a typical thursday

Written November 30, 2012 – while my dog attempts to sit on my lap.

Sometimes I wonder how to start a blog post. . . do I say hello? Just jump right in with what’s been going on? Ask how things are going at home, when really its rare that I get a response? Not really sure. . . and so with that – this silly and somewhat pointless paragraph is done.

Yesterday was a bit of a frustrating day for me. It was my monthly meeting with Despertai – one of my community based organizations. I had talked with the president of the association, who is also my counterpart for it, about what we were going to go over/do during the meeting. My thought was, let’s make a calendar for December, that way everyone is on the same page as to what’s happening, and lets review our vision and mission statements. That way it’ll just be sort of a baseline for our goals and work in 2013.   –side note, Mozambique goes on holidays from about mid-december to mid-january. . . therefore I foresee a lot of lagoon days in my future.

So – we did a calendar for the month of December- that ordeal took about 2 hours. I cant even go into details about what made it take so long, because I just don’t know. It was just a process. An exhausting and frustrating process. But it was done. We have decided on our holiday dates, people know that my mom is coming to visit (mom get ready to eat a lot of food here) and know when our next meeting is.

So the next topic of our meeting was reviewing our vision and mission statement. I had been informed that the organization had both – something I thought you needed to go through the legalization process. . . apparently I was wrong. So doing each of those took another two hours. I don’t know why people don’t like getting involved during meetings. I saw a few people doze off and called them out on it. I think it stems from the educational structure/system here – people are used to sitting in a classroom and being lectured. There is no individual involvement, when asked a question, everyone responds in unison – so when I’m asking for individual involvement and personal opinion, a lot of the time people clam up. Adding to the frustration.

So we finally got our vision and mission statements done. By now the meeting has run for about 4 hours. I’m exhausted, and about at my whit’s end. . . I needddddd to be more patient, I know. Ugh – I’m frustrated just writing this blog. Because it doesn’t really describe the meeting at all. Things were accomplished, and I’m trying to be very forceful that I’m not the one running meetings. That it should be my counterpart, and I was forcing people to get involved – like writing on the calendar, writing out the mission statement etc. I want them to be sustainable and have the skills of doing simple things like making a calendar even when I’m gone.

Then after all of that was said and done, we took attendance. There were maybe 15 people at the meeting (understandable because of the holiday timeframe, and it being Mozambique and all) and yet 20 some were marked present. I asked why? And was told that those people, who weren’t actually there, had told the president that they weren’t going to be able to make it. I then kindly explained that they were “excused” from the meeting, but they weren’t “present” because they were not actually there. Again, something so simple – yet so new/foreign.

My next goal (probably starting next year 2013) is to get people to start documenting what they are doing in the field. How many patients they see. During what day, how many kids they help etc. because as of right now, we don’t have a funder – if we want to get one, we need to be organized, and be able to show statistics of our work. I’m almost a bit afraid to start this new project. . . but know that it has to be done.

Also – this organization always says that they do “Cuidados Domiciliarios” (certified home visits) – which is wrong. Yes they do home visits, but are not certified in the area of it – much like someone who is watching a child swim in a pool, unless they have gone through the training and classes, they are not a lifeguard. It’s the same thing. The training process costs money though, and without a funder, it would be very hard to get all 30some volunteers in this organization certified. So in the meantime, I have to be the bad guy and constantly cut in, reminding them that we don’t actually have the certification, so we cant say that we do. I feel like an asshole.

And to top off this feeling like a total ass – after the insanely frustrating meeting, the volunteers brought out pots of food. . . . they made me a thanksgiving meal.

I’m officially the worst person ever.

I had explained to them a few weeks ago about our holiday, and how we always have lots of food, and we sit around and talk and we are with friends and family. They saw that I would get really sad when I mentioned/explained this (its hard to be away from you guys) and decided to try and make me a Mozambique Thanksgiving. Of course the food was traditional Mozambique food and people didn’t actually sit at a table and talk – people don’t talk during meals here, but it was still good and the thought was very very nice.

So yeah. . . .that was my day yesterday.

Tomorrow is World Aids Day – I’ll be spending it at the hospital, and in the town square with my organizations.

I should go to the hospital today, but there is nothing for me to do, so I’m going to work on my VRF (volunteer reporting form) and then wander over to my other organization to talk about our plans for tomorrow.

Hugs and kisses from Mozambique.

td