Day one in the Guesthouse. My alarm went off at 5.45, ready to get showered before breakfast at 6.15.
The first farm we were visiting today was Mr Muthemba. We found out that he was previously a mechanic but moved onto farming because he finds it calming. He loves working alongside Nando’s because the market can be very unpredictable but with Nando’s offering a fixed price before the start of the season he is guaranteed that income.
My first interview on the trip was Mama Artimiza. I got paired with Jess and we started to go through the survey. We found out that her household has 8 people: her 3 kids, her sister and her 3 nieces. She loves working with the chillies because peri peri improves everything for her.
At the end of the interview she was happy enough to pose for a photo and to converse with us without the survey. I feel very lucky to have spoken to her because she is an incredible woman.
Each group completed one interview here, before heading to Mr Pedros farm to complete the others for the day.
Here, me and Percy spoke directly to Mr Pedro. He is 62 years old and has been farming for over 35 years. He lives with his wife and 3 children, 2 of his children have already married and left home. He owns 25 hectares of farm land and is very proud of what he has achieved. He is able to provide for his family and sent all of his kids to school regularly.
After our interviews in Boane we started on our way back to the guesthouse to have a few hours ‘chill’ before dinner…
When we arrive back Jess decided she wanted to have a “quick” 20 minute HIIT session on the upper deck, so team UK decided to give it their all, with some participation and huge motivation from Yvonne.
Afterwards we all fell straight into the pool. A relaxing cool down after a 35 degree work out! Me and Nigel got to practising our dirty dancing lift for the dance off on Friday! Patrick Swayze got nothing on us!
It was then time to get ready for dinner, we went out to this amazing Portuguese restaurant. I ordered a stone cooked steak, which was absolutely unreal.
We all sat round the table having drinks and conversing about our experiences that day – The drinks we had at dinner made the car ride home a lively one. Between screaming ‘bucket’ full of sunshine to ruining Dusty Springfield we got home pretty quickly. From that it was straight to bed for a well needed sleep.
It may only be the start of the week but I cannot wait to see what the rest has in store.
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