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