Scott Wilson Millennium Schools Project

The Official Handover

2008-09-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

Monday 18th August – The Calm Before the Storm

The school had been a hive of activity all day prior to the opening. Though the actual building was complete there was a large amount of minor aesthetic jobs to be done including cleaning the excess silicon and paint off the windows, complete the sanding of the desks, washing the classroom floors, watering the new fenced grass area around the school and generally cleaning up the school. The motifs on the gable ends of the school were also finished today.

We were joined at the school by some special guests that day in the form of Mike’s mum and brother and one of the co-founders of QUEST, Mike Amphletts. There was an air of excitement all day which could not even be dampened by one or two short rain showers. The rain showers prompted a mass desk moving operation as the un-varnished desks were outside and could have been easily damaged by water. Cue the school kids who all dived in, grab desks and moved them inside. Those kids are surprisingly strong, more than one was found carrying/wearing a desk all by themselves!!

The day finished with the school mostly prepared and with just the desks to be arranged, the blackboards to be erected and the name plaques to be secured.

Tuesday 19th August – The Official Handover

The day dawned bright and clear which bode well for the opening ceremony. The small team who came out for the opening were on site early to put the final touches to the school. The plaques were screwed on to each of the classroom walls, one commemorating (in Portuguese and English) the contribution to the Millennium Project of Stephen Kimmett and the other paying homage to the family generous enough to donate the land for the school. The final plaque, positioned next to the school director’s office, explained how the school had been funded and the contribution that all the volunteers made during the construction.

‘This school was constructed by international volunteers from Scott Wilson working alongside Mozambique craftsmen. The construction was funded by the Scott Wilson Millennium Project in 2008’.

With this, a number of other jobs were finished including moving in the teachers desks, cupboards, shelves and staff table; as well as stocking the library with the 200 new books. After completing these tasks it was time to change out of our scruffy clothes to await the arrival of the dignitaries and for the official opening ceremony to begin. The school looked amazing with its palm leaf arches, hanging bunting, balloons and carefully laid petals in the classrooms.

At about 10:30am the first of the official cars arrived carrying some of the administrative staff who were there to coordinate the proceedings. However, the first impression they made was not a good one. The vehicle they arrived in managed to drive over some glass bottles and spread broken glass around one of the old classrooms. Bearing in mind few of the children wear shoes this was not felt to be a particularly good start, especially considering the officials complete indifference to what they had done. Still, if that was the only problem of the day it would be considered a complete success!

The admin staff went about arranging formalities for the opening. Straw mats were laid out in front of one of the classrooms, a ceremonial ribbon was hung across one of the doors and tables and chairs were readied in the shade for the crowds.

Just before 11am the children all gathered at one end of the school and began to sing in unison (well just about anyway)! It was an amazing sight to see and hear them. This seemed to herald the arrival of the big-wigs from the Mozambique Education Authority (among other agencies) and right on cue two very luxurious 4x4’s arrived at the school carrying the officials and a surprising number of people in their entourage, including reporters from national TV and local radio.

Once the officials had arrived and been introduced to everyone (imagine the Queen wandering down a line of people shaking their hands and that’s about right), the opening ceremony could begin.

The first item for the day was the blessing of the school, and offerings to the ancestors, by one of the village elders who was also a member of the family that donated the land. For this blessing all the officials sat on the straw mats outside the classroom and listened in respectful silence to the elder. His speech was a very animated affair with arms flailing, eyes rolling and even a bit of flying spittle. It concluded with the elder tipping some coconut wine on the ground in reverence of the village ancestors, smoking a cigarette and then eating some bread. Sadly much of this ceremony was lost on us as we had no one to translate the Bitonga dialect used by the community.

After this very dramatic blessing we all gathered round a classroom and witnessed one of the officials (the Provincial Director) ceremonially cutting the ribbon and declaring the school open. This was accompanied by a small drop of champagne and a tour around the new facilities.

After the tour the whole school project team, the officials, guests, teachers, children, elders, mothers and everyone else who was about gathered outside the new building for the beginning of the speeches. These were started off by Robert, one of the teachers at the school, followed by a community elder, and then by our very own John Nutt, CEO of International division, who had also come out for the opening. His speech explained a little about the background of the charity and road to taking on the project. He also thanked all those involved including QUEST and the volunteers and finished by explaining our commitment to the future of the school. During John’s speech we also officially handed over the books for the schools library and surprised Juliao (the school director) with a new bike to shorten his 2 hour walk to the school everyday. At least, we tried to surprise him but the element was slightly removed when Juliao spotted the bike the previous day! Still he seemed very happy with both the books and the bike which was the main thing.

The speeches were interspersed with a selection of the children singing songs, some of which were written for the day, singing about their new school.

The next person to make a speech was one of the main officials. As far as we could work out from the translation this involved telling the kids to look after their school and that any kids found writing on the walls would be ‘appropriately punished’. We just hope that something of the meaning of this speech was lost in translation!

The last speech to be given was by the ever-baking Fernando who, it later turned out, had been cooking for nearly two days straight without a moments sleep to provide the food. His speech was a very heart felt affair, delivered in his full Santa Claus garb as is his way and concluded with the presentation of the cakes. And what cakes! One was a reconstruction of the entire school, another was his now famous swan and little signets, a third was, bizarrely, a Barbie doll (legs and all) stuck in to the top of a big cone cake which represented the children; along with several other smaller cakes (including a cake of sticks, representing the sticks the children used to collect and carry into school every morning to cook the volunteers breakfast and lunch). At the conclusion of his speech everyone clapped their hearts out and gorged themselves on the cakes.

Afterwards the kids were let into the classrooms for the first time and the noise they made was deafening. Mums came to look through the windows to see what was going on and found Mike giving an impromptu English lesson! Brilliant! Everyone wanted to join in; a number of mums even came into the classroom and started to dance.

Once the formalities were over the school team were treated to a delicious meal of mutapa, a volunteer favourite. This was swiftly followed by a some coconut wine and much playing (well…being dragged down, poked, hair platted, scaring, chasing…) with the kids. Later a challenge was thrown down by the gentlemen of the community (including inebriated elders) to play football. Needless to say the football was of the highest standard with some pin-point hoofing, exceptional off the ball sleeping and certainly no ‘shooting from absolutely anywhere’. The game ended in a highly controversial 1-1 draw, the controversy being that the scorer of the equaliser had literally just strayed on the pitch from nowhere and booted in the goal. Half of the players were in uproar while the rest were searching for more coconut wine.

The day finished all smiles and cheerfulness though. The school, looking absolutely magnificent, had been handed over with barely a hitch. We really got the impression that the children and community had really taken ownership of the school and it’s future. Huge praise was heaped on those involved and hopefully the benefits of everyone’s labours will be felt for many years to come.

I think the general feeling on leaving the school for the last time was one of genuine pride and amazement. Pride that it was built almost exactly as it was envisioned so long ago and amazement that it was built almost exactly as it was envisioned so long ago! So what’s next? If anyone has any bright ideas it could be you opening something in a couple of years time…
___________________________________________________________________
We want to hear from you…

The Scott Wilson Millennium Project is always interested to hear about new potential projects which will benefit children in countries where Scott Wilson has a permanent presence (outside the UK). Please contact millennium.project@scottwilson.com, to:
-Share your ideas, for possible inclusion in the 5-year commitment to the Phembane Community Primary School;
-Offer your ideas for new projects to support;
-Volunteer your time and services.

All Good Things.

2008-07-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

Friday 25th Continued…

Fernandos final words

Greeting us with a breakfast of cake (his wedding special), Fernando and Juliao had some final words (tearjerkers if ever there were) about their views of the SWMP / QUEST partnership and project.

Juliao began by citing his concerns about Fernando before the project began; ‘he is an old man, who suffers his illnesses of rheumatism and age, I was concerned that he would be unable to handle the long walk to work and three months of work. I am so glad he managed it and that he was so appreciated. I am sure that someone was watching over him to help’.

Juliao continued to talk about how much the school means for the area and how appreciative everyone in the village is for all the hard work and dedication it took to bring the final building together. He thanked us and said he would make his final speech on Monday when the kids are back.

Then Fernando took centre stage (dressed as always as the messenger of peace and love – Santa). He spoke very much from the heart and thanked everyone involved, spoke about the three cakes he had made (one for each team) and how much joy he got from working with the groups.

The most significant words were when he spoke about growing up in the colonial era in Mozambique and saying that in all his long life, he had never seen people with such love and such good will to help others. He had not realised that there was such good in the world, and to know this made him very happy.

After apologising that his baking methods and ingredients were not what we may be used to, and may not be to our tastes, he served up huge slabs of the most delicious cake. Definitely to everyone’s tastes, and made all the more poignant when we found he had been up until 2 in the morning baking and icing it. A cake made with dedication and love.

When you’re back in the Uk, if you can spare any funds to help us help Fernando pass on his knowledge and skills to future generations of Mozambicans, please do.

Contact Mike Pidgeon and Mark Eisenegger at the SWMP.

Saturday 26th July

Casa de Comer (The House of Eat)

Today saw the group (except Bea who was doing the final dive for her diving course) travel to Inhambane. About 10 people hired a dhow for an hour and had a very peaceful, calm and relaxing journey which took in, well not much really as we didn’t go very far, but it was very peaceful calm and relaxing! Just what we needed. Others qued for the bank machines and everyone managed to get another trip to the market in.

Lunch at Verdingoes was a welcome meat feast.

The afternoon consisted of preparing for the amazing food at Casa de Comer by going to the Tofo market, again. The main highlight of the evening was at Fatima’s bar where we experienced an famous local drumming group. The dancing was lead by the groups number one follower a 67 year old woman who had 11 children and who danced a the drums story.

Whilst most headed back for bed at a relatively reasonable hour others partied the night away, having breakfast in Said’s Bread Shack and then watching the sun rise, going to bed just before the main group headed off on Sunday morning.

Mark

Sunday 27th July

A MANTA OF A TIME

Rising early for 10am most of the group were able to see the stragglers from the night before returning to their nests to sleep. So were rudely awoken when they saw Chris H sand rolling followed by an extroverted morning swim.

Chris W, Nick, Bea and Mark were off diving Manta Reef today, a 25m dive. Others came into town for even more shopping (will you never stop Wendy!) and relaxing on the beach soaking up Tofo’s atmosphere.

Underwater Mark and Bea managed to miss the only manta ray their group saw during their dive because they were doing tasks for their deep dive qualifications. Whereas Nick and Chris, who had gone off together as they were a lot more experienced, manage to reel in the big fish – 6 manta rays circling them, a reef shark, 3 devil rays. Mark and Bea were not to be disappointed though when on the way back we spotted a juvenile whale shark (only 4m!!!) cruising the coast near tofo’s reef. Bea, Nick and Mark leapt into the water to swim within only a few metres of it. Within a few minutes we were exhausted, paddling away just to keep up with this giant. What an amazing experience.

The evening meal was a quiet one with people lost in their own thoughts and packing their pressies for the journey tomorrow.

Mark

School, Done.

2008-07-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 19th July 2008

HARD WORK, HARD PLAY

The team leader had a very ‘easy’ job, as people felt so motivated that they started working even before breakfast arrived (this has never happened before!).

Our work was concentrated on two main tasks: 1) Sanding and painting the admin rooms. 2) Fixing the purlins and putting up the zinc sheets on the roof. In the meantime, the local workers were working on the floor of the second classroom and helping with the roof.

Even though on Saturdays we usually work half day, due to the pressure of getting the project finished some people carried on working for another couple of hours.

In the evening, we all had dinner at Dino’s and enjoyed a great party – dancing skills were shown by many. The party went on until 4.30am, but only a few survived!

Sunday, 20 July 2008

OUR DAY OFF!

Most people decided to chill out in Tofo (the market and the beach).

Five of the group headed off for a horse riding trip. Martyn on Riverdancer had the party over the dunes and on to the beach. Accompanied by the stable dog they walked past Mango Beach through the surf towards Barra.

After about half an hour they veered off into the dunes to take an undulating track with a mixture of walking and sporadic trotting from Chris and Dick. From the dunes, they had an amazing view back to Mango and Tofo in the distance.

On the way back, they passed along the other side of the swamp and were rewarded by a different view of the school, a shining white beacon in amongst the palm trees.

Monday 21st July

LAST LEG

Monday morning dawned warm and blue as all of us less Jamie (the latest to succumb to Tofu belly) trekked thoughtfully to the site. This project really is turning into a cliff hanger. Will we really have it all finished by the end of the week? There still seems so much to do.

Breakfast was delayed so we bought forward the day briefing session. Stuart, the day leader roused the troops with his own personal and passionate take on why we are here and building so much more than just a school and why we are the team that can pull this off in the days remaining to us.

For the roof team the day kicked off backwards as quite a few roof sheets had to be taken up and the whole line of the roof realigned in order for the ridge pieces to work properly. This was mostly done by the local carpenters and the roof team busied them selves with joining the local workers knocking the snots off or otherwise known as snot knocking/ and even snogging as Stuart calls it!

Two painting teams were also flat out all day, with just a brief lull before lunch whilst waiting for fresh supplies. Some of them morphed into newly set up window teams who will support the window carpenters for as long as it takes. The latter have come with several family members to help and a power plane and saw , but in spite of this will be pushed to finish by Wednesday, There are loads of beads to be incorporated into the windows, all of which have to be made on site, cut to length and positioned very precisely and in some sections sat on silicon.

In the afternoon fresh supplies arrived with Gary including such goodies as Stanley blades, silicon plus, masking tape, other roller extension, window stays plus loads-o-paint-mate and oh, by the way all the inside walls are now going to be cream and the windows grey (what bureaucrat thought of that combination)!

The afternoon also welcomed onto the site Chris the camera man with his dinky HD camera. Working with Mark and Stuart he filmed all the activity and shot some 1-1 interviews with several volunteers.

The last few of the volunteers trekked home to gathering dusk and to find our usual path reduced to plank-width in one place by the women extending their plots onto the highway!

Tuesday 22nd July

Day 26 in the Mozambique hut, the David Healy worshiper was feeling a lot hotter than he looked!!…. So the Geordie boy took the reigns again a day early.

The day began with a mild confusion over the level of finishing work required, there was however lots and lots of painting to do. Some of the team were suffering after the previous efforts have begun to take their toll. Never the less everyone was upbeat after breakfast.

The classrooms were painted in cream, which was a very loose description. Overall the day was very productive and most of the window casements and beading was in place by the end of play.

On return thoughts were with Jamie again and apparently being ill is the best way to get all the ladies into your room. It’s unknown whether or not a “bed bath” is allowed under quest rules??? (Only kidding Ashleigh!!!)

Well that’s about all from me …..

PS

Hello Mum J Ian

Wednesday 23rd July

“Touching Up”

The day started with a lively briefing before starting the varied tasks of painting, painting or (if you fancied a change)…. Painting. The small rooms had to be painted with the final coat of “cream” (several weeks old cream perhaps). After a group discussion the term “learning beige” was stumbled upon and stuck. Some white “touching up” was also required which Sally and Dick got stuck into….

An early morning shower had us all cowering in the school under our lovely new roof whilst some of the local workers took the Micky out of their members of the roofing team when a few leaks became apparent. These were to be sorted out the following day when the roof was dry and a little less slippery.

The end of the day was rounded off with a game of Frisbee having a good time whilst trying to minimise the destruction of the local trees (Ian).

Thursday 24th July

“Which way do you face?”

Today there was a varied choice of tasks for the tired workers. The choice included painting in pink, white, grey or ‘learning beige’, and only Dick was excused to help Des in repairing the holes in the roof. An ingenious solution of very thin sticky tinfoil was employed, fingers crossed it will stand up to the job. The team also benefited from the arrival of four additional scaffolding ladders to help us ‘shorties’ reach the top of the windows, although this was not such a problem for Jamie who returned to site today after his ‘sick leave’. The glass also arrived on site today and with the carpentry teams working hard to fit it, by the end of the day nearly half of the building was complete.

Chocolate on the ‘space mat’ after lunch set some of us up for a busy afternoon’s painting although we were all slightly confused by a comment from Bea regarding which way we face in the site toilet?!? I wasn’t aware there was more than one option!

The afternoon session involved more painting with Chris, Stuart, Nick and Dick doing a sterling job on the grey gloss. It was hard work especially when the veranda was screeded outside of classroom one making it impossible to get in and out. At one point Chris had to the long jump to get out, and then later in the day build a bridge from site debris to retrieve his hat in an Indiana Jones style. I think a few arms will have to be twisted to get them more help tomorrow.

Great work from all team members ensured a really successful day on site. Only one day of work to go - I think we’re going to do it !

Friday 25th July

‘The Day of Reckoning…….’

The day dawned brightly, the team was in high spirits, would it end the same way…..would it in fact, all end today???????

Upon reaching site, we were greeted with the most incredible cake baked by Fernando and family. After a moving speech by the cook himself, translated by Chris (just about!!) a sugar rush of cake was delved into by the whole team, not once, twice but in some case three times!!! A quick practice of the national anthem chorus by the team for Monday morning and then the real work began.

As team leader all I can say is what a team. Jobs did not have to be allocated, briefings were not required as all 15 sets of hands got rightly stuck in with the one mindset….completing the building today as per the Architect/Structural Engineers programme!!!!!

Belting out Rolling Stonessssssssss Classics such as Paint it White, Paint it Grey and Paint it Cream the team got to work – Dick painting the frames, Martyn touching up white, Marty tidying the site, Sarah chief paint spotting, Sally the Sergeant Major keeping order on the ground, Ian Mr Masking Tape himself, Nick the Roller Ace with the painters Bea, Stuart, Mark, Nikki, Wendy, Chris and Christina!!! By the end everyone had a paint brush in the hand!!! The team are a credit to themselves because the grit, determination and willingness shown not only today, but for the whole month has been nothing short of immense. An early finish ensued and the coconut wine flowed with the village elders and fathers in attendance………an interesting taste that wine with a few ‘Roger Rabbit choking eyes moments!!!’. Many photos followed with the workers and villagers and the realisation dawned on the group……………

THE BUILDING WAS COMPLETE (apart from snagging!!!!!!)

A night out to Bamboozi with a local band playing allowed for a chilled and relaxing evening and end to the day!

Finally, all that is left to do is for me to issue the Certificate of Practical Completion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Now Recovered ‘Healy’ Worshipper
Jamie

Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th July.

A well-earned rest, including visits to Inhambane, dhow trips, diving and relaxing in Tofo.

Snot knocking anyone?

2008-07-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

Thursday 10th July

All clean from our long-awaited shower and chocolate dessert from the day before, we set off for yet another productive day on site early this morning. Tasks for the day were clear: wood cu]tting for the benches, sanding and painting of two of the rooms, windows and door frames and finalising the trusses and block cutting for the roof.

Everything went smoothly and we managed to take a break to spend some time playing with the children. They loved it! We did too! We did the hokey-cokey (or okey-kokey, whatever!), which seems to be an old-time favourite of theirs. Then, with the kids wondering what we were up to, we took out the rope…time for a little bit of limbo! We had to explain to them that they have to bend backwards to go under the rope instead of running under it head first a dozen at a time, but it didn’t take long for them to grasp the concept and start showing off to each other. They seemed to enjoy it so much that we didn’t have the heart to stop. Instead we started rope skipping, with Nikki holding their hands and telling them when to jump. Time to go back to work came all too soon.

Just before we left for Mango, we were told that the water had stop running again and that there would be no shower or drinking water when we get back (again!). And today is the day on which the wedding is being held. The bride was not very happy that she couldn’t wash her hair…of all days! After much persuasion and a promised bottle of wine later, Nikki sang ‘Nobody Does It Better’ at the reception and we could all hear her voice ring clear and pure through the resort. Way to go!

The bar was off limit as the reception was being held there. So, in true campers fashion, we had dinner in the outdoor kitchen, sitting wherever was possible (which including the kitchen sink and the steps). Food, beers, juice and fizzy drinks were brought down to keep everyone happy and chatting, until the hard day’s work lead us back to our cabanas.

Wendy

Friday 11th July – Last day of Term

Having been reliably informed that today is Friday, the task of writing the blog falls to me.

After the morning walk to site with the usual entourage of tardy school children and regular chorus of “Bon Dias” in our wake, we arrive to discover that today is the last day of term. It dawns that we will have to make the most of it.

As usual, the local lads were already on site and working to complete the plastering of the administration rooms from the previous day. With some still to do, they have been persuaded to work a full day tomorrow to plaster two walls in the classrooms. This will enable them to be made near complete (except for the roof). Other work today included continuing building up the blockwork in the admin rooms, sanding endless piles of wood for the desks, minor plastering below trusses, touching up paint and the addition of the first purlins (rails between the trusses to nail the zinc sheets to) over the classrooms.

All the children turned out from lessons during a natural lull in the work (and still needing to get some footage on our recently repaired video camera), the Scott Wilson Kids Club was assembled and dispatched to entertain. This was the first real chance we have had to play with the children for a good length of time and began with a new Mozambican Record for the largest Hokey-Cokey. This was rapidly followed by a largely confused relay race using flip-flop batons, with at least one child sighted running with two flip-flops at times. They children then broke into smaller groups to play games that included “Duck-Duck-Goose” (Google it, it’s difficult to explain).

Then everyone assembled for a mass contest of Tug of War. From where I was watching, it was unclear who won but this seems to be common and no one appeared to mind. The Scott Wilson Kids Club were admirably supported by our new Canadian friends gymnastic act, which had the local lads stopping work to watch. Though, without taking anything away from a very good show, one or two of the local lads have been known to stop work to watch the clouds go by.

The children have been told they can return in their holidays next week to play. It will be interesting to see how many do after today’s show, and we still have a few tricks left up our sleeves.

Nick

Saturday 12th July - Code word ‘Master Mind’

We arrived on site at the usual time and had breakfast, which included egg, for a change. The team was lacking it’s usual energy at the start of the day and it was a struggle to get tasks assigned, but today was a day for finishing up on lots of small tasks and the team were told that, if asked about their progress on a task, the answer was ‘I’ve started, so I’ll finish’. This proved to be the case, in the end, as many tasks were, indeed, completed and it was a productive morning. Sanding, painting, sanding, painting etc etc etc. After a slow start, it was actually very difficult to get some team members to stop work and eat lunch!

After the walk home and showers all round, we headed into Inhambane for money, shopping and food. The market was an experience for everyone and many bags (Beatriz) and trinkets were bargained for before it was time to meet up for a dinner of gourmet burgers and tasty desserts. The ride home was also an experience – drinking rum from a plastic bottle in the back of a van that had a big hole between the roof and the back door – but everyone survived!

Back in Tofo, the team headed for the bar and enjoyed several beers and ‘White African’ cocktails – whilst discussing the choices that people had made for the next day, which was the first day that we were to be left to our own devices. Surfing, Kayaking and Diving were the main choices, with some people opting to simply chill and relax… can’t think why!? The walk back along the beach under the moonlight was the perfect end to a great day...

Nikki

Sunday 13th July – ‘Zer is a shoe in ze Vater’

So, Sunday finally arrives and everyone is looking forward to whichever activity they have picked. Four of the team had picked a day of adventure on the Kayak Safari and were hoping for good weather – they didn’t get it! After leaving Mango Beach at 8.10am (without the donut breakfast that everyone else was to later enjoy), they set off on their adventure from White Sands to Inhambane Island in Kayaks that were (and I quote) ‘Un-capsizeable’. Unfortunately for Nikki and Martyn, their Kayak proved about as un-capsizeable as the Titanic was unsinkable!! They ended up in the water at least four times on the 90 minute journey and will forever share a bond that can only be gained by such experiences!! There were three German back-packers on th trip with them and one was heard to shout, upon the first incident, ‘Zer is a shoe in ze vater’ – which happened to be Nikki’s flip flop! By the end of the journey, he had both flip flops!! Many other quotes could be put in the blog from that particular experience, but none are printable! However, overall, the day was a great success and most of the day was spent laughing!

Those who had chosen to chill out also missed the sun, which had decided to hide behind the clouds for the day, but they enjoyed some time on the beach – as well as walking into Tofo for food, drinks and shopping. The divers didn’t have such a great time, as there were difficulties with the diving equipment and with the levels of visibility – due to the very strong currents, so they didn’t get to see a great deal. However, there is time for them to try again, and most are up for another attempt.

Quotes of the weekend:

‘Ian is suffering from goat in the knee’
‘It’s not something, it’s something else…’!?
I’ve bought an elephant but now I don’t know if I want it!'
‘If you have booked it you must be there, otherwise you make me look like a 'expletive’ (the quotee subsequently didn’t turn up the next day for their activity!)
‘These are the worst conditions I have ever seen here’ (dive master – great thanks)
‘The water will be like glass’ (kayak instructor before embarking into choppy waters)

Monday 14th July

Day of Dick

For Jamie, the day started with an involuntary shower – day of Dick started off wet!
However. The sunrise was the best yet.
Today we had too many bodies for the available tasks. We had a frantic burst of - you’ve guessed it - sanding and painting the walls that had been successfully plastered – bribery is alive and well in Mozambique – on Saturday. The desk jockeys were confused – not difficult – by our trained carpenter, The master length had mysteriously shrunk between Saturday and Monday, It transpired that Cremildo had cut 10cm off so that the desks would fit into the room!!! The desk job was welcome today after the weekend’s exertions, whether physical or financial.
There may not be any bears in Mozambique, but a ‘bear’-chested man was spotted on the business end of a paint roller. One of our members, you would have thought old enough to know better than to frighten small children and animals, was seen to strip to the waist in the early morning sunshine. (photo available for a large fee).
Plan B was invoked when no preservative was available. The purlin joining plates (Lucy won’t let us call them gussets) were primed and two girls set up a production line assembling them so that our top team could erect purlins on the roof. A lot of clearing up was also done, in hopeful preparation for floor screed after the roof sheeting goes up, and scaffolding moved for the plasterers
Some of the team were sent off for the early bath as work dried up later on, and all arrived back at Mango in time to sit at the bar and watch the sun go down on another successful day.

Uncle Dick (rumour has it)

Tuesday 15th July

Early doors

Today was to be like any other day with walls to be sanded and painted; purlins to be put in place, with a side order of snot knocking (chiselling off the lumps of plaster that has landed on the floors prior to screeding). After an initial burst of activity, and the need for plastered walls to finish drying before they could be sanded and painted with undercoat, there was a lull in activities. Some of the group ended running around in circles with some of the kids who still come to school despite being on holiday (you won’t catch any self respecting kid in the UK doing that!).

A tea break was called and a pep talk and discussion of job tasks ensued. With the team decidedly ‘pepped’ and with new assignments assigned the group set off with vigour. Bea and Nick demonstrated their plastering talents, again, straightening the top edge of the internal walls. A crack team put the basecoat on one of the end administration rooms (to be the library); whilst some prepared more purlins for putting on the roof; and others knocked the snot.

To occupy one teams time it was decided the doors could have their final coat of paint applied ahead of schedule (now there is forward planning).

With the end of the day looming the sand and cement supplies for the screed were ordered for the coming week and the final preparations were made before the first corrugated zinc sheets could go onto the roof, hopefully tomorrow...

Eisen-man (apparently)

Wednesday 16th July

Musical day…

After a couple of days of a cloudy start we got up to a beautiful sunny morning. A promising day even though we were three men down due to the usual Mozambiquean effect and strong spices….

The kids were off and the site was quiet….but even the usual walk to the site can be a different experience day after day. A challenge for all the photographers that cant resist getting their cameras out to get a shot of the different birds like the lilac breasted roller with their wonderfully colourful wings, the sun set, the pink clouds, the Mozambiquean ladies walking with their amazing posture even though carrying our lunch on top of our heads, buckets of water or even a huge amount of logs.

The day on site consisted of the usual snot knocking, painting and sanding. But the group was so motivated, enthusiastic and inspired that that a pop band was created and songs written on the sounds of site work…..

“Snot knocking, we’re knocking snot and now I think we’ve had our fill. We’ve never knocked such a lot of snot and I hope we never will. We want to screed the floor today, but we first we’ve got to knock this snot away……”
(Crocodile Rock – Elton John)

“We see a blank wall and we want to paint it white, no colours anymore we have to paint it white. They wanted cream or grey, but we just told them NO. So, we have to paint it white, so go away , just go!”
(Paint it Black - Rolling Stones)

Lead singer - Nikki
Guitarist – Sally
Drummer – Sarah
Saw (?) – Chris
Manager and Promoter – Jamie
Special participation – Beatriz
(Video clip available by special request….single soon to be released on I-Tunes)

Finally, by the end of the day, we managed to get the first zinc sheets up which ended with Martin’s comments: “This is quite satisfying, I might even go for a shave tonight.” This was followed by Chris mentioning that he might keep his rough look…..

So, I have to finish by saying….what a fantastic day after all!!
And also sweet…with Christina handing lollipops to everybody on site.

Be

Thursday 17th July

Jacinto on a tin roof

The day kicked off with a great inspirational talk from Prof. Chris that both gave us the focus and the drive that we needed to bring things together for the day (getting a tired crew into spirits)!

Everyone getting involved from the start made things work well (even with the “snot knockers”). The roof continued to go on with a ramping up start and painting of the north end of the school made another inspirational landmark.

The usual lunch hour was unfortunately cut short for a number of the team with a last minute notification that the first classroom must have a final coat of paint before the final floor could be poured (tomorrow morning)… and with the zinc sheeting going above head (at pause for the lunch hour), a great crew of painters took the bull by the horns and painted fiercely.

The team as a whole took great initiative to coordinate to both advance the roof structure, zinc sheeting, and take care of the important floor work going on below… GREAT work team!

The local workers were also quite involved in the team effort, with the carpenters continuing to work tightly with the securing of the zinc and the rest of the local team finishing off the last couple of small rooms and south end wall.

At the end of an extra long day for all a rewarding drink at the bar was enjoyed by all! This does and should give Prof. Chris a great sense of justice, accomplishment and vigour (and I know it does because that is a “coat”).

Marty

July get stuck in (the loo)

2008-07-10T05:28:00.000-07:00

Friday 4th July 2008

After an early 6.00am rise, the team arrived on site with a full compliment raring to go after the refreshing swim and relaxing evening the night before. They were greeted by Fernando with brekkie on the table!!! Fried egg with complimentary roll and coleslaw side were on the menu. As the team finished off, the team leader completed a full brief on the plan of work for the day and programmed the work with Chris accordingly. This assisted with keeping efficiency levels to a maximum barring any late deliveries of course!!

The primary objective was to have each of the end trusses installed by the end of the day. It was also hoped that the rear wall would be painted with two teams to be employed.

Firstly, the preservative treatment was to be completed on the 13 trusses. Two teams were formed, the ‘truss’ team completing the preserving and the ‘window’ team completing the pain-staking job of chipping out the board above the window heads. This efficiency was enhanced – is this the correct word??? – by Martyn removing his shirt!!! Safe to say the school children quickly dived for cover!!! A fine production line was established for the preservation treatment and the trusses were completed quickly.

Other jobs were tended to such as sweeping out the building, sweeping the veranda in preparation for the painters, steel column reinforcement construction which Dick & Marty handled expertly and the moving of block work into rooms ready for installation. A break was necessary & this coincided with the children’s playtime. Stuart, aka ‘Inspector Clueso’, came into his own having happy screaming children chasing bubbles which he was blowing and soon most of the team were swamped by the kids which allowed for fantastic interaction. Lunch came early with chicken and rice (including chicken feet at the bottom of the pot!!!!) and was scoffed by the hard working team including the plinth ledge chipping team who worked on into their lunch hour to finish it.

The afternoon brought the first great visual success for the team. Two teams were employed, one to sand the window frames and the other to paint the first primer coat on the rear wall. This also involved sanding the whole wall first!!! Suddenly the roof trusses were to be placed up in position. The team worked with great precision and by the end of the afternoon had five trusses installed and braced temporarily. Teamwork and translation were the keys to the successful operation, which also included ‘monkeyman’ Chris from Quest balancing on the ring beam to nail the bracing in.

This was a great boost for the team as it was the first physical evidence of the building’s shape changing and progressing since arrival. The previous hard days preparation work were well rewarded. The team worked incredibly well, completing tasks over and above what was set out at the start of the day and now sit chilling beside the beach with a few drinks waiting dinner!!!!

Clothes of the day: Sally in her pyjamas on site!

Jamie

Saturday 5th July

Only let the Geordie lead for half a day (It’s safer that way)

The first time many of us have worked a weekend possibly since Dick had a paper round. We arrived on site with breakfast ready and waiting for us. Saturdays bring a treat of a half day break and breakfast of donuts and fruit.

The group began the day energised and up for the challenge of getting the remaining 8 trusses up and finishing the sanding and undercoat painting of the front of the building. The work today had to be coordinated to allow sanding work to be carried out whilst the trusses were being put up. As the trusses were completed in a surprising amount of time the day was a great success and this allowed Martyn to take the members from the lifting team to begin an important task of breaking up any damaged blockwork so that it could be used in the floor screed. It’s amazing that even now we are able to show commitment to sustainability.

The first Saturday night was a slight blur including cocktails and celebration, Martyns Birthday was finally celebrated in style and Iain passing his degree making it a double celebration. We had our first team meal out where the chicken kebab was labelled as “not the rubbish you get in England” and to be fair the food here is so good its true.

Everyone is raring to go for another week at site after we go whale watching tomorrow.

Iain

Sunday 6th July

‘ A Whale Of A Time’

For the first time since arriving we were able to have a lie in. Of course everyone just woke up at the usual time and just stayed in bed trying to ignore the hangover, get back to sleep and avoid wrestling their way out of the mosquito net to go the toilet - bladder strength has increased significantly in all of us over the last week.

We all got together about 10am for breakfast which consisted of chocolate and jam doughnuts – we needed the energy. We then had a quick ride into town on the back of a truck to go whale watching. We paid, signed our lives away and then got kitted up with snorkels, flippers and swimming costumes and headed to the beach to meet the boat. The classic comment of the day was from Wendy (with flippers and snorkel in one hand) “are we going to get wet?” – what can you say to that…

In the boat and out to sea (at a fair pace) to try and find some whales. It wasn’t long before some humpback dolphins were spotted which we followed for a while. Several shouts of “whale” through the day from Chris sent us tearing across water to the area of the sighting before easing off to get a bit closer. It was amazing to see the spout of water, the whales breaching (humpback whales) and then the classic tail fin shots. One group (is that a pod?) of whales were six in number – fantastic. Three sail fish following the boat on the way back ended an amazing day out on the water.

A few hours in Tofo at the market was good bargaining practice and many a bargain was had. Back to Mango Beach for some cracking food and an early night.

Chris H

Monday 7th July

‘Snot Knocking’

The morning was started with a lack of water – all the taps in Mango Beach were drier than a camels toe… we just hoped it would be fixed so we could have our cold showers when we got back.

The second week at the school started and unfortunately a geologist was let loose on the group for the day leader (what do they know????). The morning tasks were allocated and everyone set off with lots of enthusiasm (well a lot for a Monday morning) and completed all the day’s tasks in a record time. This led to a shortage of work until more paint turned up. Chris (Hitch), the slave driver that he is, forced several of the group to start the task of “snot knocking”. Snot Knocking is removing the “splats” of render from the floor prior to screeding. It’s the most thankless task you can ask anyone to do and much respect goes out to all those who got down and cracked on with it.

More paint was delivered by Gary and work recommenced at a scorching pace to make up for lost time. A late finish on site was rewarded with the bad news that the water was still off at Mango Beach. Looks like we’ll all have to smell bad just a bit longer.

At the bar Marty asked Nikki “Can I bum a fag”. “Maybe you’d have to buy him dinner first” Nikki replied.

Enough said.

Chris H

Tuesday 8th July 2008

Another good day on site, we divided into teams with progress on the concrete columns and completion of the block work on all but one of the apex walls. There was much mixing of mortar and plaster to keep everyone supplied, and an eight strong team got to work on the painting, firstly base coats to the perimeter walls and then sanding and painting of the window frames in the first classroom. We’re all getting to be a dab hand with the paint brush!

Still no water when we got back tonight, problems with the pump meant that water has been slow to fill the tank. Hopefully after dinner we should be back to normal – it’s a good thing, we’re all starting to pong! In case of further problems, a few of us headed to the sea for a quick swim and wash down, followed by drinks in the bar at sunset – what could be better?!

We’re being treated to gourmet food at the moment, guinea pigs for the new Chef catering for a wedding later this week. Apparently he runs a catering college in South Africa and has cooked for Nelson Mandela! Tonight we were treated to a delicious fish and cabbage starter, followed by a gorgeous chicken curry, and a chocolate cake dessert! The pudding went down especially well, those of us with a sweet tooth have been craving cake!

We’ve been a team member down today as the dreaded ‘Mozambique Tummy’ continues to wind it’s evil way through the camp. I believe there may be a new record for the most visits to the site loo in one day! Hopefully back to full strength tomorrow.

Sarah

Wednesday 9th July

There are no Bears in Mozambique!!!

Another day in paradise and the team are smelling sweet after two days without water!!

The day started with jammy custard and two men down who were “weeing out of their bottoms” (Mark Eisen Man and Martyn)!

Three people were required to start on desk building and purlin cutting so Stuart, Nicky and Nick put their carpentry skills to the test – slow progress and lots of curly wood shavings!!

4 to 1, yes more slop makers and those lucky people where Wendy, Christina, Marti ‘McFly’ and the lovely Jamie…

Dick and Co (who will be staring in a calendar later in the year apparently!!) continued on the blockwork and column filling…

The rest of us were sanding, painting, sanding, painting, sanding, painting – and the final job of the day was undercoating the 7 doors – hurray!!!

Another splendid fish dinner with live Mozambiquian music and dancing in prep for tomorrows wedding – don’t worry it’s not one of the team… that’s it from me I’m off for some more of Marti’s snoring, after another cheeky glass of wine – SWEET!!!!!

The Roof, The Roof....

2008-07-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

Monday 30th June

‘Solidarity Reg’

Group 2 left in a blaze of glory with proud salutes and emotional farewells. Kerry had one last tug on her earlobe, Trina threatened come customs officials and Cristina was re-routed by 8 hours via Vilanculos to Maputo.

All in all – a typical day.

Group 3 arrived, this time there were four bags missing…. And one volunteer.

Again….. we’ve come to expect no less of the relevant airlines. After nearly fifteen hours in a torpid state on various aircraft and in duty free lounges, and then being expected to run across the airport to catch the connecting flight, it is a wonder that more were not lost. The reason for this unscheduled activity was that the flight to Inhambane was actually leaving four hours….. early!….. you couldn’t make it up! Out of all this chaos, came the unusual benefit of being able to meet the June group at Inhambane Airport as their flight out was delayed. Inevitable banter and good wishes ensued between the more voluble members of the two groups.

Tuesday 1st July

First day here, and after some first day faffing about, including the sourcing of various clothes for those poor unfortunates without their cases, we were late to the site and had missed the daily rendition of the Mozambique National Anthem. After a hearty breakfast and an enforced rain break, we set about the task of unravelling the June groups joinery efforts on the timber roof trusses. A certain amount of enthusiasm for ensuring the gusset plates were fixed, whether or not in the correct place or orientation, was rather unfortunately evident. After some deliberation, we set about the preparation of an inventory to determine what materials we had been left by the June team, we were able to set up a process that enabled all the gusset plates to be marked and cut out, whilst the timber trusses were primed with preservative and marked up with the requisite nailing patterns. We are hopeful that this will save material wastage and improve fixing and manufacturing times for the roof trusses.

After our walk back to the Cabana a small number of us went for a brief swim in the Ocean, before sundown. We were treated to ‘Frango Mango’ for the evening meal, which we understand, is something of a special treat…followed by a few drinks, and sleeeeep zzzzzzzzz!

Martyn

Wednesday, 2nd July

Marty and the missing bags arrived!

The day on the site started with a very nice breakfast, the team was ready for the second working day on the site. Tasks were very diverse: some people were cutting wood, others were working nailing the trusses for the roof and 3 people joined the local team for helping with the plastering. After having a very nice lunch, we got back carrying on with the tasks but found out two main obstacles: lack of number of hammers and nails. We got a new delivery of nails by the end of the afternoon, which allowed us to finish most of the pieces of wood for the trusses of the roof.

When we got back to Mango Beach we met Marty (the last team member), who just arrived in Tofo and was ready for a swim on the beach. Those who arrived from Newcastle were very happy to have their bags back, all thanks to Marty!

Other highlights of the day were: Beatriz and Cristina communicating in Portuguese with the local workers and children learning the local bitonga . Cristina and Beatriz weren’t able to respond to the locals’ expectations of getting married in Mozambique! We learned how to ‘rebocar a massa’ (floating on the plaster), Nick becoming the expert among us. Cristina also learned not to hang around under the coconut tree to sunbathe, because coconuts are the second cause of death in African countries after malaria.

Thursday 3rd July

Coconut Thursday

We are surrounded by elegant coconut palms and today they certainly made their presence felt. Desperate for containers for preservative first thing in the morning we went foresting for containers. We didn’t find anything much man-made but did come back with coconut shell halves! These were used for the preservative, carrying the large number of nails we were rapidly getting through and a fun lunchtime session with the children in which Beatriz and Stuart introduced them to a simple wet sand sculpturing game using just the coconut shells, sand and a little water. They loved it. On the way home Dick and Beatriz were stopped by a young school boy who then shinned up a tree (you can guess which one) and presented them with a fresh coconut for the group.

Today was also satisfying for finishing two activities. Firstly assembling the 13 wooden roof trusses which both June group and ourselves have been working on. Secondly, removing the excess hardboard from under all the window and door lintels. A hard, tedious job which Dick, Chris, Martyn, Marty and Jamie all excelled themselves on.

Then a lorry arrived delivering 100 bags of cement which was all off-loaded in record time, quickly transformed the appearance of most of the team to that of miners emerging from a pit.

By late afternoon we had run out of supplies and most of us were able to leave early for our first swim while the sun was still up, followed by a relaxing beer in the bar afterwards, watching the sun set over this magical place that is beginning to reveal itself.

Adios June Group

2008-07-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

Day 53 Friday 27th June - Saying Goodbye the Mozambican way!

Our last day on site began with a chilly start and a slightly subdued atmosphere as we made the trek through the sand dunes on empty stomachs for the very last time. By the time we reached site the sun had come up and we were delighted to find a new addition to the breakfast menu of fried eggs and chips (along with bread rolls and the obligatory tomato and onion salad)…Neomie opted to have her eggs ‘well done’ but something went wrong in the translation and they came back hard boiled, though much appreciated nevertheless! Becky briefed the group on the day’s tasks and had everyone in suspense about Chris’s big surprise at 3pm….
Most of the group continued working on the roof trusses in the morning, with a select few being finally allowed to have a go at plastering the internal classroom walls. Our intrepid leader Chris was particularly keen to have a go and bravely took it upon himself to assess the impact of splattering plaster all over his head and in his eyes, so that he could show the July group how not to do it! We were all a bit distracted this morning and it was hard to get going again after the compulsory biscuit break at 10am – we were conscious of the fact that this was our last chance to play with the kids and so we broke off early for lunch and got in a last rendition of hokey cokey before the matapa arrived. After our now traditional post-lunch snooze, we continued working in the blazing hot sun until 3pm when everyone downed tools, took their last few photos, and got stuck into the ‘surprise’ delivery of palm wine. Once we’d got over the rather unconventional smell, our first taste of this local delight proved very popular and we were soon keeping pace with the local builders who were clearly enjoying the chance to let their hair down – Jucinto was even seen cracking a smile! We eventually dragged ourselves away and set off on our last walk home – the commute to and from work just won’t seem the same without all those palm trees! Back at Mango Beach we made a start on the weekend with a drink or two and thoughts of how much diving and last minute souvenir shopping we could cram in over the next two days.

Quote of the day: ‘MANSY!’ (The only ‘English’ word now universally understood by all the local builders)

Saturday 28th June – everyone needs a happy ending….

Saturday brought final opportunities for the group to enjoy the activities available in Mozambique, some of the group dived, Brian and Steve spent the afternoon fishing (unfortunately they didn’t catch our dinner), several of the group relaxed with a massage (a big hit to relax those strained muscles). Many hit Tofo market for the last opportunities to barter, swapping clothes and shoes for gifts. The group reconvened in Cassa de Comer for our last meal and headed to Dino’s bar for our last drink, and just one more and go on I’ll have another if you’re asking….. Our Quest leaders finally had the opportunity to let there hair down as well and pass on their words of wisdom and thoughts on the world. These opportunities were well taken and well received.

After a brisk stumble back up the beach a few brave team members sat up for sunrise the rest preferring to slip gently into an alcohol induced slumber.

Sunday 29th June – ‘Don’t Ever, Ever…’

‘…let Chris get so drunk that he has memory loss the next day!’

After Saturday night’s drunken shenanigans, the group rose bleary eyed on this, the final day. Some of them struggled with David and Chris not even managing to make it out of Mango Beach (lightweights!). Some of the luckier folks in the group (Neomie, Mitesh, Trina and Debbie), nursed hangovers with some full body Hawanan massage from the wonderful Hayley, a recommended pastime for future reference! Christina was the only one of the group who decided to go scuba diving, and what a finish to the trip - as well as all the usual fish, Christina topped off her trip with a turtle, 20 sharks (including white and black tip reef sharks, leopard shark and nurse shark) and 16 devil rays. Not my pastime of choice when nursing a ‘delicate’ stomach, but Becky, Kerry and Diane took the opportunity to see a bit more of the local area on horseback. Becky enjoyed some fantastic galloping along the beach but Kerry managed to break her horse and so stole Diane’s, leaving Diane to trek home on foot….The remainder of the group recovered in the beloved Waterworks café and the day’s fun was interspersed with discussions about who did what the previous night. It was much fun embarrassing our leaders with stories of their antics, which included some beach wrestling, shots, ‘wedgies’, and general drunkenness. During a final dinner of ‘smooth’ soup with fish and rice, the group presented Charlie with a token of appreciation; trousers from the local market and Caramilk chocolate (Mmmmm), and cleared Chris’ bar bill, leaving him credit on his tab to keep up his drinking tradition (springboks all round!)

Its Beginning to Come Together

2008-06-26T02:49:00.000-07:00

Day 44 Tuesday 17th June
Yes Boss!

The day began with our usual early morning march over sand dunes and around the swamp to get to the building site. Upon arrival, Chris was presented with Fernando’s finished proposal and architectural plans for his cookery school for submission to obtain planning permission.

After a breakfast of French toast, coleslaw, fried banana and strange dough balls, Chris headed off to Inhambane to run errands. Trina, the day leader, briefed the group on the day’s activities and delegated the tasks amongst the group members.

The main tasks for the day were:
1. To complete 5 courses of block work on the internal division between classrooms and administration rooms.
2. To complete the block work around the windows on the back of the school building in preparation for laying the ring beam.
3. To complete the ring beams along the front of the building spanning both the classrooms.
4. To repair the column at the far end (south side) of the school.
5. To fill in all the gaps between the door frames and the block work.

Within a short period of time, everyone got stuck in with the block work and filling of gaps with the Mozambican workers preparing the ring beams. After a few hours though, most of the group found themselves at a loose end as the ring beams progressed very slowly, which was extremely frustrating.

By lunchtime most of the tasks had been completed bar the ring beams. Lunch consisted of rice and prawn matapa (or tomato-y sauce for the vegetarians) and bananas for dessert. After a short break out of the blazing sun, work started again with most of the group working together mixing concrete and carrying it to and fro as the ring beams were filled in. The Mozambicans were working noticeably faster at this point!

Several others went round the site sweeping up debris, pulling out nails from wooden boards and generally cleaning up the site. They also helped to move some scaffold to the south side of the school to allow the column there to be repaired.

With the last of the ring beams and the column repair completed, it was time to clean all the tools, check the inventory and head back to Mango Beach for a well deserved rest. A few people volunteered to stay back to help unload the cement that was supposedly being delivered sometime that evening. However after waiting around for half an hour, we were told that the delivery was postponed till the next day, which a lot of volunteers will relate to….This is Africa!!

Day 45 Wednesday 18th June
I’m Singing In The Rain!

The morning started a little hazy, The wind kept me up most of the night, but was still up and ready by 6:45 for the morning hike to work… a long thirty minutes across the land under the African Sun. Sounds great, but try that with a heavy backpack and steel toe cap shoes.

We arrived on site to the sounds of the children singing the national anthem. As always it is amazing to see and hear.

Chris headed off with the dashing day leader Mitesh… by far the coolest dude on site, having never taken off his shades off once and always managing to have great hair (windswept)…to brief him on the day’s activities.

Today’s work included; block working the internal wall between the 2 classrooms, the external back wall and casting 2 ring beams and columns.

The morning started off slow, with high winds and rain delaying the start up. A good reason to have another coffee and a game of charades, with Free Willie, Lord of the Ring and Back to the Future making an appearance.

The weathered cleared up about 9ish and the days work began with a human chain to bring in the blocks to the working area. The worked progressed on site at a reasonable pace throughout the rest of the day, with everyone seeming happy and busy.

As lunch seems to be an important focal point of everyone agenda, it seems an important point to mention. So, today we had Cashew nuts, crab Matapa and rice. Having cleaned every last grain of rice on our plates, some people headed off for an afternoon nap, some read and a few had a friendly game of tag. Brian also managed to climb halfway up a coconut tree.

Just as we managed to clean up and pack up all the tools the rain started up again. It poured hard, there was no singing and we ran back to Mango Beach for a few cold drinks and a hot dinner. The rain continued for most part of the evening, forcing us at one point to move the table and chairs in the bar as the wind and rain came showering through.

The evening ended with the group watching the first 15minites of Happy Feet and the than the dvd started to play up and so we all headed for bed.

So far this trip has been amazing, the group is getting on really well and everyone seems really keen on getting as much of the school built before the next team arrive. Working alongside the Mozambique workers and playing with school kids during ours and their recess has made this a truly enjoyable culture exchange.

Day 46 Thursday 19th June
“Happy birthday Mr Ed”

The howling wind and rain kept many up during the night but we were up and brushing our teeth by the light of the paraffin lamp at the usual time of 6.30ish. The rain had made the walk to work that little bit more difficult with wet sand sticking to our steel toe cap boots. When we got to site we waited for our breakfast, each taking bets in our mind about what we might get! Would it be omelette or deep fried crispy things?

As breakfast began to arrive, Ed walked in to find Fernando had baked a huge chocolate and butter cake covered in white and pink frosting for his birthday. He presented it to Ed to the sound of the happy birthday song in English and Portuguese although most of us had to hum the Portuguese version), wearing not just his Santa hat but the full Santa coat for the occasion.

The day leader, Christina, briefed the team on the day’s tasks. The dividing wall between the two classrooms had to be built up to ring beam height, as did the final part of the back wall, once we had fitted the last window. Three columns had to be filled with concrete and the ring beam fitted to the back wall. Problem was, nothing could get done in the rain so we played “I spy” until it cleared up.

Once we got started, the morning went by quickly and without a hitch. We realised how much progress we’ve made this month when the roof materials arrived and we did an inventory of the timber, zinc sheeting and nails.

Lunch consisted of rice, chicken and potato - one of the favourites – and work resumed in the afternoon. With all the tasks accomplished by mid-afternoon, we took some time to play with the kids before heading back to Mango Beach.

This gave us a good opportunity to prepare the balloons for Ed’s birthday celebrations and present him with a fetching pair of bright red tasselled trousers with cars on the the front for dinner! A cold drink to finish the day ends the day perfectly.

Quote of the day:
“The best way to see how well your girlfriend will look in 20 years time is to look at the underside of her mother’s fingers”
Diane’s advice on how to gauge aging

Day 47 Friday 20th June

Hey Malaka!
Def malaka: Greek for w****r

We set off from Mango Beach at the usual time under a still visible full moon with fond memories of the previous night’s festivities where we witnessed firstly Trina crowned as ‘most likely to lick the floor of Mango Beach bar while completely sober, and secondly the mating rituals of the so called ‘canus africanus’. As we had our usual tranquil walk to work we could not have anticipated what a tumultuous day it was going to be.

After our breakfast of tomato and sweet pepper omelette and fresh bread rolls with a side of tomato and onion, Christina informed the team on the weekend transportation plans in Chris’ absence. Team leader for the day Diane then identified the day’s key activities as receipt of the remaining timbers for the roof, concreting all the remaining columns and ring beams and a general site clean up/snag of all rooms and the verandah in preparation for covering the building and plastering which would commence potentially the following week. The team was divided up and we set out to work.

Morning progress was good however it was soon apparent that the previous night’s alcohol consumption due to Ed’s birthday had impacted negatively on productivity so a biscuit break was called for half an hour at 10 AM. Gary arrived on site and after debriefing the day leader and set about starting the carpenter off on the fabrication of the first roof truss. So it was a quick job to prepare the carpentry workshop AKA classroom number 2.

Directly after the break all the shuttering had been completed so the team worked on mixing concrete and all the remaining columns and walls were successfully poured. As soon as this was completed we heard the rumble of the delivery truck which arrived with timber. As it turned out we received timber but not for the roof as expected but for the school desks! It was then a juggling act to work out the best way to use the limited space in the storage shed but it was decided to off load the desk timber and place in the storage shed once the roof timber already there had been moved to the carpentry workshop. It was soon apparent that the delivery driver was on ‘Friday time’ as he somehow managed to write a text on his mobile phone whilst simultaneously sliding timbers madly out of the back of the truck. After a few near misses and temperatures rising due to his nonchalant attitude Diane asked the team not to take part in the off loading and the truck keys were sneakily removed by Brian from the ignition so that the timber could be inspected and counted while the driver was present. However all this occurred after Christina informed the driver in a colourful mixture of Greek and Portuguese that he was being an inconsiderate w****r and acting unsafely. The delivery then became a spectator sport for the team as tempers abated until we went for a delicious lunch of curried chicken and rice.

After lunch the storage shed was repacked and the roof timbers moved to the workshop. The site was then tidied and a final sweep done by 4 spanking new brooms kindly provided by Juliao. The team then packed up and headed home. Unfortunately there was further fracas on the way home as the Mango beach mutt Mary who was accompanying Lewis, Kerry, David and Ed home was not welcomed by the villagers near the hotel and she was chased away with a hoe.

It was with a sigh of relief that we retuned to Mango Beach to reflect and anticipate things to come on the weekend……

Quote of the day: ‘Oi everyone, pull yer trousers up, Becky’s looking for cracks to fill with the leftover mortar.’ Kerry to Becky as Becky scurried around madly to use the last mortar on site.

Day 48 Saturday 21st June

The Hard and the Wild

The team awoke on Saturday morning to the pleasant sensation of a work free weekend ahead of them. Chris had the weekend off so we were left under Charlie’s jurisdiction to coordinate journeys etc.

Kerry, David, Brian and Steven decided to have a slow and easy day at Mango Beach. However the day never started for them until the morning sugar rush of jam donuts which arrived at 11:30. After that it was Frisbee on the beach followed by a hearty lunch of NIK NAK like snacks and CADBURY chocolate. We are not quite sure if it was a hallucination due to the excess sugar intake but Brian and Steven managed to spot a humpback whale – from the bar!! David also gave Kerry a hair cut in preparation for the night on the town.

The rest of the team set out in the back of the Mango Beach truck headed for Tofu. There we split up with the divers heading for Diversity Scuba and the others to Inhambane by private ‘chappa’.

Charlie, Neomie, Mitesh, Trina, Debbie and Diane arrived in Inhambane and headed to Verdinho café for breakfast. Despite having an electrical power cut the kitchen staff still managed to ship up a rather diverse breakfast for the group including carpaccio, meze platters of hummus and camembert and steak sandwiches. The intrepid explorers Neomie, Mitesh and Diane set out for Maxixe, a town across the bay, by dhow boat. After settling a price with ‘Captain John’ they followed him down the rather precarious jetty to the boarding platform. There was a moment of indecision as they noted that there was about 20m of water between the platform and the dhow. Captain John then gesticulated wildly indicating that Mitesh should climb on to his back to take the journey to the boat. After a momentary flash of horror across his face Mitesh politely declined and the three waded through the water to the boat. It was then an entertaining 1 hour and 20 minute boat ride across the bay punctuated by one incident of running aground on a sand bank and another disturbing even where it was apparent that the communication between Captain John ans his ‘rudder man’ was not quite as it should be. It was then a quick tour of Maxixe and then back to by speed ferry to Inhambane. Meanwhile Trina, Debbie and Charlie scoured the market for souvenirs. It was then back to Tofo once again by ‘chappa’.

Back at Diversity, Becky Ed and Lewis headed for Clown Fish reef where they saw porcupine, lion and parrot fish amongst others. Jack and Christina had a beautiful ride on Manta Reef where they saw lot of fish including trumpet fish and potato grouper but sadly no manta. Christina’s second dive of the day resulted in some photos of guitar fish and lionfish – not too bad for a first attempt at underwater photography.

The group met for dinner at Tofo’s up market restaurant Casa de Comer for dinner. There were several tears of appreciation as some of us had sight of pork chops and sirloin steak for the first time in 3 weeks! David, Lewis, Mitesh, Neomie, Becky and Brian then headed to the winter solstice party at Dino’s Beach Bar with Brian and Becky having an early night and the others staying up to watch the 6 AM sunrise. A perfect end to a perfect day…….

Day 49 Sunday 22nd June

Doin’ our own thing

We woke up to a spectacular day with brilliant blue skies. There was a steady trickle of team members on the beach from Mango Beach headed for Tofo.

Trina and Becky had as early start and headed to Tofo’s ‘flow massage’ parlour. Feedback on their massages was so good that almost the entire group booked in for the following weekend.

By far the most substantial achievement of the day was Becky and Ed becoming qualified PADI open water divers – well done!! As an added bonus they also saw humpback dolphins (yes that is dolphins) from the boat. Christina finished her Advanced Diving certificate with a dive with a graceful devil ray.

Mitesh took in some horseback riding while Lewis had a slightly less tourist oriented day as he was brought in as a star addition to the Muchaquene team and was instrumental (or so we heard) in the team winning the semifinal of the Independence Day football competition 3-1 by penalties.

It was then a slow and easy walk back up the beach to Mango Lodge as we watched the sun sink below the horizon and looked forward to the rising of the moon…..

Day 50 Monday 23rd June

‘Some days I sits and thinks, and somedays I just sits…’

We all assembled at 7.00h for the walk to school, accompanied today by Chris’s party of Lucy, Mark and Wiz. Charlie on well deserved leave today. Great breakfast of omelette, roll and deep fried crispy things had us all ready for action. Today we were due to begin plastering the external walls, however rain looked imminent and so a 2 hour wait ensued. Eventually it was deemed safe to begin prep work for plastering, but this was a job for the local labour force. The Scott Wilson volunteers amused themselves with charades and introducing some local children to the finer points of rugby. After lunch Chris returned from Inhabane and we all tried to imitate the locals’ method of throwing plaster onto the walls (albeit the internal office walls). Some of us were more successful than others; Brian being particularly adept at throwing a trowel full of massa (mortar) onto Francisco’s head. Chris advised us that as the essential delivery of plywood was not going to arrive today we should head back to Mango Beach and plan the video shoot planned for tomorrow.

Day 51 Tuesday 24th June

‘Ready when you are Mr de Mille’

On arrival at the school today we were met by Tofo’s very own film crew; Chris and Claire from Sangue Bom who were there to film the day’s activities for a Scott Wilson promotional video. Breakfast of custard, fruit and biscuits. The plan for today was to help plaster 3 internal walls and start cutting out plywood gussets for the roof trusses, as Gary had managed to source 6 sheets of plywood yesterday. Work began straight after breakfast and several activities were filmed. Highlight of the morning being the removal of the coconut tree which overhung the school. Soon afterwards Gary arrived and condemned 50% of the plastering as not being within tolerance. Good progress made on fabricating roof trusses up until lunchtime. Sergio from Quest arrived and sang some songs with the children. The local labour force had a half day today in preparation for tomorrow’s Independence Day celebrations, but the SW volunteers stayed on until 4.15 completing 6 out of 13 roof trusses. Some of the team were videoed in group discussion for the promo video. A much more productive day than yesterday!

Day 52 Wednesday 25th June

‘Independence Day’

‘Woo Hoo’ no work today due to the Independence Day celebrations. All of the divers in the group and one or two other early birds had a 7am pick up at Mango and headed for Tofo. By 10am we were all in Tofo for a lazy day at the beach, Waterworks for coffee and the market. Lunch was taken at a number of eating establishments on offer and Tiger prawns at Casa De Comer and sandwiches at Ceeds’ or Pizza at Dino’s for those of us that are all Prawned out!
At 2:30 we were all picked up from the market and headed into the bush to the local football grand final. Three of the group were on the bench as reserves for the big match. Mark was called up in the second half and managed to show his skills with a football resulting in great cheers and amusement from the locals. The game finished without any points on the board and it was down to a penalty shoot out to decide the outcome. Following a tense shoot out it all finished with the away team winning 3 – nil up. An added bonus and to great dismay of several of the June team it wads today’s team leaders first full football match he’s EVER WATCHED AFTER 45 YEARS.

To top the day off – a few of us managed to have their first hot shower after 3 weeks.

Quote of the day: ‘ Chris on the phone to Debbie at tea time: where are you? Diane shouts out ‘ what are you wearing?’

Brian (aka Croc Hunter)

Bricks, Divers, Bums and Music

2008-06-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Day 40 Friday 13th June

Musical Scaffolds

A full account of folk headed off to the school site at the usual time of just after 7. The air was warmer than previous days and we could tell that we were in for a hot days toil.

After a welcome breakfast of omelette and bread roll, Jack the team leader for the day gave the briefing for the days activities. The idea was to continue with the blockwork between the window frames which had been reset the previous day and cast the concrete ring beam above the store room walls at the back of the building and concrete a few of the columns.

Started the morning by arranging the scaffolding to allow access for laying the blocks between the windows. After a fair bit of faffing we finally got going and three groups of block layers were able to get cracking.

The second part of the day’s goal was casting some of the ring beam on top of the store room blockwork. So, the rest of us set up the scaffold towers to allow the local lads to place the steel reinforcement and secure the shutters. Unfortunately the lads were taking their time and had only secured the steel and one board by lunch time. By this time the folk laying blocks had completed their quota of four courses and so were left at a bit of a loose end.

The morning’s boredom was broken by Brian finding a baby African snail (a giant in our experience) in the brush just beyond the site. Lunch was a wholesome chicken and potato stew with rice which made a welcome change from the matapa of previous days.
The afternoon was frustrating as we had to wait for the lads to finish setting the shutters. After a bit of musical chairs with the scaffold towers we were ready for concreting. We finally finished just after four.

Great news for Dave who was able to renounce the name of ‘Bagless’ as his bag finally arrived at Inhambane where Chris collected it.

It’s only blimming Friday. Roll on the weekend.

Day 41 & 42 Weekend 14th & 15th June

Divers and Bums

The weekend ended up with guys doing one of two occupations, going diving off the coast of Tofo beach or putting ones feet up and touring the local Tofo market.

The divers of the group set off early on both mornings in order to maximise our time under water. Some of us started the open water dive course whilst others were able to go straight out to experience the huge abundance of marine life. On the way back to shore from the dive in Sunday, a few of us were very fortunate to see two hump back whales doing almost clear breaks out of the water, a brilliant sight and rare for this time of year.
Sunday lunch was a treat from the local bakery where we get our morning breakfast donuts. It is called bunny chow, which is consists of half a fresh loaf hollowed out and filled with a really tender beef curry stew. This really hit the spot after a mornings diving or lounging on the beach.
Sunday afternoon a few of us went to Tofo market to buy a few gifts for friends and family. A number of us want to buy a few sarongs and baggy trousers from one stall. By the end we had 10 pairs of trousers and 11 sarongs between us. Now let the bartering begin. Brian and Neomie were the chief bartering team who ran a very hard bargain and managed to get a great deal for the rest of.

By the end of the weekend we all felt well recuperated and raring to crack on with the schools construction come Monday; there was talk of starting to erect the roof structure by the end of next week which would be excellent progress.

Day 43 Monday 16th June

Another Brick in the Wall

Monday morning again and the beginning of the third week for the June Group. The morning gathering in the kitchen presented a few delicate people, but as ever, that wasn’t going to stop anyone from going to site.

On arrival, there was something not quite right…..the lack of school kids. We were all a bit disheartened by this as we had become accustomed to the daily interaction with the children. Julião explained to Charlie (who translated to us) that today was a memorial day in recognition of three events. The first is for the children who died during the Soweto uprising and is now treated as Africa Childrens’ day. The second event was the anniversary for when 600 people died after revolting against the Portuguese so that they could plant food crops instead of the designated cash crop (cotton). The third event which took place was when the national currency changed over from the Portuguese escudo to the Mozambique metacal.

Breakfast was slightly delayed but that just provided the group with an excuse to interact with the kids who had decided to come to school that day (including Trina scaring them with her ninja head gear – an extreme measure to the dust created on site!). After some clapping games and a successful rendition of the hokey cokey breakfast was served (omelette, bread roll and salad). Neomie, the day leader briefed the group of the day’s activities and divided up the tasks accordingly.

The main tasks of the day were:
1) Bring the front wall up to ringbeam level;
2) Bring one of the internal walls up to ringbeam level;
3) Mark out the placement of the windows on the back wall;
4) Concrete the ringbeams at the western end of the building;
5) Ensure all windows already in place had mortar to seal them to the underlying brickwork; and
6) Free the cement mixer from being buried alive by the mounting hardened concrete surrounding it!

Everyone got stuck in even though it was proving to be a scorcher of a day. Within a couple of hours most of the tasks were well on the way to being completed with additional blockwork started on the back wall around the windows. A slight error in the marking out of the windows was picked up early so very little backtracking needed to be done. By the lunch break four tasks were completed and one was almost done. The group had a lunch of rice, chicken curry and bananas and took the rest of the time as an opportunity for a cheeky snooze in the shade.

After lunch, blockwork around the windows and the filling in of the mortar underneath the windows continued. The main activity during the afternoon session was to concrete the ringbeams at the western end of the building. However, soon enough that too was completed and more tasks were required. Before we knew it, it was time to call it a day. The highlight of the afternoon though was Gary returning to site with some post for Kerry and a tooth repair kit for toothless (aka Ed). However toothless’s relief was turned to disbelief when Lewis (Ed’s cabana mate) realised that he had a similar tooth repair kit in his bag all along! We all trundled back to Mango Beach after a long, hot but successful day at the office.

A Week of June Goes By

2008-06-13T05:18:00.000-07:00

Day 33 – Friday 6th June

Put Your Dirty Hands Up

We awoke to a brighter morning than yesterday and set off on our usual commute to the sound of a Portuguese lesson on mp3 which lasted about 30 seconds before being replaced by some tunes to help us on our way. We arrived on site to the sound of Reef singing ‘Put Your Hands Up’ and quickly tucked into a breakfast of omelette and a bread roll - one of the more normal breakfasts we have experienced so far. The tasks for the day were to complete the veranda to the southern and western walls but first the cement mixer had to be repaired after some minor damage sustained yesterday. With repairs complete we started digging the trench for the footings on the southern wall. After a few disagreements with the local labourers about levels on the veranda the southern footings were completed in time for a break.

Over break the kids from the school were willing to pose for a few pictures but were completely shocked when Kerry started chasing after them on all fours while barking. It didn’t take them long to realise (as the rest of us have) that she’s always completely barking! After the break we continued to work at our leisure on the eastern veranda footings, while we waited for materials to be delivered. Lunch (easily the least favourite meal of the day) consisted of Matapa and rice followed by oranges for dessert. After lunch the cement we had been waiting for finally arrived and we had to unload all 100 bags. Trina experienced a ‘near fatal incident’ when she was crushed by a falling bag of cement, and took a well earned break while the rest of us completed the job. We then moved on to finish the footings to the western veranda and started the block work to the southern wall before heading for Mango Beach at the end of the day with the sun in our faces and the prospect of a dip in the Indian Ocean followed by chicken samosas (which are excellent) for dinner to look forward to.

Quote of the day

“This thing’s f**king heavier than I am” – Trina under a bag of cement

Hope you’re all enjoying the 9 – 5 in the office!

Ed.

Day 34 - Saturday 7th June

“Beer at Bamboozi’s”

It might be the weekend but we were still up early and on site as usual by 7.15. The children are normally at school on Saturday but today was a public holiday so it felt quiet on site without them. After a filling breakfast of doughnuts, bread rolls and fruit salad in ‘custardy jam’ everyone set to work. Our main tasks were redoing the internal blockwork that had been pulled down yesterday, and continuing with the veranda which involved more blockwork and backfilling ready for concreting after the weekend. We had an easy half day and after lunch on site caught a lift into Inhambane for our first glimpse of the town. After a quick stop at the bank everyone split up into smaller groups and headed off to explore and do some shopping in the local market. Back at Mango Beach we started the evening in the bar watching the football and then headed off down the beach to Bamboozi’s for our first taste of Tofo’s nightlife, all except Brian who was feeling unwell and stayed in to get an early night. There was much confusion over what we could order to eat as lots of items on the menu were unavailable, but several drinks later our food eventually appeared and the garlic bread was definitely worth the wait! We had a pleasant walk back along the beach and continued drinking in the bar at Mango Beach with most of the group staying up till the early hours in anticipation of our lie in tomorrow. A busy day but lots of fun.

Day 35 – Sunday 8th June

“Bumps and Bruises”

Our first proper day off and everyone headed off to Tofo starting with an amazing breakfast of freshly baked doughnuts from Ceed’s Bakery. Most of the group went snorkelling – the boat ride out was good and sights included dolphins and a few schools of fish but on the whole there wasn’t as much to see as had been hoped. The snorkelling only lasted about 15 minutes due to choppy water and a few people struggling with essentials such as staying afloat and breathing normally! The boat trip back was quite rough with more than one person looking very unwell and Debbie in particular suffering with seasickness. Sadly no whale sharks were found but the final nail in the coffin was a rather abrupt landing on shore which resulted in an unfortunate collision between a still unwell Debbie and Lewis’s foot…. and the chance to practice our first aid skills! Meanwhile in the café next door Becky, Brian, David, Neomie and Diane took a more relaxed approach to the day and enjoyed a change of food and music (there is only so much Bob Marley we can take at Mango Beach!). Becky and Brian were feeling a bit off colour so took the chance to get some rest and did not move from the sofa and hammock all day, but the others ventured out with the returning snorkellers for some haggling in the local market, surfing and a game of volleyball on the beach. Lewis put on a brave face with his badly bruised foot and joined the other invalids in the café but Debbie had to be taken back early. A rather subdued evening was spent in the bar with most people going to bed early.

‘Quote of the Day”

Charlie to Debbie “Have you got diahorrea as well?”
Debbie in reply “No I’m going snorkelling”

Day 36 – Monday 9th June

“Feet and Inches”

A rather flat day on site today. The day started with Debbie still unwell after her sickness on the snorkelling boat. Chris was dispatched to Inhambane to pick up medication and pass the last rites on the laptop (R.I.P.) so two people down before we left.

However, we did arrive on site to catch the children singing the National Anthem which lifted the mood, followed by omelette and chips for breakfast.

Lewis having made it to site, all be it slowly due to his damaged foot was site manager. A group set about progressing the blockwork on the internal walls, whilst the rest of the group worked around the mixer and concreted the remaining two sides of the veranda. Breaking for lunch after completion of half of this.

Lunch was interesting and included our first brush with chicken feet and bean stew. Only Trina, Diane, Brian and Jack seeming brave enough to try this.

Back out on site we discovered that the concrete level was too high and we had to dig out some of our morning work straining slightly the atmosphere between the group and the local workers who rectified the error taking an inch off the level.

This took us to the close of the day, a tool count later, and a reappearing trowel we headed back to Mango Beach.

Day 37 - Tuesday 10th June

“Beachball Banter”

A full group headed to site this morning geared up for a busy day with “Dave” the manager. After a breakfast of “Rich Tea”, fruit and warm custardy jam, the group carried out some column repair and repointing of external walls. The team marked out window locations with the local guys fitting three for us, we continued some internal blockwork, removed veranda shuttering and the obligatory burning of poo paper! Since work on site was fairly limited today we had a general site clean and clear up followed by some beachball banter with the schoolkids. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the kids but one schoolgirl was not enamoured by Kerry who intentionally kicked her in the face with a ball twice! The funniest of moments was when Brian shocked all the kids by revealing he was 45 years old!

The local women served up a lunch of crab matapa and fruit just before Mr. Chris announced we were to have a half day due to the lack of work ……

Lying on the beach on a sunny African afternoon isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever done but it sure beats work!!

Quote of the Day
“I was not talking to you, I was talking to your husband” Local guys to Charlie accompanied by David.

Dave.

Day 38 - Wednesday 11th June

“Trowels and Tribulations”
Full ralley of troupes headed off to work on what started as a nippy morning. Roughly 20 mins later arrive at site a lot warmer than we started.

Had a full breakfast of omelette, chips and roll. The first order of the day was to shift some blocks inside the school via human chain which was carried out post group hug. This was followed by a full morning’s blocking on the internal walls and around the windows of the front façade. Stopped for lunch around 12.30ish and had a feast of rice and coconut chicken stuff followed by a fresh cut coconut for each of us. Unfortunately not everyone could eat their coconut after drinking all the coconut milk inside.

After lunch progress took a downturn as the block supply was severely depleted, the result of which was a half day for the group, so after cleaning up we all headed back to the ranch where most people elected to hit the beach and bar.

QOTD: “ Y’know laying a block is a lot like making love to a beautiful woman”

Day 39 - Thursday 12th June

“Ctrl alt delete reset the windows”

Headed out with the prospect of a full days work ahead. Fernando had surpassed himself this morning by serving up specially made (what looked like) dough balls with banana and french toast (eggy bread) and tomatoes, the dough balls were made of flour and coconut meat. Unfortunately very few of us ate them, they were collected up to give to the other workers. Debbie was team leader for the day and gave out the days objectives.

1. Move water tank by collecting three large logs and arranging them in a triangle and filling in with soil from the back of the building and at the same time levelling the soil out. The water tank was then placed on top of the triangle and the blocks underneath it (in its original position) moved away to the inside of the building. While moving the blocks we found a spider – a rather large one – a tarantula in fact. A quick photo shoot later and it was gently lifted out and let loose away from the fascinated crowd.

2. Moving blocks from outside to the inside of the building. Forming a human chain yesterday was damaging the blocks with too much handling. These blocks had only been cured for three days instead of the usual five and had to be transported one by one very carefully.

3. The partition wall dividing the two rooms at the western end of the building to be finished to ring beam height (ceiling height). Cross wall had to be bonded into the walls of the cupboard.

4. Levelling of all of the windows at the front of the building. This undid all of the hard work done yesterday because none of the windows were at the right height consistently along the site of the building or level. Work consisted of painstakingly chiselling out the massa that had been put in around the window frames yesterday – hot and tiring work.

While lots of very careful measuring and levelling was going on Kerry introduced the school children to the joys of the hokey kokey. A big circle was formed and everyone taking part just started to enjoy it then break was over and the children were called back to study.

The windows took up most of the day – but they had to be right!! Gary came and gave the thumbs up and then they all had to be filled back in around the frames to secure for the night.

Objectives fulfilled but on the whole a fair bit of waiting around until the windows were correct.

Quote of the Day
“Hokey Kokey!”

Dr. Debs

The First Days of June.....

2008-06-09T06:07:00.001-07:00

Day 30 - Tuesday 3rd June

Day zero (group 2) on site consisted of a Fernando special (aka omelette) and a modified and extended health and safety briefing. This will now be a daily feature on site…a lasting legacy from team 1 (and they shall always be remembered in that way J).

Roles were allocated for day leaders, 2-week leaders (helping with the site management), first aid leader (Dr Debbie) and new inventory staff.

Then group one’s hand-me-downs were passed onto the local labourers who were very eager to try on their new boots, shorts, shirts and caps. Rogeiro also presented a flag, which will be returned to Scott Wilson HQ to be nailed to the office wall as a permanent reminder of Mozambique.

The first day’s achievements (it appears group 2 are competitive) included block-work practicals, windows inserted on the eastern central wall, the block-work for two sides of the veranda and the first stage in backfilling the veranda.

A well –deserved beer that night in the bar also saw us learning Happy Birthday in Portuguese which we sang with great gusto for Lewis’ birthday. He was surprised by the balloons in the bar but loved his presents from his friends in England, his poker dice from the June-ites, his ‘I am 2 today’ badge and his favourite of all presents……his flowery work gloves.

Not a bad start, plenty more to come…..watch this space.

Quote of the day: I am the least unphotogenic person in the world.
- Lewis.

Day 31 – Wednesday 4th June

‘the quiet before the storm’
Having suitably celebrated Lewis’ birthday last evening, all surfaced on time for the hike to the worksite, encountering 5 giant millipedes enroute. Today’s objectives were set as completing the external walls to cill level, starting on the internal partition walls and backfilling the veranda. Group 2 were formally introduced to Director Juliao before breakfast (doughnuts and custardy jam). Work started at a cracking pace with all the objectives substantially complete by lunchtime. Due to external circumstances Gary the Builder was unable to make his planned site visit today, so the afternoon’s activities required some last minute reprogramming. This culminated in a decision to switch the workforce to excavation of the footings for the remainder of the veranda. By 3.00 pm the foundations were dug, formation compacted and coarse coral sand placed ready for concreting tomorrow. Having exhausted available materials the Scott Wilson Constructor Force packed up and headed back to Mango Beach for a most enjoyable swim in the ocean. Much concrete to be mixed and placed tomorrow.

Quote of the day: You looked like the fat b*****d on the Krypton Factor
- Lewis on Ed climbing into his mosquito net.

Day 32 – Thursday 5th June

‘Sticks and stones’
Awoke this morning to a grey start. After everyone was together at the kitchen area we headed off on our morning constitution walk to site with the threat of rain. By the time we got to site it has started to rain even though we were assured that it was not going to rain. We all huddled in the dining room for our breakfast treat of bread roll, scrambled eggs, tomato, cucumber, onion and crispy crepes. As the rain continued we remained inside enjoying extra crepes washed down with plenty of tea and coffee. By 9:00am the rain had stopped but it remained very overcast. The day’s work programme was now able to start.

With all hands on deck we started the shuttering and the levelling of the hard core ready for the concrete on the veranda on the north and east side of the school. Some team members continued getting the southern and western sides ready for the veranda footings. By 10:30 we were all in the swing of things and mixing concrete before the PM decided to call a Local Authority tea-break. The day progressed with mixing, barrowing and tamp(er)ing concrete.

Lunch today consisted of Mealie pap, coconut sardines and fruit.

All was going well until Gary arrived on site. He noticed that one of he internal walls had been built in the wrong position. Chris had questioned the position of the wall when the local builders had started it but was not able to get them to agree that it was in the wrong position. The outcome was negative progress as the wall had to be taken down. After the site was cleared and everything put away we headed for Mango and a swim in the Indian Ocean to remove the dirt and dust.

Dinner tonight is apparently ‘Chicken and Chips’ or ‘Frango Mango’

Quote of the day: Does anybody want to tamper with me?!!!!!!
- From Kerry

The Last Days of May

2008-06-09T06:05:00.000-07:00

Day 24 – Tuesday 27/05/08

‘Winding Down…’

By day 24 the pace of the project was starting to wind down a bit because the first phase of the project was so far ahead of schedule. Chris was starting to worry what the July group were actually going to do! We arrived on site a bit later than usual and decided to chill out and not work quite as hard as we had been doing. I think we definitely deserved it.

At the start of the day we split into small teams of two or three in each, and each team concentrated on a small section of the blockwork. One team marked out the location of the windows and doors and put some of them in place ready for the blockwork to be built up at the sides of them.

In one location of the school there is an area where three doors are really close and are facing different directions. Gary stayed on site to help us out with the task of setting out and levelling these three doors so we got it exactly right. He then left us to do the rest.

Because of a shortage in trowels and floats, it turned out a lot of people didn’t really have anything to do; so five people were allowed to have the afternoon off and then the rest of the group could remain fairly busy.

We made good progress by the end of the day. The back wall had blockwork up to the height of the ring beam, which goes just above the level of the tops of the windows and the rest of the walls were built up to about a metre and a half. We left early at about three after all the sand had been used up and there was no mortar left.

Day 25 – Wednesday 28/05/08

‘An Explosion of Texture and Taste’

The day started with perhaps the most filling breakfast yet – doughnuts, fruit in lemony/custardy sauce and the obligatory bread roll; ‘An explosion of texture and taste’, enthused Andy, self-appointed food critic for the day.

Unfortunately, this proved to be the high point of the day on site, with progress yet again limited by the (lack of) material deliveries. However, the local workforce were able to continue with raising blockwork around window and door frames at one end of the school. Government education officials arrived on another visit to view progress on the school.

Some of the group filled their time with a walk combined with litter collection, while others worked hard on perfecting the art of doing nothing while lying in the shade. An early finish was declared at lunchtime.

Most went into Tofo in afternoon, to stock up on presents from the market and to sample milkshakes. Matt and Charlie had a ferry ride to Masheesh to extend their visas, but with limited success. Chris, Mike and Fotini went to Inhambane to attend to business in town.

England vs. USA friendly tonight on TV in the bar.

Thursday 29th May

‘Off site with a bang’

A lift to work was becoming a rarity and today was no exception. The chef tried to sink us again with donut and fruit salad for breakfast plus a mountain of spare donuts for those with big appetites.

Today’s target was to ay the foundation for the veranda, which meant that the previous trench work had to be uncovered and re-levelled. Working with the same passion with which we started the month the job was completed just in time for lunch, giving us all a free afternoon.

Lunch was Matapa-free, consisting of a tasty fish stew and a plateful of prawns surrounded by a ring of chips.

The afternoon was spent in a variety of activities including diving training, visiting Tofu (again), relaxing and training for tomorrow’s big match against the local teachers.

The bush telegraph must have worked since Mango Beach obviously got the message that we missed matapa for lunch. As a special treat, for the first time in 4 weeks we did not have a tasty vegetable soup for dinner but matapa samosas. These were followed by calamari and chicken pieces with the usual salads.

Day 26 –Friday 30th May

‘Field of dreams, stuff of legend’

Having seen the inspired England performance on Wednesday night, the team started their day of departure from the village in anticipation of the afternoons international friendly against the local team.

Friday started with the entire group taking their final stroll through the dunes and marsh on the way to the school. Upon arrival we joined the children to sing the national anthem. ‘Pedra pedra construindo novo dia…’ (‘stone by stone creating a new day..’) had never seemed so apt or relevant.

Later a special treat was prepared where Fernando the chef presented the group with a breakfast comprised of a chocolate chiffon cake iced as a white and pink mother duck surrounded by ducklings (Which we were informed that we should eat whilst thinking of the children). The significance of this was then explained as one of our compassion and caring for the children of their community. Fernando (or ‘santa’ as he is known by all) appeared wearing a Santa suit, which added to his compassionate and thankful presentation by conveying an additional message of peace. He added that he thought that we cared more for the children than their parents did…. Reactions to that were mixed.

The director of the School (Juliao) continued the speaking tradition and thanked all for their involvement, support, commitment and spoke of his sadness at their departure. All in all, an emotional start.

Once stuffed with cake (surely a local ploy to ruin our hopes of a dynamic start to the football) we said our goodbyes for the first time and sat around discussing tactics, approaches and motivational speaking (at the blow of the whistle…clatter them!).

After about 4 hours we reached the conclusion we were bound to win, until the opposition turned up….

The ‘Group 1 heroes’ spent the morning and early afternoon playing with children in Pembane; balloons, Frisbees, football and songs and dances were the order of the day and although somewhat preoccupied with the football, I couldn’t help but notice how good so many of the team were with the children, despite the language barrier (and age difference) the games were so genuine and enjoyable and the kids so appreciative that even Chris - ‘Tin Man / psycho’ - Williams couldn’t fail to feel very happy about how well the team and local children had gelled in the past month. Genuinely inspiring and positive. Any burst balloons were immediately greeted with whoops and hunted down and put in the rubbish pile… something you’d never see in England.

The walk to the field of dreams was calm and collected, accompanied by the children, parents and builders all ready for the spectacle.

Once the crowd, of over 300 locals, had enjoyed the female students competition, the preparation began for the showdown.

Throughout the day it became obvious that Juliao had substituted a team of professional mercenaries in place of the expected teachers.

Teams warmed up, donned their kits and seconds later this first Scott Wilson / Mango Beach / QUEST All-stars were in action.

The pace caught everyone by surprise, and a tense few minute followed in which both teams sized each other up, looking for that first break.

A team comprising nationals from Ireland, Mozambique, Scotland, England, Zimbabwe and South Africa linked up surprisingly well in the first period of the game and the game was taking shape….

About 20 minutes in the unthinkable happened, Keith (‘man of the people’) Fulton moved forwards from the midfield and hammered home the lead, high and proud into the top right, taking a glance in off the post. Truly a wonder-goal. The crowds were ecstatic. After celebrations and congratulations within the team and from the fans the team got stuck in for more, with everyone doing their best to thwart the advancement of of the local team (ominously kitted in Man U strips)….

The first half ended with committed performances (as was to be expected given the building track-record) with Luke and Pidgeon linked in the midfield, Messi, Williams, and Pabs (el Mango) leading the strike force along with Bambu and Fulton.

A strong defensive line-up including Neville (‘Hard As’) Taylor and Neil (Razor a.k.s. ‘Clean Sheet’) Rugg between the posts.

After the first half, still one-nil up, the reality of the situation became clear.

The second half started with an unlucky bounce, which looped in over our replacement keeper and set the scores level.

From now on it was only a dedicated performance which could hold things balanced…. And that it was.

The game ended a 1:1 draw just as the sun set over the coconut trees and marsh. Truly a magnificent way to finish what has been an inspiring and positive first phase. One the subsequent team will have to work hard to live up to.

We were then invited back to the school for more goodbyes and a home-made treat from the children. Roasted Cashews and Coconuts were prepared and handed out and after an emotional goodbye the team wandered home by the marsh for the last time.

They will truly be missed…. But never forgotten.

C

Day 27 and 28 - Saturday 31st & Sunday 1st June

The team took a well-deserved break for the final weekend. Some went diving, some slept in, others wandered around Tofo or spent the day relaxing and reading.

Nuff said. C

Day 29 - Monday 2nd June

Departure time for group one (tears all round) and a busy day in town in preparation for the next groups arrival.

A smooth turnover and hopefully everyone enjoyed their time here and will remember it for a long time to come. On a personal note to anyone in group 1 that reads this (all of you) – it was a real pleasure working with you, I enjoyed meeting you all and getting to know you properly, keep the support coming, it really helps… please ah…!

Once team 2 arrived, again with one bag missing (a pattern emerges - David) and one less tooth filling - Ed (herewith known as ‘Bagless’ and ‘Toothless’) and had settled into Mango Beach they were briefed on the progress of team 1 and their targets for the week ahead were set. After a few ‘welcome drinks’ at the Mango beach bar and a wonderful seafood dinner (tuna and shrimp) the team settled in to their new rooms to prepare for their first day on site.

Week 3

2008-05-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

2008-05-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

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.

Construction Site Photos

2008-05-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Here follows the volunteer accounts of the first 13 days in Mozambique

2008-05-21T05:08:00.000-07:00

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!

Week 1: The Volunteers Have Landed...

2008-05-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

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!

Doin' it for the kids

2008-04-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

Do we need any other reason?

Why Did We Volunteer?

2008-04-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

Just ask some of our 43......

“This is a brilliant opportunity to make a tangible difference in an area that requires a facility.” Diane Riley.

“This is something I have always wanted to do – the combination of Africa, education and charity work.” Christina Petrides.

“I love Africa and wanted the chance to live as part of the local community in Tofo and do something useful rather than being ‘on business’ or ‘a tourist’.” Becky Humphrey.

“I had already been thinking about volunteering and I was looking at available options when this project came up so I jumped at the chance!” Trina Chan.

“This project will give me the opportunity to spend a complete month in an area that will allow me to experience its culture and life style not just as a tourist.” Jack Symmons.

Training Day

2008-04-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

A training day in London was hosted by Quest on the 29th March, Scott Wilson Millennium Projects partner for the project, which gave volunteers the opportunity to meet their fellow team members and learn about their African adventure. The day covered cultural awareness, responsible tourism, travel safety, health, kit and equipment and a background to Mozambique and the local community. The volunteers’ construction skills were put to the test in the teamwork challenge when they were tasked with constructing a tower to support the weight of an egg using only spaghetti and jelly babies! Some teams did better than others… At least the June group know how to make a mean scrambled egg.

So now most of us have met and the project is very much a real proposition. May team you have 2 weeks and counting. Good luck with those foundations.