Update 6

I’ve sat down a number of times this summer to update my blog and for some reason haven’t gotten very far. Lots has happened since my last entry and I find myself shocked to think at how few months I have left of this experience. The thought of leaving here is completely overwhelming. Anyway, this one got kinda long, but here’s the project update.

Although perhaps I knew it all along, I am now beginning to really understand why it is that this is a two year commitment. In terms of my project it is only since May that things have begun to show tangible progress and I fear that by the time I leave here in a few months it will really just be taking off. In late May I began to integrate the health component into the project. Working with another volunteer from the city whose organization wants to reach out to rural women’s groups, we’ve starting teaching health classes. I always anticipate our Friday classes with lots of excitement and I have been blown away with how much fun it’s been to teach these women, and at how responsive they’ve been to the classes. Our first class was on nutrition and food groups—and cheap local options available for each food group. The following week we held a cooking session in which we taught the women how to easily and cheaply improve the nutrition of a number of dishes they make regularly. Since then we’ve had classes on pregnancy and contraception (this when Amie and Cassie were here, allowing us to make good use of Amie’s health knowledge—the women asked her all sorts of questions and it was nice to have a source of credible information), anemia, first aid, diarrhea prevention and treatment, germs and disease prevention. The idea is to teach the women some health concepts one week and the following week to do an activity based on what they learned: such as making menstrual bracelets to keep track of their cycles after learning about contraception, or making soap after learning about diarrhea and germs. A week of theory and a week of practicum, as Dona Celeste, one of the participants, recently commented. Still to come are classes on HIV and AIDS, women’s reproductive health and STDs, malaria, and more. Some photos from a recent class.

 

 

When Amie and Cassie were here we had the opportunity to take the women to a two day self-defense class in Chimoio offered by an organization where a Peace Corps colleague works. We met at my house and walked to the chapa stop—all the women brought their knitting and my heart swelled with happiness as I watched them standing waiting for transport, some with babies slung on their backs, knitting and chatting, their balls of yarn tucked in a bag or under their arms. The self-defense class consisted of talking about body language and prevention and then included several self-defense moves against an attacker in various situations. Though shy at first, I loved watching them get active and get involved. Cas, Ame and I got to be on baby duty, which of course was so fun. Some more photos....

 

 

 

 

In addition to the health classes, the knitting group has been turning out products weekly. We’ve gone through almost all the yarn donated in May and are about to start in on yarn that was donated in July that I was able to bring back after going home for Teddy and Amie’s wedding. We are in the process of setting up a connection with a mission down the road that has a shop where we hope to sell the products. Many mission teams from overseas pass through and it would allow us to sell the products at a higher price than in the city or the community. Last week I made the first payment to the women for baby bonnets and booties they made in April and May—they were visibly excited to receive money for their work and it felt good to give them tangible results. Lots of women in the community have been coming by and showing interest in participating in the project. Although the original idea was to wait until the center was completed to open up the project to more women, we’ve decided to open it up now and next week will start with a second group of knitters.

 

 

 

 

The final component of the project—construction of the women’s center (where all this will hopefully continue after I’m gone) and the chicken coop—is also moving along, slowly but surely. The biggest difference came when I arrived back here in July after being away from the community for almost three weeks—at home for Teddy and Amie’s wedding followed by a few days in Maputo for a REDES (Raparigas Em Desenvolvimento, Educação e Saúde) planning meeting.

Going away lets you see things from a different perspective, a chance to step back and see anew. Returning, I felt overwhelmed at how good it was to be back. I felt astonished at what I saw here, at where I live and the world I’ve become a part of. It had been strange to see people from so many parts of my life in the previous two weeks—my family, extended family, family friends, friends from high school, from summers growing up, from college, Peace Corps friends in Maputo, and then my neighbors here who feel like family. Two friends who live on the nearby mission picked me up in Chimoio and drove me home, arriving at my house after dark to a quiet neighborhood. As I set my things on the verandah and began to thank them for the ride we heard screams coming across Suzana’s yard and looked to see 4 neighborhood kids running towards us shrieking. They each gave me great big hugs, followed by Suzana who appeared shortly after, laughing (laughter being her natural state I think). After catching up for a few minutes I went inside to get resettled before collapsing into bed. While away, my house continued to serve as the base for the women’s project. I left all knitting materials and money for construction materials inside and my keys with Suzana. Along with switching my verandah light on in the evenings and off in the morning, she came into the house for anything she needed to continue the project. In addition, when I arrived home I found my house swept clean, my water containers and buckets completely full. I felt taken care of, grateful in a way that was hard to express.

I had left her with 10,000 mtn (400 USD) for project expenses that might occur while I was gone, an amount of money that was most likely hard for her to comprehend, as she currently has no income. She recorded all expenditures and accounted for each with receipts. The next day, as we sat huddled on the floor in my house going over what happened while I was away, paper work spread before us filled with her careful handwriting, I was completely astonished at her diligence and honesty in reporting it all. I watched her bent over her legs, chin cupped in one hand, finger moving down the page, explaining all expenses: small hinges, large hinges, money for the carpenter, mango trees for firewood to bake bricks, transporting wood, food for brickmakers, bus fare to Gondola to buy supplies, money to pay my energy bill. She got to one line that she had to read twice to recall what it was: “Eu gastei—200 mt para o meu sustento familiar.” She paused and then turned to me to explain and I couldn’t help but smile— she had written that she spent 200 mtn on needs for her family. As she started to explain and saw my smile we both burst into laughter—I felt so much affection for her at that moment. She borrowed the money, she explained, because a number of family members had shown up unexpectedly and she didn’t have enough food to feed them or money to loan them return bus fare. I love that she borrowed the money. I love that she knew it would be okay—somehow it signified for me a certain level of understanding in our friendship. A friendship that continually shocks me at how easy and normal it is across all the cultural and economic differences between us. And also, I felt so proud at what an incredible job she had done in managing the project and getting so much done on her own. In my absence she oversaw the completion of the roof on the classroom, the completion of the chicken coop, arranged for wood and a carpenter to make the frames and windows for the classroom, oversaw the making of over two thousand bricks (which included coordinating numerous people doing different jobs), bought materials needed for continued construction and held knitting classes. Here are more photos: Suzana and I meeting with the builders and some recent ones of the women's center and chicken coop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s the project update. I am finishing this entry, which I started about two days ago, a few hours outside of Maputo at our COS (Close of Service) conference and will post it when I return to the city on Saturday. In the meantime, as all these crazy thoughts are going through my head of what it means for this experience to be coming to an end, I hope to write another update as well. More soon.