The day after our unanticipated early arrival in Gurue (when we were actually supposed to be making our way back to the city after hiking up Mount Namuli), Noemi, Yohko and I slept in on Aditi and Camille’s comfy beds, nursing our aching bodies. My calves and quads were sore, but it was the lingering tendonitis in my left knee that was overwhelming (that said, I feel that I came away from the hike the best of the group because I didn’t get any blisters!). Even though the sun had long ago risen, I rolled away from the window and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to milk a few more minutes out of the calm, peaceful morning. A moment later, however, that tranquility was abruptly shattered by the next door neighbor, deciding that (it being 7:30am and all) it was high time for some partying, flipped on his stereo and cranked it up to full blast.
Soon following the rude awakening, we collectively stumbled out of the bedrooms and were surprised to find Camille slaving away in the kitchen making some wonderful, home-cooked blueberry pancakes! After a lazy morning snacking on the pancakes as they came hot off the skillet, we wandered through the city a little before bidding each other farewell at the chapa station. Noemi and Yohko were lucky enough to almost immediately find a chapa heading south that was ready to leave. They jumped onboard the exiting chapa and sped off, leaving me behind staring at the only chapa slated to head east toward Alto Moloque which was looking quite empty.
After nearly an hour of waiting by the vacant truck, the driver took pity on me and informed me that (if I couldn’t already tell) the car wouldn’t be leaving any time soon so if I wanted to walk around and come back in a few hours, he’d surely still be there. Noting that I had nothing better to do, I aimlessly left the chapa stop and started meandering around Gurue, admiring the beautiful surroundings. After 30 minutes or so of wandering, I was reminded of the missionaries in town, the Fosters , that the visitors in Mehecane had told me about a few weeks earlier. After asking around about their whereabouts, I made my way over to the school where I was told their house was located. A guard was on duty at the school’s gate and after only a little apprehension permitted me to enter the school compound. I’m not sure if he thought I’d get lost, if it was something just to occupy his time, or if just didn’t trust me, but he insisted on accompanying me all the way through the compound to the missionary’s home.
Stuart Foster was on the front porch when I showed up with the accompanying guard. Surprised, he gave me an odd look, but then greeted me heartily and dismissed the guard after finding out that I was a local Peace Corps Volunteer. Alerting the family, his wife, Sindia, was quick to join us with some fresh squeezed lemonade and peanut butter cookies (YUM!). My visit lasted most of the early afternoon, but seemed to go by in a flash. I let on that I was very intrigued to hear their history here in Mozambique and they were kind enough to oblige by sharing several of their stories that they’d amassed over the years.
As it turns out, the Fosters arrived in Mozambique back in 1986 (the same year I was born!) and have been living in here ever since (now, that doesn’t mean they haven’t left the country in 24 years, but they usually only make it back to the states every 4 years or so). In fact, with the country’s population distribution heavily weighted toward youth (due to high fertility and low life expectancy rates), the Fosters figure that they have been in Mozambique longer than at least half of Mozambicans! At the same time, they have a really good appreciation for how the country is constantly changing and, thus, are constantly seeking to learn new things about the current state of the country.
Although they weren’t always based out of Gurue, the large majority of their time in country has been in the beautiful, secluded mountain town. As a result of their strong connection to the local people, they have both learned to speak, read, and write in the local dialect of Lomwe, which has played a tremendous role in their work as missionaries here in Mozambique.
In fact, Stuart’s primary project is working with the local religious organizations who are translating the Bible into Lomwe. In reality, most of the work lies in translating the Old Testament because the New Testament was translated to Lomwe nearly 40 years ago and has long been available to the area churches. That said, 40 years is a long time for any language and thus there is considerable work being done to update the New Testament translation. At any rate, there is a team of Mozambican translators who are fluent in Portuguese and Lomwe, but Stuart’s role is to come back through their translations taking into consideration the original Hebrew and Greek texts. The work is slow, but there are hopes that the full Bible will be translated into Lomwe in the next 3-5 years.
Going hand in hand with making the Bible available in Lomwe (a language that until relatively recently existed exclusively orally), the area churches recognize that it is essential to work towards building the Lomwe literacy rate. Sindia has taken this task up on her own accord and works by building up the availability of children’s literature in Lomwe.
Sipping on the lemonade and taking generous bites out of the peanut butter cookies, Stuart assured me that the living wasn’t always as cushy as this. Arriving in Mozambique during the civil war between FRELIMO and RENAMO , the couple almost didn’t even make it to northern Mozambique due to reported food shortages. They eventually got approval to travel from Maputo to Nampula, but were greeted by a reality harsher than what they had imagined. The city was packed with refugees from the war-torn countryside and, to say the very least, food was scarce! In fact, for essentials food items that you likely take for granted (i.e. bread) one’s name had to be on a list just to receive a small ration. It took nearly six months of asking around, but finally they were able to make it on the coveted list. Bringing home the first loaf, Stuart didn’t even make it through the house’s yard before his wife and daughter ran up to him and tore into the blessed manna.
Staying in Nampula, the Fosters were removed from the actual fighting of the war, but constantly felt its impact. Communication was difficult and rare within country, but possible internationally. Although they never had to, it was a comforting thought that, if they needed to, they could go to the communications center in town and place an emergency call back home to the States. That’s a stark contrast to what Mozambicans at the time had to do to communicate with one another. Every once in a while, local Mozambican friends of the Fosters would sneak behind battle lines for emergency visits home and come back to Nampula where they’d be asked to update other anxious families about their loved one’s stuck behind. Oftentimes misinformation got passed by word of mouth and people mourned the loss of a loved one they later found to be alive.
Flash forward 20 years, the civil war is long over and the arrival of mcel is well underway. Although it seems like mcel coverage won’t expand fast enough for us PCVs who are used to 3G networks everywhere we go, talking to the fosters I can see that the communication network is making leaps and bounds. It was just 2 years ago that the only way you could get reception in Nauela was by climbing a nearby mountain. I figure that since I now only have to climb a mango tree, things are dramatically improving! Who knows, maybe by the end of the two years I’ll have reception sitting at this desk… I can dream, can’t I?
I bid farewell to the Fosters after a long afternoon of chatting, promising to visit the next time I’m in town and encouraging them to hit me up if they are ever passing through Nauela on the way to Alto Moloque. Stuart walked me to edge of the school compound and gave me a firm handshake as I passed through the gate. Smiling and then looking away, I was suddenly brought back to reality when remembering the fact that I was still hoping to get back to Nauela today. Amidst hurried steps, I glanced down at my watch and I saw that it was nearly 3pm. “If I want to make it back home before nightfall I’ll have to hurry… and have some luck with the chapas,” I thought.
Passing by one of the main parks in Gurue on the way to the chapa stop, my rushed pace was brought to a halt when I noticed a large sign on my left advertising the Lurdes Mutola Foundation office. Backing up a bit for you all reading this, ever since arriving at site I’ve had the desire to start a program teaching life skills through sports in Nauela. After doing some research online and asking around, I’d learned about the LMF which does just that in the northern Zambezia districts. However, up until now I’d been unable to make direct contact with them or even find out where they are based out of. Needless to say, despite my rush, I knew right away that I had to at least make an attempt at talking to them right then… and for all my efforts I was rewarded!
The new area LMF director, Chauchane (Shaw-sha-ni), only spoke with me briefly, but was really excited about the possibility of working with me in the near future and invited me to an upcoming LMF meeting in Alto Moloque this Saturday. He might even be passing through Nauela on the way and be able to give me a ride! We’ll see how it goes…
In the end, I only spent a few minutes with the LMF and got back to the chapa station with the chapa, predictably, still filling up. I’d like to say the chapa ride home was something special or exciting, but for the first time in a long while, the ride home was smooth and relatively uneventful. How boring… ;-)
Thursday March 11th, 2010
Today marks the official start date of my rapaz , Bento. You can click on that link your eyes just passed by, or just continue on reading this… either way, I’ll tell you that he is basically a live-in maid, but instead of paying him money, I will buy him all the supplies he needs for school, he gets to eat the food we prepare in the house, and he gets a place to sleep for free (ie the straw mat on my yoga room floor). That last perk sounds bad (maybe it is!), but the fact of the matter is that he is sleeping on a straw mat in his current set up and having to pay to live there. So in that light, I feel that this is the better deal! Not to mention the fact that my house has electricity (when Nauela has gas to run our generator) and I’m positive that he’ll be eating better here than where he’s currently staying.
It was funny walking around my house with him today showing him where everything is located, being patient as I explained things to him and let him experiment with cooking. Hopefully things go well! I’ll keep you updated!
Friday March 12th, 2010
Well all good things must come to an end, right? I just didn’t know it’d be this soon! Only a day and a half after Bento starting as my rapaz, I had to “fire” him! Now before you get all judgmental, you need to realize that it wasn’t really much of a choice actually... Last night he had the bright idea to take several of the neighborhood girls, including the owner of my house’s 14 year old daughter, over to the local barraca to go dancing for a few hours. They left without telling anyone where they were going and, to make matters worse, they lied about it when they came home (granted the bedtime for most people in Nauela is no later than 10pm so all this happened at the ungodly hours of 8-10pm). Janiero, the owner of my house, lit into Dulce, his daughter, when she got home and eventually found out what had actually happened.
During all of this, I was up in my mango tree making phone calls (minding my own business!) and when I finally came down Janeiro was anxiously waiting to speak with me. It was a short conversation, but very powerful! Normally a calm, collected man, you could easily tell that tonight he was fuming mad. He vehemently insisted that I kick Bento out of the house immediately, but I managed to bargain to let him stay until morning assuring Janiero that I’d make him leave then. It was sad saying goodbye to Bento the next morning, but I figure that it definitely isn’t worth having Janeiro mad at me for things that someone else is doing.
Whew! Drama! Now that Bento’s gone hopefully things won’t be weird between me and Janiero… Regardless, though, I still need/want a rapaz! I’ll be on the lookout for better prospects over the next few weeks and let you all know what ends up happening.
Sunday March 14th, 2010
So the meeting this weekend with the Lurdes Mutola Foundation went really well! It started off rough, the number I had in my phone for Chauchane wasn’t right, so I never got to confirm with him whether or not I would be able to get a ride with them. Not wanting to risk missing the meeting, I ended up having to catch a ride into Alto Moloque on Saturday morning on a chapa and ask half a dozen people once I got to Moloque just to find out where the meeting would be held.
Ultimately, I found Chauchane waiting outside the local elementary school all smiles to see me (maybe it gave me some validity because so many people here in Mozambique make plans with you, but then don’t fulfill them!) During the meeting (it was with the area coaches that LMF has already trained), I sat in the back of the room and watched as the new director introduced himself to the coaches and spent the rest of the time hearing their concerns/complaints and responding to them. There was a lot of mention about the breakdown in communication between the foundation and the coaches after the training was complete and they were sent off to implement the method. Glancing around the room and making eye contact with me, Chauchane assured them that, under his watch, things would improve.
Sitting there in the audience witnessing all that was going on during the meeting, I felt a rush as I realized that this could be an opportunity for me to make a very tangible improvement on the way the LMF operates with their monitoring and evaluation. After the meeting let out, my presence was rewarded with some time to sit down and talk with Chauchane about a possible partnership between LMF and FGH. Parting ways after 20-30 minutes of talking, we agreed that he’d meet with my FGH supervisor down in Quelimane the follow week and we’d arrange a meeting with the leaders of Nauela in the next month in hopes of soon having a training for coaches in Nauela.
By the time the meeting was over and I had made a quick run to the market to stock up on food supplies, transportation had practically slowed to a halt and thus I wasn’t able to find a ride back to Nauela before sunset. As I was giving up my search for a ride, however, Professor Macua pulled up to the chapa stop on the back of a friend’s motorcycle and, when finding out that I’d be in Moloque for the night, invited me over to eat with him, his wife, and his brother. I gladly accepted and was rewarded with a nice, free meal (a dried fish sauce served over xima) and some interesting conversations about U.S. history (they know so much!).
Tuesday March 16th, 2010
After a brief return to Nauela, here I was coming back into Alto Moloque on Monday evening for a meeting with World Vision, the district Agricultural Office, and Vinhane (the PLWHA group at the Alto Moloque district hospital) all on Tuesday morning.
The meetings with World Vision and the Agricultural Office fell flat. I got oneof those “Thanks, but no thanks” responses after offering them my help with any projects they might have going on in Nauela. The meeting with Vinhane, however, was informative and went pretty well. The purpose of the Vinhane gathering was to make and teach others how to make “papas enriquecidas” , which can increase calorie consumption amongst populations with high dietary needs (babies, HIV positive individuals, etc). There were a number of participants who were interested to observe the process of making the papas and a lot more to eat the final product. After the food preparation, I talked at length with the president of the PLWHA group about the possibility of sending a few of the group members out to Nauela to teach some people out there how to make the papas and she seemed excited about the possibility. Since Vinhane is sponsored by FGH and FGH makes weekly trips out to Nauela, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a day where we can make the program a reality…
Finishing up with the Papas Enrequecidas program around 10am, I still had some time to kill before having to head back to Nauela. Thinking about other resources in Alto Moloque, I remembered IBIS , a Danish education-based NGO, where I had used the internet weeks earlier. Already dressed for the occasion with a spiel in mind, I figured I’d go and formally introduce myself to them, offering my services if they were looking for any partners in the Nauela area.
This go around the meeting went really well! (It pays off to keep trying, huh?!) Daniel, the director, almost immediately agreed that we could work together and introduced me to one of the organization’s community development specialists, Florentino, to talk about the details of our partnership.
Florentino and I met for only a few minutes, but during that time he informed me that he was slated to make a trip out the Nauela area tomorrow to visit an elementary school that had just completed an IBIS-led training a few weeks prior and was due for a visit to see how things were going. I quickly accepted his invitation to join him on the visit and, with this in mind, we left a lot of the partnership discussion for the next day’s adventure. At any rate, Florentino told me that when we get to the school I can see what IBIS has been doing, talk with the community/school leaders and see what they think still needs to be done, and then try to formulate a plan about where I fit in.
Typing this all out, I’m not really sure what to make of it all. Melissa (the Moz 14 Health PCV in Moloque) expressed her concern that I might be getting myself in over my head trying to work with all these organizations, but I figure that I’d rather be a little stressed by the amount of work than bored because I feel like I’m doing nothing. We’ll see… starting tomorrow!
(On a small, unrelated side note, Nauela has had electricity for a few hours every night ever since the start of February. Yay! It’s such a stark contrast from January when the town only had 2 or 3 days of energy during the whole month… I hope everyone is keeping my supply of electricity in their prayers… I mean, f it wasn’t for that I’d be even less communicative with you all back home than I am now!)
Wednesday March 17th, 2010
Today I woke up bright and early, my mind filled with hope and excitement about the field trip with IBIS. Moving around my house with a purpose, I did a quick yoga routine, took a bath, got dressed before taking some time to sit down and eat breakfast while waiting for Florentino to show up. Well 9am (our agreed upon meeting time) came and went and before I knew it, my wrist watching was letting me know that it was almost 10:30! “Gah! So frustrating!” I thought to myself. And I had such a good feeling about Florentino from the day before too… oh well! I had nothing else pressing to do at the moment though so I figured I’d wait it out a little longer and see if he came around.
Sitting on my front porch reading as it approached 11am, I heard the faint buzzing of a car in the distance, but I stayed intent on reading, not wanting to get my hopes up. As the car neared, I could hear the engine slow and only then did I look up from my book to see Florentino waving at me to come join him. I jumped in the car alongside him and we were off, making our way out towards the partner elementary school in Metxaiane (Me-Chi-Aan-Ee).
Driving as we talked, Florentino, unprompted, jumped right into what IBIS been doing in Metxaiane with the elementary school and community. IBIS is currently implementing a project called “escolas felizes” or “happy schools” , where they are trying to improve the overall education experience of the student and thereby reduce the number of dropouts at selected model schools. The hope is that after a number of schools have become “happy schools”, neighboring schools will mimic at least some of the practices and the knowledge will spread throughout the area school system. As fortune has it, IBIS led a training in Metxaiane just a few weeks earlier and the purpose of today’s visit was to monitor the school’s progress since. Ultimately, Florentino needed to see how the school’s different projects were coming along and if the local leaders needed any specific guidance regarding any one project in particular.
Upon arriving in Metxaiane, Florentino had very specific expectations of what tangible improvements he would see at the school. Projects that IBIS encouraged them to do at the training included: building a perimeter to mark the school’s boundaries, creating designated play areas where kids can enjoy themselves and be creative, building a school library where kids can read the books provided by IBIS, building more classrooms to accommodate more students in more space, starting a school machamba to both teach and help feed the students, and implement interactive methods of teaching.
Although the school hadn’t finished all the projects yet, most of them were well underway and Florentino and the community leaders were all looking very pleased with the results thus far. Have a look at some of the pictures below and see what you think for yourself:
The elementary school in Metxaiane with the new school building pictured on the left.
Some older students playing soccer on the recently cut field.
The students cheering behind their new soccer goal.
The students pouring back to school through the school's newly constructed fence.
Some kids taking a break near the recently planted cassava plants in the school garden.
A group of young girls enjoying some of the books provided by IBIS.
Enjoying swinging on the newly constructed swing set.
Some kids trying to play volleyball. It's tough, but they are having fun learning!
Before leaving Metxaiane for the day, Florentino and I sat down with the school advisory council and a few of the teachers seeing what needs they felt still weren’t being met. After talking for 30 minutes or so, we agreed on working on three small trainings: environmental and personal sanitation (latrine construction/usage, hand washing, and general cleanliness), permaculture, and an introduction of children games geared toward involving both sexes that require little or no materials that need to be brought in. I’ll let you know how they end up going!
Friday March 19th, 2010
Well I’m off to Nampula for the first time since the supervisor’s conference back at the beginning of December. The Peace Corps has a thing called reconnect or IST where all the other first year health PCVs gather to talk about how things have been going during the first 3 months at site. I’m excited to hear about other’s experiences, share my own successes and express my frustrations. I also can’t wait to see all the other PCV’s (especially the 7 health PCVs who are flying up from south)!
***A quick note for all those of you who are reading this blog from the comforts of your inbox. I would encourage everyone to please take the time to go visit the actual gatorinmozambique website and see all the updates I've made. I uploaded some cool new graphics, created new stand-alone pages within the blog, and even put up some music in Lomwe from the Easter service (all of which you don't see from your inbox). It's a work in progress for sure, but I hope you all get the time to enjoy it!***
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