12-7-11
I thought it would feel like a life time here but it has already been 6 months and I have events planned out, for basically, the next two years. Im really excited about my next adventure … going home for a two week visit at the end of December. I want to make it to Carnaval in Quilemane in Feb 2012, I have a conference with Peace Corps in March for financial planning, Bush Fire music festival in May, mid-service sometime in June, I might be traveling up north to visit friends in Aug, going home again in Sept to visit family and hopefully to go to Heathers wedding, Alex is visiting in April 2013, and my service ends in July/Aug 2013. I want to travel for about a month after service with friends and then go home. In between all of the events listed I will have other PC conferences, REDES events, English club, maybe become a part of the peer support network and of course my actual jobs with the preschool and hospital/HIV association, not to mention the random weekend trips and PCV get togethers. I thought that I would have a lot of down time here but it turns out that I will be extremely busy! The time is going to go by sooo fast, I am enjoying every minute so far and I hope I will continue to live in the moment and value the rest of my experiences here.
One of the organizations that I work with is called Hlauleka, which means to stand out or be different, and was taken from a bible story. It is a Christian org and has a lot of different departments. It has parenting classes, youth clubs, kid clubs, a preschool and supports orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). Today me and the director of the preschool, Sybil, reviewed the monthly financial reports and created an annual financial report that we will use to improve finances for next year. Later I went with Sergio, head of the OVC department, to visit some of the OVC families. OVCs include children that live with a single parent, and extended family member, or just lives with older brothers and sisters. During our visits I was able to ask if they had necessities such as food, clothes and school supplies for next year and hygiene products. We also asked how many children were in the family, if they passed their classes this year, how the families buy food, and if they had water available. Some of the family leaders didn’t speak Portuguese so Sergio translated for me. Hlauleka supports the entire family of the OVC, not just the child that comes to the preschool or is in the clubs. Some of these families are just kids and have no way of buying food or anything and so they depend fully on Hlauleka. I am going to do more visits tomorrow and my goal is to make a list of all the OVCs, their families, living conditions, needs, etc. I want to hold classes for the families on how to properly use mosquito nets, hygiene, nutrition etc. Some of the family members volunteer at the preschool as payment for their child to attend the school and so I also want to schedule a day where we can clean, prep and plant the garden at the preschool. The families can take food from the garden and we also serve the kids at the preschool breakfast and lunch.
My other job at the hospital is a little less eventful right now. Right now I work with an org, ICAP, at the hospital but it is being replaced by EGPAF, which are both American orgs. I am working with the HIV positive volunteers with ICAP to form their own association and we just turned in some of our forms on Saturday. Now we are just waiting to hear from the government for approval and then we are going to start on writing our by-laws and constitution. Once everything is official we will be training the peer educators who will be doing the educating and visiting the public, educating people on HIV, visiting HIV positive people we are not currently taking medication and trying to convince them to get on get treatment, creating gardens, working on environmental projects, income generating projects and more! So I think it is a slow start but it will get to a productive state eventually. The great news is that a friend of a friend approached me with a project idea and so now he is just getting on board with the association we were already starting. He is really motivated, organized and has tons of great ideas! I think he is going to be the leader of the association which is nice cause it takes the spotlight off of me and the project is sustainable after I leave.
This Saturday I am having my first REDES meeting and we are making friendship bracelets. I invited about 15 girls and I think we will have a good turnout. PC actually gives me quite a bit of money to buy whatever activities the girls are interested in doing. There will be conferences where the girls can share their experiences and get a chance to travel, which is rare in this country. I will be working with a Mozambican woman who is a great remodel for the girls. She is 24, she went to college and is looking for a job, she’s not married, has no kids and is not HIV positive. I also have a few guest speakers lined up, who will talk to the girls about different options they have for their futures. PC gave me an amazing book, in English and Portuguese, that I can use for discussions and activities with the girls. Im really excited and hope that the girls like the group, learn and grow J
I also want to start an English club. Basically everyone wants to learn English here. They learn a little in school and so my most common greeting is “hello, how are you? I am fine, thank you” as one full sentence haha. I just hope that I have time for everything I want to do here. I am used to being busy in the states and I think I just need to adjust to being busy in Africa instead of adapting to the slow pace culture here, cause that is easy to get sucked into. I am really excited to take a break, visit home and come back rejuvenated! Im so excited for the future and getting these programs off the ground!
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