It´s 18.30 and I´m in my house for the first time since I got up at 5 a.m. A little bit of luxury – a table fan I’ve taken from the lodge to prevent sweat pouring down onto the keyboard. My present house ( I left the last one partly because I haven´t got José Luis to hunt rats) is one of the lodge cottages. One room with a loo and wash basin in the bathroom and an outside shower heated by solar panels. I´ve organized a working space from 2 tables made by the carpenters here. I have lots of films and music with me which should last a few months.
Since I´ve been here we´ve had only one night of downpour. I woke up in the night with rain pattering on my face – a wonderful sensation. People here are so used to constantly fixing their straw roofs that mine was made waterproof in no time at all by António, who is the head carpenter here. There has been a shortage of rain in January and the maize, planted in late December, is drying in the fields. If we don´t get good rains in February, people will be hungry. I don´t think anyone in this village will starve because there´s money around – Maya, the owner of the Lodge, employs 25 people. But the price of maize is rising in Metangula, our nearest small town.
The health centre project is going better than ever I hoped. By the end of March we´ll have the walls built, tin roof erected and floors laid. Even more important, we have 4 volunteers chosen by the health commission to be trained to diagnose and prescribe medicines for some common infant diseases and, of course, malaria. Their training will be ´free´and this comes about as a result of a series of beautiful synergies. Some time ago I met a British doctor, Peg Cumberland, who runs a volunteer based project in the north of our district, right up to the Tanzanian border. When my niece, Dr Nandi Simpson of UC London, told me of small grants from the UC Global Health Institute, I contacted Peg and now the 2 are working together to design a project to evaluate the community generated data from her project (Salt, Water and Health)which suggests that infant mortality has been reduced by 50% for a cost of 3-5 $ per capita. Also our 4 volunteers will be trained by the project. We´re also working with a Portuguese NGO with much experience of health projects in Moçambique and hope that a submission will go the EU this year to build more hospitals here, train salaried staff and support volunteer initiatives.
The construction of the health centre has its challenges. We are working with a man (not from our village) who has already been responsible for the construction of many health centres. When he arrived there was some hostility to him from some of our volunteers because they thought he would be paid money which should stay within the community. He became very anxious and told me that he could be bewitched and lose his life. After a meeting of the Health Commission he was persuaded to stay and now seems to be working well with the Commission and the volunteers. The other big challenge is for me not to be drawn into decisions which should and can be made by the Health Commission. People constantly come to me to ask to change their shifts, to organize the work differently, to complain about the behaviour of others. I´m learning how important it is to stay out of it –even when I might think that my ideas are ´better’.
I can´t emphasise enough the importance of supernatural beliefs here even on the part of people with some education and experience of the outside world. I think I can get my head around this by remembering that many or even most of us can live with more than one belief system. I just have to think about the huge power of astrology in western Europe. However, what´s different here is that people often believe that they can be bewitched to death.
Swimming is a bit less relaxing than it was because crocs have started to swim by. As far as I know, no-one in the village has ever been harmed by one, but, of course, I have a good bit more fat to tempt a croc than the average person here. Anyway, I´m very careful and only swim where there are people around on the basis that they´ll spot anything and let me know. (Actually the people are usually looking at me because foreigners are so very rare here.)
In November someone robbed 5 solar panels from Maya at the Lodge. She (and I) are trying to persuade the community that they must find out who is responsible as it´s very difficult to run a business without a bit of trust. (This lodge, unlike many, is right on the edge of the village and has no walls or fences so good relations are the basis of everything). The rumours and complications are enough to fill 2 volumes of the best crime / spy novels. Someone yesterday told me how he´d gone to a nearby village at night to look around for the panels. His ´cover´was that he´d gone on a drinking expedition. His account of his time in the ´bar´ - he even bought himself a drink, which he left in the sand untouched, had me on the edge of my chair with suspense. Witchcraft is also possibly involved in the saga as one of the suspects is the local healer who has some very strong magic. This is disappointing for me as he was an active member of the village Health Committee and seemed very interested in learning more about ´western´medicine and sharing his knowledge of local plants and herbs. Despite the fact that Maya has offered 10,000 mt. for help in finding the panels (roughly equivalent to 5 months min. salary) nobody has come forward and it may be that they fear bewitchment more than they want this large sum of money.
At the moment the School Commission is planning to rent a small house in the village as the basis for a little library and a centre for meetings, handicrafts and classes. The suggested rent is 3 x the usual rent in the village so I have to start over again to explain that a community facility is not about people making profits. I have about 100 books here to begin with and we have many hundreds more in Portugal awaiting transport.
A big thank you to all those people who are supporting our project. 100% of your money goes directly to pay for construction materials and volunteer expenses. There is no 10% administration charge! The School Commission wants to give the youngest children a mid morning snack and we are investigating this at the moment and thinking of ways to raise money. Any suggestions very welcome as always.
Good wishes to everyone.
Clare
