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