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