Reaching Mlambe
Arriving at the School
Last Monday Wells gave us a lift to Mlambe where we had an incredibly friendly welcome by the community. We had a big meeting in which we explained exactly what we were going to do and the village chiefs pledged their support for the project. There were a number of specialists voted for: people who will be with us full time to know exactly how to build using earthbag construction, more than we asked for which was incredible. The community are very keen to get started.
We then proceeded with the soil tests; after testing a few site’s, a mix was found of what is needed to create a really sturdy construction. We then dug out the foundations of the smaller administration building in which I figured out I may need a little more practice working in that heat… Because of everyone’s desire to get stuck in, there was a lot of rotation with the work which meant it got finished in no time, which is very encouraging for the progress of our project later on.
The children on our arrival
The one thing we are waiting for before getting started in Mlambe properly is the car. Jamie has traveled to Dar es Salaam to try and quicken the process; fingers crossed that we get it as soon as possible!In the meantime, I returned to Sam’s village with Andy Proctor to see the progress of the earthbag wall where the previous team were teaching others how to build using earthbags. The full perimeter of the wall was constructed and we received a lot of encouraging feedback about the building method. In the next couple of days we will finish the wall and show you the results.
Andy has set off back to Britain today. Many thanks for making sure our accounts and direction are in order!
Aidan Mosley
