The working life

Olá!

This week has been very work busy! On Thursday last week my colleague and friend, Mary, arrived in Zavala. For those who don't know she is the one who offered me this job and was my soccer coach when I was 16-17. We started at a running pace planning the provincial sensitization workshop for the next day. Basically we went over the program layout, concepts and methodology. Most stressful part was doing the translation for Mary...

(This program is called Jogo Saudável or Healthy Play. It is a play and sport based methodology that Right To Play developed and Mary adapted to include themes of water and hygiene education. It uses the Reflect, Connect and Apply process to get the kiddies to understand the concepts presented in basic games. Essentially we play games like British bull dog except it's called Soap Beats Bacteria etc.  And we uses the questions to guide their learning.)

Selected our communities and off we went to playing our community sensitization activities. But before we did that... we went to the beach!

                  

Eating freshly caught and cooked fish on the beach! And teaching Mary how to take a selfie!

Canda Beach. Praia de Canda.

After waiting for three hours for our ride, we made it to the little slice of paradise above. There were no restaurants or food stands so we bought some fish from some guys who were fishing and they cooked it for us in a small fire they had made.

Each day this week we went to two communities. In each community we spoke with the Mamas and Papas, explaining the program and asking for volunteers who could attend our leader selection workshop. Then we could play a game with them so they know what we will be doing with their children. 

         

Getting bite by mosquitoes and showing how you shake with a fever when you have malaria

After the parents we bring the kids out of class, talk about the methodology (reflect, connect, apply) and then play a game or two (depending on timing as African time is slow! Yes, meaning me- Ms. AlwaysLate- is always waiting here...) I have some really great photos of the kids playing but they are on my big computer and I don't have the cord with me (I am in Inhambane before going to Maputo tomorrow). 

PASARI Water Pump

Here's a video of our oh-so-fun ride to one of the communities. Sucked more for the people who were riding in the boot.

After all of these community visits we had another workshop with the community volunteers to talk about the leadership criteria. We will be training 30 leaders from the communities to run the sessions with the children. This workshop went really well with really great feedback from the participants. Now that all of these workshops and visits are done, I have to write a report and start compiling some data... lame. Luckily I get to work this weekend from the capital, Maputo, with Mary as we have a meeting with Right To Play to go over the translated manuals. But we decided to go to Inhambane after the workshop so we could have dinner at the beach, of course. These photos are from Barra beach.

We had the most amazing meal at a restaurant called Green Turtle right on the beach. We had a crab and advocato salad, prawn cerviche, a roasted crab dish and a shrimp dish. All of which was absolutely amazing. So fricking good. And right along the beach. Again I got some really nice photos but they are on the big camera. Then to top it off, I had a real espresso and it was mmm mmm good.