Thathing the Roof and Gardening

We have been so busy these past two days that I have to upload some photos again. Aidan basically finished the roof, apart from one section where there are still a few poles missing (that we have to go get from the forestry first). Unfortunatley we have been hindered in our work again, this time not by rain but by wind ... ever tried to thatch a roof in a gale force wind? Not funny. Around 3 p.m. we had to abandon our posts and find other jobs to do, leaving the thatching for a less windy day.

Babalwa and some friends help with thatching

the first bundles are being put up

Rahel tightens the first row of thatching

view from underneath ... ;-)

it all looks a bit ruffled because of the wind ...

So when the wind rules out the thatching, what's left? How about some gardening, thought Nathalie, and in one afternoon she transformed the completely overgrown old gardens into beautiful fresh beds again!

Nathalie pulling out weeds ...

and that's the garden at the end of the day!!!

building progress of the lodge

hello dear readers and followers of this blog, and sorry for the long silence, but our laptop charger bombed out about a month ago, and to get a replacement was - as everything out here at the end of the world - quite a mission. Now finally we've got a new charger and the laptop is working again ... but soon the blog entries will cease again as people in charge of the project are flying to Europe. Not just for fun, but also for fundraising purposes ... Meanwhile we've been busy here and started putting up the first walls of the lodge. We wanted to get the first room finished - with roof up and everything - but the rains came to quickly. The thirsty landscape is happy but we are annoyed, it could have waited another 2 weeks if you ask me!!! Time is slipping through our hands again for Aidan is leaving in a couple of days, and I (Rahel) am leaving soon afterwards, and the building isn't finished yet. Oh well ... we do what we can, Transkei time. :-)

Aidan laying bricks

the first walls of the lodge in progress ...

and the first room almost up!

Aidan constructing the roof

While we're in Europe there will be no Blog entries, but Aidan comes back to Manzamnyama by mid-December, just in time for the high season. We've already had some booking enquiries for village huts, which is great! Looks like things are finally starting to take off now.

new (goat-proof!) gate to the Lodge

clay bricks made by Rahel and Aidan

roll of pig netting - friend and helper concerning goat affairs!

hilltop on fire

Wow - what a day!! We were in Bulungula, chilling out, when we first noticed the smoke on the horizon ... and thought nothing of it. They are burning the grass everywhere now, it's the end of winter and spring will bring new, fresh grass if the old yellow one is burnt. But an hour later the smoke had become thicker, and eventually we realized that it was OUR hilltop that was on fire! So we packed our bags and walked home, to check out what's going on ...

One hour later we arrived at the hilltop. Some villagers were carrying buckets of water from our garden (where the pipe from the spring ends) up to the lodge area. Uh-oh ... We climbed up to the lodge, and saw ... this.

Well. Aidan joined the people at the front line, and I ran down to the tree house to find some old towels and cloth, and a bucket of water. With that, I joined the fire-fighters. With wet towels we lashed out at the fierce flames. The grass is high, and dry, and burnt like paper. The whole hill next to secret beach was scorched - pitch black. From there, the flames were moving upwards, consuming more and ever more grass, urged on by the wind. We decided to first put out the line to our left, the one that was approaching the lodge the fastest. For now, it was still about 200m away from the building site.

Once that was accomplished, we moved up to the hill, where the flames were even fiercer. Aidan and I had slept little and barely eaten, and we were both exhausted to the bones. The villagers retreated for a while when they saw us taking charge, and we lashed out at the flames until every muscle in our bodies hurt and we swayed like two drunkards. Eventually, some more villagers and some kids arrived, and we happily handed over our soaked towels. The villagers had tried to put out the fire with branches cut from trees, but that was not half as effective as the towels. In less time than we thought, the fire was under control, and we were moving down towards Rain Mountain, to put out the last line of fire. Eventually, there were no more flames flickering. Half of our hilltop is scorched though ... Everyone was tired and gladly went back home. We had been fighting the fire for 2 hours ...

Aidan and I retired to the tree house to have a strong cup of coffee, and I started dowloading the pictures and writing the blog entry. After a while Aidan said, give me the camera, I want to see if I find some more fires. Not a minute later I heard him calling from the hilltop ... the fire had broken out again. Dammit. Tired, exhausted, I changed back in my dirty clothes, grabbed my wet towel and followed him ... By now, darkness had fallen, and the flames created a ghostly orange glow in the distance. The fire was not really threatening us any more, it was too far away, towards Rain Mountain. But we thought it wiser to put it out anyway, you never know, the wind changes rapidly here, and it could suddenly blow the flames back up the hill ... So out we lashed again, not feeling the tiredness any more, not feeling the aching arms any more. We brought a bucket of water, and with soaked towels it was almost too easy to put the flames out. They looked terrifc against the black night sky, we were sad to put them out, it was a beautiful spectacle.

Eventually, we had succeeded again in winning over the fire, and the night became dark again. Let's just hope the wind stays calm, and there are no more sparks blowing around ...

slow days ... cold days

It's cold - it's windy - and that's about all I've got to tell. :-) No, seriously. Not much happening these days. We finally had the village meeting that I've been waiting for for about a month, but it didn't go all too well - and so we all decided to wait for Aidan. Aidan knows everything, Aidan will tell them what to do. I laughed and said, very well. So Aidan came back last Friday but brought not only lots of funny stories from Cape Town but also the flu, and so he's still out of order, trying to adjust to the Transkei bugs again.

Apart from that, ummmmh still trying to fix the Land Rover but it's so difficult to get spare parts in Mthatha, all needs to be ordered from somewhere. Come to Mthatha if you want to find nothing that you are trying to find!!! Patience young jedi ... T.I.A. (this is Africa).

The project will undergo some structural changes soon, and then the blog will be updated more frequently again as there will be things to tell, not like now, where all I can say is that the wind is still trying to rip my roof off and the goats are still trying to get into my garden (but the fence is up now and they can't get through hahaha). :-)

Goodbye Mike - we will miss you!

Mike has left Manzamnyama yesterday morning. Babalwa came to visit me in the afternoon and she looked really sad when she told me how she accompanied him to the taxi stop early that morning. It has been great having Mike here, he's just the kind of volunteer this project needs: open-hearted, happy, enthusiastic, full of ideas and willing to work. I have hardly seen him in these 4 weeks he spent here - we set him up to start building the Early Learning Centre, and he took up this task very seriously and there wasn't much more I needed to say. So he dug the foundations, he raised money to buy cement and other necessary materials, he paid some villagers to help out with different little tasks, he mixed cement and laid foundations, he spoke to Maxwell (who acts as a building overseer) to get advice, he thought about the future of the Early Learning Centre, he went to visit the Preschool in Bulungula to get some ideas about how it could be run and organized, and he drew plans and schedules. He rented the free hut from Babalwa and spent a lot of time with her family and the villagers, went to funerals and soccer games and iniciations ceremonies and a lot of other stuff, learnt how to prepare local drinks and foods, learnt to speak some Xhosa, and told lots and lots of stories to the children.

Thank you Mike, thank you for sharing your time and your sweat with us, it was a blast having you here, and we will definitely miss you.

Mike with a village boy

Now we wait for the big village meeting, that is supposed to happen on Monday (though you never really know, it could get postponed again). At that meeting, we will discuss the building plans for the Early Learning centre and the Lodge. We thought it's better to draw plans now and write down the names of the people who help out, just to give it all some more structure. We have also been thinking about reducing the committee, for 10 people is a bit too much and they're never all at the meetings anyway. So maybe we will split the committee up and divide them between the two construction sites, so that everybody feels like they are in charge of something, and therefore appear at the meetings. :-)

While Mike was busy with building the Early Learning Centre, I was mostly doing fencing, trying to save my baby tomato plants from the sneaky goats. First I built some kind of little Kraal just around the little bed where the tomatoes are, but last Monday I finally bought some pig wire, and now I can fence the whole area in properly. Though the goats still come through the bushes at the back side of the garden ... so I set out with the saw over my shoulder to go cut some branches that I can stuff in the holes in the sisal plant fence. Now my garden is pretty much secure and I can happily start planting again. The lodge also needs to be fenced in properly for the goats and sheep keep on munching away on everything there too, but I think I'll wait for Aidan to come back for that task - that's a bit of a bigger fence. Tony has told me anyway that I can't do fencing alone for it's a two man job, and I laughed and said, well it looks like it just became a one woman job now. There you go. :-)

new fence around my garden

Meanwhile, I also spent a lot of time at Bulls Inn (a Fisher and Holiday Lodge in Mpame) with Tony, helping to fix the landrover. That thing was completely rusted through and needed some welding. Now at least the chassis holds together again, but the starter motor still doesn't work, and we also need new break and clutch seals. We will tackle that next week ... so that hopefully the vehilce is ready when Aidan comes back. Aidan just left Cape Town, mission accomplished: he got his visa to come to Switzerland with me in November. Yaih! :-)

Tony fixing the landrover

the chassis was completely rusted through ...

Tony welding the chassis back together

throwing the foundation

If you pick up on a slight change in writing tone before you reach the signature of this post, way to go - you've pinned this as the first "non-Rahelian" post on the blog. This is Mike, writing to give what is sure to be a slightly less cohesive account of the building the Creche.

When we last left you, we were between some rocks and a hard place - "rocks", quite literally being the pile of rocks collected to fill the foundation and the "hard place" being the lack of sand needed to mix the cement. Passing over the possibility of using a team of donkeys to fetch the sand, we were helped out by a significantly more sophisticated source in the form of Tony, who picked up a bakkie load of sand from Mpame for next to nothing.

Having all the necessary materials of cement, sand, water, and young guys from the village (Makosi and Roy) willing to work as long as there's a bit of money and a few pairs of admiring female eyes - we set to work. Thus far, we've spent two days filling the hole which is about one foot deep and traces the circular base of the rondavel with nearly equal parts cement and rocks. Fortunately, the site we've chosen is on a healthy bed of gravel so we don't need to build up the foundation much more. Even though we've had this turn of luck, I am always conscious of the fact that this building will be housing numerous sleeping babies, and so will proceed with caution. Tomorrow, we will finish off the foundation by making it level, and then it will be on to making bricks.

Also, we've had fate turn our way on another account through a bit of a financial good fortune. I'd like to thank my friends and family who've given graciously in times where I'm sure your earnings are already spread quite thin. What you've given is giving the Creche the momentum it has needed, as it's providing for the labor from the community that's starting to see them take real ownership of this task. You're all the best. Other readers of this blog, I'm sure you're great too. And if you give money, we'll be sure to compliment you as well.

Mike

Makosi with a 50 kilo cement bag

freshly laid foundations

Mike pressing in the last stones

building the Creche in the village

Mike has begun to build the creche in the village. At first it looked like it was all going at a fast pace, but in the end, nothing goes fast in the Transkei. After 3 days, the foundations were dug, but we couldn't throw the cement in yet, because it needs to be mixed with sand, and we had no sand. And no vehicle to go fetch sand, as the landrover is still not fixed (because we can't find anyone who can handle a welder). What to do? We tried to organize someone with a Bakkie (south african word for Pick-up truck), and a friend from Mpame would help out. Now the problem is, that we have to dig the sand and load it onto the car, which is heavy physical work, and there's only Mike and me (Rahel) that work for free. The strong young men who could help want pay, and the project account is pretty much empty right now and cannot afford to pay any workers. Oh well - we'll have to figure something out. So far, Rufus has allowed us to use his sand (the creche is being built right next to his house) if we have it replaced by next Tuesday. That leaves us a few days to find a solution, and Mike can begin to throw the foundations - if he can find two strong guys to mix the cement, that is. This is Transkei ...

So, we urgently need funding to put up this creche! More photos and information our progress will follow soon.

And: the Mpame Project Website has a new, friendlier face: www.mpame.co.za Have a look at the new website!

flattening the area where the creche will be built

Mike swinging the pick to dig foundations

boys bringing stones for foundations

foundations dug out

helpers

measuring out the rondavel

Maxwell (Rufus' older brother) overseeing and directing the building progress

Bloemfontein Hikers Club

Yesterday the Bloemfontein Hikers Club pitched their tents on our hilltop. It was quite an experience - we had worked hard the last few days to get everything ready in time and to get the villagers to understand the importance of treating guests properly. In the end it all worked out well - two people out of the group decided spontaneously to stay in the village instead of pitching their tent, because a lady of the village committee had invited them into her house. She must have made a good host, for the guests were happy and pleased the next morning. The campers on the hilltop got to try out our newly installed hot shower, which was quite an eperience, for the boiler is not all too easy to operate, and Aidan and I had to assist for the first few showers. I suppose we must find a way to make this easier - in the long run, it just won't do. But for now it was ok, and the hikers were delighted to find a hot shower in the middle of the Wild Coast. We spent the night chatting at the fire (around the newly built fireplace, Johann and Mike did a good job!) and it was great having people here and getting to know them and hear their stories.

Babalwa is polishing the newly built fireplace

village women bring firewood for the guests

the campers settle in

the Bloemfontein Hikers Club at Sobonana Lodge

Mike seems to enjoy his stay here too, he is happily getting involved into the project and everything we're doing. It's great to have someone here who is so enthusiastic and willing to work! Babalwa also seems to be getting used to her job and enjoying her position. When the campers left, she was the one who organized the car to carry their luggage to the next stop, and we just handed her the money for the driver and let her deal with all the rest. Aaaah it's great to hand over some of the responsibilities. :-)

preparing for the campers

On Tuesday we are expecting 10 campers, so we have to get our campsite ready. Which campsite? Well, the one that we are flatting out right now! Some men from the village have come to help to flatten the space for 10 tents. Meanwhile, we are busy "repairing" the toilet and shower - the heavy stormwinds from last week have taken some of the thatching down. The toilet got some new walls now, and finally, a roof! The women from the village are still busy making bricks up at the hilltop. We try to clean up the whole place and make it look nice for our guests. If they like the place, we have reached a milestone! It is vitally important that some guests spread good words about Sobonana Lodge.

Our translator, a 21-year old girl named Babalwa, has been working with us for 3 weeks now and is doing well so far. It's great to finally be able to speak to the villagers and have someone translate all the little messages!

On Saturday Mike from the USA has arrived here, he will volunteer for the project for about 4 weeks.