Tuesday, August 9th...where has the time gone!

Susanne at it again :)

Tuesday was our last full workday, we finish up on Wednesday
On these trips, you usually work week days only and take weekends off.  Since we are doing a safari and have a far drive to South Africa for it, we did 6 work days last week, and are working today and tomorrow to finish wednesday. but tomorrow will be a shorter day as we will also have the dedication ceremony...so it`s time to scram.

we were able to put the second roof on, which only takes about an hour or so. trusses across and then sheets of the wavy sheet metal come perpendicular down the graded roof.  then there is a raingutter attached and of course the water is usually collected and used ..that is pattern here, there is absolutely no waste of anything.

• bent nails are straightened and used
• cement that falls down is picked up and mixed up again
• our empty water containers are collected and used for water fetching
• every piece of wire is cut to the size needed, so that you don't waste unnecessary materials
• cracked cement blocks are used in flooring
• cement bags are used to plug holes or to put cement on when on scaffolding

makes you aware of how wasteful our culture (myself certainly included) really is......

this afternoon we had a visit which especially our 3 teachers Chelsea, Jenn and Michelle have been looking forward to.  School visit day!!!  well, school visit hour...we didn`t want to miss much build time. since the kids attend in shifts, we weren`t sure which ages we would get to see in the school and I naively thought: hmmm, maybe we`ll see  classroom or two with kids, can say a quick hello and we`ll be on our way.

it all started with a walk.....  we wandered thought the community and followed Magaia, our fearless leader and Habitat rep.  He has been excellent to work with, is great with the team and all the families, and has a really nice way with the kids...he has a few magic words which can send them scrambling when they get in the way too much, but mostly he is very patient with them and us.

when we got close to the school, we basically got mobbed....hundreds of kids seemed to run and we weren't sure whether they would stop when closing in on us.  little hands grabbing for cameras, kids encircling us and doing what is clearly a favorite activity here...little hands trying to touch our arms, rub them and curiously see what this paleness was all about, I assume.  I guess they were all trying to get a look at these strangers which have come by for a visit.....at the same time...like a stampede... it was spectacular!  1750 kids and 36 teachers accountable for them....whaddayathink of that, Ali and fellow teacher readers here from Chelsea`s and Michelle`s school?    60 kids per class...some classrooms made out of brick and some were just huts made of reed with kids sitting on the ground..I will try to post some pics of this.

I am not sure about the shifts in terms of classes as it seemed like every single one of them was at school....at one point, i took my camera and took a video of them all around me..at least a hundred.  I then held my camera up high with one hand, they were soo excited already and trying to get on camera. Then I waved with the other hand, trying to get them to wave back....welll, well, welll...did they ever. It was like a mad frenzy with all the kids waving back. Another unforgettable moment...have it on video and will show some of you at some point. unforgettable..... :)

Tuesday night would be our last night at the hotel in Xai Xai....the team was clearly getting  getting poopedand everyone was ready for a night of packing and relaxing after dinner. Dinner was usually at 6:30 and when nothing seemed to be ready in our usual dining room with the other guests, Magaia came in to let us know he moved supper back to 7.  ok, no biggie...we were getting ready for a bit of a wait.  But then our little surprise came. Dinner was served in the ``disco`` at 3 large tables decked out for a wedding with fancy table cloths, napkins, seat covers....it was cute and the hotel went all out to surprise us. The evening also included a DJ just for us, Chinese food (sort of...) and champagne.  what a nice surprise.....so it was another dancing kind of night, we signed the Canadian flags we brought as gifts for the families and still had a fairly early night.  Great, great day!!!


Random:

• do chickens ever sleep? the ones here don`t.....pretty sure
• hitch hiking sign here is not to put thumb up but to point down. wonder why?
• why NOT have salad for breakfast?  just need to try it...
• people here are really afraid of snakes....80 percent are harmless, others are not. Don`t blame them a bit...not the best snake odds....
• mosquito patches don`t work...grrr.....
• Nutella rocks!