Day 12 - A Race to the End

The final day on site got off to an early start for two reasons. Firstly, every available minute would be needed to complete the roof and secondly, the route to the school included the rally point for today’s anti-government demonstrations later in the morning. (To put your minds at rest I should mention that the boys passed through well before anyone gathered and returned well after people dispersed. Although we flew in Blantyre airport, we are not staying nearby and were nowhere near the trouble that developed there.)

Typically the first few pieces of zinc took longer than expected to go up and by 10am the estimated time of completion was about midnight! As time went on though the team on the roof grew more efficient and by lunchtime about half the roof was completed. The work was tortuous though; the heat of the day was searing and the reflection off the zinc only added to the discomfort. To make matters worse about 1100 stubborn zinc screws had to be hammered in to secure the sheets, a gargantuan task that left muscles screaming for relief long before the job was completed. At about 3.30pm the team of local carpenters completed the battens and started to put up zinc sheets too. The school team completed their half of the roof by 5.15pm whilst it was still light enough to take team photo in front of the building. The local workmen were only a few sheets behind and would have finished had they not stopped for the various celebrations that were planned to mark the end of the project. The project just would not have been possible without their help and tomorrow they will put up the last few sheets and ridge pieces. On the way back to the airport on Saturday morning the boys will make a stop at the school to see it with these final pieces in place.

Other jobs were completed today too; the site was cleared to some extent and the entrance to the school was repaired so that people no longer had to walk through the river bed. Also at the end of the day the boys presented the gifts they had brought for the children to the Head Mistress of the school so that she could pass them on to the children. In addition to this a couple of hundred tooth brushes were handed out directly to the children and adults on the site, with the rest being handed over to the Head Mistress again for distribution.

It is amazing to think that so much was achieved in such a short time. There were definitely times when it seemed impossible to complete, but nevertheless, after only 11 days the building in virtually complete and everyone is very proud of the completed building.

Day 11 – Six more trusses and a little zinc

The boys left the hotel early this morning in order to lift the final six trusses into place before lunch at 1pm. The first few went up without too much fuss, but the last 3 took a lot more forethought in order to ensure that there was enough room to lift the last one into place. In the end the last three were all placed upside down close to end wall and then moved back into position one at a time and spun around. !pm was the target and the job was completed by 1.20pm.

The penultimate job was to put up the battens to attach the zinc sheets to and this was begun after lunch. As this was all taking place at height now it was left to the adults to bang in all the nails whilst the boys passed them hammers, nails, battens, etc. After about an hour and a half a quarter of the roof had been completed and it was possible to put the first of the zinc sheets into place. This wasn’t really necessary, but it was important to gauge how long this would take in order to plan the work tomorrow. It’s going to be close but it should just be possible to complete the project tomorrow afternoon.

Day 10 - Seven Trusses

One question had been on everyone’s minds since the project began, “How would the trusses be lifted into place?” It seemed an impossible task and given the timeframe of the project the trusses were being put up a few days earlier than they ideally would. After an hour or so was spent reinforcing the structure with additional diagonal and horizontal supports to protect the columns against lateral forces the team was ready to lift the first one into place. A lot of care was taken and the truss was lifted upside down and put in place without incident.

At this point a lot of head scratching and discussion took place, with all the adults offering their own mehods of rotating the trusses through 180 degrees so that they stood vertically the correct way around. Mr Smith considered all of these and then did it his own way anyway. The process required the clever application of forces and levers was required and although everyone wasn;t quite sure how it was going to work  a little bit of brute force and intelligence went a long way and the truss was where it needed to be.

After this the second and third went up without incident in about 1 hour each. By the time the fourth came along confidence was growing and everyone in the team became a little complacent. In the first place the truss was brought in a little too fast and applied the dreaded lateral forces to the top of the support columns, moving them visibly. When the truss was lifted up one of the poles was put in too soon and snapped as the truss spun around. This wasn’t a problem in itself, but when the truss reached vertical there was no pole to catch it and stop it going past vertical (this is the one that had snapped). It took a little of quick thinking to catch it and make it safe once again.

After this lunch was taken and upon return everything was done that bit more carefully; everyone had their jobs, knew what they were doing and the potential problems were known.

By the end of the day three more trusses were put up and secured, leaving six more for tomorrow. The building is still on target to be completed in two day’s time, but it is going to be really hard work as it really ought to take three. Nevertheless, the boys have achieved an extraordinary amount in the last 9 days and are in sight of completing it. (Although the Blog calls this day 10, in reality it is only day 9 as the first day was spent travelling.)

Day 9 - A day of rest - well almost!

The boys had been promised a half day today provided certain tasks were completed in good time. Although the project is vast and there is no time to spare it was just not possible to move onto the next stage until the columns were fully set; ideally they would be left for several days but that clearly wasn’t possible in this case and in the end one extra day is all that could be accommodated without compromising the schedule.

This well laid plan was almost thwarted before it began as the bus arrived with a puncture – the driver had already replaced one tyre this week so unfortunately the spare was no better. A couple of boys left in the car to finish off the 3 columns that weren’t quite finished the night before whilst the rest remained behind; in the end they were transported to the site by the hotel’s vehicles whilst the bus was repaired in Zomba, 7km down the mountain road.

The remainder of the boys eventually arrived on site about 1 hour after the advance party and the columns were quickly finished and filled with concrete. The majority of boys cleared the inside of the building of debris, as we were now moving into the clean phase of the project, and then attempted to improve the aesthetics of the brickwork by tidying up the pointing.

Meanwhile a few of the team placed the first two pieces of wood along the length of the columns to provide the support for the trusses. The pieces of gum pole tree were cut into approximately 6m lengths, lifted up and then tied onto the top of the columns. A half lap joint at one end was provided to allow for a strong overlap between the four pieces that would be required on each side. Tomorrow morning, once all the columns have had 24 more hours to set, the remainder of the poles will be put in place, including some temporary cross pieces to hold the structure together whilst the trusses are moved into place – the one significant challenge that remains in the construction of the building.

The work was completed by midday so the promised half day was forthcoming, giving the boys an opportunity to have a BBQ lunch back at the hotel, spend some time in the market and then go either horse riding, a vehicular mountain tour, or just relax in the hotel. This was definitely appreciated by all concerned and gave the boys an opportunity to discover a little more about the area surrounding the hotel. Driving up the hill at lunchtime there were many groups of people walking up the mountain to enjoy lunch at the hotel and enjoy the views – this was a surprise to the boys as they had only seen the hotel in the morning and evening when they were almost the only guests.

Day 8 - Column Construction

The main task today was to complete the columns and fill them with concrete. The boys got off to a good start putting the re-enforcing rods into the columns and then pouring concrete up to the half way mark. Once this was completed the priority was to build another 15 layers of bricks on each of the columns. It doesn’t sound like very much, but every one of them had to be completely straight, the guide wires could only go up when every column on that side was complete and the last 4 layers couldn’t be built without the help of scaffolding. This had to be done by 3pm so that the concrete could be poured before it got dark.

Inevitably this didn’t quite happen, the main cause of which was the limited amount of scaffolding available, which had to be shared between the 14 columns. It was therefore no surprise that the final columns ended up being poured in near darkness. Nevertheless, the job was completed and the project remains on target to be completed on Wednesday.

Only the most capable brick layers were given the responsibility of putting up the columns (including your narrator - see the photos taken on the helmet camera). Despite this the quality of the columns generally good with most of the boys making good use the spirit levels that were available and keeping the columns going up vertically.

Day 7 - Another Brick in the Wall

The mist had lifted completely off the mountain this morning and everyone could enjoy the panoramic views for the first time. Suntan lotion was applied liberally by all in anticipation of working in the full heat of the sun throughout the day. Although warmer, especially when working, it never felt hotter than a pleasant summer day in England.

The journey to the school is about 50 minutes in the coach, dropping down 800m from the top of the plateau to the hustle of downtown Zomba. This morning one of the vehicles needed to fill up with diesel, and although it was known that there was a fuel shortage in Malawi at the moment, this had proved a problem when the bus required fuel a couple of days ago. Today was another matter entirely. Last night a large line of parked cars had formed either side of the Total garage in Zomba and this morning it was obvious why – they were expecting a petrol delivery which had a just arrived as the car drove past. It was impossible to join the queue and in the end some fuel was sourced from a local retailer near the school. It was all reminiscent of the UK ten years ago.

The Nsamba school were putting on a Jamboree today to thank the boys for the work they had done on the school building. There was an expectation that there be as many as 2000 children there although in the end the number was probably closer to 1000. Considering that this was during their holidays it was quite impressive. In addition to the children there was also the local tribal chief, representatives from the local school board, teachers and parents. The children put on a range of performances for us, including poetry, a play, a discussion and a song. Following this there were a few speeches.

The walls all made steady progress today and by the time lunch was called most of them had reached the magic 1m and a few columns had also started to take shape. The promised delivery of steel re-enforcements failed to materialise so a party was despatched in the bus, armed with hacksaws to halve the rods, hopefully to return in time to pour concrete into the first half of the columns today.

Another small task that was completed today was the construction of a step to aid access to the doorways of the building. These are only required on one side of the building where the drop is greater than the other, and once the concrete has set overnight the wooden frame can be removed and used on the door further down that side of the building.

Eventually the bus did return with the steel, but too late to make use of them today. Everything is now in place to pour the columns tomorrow though, 50% first thing in the morning and the same again last thing in the afternoon.

Day 6 - Bricks, Bricks and more Bricks

The site was once again a hive of activity throughout the day. The brick layers worked incessantly and the building grew steadily. Although progress was relatively slow to start with it picked up as the day went on and confidence grew and was just enough to keep us on target to finish the walls tomorrow. Unfortunately, once the walls are built to 1 metre in height, the 14 columns have to been continued up to 3.5 metres before the roof can be put in place. This will almost certainly push everything back a day and eat into our day’s buffer at the end. There can be no denying though that the site is beginning to look more and more like a building with every passing hour.

Whilst the bricks were being laid, the final trusses also took shape. The team responsible for this were able to complete the job in just two days, not the three that had been allocated for it. These are now ready and waiting for the columns to be completed; the boys are already asking how these massive structures are going to be lifted up 3.5 metres onto the columns. Thus far it has taken 6 people to move each as it has been built, although they could barely lift it. It will certainly be all hand to the pumps to complete that task.

Day 5 - Back on Track

Although the wall got underway yesterday, that was little more than a training exercise and the real work began today. The boys had to complete at least three lines of bricks all the way around, preferably far more, if we were to stand any chance of completing the project on time. Progress initially was slow as boys got to grips with working with the uneven bricks and extraordinarily almost all of them could not understand that the bricks had to be laid in an interlocking pattern. They were focusing on making sure they were level and straight, but ignored how they interacted with all the surrounding bricks. A generation ago it was unthinkable that any boy who had grown up with good old fashioned Lego bricks could make such an error but it would seem that most of the boys had never had the pleasure of working with such simple generic bricks; Lego nowadays is small, fiddly and custom built for each specific model. With hindsight it would have been fantastic to have a set of such Lego to show the boys exactly what was required. As a result of this oversight and the modern advances in injection moulding technology the first three layers were a sight for sore eyes; there was no discernable pattern and mortar all over the place. By the end of the day though most of the boys had realised the error of their ways and hopefully this become apparent tomorrow.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the courtyard a group of boys were helping two local wood craftsmen to construct the trusses to support the roof. There are 13 of these to be made and it was expected that these would take three days to construct. Progress was slow initially as they worked out the exact sizes that would be required. Once the first one was constructed though, they used it as a template and built all the subsequent ones on top of it. This sped up hugely and the boys were able to get involved, selecting wood, sawing and carrying. Unfortunately it quickly became clear that there were some parts of this job that had to be completed by skilled labour as they involved an extremely sharp carving tool. Nevertheless, the boys were very helpful, by the end of the day second guessing the requirements of the craftsmen and enabling the completion of 6 trusses. There are only 7 to go and these should be completed tomorrow; a day ahead of schedule and a couple of days before they are needed.

Apologies for the delay in posting this – the power up on the mountain has been going on and off incessantly and although we have a huge backup generator the next link in the internet chain doesn’t.

Day 4 - Going Up!

The day started 30 minutes earlier again today as the boys attempted to make best use of the daylight, requiring a 7.30am departure.  Work began immediately that everyone arrived on site, with the various teams of boys dividing themselves up quickly and getting on with the tasks at hand. Everything appeared to be going very smoothly and there was a push to complete the floor by lunchtime; this was until the pile of gravel rapidly disappeared until finally the concreting had to stop at  9.30am. Another truckload was already on its way, bringing the total so far to 28 tonnes, but that didn’t for another hour, at which time the site went into overdrive again.

Whilst this final push was taking place a small team was taken to one side to be trained in the mysterious art of brick laying. This involved in the first instance installing to vertical guides to work from and then stringing a horizontal line across to ensure that the bricks remained level. The boys were quick learners and within minutes were laying the first line of bricks along the back wall of the building, nearest the chapel. The lunch break had to be delayed slightly until one of the concrete sections was completed, but this meant that four had been completed in the morning, a mammoth task, leaving only one more to go (gravel was once again in short supply though as the 7 tonnes delivered that morning had already been exhausted).

Fortunately it had been possible to arrange for the farm hands to collect some gravel over lunch and the team were able to lay that final slab of concrete upon their return. The boys mixing the concrete at the end were definitely showing signs of fatigue but everyone could congratulate themselves on a job well done; it was truly an extraordinary feat. I think it’s safe to say that many of the boys would gladly never mix another batch of concrete in their lives, although at least now they would know exactly what to do.

The brick layers made steady progress throughout the afternoon with four layers of the end completed by the end of the day. Now that the concrete laying has been completed the rest of the team can turn their hands to brick laying too so the building should really start to take shape over the next couple of days.

Day 3 - Pouring the Floor - Part 2

Sequels rarely live up to their predecessor but not in the case.

The day began wonderfully with our first glimpse of sunshine since arriving in Africa, and continued to warm us throughout the day. Everyone know the task ahead, but no-one quite knew how much progress could be made in the relatively few hours of daylight available. Nevertheless the boys split up into their teams and got to work immediately. There is so much to do at the moment that every boy had a specific job to do and worked hard at it all day. For most this meant mixing concrete for 6 hours. At about 11am another 7 tonnes of gravel arrived, but not on a lorry that could tip it out, so one group had to spend about  an hour shovelling it all off. While this was going on another group left on another lorry to collect a few tonnes of sand; it had to be shovelled on and shovelled off again. Fortunately in both these, and every other task, help was on hand from the vast number of local people who are helping; some of these are paid labourers, but most are children who live nearby and no doubt go to the school. You may see from the pictures that in addition to this there is an audience of a few dozen children who have watched us throughout the project thus far.

By the time the boys broke for lunch they had completed 6 of the 13 concrete slabs that were required and planned to do two more upon their return.

You may remember that I spoke ill of the lunch yesterday; I’m pleased to report that we were given crisps today – thank you chef!

After  lunch it was all hands to the pumps again and the final two slabs were poured in record time; about twice as fast as the day before.  Tomorrow we have the simpler task of filling in all the alternate slabs to complete it; meanwhile the end walls will start to take shape.

Day 2 - Pouring the Floor - Part 1

Arriving on site at 9am this morning the scene at the school had changed greatly overnight. The promised labourers from a nearby farm (The farmers, Michael and Zoe, have been a huge help to us; they suggested the project originally and are providing daily support to us throughout our time here) were ready and waiting as were two tankers of water and a trailer full of spades, buckets , wheelbarrows and other assorted equipment. Within minutes all the boys were busied; some emptying the trailer whilst others started to mix the concrete for the foundations.

Unfortunately the floor wasn’t quite ready to pour as it needed one more layer of bricks around the outside to provide a level to fill to. Once the trailer was emptied it went off to collect the bricks for this task. In the meantime the pile of dry concrete mix was growing ever larger and the constant threat of rain eventually led us to cover it with tarpaulin.

The bricks arrived soon enough and the boys helped the local workforce to lay the one layer that we needed, completing the job before lunch. The first section of shuttering was also completed and would be ready and waiting to be poured as soon as we returned from lunch at the farm.

Although I digress I should mention that the breakfast and supper at the hotel have so far been varied, abundant and very tasteful – the packed lunch less so, consisting of a sandwich of indeterminate, though tasty, filling, some cold chips and an apple. After some discussion it was decided that the cold chips were probably supposed to be ‘crisps’, something being lost in translation. Fingers are crossed for tomorrow.

After lunch everyone went into overdrive as as much concrete as possible needed to be poured in the three remaining hours of daylight. Concrete was being mixed as fast as it possibly could be with teams not only using the mixer but also making up batches on the ground. Nevertheless in the end the area covered was about one sixth of the total floor area. The workmen are arriving on site at 6am tomorrow to get a head start and the boys should be joining them at 8am. We will certainly get most of the floor completed tomorrow, but whether we can finish it as hoped remains to be seen.

Everything was cleaned up and everyone was off site by 4.40pm. Although quite early, the light was already fading and we only just made it back to hotel before darkness fell. The cloud had lifted significantly though so we could all appreciate the drive up the mountain this time. Tired, dirty, but satisfied at the end of a tough day, the boys raced to the showers, not quite knowing how much hot water might be available.

Day 1 - Arrival (Eventually!)

All the pieces, or should I say people, finally fell into place at Heathrow. Anxiety was growing at the prospect of not having a full complement by the time the flight boarded (I should add that this was entirely due to the weather in Edinburgh, and not any individual’s fault!). Eventually the last boy from Scotland joined us at the check in desk just as we persuaded the extremely helpful SAA staff to carry our excess baggage at no extra cost. The excess baggage was not entirely normal, consisting mostly of tools from the school workshop and safety equipment courtesy of Mr Cherry. 

The journey from this point on was very smooth, and the two extras joined us at Johannesburg  airport as expected.  Things only started to get complicated on the final descent into Blantyre. The landing gear had been lowered and the airspeed had dropped and we were expecting to land in a few minutes. The cloud was quite low though and at what appeared to be the last minute (but wasn’t!) the engines roared and we lifted up again. Mr Smith and I shared a knowing glance and knew that something had just gone wrong. A couple of minutes passed before the captain announced that the Instrument Landing System at the airport was not working and due to the low cloud it was impossible to land. As I write this we are sitting on the tarmac at Lilongwe, waiting for the weather to clear or the I.L.S. to be repaired at Blantyre. (I don’t want to worry any of you by posting this story without a happy ending, even though I can get a 5 minute free trial of the internet connection at Lilongwe airport.)

Eventually the cloud cover lifted at Blantyre and the message got through to us on the ground; it seems that the telephone communications between the two airports were not very reliable. We all applauded upon hearing the news and then again when we finally touched down in Blantyre three hours late. The journey to the hotel, via the school, was very interesting and gave the boys a very vivid introduction as to what daily life is like for the people in this part of Africa. Arriving at the school just before dark there was just time to say hello and then head off to the hotel before darkness set in. The final climb to the hotel was up into the cloud cover we had been trying to avoid all day; visibility was challenging but the drivers knew the road and everyone arrived at the hotel safely for supper and an briefing about the next day’s plan of works.