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