Its Beginning to Come Together

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

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

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.....

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

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.