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

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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.