Women's Day

Hello and Happy Labor Day to everyone! In Mozambique May 1^st is Dia dos Trabalhadores (Labor Day) and I am celebrating the holiday visiting other volunteers in the province of Tete, far away from my students and responsibilities back in Mangunde. You see, May 1^st falls on a Tuesday this year which sets up an interesting scenario for anyone actually trying to work at any point this week. A Tuesday holiday will automatically render Monday a day off and, given the nature of most activities on holidays, many consider the day after the holiday to be a informal “hangover” day-off. The week before Labor Day was the first week of the second trimester, an informal holiday week in itself in which teachers and student commonly affirm that there is “supposed” to be class but wink afterward when you ask if they will actually go in to give classes. Thus, here I am enjoying the tail end of a pleasant 4-week vacation which was supposed to only be a one-week break from school. So, how have I spent my luxurious holiday away from Mangunde? Well, I've spent the past month doing many interesting things, visiting friends and getting to know more and more of Mozambique and Southern Africa. Before I talk about my escapades on the roads, parks and beaches of Africa, however, I want to first talk a little about the end of my trimester back in Mangunde.

The last time we checked in was over a month ago and I was gearing up for a year of teaching English, Biology, and computers along with running my JUNTOS, English Theater and journalism clubs. Back in March things were just finding their rhythm again after a long summer hiatus. Students were beginning to get involved in clubs, we had presented out first HIV/AIDS theater in front of the school audience and I was getting ready to give my first exams to a surprisingly active and interested group of 8^th and 10^th grades students.

Near the end of the trimester, on April 7^th, we had the opportunity to celebrate an important holiday here in Mozambique, Dia das Mulheres (Women's Day). All across the country shops were closed and school was canceled to celebrate the accomplishments of Mozambican women. In Mangunde, Mike and I decided to repeat a wonderfully successful event that I organized with my old roommate Tim last year. We organized a girls' soccer tournament with a a variety of poems, music and theaters between the games to celebrate Mozambican women. Just like last year the event was a huge success. Like everything in Mozambique it was a challenge to organize – prizes, biscuits, and juice had to be bought in the city and lugged back into the mission, girls had to be organized into teams, and reminded, as all high school students do, over and over not to forget what time to show up. In addition, this year Women's Day fell on the same day as the Saturday before Easter, which, in the world of Catholic missions, is a pretty big deal. Thus, we were told that we had to finish the event by noon so that the day of prayer and silent reconciliation could begin. Despite these difficulties we were able to put on a great day of games and activities.

At 6 a.m. the girls were out lining the field, which, in Mozambique means carving out lines from the rock hard dirt and dropping ash into the crease. We had a tournament table with the draw posted and a table of juice and snacks for the players. At 7 a.m, the first game kicked off. Both last year and this year I've noticed how important and appreciated it is by all of the girls involved. The girls here in Mangunde are so often overlooked and don't receive the same types of opportunities that the male students receive, so to have an event purely devoted to the female students at least one day a year was gratifying for Mike and I. During the games, male students continually approached me to ask when we would be having the boy's tournament. All I could do in response was laugh and say, “every other day of the year.” The boys play soccer after school every single day on the field in front of the school and refuse the girls access to the balls. In addition, girls are prohibited from leaving the dormitory every evening a 6 p.m. while the boys are allowed to roam free until the bell rings to go to bed at 9 p.m. Add to that the small, insignificant fact that women are typically treated like child-rearing and water-carting slaves to their husbands, and it was about time to have a day devoted to the Mozambican woman.

In between the games, Mike's REDES group (a girls' group devoted to female empowerment in the fight against HIV/AIDS) and my JUNTOS group (boys and girls) gave presentations between the game to commemorate the occasion. After it was all over we handed the prizes (a notebook, pen, cookies and sodas) to the winning team who stormed the field kicking up dust in a wild celebration as the final whistle blew to close the tournament.

After the tournament Mike and I retreated to our house to enjoy a special holiday lunch prepared by Gracinda, our house-keeper. All day we could smell the chicken cooking in our house from the soccer field and were salivating from 10 a.m. on. The chicken we ate on Woman's Day, however, was no ordinary chicken. Any time you have chicken or beef in Mangunde it's a special occasion. Unfortunately, the local market which is composed of about 2 stalls selling a meager assortment of leaves and fruits, depending on the day, does not have a frozen meat section, in fact, it doesn't even have a live meat section. That means that when you want chicken you have to go find yourself a real live chicken. Some households out in the mato (bush) have a collection of of rangy emaciated chickens that you can seek out and buy, but it's not easy...then, of course, you have to kill it and de-feather it or find someone to do it for you. All in all, not an ideal situation for a carnivore like me. Therefore, when we had succulent and tender chickens roasting on the coal fire that afternoon on Woman's Day it was a truly special occasion. It didn't happen overnight though. Let me explain. Last year in November Tim, the exiting Moz 14 volunteer made it his final project to organize the building of a chicken coop for a local micro-finance group. The idea was to providing the funding for the building of the chicken coop and start-up money to buy chicks and then allow the members of the group to raise and sell the chickens in order to generate income to fund their micro-loans. Well, when Tim left and 3 months passed with no chicks, no feed, and missing parts all around the coup I began to lose hope that the building would ever be completed. After I met with them in February, however, to go over their remaining finances, a flurry of activity finally allowed the remaining pieces to be put into place on the chicken coup. The structure was finished, 200 chicks were purchased with feed, antibiotics, feeders and waterers. For 3 weeks I checked in with the growing chicks weekly to see them growing and was assured that come April 7^th (Woman's Day) we would have ourselves some plump young chickens ripe for holiday picking.

A few days before Women's Day I went down to the chicken coop to finally pick up the chicks that I had watched grow into juicy plump chickens. When I arrived I found Sr. Marima, the manager of the finance group and driving force behind the chicken operation, asleep in the miniature chicken house surrounded my 200 scratching and nibbling chickens. When I asked what he was doing he told me that he's been sleeping in the chicken coup for the past two weeks. He seemed exhausted and told me that you can't leave the chicks unattended. While we were talking, almost like a nervous tic, he would violently shake the tarp and chicken-wire wall of the house in order to scare and wake the chicks up so that they would return to eating and drinking. It was fascinating to see how devoted he was to the chickens and I understood why. His livelihood was locked up in that chicken coup. In addition to receiving the initial grant through Tim for the building, the micro-finance group made a significant contribution of personal funds to complete the coup and purchase the chicks. They took a risk and are now hoping that they will be able to sell all 200 chicks in order to turn a profit and make their investment worthwhile. I suppose this was particularly heartening for me to see because here in Mozambique it's can be rare to see foreign-initiated projects with such strong local investment. My experience so far as a Peace Corps volunteer in a developing Africa which is inundated in foreign aid and free hand-outs has been that often people come to feel entitled to the money they are given, pocket it, or simply not care about the projects and only about the money coming into their wallets. This was different. It was clear that Sr. Marima was deeply committed to the chicken coup project. It showed in the chickens. Back at the house, Mike and I chowed down on the best meio frango (literally “half-chicken”) that Mangunde has ever seen and enjoyed a relaxing conclusion to a successful tournament and Women’s Day.

Alright, I’m going to leave in at that for now. Much has happened since I began to write this blog post and which I am now finishing. So…you may find is slightly out-dated. You can be sure that as soon as this is posted there will be one or two closely following because I’m still about a month behind and slowly fighting my way back to keep you all up to date on the meanderings of my insignificant life here in Mozambique. Until next time!