Again we have had a very hot day, by 1400 it was over 30 degrees. Some of the group were finding it hard going because of the heat.
The wood poles for the roof had not arrived by the time we left the site today, but we have had local people out all day cutting the poles, so hopefully they will be on site when we get on site tomorrow morning. We were able to start plastering of the walls in the small classroom,the whole group were taking turns mixing mortar and plastering.
Its 9.30pm and the roofing sheets have just arrived, that means tomorrow we should be able to fix some of the roof tomorrow which will be the last day we will be working School.
Thursday we will be handing the classrooms over to the School.
The second group have returned from Buffalo camp having had a great time.
At the School,with the help of the Mikpa scout, we have being able to get the rest of the roof truss's in place today,20 in total. We still need to paint these before we can start putting the the roof sheets onto the truss's. We still need about 200m of wood poles to enable us to attach the roof sheets which some of the group may need to help cut tomorrow.
Greetings to you all in Zambia.....
We have been so overwhelmed by all the photos of your building work. The classrooms look amazing. To see the roof going on today is a real achievement!!!! Buffalo Camp must have been a real treat. The sunsets and pictures of the wildlife are picture postcard.. We are certainly missing you, Sunday lunch today was ... (mince and mealies). Hope that you are all well. Keep up the fantastic work. All our love Gran (Mum) and Lois xxxxoooooxxxx
Sunday, August 2, 2009
A number of the young people attended church with the Mipka scouts this morning. We all were on site by 11.45. Process was a little slow today as we ran out of a number of items, (B & Q is about 150 km away) we needed to install more of the roof truss's, We were able to locate the truss's we installed yesterday on the right centre lines, so will be now hopefully be able to fix the roof sheets to the small classroom when they are delivered on Tuesday.
The second group will be returning from Buffalo Camp tomorrow night, we will be having a big push to get at least the small class room finished before start our return trip to the UK on Friday.
I have also uploaded a few more photos of the first groups visit to Buffalo Camp.
Today we were joined by a group of local scouts from mipka, who are staying over the weekend. With they help we have be able to make good progress on the school. By the time we returned to camp tonight we had 6 of the roof truss's installed.
After dinner we had a camp fire with the whole group taking part, which was great fun, not a bit like a UK camp fire.
Tomorrow will be trying to finish building the rest of the truss's we need as we now have a good supply of poles on on site, as well as installing more truss's. I think most of the group are hoping it is not as hot as most found the work hard today
Over the last few days, more brick laying has being done by the group remaining back at the School, the whole school is now up to roof level which is great. We also have a number of the roof truss finished.
The main work from now is starting the roof of the school, we intend to work on the smaller of the classrooms first, this is being started by the group which have just returned to camp tomorrow morning.
We have returned from Buffalo Camp, wow what an experience we have seen some amazing animals; elephants, lions, honey badger, "crocadillia", wild dogs, hippos and many many more. The weather was fantastic and we all had a fab time. Back to work for us now on the school. The other group have managed to get the brick work up to roof, now we have to make the roof trellis and paint them with termite solution which isn't fun if it gets on your skin!!
Today entailed a rather fun ride on 4x4 cars and safari trucks with a trailer attached. After saying farewell to groups 2 a very squashed wagon ride for another 2 hours before back to camp. The evening meal had a Zambian "themed" meal involving sausages, mash and custard :-p
After involved a long session in the hot springs before a trip to the lodge this blog can be written and a drink to help us recover from the day.
Hope everyone really enjoys the safari and makes the most of the well earned break. Alex hope you have a fantastic 16th birthday on Saturday we will all be thinking of you. We are going to have a party in your honour so make a wish when we blow the candles out.
Lots of love mum dad aidan adam & abigail x x x x x
i am was on catering today and accidently fell asleep for 2 hours. but not as good as my lie in yesterday I LOVE THE DAY OF REST plus rafting was mental (:
haha we made pasta bolonase (Lotti says bolognase) haha (: were all good and a little homesick i cant wait to be home i miss you mummy
its hard doing cooking but i have mastered the cleaning my clothes
i need to go but we go on safari tomorrow (: talk 4 days! love Laura xxxxxx
Hi everyone, especially to those whose parents havn't quite managed to send a message on this site yet. This is my first attempt at using this technology so here goes.
Iv'e read your all your info and looked at all the pictures, everyone looked very happy, no homesick faces. Its an amazing way to keep in touch and see the project grow. looking forward to the next instalments.
Lauren I'm glad to know that your legs are in one piece this time, although you still have two more weeks for those little monsters to attack. Michael said keep on having fun see yu soon.
Sharon Greenwood (Laurens Mum) xx
Today we worked in the school we are building at, teaching all the children about healthy living - washing hands, cleaning teeth and healthy eating. They are all so enthusiastic to learn, you can see from the photos that the facilities they have are a lot different from ours. The young people enjoyed working with the children and did some very good games sessions. Each child was given a pack containing the toothpaste, toothbrush and soap to take home to their families they also got a selection of stationary. A lot of children use a stick to clean their teeth and this stuff we have given them for some is the first they have ever used.
Liz
The first half of the group are going to Buffalo camp tomorrow for a 4 day safari, Buffalo has no internet access as its 100km into the bush, therefore I will not be able to upload any photos until I return. The blog will still be up dated from Hot Springs by members who are still in camp.
Today we had a rest day, well if that what you call it. It has also being very cold today, all most no sun, with most of us having to put coats on, it was 23 degrees, it just felt cold. Some of the group went to Church this morning, Church in Zambia starts at about 10.00am and finish about 3.00pm, our members only attend for about 2hrs today to enable them to do some of the other things going on.
After lunch, 12 young people went rafting on the river, we only let them do the short run today which lasted about 1.5hrs, all returned wet having had a good time. We are having a quiz night for even one at present. The Hot Springs has also being well used today
Its back to work tomorrow, more bricks to move and brick laying to do, we are hoping the wood for the roof truss's will arrive so we can start putting them together.
Today we seem to have reached as far as possible for now and yet finished quite early. Three of the walls are up to the top of the window frames -(damn metal bits that stick out from the frames, forcing you to cut the bricks to fit!) - and the other wall is up to the bottom of the windows. Most of the bricks have come up from the kiln across to the school- but again we didn't have the tractor this afternoon so we could only sort them into piles. there can only be one more trailer load to go. :p We had a weird kind of dinner tonight.. a bit of everything was on the menu. the main item being fish, with the head, tails and fins still attached. Barney served it asking, "heads or tails??" After I got over the look of it, it was actually very nice. Anyway everyone seemed to eat it - everyone is hungry and tired now at this point in the week. Most people who have been ill are getting better now, so that's good news, yet everyday someone has some reason to go visit Doreen. She will probably be the most appreciated member of the team by the end of the trip. Tomorrow we are splitting into two groups- one to go to the Church for the Sunday service and one to go rafting. Looking forward to all that could bring. All in all, everyone is fine and really enjoying their time (not too homesick) Over and out... Rosie
Most of the window frames have being fitted today, we are hoping to start building the roof trusses tomorrow as the locals have started to cut the trees that are needed for this part of the project , we are also hoping getting the walls at one end of the building up to roof level by the end of work. After a big effort by ever one most of the bricks have being moved onto site as well today.
The African heat returned this week, most of the group are having to take more rest time mid day as its was over 30 degrees this afternoon, lots of the spare time the young people have, is being spend in the Hot Springs
After another day of hard toil under heavy heat, the building is beginning to take shape. The walls are now up to window level, making things a little more tricky for the smaller team members. The rather interesting scaffolding structures should help tomorrow.
What happens when you put a group of scouts and girl's brigade in the middle of Zambia? The best answer? Don't ask!! From sweat to springs and tears to tuna I can tell you now were only one week in and it's getting interesting!!
My first thing... Embracing natural Beauty...
Now when I say natural beauty I mean no nice pleasures (except the springs and bar etc!!) but seriously I don't think anyone cares any more!! My armpits now resemble small gerbils (don't worry Andy I'll shave them before i come home!) but that's nothing! Considering Selby is a guy everything he lifts his arm I swear it growls!! All the girls are now sporting mini plaits like the ones people make you have when your 11 on holiday in spain and you sit there for about 3 hours while your mum says 'You look lovely' thats until 3 weeks later when she can't get them out and they've morphed into some dreadlocks which don't look so lovely! I can tell you now getting your feet trapped in wet rocks does nothing for you except alot of pain and a hobble that challeneges an old woman on a zimmer frame... As for tanning... that is one thing that gets the big thumbs up!! I'm that naturally pale you turn the light of in a room of people and someone shouts 'jeeze casper the friendly ghost does exist!!' but believe it or not i am tanning!! and its not freckles!!!! And the bricklaying is great for the arm muscles that is except when Leona decides Daddy Dave's head would look better with a brick imprint in it.. that was a few days ago and the ugliness hasn't gone down!! Oh if he reads that... anyway thats enough on beauty wait until i treat you too my blunt expression of the food!! Ciao x
Ps. Mum... Your nick name is MAMMY mac not MUMMY mac! but it made me crease so 10/10 you wonderful relation of mine :D
Laura gets to go first! :D mum and dad, please comment again. REEEEEEET first day of hard work. which started off pretty sweet (: it was more fun than domestics, but by lunch time it was tiring. we got 5 layers done and after only a third of the group worked there hardest it was really difficult. plus we cant go on the internet because i went on yesterday. :/ mum, text jenny to say email me :P for lunch we had African stable food called n'shima (pronounced sheemer) like boiled flour stuff. tasty. although tea was awesome, thanks Sam omggg i washed clothes too (karens infact) [another thing to add to Lauras's growing list of career choices]
First of all... what is 'REEEEEEET'?? I'm sure that's not in my Oxford dictionary.. :S
The catering team today was Green lead by Sam Cree... wow what good cooks they are ... not only did we get perfect bacon for breakfast, we also got SPAG BOL for tea! :D Then we had to walk to site ... however a few lucky few people got a lift with Dave! Top man!
There were three new teams on site today so we had to start from scratch (sorry Fred the was not a single 'flush upper and lower arrice or frog in sight!) One unlucky team had to cart the bricks from the kiln but we got to continue with bricklaying.
All the walls are looking good now we have 10 layers on each wall, and all three doors in place. Even the outside of the walls are looking good...with some excellent pointing..no sorry doug, 'filling in the gaps'.
The African food we had at lunch was certainly an acquired taste but Laura sorting that out by stealing the salt shaker ... but still didn't eat it all! (what a waste :P)
Still loving the hot springs though .. and the lodge is fantastic.
Love to all (from laura)
xx p.s MUM HAVE YOU GOT MY BEDROOM AND JACK WILLS BED SPREAD??
pps mummy puryer please learn how to use the blog, i am feeling unloved
We made great progress today, 10 rows of bricks which brings us up to window level, once we get the windows in there is far less brickwork required so we should progress quickly.
It is still red hot and a few of us are suffering from sunburn but the hot springs is a great relief after a hard day's work.
The school children are really interested in what we are doing and hang around watching us whenever the Headmistress is not around.
We are all eating well but we need to so we can cope with the manual work.
