My Mozambique - Sonja from Children`s Town Maputo

My Mozambique- A report by Sonja, January Team 2008 Holsted

When you will come back from Africa as I recently did, people will ask you: “How was Africa?” I found out that it is very difficult to give just one word or one sentence to answer this question. I worked six months in Children`s Town Maputo, my job embraced various tasks such as teaching English at school, sometimes in front of 50 sometimes in front of 100 kids, there were days we had no chalk so I taught outside in the sand and I became special because I taught with games and not as it is common in the teaching there, only on the board. I was responsible for the afternoon program and played football in the hot sun, I had a theatre group and a dancing group, I helped the kids with their homework and then I helped to distribute dinner, a challenging task when you face 70 hungry kids. When I think of Mozambique I think of these 70 children I lived together with. And who stood already early in the morning in front of my door to tell me something important, such as that a boy had managed to goal in football for his first time. For six months I heard my name I think a 100 times a day. My Mozambique are laughing, loud and chaotic children. And the people from the village around who were so friendly and always greeted me (“Professora Sonja, como esta? How are you?”) And the people in general who were always helpful, like once when I was in the wrong bus and asked for the right directions and 60 people were discussing to give me the best advice. I have seen sunrises and sunsets that are unbeatable and so is the light on the day in general. But my Mozambique is also the night, which “falls” suddenly in the evening and then everything is pitchdark. And so are also the living conditions for most of the people in Mozambique. The children in our project are AIDS orphans or they grew up in the street because their families couldn’t support them due to poverty. Many of “my” children grew up in the rubbish. Some got sexually abused, all of them had to steal in order to survive, some lived through things we wouldn’t imagine. I learned that poverty in indescribable. Poverty is the end. It degrades humans, it forces them to terrible actions, it takes from them any chance of leading a good and happy life. Our project secured human living conditions for these children and we tried to give them dignity and education so that they might have a chance to lead a good life. But many people I met in Mozambique were not lucky to be in such a project, many children had to go through days without something sustainable to eat, without any access to clean drinking water and with no education whatsoever. So it is therefore difficult to give only one answer to “How was Africa.” It was both day and night. But I can give one answer for sure, this is to the question: “Why Africa?” Because I believe, that we, who by chance grew up in a rich country, with no worries what to eat and an education we are taking for granted, we should share. We should go and share education, methods in teaching, information in health care and farming. And then, and this is also Africa, we will get back what we share, for everything I gave or I taught in my six months I gained or learned double back. By the people I met, their stories of course their methods for health care, for construction or how to see a thing from a very different point of view. So in case you also dare to go to Africa and spend six months there I wish you all the “days” I had with comparable wonderful experiences and also the “nights” so that there can be ideas and progress in how to reduce poverty.