Loving the living

I know I'm way behind but I don't even remember half the things I wanted to write about on here. I'll just tell you about my recent work trip up north to Pemba in Cabo Delgado province. Pemba is where the programme office is and C.D. is where the programme operates, in 6 districts. Pemba is a small city of 70,000 on the coast and a mix of luxury and poverty. I stayed for 10 days at a house on the beach where I could wake up in the morning and walk 20 feet out the front door for a swim in the ocean where I was met by jellyfish and snakes in the water. This prairie girl knows nothing about ocean wildlife, so when I saw the translucent jellyfish I was rather intrigued. I could see their shadows in the sand (the water was that clear ahhh) at the bottom but had to look closely for them in the water. When I found one I poked it wondering what this gooey, transparent thing felt like. It felt like hard jello but I never knew jello that made my skin burn. Luckily I didn't poke the tentacles, just the smooth side but now I know about jellyfish. Sundays are a busy day on the beach, with a soccer game taking place right in front of the house every week and loads of locals walking around. I stayed with Eliane, a Brazilian who works at the office in Pemba and her little 3 month old Jackie who was hugely entertaining. Days were spent working, evenings enjoying dinners with colleagues at one of the half dozen restaurants overlooking the ocean. Weekends were spent dancing at the disco or parties, and lazing on the beach. Pemba is a paradise and I was amazingly relaxed. Another highlight of the trip was the field visit to Bilibiza, an Administrative post in Quissanga district. Because of large distances between villages, some towns are named as administrative posts where schools and health posts are located for surrounding villages. In many cases, villages are quite far from these services. One of the villages was about a 45 minute drive away at high speed with poor roads and generally a lack of transport, and that was the closest hospital and primary school. Bilibiza was obviously poor but not like the images we see on World Vision ads. People had housing, most of the houses were made of rocks, clay or straw with straw or zinc roofs. Wooden doors and zinc roofs are signs of well being. Everyone wore regular clothes although generally the women wear the traditional capulanas, , bright fabric wrapped around the body as a skirt of head wrap, I saw people wearing brand names like Sean John and Enyce in this community about 4 hours from the coast and really in the middle of the bush. About an hour of the drive was along unpaved road in elephant territory so it was an interesting drive trying to keep an eye out for elephants while manoeuvering the huge holes in the road. There were chickens and goats running around everwhere, but funnily, the odd thing was when I saw someone walking a dog on a leash. The people in Bilibiza were extremely friendly and warm, much more than in Maputo, but I suppose like any big city. The kids loved having us there, and were dying for us to take their pictures. They would call my name and ask me to play with them and take their picture or give them my bottled water. They have no water system, they collect rain water and water from the river. When it rained, kids would come running with baskets and bottles to collect the rain from the gutters of our building. But they seemed happy and found ways of having fun with whatever they were doing. That's the beauty of the simple life.
The purpose of the visit to Bilibiza was to attend a planning workshop for preschool teachers to plan what activities they would do with the kids in 2007. It was fully participatory, votes were taken on everything from the agenda of the day to what time to take a break. But this method sometimes proved challenging for the facilitators because often they would ask a question, and there would be no answer. They would rephrase the question and still silence. It would take some prodding to get the teachers to express their opinions, as the culture in many ways lacks confidence, has not allowed independent thought, and has not taught people how to think on their own. It was interesting and sad to see. This is partly why development takes time because culture is embedded and difficult to change after so many years of oppression. So by using a participatory method hopefully people will come to see their opinion matters. And people became more comfortable in speaking and were very comfortable sharing songs and dances. So after a day and a half of working with the teachers, who are all volunteers, some rudimentary planning had been done with many ideas being shared for activities for teachers to do with the children, like teaching songs and dances, building toys, and teaching issues such as health and nature.
It was my first visit to Pemba, and the first time to a rural community. It was an amazing experience. My next trip to Pemba is in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!