Anyway, one evening we were chatting, and she warned me that for the rest of my life Peace Corps would most likely be my “Dow Jones.” You know--that conversation topic that is so boring to everyone else except the person talking that it instantly puts whoever is stuck listening into an extreme state of comatose disinterest. For some people, their “Dow Jones” is in fact the Dow Jones. For others, it is their children, their thesis, their theories on Lost. You get the point. For me, she said my “Dow Jones” would be Mozambique.
She went on prophetically to tell me that people will be interested to hear about my service for approximately 2 minutes before my blathering instantly becomes self-righteous and boring. Even sometimes around other Peace Corps Volunteers, I can get a sense of what she is talking about. Therefore, I have done my best to spare you, dear readers.
However, I reconsidered this recently when I was home for Christmas. While most people tended to enjoy reading my blog, they also agreed that after a year they still had absolutely no idea what I did. And they actually wanted to (or at least they pretended that they wanted to).
Even my Dad routinely asks me what exactly it is that I do. My blog is apparently like one of those really awkward prescription drug commercials for some ambiguous social disorder--it’s entertaining and you laugh because it’s slightly inappropriate and the litany of side effects at the end is funny, but after it’s over you still have no idea what pain it is they are trying to alleviate.
So, I thought I might take this opportunity to try to explain better just what it is I spend my time doing here. Best be warned, I am going to use up my two minutes…
My primary assignment with the Peace Corps is as a Community Health Volunteer stationed with a little community based organization called the Associação de Solidariedade e Aconselhamento em Saúde. Just being able to pronounce that name for me was a big step.
Do I work with HIV positive people? Every day. But none of the work I do is clinical--it’s educational and preventative. My colleagues are a motley crue of Mozambicans, ages 21 to 67, men and women, some HIV positive some not, who all wanted to help those in their community affected by HIV.
A lot of people ask me why I am a health volunteer when I still consider Cinnamon Toast Crunch to be a viable addition to the food pyramid. Also, my medical knowledge starts and stops at McDreamy and McSteamy.
Well, while I am technically a health volunteer working with a Health Association, I am really a community development volunteer whose focus is on people. I am around more to help with administrative things--organizational development, capacity building, and helping them work productively with each other. Whether that includes computer lessons, helping to develop a filing system, working with financial management aspects, or helping to create a theatre piece about HIV, my role has no clear definition. Anything and everything. After two years, I don’t know if the work I do will make any impact on the HIV epidemic. In fact, I doubt it will. I am banking on the hope, though, that through one of my relationships here, someone, somewhere along the way will have garnered something from my friendship.
Whatever impact I may have (to the chagrin of our Peace Corps Monitoring and Evaluating folks), it will not be gauged in numbers and data but through people.
So, despite the complete disregard of time, lack of linear thought, and corruptive aspects that seem to seep into so many things in Mozambique (it can‘t all be good), I do generally enjoy my time at the Association.
What I have come to LOVE here, though, is my time at the Angoche Youth Training Center.
This magical place was started by an incredible Peace Corps Volunteer, Alex, my very own site mate if I do say so myself. When she returned to the States, followed by my other site mate Erin, the process of running the Center went to myself. Initially, I was terrified, but I have been channeling my inner Ms. Frizzle, and I think I am starting to get my sea legs.
It is truly one of my favorite places, and although I find teaching extremely difficult and slightly terrifying, I also really enjoy it. Last year there were twelfth grade English classes with students I came to adore, and today we began twelfth grade English classes with a new bunch of students. Originally, I had fantasies that Mozambican students would hop up on their desks and start reciting “O Captain! My Captain” to me or bust out into a rendition of “Lean on Me,“ but are you kidding? I have no idea what I’m doing. I am just thankful that the students were so excited and desperate to learn (and equally for a teacher who just showed up) that they were so patient with me.
This experience above any other has made me appreciate the impact and the work that those thoughtful teachers do. In Mozambique, teachers wear a white lab coat, like doctors in the States, a symbol of the caliber of their profession. A teacher in Mozambique is one of the most sought after and well-respected positions. This mentality is one of the things above all others (except maybe capulanas and mangoes) I wish I could take back to America with me.
Still, several of the Youth Center students went on to study at the University in the provincial capital and two of the students from the Center went on to receive very selective scholarships to study at the major university in Maputo, the capital of the country. And when they came to deliver the news to me, I was so delusional with pride and happiness for them that I swore in the distant background I could hear the hushed, reverent murmurings of Robin Williams saying over and over again “Carpe Diem.”
Because of so many factors that would require a WikiLeaks page to enumerate, suffice it to say that education is an uphill battle here. The Youth Center tries to help level off the incline.
The Center has also offered Adult English Courses, community activism, essay contests in the local language, and we have a wonderful library too. For this bibliophile, English major, and gal who still has awkward fantasies about the library scene in Beauty and the Beast, the fact that books are so hard to come by in Mozambique is a downright tragedy. Knowing that our little Youth Center is a place where students can come to find a book for school or to just escape into a story is incredible. Still, there are so few children’s books especially in Portuguese, so we have been working on a way to get more. A children’s literary program along with a local language cultural preservation project are two dreams on the horizon. The Center is just so wonderful because it provides a safe space for our students and a convenient meeting spot for so many activities.
For instance, another project dear to my heart here is our girls empowerment group, REDES, Raparigas em Desenvolvimento, Educação e Saúde. (Girls in Development, Education, and Health). We meet weekly throughout the year at the Youth Center doing various projects and activities and sometimes just talking. We have done public speaking, women’s health, friendship bracelets, Women’s Day Performances, and so much more. Last April, two of the girls were chosen to participate in a week-long conference/workshop/summer camp thingy with various girls from all around Mozambique. The final day of the conference all the girls climbed a mountain together to celebrate the week. If there was ever the perfect metaphor for being a young girl in Mozambique, climbing a mountain would be it. The crap these young girls have to deal with is unbelievable to me. Some days the things they say break my heart. Some days it gives me hope for Mozambique.
We also have an art group here, and we just completed painting a giant mural on the main boulevard in town about domestic violence and malaria. The whole process, including writing the grant, planning out the designs, and actually painting the mural took around 6 months. For kids that grew up without the knowledge of the existence of crayons, I am constantly impressed with their talent. Seeing folks stop by the mural when they are walking by to discuss the message is really exciting, even if sometimes they remark that the drawings of people look like Martians. Two of the boys also entered a Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Art Contest where they submitted a drawing about World Peace and Friendship. I recently found out that they won the contest and this Saturday I get to deliver the news that they, along with their mother, will get to travel to Maputo where their artwork will be displayed in an exhibit.
To be perfectly honest, I still have no idea really what I am supposed to be doing here. The Peace Corps is an exercise in uncertainty. I wish I could say I was busy saving orphans or preventing cyclones or cultivating the next Nelson Mandela or single handedly eradicating cholera. But I’m not. I’m just taking it one day at a time, trying to relish in the small victories.
Because whether it’s two years in Mozambique or two minutes of someone’s time, sometimes the little victories are what keep you going.
Our REDES girls on the beach at our last meeting of the year before Summer Break.
Two of the students at the Youth Center giving a presentation.
A full shot of the wall.
Our Art Group celebrating our completed mural.
International HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. My Association participated in a march down the main boulevard.
Some other Peace Corps Volunteers and I with our representatives on the top of the mountain.
Some of our REDES girls with me on Mozambican Women's Day. Man, I am white.
Some of the Youth Center kids doing an activity.
Some members of my association working on a theater piece about HIV.
This was one section they painted about domestic violence.
One of the students at the Youth Center on our final day of class.
My site mate and I went out to one of the Islands to interview some of the older folks there as part of a language preservation project.
My site mate Alex and our friend Mussa during one of the first English Talent Shows.
What we started with.
One of the REDES girls giving a presentation on Public Speaking.
The REDES girls and I on the beach.
My association participated in the Science Fair at the local high school. They were there to present about HIV and answer any general health questions.
The Youth Center decorated for International HIV/AIDS Day.
From afar. Damn, that wall was work.
The little library at the Center. And this is one of the most well stocked libraries for miles.
Our motto at the REDES Conference...Anything is Possible. A fitting one to end on.
