8. 30 this evening and we're here in our thatched roof house with the frogs and cicada chorus outside. It rained this evening for the first time since we've been here – very fortuitous because we'd just finished planting avocado, guava and passion fruit and something called Jaca which is apparently a t is slow – like everything here. Everyday people come to our house with various health problems, children often with diarrhea, and boils on their heads, adults with a variety of problems, yesterday a woman about to give birth. Jose-Luis took her to the hospital this morning – hopefully in time, otherwise his first aid course will be truly tested! Until the health post is up and running we can't start any health education campaigns which is frustrating because some of these skins conditions must be exacerbated by a failure to wash the children properly – no shortage of water here because the lake is so close but many families have no money to buy soap. Maya, the owner of the lodge is away at the moment so we're in charge of the snake bite kit and have given ourselves an intensive training , fortunately the advice is only to inject the anti-venom if it looks as if the person is about to die – otherwise to the hospital fast having scooped our own anti venom out of the fridge because the hospital is likely not to have any. Besides this we're building a hen house and reading up about how to keep laying hens healthy. Tomorrow we'll learn how to make soy milk from one of the workers who has been on a course (from our own just harvested soy beans). Then we'll have a go at making tofu – I've downloaded instructions for making nilgiri – the traditional coagulant for the milk so another experiment starts.

On Saturday we spent the day with the provincial co-ordinator of PROGRESSO the first of the NGOs we hope to work with. The coordinator is an ex pupil of Clare's from the 1970s in Ribaue. We are seeking advice about the dire state of the school. It's brand new, and relatively, state of the art, that is to say that it has desks and a roof. (Many primary schools here are still under the mango trees). According to Mozambicans working in the education sector the problems we have here – teachers with v. little training and motivation (not surprising because they sometimes have to wait a long time for their salaries to come through) and teaching which seems to be almost entirely limited to copying things off the blackboard. All teaching is in Portuguese and pupils in their 5th year of school often hardly speak the language. We have also met Feliciano dos Santos from ESTAMOS, an NGO he founded to improve sanitation in the villages. He's a musician and inspirational leader (www.massukos.com)