Life’s been crazy, in a good way. Three conferences in three weeks means I’m a busy bee! I just returned from a REDES planning conference in Maputo, which went fantastically well. (What’s not to love about free hotel, hot shower, consistent electricity, good company, and great food? Except, of course, that being in a first-world environment is quite a money vacuum.)
The REDES regional conference is the first week of August, so we had/ still have a lot to do. It’s going to be awesome though- the REDES program continues to grow every year and this year, the Southern conference by itself will host approximately 116 participants! (Adolescent girls, Mozambican facilitators, Peace Corps volunteers, and guest speakers)
I am training to take over the REDES National Financial Coordinator next year, which means that I will be in charge of grant writing for the REDES program and all the moneys we get. Basically, I’m the budget lady. My MOZ15 girls and I already have lots of ideas on how to improve the program and I think we’ll make a great team.
But of course, we are volunteers… so not all of our time spent in Maputo was spent working. In three full days I offered my happy stomach mac & cheese, a giant hamburger, pizza, and a Thai food buffet, not to mention a couple glasses of wine.
I was walking back to the Peace Corps office from lunch one afternoon, when I stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk and my sandal strap broke. (This is at least the fifth pair I’ve gone through in Mozambique, by the way.) I was only about halfway to my destination, alone, and the street I was on was not conducive to getting a boleia. It struck me then how strange and funny the situation was… Even stranger still when around the corner came the new PC country director, with his wife, out for a stroll. While they tried to phone the Peace Corps driver to come pick me up, one of the uniformed armed guards for the President’s house walked across the street and sternly demanded that we continue moving. I hobbled down another block, taking my shoe off halfway and just going barefoot until we reached the next street corner, where another volunteer met me with a random pair of tennis shoes that had been sitting in the Peace Corps office for months, and that miraculously fit my 6.5 size feet.
The last night in Maputo, all of the REDES girls and I went to a sports bar to watch the Women’s World Cup finals (Japan vs. USA). I cheered for Japan, in honor of my good friend Yoko in Chibuto, while the rest of the volunteers obviously rooted for USA. Afterwards, several people in the bar stopped by the table to congratulate me on “my team’s” win, and couldn’t quite wrap their minds around the fact that I’m actually American, but rooted for Japan just for kicks. (“But you look Japanese.”)
The day we left Maputo, two other volunteers and I jumped on a chapa but ended up missing the Junta stop, so we decided we would just keep going out of Maputo and try to catch a boleia on the way, which none of us had ever tried. The car that ended up stopping for us was actually driven by two people I had worked with in Chibuto, a Portuguese couple returning from their honeymoon. Small world!
---
I got home to Chicumbane and found… no electricity. The electricity problem has steadily gotten worse in the past few weeks, to the point that it will go out for days at a time and all of Monday I only had one hour of electricity during the day. I got sick from eating something in the fridge, and I wasn’t able to heat water to take a bath for a few days. (Cooking > bathing, and if I only have one hour to accomplish one, you know which one I’m going for!)
My neighbor a few doors down came over to tell me that my dogs have been eating her chickens and stealing her clothes, and that they are becoming a huge problem for her. I didn’t know how to respond to her accusations, because 1) I’d been out of town for several days; 2) My dogs are fed extremely well and I don’t know why they would need to eat chickens; 3) With Mel in heat, numerous male dogs are constantly hanging around in the yard, even though I throw rocks at them and chase them away. (They also keep me up all night with demonic growls and snarls and territory stakeouts.) While I don’t think that my dogs are the ones (or at least, the only ones) causing trouble, I do think that I am the only one that can be held accountable. Which is kind of the problem I’m having the electricity… not being able to find anyone who will take responsibility for the relentless blackouts in my zone / block / house.
I feel powerless to do much to resolve the dog issue, which makes me nervous because I’ve heard of people poisoning dogs for eating chickens. I don’t have a fence to lock Xima and Mel up in, and I don’t have any sort of chain or rope strong enough to keep them tied. All I can do is keep them inside the house at night like I used to, but obviously there’s no way to control them when I’m out of town.
---
Anyway, here are some of the other things I’ve been up to, at site:
With Tsembeka, I am currently working on Organizational Development tools, conducting a needs assessment, and designing an Income Generation sewing project that will later be submitted as a VAST grant proposal.
I discovered last week that Tsembeka receives a lot of miscellaneous donated items from Habitat for Humanity (clothes, toys, etc), but that no one at the office could identify a Frisbee. (“What’s this?”… “I think it’s a plate.”) That means that the OVC’s and families receiving these Frisbees also don’t know exactly what they’re getting. What’s next? FRISBEE TRAINING!! (I will also be running Frisbee sessions at the REDES conference)
***Does anyone have an old laptop computer they can donate to the org?***
Much of time spent in the office is wasted on creating calendars and forms with a pen and a ruler. Writing a calendar of events will literally take two hours because heaven forbid they put up a calendar with something crossed out.
Tsembeka once had a computer, but it was stolen. I have been updating some of their forms for them, but would prefer to do computer trainings with them (much more sustainable!) on a computer that belongs to the org. PC would be better, because Macs are very, very rare in Moz. (I’d bet that the majority of Macs in country belong to PC volunteers.) If anyone is interested, I’ll write up an organization description / statement of need later and either post it or email it. Kevin and I are going to South Africa in October, so he could bring it to me then.
With CACHES, I have been helping out with daily lesson planning and daily activities with the kids. I have some ideas on how to help them improve their activities, which may include an Informal Education training and a Child Education / Development training. I gave an impromptu pet lesson to the kids the other day when I brought Xima and Mel to work. The kids warmed up to the dogs very quickly, and spent the whole afternoon petting them and leading them around on leashes. I explained that dogs only bite if provoked and that if treated well, they can be very loyal and friendly. By the end of the day, the kids were fighting over who got to hold the leash next. These may seem like small steps, but they’re so necessary!
Loving my life and my work :)
0 comments:
Post a Comment