Snot knocking anyone?

Thursday 10th July

All clean from our long-awaited shower and chocolate dessert from the day before, we set off for yet another productive day on site early this morning. Tasks for the day were clear: wood cu]tting for the benches, sanding and painting of two of the rooms, windows and door frames and finalising the trusses and block cutting for the roof.

Everything went smoothly and we managed to take a break to spend some time playing with the children. They loved it! We did too! We did the hokey-cokey (or okey-kokey, whatever!), which seems to be an old-time favourite of theirs. Then, with the kids wondering what we were up to, we took out the rope…time for a little bit of limbo! We had to explain to them that they have to bend backwards to go under the rope instead of running under it head first a dozen at a time, but it didn’t take long for them to grasp the concept and start showing off to each other. They seemed to enjoy it so much that we didn’t have the heart to stop. Instead we started rope skipping, with Nikki holding their hands and telling them when to jump. Time to go back to work came all too soon.

Just before we left for Mango, we were told that the water had stop running again and that there would be no shower or drinking water when we get back (again!). And today is the day on which the wedding is being held. The bride was not very happy that she couldn’t wash her hair…of all days! After much persuasion and a promised bottle of wine later, Nikki sang ‘Nobody Does It Better’ at the reception and we could all hear her voice ring clear and pure through the resort. Way to go!

The bar was off limit as the reception was being held there. So, in true campers fashion, we had dinner in the outdoor kitchen, sitting wherever was possible (which including the kitchen sink and the steps). Food, beers, juice and fizzy drinks were brought down to keep everyone happy and chatting, until the hard day’s work lead us back to our cabanas.

Wendy

Friday 11th July – Last day of Term

Having been reliably informed that today is Friday, the task of writing the blog falls to me.

After the morning walk to site with the usual entourage of tardy school children and regular chorus of “Bon Dias” in our wake, we arrive to discover that today is the last day of term. It dawns that we will have to make the most of it.

As usual, the local lads were already on site and working to complete the plastering of the administration rooms from the previous day. With some still to do, they have been persuaded to work a full day tomorrow to plaster two walls in the classrooms. This will enable them to be made near complete (except for the roof). Other work today included continuing building up the blockwork in the admin rooms, sanding endless piles of wood for the desks, minor plastering below trusses, touching up paint and the addition of the first purlins (rails between the trusses to nail the zinc sheets to) over the classrooms.

All the children turned out from lessons during a natural lull in the work (and still needing to get some footage on our recently repaired video camera), the Scott Wilson Kids Club was assembled and dispatched to entertain. This was the first real chance we have had to play with the children for a good length of time and began with a new Mozambican Record for the largest Hokey-Cokey. This was rapidly followed by a largely confused relay race using flip-flop batons, with at least one child sighted running with two flip-flops at times. They children then broke into smaller groups to play games that included “Duck-Duck-Goose” (Google it, it’s difficult to explain).

Then everyone assembled for a mass contest of Tug of War. From where I was watching, it was unclear who won but this seems to be common and no one appeared to mind. The Scott Wilson Kids Club were admirably supported by our new Canadian friends gymnastic act, which had the local lads stopping work to watch. Though, without taking anything away from a very good show, one or two of the local lads have been known to stop work to watch the clouds go by.

The children have been told they can return in their holidays next week to play. It will be interesting to see how many do after today’s show, and we still have a few tricks left up our sleeves.

Nick


Saturday 12th July - Code word ‘Master Mind’

We arrived on site at the usual time and had breakfast, which included egg, for a change. The team was lacking it’s usual energy at the start of the day and it was a struggle to get tasks assigned, but today was a day for finishing up on lots of small tasks and the team were told that, if asked about their progress on a task, the answer was ‘I’ve started, so I’ll finish’. This proved to be the case, in the end, as many tasks were, indeed, completed and it was a productive morning. Sanding, painting, sanding, painting etc etc etc. After a slow start, it was actually very difficult to get some team members to stop work and eat lunch!

After the walk home and showers all round, we headed into Inhambane for money, shopping and food. The market was an experience for everyone and many bags (Beatriz) and trinkets were bargained for before it was time to meet up for a dinner of gourmet burgers and tasty desserts. The ride home was also an experience – drinking rum from a plastic bottle in the back of a van that had a big hole between the roof and the back door – but everyone survived!

Back in Tofo, the team headed for the bar and enjoyed several beers and ‘White African’ cocktails – whilst discussing the choices that people had made for the next day, which was the first day that we were to be left to our own devices. Surfing, Kayaking and Diving were the main choices, with some people opting to simply chill and relax… can’t think why!? The walk back along the beach under the moonlight was the perfect end to a great day...

Nikki

Sunday 13th July – ‘Zer is a shoe in ze Vater’

So, Sunday finally arrives and everyone is looking forward to whichever activity they have picked. Four of the team had picked a day of adventure on the Kayak Safari and were hoping for good weather – they didn’t get it! After leaving Mango Beach at 8.10am (without the donut breakfast that everyone else was to later enjoy), they set off on their adventure from White Sands to Inhambane Island in Kayaks that were (and I quote) ‘Un-capsizeable’. Unfortunately for Nikki and Martyn, their Kayak proved about as un-capsizeable as the Titanic was unsinkable!! They ended up in the water at least four times on the 90 minute journey and will forever share a bond that can only be gained by such experiences!! There were three German back-packers on th trip with them and one was heard to shout, upon the first incident, ‘Zer is a shoe in ze vater’ – which happened to be Nikki’s flip flop! By the end of the journey, he had both flip flops!! Many other quotes could be put in the blog from that particular experience, but none are printable! However, overall, the day was a great success and most of the day was spent laughing!

Those who had chosen to chill out also missed the sun, which had decided to hide behind the clouds for the day, but they enjoyed some time on the beach – as well as walking into Tofo for food, drinks and shopping. The divers didn’t have such a great time, as there were difficulties with the diving equipment and with the levels of visibility – due to the very strong currents, so they didn’t get to see a great deal. However, there is time for them to try again, and most are up for another attempt.

Quotes of the weekend:

‘Ian is suffering from goat in the knee’
‘It’s not something, it’s something else…’!?
I’ve bought an elephant but now I don’t know if I want it!'
‘If you have booked it you must be there, otherwise you make me look like a 'expletive’ (the quotee subsequently didn’t turn up the next day for their activity!)
‘These are the worst conditions I have ever seen here’ (dive master – great thanks)
‘The water will be like glass’ (kayak instructor before embarking into choppy waters)


Monday 14th July

Day of Dick

For Jamie, the day started with an involuntary shower – day of Dick started off wet!
However. The sunrise was the best yet.
Today we had too many bodies for the available tasks. We had a frantic burst of - you’ve guessed it - sanding and painting the walls that had been successfully plastered – bribery is alive and well in Mozambique – on Saturday. The desk jockeys were confused – not difficult – by our trained carpenter, The master length had mysteriously shrunk between Saturday and Monday, It transpired that Cremildo had cut 10cm off so that the desks would fit into the room!!! The desk job was welcome today after the weekend’s exertions, whether physical or financial.
There may not be any bears in Mozambique, but a ‘bear’-chested man was spotted on the business end of a paint roller. One of our members, you would have thought old enough to know better than to frighten small children and animals, was seen to strip to the waist in the early morning sunshine. (photo available for a large fee).
Plan B was invoked when no preservative was available. The purlin joining plates (Lucy won’t let us call them gussets) were primed and two girls set up a production line assembling them so that our top team could erect purlins on the roof. A lot of clearing up was also done, in hopeful preparation for floor screed after the roof sheeting goes up, and scaffolding moved for the plasterers
Some of the team were sent off for the early bath as work dried up later on, and all arrived back at Mango in time to sit at the bar and watch the sun go down on another successful day.

Uncle Dick (rumour has it)

Tuesday 15th July

Early doors

Today was to be like any other day with walls to be sanded and painted; purlins to be put in place, with a side order of snot knocking (chiselling off the lumps of plaster that has landed on the floors prior to screeding). After an initial burst of activity, and the need for plastered walls to finish drying before they could be sanded and painted with undercoat, there was a lull in activities. Some of the group ended running around in circles with some of the kids who still come to school despite being on holiday (you won’t catch any self respecting kid in the UK doing that!).

A tea break was called and a pep talk and discussion of job tasks ensued. With the team decidedly ‘pepped’ and with new assignments assigned the group set off with vigour. Bea and Nick demonstrated their plastering talents, again, straightening the top edge of the internal walls. A crack team put the basecoat on one of the end administration rooms (to be the library); whilst some prepared more purlins for putting on the roof; and others knocked the snot.

To occupy one teams time it was decided the doors could have their final coat of paint applied ahead of schedule (now there is forward planning).

With the end of the day looming the sand and cement supplies for the screed were ordered for the coming week and the final preparations were made before the first corrugated zinc sheets could go onto the roof, hopefully tomorrow...

Eisen-man (apparently)

Wednesday 16th July

Musical day…

After a couple of days of a cloudy start we got up to a beautiful sunny morning. A promising day even though we were three men down due to the usual Mozambiquean effect and strong spices….

The kids were off and the site was quiet….but even the usual walk to the site can be a different experience day after day. A challenge for all the photographers that cant resist getting their cameras out to get a shot of the different birds like the lilac breasted roller with their wonderfully colourful wings, the sun set, the pink clouds, the Mozambiquean ladies walking with their amazing posture even though carrying our lunch on top of our heads, buckets of water or even a huge amount of logs.

The day on site consisted of the usual snot knocking, painting and sanding. But the group was so motivated, enthusiastic and inspired that that a pop band was created and songs written on the sounds of site work…..

“Snot knocking, we’re knocking snot and now I think we’ve had our fill. We’ve never knocked such a lot of snot and I hope we never will. We want to screed the floor today, but we first we’ve got to knock this snot away……”
(Crocodile Rock – Elton John)

“We see a blank wall and we want to paint it white, no colours anymore we have to paint it white. They wanted cream or grey, but we just told them NO. So, we have to paint it white, so go away , just go!”
(Paint it Black - Rolling Stones)

Lead singer - Nikki
Guitarist – Sally
Drummer – Sarah
Saw (?) – Chris
Manager and Promoter – Jamie
Special participation – Beatriz
(Video clip available by special request….single soon to be released on I-Tunes)

Finally, by the end of the day, we managed to get the first zinc sheets up which ended with Martin’s comments: “This is quite satisfying, I might even go for a shave tonight.” This was followed by Chris mentioning that he might keep his rough look…..

So, I have to finish by saying….what a fantastic day after all!!
And also sweet…with Christina handing lollipops to everybody on site.

Be


Thursday 17th July

Jacinto on a tin roof

The day kicked off with a great inspirational talk from Prof. Chris that both gave us the focus and the drive that we needed to bring things together for the day (getting a tired crew into spirits)!

Everyone getting involved from the start made things work well (even with the “snot knockers”). The roof continued to go on with a ramping up start and painting of the north end of the school made another inspirational landmark.

The usual lunch hour was unfortunately cut short for a number of the team with a last minute notification that the first classroom must have a final coat of paint before the final floor could be poured (tomorrow morning)… and with the zinc sheeting going above head (at pause for the lunch hour), a great crew of painters took the bull by the horns and painted fiercely.

The team as a whole took great initiative to coordinate to both advance the roof structure, zinc sheeting, and take care of the important floor work going on below… GREAT work team!

The local workers were also quite involved in the team effort, with the carpenters continuing to work tightly with the securing of the zinc and the rest of the local team finishing off the last couple of small rooms and south end wall.

At the end of an extra long day for all a rewarding drink at the bar was enjoyed by all! This does and should give Prof. Chris a great sense of justice, accomplishment and vigour (and I know it does because that is a “coat”).

Marty