Light at the end of the tunnel

We’d been buying timber on and off when it was available at the market and on Sunday five new mestres and two ‘roof engineers’ raised the skeleton of the roof. They asked for very little money, just breakfast, a decent lunch and twenty litres of soura (an alcoholic drink made from siphoning off palm sap). We didn’t see the logic of having five drunk men balancing on planks, but we were reassured that this is how it was done in Mozambique. The timber was arranged around the house, and before it was raised we had a little ceremony where coca cola and red wine were poured onto the floor of the house to cast any evil spirits out who would make the mestres fall off the roof (not the home made alcohol then) or hinder the construction in some way. This exorcism would also ensure that we would have a successful and happy time in Maganja da Costa.

By Tuesday morning all four sides of the roof had been covered and the house began to look like it might be finished before Christmas. The two original mestres who hadn’t been fired didn’t show up at all and we figured that we were probably better off without them. We found two people to make the veranda, plaster the inside and outside walls, another man to cement the floor, another to build a latrine and fence around the back garden.

The difference between the last week, and all previous weeks is huge. Not only has the house moved on leaps and bounds, but our mental health has improved greatly. There have been no tears, no shouting, no cycling to mestres house and asking why they haven’t arrived for work – in fact, we don’t even have to turn up at 6a.m. anymore to check they’ve appeared and aren’t stealing cement. The new men have built themselves a little shelter to cook under, they sweep the garden, work super efficiently, are pleasant and always tell us what they are doing, when they’ll be finished and what they need in advance.