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Day 1 Mon 5/5/08 – Touchdown on Terra da Boa Gente
The first weekend of May was a final opportunity for our first intrepid group of volunteers to do some last minute preparations and say goodbye to family and friends before embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.
Eleven of us gathered at Heathrow on Sunday afternoon and checked in for the 5pm flight to Johannesburg via Dubai. We picked David up in Dubai, met Petrina in Johannesburg, and then boarded the final flight to Inhambane. At this point David emerged as the official group photographer, taking a great shot of the team ready to board the flight, on a 20-seat aircraft.
We arrived in Inhambane more or less on schedule, and were welcomed by sunshine, palm trees, and some airport officials enjoying a beer on a table next to the small runway outside the terminal building, which consisted of a single room where we bought our visas. There we met Chris and Charlie from Quest, and the team was completed by Mattias, who had come by bus from the Mozambican capital, Maputo.
Everything was going smoothly until we realized that one of our bags had gone missing. Neville’s bag had disappeared between Johannesburg and Inhambane, which was doubly disappointing as it had made it safely all the way from Heathrow and we checked everything in again for the short final flight. Bad news, but hopefully it will turn up soon, and in the mean time the team will pull together to share essential everyday stuff with the big man.
Next we jumped in a minibus and drove to Tofo, the closest town to where we would be working. On the journey the realization finally sunk in – we had really arrived in Africa! Grass huts, ladies carrying huge buckets on their heads with no hands, bumpy dirt track roads, smiling children waving as we passed; amazing colours, sights, smells and sounds everywhere welcoming us to Inhambane Province, known as ‘terra da boa gente’ or ‘land of the good people’.
Tofo beach was full of children on the streets, very friendly and selling bracelets. One kid, named ‘Johnny Cash’ was particularly persistent, making us promise to remember him next time we come to the beach.
Next stop was Mango Beach, where we would be staying for the next four weeks. The lodge, run by a South African couple with three young children and five dogs, is set on the first sand dune from the Indian Ocean. The bar has great views of the sea on one side and sunset over the palm trees on the other.
Our first dinner (we’ll be eating at Mango Beach most nights) was prawns with rice and salad – delicious seafood is something we’ll be experiencing a lot of out here! Dinner was followed by a briefing from Chris, including working hours (7am - 4.30pm each day) and general tips on working on site, responsible tourism etc.
Chris also told us that there is a local custom of consulting the ancestors before any construction project can begin. We just missed this ritual, which involved copious amounts of palm wine (made by removing a young coconut from a tree and replacing it with a plastic bottle which collects the coconut milk, then allowing it to ferment for a few days) and saw two of the village elders face down in the sand within half an hour of drinking! Unfortunately the Ministry of Construction representatives had failed to make it to the ceremony (their car broke down on the way to the site), so we would have to wait for them the following day to gain their approval for the project.
After the briefing it was an early night for most, exhausted from our long journey and ready for a very early start on Tuesday.
Day 2 Tues 6/5/08 – High Five
After an early night (for most), we were up bright and early and couldn’t wait to get started on site. With the representatives from the Department of Construction due to arrive at 10am, this would give us plenty of time to familiarize ourselves with the site and ease into our first day’s work.
It wasn’t long before the first bit of drama – Andy was taking something out of his bag when he felt a sharp pain in his finger. Much to everyone’s surprise, it was actually a scorpion that had crawled into his bag during the night. Just a small one at 2 centimetres long, but these suckers pack a punch. Welcome to Africa!
At 6.30am we piled into the back of a van driven by Gary, the contractor for the project. He’s from London, but has been living in Mozambique for a few years and is very well connected. He has put together a team of local labourers who we’ll be working with on a daily basis, and negotiated a good deal with Antonio, the local supplier of building materials. Because of the nature of our project, Antonio has assured us that we’ll be given priority when materials are required.
When we arrived we were made to feel very welcome by Juliao, the school director. He insisted that we use one of the existing classrooms (the only one with desks) for breakfast, which was cooked by a very friendly man called Fernando. He’s an experienced chef who always cooks and serves food wearing a father Christmas hat! We are told that Mozambicans relish the opportunity for a bit of public speaking, and this was no exception. Fernando gave a speech about how happy he was to have us there, and how he hoped to please our tastes with his breakfasts. He was true to his word, serving up a delicious omellette with bread and coleslaw.
Unsurprisingly, the officials weren’t quite on time. There was a little frustration as we couldn’t start working until everything was approved and we were given the green light. However, this provided an opportunity to get to know the school children. They were full of life, all inquisitive and happy to see us. A flurry of high fives and greetings ensued, and one boy was particularly cordial, shaking each of our hands several times. He’s sure to be the village chief one day!
The officials eventually arrived at 1pm, much to our relief. Discussions lasted around half an hour, with the main man surrounded by an entourage of four or five technical advisors. After heated negotiations, the outcome was that we would have to stick exactly to the prescribed plans (Juliao would have liked to have a third classroom and smaller office), and that the school would have to be rotated by 180 degrees! Fortunately this wouldn’t effect the already dug foundations. Chris was also interviewed for the local radio station – we’re famous!
Following a lunch of rice and chicken feet (!), we finally got to work. Activities included further excavation for the foundations and placing a layer of rocks to act as the base of the foundations. Sergio gave us a quick lesson in coconut cutting using a machete – it’s not as easy as it looks, watch your fingers!
After all this time it was good to be finally on site and we all headed back to the lodge for a nice meal. It had been a relatively slow start, but with the official business out of the way we knew we’d be able to get fully stuck in on Wednesday.
The evening was spent in high spirits, with a bit of bat spotting (courtesy of Zoe and her detector) and some serenading of Dave as part of his birthday celebrations. We learned the Portuguese version of Happy Birthday, and finished the night with a round of ‘suitcases’.
Day 3 : The African way…
The Alarm clock seemed to come much sooner this morning, we were getting a lift to site though, this was a health and safety manager’s nightmare, 20 people and day sacks in the back of a pick-up, or ‘backie’ as they are referred to here. There were extra people with us today as the Quest underseas team were spending some time with the school children as part of their community involvement activities.
Breakfast when we reached site wasn’t quite weetabix! Squid and octopus with fried eggs and roll with jam….. interesting combination.
Gary the builder was otherwise occupied this morning so we were left to get on with working with the local labourers, we found the language barrier difficult today, the foreman seemed to be wanting to do things differently to what Gary had explained the day before. We continued to prepare the trenches for the foundations, digging out the sand, placing a layer of rocks in the bottom, wetting it all down and pounding the rocks into the wet sand.
Lunch was another culinary experience, with crab and matapa sauce, a combination of coconut milk, peanut and a local spinach type leaf.
During the day we were amazed by a huge number of locals passing the site, to which we later found out was to a funeral, people come from miles around, walking and on pick-up trucks.
A sand delivery in the afternoon was brought to a different side of the site to be closer to the concrete mixing pit and sunk in the soft sand off the main track. Deliveries are made on small flat bed trucks, anything larger wouldn’t make it on the soft roads (and you would have to go to SA for parts for them).
Most of the work today consists of one team moving a huge pile of stones for the concrete from one side of the site to the other. Another team set up nets and corner posts for the school football pitch and cleared the ground.
Cladding is started on the store building, the main structure is round-wood and leaf spines from palm trees and clad with woven palm leaves.
After a sunset swim, chatting back at Mango Beach we agree that the locals seem to love making sure we are well looked after.
Day 4: Mixing it up!
The second potentially venomous creature of the week was spotted at dawn when Mattias awoke to find something long and slithery meandering across the table in his room. All the evidence points toward the Mozambique Spitting Cobra, which some people may recognize from David Attenborough’s most recent series. However, having started to settle into Africa mode, nobody seems to be fazed.
Breakfast, prepared by a man in a Christmas hat, consisted of Manioc, a root vegetable and staple food in the area, and boiled eggs. We are also lucky enough to be provided with tea and coffee, and condensed milk before starting work on site.
Today was a day of seriously hard labour, with most of the day spent mixing concrete for the foundations. There is a feeling that for the project to be completed on time, there may be the need to obtain a cement mixer. However, Chris’s preliminary research suggests that there is only one functioning mixer in the region, and having made enquiries it is unlikely that we going to get our hands on it. This said, the team has started to perform well, and despite the vast amounts of concrete that will need mixing, we’re confident that the team will provide!
At break time we introduced the Frisbee and juggling balls to the children. In the screaming, laughing and general chaos that ensued, one ball mysteriously disappeared. Lunch provided by local women comprised rice and fish. This was followed by a serving of cashew fruit, which is abundant in the region. This strange orangey yellow fruit which feels wet upon the first taste, has a strange drying sensation after swallowing, and is best served with sugar, although some prefer to dip it in salt.
Today was the first day in which we started to bond well with the local labourers, and this has been greatly aided through our one to one language exchange initiatives on site. At the end of a productive day, we had mixed enough concrete to form the foundations on the west wing of the school.
We set off home, for the first time on foot, which is something that we will have to get used to as lifts to work are likely to become much less frequent. Despite a tiring day on site, the 2km walk down sandy tracks around the swamp provided a pleasant but tiring end to the day. As we walked home the setting sun painted a beautiful picture behind the palm trees. We arrived home for a quick dip in the ocean, and were treated to a lovely seafood paella before retiring to bed.
Day 5 – ‘Bricking it’
On day five we were welcomed by a gorgeous breakfast of crispy fried prawn cakes. Unfortunately this didn’t go down so well with all team members who weren’t feeling so well from a diet of fish, fish and more fish over the past few days! Following breakfast the group was split into three teams. Two teams of five and one team of four. One group had the task of constructing a new concrete mixing pit, as the first one had been broken up by the previous four days of mixing. The second group were assigned to determining the levels for the earth below the floor slab and levelling off the sand to this level. The third group were to mix new concrete batches to finish off the foundations for the remaining few columns.
Each of the three tasks didn’t go exactly to plan as the small stones required for the concrete in the foundations was running low and we were waiting for a new delivery that morning. The priority was therefore given to the group finishing off the last few column foundations and the group constructing the new pit had to wait for the delivery of stones to finish of the concrete in the base of the pit.
The group levelling off the sand in the centre of the building worked hard and finished their task by lunchtime.
Lunch was a choice of two local dishes which were both very tasty. Fish of course. After lunch Mike and Andy cause chaos chasing all the kids round the school making them really excited J After lunch we had a delivery of cement and more stones so most of the groups joined forces to mix concrete for both the pit, the columns, and the rests of the foundations.
Tensions grew between the local Mozambican workers and the volunteers because we were concentrating trying to finish the mixing pit so it could set over the weekend but they wanted to try and get the foundations completed. It wasn’t so bad though, and one of the workers even liked us so much to propose to one of the girls. No names mentioned… but we can confirm that she said yes. Haha.
Later on in the afternoon half the foundations were completed and all off the columns so we started on the first few layers of block work. This was great to see as finally we could start to see the school being built above ground level, and progress on the block was really quick. By the end of the day over half of the block work was completed. We all went home really satisfied with all the hard work we had put in that day.
Day 6 – ‘Hooray for the weekend’
On day five we split into 3 teams again. Only half day on site today. 2 teams were mixing concrete (for a change), alternating with ferrying the aforesaid concrete for use in foundations. Completed concrete base for foundations on 1st short side and part way along 2nd long side.
Local workman were still building temporary hut to store cement. Richard and Mike were asked to help fixing palm fronds to waterproof the roof, but were asked to ‘vamoose’ when they discovered their inaptitude for the extreme gymnastics required to balance on the roof whilst actually working. One team also did manage to help on the hut, with a number of team members being let loose with a machete to make and fix ‘lakka-lakka’ onto the roof.
Sterling work was also done in fixing buckets, the lack of which had caused severe delays on the transportation of concrete. One of the local workers, Jacinto, learned his first English word, which was, unsurprisingly ‘bucket’.
Finished work around noon today, rounded off by rice and matapa; the novelty is rapidly starting to wear off. Had lift home on pickup; Andy was hit by a tree, but as it was to his head, he sustained no serious injury.
Had a laid-back afternoon, with most people spending time in the Mango Beach Bar or on the beach. Tried to go swimming, but the sea had run away past the reef, which was a bit too sharp to walk over. Some went into Tofo to have a look at market and shops.
The day was rounded off by a trip to Dino’s Bar, where pizzas (real food!!) were enjoyed by everybody. The walk along the beach was remarkable for the thousands of ‘ghost crabs’ that scurry across the beach on a night, running out of the paths of torches as we approached. They have a translucent-white appearance, which explains their name, particularly in the near dark. Most left the bar at the ridiculously late hour of 10:00, but some stalwarts, including Andy, Mike, Fotini and Charlie, propped up the bar ‘til the early hours of the morning, with no apparent after-effects.
Day 7 Sunday 11th
Breakfast had been bought by Ian from the Quest underseas team when he was in the village yesterday so we had fresh bread and bananas instead of our usual site breakfast this morning.
Most of us were keen to go on the Whale Safari with Diversity Scuba today, we had a leisurely morning and got a lift into Tofo to go snorkelling about 11. This is getting close to the end of Whale Shark season so we were not sure how successful the snorkelling would be. The excitement started with us trying to get the boat into the water, at the end of a snorkel or scuba trip the boat is beached so we had to push the boat around and out into the surf before clambering aboard very ungracefully.
The boat took us out of the bay past a reef to open water and stopped to allow us to kit up with flipper and masks ready to hit the water as soon as something was spotted. We cruised up and down the coast like you would cut grass in strips watching out for activity. The spotted and skipper had a difficult job today as it was slightly overcast, making it difficult to spot the silhouettes against the sand bottom. During the trip we spotted two devil rays, closely followed by a pod of dolphins, we got in the water to swim with the dolphins, but they headed to the bottom when we got in, so this was a distant view. Next we spotted a huge manta ray, which swam under the boat when we stopped beside it. We were heading back to the beach, thinking the trip was over when we spotted a whale shark close to the reef guarding the bay. At the skippers instruction we all slipped into the surf quietly and swam alongside the largest fish in the sea for some time. This was a relative tiddler at 5m long, they can easily grow more than twice this length, but was an exhilarating swim, following the shark as it cruised along. We all landed back on the beach with a bump happy and excited, and agreeing that was a morning well spent.
Lunch was provided at Diversity Scuba and then we either indulged ourselves watching some of the football from the last day of the season, or walked around the market in Tofo before walking back to Mango Beach for our evening meal as usual.
Day 8 Monday 12th
Usual early start and walked to school in time to witness the flag raising ceremony. The national anthem lasts over 4 minutes and the flag is run up the pole at a corresponding speed.
Following Chris’s suggestion to father Christmas that salad had no nutritional value breakfast was accompanied by a strange packet of crisps.
Finally a cement mixer arrived and although it hadn’t worked since Christmas it fired up ok and worked all day long to the relief of the crew and good progress was made on the footings. We were ‘allowed’ to lay some blocks around the base.
100 bags of cement arrived to be unloaded into the still unfinished hut; there were some very dirty members as half the bags were obtained at a bargain price being damaged.
Dinner consisted of bread crumb coated chicken legs (the renowned ‘Frango Mango’) plus the usual rice, avocado salad and green salad, just right for pumping calories back in. Not sure many stayed up late after a tiring day.
Day 9 - ‘The Power of Love Moves Buckets’
A brisk early morning walk to site (6.30am) was followed by Father Christmas’s fantastically unusual breakfast of coleslaw, hard-boiled eggs and sweet potato with bread and jam – yummy!
A very productive day unfolded as we started preparing the foundations for the internal classroom walls and finished constructing the shuttering for two sides of the ring-beam. All in all we made up and moved huge amounts of concrete and mortar. We also succeeded in digging up the troublesome palm tree from the corner of the plot and rolled it safely off the foundations.
New shiny metal buckets also arrived, which doesn’t sound like much to the average person in the UK, but it was a joyous occasion on site since we had been using plastic buckets that had been repaired on multiple occasions prior to the arrival of the new buckets.
Lunch was fishy spaghetti – a welcome change from the usual fish / crab matapa and rice meals. However, it was quite a slimy meal and a little hard for some to stomach.
One of the Mozambiquan labour force was feeling like he had built a good relationship with us and suggested that the ‘Power of Love’ was what was moving all the buckets of concrete.
A stone delivery that was supposed to arrive early this morning didn’t come all day (an example of the typical laid-back approach exhibited by many in Mozambique) and so we were able to leave site a little early today in hope that it would arrive the following day.
We were lucky enough to get a lift back to Mango Beach in Gary’s pick up truck – or so we thought. Half way up the ‘sand dune of doom’, an arduous part of the walk back from site (well, we are usually quite tired by this point in the day), Gary’s truck (with trailer in tow) got stuck half way up the slope. We all disembarked and ended up pushing the truck and trailer separately to the top. This proved to be an effective exercise in team working, even though it involved a slightly larger expenditure of energy than we had expected.
The day finished with a swim at the beach, although a number of small stinging animals, possibly some kind of plankton or jellyfish, brought a premature end to the swimming activities for some, whilst others managed to find a sting-free area in the shallows to swim and practice their snorkelling.
A magnificent slap-up meal ended the day and tired again, most people left for bed quite early.
Day 10 – “A Walk on the Wild Side”
Took a bit of a detour into work today – via Tofo and Tofinho – in an overcrowded bakkie: three people standing down the centre holding onto one anothers’ shoulders and 12 others perched around the edges. Might be good practice for those budding surfers amongst us but almost certainly contravenes Scott Wilson’s Health & Safety regulations!
Breakfast was ready when we arrived – cold omelette, fried banana and bread. Got ourselves fuelled up for a tough morning of mixing concrete (by hand) for the ringbeam, digging the trench for one dividing wall and building up the height for the foundations of two internal walls that had been started yesterday.
We had a rather depleted team today – we left Andy and Fotini at Mango Beach for the day as they were not feeling well and Neville and David left with Gary not long after breakfast so that Neville could try his luck at the airport once again (in search of his errant bag) and David went to sample the Mozambican health services at Inhambane Hospital.
A load of fine stones had been delivered before we arrived in the morning and a load of sand was delivered mid-morning to allow us to get on with mixing concrete and mortar.
Enjoyed a fish-free lunch of mieliepap (stiff maize meal) and chicken in sauce.
Finished off concreting most of the ringbeam and blockwork but short of 6 bricks.
We completed all our tasks for the day by 4pm and someone had the idea to walk through the swamp as many of the locals appear to do. Much of the swamp had been burnt earlier in the day, presumably clearing for cultivation. While this meant that the snakes were likely to have moved out to higher ground, it also meant that any remaining in the swamp were likely to have been more than a little irritated. Fortunately we did not encounter any (visible) beasties on the way despite having to remove our boots to wade knee-deep in places through the brackish water. Needless to say, we have decided not to take that route home from work again….
Day 11 – Thursday 15th May
No ride to work today. After a brisk walk we enjoyed a breakfast of scrambled egg, some deep fried crispy thingies, tomatoes and onions, and not forgetting the usual bread roll with jam.
The weather was a bit cooler today but a few people thought it was the hottest day so far. The only explanation for this anomaly is the amount of work and therefore physical exertion we put in, in particular shifting tonnes and tonnes of sand.
After a small amount of concreting and block work, foundation walls and ring beam were completed and it was then time to fill the spaces between with sand which we excavated from a borrow pit to the south of the school (this pit has since been earmarked for a possible septic tank location for latrines….makes sense). Estimates vary but given the school footprint is 175m2 and we imported, spread and compacted an average depth of say 200mm of sand over the whole area, well you can work out the rest.
We were down on numbers again today; Libby was not feeling good and stayed back at Mango beach to rest, and Foetini was sill struggling a bit after yesterday.
Lunch was crab and bean stew with rice, and oranges for afters.
Everyone put in a really mammoth effort today and the fill was placed by mid afternoon. We were promised a delivery of coral sand to put over the sand as a capping layer but that didn’t transpire so once we had tidied up the site we headed back to Mango Beach at about 15:30. By this time Mike and Andy had become involved in a game of football with some of the children from which we had to drag them away. Let’s hope those deliveries arrive early tomorrow or we may be twiddling the thumbs a bit!!
Day 12 – ‘Compaction’
We started the day with 30 min walk to the site.
Usually the walk in the morning makes us feel more tired because of the heat.
Breakfast as usual around 8.15.
Team were divided in three. Our morning task was completion of backfill followed by reinforcement placing at the afternoon.
First team was busy with excavation material from borrow pit and caring the sand to areas under the ground slab.
Team two - levelling
Team three - compaction
It is very hard work and compaction took as almost the whole morning.
An hour before lunch new delivery of coral stone arrived.
After the break we continued with levelling and compaction of the coral stone.
Late afternoon reinforcement works started – cutting and placing steel bars and fixing it with wire.
The day finished at 16.30 with walk back to the Tofo Beach.
Very good team performing during the whole day.
Day 13 – 17thMay 2008
Today we arrived on site with the warm glow of knowing we had only half a day’s work to do before “breaking up” for the weekend! After a filling breakfast of eggs, tasty fried crispy things and the usual bread etc., we filed out ready to get stuck in.
Initially we were given three tasks to complete over the course of the morning – continue laying steel lengths to strengthen the floor slab; investigate the possibility of building a bridge over the marsh adjacent to the school; check the levels of the floor in one of the classrooms, and put up the shuttering for the floor slab.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite to plan. We very quickly ran out of steel, leaving a few of us pretty redundant. The marsh bridge investigations and floor level checking were completed quickly, leaving those who had done them also redundant, and there were a few hiccups in putting up the shuttering… in short, in the main we sat around most of the morning feeling frustrated that there wasn’t much we could do!
On the plus side, a group of local children kept us well entertained with singing, drumming and dancing. In return a couple of SW employees (no name dropping!) treated a group of rather startled children to some “Saturday Night Fever” style moves!
After a lunch of rice and matapa we finished on site and travelled to Inhanbane, the local town. Finally the opportunity to write emails, go to the bank, and a bit of market shopping! Then back to Tofo for dinner and a few drinks – a positive end to a day that started in frustration!
The first weekend of May was a final opportunity for our first intrepid group of volunteers to do some last minute preparations and say goodbye to family and friends before embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.
Eleven of us gathered at Heathrow on Sunday afternoon and checked in for the 5pm flight to Johannesburg via Dubai. We picked David up in Dubai, met Petrina in Johannesburg, and then boarded the final flight to Inhambane. At this point David emerged as the official group photographer, taking a great shot of the team ready to board the flight, on a 20-seat aircraft.
We arrived in Inhambane more or less on schedule, and were welcomed by sunshine, palm trees, and some airport officials enjoying a beer on a table next to the small runway outside the terminal building, which consisted of a single room where we bought our visas. There we met Chris and Charlie from Quest, and the team was completed by Mattias, who had come by bus from the Mozambican capital, Maputo.
Everything was going smoothly until we realized that one of our bags had gone missing. Neville’s bag had disappeared between Johannesburg and Inhambane, which was doubly disappointing as it had made it safely all the way from Heathrow and we checked everything in again for the short final flight. Bad news, but hopefully it will turn up soon, and in the mean time the team will pull together to share essential everyday stuff with the big man.
Next we jumped in a minibus and drove to Tofo, the closest town to where we would be working. On the journey the realization finally sunk in – we had really arrived in Africa! Grass huts, ladies carrying huge buckets on their heads with no hands, bumpy dirt track roads, smiling children waving as we passed; amazing colours, sights, smells and sounds everywhere welcoming us to Inhambane Province, known as ‘terra da boa gente’ or ‘land of the good people’.
Tofo beach was full of children on the streets, very friendly and selling bracelets. One kid, named ‘Johnny Cash’ was particularly persistent, making us promise to remember him next time we come to the beach.
Next stop was Mango Beach, where we would be staying for the next four weeks. The lodge, run by a South African couple with three young children and five dogs, is set on the first sand dune from the Indian Ocean. The bar has great views of the sea on one side and sunset over the palm trees on the other.
Our first dinner (we’ll be eating at Mango Beach most nights) was prawns with rice and salad – delicious seafood is something we’ll be experiencing a lot of out here! Dinner was followed by a briefing from Chris, including working hours (7am - 4.30pm each day) and general tips on working on site, responsible tourism etc.
Chris also told us that there is a local custom of consulting the ancestors before any construction project can begin. We just missed this ritual, which involved copious amounts of palm wine (made by removing a young coconut from a tree and replacing it with a plastic bottle which collects the coconut milk, then allowing it to ferment for a few days) and saw two of the village elders face down in the sand within half an hour of drinking! Unfortunately the Ministry of Construction representatives had failed to make it to the ceremony (their car broke down on the way to the site), so we would have to wait for them the following day to gain their approval for the project.
After the briefing it was an early night for most, exhausted from our long journey and ready for a very early start on Tuesday.
Day 2 Tues 6/5/08 – High Five
After an early night (for most), we were up bright and early and couldn’t wait to get started on site. With the representatives from the Department of Construction due to arrive at 10am, this would give us plenty of time to familiarize ourselves with the site and ease into our first day’s work.
It wasn’t long before the first bit of drama – Andy was taking something out of his bag when he felt a sharp pain in his finger. Much to everyone’s surprise, it was actually a scorpion that had crawled into his bag during the night. Just a small one at 2 centimetres long, but these suckers pack a punch. Welcome to Africa!
At 6.30am we piled into the back of a van driven by Gary, the contractor for the project. He’s from London, but has been living in Mozambique for a few years and is very well connected. He has put together a team of local labourers who we’ll be working with on a daily basis, and negotiated a good deal with Antonio, the local supplier of building materials. Because of the nature of our project, Antonio has assured us that we’ll be given priority when materials are required.
When we arrived we were made to feel very welcome by Juliao, the school director. He insisted that we use one of the existing classrooms (the only one with desks) for breakfast, which was cooked by a very friendly man called Fernando. He’s an experienced chef who always cooks and serves food wearing a father Christmas hat! We are told that Mozambicans relish the opportunity for a bit of public speaking, and this was no exception. Fernando gave a speech about how happy he was to have us there, and how he hoped to please our tastes with his breakfasts. He was true to his word, serving up a delicious omellette with bread and coleslaw.
Unsurprisingly, the officials weren’t quite on time. There was a little frustration as we couldn’t start working until everything was approved and we were given the green light. However, this provided an opportunity to get to know the school children. They were full of life, all inquisitive and happy to see us. A flurry of high fives and greetings ensued, and one boy was particularly cordial, shaking each of our hands several times. He’s sure to be the village chief one day!
The officials eventually arrived at 1pm, much to our relief. Discussions lasted around half an hour, with the main man surrounded by an entourage of four or five technical advisors. After heated negotiations, the outcome was that we would have to stick exactly to the prescribed plans (Juliao would have liked to have a third classroom and smaller office), and that the school would have to be rotated by 180 degrees! Fortunately this wouldn’t effect the already dug foundations. Chris was also interviewed for the local radio station – we’re famous!
Following a lunch of rice and chicken feet (!), we finally got to work. Activities included further excavation for the foundations and placing a layer of rocks to act as the base of the foundations. Sergio gave us a quick lesson in coconut cutting using a machete – it’s not as easy as it looks, watch your fingers!
After all this time it was good to be finally on site and we all headed back to the lodge for a nice meal. It had been a relatively slow start, but with the official business out of the way we knew we’d be able to get fully stuck in on Wednesday.
The evening was spent in high spirits, with a bit of bat spotting (courtesy of Zoe and her detector) and some serenading of Dave as part of his birthday celebrations. We learned the Portuguese version of Happy Birthday, and finished the night with a round of ‘suitcases’.
Day 3 : The African way…
The Alarm clock seemed to come much sooner this morning, we were getting a lift to site though, this was a health and safety manager’s nightmare, 20 people and day sacks in the back of a pick-up, or ‘backie’ as they are referred to here. There were extra people with us today as the Quest underseas team were spending some time with the school children as part of their community involvement activities.
Breakfast when we reached site wasn’t quite weetabix! Squid and octopus with fried eggs and roll with jam….. interesting combination.
Gary the builder was otherwise occupied this morning so we were left to get on with working with the local labourers, we found the language barrier difficult today, the foreman seemed to be wanting to do things differently to what Gary had explained the day before. We continued to prepare the trenches for the foundations, digging out the sand, placing a layer of rocks in the bottom, wetting it all down and pounding the rocks into the wet sand.
Lunch was another culinary experience, with crab and matapa sauce, a combination of coconut milk, peanut and a local spinach type leaf.
During the day we were amazed by a huge number of locals passing the site, to which we later found out was to a funeral, people come from miles around, walking and on pick-up trucks.
A sand delivery in the afternoon was brought to a different side of the site to be closer to the concrete mixing pit and sunk in the soft sand off the main track. Deliveries are made on small flat bed trucks, anything larger wouldn’t make it on the soft roads (and you would have to go to SA for parts for them).
Most of the work today consists of one team moving a huge pile of stones for the concrete from one side of the site to the other. Another team set up nets and corner posts for the school football pitch and cleared the ground.
Cladding is started on the store building, the main structure is round-wood and leaf spines from palm trees and clad with woven palm leaves.
After a sunset swim, chatting back at Mango Beach we agree that the locals seem to love making sure we are well looked after.
Day 4: Mixing it up!
The second potentially venomous creature of the week was spotted at dawn when Mattias awoke to find something long and slithery meandering across the table in his room. All the evidence points toward the Mozambique Spitting Cobra, which some people may recognize from David Attenborough’s most recent series. However, having started to settle into Africa mode, nobody seems to be fazed.
Breakfast, prepared by a man in a Christmas hat, consisted of Manioc, a root vegetable and staple food in the area, and boiled eggs. We are also lucky enough to be provided with tea and coffee, and condensed milk before starting work on site.
Today was a day of seriously hard labour, with most of the day spent mixing concrete for the foundations. There is a feeling that for the project to be completed on time, there may be the need to obtain a cement mixer. However, Chris’s preliminary research suggests that there is only one functioning mixer in the region, and having made enquiries it is unlikely that we going to get our hands on it. This said, the team has started to perform well, and despite the vast amounts of concrete that will need mixing, we’re confident that the team will provide!
At break time we introduced the Frisbee and juggling balls to the children. In the screaming, laughing and general chaos that ensued, one ball mysteriously disappeared. Lunch provided by local women comprised rice and fish. This was followed by a serving of cashew fruit, which is abundant in the region. This strange orangey yellow fruit which feels wet upon the first taste, has a strange drying sensation after swallowing, and is best served with sugar, although some prefer to dip it in salt.
Today was the first day in which we started to bond well with the local labourers, and this has been greatly aided through our one to one language exchange initiatives on site. At the end of a productive day, we had mixed enough concrete to form the foundations on the west wing of the school.
We set off home, for the first time on foot, which is something that we will have to get used to as lifts to work are likely to become much less frequent. Despite a tiring day on site, the 2km walk down sandy tracks around the swamp provided a pleasant but tiring end to the day. As we walked home the setting sun painted a beautiful picture behind the palm trees. We arrived home for a quick dip in the ocean, and were treated to a lovely seafood paella before retiring to bed.
Day 5 – ‘Bricking it’
On day five we were welcomed by a gorgeous breakfast of crispy fried prawn cakes. Unfortunately this didn’t go down so well with all team members who weren’t feeling so well from a diet of fish, fish and more fish over the past few days! Following breakfast the group was split into three teams. Two teams of five and one team of four. One group had the task of constructing a new concrete mixing pit, as the first one had been broken up by the previous four days of mixing. The second group were assigned to determining the levels for the earth below the floor slab and levelling off the sand to this level. The third group were to mix new concrete batches to finish off the foundations for the remaining few columns.
Each of the three tasks didn’t go exactly to plan as the small stones required for the concrete in the foundations was running low and we were waiting for a new delivery that morning. The priority was therefore given to the group finishing off the last few column foundations and the group constructing the new pit had to wait for the delivery of stones to finish of the concrete in the base of the pit.
The group levelling off the sand in the centre of the building worked hard and finished their task by lunchtime.
Lunch was a choice of two local dishes which were both very tasty. Fish of course. After lunch Mike and Andy cause chaos chasing all the kids round the school making them really excited J After lunch we had a delivery of cement and more stones so most of the groups joined forces to mix concrete for both the pit, the columns, and the rests of the foundations.
Tensions grew between the local Mozambican workers and the volunteers because we were concentrating trying to finish the mixing pit so it could set over the weekend but they wanted to try and get the foundations completed. It wasn’t so bad though, and one of the workers even liked us so much to propose to one of the girls. No names mentioned… but we can confirm that she said yes. Haha.
Later on in the afternoon half the foundations were completed and all off the columns so we started on the first few layers of block work. This was great to see as finally we could start to see the school being built above ground level, and progress on the block was really quick. By the end of the day over half of the block work was completed. We all went home really satisfied with all the hard work we had put in that day.
Day 6 – ‘Hooray for the weekend’
On day five we split into 3 teams again. Only half day on site today. 2 teams were mixing concrete (for a change), alternating with ferrying the aforesaid concrete for use in foundations. Completed concrete base for foundations on 1st short side and part way along 2nd long side.
Local workman were still building temporary hut to store cement. Richard and Mike were asked to help fixing palm fronds to waterproof the roof, but were asked to ‘vamoose’ when they discovered their inaptitude for the extreme gymnastics required to balance on the roof whilst actually working. One team also did manage to help on the hut, with a number of team members being let loose with a machete to make and fix ‘lakka-lakka’ onto the roof.
Sterling work was also done in fixing buckets, the lack of which had caused severe delays on the transportation of concrete. One of the local workers, Jacinto, learned his first English word, which was, unsurprisingly ‘bucket’.
Finished work around noon today, rounded off by rice and matapa; the novelty is rapidly starting to wear off. Had lift home on pickup; Andy was hit by a tree, but as it was to his head, he sustained no serious injury.
Had a laid-back afternoon, with most people spending time in the Mango Beach Bar or on the beach. Tried to go swimming, but the sea had run away past the reef, which was a bit too sharp to walk over. Some went into Tofo to have a look at market and shops.
The day was rounded off by a trip to Dino’s Bar, where pizzas (real food!!) were enjoyed by everybody. The walk along the beach was remarkable for the thousands of ‘ghost crabs’ that scurry across the beach on a night, running out of the paths of torches as we approached. They have a translucent-white appearance, which explains their name, particularly in the near dark. Most left the bar at the ridiculously late hour of 10:00, but some stalwarts, including Andy, Mike, Fotini and Charlie, propped up the bar ‘til the early hours of the morning, with no apparent after-effects.
Day 7 Sunday 11th
Breakfast had been bought by Ian from the Quest underseas team when he was in the village yesterday so we had fresh bread and bananas instead of our usual site breakfast this morning.
Most of us were keen to go on the Whale Safari with Diversity Scuba today, we had a leisurely morning and got a lift into Tofo to go snorkelling about 11. This is getting close to the end of Whale Shark season so we were not sure how successful the snorkelling would be. The excitement started with us trying to get the boat into the water, at the end of a snorkel or scuba trip the boat is beached so we had to push the boat around and out into the surf before clambering aboard very ungracefully.
The boat took us out of the bay past a reef to open water and stopped to allow us to kit up with flipper and masks ready to hit the water as soon as something was spotted. We cruised up and down the coast like you would cut grass in strips watching out for activity. The spotted and skipper had a difficult job today as it was slightly overcast, making it difficult to spot the silhouettes against the sand bottom. During the trip we spotted two devil rays, closely followed by a pod of dolphins, we got in the water to swim with the dolphins, but they headed to the bottom when we got in, so this was a distant view. Next we spotted a huge manta ray, which swam under the boat when we stopped beside it. We were heading back to the beach, thinking the trip was over when we spotted a whale shark close to the reef guarding the bay. At the skippers instruction we all slipped into the surf quietly and swam alongside the largest fish in the sea for some time. This was a relative tiddler at 5m long, they can easily grow more than twice this length, but was an exhilarating swim, following the shark as it cruised along. We all landed back on the beach with a bump happy and excited, and agreeing that was a morning well spent.
Lunch was provided at Diversity Scuba and then we either indulged ourselves watching some of the football from the last day of the season, or walked around the market in Tofo before walking back to Mango Beach for our evening meal as usual.
Day 8 Monday 12th
Usual early start and walked to school in time to witness the flag raising ceremony. The national anthem lasts over 4 minutes and the flag is run up the pole at a corresponding speed.
Following Chris’s suggestion to father Christmas that salad had no nutritional value breakfast was accompanied by a strange packet of crisps.
Finally a cement mixer arrived and although it hadn’t worked since Christmas it fired up ok and worked all day long to the relief of the crew and good progress was made on the footings. We were ‘allowed’ to lay some blocks around the base.
100 bags of cement arrived to be unloaded into the still unfinished hut; there were some very dirty members as half the bags were obtained at a bargain price being damaged.
Dinner consisted of bread crumb coated chicken legs (the renowned ‘Frango Mango’) plus the usual rice, avocado salad and green salad, just right for pumping calories back in. Not sure many stayed up late after a tiring day.
Day 9 - ‘The Power of Love Moves Buckets’
A brisk early morning walk to site (6.30am) was followed by Father Christmas’s fantastically unusual breakfast of coleslaw, hard-boiled eggs and sweet potato with bread and jam – yummy!
A very productive day unfolded as we started preparing the foundations for the internal classroom walls and finished constructing the shuttering for two sides of the ring-beam. All in all we made up and moved huge amounts of concrete and mortar. We also succeeded in digging up the troublesome palm tree from the corner of the plot and rolled it safely off the foundations.
New shiny metal buckets also arrived, which doesn’t sound like much to the average person in the UK, but it was a joyous occasion on site since we had been using plastic buckets that had been repaired on multiple occasions prior to the arrival of the new buckets.
Lunch was fishy spaghetti – a welcome change from the usual fish / crab matapa and rice meals. However, it was quite a slimy meal and a little hard for some to stomach.
One of the Mozambiquan labour force was feeling like he had built a good relationship with us and suggested that the ‘Power of Love’ was what was moving all the buckets of concrete.
A stone delivery that was supposed to arrive early this morning didn’t come all day (an example of the typical laid-back approach exhibited by many in Mozambique) and so we were able to leave site a little early today in hope that it would arrive the following day.
We were lucky enough to get a lift back to Mango Beach in Gary’s pick up truck – or so we thought. Half way up the ‘sand dune of doom’, an arduous part of the walk back from site (well, we are usually quite tired by this point in the day), Gary’s truck (with trailer in tow) got stuck half way up the slope. We all disembarked and ended up pushing the truck and trailer separately to the top. This proved to be an effective exercise in team working, even though it involved a slightly larger expenditure of energy than we had expected.
The day finished with a swim at the beach, although a number of small stinging animals, possibly some kind of plankton or jellyfish, brought a premature end to the swimming activities for some, whilst others managed to find a sting-free area in the shallows to swim and practice their snorkelling.
A magnificent slap-up meal ended the day and tired again, most people left for bed quite early.
Day 10 – “A Walk on the Wild Side”
Took a bit of a detour into work today – via Tofo and Tofinho – in an overcrowded bakkie: three people standing down the centre holding onto one anothers’ shoulders and 12 others perched around the edges. Might be good practice for those budding surfers amongst us but almost certainly contravenes Scott Wilson’s Health & Safety regulations!
Breakfast was ready when we arrived – cold omelette, fried banana and bread. Got ourselves fuelled up for a tough morning of mixing concrete (by hand) for the ringbeam, digging the trench for one dividing wall and building up the height for the foundations of two internal walls that had been started yesterday.
We had a rather depleted team today – we left Andy and Fotini at Mango Beach for the day as they were not feeling well and Neville and David left with Gary not long after breakfast so that Neville could try his luck at the airport once again (in search of his errant bag) and David went to sample the Mozambican health services at Inhambane Hospital.
A load of fine stones had been delivered before we arrived in the morning and a load of sand was delivered mid-morning to allow us to get on with mixing concrete and mortar.
Enjoyed a fish-free lunch of mieliepap (stiff maize meal) and chicken in sauce.
Finished off concreting most of the ringbeam and blockwork but short of 6 bricks.
We completed all our tasks for the day by 4pm and someone had the idea to walk through the swamp as many of the locals appear to do. Much of the swamp had been burnt earlier in the day, presumably clearing for cultivation. While this meant that the snakes were likely to have moved out to higher ground, it also meant that any remaining in the swamp were likely to have been more than a little irritated. Fortunately we did not encounter any (visible) beasties on the way despite having to remove our boots to wade knee-deep in places through the brackish water. Needless to say, we have decided not to take that route home from work again….
Day 11 – Thursday 15th May
No ride to work today. After a brisk walk we enjoyed a breakfast of scrambled egg, some deep fried crispy thingies, tomatoes and onions, and not forgetting the usual bread roll with jam.
The weather was a bit cooler today but a few people thought it was the hottest day so far. The only explanation for this anomaly is the amount of work and therefore physical exertion we put in, in particular shifting tonnes and tonnes of sand.
After a small amount of concreting and block work, foundation walls and ring beam were completed and it was then time to fill the spaces between with sand which we excavated from a borrow pit to the south of the school (this pit has since been earmarked for a possible septic tank location for latrines….makes sense). Estimates vary but given the school footprint is 175m2 and we imported, spread and compacted an average depth of say 200mm of sand over the whole area, well you can work out the rest.
We were down on numbers again today; Libby was not feeling good and stayed back at Mango beach to rest, and Foetini was sill struggling a bit after yesterday.
Lunch was crab and bean stew with rice, and oranges for afters.
Everyone put in a really mammoth effort today and the fill was placed by mid afternoon. We were promised a delivery of coral sand to put over the sand as a capping layer but that didn’t transpire so once we had tidied up the site we headed back to Mango Beach at about 15:30. By this time Mike and Andy had become involved in a game of football with some of the children from which we had to drag them away. Let’s hope those deliveries arrive early tomorrow or we may be twiddling the thumbs a bit!!
Day 12 – ‘Compaction’
We started the day with 30 min walk to the site.
Usually the walk in the morning makes us feel more tired because of the heat.
Breakfast as usual around 8.15.
Team were divided in three. Our morning task was completion of backfill followed by reinforcement placing at the afternoon.
First team was busy with excavation material from borrow pit and caring the sand to areas under the ground slab.
Team two - levelling
Team three - compaction
It is very hard work and compaction took as almost the whole morning.
An hour before lunch new delivery of coral stone arrived.
After the break we continued with levelling and compaction of the coral stone.
Late afternoon reinforcement works started – cutting and placing steel bars and fixing it with wire.
The day finished at 16.30 with walk back to the Tofo Beach.
Very good team performing during the whole day.
Day 13 – 17thMay 2008
Today we arrived on site with the warm glow of knowing we had only half a day’s work to do before “breaking up” for the weekend! After a filling breakfast of eggs, tasty fried crispy things and the usual bread etc., we filed out ready to get stuck in.
Initially we were given three tasks to complete over the course of the morning – continue laying steel lengths to strengthen the floor slab; investigate the possibility of building a bridge over the marsh adjacent to the school; check the levels of the floor in one of the classrooms, and put up the shuttering for the floor slab.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite to plan. We very quickly ran out of steel, leaving a few of us pretty redundant. The marsh bridge investigations and floor level checking were completed quickly, leaving those who had done them also redundant, and there were a few hiccups in putting up the shuttering… in short, in the main we sat around most of the morning feeling frustrated that there wasn’t much we could do!
On the plus side, a group of local children kept us well entertained with singing, drumming and dancing. In return a couple of SW employees (no name dropping!) treated a group of rather startled children to some “Saturday Night Fever” style moves!
After a lunch of rice and matapa we finished on site and travelled to Inhanbane, the local town. Finally the opportunity to write emails, go to the bank, and a bit of market shopping! Then back to Tofo for dinner and a few drinks – a positive end to a day that started in frustration!
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3 comments:
OLA A TODOS!!! (Hi everyone!!)
I am soo sorry I was not able to meet you in Tofo. The only free weekend I had was destroyed when my "driver" (partner) was on-call during the weekend. The next weekend I came to London!
It seems like you are working very very hard and eating all kinds of traditional mozambican food. Some I never even tried (chicken feet!!!)
Hopefully you can have more choice of food during dinner..hehehe :)
Some info:
The Matapa is made of Cassava leafs and there is another version of it called M'boa which is made of Punpkin leaves. Hopefully you will also try the Peanut Curry with Chicken (Caril de Amendoim). They make with coconut milk and ground peanut. :) the Sura bread they sell at the market is also made with Coconut milk, which shows how the Coconut is so used from building their huts, to the "Sura" (alcoholic drink), to using it for fuel and building.
It's strange that you won't find that many people selling it for the drinking water.
Some things you can do when in Tofo: Visit Barra Beach and have a sundowner at the Flamingo Londge.
Find Rock Beach (Praia da Rocha). It is a deserted beach that only sees fisherman once in a while.
Walk around the streets of Inhambane, for me one of the most beautiful cities in Mozambique.
Try cold coconut juice with whisky (amazing!!) inside the coconut
Do a barbeque from fresh fish and seafood bought from the fisherman
Anyway..just to say the London is still here, cold with bits of sunshine and the closest wildlife I have seen are badly humored people. So, enjoy the sunshine, the water, don't come back too soon and say hi to Dino and Fatima for me! :)
Beijinhos
Patricia
P.s if anyone needs a place to stay in Maputo for a bit, mi casa es su casa (a minha casa e a tua casa!)
a lovely account - sand, surf and cement. smells of africa. i'm very jealous :)
you can see where the author got a bit tired of diarising on day 12 though...
all the best to team tofo!
shibani
Hi Everyone!
You've certainly been keeping the June Group amused and entertained with tales of your exploits! Keep up the good work - it sounds like you're having an amazing time and I can't wait to get out there and do my bit....10 days to go and counting!
All the best,
Becky
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