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.

Interesting times

Hey everybody, we are hitting interesting times here in Manzamnyama village. Aidan has successfully fixed the beetle while I was away at a conference, so finally we've got wheels again! Which means, we can drive to the city and buy matierials again. (Allthough the guys at the hardware store looked a bit puzzled when we told them to load the 3 bags of cement into the beetle ..) Last week we were in Mthatha to buy stuff again: black piping, electric cable for the water pump (that was donated to the project by Jenny and Earle Lawrence, thankyouverymuch!), light switches and fittings and bulbs, a new spade, a big shear for gardening, cement and some other small things. The villagers have been helpful these last few weeks and build some bricks up at the hilltop. Now we only need building sand - we are still waiting for the guys with the donkeys to bring it from the river - and then we can actually start putting up the first building! I'm so excited! But that's not all the good news. The last meeting with the project committee was also very fruitful. Not only were we informed that the thatching we ordered will soon be ready, but, they also found a translator for us! We wouldn't have thought it possible any more, so it came as a big - and very pleasant - surprise. Babalwa, a 22 year old girl from the village, will work with us from today onwards, 5 days a week. She will act as our translator, teach us Xhosa and just generally help with whatever we are doing at the moment. I'm sure it will facilitate our interaction with the village a lot.

We are doing quite ok with funding at the moment, friends and family from Switzerland are helping out, but anyone is welcome to donate to the project. This blog will be kept updated weekly with info and photos, so that you can see directly where your money goes. Every help is highly appreciated! You can make a difference right now. We still need funding for bigger things like several water tanks, solar panels and stuff like that. 

Today Aidan was setting up the pump - our little generator can just about power it - and installing pipes from the treehouse up to the hilltop, to connect all our dams. Right now only the dam at the bottom - at the treehouse - is full of water, because we can fill it through the pipe that comes from the spring. But to get that water up to the hilltop, where the lodge is, we need the pump, and that's what was set up today. It's working!

Photos: bottom dam, just above the treehouse, putting the plastic in, filling it from spring, and using the water!

fixing the beetle

This week we are busy fixing the beetle. As the landrover broke down too, we are now completely without wheels, and it's very annoying. We rely on local taxis or the Bulungula shuttle, and we can't go on like that forever. So, the cars need to be fixed. The beetle was towed up to Mpame Store last week, and this week we were busy taking the old engine out, taking it apart completely, transfer all the good parts to the replacement engine (that also needs to be taken apart first), putting it all back together, and then get the fixed engine back into the car and hope that it starts. We're not quite finished yet, and we don't know if that thing is acutally going to start. Let's hope the best ... wish us luck!