This past weekend we were back in Macomia but this time we
were there for “business.” Liz and I are starting a group called JUNTOS in our
community and there was a meeting for all the volunteers in Cabo Delgado with their
Mozambican counterparts. JUNTOS groups talk about HIV/AIDS, gender disparity, and
violence through fun mediums like art and theater. We brought a twelfth grade student
with us. His name is Helder and is one of the nicest Mozambicans I’ve met. His English
is very good because he lived with Italian priests for many years.
He approached us to ask for help to form a group of youth. There
is not much for our students to do in Mariri. On weekends, there are soccer
games but other than that, students have a lot of free time. Helder told us
that many students do bad things (drugs, drink, steal) because they don’t know
what else to do. The idea was to turn an old abandoned building into a youth
center where there would be books, art projects, and games for students to play.
We helped him write a letter to ask for money from a Norwegian agency and
invited him to help us do all of these things with Peace Corps as well. After
the meeting, we learned that the funding for Peace Corps was cut drastically
this year but we’ll get by.
We had our first meeting before the end of the trimester and
had a good turnout with students who seemed very interested in what we had to
say. Wish us luck!
At the JUNTOS conference with Helder!
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