Like I said before, I work at CARE International which is a big NGO (non-governmental organization). I work 8 – 5 Monday through Thursday with a one hour lunch break from 1 – 2 and 8 – 1:30 on Fridays. CARE's mission/vision is, in simple terms, to help women help themselves, their families, and the community at large. I am working/going to be working on three different projects. The first project is called Comprehensive Civil Society Responses to HIV/AIDS (COCISO) and is part of the broader OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) project. COCISO works with local CSOs (civil society organizations) to help them build their capacity to better serve their beneficiaries (or OVCs and their families or guardians). COCISO provides financial backing to help the CSOs implement sustainable programs that focus on prevention of HIV and impact mitigation. I will mostly be working with the M&E (monitoring and evaluation) supervisor to form the tools needed to monitor the number and types of activities that take place in each of the CSOs and later I will be helping crunch numbers in the evaluation process.
The second project I will be working on is the CDC funded Mais Vida (More Life) project. Mais Vida is a HIV and AIDS treatment program that focuses on ARV (Anti-retroviral) treatment in both adults and children, PMTCT (prevention of mother to child transmission), treatment of OIs (opportunistic infections) like TB and PCP (pneumocystis carinii pneumonia) that tend to come along with the onset of AIDS, and a community counseling and testing component. I have not officially begun my work with this project, but I am going to be involved in the community counseling and testing which I think is pretty exciting and challenging at the same time. Right now, I am helping re-write and edit the continuation application for funding from the CDC.
Finally, the project which has recently saved me from eternal boredom (internet surfing tends to get old if you can believe it) is called Crescer Bem (Grow Well) or Ku Kula Kuatsi in Xitswa (the local language in northern Inhambane). This project falls under the larger HIV/Education project that CARE is working on all over the world. So KKK (I know, I can’t believe it either. It needs a new name) or as I refer to it as the HIV/Educação project is going to be my main project. The HIV/Educação project focuses on keeping young girls in primary schools (focusing on girls in sixth and seventh grade, somewhere around 11 - 15 years old) especially those who have married young or are pregnant. The project will work in 20 EPC (Escola Primaria Completo – complete primary schools which are those that include sixth and seventh grade) in the Vilankulo district.
The first two weeks of “real work” I had were spent working on the baseline survey in seven of the twenty schools. Week one consisted of several days of training in interviewing skills for the group of eight men and women in their early to mid 20s hired to partake in the interviewing process. During this time all of the instruments (surveys) were translated into Xitswa. On Wednesday and Friday of week one, we went to two pilot schools (one rural and one urban) to test the instruments and get down a routine of how week two would work. During week two of the baseline survey, we went to a different EPC everyday (three rural and two urban schools). My primary role in the baseline survey was to help the consultant keep things running smoothly (she was American who spoke perfect Portuguese, which was pretty exciting because there are not that many Americans floating around in Moz or very many ex-pats in general are able to speak the local language). I was also able to take part in the classroom observations which was really fun and exciting. The main point of classroom observations is to try to get an idea of the gender relations in the classroom and how the teacher reacts depending on whether he or she is interacting with a boy or a girl. During the two weeks, I sat in on two math classes, one visual arts class, a class on natural fabrics vs. synthetic (?), a morality and civil duty class, one Portuguese class, and two English classes. My favorite classes to watch were definitely the English classes. I think it was so good for me in so many different ways. First of all, it gave me an idea of the pace and level the kids were learning English. Secondly, it was fun to watch and listen to the students interact with each other in English and to see them actually enjoying doing so. Finally, I realized that when people come up to me and begin every conversation with “my sista” (which really annoys me to no end) it is not because they are trying to speak some version of American slang to be cool, it is because it is what they learn in school. That was a needed reality check and is a huge relief (well kind of, except how many generations of Mozambicans will learn to call mulungu women “my sista?”).
Here are a few pictures of some of the schools I visited over the past two weeks. I have even included a little multiple choice question for the end in case you are losing interest.
Which of these classrooms is the most suitable for a group of 40-90 Mozambican students?
A)
B)
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C)
D)
Correct Answer: D
Not only is this building material (wood and canhiso) much cheaper than the concrete fancy classrooms, it is 100% cooler. The temperature in week two hovered right around the 40°C (104°F) mark. Granted, these classrooms will have to be replaced sooner than the concrete ones, but I easily would trade 50 minutes of intense sweating (the kind where sweat rolls down from your forehead, into your eyes, down your nose, and onto your notebook where you are trying to listen and take notes, but all you can think about is escaping the hot oven you are being forced to sit in all day) for one week of rebuilding a classroom. No contest.
p.s. February 2nd was my five month anniversary of my arrival in Moz.
