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.