MozBak

back in Moz

2010-06-03T11:07:00.000+02:00

Orphanage - with local community kids

Apologies for my long absence from all things blogging... I have been lucky enough to go away to Europe for a few weeks to visit family, but am now very much back in Mozambique.

I was very surprised upon my return to see that one of my colleagues had convinced the bakers to arrive at 3am in the morning to commence baking so we now have fresh bread in time for our 8am breakfast! what a treat, but it should have always been this way...

The Orphanage is also coming along nicely, it now has all the glass for the windows in so can be locked and secured. This means its now ready for some of the fixtures and fittings to go inside. Hope fully this won't take too long and it'll be up and running soon.

The rice is also now all harvested. Its currently drying off in a warehouse before it can be packaged up and sold. Fortunately most of it was saved despite the heavy flooding.

rice harvest

2010-04-30T10:51:00.000+02:00

"Eish! how does this thing work?" - more rice problems

The Rice harvest is finally under way after a month long delay where we had too much rain ,which re-flooded the paddies and stopped access to the rice.

Of course though, nothing is simple, no sooner have we started harvesting than another problem occurs; the harvester! Right now I think its mostly being held together by scrap pieces of steel re-enforcing and binding wire but lets pray it holds!

April update

2010-04-26T12:12:00.000+02:00

Our dogs sniff out a predator in their midst - baby crocodile!

Wow, what a month its been. Starting with two late night armed robberies of our closest neighbour, some 3am snake catching incidents, almost losing the rice crop and generally being under-staffed and under-financed, we've taken some strain to say the least.

All is not lost though, things are gradually progressing at the orphanage. I've managed to find some time to help out with the painting, and although I'm no Picasso, it seems to be looking good!

I've been busy recently writing up some reports on what we do here for our parent ministry's website http://www.healingwings.co.za, in the process I was looking through some of my old photo's and found the one posted above. The baby crocodile was caught by some of the guys on their way through to our beach camp. don't worry its mouth is cable tied closed so it can't attack any of the dogs!

still wild...

2010-04-07T12:18:00.000+02:00

Mozambican Spitting Cobra

Moses the Monkey

Don't worry things are still a bit all on the wild side here. the above two photo's taken in the last week alone. The snake is a Mozambican spitting cobra, that fortunately didn't spit on me. The monkey is "Moses" so called because he was found abandoned in the rice paddies, and adopted and raised here on the farm. No relation to Mango though, who I hear is still doing well :)

new transport

2010-04-02T12:12:00.000+02:00

answer to my transport woes?

Regular Mozbak followers will know I am often struggling with transport issues, broken down cars, or lack thereof etc. I think I may have found the solution (see pic above) its low on fuel, cheap to build, and the tyres - coke cans - last for ages.... perhaps its a little small though!

monkey bike

2010-03-25T11:26:00.000+02:00

How's this for a 'pimped' ride? One of staff's bicycle complete with a monkey welded to the front mud guard, a headlight (decorative - not connected to a battery) and Toyota badges.

More updates on the way, its been an eventful last few weeks and unfortunately I've been more than a little distracted...

Bazza

2010-03-16T17:52:00.000+02:00

I think its time I clean the ash off the walls of the inside of the bakery, any ideas on how to get it off?!

Vegetable Patch

2010-03-10T12:14:00.001+02:00

setting up the pump to fill our water tank

Just in case I was in danger of running out of things to do, a friend and I have decided to start a small project growing vegetables. I'm tired of the thought of living on a farm and having to buy in all of our vegetables, it can't be that hard to grow your own? right? well, it depends who you ask... So far everyone has an opinion, mostly consisting of variations on "it'll never work". Problems these cynics cite include: bad water / soil / too much sun etc. etc.

Luckily we weren't too drawn in by this negativity and have tried to follow the philosophy of 'its worth a try'. Knowing that it possibly might not work has also meant we are doing some experimenting, using different fertilisers (cow manure and industrial stuff) and are watering some by hand and some with a home made drip irrigation system. Aptly called drip irrigation as every join / bend / even straight piece just drips the whole time from leaks as the pipe is all salvaged scrap pieces held together with glue, insulation tape and binding wire! However the upside of this is it hasn't cost a lot of money (we have had to buy some fittings) so we won't be going bankrupt just yet.

Our tap water on the farm comes from a borehole underground and is barely drinkable let lone good enough for watering plants. To solve this we have set up a water tank - raised on a stand to create pressure - and plan to pump water from a small lake (see photo above) filled with rain water into the tank. We're almost there but need some more fittings to make it work. The first time we attempted it, all the pipes jumped off at the connections and we got a bit wet...

We have already planted some chilli's, cabbages and beans and have made a small herb garden as well, with basil and a few other things

Chilli rows with water tank in background

Herb Garden

when cops drive...drunk

2010-03-08T07:55:00.000+02:00

Local Police Car

There I was out for my sunday morning drive at 7am, when I noticed something odd in a field as I drove past. "This isn't meant to be here" I thought, upon closer inspection I saw that it was the local police car. Obviously they'd had a few too many drinks on the Saturday night and swerved off the road. It doesn't look like anyone was badly hurt, but there goes the local cops' budget for the year...

new arrival

2010-03-04T12:39:00.001+02:00

Our new puppy - ShenDane

Unfortunately my favourite dog Levi passed away from what might have been a snake bite a few days ago. Shendane (he's a great dane from the Shengaan tribe) has been here for a month or so now, hence deserves to get his photo online!

Snouted Cobra - can you see him on the end of the stick?

Caught this little guy this morning on the path outside my house.

wholesale

2010-02-28T21:18:00.000+02:00

Sophisticated Establishment - one of my new bread customers

Check out those wagon wheels, what a shop! well its more like a little bar actually or "Baraka" as they call them here.

After months of slogging away for more sales I've changed direction and moved away from trying to sell the odd bread here and there 'retail' and tried to find some wholesale buyers. So far so good and I now have 3 or 4 regular customers who take approx. 30 breads each. Of course, to enable them to make a mark up I've had to drop my price by 20% but for the number they are buying I think its worth it for now. My profit margin is slimmer but hopefully the volumes will make up for it. I'll let you know how it progresses over the coming weeks but for now all seems well :)

Orphanage

2010-02-25T14:21:00.000+02:00

The orphanage - almost complete

I thought I'd give a mention to another one of the projects we currently have under way here. The Alulamile Children's Village. A place to provide a home, love and care to children orphaned in our surrounding community.

Construction is almost complete (when are builders ever on time!?) but we are still outstanding some materials so I spent the whole of the afternoon yesterday drafting an appeal letter with photo's to show to local building suppliers in a hope of receiving donations that can see us through to completion.

Today some of my colleagues are off to Maputo to see if they can make any headway in getting the outstanding materials. I wish them luck! and hope they return with the car overloaded!

the worst 4 x 4 x far

2010-02-23T10:22:00.000+02:00

another happy customer

Following last weeks flour theft episode (see previous post) I have been behind on stock of ingredients. Today I have a new regular customer - see pic above, a shopkeeper - who wants 30 breads. Great so make him the breads! If only it was that simple. With no flour today and stock only due in tonight from Maputo I have sent a friend off to buy some flour in the local town (at an extortionate rate). My friends car got a flat tyre this morning so he took the Land Rover.

Not 5 minutes later I get a call: "the bottom has just fallen out of the car!".

Great! that's one car in Maputo, one with a flat tyre and the other along the way with the drive-shaft sitting on the road... This could be an interesting day. I have to try and get the car rescued first, then worry about how I'll get hold of some flour...

rice factory

2010-02-22T11:37:00.000+02:00

Local Rice processing Factory

The above pic shows the interior of the local rice processing factory, full of bags of seed and fertiliser at the moment as you can see. My phone has a program that is supposed to 'stitch' together multiple photos into a 'panorama' view that's why the quality doesn't look too great. You can see the machine that actually separates the rice from its husk on the middle right of the photo. Its actually pretty small, but in a larger industrial operation the machines take up the whole floor space of huge warehouses.

Coffee Time

2010-02-19T16:05:00.000+02:00

The pleasant surprise that arrived today!

There's nothing we like more here in the bush than a good cup of coffee, whether its that 6am wake up shot, or a long relaxing one after supper.

Having shared my love for coffee with a few other bloggers out there, I had a very kind offer from someone to send me some decent coffee. Having worked in the charitable business for a few years now I have unfortunately developed a slight scepticism towards people's promises of well-doing as they often don't follow through. So how pleasantly surprised I was to hear from my colleagues in South Africa (where our postal address is) that I had received a parcel all the way from Seattle in the US. "There's only person I know there" I thought, Melody from www.StarbucksMelody.com. Wow she was actually true to her word! I shouldn't be so surprised but I am, so a BIG thank you to Melody for the effort of posting me some delicious coffee, much appreciated! My hope in people's good intentions is restored!

See picture below for an interesting spot to enjoy one's coffee on the go!

Mobile Coffee spot / 3 piece suite and coffee table

Burglar bars installed

2010-02-17T10:24:00.001+02:00

Burglar bars - a necessary evil

"Let me out!" - Hendrik doing the fitting

Finally getting the necessary security in over the windows, you can see from the bottom picture above the mosquito netting on the window is still broken. Just in time as we had new ingredients arrive last night which I really can't afford to replace.

The one bag of flour we had stolen meant we couldn't bake yesterday so that is lost earnings. Good news is I secured an order of 50 breads for delivery this afternoon. That's quite a large one off order which hopefully will bring repeat business!

Burglar bars

2010-02-16T10:14:00.001+02:00

Nice Shades! - Grinding / cutting the steel to size for burglar bars

Despite the poor aesthetics of having steel burglar bars over the bakery's windows I think it is a necessary evil (see previous post).

I have another 150kg of flour and other ingredients arriving today and can't afford to lose any more, so the construction of burglar bars is well under way. I hope to have them installed by later this afternoon. Will this deter the thieves? lets see, but I hope its a psychological barrier that will stop them trying again. If they really want to get in they can always smash down a door but the bars should keep them out for now.

As for the bag of flour that was stolen it has meant that I have no flour with which to bake today, a big hassle... that's a big chunk of the weeks income lost. I've asked the bakers to come in later tonight when the new stock of flour arrives but they are notoriously unreliable at obliging to these requests.

Maize / Mielie Harvest

2010-02-15T19:26:00.003+02:00

Car and trailer full of corn harvested today

Still suffering in the heat and humidity here, but we started the harvest of our maize / corn / mielies (what ever you care to call them!) which is good.

At the moment they need to dry out in the sun for a few weeks, then they can be processed to make maize meal, the by product of which (bran) we can use to feed the pigs and the horses we have here.

Thieves :(

2010-02-14T16:41:00.000+02:00

Alberto holding the flap where the break-in occurred

Received some bad news this morning.

It appears that sometime over the course of last night someone cut through the mosquito netting over the bakery windows, climbed in and stole one 50 Kg bag of flour. Monetarily this isn't such a huge loss, although it might affect next weeks production, but it is a real disappointment. I was always quite sure the bakery would be safe enough with just locked doors, unfortunately I can now see this isn't the case.

The solution? It now seems i will have to put together some sort of burglar bar with steel re-enforcing over the windows, which to be honest will look ugly :(

Bread tray rack

2010-02-13T19:35:00.000+02:00

3D design of bread tray rack / shelves

Yes I know it looks a bit, ok a lot, like a bunk bed but it is in fact a rack system I plan to build for bread trays. It is important when making the bread to allow it to rise - and after baking - to cool down on the right surface. Namely wood, preserves some of the natural taste apparently. I've been meaning to do this for ages but so far have yet to get around to it

aerial farm pic

2010-02-11T07:00:00.000+02:00

Nice Aerial Shot of the farm where we stay. the bakery is unfortunately just out of the frame, to the left about in the middle.

Flooding

2010-02-10T15:48:00.000+02:00

Waiting to go up in the helicopter

Flood damage to crops and house

our rice - fortunately survived

Flooding can be both a good and a bad thing...

Today I have news of both. On the negative side there has been some severe flooding of the local population's farm land with some corn fields and a neighbouring rice project particularly affected.

Not all doom and gloom though as a veritable flood of new orders for bread have come in this week so far. including a possible contract to supply +/- 100 breads a day to a local business down the road. I have ordered a larger 'production run' already of which i'll take 50 with me tomorrow and see if we can get them sold first. If we can it will be a great start to getting things back on track!

back again

2010-02-06T11:44:00.000+02:00

Wow so I'm finally back in the land of the third world. In case I forgot where I was flying to yesterday I was soon reminded upon my return by the 3 hour wait on the pavement at the airport to get a lift, then a flat tyre at 9pm on the way home scuppered any attempt to be back in time for supper.

Good news though came in hearing the bakery has been well looked after by my friend and colleague Pedro. Even returning a little profit and meaning I had enough cash on hand to pay the bakers today. They sure were happy to see me, apparently Pedro had been ruling the roost with a heavy hand! (not literally don't worry...)

Just a quick update for now to let you all now things are back on track. I've returned with some fresh ideas so look forward to getting them implemented and writing about it on-line over the coming few weeks.

Holidays

2010-01-27T21:10:00.000+02:00

More profuse apologies for not writing any posts lately, I have fortunately been granted 2 weeks holiday to go and visit my family in Cape Town, South Africa. The bakery is in the safe (I hope) hands of one of my colleagues who so far hasn't contacted me with any problems. Well, its only been 5 days so lets see how the rest of the time goes!

random snaps

2010-01-12T14:19:00.000+02:00

big lawn mower!

snake eyes!

Apologies to all faithful readers, haven't had much time to write any posts of late so have had to settle with a few pictures illustrating the activities of the past few days!

Mythbusters

2010-01-07T08:12:00.001+02:00

A 'swarm' of winged termites outside the office last night

Living in the middle of no where for long periods can do strange things to you, last night was a case in point.

After every heavy rain here the bugs come out to play. None more so than the winged termite (Reticulitermes flavipes) which burrows out from the rain softened soil and flies around the nearest light source looking for a partner - this last about an hour then their wings fall off and they crawl off to mate.

termite close-up (Photo credit: Wikipedia.org)

As long as I've been living here I've heard the myth that these flying ants are edible and tast just like peanut butter. Last night we decided to put it to the test, catching a few, breaking off the wings and head and giving the body a good chew. The taste? nothing in particular really although we did detect some "buttery" undertones! We decided to complete the myth we must fry them up, just waiting for some re-supply on the cooking oil and we'll give it a try!

Strange indeed!

car trouble

2010-01-04T11:57:00.000+02:00

Break down in paradise

As if right on cue, the new year has started with car problems. I was due to drive the re-supply trip through to the beach camp but someone else asked to go instead, being the kind (haha) person I am, I let them go. The result being they're still stuck there as the clutch disk burnt out on the way back. So far they have been stuck there since Friday the 1st Jan! Stuck in paradise, not too bad.

clutch repair team!

Having purchased a new clutch disk on Saturday we needed another car to give us (and mechanic) a lift there to fix it - typical catch 22 situation. We do have another car here - a land rover defender - but that is also broken so this morning was spent trying to fix that to drive through and fix the Nissan at the beach. Needless to say we don't have the parts to fix the land-rover so we were stuck again. That is until a friend came by with his helicopter to airlift our mechanic, clutch disk and tools out to the beach camp.

Interesting morning so far!

New Year

2010-01-03T17:48:00.000+02:00

A belated happy new year to everyone!

I hope you all had a good one, things here were very quiet. My quietest new years to date I'd have to say. What I did enjoy though was the 'late' wake up of 6:45 am on new years day, what a treat! This was, however, made bearable by the fact that I didn't drink and therefore had no hangover :)

Unfortunately the Christmas and New Years period has seen us suffering from a spate of break-ins and small scale robberies. Nothing major has been taken fortunately but it really annoys me that we get taken advantage of like this when all we are trying to do here is help people out. I guess I should stick to the humble approach of "They obviously needed it (whatever they took) more than us, so let them have it". Easy to agree with in principle but would I be as humble if some of my prized possessions were among the things taken? Hmm, one to ponder for a while...

Rice Project

2009-12-29T12:21:00.001+02:00

Flooded water channel - Rice on both sides

Banana trees on banks of water channels Flooded rice paddies

Water pump - view from river Maputo River

I often mention that I'm very pre-occupied with other activities, and don't always get the time to devote to the bakery, so I thought I'd show what some of the other things we do here are!

The pictures above are all from our rice project, located about 2km away from the main centre of the farm. This year we have 15 hectares (37 Acres) planted, and so far its looking pretty healthy. We have to pump water to flood the rice paddies from the Maputo river that forms the eastern border of our property. Fortunately it is a large river, but it is tidal so can only be pumped from at high tide times. These always seem to have a habit of being around 4/5am which means an early start for us, getting the equipment ready and down to begin pumping.

Recently we haven't had much rain so are having to pump more often than usual, not a train smash but it does hurt our bottom line. Once the rice is harvested in about 3 months time we sell it off a a discounted price to feed our surrounding community, and unfortuantely we usually take a financial loss each year. Making the project self sustainable is our goal but as an NGO we are committed to improving the lives of those in the surrounding areas. This includes employing more workers than is strictly necessary (providing extra employment) which drives up our costs.

xmas

2009-12-26T09:37:00.003+02:00

A Truck full of toys

Some Happy Kids - Mozambique's future tennis stars?

"Me next please Santa!"

Christmas meal for the local prisoners

A merry Xmas to all readers of this blog! I hope you got everything you wished for. My xmas was busy but rewarding. I was sad not to be at home with members of my family but was well rewarded with a day helping others and putting smiles on a few faces in our surrounding community.

Work started earlier than usual as we cooked a meal for 30 prisoners in the local jail. Here in Mozambique the state does not feed its prisoners so if you don't have family or friends to bring you food you have to go without. I made sure we had some extra breads baked so each person could get one bread and a bowl of chicken curry with rice - which was very well received.

Following the community Christmas party last week we still had toys which were yet to find a home. There seemed only one option for it, to play santa and drive around giving the toys out to kids we drove past. This went down well and as you can see from the above photos we made a few kids smile which was a nice way to round off the day.

Mango update

2009-12-24T18:21:00.000+02:00

I just happened to be putting some photos on facebook when I saw one of my 'friends' had uploaded a picture of none other than... Mango! he's looking adorable as ever, but where have they got him? in a cage!? I'm going to phone them now and make sure he's being well looked after, otherwise i'll have to rescue him when I go through there on saturday!

Is it almost xmas?

2009-12-24T12:08:00.001+02:00

Coming as I do from a cold and wet island in the northern hemisphere, I'm finding it pretty difficult to relate the weather here right now to Christmas... Its mid-day and easily about 38/40 degrees C (about 100 / 105 fahrenheit) the temperature alone isn't the killer but the humidity, I've given up on wearing a t-shirt today as it was soaking wet by 9am... surely its going to be too warm for Santa to visit tonight in his big red fur suit? Lets see... fortunately my folks very kindly posted up some goodies for me the other week, so I have some good reading to get stuck into and nice colombian coffee beans!

Yesterday I went for a quick blast around on the quad bike to sell some breads, as one does when you're a quad-baker. Sales didn't go too great but on the way home I saw a car stranded on the side of the road. Pulling over to see if they needed help I saw their brand new off road trailer had lost an axle, poor luck... anyway with 6 young children between 2 families I took them back with me and we helped them get the trailer off the road and it's now stored here. The funny thing was seeing the young children, I took them into our TV room to watch some TV and they immediately saw all of the left over toys from the xmas party, they thought they had died and gone to heaven! needless to say my early morning doze was pierced by the shrill cries of children running around playing, not such a bad thing though, we were happy to help.

Get on your bike

2009-12-22T16:06:00.001+02:00

Having lacked the transport of late to go and make bread deliveries, I have just come into some luck. I've been lent a quad-bike (a 700cc Suzuki King-quad) to be precise. Its nice and powerful and even subtly camouflaged, handy should I come across any bread bandits... Not sure there's too many of them around, but you never know!

This afternoon will be the test run, I'll take 20 breads with me on my lap to the local 'shop' and see if I can make any sales. Wish me luck!

P A R T Y

2009-12-21T08:28:00.001+02:00

Party time!

"This beats bingo at the old age home anyday!"

"I'll keep a safe distance, thank you!"

So the community Xmas party went off with a bang, not literally you'll be glad to know! I spent most of the morning trying to make sure a large rock stayed in place over the connection of a power cable, otherwise the music cut off!

Presents were given out, pandemonium ensued, smiles alround, visits from old friends, tearful farewells, we had it all! Too much in fact as I managed to salvage a collection of remote controlled cars that didn't find a home. Some we'll give out on xmas day the others I'm going to try and fix up to race around the office when I'm bored!

killing time...

2009-12-18T14:27:00.001+02:00

Don't worry, there isn't a crazed killer on the loose, its just another hot day in the bush and there's an Cow to be killed for the community Christmas party. (that's not me in the above photo by the way!)

The community xmas party is tomorrow and mad preparations are under way. We received extra re-enforcements of 6 people to help us with the preparations, but now 5 of them are down sick for the last 2 days with a stomach bug! agghh! will we be ready in time!? watch this space...

new day dawning

2009-12-16T10:11:00.000+02:00

The birds are chirping, the sun is out, temperature in the low 30's (celcius), slight breeze blowing, who could ask for more?

Everywhere is looking very lush and green which, whilst improving the beauty of my surroundings here, also necessitates, lots of grass cutting, weed eating and pruning back of trees. Having lost the garden shears I have spent most of the morning so far trimming back a grape vine with scissors and hacking off dead banana tree leaves with a machete. Bonus of the week though was the chance to learn how to drive a tractor complete with grass cutting attachment on the back, basicly the worlds biggest lawnmower. I didn't get a chance for any photos with my camera but someone else did and when we find the right USB cable I'll try and upload them.

Sales are still pretty slim for the bakery and I have continued to wind down production in order that my stock of flour and yeast etc. will make it through to the other side of the christmas break.

Talking of which, due to staff shortages I've had to cancel my holiday home to Cape Town, South Africa to see the family, in order to stay here and keep an eye on things. At the moment it looks like there might be 2 or 3 of us here for the period so definitlely a quiet one this year. All is not lost though as I hope to go through to the beach for the day, see Mango as well as my other colleagues working out there.

Sad Sales

2009-12-14T14:16:00.000+02:00

It is with great regret that I have to let you know Mango is no longer with us. Having 6 real people to look after as well as 80 staff, 15 goats, 11 horses, 105 cows, 7 dogs and 1 cat I just couldn't provide Mango with the full time love and attention he deserves. Don't worry though I have found him a wonderful foster family at the beach about 30km from here where he is being well looked after and can spend every day with this glorious view!

Hopefully his new parents will allow me visitations when I get through to the beach camp...

The title of the post is sad sales as in a run of bad events thats how the sales figures are looking for this month. In order for me to really get the bakery profitable (rather than just covering costs) I've found that I have to get out there with a bag of breads on my back - or in the car - and sell the breads myself. As I have been distracted with various other happenings that required my attention I have had to step back and wind down production somewhat. All of which disappoints me greatly :(

During December the local population here increases, as a lot of people who have jobs working in neighbouring South Africa in mining or construction come home for the holidays complete with their festive pay packets. It could be a great time to get production up again and make some profit to drive us into the new year and complete all building works and look for expansion. Lets wait and see but I will remain as positive as ever! :)

Mango pics

2009-12-11T13:00:00.000+02:00

Poor Mango's caregiver left yesterday so I've tried to step in and help as best I can. As I write this he is hugging my hand for warmth, bobbing up and down with every key stoke! If he looks a bit damp, that's because he's just had a bath!

Horse play

2009-12-10T11:16:00.000+02:00

So we really are minimum people here right now, the one guy who was meant to take over looking after the horses just left abruptly this morning, and the current horse whisperer - who is going on holiday tomorrow - just fell off a horse and dislocated his shoulder. ouch! not for his arm...what am I going to do with these horses!?

I got a good question the other day about how and what we drink out here. Water is of course the major beverage of choice but although we have a borehole, pump and tank here, the water from the ground is not drinkable (you can drink it but it tastes foul). As a result we have to drive in drinking water in 20L plastic bottles every day. as seen in the pic below:

Of course my favourite drink is coffee, which has to be made with the fresh drinking water and despite living in the middle of no where we have between 4 people, 2 kettles, 2 bean grinders, 3 french presses and 1 espresso machine!

killer kitchen

2009-12-09T14:56:00.001+02:00

Today seems to have been full of various wild and not so wild-life.

Why am I writing about these things? because the bakers are yet to appear for work! oh well looks like they will be having a late night tonight!

This morning was spent mostly in the pantry of our kitchen stalking a snake (a boomslang or tree snake) that was hissing at everyone any time they tried to get out some plates or pots and pans. After about 2 hours a plan was made and my boss built a small catapult/slingshot - I thought it'd never work - which he proceeded to use to fire a pellet at the snakes head, stunning it so we could catch and remove it. Must be some kind of boy scout trick... but hats off to him he got it right eventually.

I know not all my readers like the snake info so I've shrunk the pictures nice and small....look away now!

Managed to at least get some better pics this time as I was holding the camera!

Mango the monkey is still doing ok, I just gave him a bath and a bottle of milk so he's happily fast asleep. I'll check if he's feeling more photogenic later and try and get some more pictures of him.

About

2009-12-08T20:40:00.000+02:00

I am a serial procrastinator and seem to have been putting off the writing of a description on here for ages. So here are a few basics:

My name is Andrew - although I get called Andy a lot and don't mind either one.

I'm 26 years old - feeling pretty young at the moment, with the average age of my colleagues about 38, at least my mom listened to cool 80's music when I was growing up so I can fit right in!

Currently living in southern Mozambique -which is where the Mozbak bakery is located.

I always wanted to be interviewed one day... So now that I'm writing a blog I can interview myself and in doing so answer a few of the question's I get asked most frequently (FAQ's).

Are you a baker by trade?

Definitely not, although I've learnt a thing or two and did once have a job delivering pizzas - is that a qualification? probably not... I don't even do most of the baking as I wanted to provide employment to the local community here, and currently have 2 bakers working full time

Why a bakery?

I was always keen to start my own business and the opportunity was made available to me here to do something. Bread was popular and our previous supplier was unreliable. A business plan was hatched and 18 months later we're up and running.

Are you originally from Mozambique?

No, I was born in Cape Town, South Africa but moved to the UK when I was 3, lived there for 16 years, then back to Cape Town in late 2002 and on to Mozambique for the first time in December 2005.

Where does the name MozBak come from?

Mozambique Bakery - It was a name for the project when I was communicating with my chief financial adviser... go Dad!

Do you just look after the bakery all day?

Unfortunately it actually gets too little of my time. I live on a farm and help look after various projects, generally getting involved in everyday issues, be they maintenance, kitchen, stock purchasing, labour, finances etc etc.

What's the weather like?

Is that a real question?!

but since you ask... its mostly very hot, with winters being warm and dry, summers bloody hot and wet!

any more questions feel free to comment!

rusks...

2009-12-08T06:52:00.000+02:00

Another day and I decided to try my hand at another batch of rusks, same recipe as last time, except this time no muesli. Just as well as Muesli is the most expensive ingredient anyway!

This time round I actually had the patience to leave the rusks to dry out properly for the full 12 hours and have been rewarded with the most delicious batch yet!

a lick of paint

2009-12-06T17:32:00.000+02:00

Amazing sometimes what a lick of paint can do, you probably haven't noticed from the photo above but the once ugly cement grey oven on the left hand side now has a beautiful coat of white paint. OK so I'm exaggerating just a bit, but it does look better, from the front at least. In fact I'm convinced its worth biting the bullet and splashing out (excuse the pun) on more paint to finish the rear wall as well.

Sales have been slowing up of late as I've been too busy to be on top of things pushing it, I do now have an extra sales person. She works at another of the local community projects and is also the 'bread for wood' coordinator. Which is handy as any unsold breads are split in groups of 5 and one load of wood for each 5 breads. That is after I have taken out for the soup kitchen and local prisoners. So... less sales but I'm still managing to donate breads, just not generating as much income.

Poor Alfonso is working on his own for the second time this week as Alberto has severe tooth ache. He's going to the dentist tomorrow so lets hope he's back on form as soon as possible!

promised pictures

2009-12-01T12:02:00.000+02:00

Just a few pictures to show you more or less how the new oven looks with encapsulating walls. To see how it looked before, the photo below is from about 3 weeks ago:

Also posted a pic of a Puff adder I just caught about 10 mins ago, not too large so could be a young female? who knows, beautiful colouring on it though except the photographer was scared and wouldn't come close enough for a decent photo!

oven building finished!

2009-11-30T21:06:00.000+02:00

Just when I thought the day would never arrive, the oven has its insulating outer wall and now a proper roof that doesn't actually look like a shack. Actually... it might still look like a shack to some of you but around here its a proper solid roof! I'll try and get some pics of it up tomorrow.

More good news arrived in the form of the local electricity authority to install my now long delayed meter box. I keep thinking I need to buy credit to top it up (it works on a pay as you go system) but as I only have 2 lights in the whole place and no appliances my electrical usage is incredibly low. I guess that makes up for the fact that I burn wood all day in the oven - not the most environmentally friendly operation some of you might think!

I have posted a pic of the new adopted monkey on my shoulder. He still doesn't have a name although "Mango" has been suggested but doesn't seem to have caught on. For now he's just known as "Monkey!"

Roof Views

2009-11-25T11:23:00.002+02:00

I've been up painting on the roof recently, what a view! If you look carefully on the photo (above left) you can see the bakery in the back ground behind the horse paddocks, and the bungalow I stay in is behind the trees to the left.

J9YZAMGXACJG

Strangers in the night

2009-11-24T12:55:00.000+02:00

There I was on Sunday night, just climbed into bed with a book when this strange sound came around our bungalow.

Chug chug chug bang! chug chug chug bang!

Now I know our vehicles have their problems but this wasn't the sound of one of them, Oh great! I thought, I'll have to get up and see who it is. But then I decided against it, the noise stopped, my phone didn't ring so I presumed all was well.

Upon waking up in the morning my house mate said "there's a surprise for you by the office", "yay, did you find me a wife?" I asked. "No" was the unfortunate answer but from my vantage point of our front step I could see someone moving in the bushes. A bit odd, then I realised they were relieving themselves! Having now to investigate I found the source of the strange noises the previous night.

Is it a bird? is it a plane? no, its a Volkswagen combi with a caravan on the back and two antennae s with lights on top, painted as a purple snail! could things get any more strange? Turns out they were friends and family of some people we know and needed a place to stay for the night. The more the merrier :)

Medical Aid

2009-11-22T20:59:00.001+02:00

The small number of us on the farm right now has seen me take over the duties of "medicine boy", doling out paracetamols and antibiotics after meals etc. as well as a plaster here and there. This afternoon had me tending to a black eye and split cheek of someone who came out on the losing side of a small 'disagreement'. A little more serious than the usual headaches and thorn scratches but not as bad as last weeks almost severed arm - lesson there being don't play with meat clevers!

Even the animals have been going through the wars, we've had one dog almost strangled in a snare (it was so close to dying it burst blood vessels in its eye!). One baby cow abandoned by its mother and nursed by the girls (unfortunately didn't make it through the night). Two goats dead from snake bites and this evening someone brought in a baby monkey to be looked after. Baby monkeys will drink formula baby milk powder so last I heard the guys were looking for a baby's bottle they can use for feeding. Of course the monkey is very cute now but give it a few months and it will be stealing everything in our room, this isn't the first one to be looked after here so I can speak from experience!

Things to do...

2009-11-20T22:14:00.000+02:00

...When its been raining for the last 4 days solid... well make a swimming pool out of a puddle of course, complete with a little ladder to dive off.

Yes we are suffering from a touch of cabin fever!

The rain is however great for the rice we planted two weeks ago. Not having to use the diesel pump to pump water has saved us big bucks in diesel expenses.

Fortunately for the Bakery the work on the oven now has the temporary roof covering and insulation so we're not losing too much heat in the oven. I even made some rusks (see recipe here) yesterday which turned out great and didn't actually look like burnt muffins this time, that's because A) they didn't get burnt... and B) I found a small baking tray on which to cook them.

Not a great week for sales so far though as we're down to one car again and its not always available for me to borrow and transport breads to Bela Vista for Alfonso's wife to sell. Anyone have a spare bakkie/truck lying around they don't need!?

A Better Place

2009-11-18T10:47:00.000+02:00

Don't we all wish we lived in a better place?! well the aptly named betterplace.org website aims to match up worthy causes with sponsors. Of course I think the bakery is a worthy cause so if you're interested please check out: MozBak @ Betterplace.org

Night life...

2009-11-16T09:00:00.000+02:00

Unfortunately the night life here in this neck of the bush isn't quite up to the standards of a London, New York, or Cape Town so we have to make our own plan. Usually consisting of coffee drinking, chatting and/or watching movies. Not the greatest I know but I do have a thing for movies so can be quite easily entertained if a good one is on the box. Saturday saw one of my favourite moves on TV, a bit late for this place, only starting at 10:30pm. With my luck being what it has been of late I only got to see 45mins before duty called and I had to take a friend to hospital for some emergency stitches. I say hospital but it is actually much more like a clinic. 3 hours later after the use of one very blunt needle and a bit of screaming all was finished but I only ended up getting 3 hours of sleep... Bring on December 22nd and my first full day off in 6 months!

Have posted a couple of pictures of our puppies, which are unfortunately being given new homes this week...

wet and wild...

2009-11-13T15:28:00.000+02:00

Last night saw us getting 40mm of rain during the night, the most we've had so far this summer. I can now say summer as it is bloody hot! You know its hot when you wake up perspiring. One of course wouldn't be perspiring if the fan stayed on all night but the thunder storm caused our electrical transformer to malfunction and cut the power. No power also equals no water as the pump cannot pump from the borehole. So my day started hot, sweaty, no power and no water.

During the rains one of my female (why is it always the girls?) colleagues encountered a baby puff adder (poisonous snake) blocking the path to her house. Fortunately I didn't have to catch it but I did come along with the camera."This is something for the blog!" I called as I raced to the scene behind the tails of our resident snake expert. It was indeed only a baby but apparently they are more deadly as have yet to learn how to properly control the release of their venom when they bite something/someone... not sure if that's just an old wives tale though... Still its a beautiful creature.

oven update

2009-11-12T07:22:00.000+02:00

Just a quick pic to show you how things are progressing on the oven. Its been likened to entombing the structure. heat loss prevention looking good so far. Hope to have more details later today...

glorious monday's

2009-11-09T11:07:00.001+02:00

The beginning of another enthralling week here in the bush. We've punched through the 10 thousand sales mark (10944 and counting) and still waiting for the electricity box to be installed. With regards to the electricity meter, I thought we might actually be getting somewhere when a van from the local electricity authority arrived, complete with six uniformed workers, wires, new boxes, a tall ladder etc. Anyway they took a good look then said they'd be back 'later'. This is Mozambique so I don't have my hopes too high but its now 4 days later and no sign of them... Perhaps a polite phone call would do the trick... If only I spoke Portuguese...

Luck doesn't seem to be on my side of late, as I had two flat tyres on the same vehicle on Friday. The first time the wheel with the flat tyre wouldn't come off the car, some fancy 'security' feature I thought. So we tried everything, handbrake off, ignition on, ignition off, twist this way, twist the other way. Still no luck.... eventually with my pride in my pocket I phoned my friend, the cars owner, and asked if there was any 'special way' to remove the tyre. "Climb under the car - which is jacked up - and kick the tyre off from the inside" wasn't the answer I was expecting, dangerous is the word that springs to mind. Luckily I had the bakers helping me although they insisted on telling me "see! it does have anti-theft"...

milestones

2009-11-06T08:20:00.000+02:00

A good feeling today, we have passed the 10,000 breads sale mark! Woohoo! Currently sitting on sales of 10,364. Well actually someone just came in wanting another 4 but I have to find change somewhere....

The oven outer walls are progressing. Ready now for the concrete support ring beam then we can carry on taking the walls upwards.

Photos to the left show the master builder Rungu and his apprentice Jaime

'Shocking' update

2009-11-04T11:39:00.001+02:00

Those that follow my updates will have heard the previous news about the installation of an electricity meter box. Simple enough, pay your money (quite a lot) and they come and install it. So I happened to be discussing it with the bakers and they told me they only paid 1600 Mt to have a box installed at their houses, they are charging me 5915 Mt!. "Must be because you're white" they said, this wouldn't surprise me but I did have a bit more faith in people. Off to the electricity department i went this morning to collect my papers for the box and of course the question came to mind;

Andy -"how come I'm being charged more than 3 times what everyone else is?"

Electricity Guy (E.G.) - "you're box is more than 40 metres from the transformer"

Andy - "so I need to pay for the extra wire?"

EG - "Yes"

Andy - "But I already have the wire installed, the electricity works fine now, I just need the box"

EG - "but where did you get the wire from?"

Andy - " you guys sold it to me 8 months ago"

EG - "ah but we have no record, it must have been an illegal sale, so we must charge you for it..."

I left it at that, no point fighting a lost cause, but its pretty upsetting when you're trying to do something for the community and people just take advantage...

Just to show all is not depressing out here in the bush, I have posted a picture of one of the new horses that we are stabling on the farm, a young foal called Abby. I'm not much of a horsey person but she does look cute.

Good Intentions

2009-11-03T10:06:00.000+02:00

This was the week that I was to make good on a lot of the maintenance work I still had outstanding, and just generally commit more time to the Bakery. So far things are going well. The electricity meter box is being sorted out as we speak, although I mean paid for, who knows when they'll actually get around to installing it!

The photo's show (from top to bottom): tiling in the kitchen, the outer oven wall going up - and the dodgy temporary roof! and the last one is my 'construction work force' taking yet another break. No one can quite work out how many breaks they are supposed to have, but every time I see them it appears they're not working. Something not right there, but I don't think this a problem unique to Mozambique!

Tomorrow I'm looking to surpass the 10,000 bread sales mark. Will be quite an achievement. Perhaps we should have a little party or something!?

Sales up... again!

2009-11-02T08:19:00.000+02:00

Another week and another one of my little graphs. Sorry but I just can't help myself as they just seem to be heading in one direction at the moment...up!

The graph above shows the weekly cash sales for each of the 9 weeks since we started baking. As you can see the last 2 weeks where we started selling much more bread in Bela Vista have given the graph a nice spike :)

Expansion

2009-10-31T21:41:00.002+02:00

I've been talking a bit of late about the increase in sales, but it warrants an explanation.

Alfonso, the chief baker has started to find me customers in the local town, starting with 5 here, 10 there etc. Then he came to me and said there's a fair sized demand for bread in the area he lives. "Cool" I said, take 20 breads home, sell them and bring me the cash tomorrow. Which he duly did - he's good like that. Then we went up to 50 breads a day and yesterday was 100! Now he doesn't sell these alone but has his wife in charge of it, and of course I can't let her do this out of the goodness of her heart, she must be paid.

As with all things involving money here, a sit down meeting was called, which also warrants the services of a translator. Luckily I have my friend and colleague Pedro who not only speaks Portuguese as a first language but also knows a thing or two about local labour etiquette so looked after my side of negotiations. I am of course exaggerating, and wasn't fighting for cheapest labour but needed a gauge on the going market rate. With that sorted I now have a third employee, albeit a casual and not on the books, but a daily rate.

Dropping off Alfonso one night with the consignment of breads I noticed he was carrying something else. In the car headlights I saw it said "Vende se Pao" ("Bread for Sale"). He had made his own sign with some left over paint and a piece of roof sheet off-cut I had at the bakery. Who said Africa can't do entrepreneurship! I'm really happy he has done this under his own steam, so much so that I went to Bela Vista - where he lives - to see where he had put the sign up. That's obviously what the photo above is of, although please note it isn't me standing there but my friend Mike.

Rain on me

2009-10-30T12:50:00.000+02:00

Summer is here and the rains have arrived, great for our rice paddies but not so cool for everyday life on the farm. My flip flops (sandals) have worn down to racing slicks so walking on any flat surface has me doing an Olympic ice skating impersonation.

The rain has also been creating problems with our oven. If it gets wet, which it was, then it takes longer to come up to temperature and the clay outer insulation has shown an increase in cracking. Something had to be done so off we went into the bush to get some 'straight' poles to create a temporary roof. As you can see from the photo on the right they weren't exactly straight but hey if it works it works. Our motto here has long been "make a plan!" and thats what we try and do as materials aren't always readily available, if at all.

The roof is now up and it actually works, now I just have to worry about a strong gust of wind blowing the whole thing away! If anything though I now have more determination to get the side insulating walls completed.

Rocky outcrop...

2009-10-28T13:55:00.000+02:00

There I was innocently minding my own business, logged in to blogger about to post an entry on the roof we built over the bakery oven today when in comes one of the girls screaming. "Ugh Agh! there's a huge lizard in my bedroom!" there goes my peaceful lunch break. It was only quite a small (30cm) rock monitor in the end, I say small as they can grow up to 90cm.

I ended up just removing it from the girls sight, letting it go a few metres behind their house. Out of sight, out of mind, just as well as the lizard just hissed and ran back into the woodwork of their walls. Don't tell anyone!

blogs, bugs and mosquitoes

2009-10-27T16:24:00.000+02:00

Mozambique is apparently the only country in the world to have an AK-47 on its national flag. A symbol of the civil and colonial wars that devastated the country but brought independence. The other symbol, crossed with the AK-47 is the humble 'Hoe' a sign of the people, work and agriculture. Quite an encompassing flag when you consider most nations' don't have any symbols on theirs, but there is something missing. The national emblem of Mozambique is nothing without the country's mascot - the mosquito. Never is a relaxing night to be had when there is always the sound of formula one engines being tested (buzzing...). Last night was especially bad, we've had some rains the last few days allowing the mosquitoes to breed and now you can only get about 3 hours sleep before waking to find yourself already scratching all over from bites.

The rains also bring with them all manner of other strange creatures, such as the one pictured to the right. Looks like a pretty big beetle but its not even the largest they get, its just one I happened to photograph the night before last (yes, I know my foot is dirty, I live on a farm!).

This week has also seen the arrival of five new horses so the boys are very busy maintaining everything and I'm busy trying to work out how much its all costing us and who's going to pay, an expensive business.

Who hasn't been arriving, on time, are the bakers which is getting a bit annoying, they cite transport problems and I have some sympathy but its throwing quite a spanner in the works.

A good week

2009-10-25T21:58:00.000+02:00

The end of another week. Quite an interesting one it was too. For starters yesterday we sent our car (yes, the Nissan again) on a re-supply trip to the beach camp. It was due back yesterday afternoon but is still stuck there after a "clutch pipe" broke. Not being so mechanically minded, despite liking cars, I have decided the only course of action I can take to avoid this in future is to get rid of the Nissan down at the nearby quarry and hope it never comes back... A bit extreme perhaps but this car really has been giving us problems of late!

To add to my mechanical know how we have just received a MAN truck engine from South Africa this evening to be re-fitted to our broken down truck (another story). That may sound well and good until you realise the engine alone weighs around 1.5 tons and we have no mechanics here, let alone cranes to lift the engine off the bakkie. One theory involves setting up a winch system with poles and then towing the engine off the car with a land cruiser, I don't actually want to think about it right now!

All is not lost though, to the left is another of my little graphs and it illustrates what a jump we've seen in sales this week. Due mainly to some active marketing and beginning to sell more breads in the local town as word is spreading.

'Shocking' News

2009-10-23T11:14:00.000+02:00

Excuse the pun but I did get a bit of a shock this morning, the local electricity department wants me to install a meter box for the Bakery. Now its not like I'm getting free electricity at the moment, currently I'm just getting from another meter box (on our farm) about 100 metres away. Despite this the local department reckon I need my own separate box at a price of 5,500 MT (200 USD / 1500 Rand). Money that I don't just keep lying around...

To be honest we did just receive an anonymous donation (thanks Dudley!) to complete the building works, but now it looks like I will have to use most of this to pay off the bill for the new meter box. I did have ideas of trying to stall them and stretch out the process but I think I better just get it over and done with. Mozambique, for such a poor country, has a lot of red tape to get anything done!

Musks...

2009-10-22T12:01:00.000+02:00

Musk - No, not the smell of someone who hasn't showered for 3 days, but one of the nicknames we came up with for the rusks I baked yesterday. The name of course comes from the cross between muffins and rusks which is how they taste. The other suggestion of "Ruffins" is actually the better sounding name...
My patience didn't quite hold to wait the full 12 hours between indulging myself so they were still a little soft in the middle and tasted somewhat like a cookie. Still very tasty though, although 2 (of the 4) batches were burnt on the bottom by someone leaving them in the oven too long... not me please note!

Muesli Rusks

2009-10-21T11:55:00.000+02:00

Despite the ever increasing (although at a slow rate) bread sales, today out of boredom and a little hunger I decided to branch out and try my hands at baking some rusks.

Once again we don't have 'loaf' baking ins so have made a plan with cookie baking tins. First the rusks must be baked till they rise and become brown then they must dry for 12 hours at a low temperature before they are ready. Of course with the 'rusks' being baked in cookie tins and looking like tasty muffins I couldn't resist trying one out before it has dried. Delicious! Now all I need is some patience and tomorrow morning we should have rusks to dip in our coffee!

Here is The recipe and instructions I used:

Ingredients:

350g bought muesli

2 Eggs
350g butter/margarine
300g sugar
375ml buttermilk
750g self-raising flower
20g baking powder
3ml salt

Instructions:

Heat the butter/margarine and sugar until the shortening has melted. Remove from the stove. Beat together the buttermilk and eggs and stir the buttermilk mixture into the sugar mix.
Sift together the self-raising flour, the baking powder and salt. Add the muesli and mix. Add this to the sugar mixture and combine well.
Spoon the dough into four greased loaf tins, each with a volume of 1,5 litres. Bake the Rusk loaves for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius and then for about 40 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius until golden brown and done. Leave the loaves to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Cut each loaf into Rusk-sized portions. Dry out overnight in a cool oven with the oven door slightly ajar.

where can I start?

2009-10-20T21:29:00.001+02:00

I've been quite active of late on a number of on-line blog related forums, mostly to try and get some feedback on how this blog is looking. One of the most common comments I get is to put up some more background information on myself, and the project, how it got started, how did I get involved etc.

Despite writing a blog about my adventures I'm actually not a big one for writing too much about myself. The newsletter article I wrote for our community's newsletter is about as close as I've come and that was only because I was told to!

I also am yet to figure out on blogger (the host of this blog) how to permanently link to an article so any new readers can always see the introductory information. I hope as soon as I can get this sorted I'll have something on here to cure the curious minds!

weekend update

2009-10-19T10:30:00.000+02:00

My one colleague Manuel has a young daughter and has been asking me for a while to borrow my camera to take some pics for his extended family. Sure I thought, no worries there, no photos to take this weekend. Then of course we decided to have a pizza night last night and after hours slaving away creating bases and cooking the pizzas I couldn't take any photos for the blog! apologies there! Instead I've dug around on my flash disk and posted a pic of myself standing in the gaping hole where the oven now lies. How little I knew at the time at what lay ahead!

The 'Bread for wood' scheme is still going great with a steady stream of ladies queueing up (not literally) to collect wood in their lunch breaks in exchange for 5 breads. In fact though sales have gone so well this morning that I don't actually have enough breads on hand to pay them now and will have to bake more later.

On the snake front this week I spotted something interesting, well scary actually. A large snake skin is now hanging from the roof of the thatched Gazebo where the previously photographed juvenile boomslang lives. I wonder if this means he now has the bright green and yellow colouring of the adult male, I'll have to investigate...

Sales team

2009-10-17T10:27:00.000+02:00

Last night I opted to drive the bakers home rather than have them take a taxi, along for the ride was also about twelve of our younger members of staff wanting a ride into town.

Wanting to capitalise on the number of locals I had with me I took 10 breads to sell on the way. Two stops later the breads were all sold to some happy customers. One who said she would take 7 breads every day, nice score for us.

One of our employees Emilio (on left of picture with Solomoau on right) definitely has the entrepreneurial touch and has pointed out some prime places and times where I can go and sell bread. One of which is at the local secondary school. A lot of hungry kids there apparently and Emilio is keen to come along and help me sell. Whether this is a completely altruistic act or because he wants to be seen driving up to school in a car I'm not sure yet, but i'm grateful for the help!

Bread for... Wood

2009-10-14T21:16:00.001+02:00

Those who've been reading about my escapades for a while now will know that I 've been suffering from a chronic shortage of wood. Cries to our Colleagues in South Africa to borrow the Chainsaw were met with a blunt "use the handsaw!", Fine I thought, I can do that. But its just too time consuming. I needed to outsource the wood collecting and cutting but in an affordable way. The solution! Bread for wood of course!

As my catchy name aptly describes, this scheme involves trading bread for wood, one 'load' for 5 breads. A load is hard to define size-wise but in this area its well acknowledged to be the most wood one lady can carry on her head and still walk easily (think of all the variables...)

After some heated negotiations I have found some very willing participants in this scheme right next door in my neighbours from the Mamana Mudada Arts and Crafts community project. They are all active customers as it is, I just hope the lure of too many 'free' breads doesn't stop them buying from us completely.

Cast of thousands

2009-10-14T17:47:00.001+02:00

Following on from yesterdays revelations as to the current living conditions, I've decided to include a few pictures of the people that make it all happen around here, or not happen as is often the case...

Mad Mike: - often to be found lounging in bed citing one ailment or another. Currently he's down with an 'ear infection', amazingly it got better after this morning's work allocation finished and he had gotten out of doing anything! I thought some time with the horses might be therapeutic but even they look scared...

Dangerous Dave - Proprietor of the "Salon de Thatch Patch" and knows a thing or two about plumbing. I won't write anything libellous about Dave as he trimmed my hair this afternoon and saved me from what was rapidly becoming an 80's Mullet.

Just plain Shane - Don't let the 70's porn star moustache fool you Shane is a vital member of the team, always there when you need him and still there long after you don't. Fortunately Shane found time in his busy schedule today to help clear up for Dave's hairdressing antics.

My Current Abode

2009-10-13T08:03:00.005+02:00

Due to popular demand, well one or two people, I've posted a few more pictures. Today just showing my current living arrangements, the "thatch patch" - still not convinced with name... but I'm getting used to it.
The first picture shows the view looking to the front from outside, one inside shot, and one looking out from my front door.
Try as I might I can't make it look too great as we've got another grey, overcast and humid day today. Good old Mozambican weather.

Who needs professionals anyway

2009-10-12T14:04:00.002+02:00

There's a common myth, admittedly also once believed by me, that if something doesn't work or needs to be installed you need to call the relevant expert. Well this weekend has seen myself and my colleagues putting our hands to all sorts of odd jobs one might usually pay serious bucks for someone else to do for you!

Satellite TV - Now I always thought you had to call someone in to fix up your satellite. The myth being that it has to be at exactly the right angle. It does but this doesn't mean it can't be your friend 20ft up a wobbly ladder with you inside shouting "left, left, left, up...NO! too much" etc. Oh well it worked for us.

Gas water Geysers - need a plumber? just screw in the right pipes to the right inlet / outlets, and if it explodes? well it hasn't happened yet... I'm sure these modern things have safety features, at least they ought to!

Last but not least we took apart an espresso machine this morning to unblock all the various pipes, tubes, heaters, filters. I thought the thing was a write off but its working great now and the coffee is fantastic!

Another week another move

2009-10-10T12:20:00.002+02:00

I can't actually believe it but circumstances have again dictated that I change sleeping arrangements. I have now gone from the main house to one of the little cottages - nicknamed the 'thatch patch' by the girls. Despite having a very effeminate name and walls that can't support the weight of the roof (cracks everywhere, scary stuff!) its actually quite a comfortable arrangement. We managed to connect the water supply so now have a toilet and shower and only 2 people to a room that used to sleep 6, so I guess I should be counting my blessings. The photo I have posted is not the best but today is overcast and grey, so the 'thatch patch' is not looking terribly photogenic.

Yesterday was a successful day in a few regards, we received another 200kg of flour and 10kg yeast from Maputo which means we now can operate with a bit of a surplus. This is as opposed to just getting in supplies at the last minute before or sometimes after we have already run out!
Sales wise, we're sitting on 230 breads today and counting, i'm still really hoping we'll turn a profit this month but its looking good so far.

off my feet

2009-10-07T16:46:00.002+02:00

Despite not bowing to the pressure of selling on credit, today was a bumper sales day. The graph shown above is just a bit of a laugh really as the numbers are so low but hopefully you can see the upward trend currently being experienced this month. If it carries on at this rate there should actually be a healthy profit this month that I can plough back into completing the construction work on the oven.

I actually was scared today that my bakers had abandoned me! No - I'm not paranoid, things didn't end on such a good note between them and me last night. Perhaps I should explain...

As we are situated a few kilometres away from the local town where the bakers live they have to get a shuttle bus / taxi to work everyday for which MozBak pays for. In order to get the bus home in the evening they must finish work by around 6 pm, and in order to do that they must be here at work by 11am. Of course last night they wanted a lift home but as they had arrived at work late (2pm) I put my foot down (on the floor not the accelerator) gave them taxi money and told them I couldn't give them a lift. This they did not like at all. Leaving me with feelings of guilt and wondering if they were ever going to show up again. Checking my conscience I debated if I was being too harsh, this is supposed to be a social enterprise. people focused. No! I realised, things can't always be like they have been. Petrol costs money and money we don't have right now, getting a lift is nice but eventually they are going to have to realise they can't get a lift everyday. Yes its harsh but that's reality. I hate being the bad guy but if this venture is going to work then I need to be bale to make business - read: bottom line - focused decisions.

credit crises

2009-10-06T16:57:00.002+02:00

The recent credit crisis / crunch / downturn / recession / depression - read it how you will - has come and if the press is to be believed, is going away. Too many people borrowed too much and the economy couldn't cope. If you ask me credit is a dangerous thing, but around here unfortunately its a way of life. Every pay day here almost every one of our employee's wages is gone that day paying off debts. In my position I get to sell subsided rice and potatoes to the local community and they just love to buy on credit, ask them if they're paying cash and they shake their heads and make a pen writing on notepad gesture with their hands. "Must write in book please" they say. not realising that they still are going to pay for it, just at the end of the month...
Seeing this month on month I have made an active decision with the bakery not to sell breads on credit. I always have people asking me to, and it feels like I'm turning down sales (which essentially I am) but I have to decline. I just can't see myself as debt collector, going around with a little black book demanding money from people at the end of each month.
So why sell rice / potatoes on credit? you may ask. Well I see these as more staples of their diet and essentials. Around here if people don't have rice then they actually don't have anything to eat. Bread is more of a luxury food item (can you believe it) so is more an addition to people's diet than a basis thereof.

bread bonus

2009-10-06T14:01:00.003+02:00

I'm really impressed with the way sales are totting up so far for October. In the first 6 days alone I have sold more bread personally than we did in 26 days last month! (this doesn't include the farm my contracted customer). I can attribute this to the previously posted "Bazza bonus", as well as just getting the word out there that bread is for sale here! I have also tried to ensure that I always have breads on hand to sell, any of the days produce not sold is donated to the afternoon's soup kitchen that's run for children in the community, so is not in my view a huge loss anyway.

After much deliberation, and more than a little internet research I have come to the conclusion that yesterdays snake was in fact a female boomslang and not a vine snake. Apologies to all Herpetologists (I think that's what snake experts are called). A boomslang, male or female, is of course still a deadly snake and one worth avoiding!!

never anything to write about?

2009-10-05T16:17:00.003+02:00

Just as I was pondering through another quiet lunch break wondering if something interesting will happen so I can post about it, along comes a surprise in the kitchen. well a 1.1 metre vine snake to be precise. Normally best left alone (as there's no anti-venom available for this snake) It had to be removed on this occasion as was making a home for itself above our fridge!

Calling for a friend to get my camera whilst i caught the snake, I of course forgot the camera was in manual mode and the photos all came out looking like I was in some sun scorched desert. the only way to get some clarity on the picture with me in was to go black and white and up the contrast. It now looks like some 1920's vintage but I can assure you it was taken this afternoon!

Sunday Eve

2009-10-04T18:07:00.001+02:00

Been a nice quiet weekend, fortunately as I'm still trying to get over this flu. The weather is overcast with a light drizzle, and the grey skies just bring the mood down I feel. That's why I decided to post a picture of one of our monkey's - Mo - how can that cute face not cheer you up? unfortunately though the matriarch of the monkey troop Eva passed away recently, as she was born and raised here on the farm the others have take this opportunity to 'flee the nest' and haven't been spotted around for the past couple of weeks. That is all except for 'Moses' our tail-less (bitten off by an eagle when he was a baby) monkey who enjoys scavenging my freshly baked breads from the kitchen!

Thanks to all

2009-10-03T10:07:00.003+02:00

Wow, so I was wondering if anyone was actually reading my blog, ended up commenting on some forums, and now by magic, I have followers and a lot more hits. A big thank you to everyone who's visited and posted comments.

The last few days have been incredibly busy, both on the farm and at the bakery. A new month has started and I'm out to set myself some greater sales targets, I would really like to employ more people and finish the oven construction but can only do this with the extra income produced from sales. So If you're wandering the wilds of southern Mozambique please do pop by and buy some bread!!

Thursday afternoon saw me playing nurse / ambulance driver in the local community. One of our employees' father had fallen asleep next to the fire and burnt his whole back. I'm not sure what sort of detail i should go into (some people are squeamish i know...) but lets just say that they were serious burns that melted off the skin and the smell was something else... Luckily I could get him to the local clinic where he's now recuperating. Not that the medical care here is much to write home (or blog!) about. We waited for 2 and a half hours just for him to be seen by a doctor! try writing to your local MP / congressman about that one!

This morning I'm still suffering with the flu and a distinct lack of beauty sleep. Trying to brush my teeth at midnight last night I discovered that there was no water. The tank had run empty. Balancing precariously on a home made ladder 3 metres up on the roof in the middle of the night did not help my vertigo but it did show me that the problem was electrical. This was compounded by one of my colleagues getting the (electric) shock of his life this morning whilst investigating the pump wiring. Fortunately it was just a short and easily fixed so you'll be glad to know I did brush my teeth!

Recent newsletter article I wrote...

2009-09-30T10:49:00.003+02:00

Living at “the bakery” in Bela Vista is a part of the Healing Wings experience that few people forget. Was it the crashing Mozambican house music? The lack of running water, and often electricity? The roof that leaked? The late nights and early starts? Yes these all contributed to some memorable days but during my 9 months staying there what got to me most was the bread. One might think it would be simple, place an order for number of breads the night before, in the morning collect breads and make payment. Alas, nothing is this simple in the bush.

The proprietor – a fierce Mama if ever I saw one – would insist I pay for the Healing Wings breads the night before. I had no problem with this, but when you wake up to find no breads have been baked and the lady has disappeared (with the money) it can be a bit of a hindrance to your morning’s productivity. Unfortunately incidents like this were a regular occurrence. Conversations amongst the ‘Baker Boys’ – as we were known – often revolved around why Healing Wings didn’t have its own bakery. I was looking to get involved in a project at Healing Wings so thought maybe this could be the one, and so the plan was born.

Putting some figures down on paper it looked like it could work financially, and only take 2 months or so to build, or so I thought. That was in May 2008 and building is still not completely finished! Just goes to show just how much previous building experience I’d had! The start up capital was just about depleted by Jan 2009 and things were not looking too positive. “Why did I take on this stupid idea!?” I often asked myself, it really looked like we’d never make completion. Guiding words from friends and family kept me in check and the project ticking over until on the 11^th August this year we were finally at a stage where we could test the oven.

The Baker I had employed took one look at the oven and said it wouldn’t work and needed to be re-designed. Just what I needed to hear, but by this stage I was willing to do anything just to see some breads produced. Over the next three days the local builders under the bakers guidance dug a huge hole under the oven to provide for the heat source, the larger it got the more worried I got, until they said it was ready, now just light a fire for 24 hours and it will be hot enough to bake.

24 hours, and about three trees later, I picked up the courage to open the oven door and feel the ‘baking temperature’. Not only was the oven cooler than a summer’s day in Scotland but there were huge cracks in the ovens base and smoke pouring from the foundations. “Enough!” I shouted, “put it back how it was” I demanded, and so, sheepishly and with a few “mulungu maluku” (crazy white man) comments, the builders filled in the huge hole they had created. Fortunately the original design held its own and baking could officially start!

Today, some six weeks later we now have two full time bakers employed and have produced 4700 breads (Pao in Portuguese) and counting. I would like to employ more people but we’re taking things slowly so far, trying to improve sales everyday and keep the project sustainable. It was always one of my original aims to provide lasting employment and skills to the local community but that can’t be done if the business loses money month on month. For now though the figures are looking fairly positive and costs are so far being covered. Over the next few months I would like to earn enough that we can buy the rest of the building materials and finish the building once and for all, but just seeing the employees working hard and the tasty bread produced is enough to show me the project has been a success, however long it may have taken!!

Sales outstrip Demand

2009-09-29T14:55:00.004+02:00

A first for Mozbak, I had to turn away customers today as we had sold all the bread we baked. Word is definitely spreading as two of todays customers came from afar, (sort of) by bicycle and weren't from the immediate vicinity, ie our usual customer base. Tomorrow I don't want to be sitting with the same problem so am baking 10% more breads, or 145 to be precise.

Its amazing what a difference a little marketing does. This morning I told myself "today we will sell more!". I loaded up a few small plastic bags (or "checkers" as they're called here - after the south african supermarket) with breads and went and did my rounds of the local workforce. The weather played into my hands as its a chilly overcast day here and I think that makes one more hungry. Perhaps I should integrate the weather forecast into my decision on how many breads to bake for the next day! I have implemented the 'Bazza Bonus' plan whereby if you buy 4 breads or more you get one free, this is proving very popular but now everyone expects a 'free' bread... Nothing wrong with putting the product out there and reminding everyone its available. One of the noticable differences is the number of people buying more than 4 breads, today I even had to turn away one lady who wanted 16 breads, my heart broke. That would have been the largest single order I had taken!

In case you are wandering where the 'Bazza' in 'Bazza bonus' comes from its from my nickname here; "Bazza Bazza" so earned as its a local phrase I always used to say to our staff (It means 'come lets go') and they just started calling me by that. The bakery is know as the Padaria de Bazza Bazza so it makes sense to call the free bread plan a Bazza bonus!

oink oink ^..^

2009-09-28T20:02:00.003+02:00

It seems that the friends of the piglet we so enjoyed on the weekend got wind of their lost brothers fate. They didn't fancy more of the same and made a break for freedom, twice. Both times they were rounded up and returned to their pen. The last time though minus one of the elder pigs. The runaway was missing for 24 hours before being spotted this afternoon, the guys managed to get a rope around it but buckled under the strain of his 100 kilograms and he got away. He could be hungry for revenge by now leaving a few people here scared to walk home in the dark!

Both bakers were back at work today and I think they finished the earliest ever. 135 breads baked by 6pm, not bad at all.

Going over the finances today I was a little disappointed to see that I had slightly overestimated one or two figures and our profits weren't quite where I thought they were. No major problems though, we're still in the black which is good for a small enterprise in its 7th week of operation. Things don't look like improving too much any time soon though as the time is rapidly dawning to start spending money finishing the building work, on the oven, and the tiling etc inside. I just left this when I realised I could start baking, but its really not professional to be working in an area thats not been properly finished. Costs to finish will be in the few thousand of rands (100's of dollars). But I am wary to borrow and would much prefer to earn the money and plough it in as I can afford it. Of course the more bread we sell the quicker this can be done!

Sunny sunday afternoon

2009-09-27T17:14:00.003+02:00

A scorching 37 degrees Celcius here on the farm today. Lucky I had access to the pool earlier for a quick dip but before that it was work, work, work. We're still busy eating the pork from yesterday (lunch and dinner today) but it tastes great.

Alfonso is away in Maputo but the time spent with "the apprentice" young Alberto has paid off and he is able to take the reigns tonight, although he did come in 2 hours late...

Vegetarians look away now...

2009-09-26T11:20:00.006+02:00

We decided its time to branch out from the bread business and as its the 9th anniversary of the farm we are cooking a piglet on a spit in the bakeries oven. great stuff! As you can see we had some interest from the dogs, who are very politely standing watch at the door hoping they will get some nice pork!

I have been managing to sell some breads in the local town which is good news for our income. Today I even swapped bread for some bricks (needed for outer oven walls). Just when I thought the day couldn't get any better, the nissan is working again! All in all quite an up and down week!

Oh Dear

2009-09-25T07:35:00.004+02:00

The clever marketing people at Nissan cam up with the slogan "Shift_expectations", great creative work one might think. Sure, I don't have huge expectations, but I do expect that when you turn the key in the ignition, the car starts. Unfortunately in the case of our car yesterday, this was too much to hope for. The car did make it to Maputo to do the shopping but its stranded there and the goods needed to be collected by someone else and brought here. Perhaps "shift_to-Toyota" would be more appropriate.

Anyhow the car was due back here at 3pm yesterday but the goods only arrived when my friend (in a working Toyota Hi-lux) went to pick them up and returned at 7:30pm. By this time my staff were on the verge of walking home. I had to pay them a bonus to stay on and actually bake last night as they were so fed up with waiting. On the good side, I do now at least have some flour to bake with!

back on track

2009-09-24T10:20:00.004+02:00

Thank goodness, last night saw the return of the infamous nissan from South Africa and its now running smoothly. This means I could send off the shopping trip this morning and will now have flour for tonights baking. Of course nothing is ever totally smooth sailing here, its raining today and I only put away a certain amount of wood under cover. So now I am short wood and the wood I have is wet. Perhaps I can put it into the oven and try to dry it out, lets see.

Yesterday I also received some nice emails from friends who had been reading the blog, thank you! good to see the word is spreading :)

One of the problems I have been encountering of late is broken bread. Sounds strange I know but if the bread does not cool properly it can break when transported. At the moment the bread is cooling by standing upright, as shown in the picture above. Speaking to Alfonso though I ascertained that I need some wooden trays for the breads to sit on whilst cooling off. These I will construct myself, but if I'm going to make a few trays I might as well construct a rack system so I can stack the trays efficiently. Am hoping to get a round to designing it today then I can get building next week.

This morning has already been quite hard work. I have dug and thrown concrete for two foundations, one on either side of the oven. These will support the outer wall of bricks that will provide the insulation I need for better thermal efficiency (so i won't need as much wood). I still need to buy the cement (about 6 bags) and bricks (about 100) but I also hope to get this for next week.

Transport

2009-09-23T10:28:00.003+02:00

I don't seem to be having the best of luck lately, just when I sorted out my labour issues (see previous post) along comes some problems with transport... Our Car, a nissan hardbody, is still not back from being repaired in South Africa and I'm rapidly running low on flour. We were due to go shopping in Maputo today but couldn't. Friday is a public holiday in Mozambique so we have to get the supplies tomorrow, if we have the car...

To illustrate the point I have posted a map showing our position in relation to Maputo where we do our shopping. If you follow the map due south of Maputo we are just past the small town of Bela Vista, the journey is about 50 km but due to the poor roads, journey time is around 1 hour.

well oiled machine (Cars excluded)

2009-09-22T11:49:00.006+02:00

Things are going like a boeing, everything that is but the cars... Alfonso is finding it a lot easier, and less lonely, having a partner to work with.

We could be in for an intersting week, Only 50kg of flour left in the store (about 3 days worth) and now we are having car trouble and have no cars on the farm. Tomorrow I was going to buy 200/250 kg of flour but it looks like we might not have a vehicle by then. At this rate my best plan might be to get a friend of mine, who's coming through with his daughter on wednesday night, to buy flour at a South African supermarket. Not the cheapest option, but do I have any choice? nope... but I hold thumbs our nissan hardbody will be ready for tomorrow (its gone to a mechanic in Nelspruit, South Africa about 400km away).

Tools of the trade; # 2 the 'bread flicker'

2009-09-21T09:09:00.005+02:00

Another name I just made up, "the bread flicker". I know it looks just like a plank of wood, but honestly there's more to it than that! This simple tool is used to place the breads into the oven. As you can see from the photo (right) the breads are lined on to the flicker 3 at a time, also at this point they are scored along the top with a sharp knife. The breads are then manouvered into a row and with a slight flicking and tipping action they are slid off onto the oven floor, ready for cooking. Sound simple? well there's a bit more too it, as the bread is at dough stage it is very soft and pliable, if you flick too hard or they fall off they will collapse and lose shape, or worse, stick together leaving a tricky mess to sort out. The Flicker must be dusted down with flour on a regular basis to prevent the uncooked rolls sticking to it.

Once the breads are cooked they are more easily removed by the bread oven shovel.

The new Team!

2009-09-20T21:14:00.005+02:00

Just been down to the bakery and the two Al's - Alfonso and Alberto seem to be working well together. Its now 9pm and they've done 20 breads so far and another 20 were in the oven.

Tomorrow we'll have to get down to the gritty business of negotiating Alberto's salary. I think it should come in under Alfonso's pay, as Alberto is to be the 'apprentice'. In the end though I don't think it can be too much lower as it needs to be enough for him to live on. Normally in a business one might expand increase sales then increase capacity to match, now I have more overheads and need to get my sales up so that I can cover my expenses. Easier said than done.

New labour

2009-09-20T19:57:00.003+02:00

Not Tony Blair's bunch of expense claim stealing cronies, but the new labour(er) at the bakery. Subsequent to my previous labour woes, when I heard that Alfonso had injured himself I feared the worst. It turns out that in the course of killing a snake that was in his house he injured his right hand rendering it useless. Normally this would mean he didn't come to work and then... no bread. Fortunately he has found 'the apprentice' I have been telling him to keep an eye out for. So I now have a new employee; Alberto! (or Bert as he seems to prefer)

Both Alfonso and Alberto arre working tonight, Alfonso directing and Alberto learning the ropes and performing any physical jobs. I've just been on duty to wash dishes for the farm so I'm keen to head down to the bakery now and see how they're getting on!

Building the oven - Part 1

2009-09-19T12:35:00.004+02:00

I've been thinking about if for the last week or so and often get a lot of questions as to how I built my oven. I'd like to get some of my design and building photos posted but to be honest the first step was much simpler than that; researching the design. I had never built anything like this before but somehow was confident I would be able to find all I need to know to build a wood fired oven online. Just put the keywords in Google you might think... yes but then you get 153,000 results, so where to from then? For anyone thinking of following in my footsteps the below list includes a few of the websites I found useful. Note I have not used any of their designs exactly but adapted them to my requirements (more on that later):

Traditional Oven - Quite an extensive site with everything from designs to recipes

Log Cabin Chronicles - Guide to clay oven building, not too technical though.

Forno Bravo Pizza Oven - They sell ovens but have this oven design available for free online.

Fitzpatrick wood fired oven - Good photos on this site from their oven build.

I found these sights useful but most of them are based on designs for outdoor pizza ovens, nothing wrong with that, but i felt the need to adapt this for my needs. Namely I wanted the oven door to open into the bakery and not to be fed entirely from outside, saving walking around with bread dough exposed to elements etc.

sales...

2009-09-17T16:21:00.003+02:00

After much talk (mostly on here) about how I wanted to branch out and start selling breads to local shops I finally had the transport and bread on hand to go and do it today. At last I thought, some more income. I can employ that baking apprentice, finish the oven, give Alfonso a pay increase... Alas, it wasn't to be! the two shops I had a chance to visit were closed. In total I sold no extra breads other than those of which i have a regular contract to sell (120 per day). so I'm feeling a little bummed about that but I know I must just push on, something will come up if I keep trying!

On the plus side, total sales for Sept have already topped what we managed in August. 1799 this month so far versus 1376 for August.

This afternoon was spent sorting rotten potatoes from good ones to sell. I had know idea something could smell so bad, I'm actually off now to wash my hands with some heavy duty detergent!

It never stops...

2009-09-16T10:34:00.002+02:00

I've been trying steadily for one hour to finish an assignment I'm working on but it seems I can't get a quiet moment to myself. I keep getting disrupted for the most random tasks. This morning it was to break into one of our buildings which is locked up so that I could flick on the power that had tripped. At least I learnt something, how to open a door thats locked by mortis lock with a crowbar, and leave no visible trace. Just as well I learnt how to do it as 10 mins later I was called back to do exactly the same thing! The cause of this circuit breaker tripping? Twelve, yes 12! cell phone chargers connected to one plug point via a network of extension cables and multi point plugs. You see there is no permanent electricity in the surounding community, so for most of our workers the farm is their power point for charging cell phones. It seems stupid but to avoid overloading our (already flimsy) wiring we will have to draw up a roster for people who want to charge their phones, so they'll get a certain time on a certain day when they charge them. Its the best idea we could think of for now, for a world so engaged with our cell phones these days I can't imagine the people of Cape Town or London, waiting their turn in a list to charge their cell phones!

fun filled afternoon

2009-09-14T20:38:00.005+02:00

Summer has pretty much arrived here at last, the temperature was 33 degrees celcius this afternoon, that probably the hottest day we've had in a good few months.

I've been lucky enought to be house sitting for our pastor these last few days so I had good intentions this afternoon of cutting his grass for him so it looks nice and neat. Needless to say things never work out quite as planned, upon arriving at his house I smelt smoke and saw there was a small bush fire about 100 metres from the bottom of his lawn. Within 2 minutes it was about to engulf the wooden stables at the bottom of the garden and was rapidly encircling the house... Great, I thought, I've looked after the place well so far, am doing him a favour, and now just before his return the whole place is going to burn down... With my career's future on the line I found an old bucket and tin watering can and jumped into the thick of things trying to put out the flames. Of course I wasn't exactly dressed in the appropriate fire fighting attire, just board shorts and rubber slip slops (sandals) which melt if you get too close (its happened to me before). I called for re-enforcements and they eventually arrived much to my relief and allowing me to get on with the original task of mowing the grass.

After all the hot action by the house I was summoned back to the farm to go and choose a cow to be sold this evening. "They're only paying 8000 mets (about 2500 rand / 313 USD) so not a nice cow but not too small." I was told... Great but what does a 8000 met cow look like, smaller than a 10,000 one and bigger than 5,000 one I'm sure, but as I've never sold a cow before I was a bit lost. I did manage to pick out what I thought was an appropriate candidate only to find out it was a baby water buffalo, oops, anyway I left the decision to the herders in the end, but it'll be my ass on the line if its the wrong type!

What of my reward for putting life and limb at risk to save a property? I nice swim in the pool of course!

Finishing oven

2009-09-14T08:23:00.004+02:00

Despite having been baking now for nearly five whole weeks, the oven we're baking with isn't actually properly finished yet... When I realised it would work I just went ahead and commenced baking but it actually needs quite a bit of work still to insulate it and prevent heat loss. Why is this so important? If you've heard me rambling on about collecting wood so much, you'll realise the oven is consuming more firewood than I originally anticipated. Last night driving around at half past midnight collecting wood I decided it was time to finish the oven properly and in doing so make it more heat efficient and hopefully it will consume less wood!!

As you can see from the picture to the right, the oven is pretty much just the brick arch shell at the moment with a thin (about 40mm) layer of clay and cement mix plastered over it. The improvement plan would involve building up an outer wall around the oven on sides and rear about 150mm from the current wall of oven. The gap would then be filled with compacted clay soil and the top I would cover with roof sheeting. All in all it should look better (not so important) and use less firewood. The proof will be in the baking.

Sales success

2009-09-12T09:39:00.002+02:00

I'm not sure if this could be called a massive 'sales success' but I did succeed in opening what could hopefully be a good new avenue of sales yesterday. I had the car for half an hour and needed to go and audit the rice processing operation in the local town (that makes it sound very grand, its actually quite modest), along the way i thought i'd take some breads to sell. I went to the local bush shop and told them, in my very basic portuguese, that I had breads to sell. The few customers there and shopkeeper laughed at me, then proceeded to buy all the breads from me. Was it my accent? I thought, who knows, the fact is they bought the bread and I'm hoping to make it a daily drop off point. I have 20 extra breads now from last nights bake (220 in total) which i'm off to try and sell now, wish me luck!

The big city

2009-09-11T09:37:00.006+02:00

Last night I went through to pick up Alfonso at his place in the local village, see picture right. I must say it doesn't look like much, but he at least has a prime view over the river. During the course of my stay in Mozambique we have helped a number of the longer serving staff members to buy construction materials to build their own (bricks and cement) houses. Seeing the state of Alfonso's place yesterday showed me that this is something I would like to be able to do for him.

There is definitely potential to make the most from modest means. One of Alfonso's neighbours has gone for the mock provencal look, currently very trendy in the fancier suburbs of Cape Town and Johannesburg for around 2-3 million rand (200-300 thousand GBP / ) and up, this however can be yours in sunny Bela Vista, mozambique for a fraction of the amount.

All I need is... Wood

2009-09-10T09:19:00.003+02:00

The beatles needed love but all I need is... wood!

Yes I'm still suffering from a lack of good firewood. I don't mind going into the bush, collecting and cutting myself but time is the main issue. Usually I only have some free time to do wood collection and cutting from about 4pm to 6pm. I have however discovered that there is LOTS of wood surrounding our fam, i just need transport and a helping hand to collect it. I walked for about 5km yesterday into the bush looking for one of the dogs that had gone missing. No sign of him but I did see lots of wood! Don't worry though dog returned home safely last night having freed himself from a snare that was around his waist.

I have also recently moved living quarters again, I'm now living in what was my old office, nice size, but not very homely. Unfortunately the nearest bathroom dos not have any hot water so last night saw me at 11pm kneeling in the bath tub washing from a bucket... Why a bucket? you may ask, well then you can mix hot water (boiled in the kettle) witht he cold from the tap to get a good (ish) temperature. All rather basic I know but thats life in the bush.