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)
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)
.jpg)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment