Tuesday 29 July 2008

All Good Things.

Friday 25th Continued…

Fernandos final words

Greeting us with a breakfast of cake (his wedding special), Fernando and Juliao had some final words (tearjerkers if ever there were) about their views of the SWMP / QUEST partnership and project.

Juliao began by citing his concerns about Fernando before the project began; ‘he is an old man, who suffers his illnesses of rheumatism and age, I was concerned that he would be unable to handle the long walk to work and three months of work. I am so glad he managed it and that he was so appreciated. I am sure that someone was watching over him to help’.

Juliao continued to talk about how much the school means for the area and how appreciative everyone in the village is for all the hard work and dedication it took to bring the final building together. He thanked us and said he would make his final speech on Monday when the kids are back.

Then Fernando took centre stage (dressed as always as the messenger of peace and love – Santa). He spoke very much from the heart and thanked everyone involved, spoke about the three cakes he had made (one for each team) and how much joy he got from working with the groups.

The most significant words were when he spoke about growing up in the colonial era in Mozambique and saying that in all his long life, he had never seen people with such love and such good will to help others. He had not realised that there was such good in the world, and to know this made him very happy.

After apologising that his baking methods and ingredients were not what we may be used to, and may not be to our tastes, he served up huge slabs of the most delicious cake. Definitely to everyone’s tastes, and made all the more poignant when we found he had been up until 2 in the morning baking and icing it. A cake made with dedication and love.

When you’re back in the Uk, if you can spare any funds to help us help Fernando pass on his knowledge and skills to future generations of Mozambicans, please do.

Contact Mike Pidgeon and Mark Eisenegger at the SWMP.

Saturday 26th July

Casa de Comer (The House of Eat)

Today saw the group (except Bea who was doing the final dive for her diving course) travel to Inhambane. About 10 people hired a dhow for an hour and had a very peaceful, calm and relaxing journey which took in, well not much really as we didn’t go very far, but it was very peaceful calm and relaxing! Just what we needed. Others qued for the bank machines and everyone managed to get another trip to the market in.

Lunch at Verdingoes was a welcome meat feast.

The afternoon consisted of preparing for the amazing food at Casa de Comer by going to the Tofo market, again. The main highlight of the evening was at Fatima’s bar where we experienced an famous local drumming group. The dancing was lead by the groups number one follower a 67 year old woman who had 11 children and who danced a the drums story.

Whilst most headed back for bed at a relatively reasonable hour others partied the night away, having breakfast in Said’s Bread Shack and then watching the sun rise, going to bed just before the main group headed off on Sunday morning.

Mark

Sunday 27th July

A MANTA OF A TIME

Rising early for 10am most of the group were able to see the stragglers from the night before returning to their nests to sleep. So were rudely awoken when they saw Chris H sand rolling followed by an extroverted morning swim.

Chris W, Nick, Bea and Mark were off diving Manta Reef today, a 25m dive. Others came into town for even more shopping (will you never stop Wendy!) and relaxing on the beach soaking up Tofo’s atmosphere.

Underwater Mark and Bea managed to miss the only manta ray their group saw during their dive because they were doing tasks for their deep dive qualifications. Whereas Nick and Chris, who had gone off together as they were a lot more experienced, manage to reel in the big fish – 6 manta rays circling them, a reef shark, 3 devil rays. Mark and Bea were not to be disappointed though when on the way back we spotted a juvenile whale shark (only 4m!!!) cruising the coast near tofo’s reef. Bea, Nick and Mark leapt into the water to swim within only a few metres of it. Within a few minutes we were exhausted, paddling away just to keep up with this giant. What an amazing experience.

The evening meal was a quiet one with people lost in their own thoughts and packing their pressies for the journey tomorrow.

Mark

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