As we do every year, we have updated and refreshed all the cushion covers on Mumbo and Domwe with locally bought and printed cotton chitenje fabrics. In the last week of the year, when the island was almost empty, Billy, the local village tailor, come out on the boat with his beautiful old Singer treadle sewing machine and we set up an upholstery workshop in the lounge area of the family tent.

Here Billy toiled away for two full days and reupholstered every cushion on the island. Everything now looks fresh and spruce for the new year! This year, instead of using the old fabric to make clothes for the local orphans, we have opted to buy a bale of children’s clothes for them from the charity which imports them. These clothes will be more robust and longer lasting. We have instead shared the old covers out between our sixty staff members who will use them in their own homes.