Container up-date

As the container did not arrive before team B we hired tents for the team coming on site.  The said container is now delayed in Gaborone and the Botswana Scout Association decided to open it and send some of the contents by van.  I am delighted to report we now have 10 strip lights and a boxful of multi sockets on site – just exactly what we required!!!!

On a more serious note some of us have our chairs, the generator and the festoon lighting is now in place which makes clearing up after the evening meal easier.  We are still awaiting the promised container; the latest estimated arrival is Wednesday, just in time for the departure of team A from the site.

Whole team

The rest of our team arrived safely yesterday evening and were greeted by members of team A dressed in their onsies - just to prove that after 4 weeks in Africa you will be completely crazy!

Bad hair day!

I have elected myself to tell you all about the joyous few days the Dragons were on base camp and the veritable feast we fed the workers.

Before

First I would like to tell you I have finally had a haircut. 

During

Unfortunately I let everybody have a go with the scissors and Mark might have gone a little bit crazy. 

After

However Anne kindly tidied it up a bit and averted complete disaster, so although it is pretty short at least it is uniformly short and I just about remained in possession of both my ears.

Now

Now for the food!  On the night of 22^nd we decided to let everybody cook their own twists over the fire and dip them in as much jam as they wanted, so in the afternoon I made up some delicious dough.  When dinner, supplied by the fantastic Dragons and cake supplied by the fantastic Brian, was finished everybody got a dough  ball to wrap around a stick and cook until golden brown.  Everybody loved the communal cooking and it was widely agreed that it was one of the best pudding so far.

Next morning, I did some more baking in preparation for garlic bread for the evening meal.  Jamie has perfected the art of creating orange and lemon juice with the freshly picked fruit we were gifted.  Joe cut the lemons.

Tim

Pouring the foundations

We started early this morning ready for a hard day of work filling in the foundations of the hall.  Elliot and I decided today would be a good day to wear our matching turquoise vests.  What a sight! 

After an excellent warm up by Martin the work teams headed off to site.  The cement mixers were fired up and we began the filling.  Our “engines” (sticks strapped to the wheelbarrows) were prepped and morale was high so we soldiered on racing our way through the task.  With two committed and efficient teams a hard days work was finished in half a day. 

With an afternoon to recover we washed and one of the teams headed off to the craft stalls.  Soon enough we were all back at camp for Macaroni Bolonaise with homemade garlic bread!  Another challenging but rewarding day in Botswana

Ben

The rest of the team

Only 2 days until the next team leave,  we wish you all a safe journey and look forward to seeing you on Friday.

Photos

Preparing the evening meal

Big Bunnies

Tidying site

OBK

Scout's Own

Working 'til sun down

The Ever Expanding Botswana Bonanza

19^th July 2012                            

Just finished a 3 day shift on the building site, it has progressed a lot since our last stint. It is finally beginning to look like an ablution block, it is phenomenal to see the beginnings of the foundations for the main hall against the ablution block it shows how far you can get in a short period of time when there is a lot of people working together – imagine how quick we could progress if the container had arrived with all the tools! 

The ablution block when we arrived

The ablution block now

Since getting back from R&R we have started building up the internal walls to make the separate cubicles for both the showers and toilets, however we are having great difficulty getting the handmade blocks straight, and cutting with blunt saws requires a lot of effort, good thing we like a challenge.

We are back on basecamp today and debating what our next speciality will be, we are not quite sure how we are going to better pancakes and freshly made bread, so really hoping that the Botswanans will teach us a few tricks!

Just been shopping for tonight’s meal, we plan to serve chicken with white sauce and rice, really hoping it works wells. As a team we decided to save money for the first two days so we could serve up something amazing on the third. Maybe we will bake a cake –who knows!

Polly & Beth

Rest and Recreation

Team Honey badgers were the first group to go on R&R.  We were picked up from the site on Sunday morning and driven up north to the Khwrai Sanctuary Trust Reserve – further up into the Okovango Delta.

Scott, our guide, picked us up in an open safari vehicle, the tarmac road soon turned into gravel and we were on that for about 3 hours, only Charlotte managed too sleep on the way!

When we arrive at our campsite, we thought we had just turned off the track to look at elephants knocking seed pods out of a tree, we were about 5 metres from it when Scott told us this was our home for the next three days.  In total we went on four safaris – 2 in the evening and 2 really early in the morning. 

We were really fortunate to see a huge range of animals, from lions to zebras, wild dogs (very rare), hippos, crocodiles …. The list goes on!  Scott told us a lot about the animals and how they migrate, hunt and live.  We were especially pleased to see a fellow honey badger, which went on to terrorise the next camp along the road.

We were pampered with good local food and matresses, showers and not having to do any work!

It was good to return to Boro well rested and fed, rwady to get back to work on site and see the rest of the group.

Jessie and Joe R

Live goes on!

We have now settled into a routine with the groups rotating between base camp and site work.  Base Camp starts at 6.00 am with 1 person going to flag break with the Botswanas and the rest of the group getting breakfast ready for 7.00.  7.45: we have our own flag break with the Botswana Scouts that are staying on our site, living and working with us.  

8.00 work begins on site, we have lunch break about 12/12.30 ‘til 2.30 and then work again in the afternoon until about 5.00, except when something has to be finished and then work can continue until sunset – 6.00 ish!

We are all being well fed and watered and great progress is being made on the building site.  The groups have now begun their R & R visits.

Once again we have been told the container is on its way, we believe it has now got as far as Jo’burg but is stuck there waiting until the other wagons are full!!

Sunday Singing

Sunday, our group led Scout's Own.  The moral of the sketch that we performed was - you should put 100% effort into everything you do because if you don't you'll never know how much you could actually achieve.

Afterwards we did some brick laying for the foundations on the ablution block, then we had to compact some of the gravel we has used to lay paths for the wheelbarrows.  We did this by stamping our feet and singing some African songs to make the job more enjoyable.

Jamie

Photos

Base Camp

Block Moving

Brian working hard!

Pouring Cement

Digging the foundations

UK v Botswana Rugby match

African Anniversary

Anne and Mike were surprised and delighted to receive a bottle of fizzy fruit juice, a bottle of passion fruit juice and two chocolate eclairs for their anniversary celebrations.



Onsies Party

Saturday 8^th July
After flag break, we all split into our separate groups and set out doing completely different activities: group 2 was on base camp for their first day, group 3 was allowed into Maun for the morning and my group continued building the foundations for the ablution block.  The morning, for us, was very long and work was at a standstill as there was no petrol to run either the cement mixer or the packing plate so we decided to play a giant game of noughts and crosses.

Following this came lunch time where came an amazing treat of PIE!  Chicken curry, steak, chicken and mushroom …..mmmmm!

After that we were back to work with a slight feeling of jealousy as group 3 would not stop bragging about their early lunch at Nandos!  However we got back to work, with petrol, and started up the packing plate - it soon became obvious it was useless!  After a once round with that it was time for the cement to go in the trench and be levelled off.

   Six hours later, it was dark, we were all around the campfire in our onsies!  At last, a chance to sit back and relax in some real comfort.  The Botswanans found it hilarious and we had real good fun !

Andy

The Real Work Starts

Friday we made the first real start on the project, starting by filling the foundations with broken bricks and hardcore and then raking it even.  There was no packing plate ("It's in the container!") so we had to make a human packing plate - everyone jumped into the trench and paced or marched in time to the music (Chris and Martin shouting different chants and songs).

Everyone enjoyed it despite the heat especially the Botswanans who really got into it.
We also shifted more bricks in a chain playing chinese whispers to keep us enterained.

Before tea we were introduced to the Botswanan Scouts who will be sharing our campsite and working with us in our teams for the next few weeks. We made new benches as there weren't enough seats for everyone and tea consisted of macaroni cheese and swiss roll and custard.

Charlotte and Mhairi

Photos

Leaders hard at work

 

Making gift wrapping

Moving top soil

The ablution block foundations



Collecting the building blocks

Birthday in the Bush

Thursday: As I was on base camp, I got the chance to go into town with Cheyenne to choose our meals for the next couple of days, which was quite good fun, especially Mike M's rapping in the car. When we arrived back, we were sent away again, but when I was finally allowed in I was handed a crown and was surprised to see the whole camp decorated with balloons and bunting for my birthday!

After lunch we even got some cake, which pleased everyone at camp. I was given a birthday card, a rhino mug and a Tex bar too, which I was very pleased with, but hope I don't break! The vegetable curry for my birthday dinner was also thoroughly enjoyed by all. It was epic! (according to Anne).
It was also everyone's first opportunity to wash properly, due to the filling up of our water supplies, so that put everyone in a great mood and got rid of their dust lines!

Kirsten

"It's in the container ............."

The container saga continues - that is to say it still isn't with us and we are not sure where it is, we have now been told on 3 different days that it has left Durban!!  Most questions that begin with " Do we have a .....?" Are answered with "It's in the container!"

Our first ceremony in Botswana

Wednesday: In the morning, while some of the team were off collecting bricks, I collected wood to make a cupboard and a wash/shower room.  We had to use a machete to chop the wood and then we wove branches with leaves on to form walls.

Our washroom

 

In the afternoon we practiced singing for our part of the entertainment during the Ground Breaking Ceremony that the Scouts of Botswana had arranged.  It was a struggle to get into our uniform after all it was 44 degrees!!!!

At the ceremony we were made to feel very welcome and it was really nice to see how the Botswanans traditionally do things and also to be involved.  After the ceremony we had a chance to chat to the Botswanan Scouts who were wildly excited about us being involved with their projects and wanted to take pictures of us all.  To end the day we got invited to join their campfire.  They even made the lighting of the fire into a ceremony; they translated their entire ceremonial introduction so we could understand.  The campfire was pure buzzin’ with excitement.  There was lots of laughter and positive vibes - everyone really enjoyed themselves and were pleased to be involved in part of these precious memories. 

Cheyenne

We heard on Wednesday that the container has eventually left Durban and should be with us in the next 7 days – BUT we are not holding our breath!

Today, Thursday having got most of base camp set up and had a couple of meetings with members of the Scout Association of Botswana, we have started work, in earnest, on the project. 

First full day on camp

Tuesday: It was surreal waking up in camp, we had been building up to it for so long and we are amazed we are actually here.  It was great to get to working with the Botswanans, we set up the camp kitchen, they showed me a little trick to do square lashings faster.  It was a bit intense because of the heat.  The experience is everything we expected and a little bit more. 

Mark

The story so far ....

Look how smart we look

Saturday 30th we all gathered at Edinburgh airport ready to start our adventure. A fairly quick flight to Heathrow, not to long to hang about and then on the long haul flight to Jo'burg. Long it was, some slept OK, some slept very little, but what ever the case everyone arrived next morning very tired.

After a few hours in Jo'burg we were eventually taken to our little plane that was to fly us to Gaborone.  Everyone was delighted to arrive in Botswana at last!

After posing for our group photo we made the 3 hour journey to our first stop - Camp Itumela where we were well fed and watered and then had a good nights sleep.  Early start Monday morning to complete the 7 hour drive in our bus that even sardines would have felt squashed in.  Arrived in Maun just in time to get our tents pitched in daylight and then have our meal before retiring quite early for us.

Today is our first full day on site and has been spent mainly getting settled in and setting up base camp and clearing more of the bush.  The advance party have done a great job getting everything ready for us.  More photos and news to follow as soon as possible!