good to see the school and it has given everybody a better idea of where we’re heading with our project.
Ian from Underseas joined us today for work. It’s always appreciated having extra bodies on board! We got back from the site visit at approximately 9.45am. We then went about finally completing the reinforcement for the floor slab. Once the reinforcement was complete, we started digging a couple of trenches in the southern end of the school. The trenches were then poured with concrete and will act as foundations to some internal walls.
We also started to assess the construction of the concrete path of the veranda on the eastern side of the school. It was decided that the palm tree stump would have to be removed from the southeast corner in the first instance. We then broke for lunch which consisted of matapa and rice and some bananas.
After lunch a team of a few people set about trying to remove the tree stump mentioned above. It was very difficult and even some of the local kids gave a helping hand! A friend of Juliao helped us out with his 4x4 vehicle. We tied a rope around the stump and then to the back of his vehicle and finally pulled it out.
Gary arrived again during lunch and moved the mixer to the southern end of the site. He and the locals and most of the team started pouring the floor slab. Gary got very enthusiastic and the pouring moved along quite rapidly. Before the end of the day, approximately one quarter of the most southerly room (or area) had been poured.
With the tree stump gone, work begun on the foundations for the veranda. This will most likely be continued during Day 17. There will also be a lot of concrete pouring to do over the next three days or so. However, we expect a second mixer to be on site by Thursday. Some of us got a lift home on the back of Gary’s truck. However, due to a non-fully inflated wheel, some of the team unfortunately had to walk.
Day 18 – Wednesday 21/05/08
‘Good Manners!’
The day started with our usual 30 min walk to site, followed by two “Mango Beach” dogs (which eventually spent the whole day on site looking after us!). The weather was a bit cooler today with some light showers in the morning.
Ian from Quest Underseas joined us again to offer his assistance. Libby was still not well, having a pain in the back.
We had omelette for breakfast-most people’s favourite- with bread and crispy pancakes. In the meantime Chris talked strictly to the Mozambican workers about yesterday’s “inappropriate” behaviour which made some of the female members of the group feel a bit uncomfortable, and warned that there would be “severe” consequences for those who would not comply!!
To everyone’s disappointment the concrete mixer broke this morning, which meant we had to go back to our initial method of concrete mixing: manually (our worst fear!!) Fortunately it was fixed by Gary, our contractor’s magic hands by 9:30, so back to normal and to a higher production rate!
Concreting of the floor slab, finishing the foundation trench of the eastern veranda (by placing stones and compacting them) took place. The trench for the foundation of the northern veranda was also excavated and filled with stones which were also compacted.
Later that morning a few Mozambican Governmental officials arrived on site in an apparently luxurious 4x4 (!) for a short visit. They expressed their satisfaction and appreciation regarding the progress made so far.
We had our lunch early at 11:30 (rice and two options of sauces, one with chicken and beans and one with vegetables) as arranged by Chris who had foreseen the shortage of sand therefore concrete mixing would not have been possible before the delivery of another supply. A new load of sand was delivered at noon.
The concrete mixer broke again right after lunch-magic didn’t last long! - so back to manual mixing again… grrrr!!! Group members were rotating on carrying out tasks in order to ensure that work load was equally distributed.
A new delivery of cement (104x50 kg bags) arrived on site and was unloaded and stored directly in the storage room.
A hectic afternoon followed with concrete mixing taking place. Buckets filled up with concrete were transferred to the floor slab through our unique “human chain”! There was some tension between us and the Mozambican workers, regarding the method of mixing concrete, but this was resolved immediately. Overall 1/3 of the floor slab was done by the end of the day. A very productive day despite all difficulties!
Tools and supplies were checked against the inventory list and we set off back to Mango Beach where we enjoyed our dinner of chicken and chips (not very common as we usually have seafood) and watched the Champion’s League football final, Manchester United vs Chelsea .
Day 19 – Thursday 22/05/08
‘Up we go’
Mattias ‘the iron-man’ Stridh could not have had a better day as day leader. With the old inefficient cement mixer broken, a new sand delivery on its way, the team fit (also reinforced by John, Petrina’s boyfriend) we could now get things moving a bit quicker.
While waiting for the sand delivery and a brand new larger cement mixer, we hand-mixed some mortar and started off with the block-works on the southern walls. Neil held a short introductory lesson on bricking and the whole team went off putting the blocks up. In just a few hours, the walls took shape and for the first time, the school developed vertically and was no longer just a big invisible useless junk of concrete in the ground.
Just before lunch we had both sand and a new mixer delivered and while a few continued with the joy of blocking, others had the less fortunate and strenuous task of providing the cement mixer with a steady flow of raw materials and shipping the concrete out to the floor.
After an extremely efficient day with everyone busy at all times, we finally ran out of rocks for the concrete with only 15 minutes left of the working day. Just enough time to pack up and clean the gear. With new materials delivered at 07:00 in the morning, we can look back on this marvellous day as one of the most productive and most enjoyable so far. In fact, the day was so perfect that one could not think of anything that could make the day much better except eggballs. I can confirm that we did not have Santa’s eggballs for breakfast.
Day 20 – Friday 23/05/08
Straight after breakfast the morning saw a rapid start to the days work. Whilst a few team members were on block-laying duties, the majority of us worked on concrete to continue filling the floor slab. Buckets of sand, cement, stones and water were all brought to Francisco who fed them into the new mixer. The concrete was then shovelled into wheelbarrows and poured into the floor slab. This new system was super-efficient, with the only limiting factor being the speed of the mixer. At this rate we’d finish the entire floor slab by the end of the day!
However, a late delivery of sand threw a spanner in the works. This was frustrating, but we’re used to it by now. An extended break from 10.30am lasted until 11.45. This gave us a chance to relax a bit and play some Frisbee with the kids. Some new Bitonga words were learned, which had the children in hysterics as usual.
Unfortunately Chris, our fearless leader, injured his back early in the day pushing a wheelbarrow. He was out of action for the rest of the day and this was a reminder to everyone not to overdo it by taking on heavy loads. A few of us have been feeling the strain on our backs – all this digging and heavy carrying is taking its toll.
After lunch we again carried on with concrete mixing and block-laying, until again we ran out of a key ingredient – this time it was stones. Again we had a chance to interact with the children, teaching some of them to count in English, and we were able to go home slightly early.
All in all, this was a very productive day, although we know that more progress could have been made if deliveries had arrived on time. Mr Nando, our supplier, has a monopoly in the area so there’s not much we can do about it if things don’t always arrive on time. He does have some great excuses – apparently his drivers often manages to get ‘lost’ even after being to the site several times (and it only requires one turn off the main road!).
Day 21 – Saturday 24/05/08
The usual start to the day, with the walk to the site at around 7. The walk is beautiful with peaceful views over the marsh which is scattered with people farming or carrying materials across the on their heads. We are now able to greet the locals with our minimal knowledge of bitonga – not sure of the spellings but uwade = good day / atemenru = see you later / bongile = thank you. The local people, who are usually tending to their crops or washing clothes by the well as we walk to work, are getting used to seeing us on a daily basis, and are definitely taking an interest in what we are doing. We have even been invited back to dinner by one lady, and I believe that Mike has received marriage proposals from those that frequent the local village shop.
We arrived in time for breakfast - predictably eggs and bread, but the chef’s repertoire is extensive and difficult to predict – will it be omelette, prawn parcels, egg balls, boiled eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, crispy wafer like things? All provide an excellent start to the day!
Our mission for today was to steam on with the laying of the floor slab, and we set about this with great enthusiasm. We are now gelling very well as a team, and operate as an awesome concrete making machine! We were held up by the predictable unpredictability of the materials supplier – Mr Nando – who Chris texts about fifteen times a day to remind him of what we require. Unfortunately Mr Nando has not quite grasped the concept of timely deliveries, and his thirty minutes often turns into hours. Having run out of materials in the middle of the morning we were forced to sit back and wait for the delivery. In this time we played Frisbee and chatted with the kids who are highly entertaining.
Lunch comprised sardines (a treat) and the strange spaghetti dish which tasted less soapy this time around. Following lunch we accepted a ‘backie’ from Antonio to the end of the road, from where we piled into a shappa to take us into Inhambane – a bumpy ride shared with locals, not dissimilar to a rollercoaster ride meandering to avoid potholes and flying over bumps in the road.
Our main mission in Inhambane was to connect to the outside world, although our attempts were hampered by the limited number of computers available. Some of us relaxed in a local café whilst others spent their time engaged in some testing haggling in the central market. Mike and Dave meanwhile, had wandered off to find the bakery, picking up a friendly dog on route, who proceeded to follow them into the shop where mayhem ensued.
We returned to Tofo aboard a shappa, this time we travelled in luxury, as we had the shappa to ourselves, and there was no need to sit on each others laps, or for people to be hanging out of the door. Having arrived in Tofo, somehow still alive and in one piece, a few of us continued our shopping spree at the local market, whilst others relaxed in a café with a local Mozambican beer. We all reconvened at a bar-restaurant called Bamboozi, the boozi of bamboozi being the operative word! A few stragglers arrived home in the early hours escorted by a pack of local dogs – Canus Africanus – reputedly the oldest dog in the world.
Day 22 – Sunday 25/05/08
(????)
Day 23 - Monday 26th Huge Milestone!
Monday morning comes round again! To some its feels like we haven’t had a weekend, kayaking yesterday was pretty tiring and a full day away from Mango Beach.
We now had one load of stones and two loads of sand on site ready for a big push on the concreting, if the net delivery of stone arrives this morning we may just have enough material to complete the last 1/3 of the floor slab in one go. Our progress had been hampered in the past because of the unpredictable deliveries of materials, this is Africa after all.
The next stone delivery arrives just as we are finishing our breakfast, the small stone has to come some distance and means the truck has to leave at 4 in the morning to arrive with us in time. The idea that we may finish the floor slab today encourages the team and we fall into our concrete mixing rhythm straight after breakfast like a well-oiled machine.
The locals were completing some blockwork and preparing reinforcing for the pillars while we were storming through the concrete.
Lunch seemed to come very quickly today, we must have been enjoying ourselves! Lots of sleepy people a lunch today having a snooze after our food, until the rain arrived and we retreated to our classroom / canteen.
In the afternoon the locals prepared some shuttering for another 3 pillars and we poured the concrete for these. The slab was completed about 2.30 to cheers and photographs. This signaled an early afternoon, there wasn’t much more we could do as we were running out of sand again… Mr Nando and his evil delivery monopoly was keeping us back again!
We left site in groups, allowing some people back home early while a few stayed behind to tidy up the site. We all had a chance to relax on the beach or at the bar in the afternoon, before very heavy rain sent us running for cover.
The progress we have made up to now means we are a week ahead of what Chris and Gary were expecting. This means we may be able to take it a bit easier for the rest of our time here. Gary told us that if this school project was let to local contractors it would probably take 6 months so he has been really pleased with our progress.
Sunday 25 May 2008
Wednesday 21 May 2008
Here follows the volunteer accounts of the first 13 days in Mozambique
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Day 1 Mon 5/5/08 – Touchdown on Terra da Boa Gente
The first weekend of May was a final opportunity for our first intrepid group of volunteers to do some last minute preparations and say goodbye to family and friends before embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.
Eleven of us gathered at Heathrow on Sunday afternoon and checked in for the 5pm flight to Johannesburg via Dubai. We picked David up in Dubai, met Petrina in Johannesburg, and then boarded the final flight to Inhambane. At this point David emerged as the official group photographer, taking a great shot of the team ready to board the flight, on a 20-seat aircraft.
We arrived in Inhambane more or less on schedule, and were welcomed by sunshine, palm trees, and some airport officials enjoying a beer on a table next to the small runway outside the terminal building, which consisted of a single room where we bought our visas. There we met Chris and Charlie from Quest, and the team was completed by Mattias, who had come by bus from the Mozambican capital, Maputo.
Everything was going smoothly until we realized that one of our bags had gone missing. Neville’s bag had disappeared between Johannesburg and Inhambane, which was doubly disappointing as it had made it safely all the way from Heathrow and we checked everything in again for the short final flight. Bad news, but hopefully it will turn up soon, and in the mean time the team will pull together to share essential everyday stuff with the big man.
Next we jumped in a minibus and drove to Tofo, the closest town to where we would be working. On the journey the realization finally sunk in – we had really arrived in Africa! Grass huts, ladies carrying huge buckets on their heads with no hands, bumpy dirt track roads, smiling children waving as we passed; amazing colours, sights, smells and sounds everywhere welcoming us to Inhambane Province, known as ‘terra da boa gente’ or ‘land of the good people’.
Tofo beach was full of children on the streets, very friendly and selling bracelets. One kid, named ‘Johnny Cash’ was particularly persistent, making us promise to remember him next time we come to the beach.
Next stop was Mango Beach, where we would be staying for the next four weeks. The lodge, run by a South African couple with three young children and five dogs, is set on the first sand dune from the Indian Ocean. The bar has great views of the sea on one side and sunset over the palm trees on the other.
Our first dinner (we’ll be eating at Mango Beach most nights) was prawns with rice and salad – delicious seafood is something we’ll be experiencing a lot of out here! Dinner was followed by a briefing from Chris, including working hours (7am - 4.30pm each day) and general tips on working on site, responsible tourism etc.
Chris also told us that there is a local custom of consulting the ancestors before any construction project can begin. We just missed this ritual, which involved copious amounts of palm wine (made by removing a young coconut from a tree and replacing it with a plastic bottle which collects the coconut milk, then allowing it to ferment for a few days) and saw two of the village elders face down in the sand within half an hour of drinking! Unfortunately the Ministry of Construction representatives had failed to make it to the ceremony (their car broke down on the way to the site), so we would have to wait for them the following day to gain their approval for the project.
After the briefing it was an early night for most, exhausted from our long journey and ready for a very early start on Tuesday.
Day 2 Tues 6/5/08 – High Five
After an early night (for most), we were up bright and early and couldn’t wait to get started on site. With the representatives from the Department of Construction due to arrive at 10am, this would give us plenty of time to familiarize ourselves with the site and ease into our first day’s work.
It wasn’t long before the first bit of drama – Andy was taking something out of his bag when he felt a sharp pain in his finger. Much to everyone’s surprise, it was actually a scorpion that had crawled into his bag during the night. Just a small one at 2 centimetres long, but these suckers pack a punch. Welcome to Africa!
At 6.30am we piled into the back of a van driven by Gary, the contractor for the project. He’s from London, but has been living in Mozambique for a few years and is very well connected. He has put together a team of local labourers who we’ll be working with on a daily basis, and negotiated a good deal with Antonio, the local supplier of building materials. Because of the nature of our project, Antonio has assured us that we’ll be given priority when materials are required.
When we arrived we were made to feel very welcome by Juliao, the school director. He insisted that we use one of the existing classrooms (the only one with desks) for breakfast, which was cooked by a very friendly man called Fernando. He’s an experienced chef who always cooks and serves food wearing a father Christmas hat! We are told that Mozambicans relish the opportunity for a bit of public speaking, and this was no exception. Fernando gave a speech about how happy he was to have us there, and how he hoped to please our tastes with his breakfasts. He was true to his word, serving up a delicious omellette with bread and coleslaw.
Unsurprisingly, the officials weren’t quite on time. There was a little frustration as we couldn’t start working until everything was approved and we were given the green light. However, this provided an opportunity to get to know the school children. They were full of life, all inquisitive and happy to see us. A flurry of high fives and greetings ensued, and one boy was particularly cordial, shaking each of our hands several times. He’s sure to be the village chief one day!
The officials eventually arrived at 1pm, much to our relief. Discussions lasted around half an hour, with the main man surrounded by an entourage of four or five technical advisors. After heated negotiations, the outcome was that we would have to stick exactly to the prescribed plans (Juliao would have liked to have a third classroom and smaller office), and that the school would have to be rotated by 180 degrees! Fortunately this wouldn’t effect the already dug foundations. Chris was also interviewed for the local radio station – we’re famous!
Following a lunch of rice and chicken feet (!), we finally got to work. Activities included further excavation for the foundations and placing a layer of rocks to act as the base of the foundations. Sergio gave us a quick lesson in coconut cutting using a machete – it’s not as easy as it looks, watch your fingers!
After all this time it was good to be finally on site and we all headed back to the lodge for a nice meal. It had been a relatively slow start, but with the official business out of the way we knew we’d be able to get fully stuck in on Wednesday.
The evening was spent in high spirits, with a bit of bat spotting (courtesy of Zoe and her detector) and some serenading of Dave as part of his birthday celebrations. We learned the Portuguese version of Happy Birthday, and finished the night with a round of ‘suitcases’.
Day 3 : The African way…
The Alarm clock seemed to come much sooner this morning, we were getting a lift to site though, this was a health and safety manager’s nightmare, 20 people and day sacks in the back of a pick-up, or ‘backie’ as they are referred to here. There were extra people with us today as the Quest underseas team were spending some time with the school children as part of their community involvement activities.
Breakfast when we reached site wasn’t quite weetabix! Squid and octopus with fried eggs and roll with jam….. interesting combination.
Gary the builder was otherwise occupied this morning so we were left to get on with working with the local labourers, we found the language barrier difficult today, the foreman seemed to be wanting to do things differently to what Gary had explained the day before. We continued to prepare the trenches for the foundations, digging out the sand, placing a layer of rocks in the bottom, wetting it all down and pounding the rocks into the wet sand.
Lunch was another culinary experience, with crab and matapa sauce, a combination of coconut milk, peanut and a local spinach type leaf.
During the day we were amazed by a huge number of locals passing the site, to which we later found out was to a funeral, people come from miles around, walking and on pick-up trucks.
A sand delivery in the afternoon was brought to a different side of the site to be closer to the concrete mixing pit and sunk in the soft sand off the main track. Deliveries are made on small flat bed trucks, anything larger wouldn’t make it on the soft roads (and you would have to go to SA for parts for them).
Most of the work today consists of one team moving a huge pile of stones for the concrete from one side of the site to the other. Another team set up nets and corner posts for the school football pitch and cleared the ground.
Cladding is started on the store building, the main structure is round-wood and leaf spines from palm trees and clad with woven palm leaves.
After a sunset swim, chatting back at Mango Beach we agree that the locals seem to love making sure we are well looked after.
Day 4: Mixing it up!
The second potentially venomous creature of the week was spotted at dawn when Mattias awoke to find something long and slithery meandering across the table in his room. All the evidence points toward the Mozambique Spitting Cobra, which some people may recognize from David Attenborough’s most recent series. However, having started to settle into Africa mode, nobody seems to be fazed.
Breakfast, prepared by a man in a Christmas hat, consisted of Manioc, a root vegetable and staple food in the area, and boiled eggs. We are also lucky enough to be provided with tea and coffee, and condensed milk before starting work on site.
Today was a day of seriously hard labour, with most of the day spent mixing concrete for the foundations. There is a feeling that for the project to be completed on time, there may be the need to obtain a cement mixer. However, Chris’s preliminary research suggests that there is only one functioning mixer in the region, and having made enquiries it is unlikely that we going to get our hands on it. This said, the team has started to perform well, and despite the vast amounts of concrete that will need mixing, we’re confident that the team will provide!
At break time we introduced the Frisbee and juggling balls to the children. In the screaming, laughing and general chaos that ensued, one ball mysteriously disappeared. Lunch provided by local women comprised rice and fish. This was followed by a serving of cashew fruit, which is abundant in the region. This strange orangey yellow fruit which feels wet upon the first taste, has a strange drying sensation after swallowing, and is best served with sugar, although some prefer to dip it in salt.
Today was the first day in which we started to bond well with the local labourers, and this has been greatly aided through our one to one language exchange initiatives on site. At the end of a productive day, we had mixed enough concrete to form the foundations on the west wing of the school.
We set off home, for the first time on foot, which is something that we will have to get used to as lifts to work are likely to become much less frequent. Despite a tiring day on site, the 2km walk down sandy tracks around the swamp provided a pleasant but tiring end to the day. As we walked home the setting sun painted a beautiful picture behind the palm trees. We arrived home for a quick dip in the ocean, and were treated to a lovely seafood paella before retiring to bed.
Day 5 – ‘Bricking it’
On day five we were welcomed by a gorgeous breakfast of crispy fried prawn cakes. Unfortunately this didn’t go down so well with all team members who weren’t feeling so well from a diet of fish, fish and more fish over the past few days! Following breakfast the group was split into three teams. Two teams of five and one team of four. One group had the task of constructing a new concrete mixing pit, as the first one had been broken up by the previous four days of mixing. The second group were assigned to determining the levels for the earth below the floor slab and levelling off the sand to this level. The third group were to mix new concrete batches to finish off the foundations for the remaining few columns.
Each of the three tasks didn’t go exactly to plan as the small stones required for the concrete in the foundations was running low and we were waiting for a new delivery that morning. The priority was therefore given to the group finishing off the last few column foundations and the group constructing the new pit had to wait for the delivery of stones to finish of the concrete in the base of the pit.
The group levelling off the sand in the centre of the building worked hard and finished their task by lunchtime.
Lunch was a choice of two local dishes which were both very tasty. Fish of course. After lunch Mike and Andy cause chaos chasing all the kids round the school making them really excited J After lunch we had a delivery of cement and more stones so most of the groups joined forces to mix concrete for both the pit, the columns, and the rests of the foundations.
Tensions grew between the local Mozambican workers and the volunteers because we were concentrating trying to finish the mixing pit so it could set over the weekend but they wanted to try and get the foundations completed. It wasn’t so bad though, and one of the workers even liked us so much to propose to one of the girls. No names mentioned… but we can confirm that she said yes. Haha.
Later on in the afternoon half the foundations were completed and all off the columns so we started on the first few layers of block work. This was great to see as finally we could start to see the school being built above ground level, and progress on the block was really quick. By the end of the day over half of the block work was completed. We all went home really satisfied with all the hard work we had put in that day.
Day 6 – ‘Hooray for the weekend’
On day five we split into 3 teams again. Only half day on site today. 2 teams were mixing concrete (for a change), alternating with ferrying the aforesaid concrete for use in foundations. Completed concrete base for foundations on 1st short side and part way along 2nd long side.
Local workman were still building temporary hut to store cement. Richard and Mike were asked to help fixing palm fronds to waterproof the roof, but were asked to ‘vamoose’ when they discovered their inaptitude for the extreme gymnastics required to balance on the roof whilst actually working. One team also did manage to help on the hut, with a number of team members being let loose with a machete to make and fix ‘lakka-lakka’ onto the roof.
Sterling work was also done in fixing buckets, the lack of which had caused severe delays on the transportation of concrete. One of the local workers, Jacinto, learned his first English word, which was, unsurprisingly ‘bucket’.
Finished work around noon today, rounded off by rice and matapa; the novelty is rapidly starting to wear off. Had lift home on pickup; Andy was hit by a tree, but as it was to his head, he sustained no serious injury.
Had a laid-back afternoon, with most people spending time in the Mango Beach Bar or on the beach. Tried to go swimming, but the sea had run away past the reef, which was a bit too sharp to walk over. Some went into Tofo to have a look at market and shops.
The day was rounded off by a trip to Dino’s Bar, where pizzas (real food!!) were enjoyed by everybody. The walk along the beach was remarkable for the thousands of ‘ghost crabs’ that scurry across the beach on a night, running out of the paths of torches as we approached. They have a translucent-white appearance, which explains their name, particularly in the near dark. Most left the bar at the ridiculously late hour of 10:00, but some stalwarts, including Andy, Mike, Fotini and Charlie, propped up the bar ‘til the early hours of the morning, with no apparent after-effects.
Day 7 Sunday 11th
Breakfast had been bought by Ian from the Quest underseas team when he was in the village yesterday so we had fresh bread and bananas instead of our usual site breakfast this morning.
Most of us were keen to go on the Whale Safari with Diversity Scuba today, we had a leisurely morning and got a lift into Tofo to go snorkelling about 11. This is getting close to the end of Whale Shark season so we were not sure how successful the snorkelling would be. The excitement started with us trying to get the boat into the water, at the end of a snorkel or scuba trip the boat is beached so we had to push the boat around and out into the surf before clambering aboard very ungracefully.
The boat took us out of the bay past a reef to open water and stopped to allow us to kit up with flipper and masks ready to hit the water as soon as something was spotted. We cruised up and down the coast like you would cut grass in strips watching out for activity. The spotted and skipper had a difficult job today as it was slightly overcast, making it difficult to spot the silhouettes against the sand bottom. During the trip we spotted two devil rays, closely followed by a pod of dolphins, we got in the water to swim with the dolphins, but they headed to the bottom when we got in, so this was a distant view. Next we spotted a huge manta ray, which swam under the boat when we stopped beside it. We were heading back to the beach, thinking the trip was over when we spotted a whale shark close to the reef guarding the bay. At the skippers instruction we all slipped into the surf quietly and swam alongside the largest fish in the sea for some time. This was a relative tiddler at 5m long, they can easily grow more than twice this length, but was an exhilarating swim, following the shark as it cruised along. We all landed back on the beach with a bump happy and excited, and agreeing that was a morning well spent.
Lunch was provided at Diversity Scuba and then we either indulged ourselves watching some of the football from the last day of the season, or walked around the market in Tofo before walking back to Mango Beach for our evening meal as usual.
Day 8 Monday 12th
Usual early start and walked to school in time to witness the flag raising ceremony. The national anthem lasts over 4 minutes and the flag is run up the pole at a corresponding speed.
Following Chris’s suggestion to father Christmas that salad had no nutritional value breakfast was accompanied by a strange packet of crisps.
Finally a cement mixer arrived and although it hadn’t worked since Christmas it fired up ok and worked all day long to the relief of the crew and good progress was made on the footings. We were ‘allowed’ to lay some blocks around the base.
100 bags of cement arrived to be unloaded into the still unfinished hut; there were some very dirty members as half the bags were obtained at a bargain price being damaged.
Dinner consisted of bread crumb coated chicken legs (the renowned ‘Frango Mango’) plus the usual rice, avocado salad and green salad, just right for pumping calories back in. Not sure many stayed up late after a tiring day.
Day 9 - ‘The Power of Love Moves Buckets’
A brisk early morning walk to site (6.30am) was followed by Father Christmas’s fantastically unusual breakfast of coleslaw, hard-boiled eggs and sweet potato with bread and jam – yummy!
A very productive day unfolded as we started preparing the foundations for the internal classroom walls and finished constructing the shuttering for two sides of the ring-beam. All in all we made up and moved huge amounts of concrete and mortar. We also succeeded in digging up the troublesome palm tree from the corner of the plot and rolled it safely off the foundations.
New shiny metal buckets also arrived, which doesn’t sound like much to the average person in the UK, but it was a joyous occasion on site since we had been using plastic buckets that had been repaired on multiple occasions prior to the arrival of the new buckets.
Lunch was fishy spaghetti – a welcome change from the usual fish / crab matapa and rice meals. However, it was quite a slimy meal and a little hard for some to stomach.
One of the Mozambiquan labour force was feeling like he had built a good relationship with us and suggested that the ‘Power of Love’ was what was moving all the buckets of concrete.
A stone delivery that was supposed to arrive early this morning didn’t come all day (an example of the typical laid-back approach exhibited by many in Mozambique) and so we were able to leave site a little early today in hope that it would arrive the following day.
We were lucky enough to get a lift back to Mango Beach in Gary’s pick up truck – or so we thought. Half way up the ‘sand dune of doom’, an arduous part of the walk back from site (well, we are usually quite tired by this point in the day), Gary’s truck (with trailer in tow) got stuck half way up the slope. We all disembarked and ended up pushing the truck and trailer separately to the top. This proved to be an effective exercise in team working, even though it involved a slightly larger expenditure of energy than we had expected.
The day finished with a swim at the beach, although a number of small stinging animals, possibly some kind of plankton or jellyfish, brought a premature end to the swimming activities for some, whilst others managed to find a sting-free area in the shallows to swim and practice their snorkelling.
A magnificent slap-up meal ended the day and tired again, most people left for bed quite early.
Day 10 – “A Walk on the Wild Side”
Took a bit of a detour into work today – via Tofo and Tofinho – in an overcrowded bakkie: three people standing down the centre holding onto one anothers’ shoulders and 12 others perched around the edges. Might be good practice for those budding surfers amongst us but almost certainly contravenes Scott Wilson’s Health & Safety regulations!
Breakfast was ready when we arrived – cold omelette, fried banana and bread. Got ourselves fuelled up for a tough morning of mixing concrete (by hand) for the ringbeam, digging the trench for one dividing wall and building up the height for the foundations of two internal walls that had been started yesterday.
We had a rather depleted team today – we left Andy and Fotini at Mango Beach for the day as they were not feeling well and Neville and David left with Gary not long after breakfast so that Neville could try his luck at the airport once again (in search of his errant bag) and David went to sample the Mozambican health services at Inhambane Hospital.
A load of fine stones had been delivered before we arrived in the morning and a load of sand was delivered mid-morning to allow us to get on with mixing concrete and mortar.
Enjoyed a fish-free lunch of mieliepap (stiff maize meal) and chicken in sauce.
Finished off concreting most of the ringbeam and blockwork but short of 6 bricks.
We completed all our tasks for the day by 4pm and someone had the idea to walk through the swamp as many of the locals appear to do. Much of the swamp had been burnt earlier in the day, presumably clearing for cultivation. While this meant that the snakes were likely to have moved out to higher ground, it also meant that any remaining in the swamp were likely to have been more than a little irritated. Fortunately we did not encounter any (visible) beasties on the way despite having to remove our boots to wade knee-deep in places through the brackish water. Needless to say, we have decided not to take that route home from work again….
Day 11 – Thursday 15th May
No ride to work today. After a brisk walk we enjoyed a breakfast of scrambled egg, some deep fried crispy thingies, tomatoes and onions, and not forgetting the usual bread roll with jam.
The weather was a bit cooler today but a few people thought it was the hottest day so far. The only explanation for this anomaly is the amount of work and therefore physical exertion we put in, in particular shifting tonnes and tonnes of sand.
After a small amount of concreting and block work, foundation walls and ring beam were completed and it was then time to fill the spaces between with sand which we excavated from a borrow pit to the south of the school (this pit has since been earmarked for a possible septic tank location for latrines….makes sense). Estimates vary but given the school footprint is 175m2 and we imported, spread and compacted an average depth of say 200mm of sand over the whole area, well you can work out the rest.
We were down on numbers again today; Libby was not feeling good and stayed back at Mango beach to rest, and Foetini was sill struggling a bit after yesterday.
Lunch was crab and bean stew with rice, and oranges for afters.
Everyone put in a really mammoth effort today and the fill was placed by mid afternoon. We were promised a delivery of coral sand to put over the sand as a capping layer but that didn’t transpire so once we had tidied up the site we headed back to Mango Beach at about 15:30. By this time Mike and Andy had become involved in a game of football with some of the children from which we had to drag them away. Let’s hope those deliveries arrive early tomorrow or we may be twiddling the thumbs a bit!!
Day 12 – ‘Compaction’
We started the day with 30 min walk to the site.
Usually the walk in the morning makes us feel more tired because of the heat.
Breakfast as usual around 8.15.
Team were divided in three. Our morning task was completion of backfill followed by reinforcement placing at the afternoon.
First team was busy with excavation material from borrow pit and caring the sand to areas under the ground slab.
Team two - levelling
Team three - compaction
It is very hard work and compaction took as almost the whole morning.
An hour before lunch new delivery of coral stone arrived.
After the break we continued with levelling and compaction of the coral stone.
Late afternoon reinforcement works started – cutting and placing steel bars and fixing it with wire.
The day finished at 16.30 with walk back to the Tofo Beach.
Very good team performing during the whole day.
Day 13 – 17thMay 2008
Today we arrived on site with the warm glow of knowing we had only half a day’s work to do before “breaking up” for the weekend! After a filling breakfast of eggs, tasty fried crispy things and the usual bread etc., we filed out ready to get stuck in.
Initially we were given three tasks to complete over the course of the morning – continue laying steel lengths to strengthen the floor slab; investigate the possibility of building a bridge over the marsh adjacent to the school; check the levels of the floor in one of the classrooms, and put up the shuttering for the floor slab.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite to plan. We very quickly ran out of steel, leaving a few of us pretty redundant. The marsh bridge investigations and floor level checking were completed quickly, leaving those who had done them also redundant, and there were a few hiccups in putting up the shuttering… in short, in the main we sat around most of the morning feeling frustrated that there wasn’t much we could do!
On the plus side, a group of local children kept us well entertained with singing, drumming and dancing. In return a couple of SW employees (no name dropping!) treated a group of rather startled children to some “Saturday Night Fever” style moves!
After a lunch of rice and matapa we finished on site and travelled to Inhanbane, the local town. Finally the opportunity to write emails, go to the bank, and a bit of market shopping! Then back to Tofo for dinner and a few drinks – a positive end to a day that started in frustration!
The first weekend of May was a final opportunity for our first intrepid group of volunteers to do some last minute preparations and say goodbye to family and friends before embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.
Eleven of us gathered at Heathrow on Sunday afternoon and checked in for the 5pm flight to Johannesburg via Dubai. We picked David up in Dubai, met Petrina in Johannesburg, and then boarded the final flight to Inhambane. At this point David emerged as the official group photographer, taking a great shot of the team ready to board the flight, on a 20-seat aircraft.
We arrived in Inhambane more or less on schedule, and were welcomed by sunshine, palm trees, and some airport officials enjoying a beer on a table next to the small runway outside the terminal building, which consisted of a single room where we bought our visas. There we met Chris and Charlie from Quest, and the team was completed by Mattias, who had come by bus from the Mozambican capital, Maputo.
Everything was going smoothly until we realized that one of our bags had gone missing. Neville’s bag had disappeared between Johannesburg and Inhambane, which was doubly disappointing as it had made it safely all the way from Heathrow and we checked everything in again for the short final flight. Bad news, but hopefully it will turn up soon, and in the mean time the team will pull together to share essential everyday stuff with the big man.
Next we jumped in a minibus and drove to Tofo, the closest town to where we would be working. On the journey the realization finally sunk in – we had really arrived in Africa! Grass huts, ladies carrying huge buckets on their heads with no hands, bumpy dirt track roads, smiling children waving as we passed; amazing colours, sights, smells and sounds everywhere welcoming us to Inhambane Province, known as ‘terra da boa gente’ or ‘land of the good people’.
Tofo beach was full of children on the streets, very friendly and selling bracelets. One kid, named ‘Johnny Cash’ was particularly persistent, making us promise to remember him next time we come to the beach.
Next stop was Mango Beach, where we would be staying for the next four weeks. The lodge, run by a South African couple with three young children and five dogs, is set on the first sand dune from the Indian Ocean. The bar has great views of the sea on one side and sunset over the palm trees on the other.
Our first dinner (we’ll be eating at Mango Beach most nights) was prawns with rice and salad – delicious seafood is something we’ll be experiencing a lot of out here! Dinner was followed by a briefing from Chris, including working hours (7am - 4.30pm each day) and general tips on working on site, responsible tourism etc.
Chris also told us that there is a local custom of consulting the ancestors before any construction project can begin. We just missed this ritual, which involved copious amounts of palm wine (made by removing a young coconut from a tree and replacing it with a plastic bottle which collects the coconut milk, then allowing it to ferment for a few days) and saw two of the village elders face down in the sand within half an hour of drinking! Unfortunately the Ministry of Construction representatives had failed to make it to the ceremony (their car broke down on the way to the site), so we would have to wait for them the following day to gain their approval for the project.
After the briefing it was an early night for most, exhausted from our long journey and ready for a very early start on Tuesday.
Day 2 Tues 6/5/08 – High Five
After an early night (for most), we were up bright and early and couldn’t wait to get started on site. With the representatives from the Department of Construction due to arrive at 10am, this would give us plenty of time to familiarize ourselves with the site and ease into our first day’s work.
It wasn’t long before the first bit of drama – Andy was taking something out of his bag when he felt a sharp pain in his finger. Much to everyone’s surprise, it was actually a scorpion that had crawled into his bag during the night. Just a small one at 2 centimetres long, but these suckers pack a punch. Welcome to Africa!
At 6.30am we piled into the back of a van driven by Gary, the contractor for the project. He’s from London, but has been living in Mozambique for a few years and is very well connected. He has put together a team of local labourers who we’ll be working with on a daily basis, and negotiated a good deal with Antonio, the local supplier of building materials. Because of the nature of our project, Antonio has assured us that we’ll be given priority when materials are required.
When we arrived we were made to feel very welcome by Juliao, the school director. He insisted that we use one of the existing classrooms (the only one with desks) for breakfast, which was cooked by a very friendly man called Fernando. He’s an experienced chef who always cooks and serves food wearing a father Christmas hat! We are told that Mozambicans relish the opportunity for a bit of public speaking, and this was no exception. Fernando gave a speech about how happy he was to have us there, and how he hoped to please our tastes with his breakfasts. He was true to his word, serving up a delicious omellette with bread and coleslaw.
Unsurprisingly, the officials weren’t quite on time. There was a little frustration as we couldn’t start working until everything was approved and we were given the green light. However, this provided an opportunity to get to know the school children. They were full of life, all inquisitive and happy to see us. A flurry of high fives and greetings ensued, and one boy was particularly cordial, shaking each of our hands several times. He’s sure to be the village chief one day!
The officials eventually arrived at 1pm, much to our relief. Discussions lasted around half an hour, with the main man surrounded by an entourage of four or five technical advisors. After heated negotiations, the outcome was that we would have to stick exactly to the prescribed plans (Juliao would have liked to have a third classroom and smaller office), and that the school would have to be rotated by 180 degrees! Fortunately this wouldn’t effect the already dug foundations. Chris was also interviewed for the local radio station – we’re famous!
Following a lunch of rice and chicken feet (!), we finally got to work. Activities included further excavation for the foundations and placing a layer of rocks to act as the base of the foundations. Sergio gave us a quick lesson in coconut cutting using a machete – it’s not as easy as it looks, watch your fingers!
After all this time it was good to be finally on site and we all headed back to the lodge for a nice meal. It had been a relatively slow start, but with the official business out of the way we knew we’d be able to get fully stuck in on Wednesday.
The evening was spent in high spirits, with a bit of bat spotting (courtesy of Zoe and her detector) and some serenading of Dave as part of his birthday celebrations. We learned the Portuguese version of Happy Birthday, and finished the night with a round of ‘suitcases’.
Day 3 : The African way…
The Alarm clock seemed to come much sooner this morning, we were getting a lift to site though, this was a health and safety manager’s nightmare, 20 people and day sacks in the back of a pick-up, or ‘backie’ as they are referred to here. There were extra people with us today as the Quest underseas team were spending some time with the school children as part of their community involvement activities.
Breakfast when we reached site wasn’t quite weetabix! Squid and octopus with fried eggs and roll with jam….. interesting combination.
Gary the builder was otherwise occupied this morning so we were left to get on with working with the local labourers, we found the language barrier difficult today, the foreman seemed to be wanting to do things differently to what Gary had explained the day before. We continued to prepare the trenches for the foundations, digging out the sand, placing a layer of rocks in the bottom, wetting it all down and pounding the rocks into the wet sand.
Lunch was another culinary experience, with crab and matapa sauce, a combination of coconut milk, peanut and a local spinach type leaf.
During the day we were amazed by a huge number of locals passing the site, to which we later found out was to a funeral, people come from miles around, walking and on pick-up trucks.
A sand delivery in the afternoon was brought to a different side of the site to be closer to the concrete mixing pit and sunk in the soft sand off the main track. Deliveries are made on small flat bed trucks, anything larger wouldn’t make it on the soft roads (and you would have to go to SA for parts for them).
Most of the work today consists of one team moving a huge pile of stones for the concrete from one side of the site to the other. Another team set up nets and corner posts for the school football pitch and cleared the ground.
Cladding is started on the store building, the main structure is round-wood and leaf spines from palm trees and clad with woven palm leaves.
After a sunset swim, chatting back at Mango Beach we agree that the locals seem to love making sure we are well looked after.
Day 4: Mixing it up!
The second potentially venomous creature of the week was spotted at dawn when Mattias awoke to find something long and slithery meandering across the table in his room. All the evidence points toward the Mozambique Spitting Cobra, which some people may recognize from David Attenborough’s most recent series. However, having started to settle into Africa mode, nobody seems to be fazed.
Breakfast, prepared by a man in a Christmas hat, consisted of Manioc, a root vegetable and staple food in the area, and boiled eggs. We are also lucky enough to be provided with tea and coffee, and condensed milk before starting work on site.
Today was a day of seriously hard labour, with most of the day spent mixing concrete for the foundations. There is a feeling that for the project to be completed on time, there may be the need to obtain a cement mixer. However, Chris’s preliminary research suggests that there is only one functioning mixer in the region, and having made enquiries it is unlikely that we going to get our hands on it. This said, the team has started to perform well, and despite the vast amounts of concrete that will need mixing, we’re confident that the team will provide!
At break time we introduced the Frisbee and juggling balls to the children. In the screaming, laughing and general chaos that ensued, one ball mysteriously disappeared. Lunch provided by local women comprised rice and fish. This was followed by a serving of cashew fruit, which is abundant in the region. This strange orangey yellow fruit which feels wet upon the first taste, has a strange drying sensation after swallowing, and is best served with sugar, although some prefer to dip it in salt.
Today was the first day in which we started to bond well with the local labourers, and this has been greatly aided through our one to one language exchange initiatives on site. At the end of a productive day, we had mixed enough concrete to form the foundations on the west wing of the school.
We set off home, for the first time on foot, which is something that we will have to get used to as lifts to work are likely to become much less frequent. Despite a tiring day on site, the 2km walk down sandy tracks around the swamp provided a pleasant but tiring end to the day. As we walked home the setting sun painted a beautiful picture behind the palm trees. We arrived home for a quick dip in the ocean, and were treated to a lovely seafood paella before retiring to bed.
Day 5 – ‘Bricking it’
On day five we were welcomed by a gorgeous breakfast of crispy fried prawn cakes. Unfortunately this didn’t go down so well with all team members who weren’t feeling so well from a diet of fish, fish and more fish over the past few days! Following breakfast the group was split into three teams. Two teams of five and one team of four. One group had the task of constructing a new concrete mixing pit, as the first one had been broken up by the previous four days of mixing. The second group were assigned to determining the levels for the earth below the floor slab and levelling off the sand to this level. The third group were to mix new concrete batches to finish off the foundations for the remaining few columns.
Each of the three tasks didn’t go exactly to plan as the small stones required for the concrete in the foundations was running low and we were waiting for a new delivery that morning. The priority was therefore given to the group finishing off the last few column foundations and the group constructing the new pit had to wait for the delivery of stones to finish of the concrete in the base of the pit.
The group levelling off the sand in the centre of the building worked hard and finished their task by lunchtime.
Lunch was a choice of two local dishes which were both very tasty. Fish of course. After lunch Mike and Andy cause chaos chasing all the kids round the school making them really excited J After lunch we had a delivery of cement and more stones so most of the groups joined forces to mix concrete for both the pit, the columns, and the rests of the foundations.
Tensions grew between the local Mozambican workers and the volunteers because we were concentrating trying to finish the mixing pit so it could set over the weekend but they wanted to try and get the foundations completed. It wasn’t so bad though, and one of the workers even liked us so much to propose to one of the girls. No names mentioned… but we can confirm that she said yes. Haha.
Later on in the afternoon half the foundations were completed and all off the columns so we started on the first few layers of block work. This was great to see as finally we could start to see the school being built above ground level, and progress on the block was really quick. By the end of the day over half of the block work was completed. We all went home really satisfied with all the hard work we had put in that day.
Day 6 – ‘Hooray for the weekend’
On day five we split into 3 teams again. Only half day on site today. 2 teams were mixing concrete (for a change), alternating with ferrying the aforesaid concrete for use in foundations. Completed concrete base for foundations on 1st short side and part way along 2nd long side.
Local workman were still building temporary hut to store cement. Richard and Mike were asked to help fixing palm fronds to waterproof the roof, but were asked to ‘vamoose’ when they discovered their inaptitude for the extreme gymnastics required to balance on the roof whilst actually working. One team also did manage to help on the hut, with a number of team members being let loose with a machete to make and fix ‘lakka-lakka’ onto the roof.
Sterling work was also done in fixing buckets, the lack of which had caused severe delays on the transportation of concrete. One of the local workers, Jacinto, learned his first English word, which was, unsurprisingly ‘bucket’.
Finished work around noon today, rounded off by rice and matapa; the novelty is rapidly starting to wear off. Had lift home on pickup; Andy was hit by a tree, but as it was to his head, he sustained no serious injury.
Had a laid-back afternoon, with most people spending time in the Mango Beach Bar or on the beach. Tried to go swimming, but the sea had run away past the reef, which was a bit too sharp to walk over. Some went into Tofo to have a look at market and shops.
The day was rounded off by a trip to Dino’s Bar, where pizzas (real food!!) were enjoyed by everybody. The walk along the beach was remarkable for the thousands of ‘ghost crabs’ that scurry across the beach on a night, running out of the paths of torches as we approached. They have a translucent-white appearance, which explains their name, particularly in the near dark. Most left the bar at the ridiculously late hour of 10:00, but some stalwarts, including Andy, Mike, Fotini and Charlie, propped up the bar ‘til the early hours of the morning, with no apparent after-effects.
Day 7 Sunday 11th
Breakfast had been bought by Ian from the Quest underseas team when he was in the village yesterday so we had fresh bread and bananas instead of our usual site breakfast this morning.
Most of us were keen to go on the Whale Safari with Diversity Scuba today, we had a leisurely morning and got a lift into Tofo to go snorkelling about 11. This is getting close to the end of Whale Shark season so we were not sure how successful the snorkelling would be. The excitement started with us trying to get the boat into the water, at the end of a snorkel or scuba trip the boat is beached so we had to push the boat around and out into the surf before clambering aboard very ungracefully.
The boat took us out of the bay past a reef to open water and stopped to allow us to kit up with flipper and masks ready to hit the water as soon as something was spotted. We cruised up and down the coast like you would cut grass in strips watching out for activity. The spotted and skipper had a difficult job today as it was slightly overcast, making it difficult to spot the silhouettes against the sand bottom. During the trip we spotted two devil rays, closely followed by a pod of dolphins, we got in the water to swim with the dolphins, but they headed to the bottom when we got in, so this was a distant view. Next we spotted a huge manta ray, which swam under the boat when we stopped beside it. We were heading back to the beach, thinking the trip was over when we spotted a whale shark close to the reef guarding the bay. At the skippers instruction we all slipped into the surf quietly and swam alongside the largest fish in the sea for some time. This was a relative tiddler at 5m long, they can easily grow more than twice this length, but was an exhilarating swim, following the shark as it cruised along. We all landed back on the beach with a bump happy and excited, and agreeing that was a morning well spent.
Lunch was provided at Diversity Scuba and then we either indulged ourselves watching some of the football from the last day of the season, or walked around the market in Tofo before walking back to Mango Beach for our evening meal as usual.
Day 8 Monday 12th
Usual early start and walked to school in time to witness the flag raising ceremony. The national anthem lasts over 4 minutes and the flag is run up the pole at a corresponding speed.
Following Chris’s suggestion to father Christmas that salad had no nutritional value breakfast was accompanied by a strange packet of crisps.
Finally a cement mixer arrived and although it hadn’t worked since Christmas it fired up ok and worked all day long to the relief of the crew and good progress was made on the footings. We were ‘allowed’ to lay some blocks around the base.
100 bags of cement arrived to be unloaded into the still unfinished hut; there were some very dirty members as half the bags were obtained at a bargain price being damaged.
Dinner consisted of bread crumb coated chicken legs (the renowned ‘Frango Mango’) plus the usual rice, avocado salad and green salad, just right for pumping calories back in. Not sure many stayed up late after a tiring day.
Day 9 - ‘The Power of Love Moves Buckets’
A brisk early morning walk to site (6.30am) was followed by Father Christmas’s fantastically unusual breakfast of coleslaw, hard-boiled eggs and sweet potato with bread and jam – yummy!
A very productive day unfolded as we started preparing the foundations for the internal classroom walls and finished constructing the shuttering for two sides of the ring-beam. All in all we made up and moved huge amounts of concrete and mortar. We also succeeded in digging up the troublesome palm tree from the corner of the plot and rolled it safely off the foundations.
New shiny metal buckets also arrived, which doesn’t sound like much to the average person in the UK, but it was a joyous occasion on site since we had been using plastic buckets that had been repaired on multiple occasions prior to the arrival of the new buckets.
Lunch was fishy spaghetti – a welcome change from the usual fish / crab matapa and rice meals. However, it was quite a slimy meal and a little hard for some to stomach.
One of the Mozambiquan labour force was feeling like he had built a good relationship with us and suggested that the ‘Power of Love’ was what was moving all the buckets of concrete.
A stone delivery that was supposed to arrive early this morning didn’t come all day (an example of the typical laid-back approach exhibited by many in Mozambique) and so we were able to leave site a little early today in hope that it would arrive the following day.
We were lucky enough to get a lift back to Mango Beach in Gary’s pick up truck – or so we thought. Half way up the ‘sand dune of doom’, an arduous part of the walk back from site (well, we are usually quite tired by this point in the day), Gary’s truck (with trailer in tow) got stuck half way up the slope. We all disembarked and ended up pushing the truck and trailer separately to the top. This proved to be an effective exercise in team working, even though it involved a slightly larger expenditure of energy than we had expected.
The day finished with a swim at the beach, although a number of small stinging animals, possibly some kind of plankton or jellyfish, brought a premature end to the swimming activities for some, whilst others managed to find a sting-free area in the shallows to swim and practice their snorkelling.
A magnificent slap-up meal ended the day and tired again, most people left for bed quite early.
Day 10 – “A Walk on the Wild Side”
Took a bit of a detour into work today – via Tofo and Tofinho – in an overcrowded bakkie: three people standing down the centre holding onto one anothers’ shoulders and 12 others perched around the edges. Might be good practice for those budding surfers amongst us but almost certainly contravenes Scott Wilson’s Health & Safety regulations!
Breakfast was ready when we arrived – cold omelette, fried banana and bread. Got ourselves fuelled up for a tough morning of mixing concrete (by hand) for the ringbeam, digging the trench for one dividing wall and building up the height for the foundations of two internal walls that had been started yesterday.
We had a rather depleted team today – we left Andy and Fotini at Mango Beach for the day as they were not feeling well and Neville and David left with Gary not long after breakfast so that Neville could try his luck at the airport once again (in search of his errant bag) and David went to sample the Mozambican health services at Inhambane Hospital.
A load of fine stones had been delivered before we arrived in the morning and a load of sand was delivered mid-morning to allow us to get on with mixing concrete and mortar.
Enjoyed a fish-free lunch of mieliepap (stiff maize meal) and chicken in sauce.
Finished off concreting most of the ringbeam and blockwork but short of 6 bricks.
We completed all our tasks for the day by 4pm and someone had the idea to walk through the swamp as many of the locals appear to do. Much of the swamp had been burnt earlier in the day, presumably clearing for cultivation. While this meant that the snakes were likely to have moved out to higher ground, it also meant that any remaining in the swamp were likely to have been more than a little irritated. Fortunately we did not encounter any (visible) beasties on the way despite having to remove our boots to wade knee-deep in places through the brackish water. Needless to say, we have decided not to take that route home from work again….
Day 11 – Thursday 15th May
No ride to work today. After a brisk walk we enjoyed a breakfast of scrambled egg, some deep fried crispy thingies, tomatoes and onions, and not forgetting the usual bread roll with jam.
The weather was a bit cooler today but a few people thought it was the hottest day so far. The only explanation for this anomaly is the amount of work and therefore physical exertion we put in, in particular shifting tonnes and tonnes of sand.
After a small amount of concreting and block work, foundation walls and ring beam were completed and it was then time to fill the spaces between with sand which we excavated from a borrow pit to the south of the school (this pit has since been earmarked for a possible septic tank location for latrines….makes sense). Estimates vary but given the school footprint is 175m2 and we imported, spread and compacted an average depth of say 200mm of sand over the whole area, well you can work out the rest.
We were down on numbers again today; Libby was not feeling good and stayed back at Mango beach to rest, and Foetini was sill struggling a bit after yesterday.
Lunch was crab and bean stew with rice, and oranges for afters.
Everyone put in a really mammoth effort today and the fill was placed by mid afternoon. We were promised a delivery of coral sand to put over the sand as a capping layer but that didn’t transpire so once we had tidied up the site we headed back to Mango Beach at about 15:30. By this time Mike and Andy had become involved in a game of football with some of the children from which we had to drag them away. Let’s hope those deliveries arrive early tomorrow or we may be twiddling the thumbs a bit!!
Day 12 – ‘Compaction’
We started the day with 30 min walk to the site.
Usually the walk in the morning makes us feel more tired because of the heat.
Breakfast as usual around 8.15.
Team were divided in three. Our morning task was completion of backfill followed by reinforcement placing at the afternoon.
First team was busy with excavation material from borrow pit and caring the sand to areas under the ground slab.
Team two - levelling
Team three - compaction
It is very hard work and compaction took as almost the whole morning.
An hour before lunch new delivery of coral stone arrived.
After the break we continued with levelling and compaction of the coral stone.
Late afternoon reinforcement works started – cutting and placing steel bars and fixing it with wire.
The day finished at 16.30 with walk back to the Tofo Beach.
Very good team performing during the whole day.
Day 13 – 17thMay 2008
Today we arrived on site with the warm glow of knowing we had only half a day’s work to do before “breaking up” for the weekend! After a filling breakfast of eggs, tasty fried crispy things and the usual bread etc., we filed out ready to get stuck in.
Initially we were given three tasks to complete over the course of the morning – continue laying steel lengths to strengthen the floor slab; investigate the possibility of building a bridge over the marsh adjacent to the school; check the levels of the floor in one of the classrooms, and put up the shuttering for the floor slab.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite to plan. We very quickly ran out of steel, leaving a few of us pretty redundant. The marsh bridge investigations and floor level checking were completed quickly, leaving those who had done them also redundant, and there were a few hiccups in putting up the shuttering… in short, in the main we sat around most of the morning feeling frustrated that there wasn’t much we could do!
On the plus side, a group of local children kept us well entertained with singing, drumming and dancing. In return a couple of SW employees (no name dropping!) treated a group of rather startled children to some “Saturday Night Fever” style moves!
After a lunch of rice and matapa we finished on site and travelled to Inhanbane, the local town. Finally the opportunity to write emails, go to the bank, and a bit of market shopping! Then back to Tofo for dinner and a few drinks – a positive end to a day that started in frustration!
Thursday 15 May 2008
Week 1: The Volunteers Have Landed...
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Unfortunately we have not received the 'diary logs' yet from the volunteers, these we will be posted when we receive them. However, a summary of the volunteers activities during the first week is below.
On last Sunday the first set of volunteers arrived in Inhambane airport (a small runway with a single room terminal building), they were greeted by palm trees and blazing sunshine. They had one evening to relax and get their bearings, and the next morning they were on site at the crack of dawn to begin construction of the school.
The opening week has involved laying foundations; both for the school and with the community. The school, located in a small village called Phembane, is run by a director named Juliao and some part-time teachers. Lessons currently take place in three grass huts next to the site, and the building they are constructing will deliver a dramatic improvement to their facilities.
The volunteers have been working alongside a team of skilled builders, picking up useful skills as well as learning some important Portuguese phrases including ‘pass the bucket’, ‘more cement’, and ‘will you marry me?’.
The days on site have been physically demanding, beginning at 7am every day and finishing at 4.30 – just in time for sunset. They’re working five and a half days a week, with a half day on Saturday. In many ways the first week has been tough, with everybody adjusting to the climate, the local food and the physical work itself.
So far their main tasks have been excavation and mixing concrete (all by hand), and helping to build a grass hut for storage of materials. They have also begun laying block work and steel for the reinforced concrete columns, and built a football pitch while waiting for a delivery of materials.
Meeting the children has been an incredible experience. They are very well behaved, full of life, and always interested in what the volunteers are up to. They love high fives and shaking hands, and laugh at efforts to communicate in Portuguese and Bitonga (the local tribal language).
The volunteer’s diet consists of eating lots of rice (important for energy levels) and fish of every variety. The breakfast is prepared on site by a jolly man called Fernando who wears a Santa hat, and lunch is cooked by three local ladies (authentic African grub which has included chickens feet!).
On their first full day off most volunteers went snorkeling. They saw dolphins, a manta ray, devil rays and a whale shark (the largest fish in the sea!). Although a mere tiddler at 5 metres in length, they described swimming alongside this creature was ‘breathtaking’.
More news next week!
On last Sunday the first set of volunteers arrived in Inhambane airport (a small runway with a single room terminal building), they were greeted by palm trees and blazing sunshine. They had one evening to relax and get their bearings, and the next morning they were on site at the crack of dawn to begin construction of the school.
The opening week has involved laying foundations; both for the school and with the community. The school, located in a small village called Phembane, is run by a director named Juliao and some part-time teachers. Lessons currently take place in three grass huts next to the site, and the building they are constructing will deliver a dramatic improvement to their facilities.
The volunteers have been working alongside a team of skilled builders, picking up useful skills as well as learning some important Portuguese phrases including ‘pass the bucket’, ‘more cement’, and ‘will you marry me?’.
The days on site have been physically demanding, beginning at 7am every day and finishing at 4.30 – just in time for sunset. They’re working five and a half days a week, with a half day on Saturday. In many ways the first week has been tough, with everybody adjusting to the climate, the local food and the physical work itself.
So far their main tasks have been excavation and mixing concrete (all by hand), and helping to build a grass hut for storage of materials. They have also begun laying block work and steel for the reinforced concrete columns, and built a football pitch while waiting for a delivery of materials.
Meeting the children has been an incredible experience. They are very well behaved, full of life, and always interested in what the volunteers are up to. They love high fives and shaking hands, and laugh at efforts to communicate in Portuguese and Bitonga (the local tribal language).
The volunteer’s diet consists of eating lots of rice (important for energy levels) and fish of every variety. The breakfast is prepared on site by a jolly man called Fernando who wears a Santa hat, and lunch is cooked by three local ladies (authentic African grub which has included chickens feet!).
On their first full day off most volunteers went snorkeling. They saw dolphins, a manta ray, devil rays and a whale shark (the largest fish in the sea!). Although a mere tiddler at 5 metres in length, they described swimming alongside this creature was ‘breathtaking’.
More news next week!
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