“The future of Africa is in the hands of the youth."
This statement is becoming ever more clear as I observe the diligent, dedicated youth that walk through the large rusted gates of the Young Africa campus. Eager to acquire the skills to sustain themselves and their families, they hurry over to the podium for morning announcements and prayer. Most of these students come from the Beira/Manga area but others travel from around the country to get their education at YA. As the group is dismissed and the microphone switched off, the students hustle to their designated classroom, shop, kitchen, or area for study, each with a different background, history and lifestyle but all striving to learn and make a change.
Ofece, one of the maintenance men that has been with YA Beira since its opening in 2007, pokes his head in the office door wearing his usual blue jumpsuit and with a big smile asks “Como esta a saude?” (how is your health) and “Como descansou?” (how did you sleep), just as he does every morning. We respond happily and with a chuckle Ofece says “Obrigado” and shuffles past the row of chairs to ring the bell, indicating the morning assembly is starting.
Papers pile up, our desk becomes cluttered and the room fills with people as we acquire tasks from our co-workers, Miguel, Rita and Zamila. Miguel asks Emma to re-design a YA flyer while Zamila and I create a data base for girls that have already left the hostel. Our day to day tasks vary greatly in the office. It seems as though we have done a bit of everything, but lately we have been focusing on correcting exams, submitting grades and posting results from finals.
Working closely with Zamila, Emma and I use a lot of our time in the office to plan and organize activities for the girls. Zamila is the matron of the girls home and works with them as their YA mother. We’ve helped her with creating new empowerment projects and trying to improve old ones. Together we have prepared a presentation to market the hostel home to other orphanages. Twice a year they call the directors from orphanages around the area and present the vision and mission of the YA Hostel Home, soliciting the directors to bring their girls ages 15-18 to YA and take advantage of the environment and benefits that it offers. There are currently 20 girls living in the home, but the goal is to double that number in the coming semesters.
We are a little less than two weeks away from leaving YA Beira and starting our journey home. On the way we will be passing through the north of Mozambique to Tete, a small city that borders Zimbabwe and Malawi that I lived in while serving my mission in 2010. We will stay with an amazing family that always took really good care of us. We will then meet up with Emma's parents at the border of Malawi and will be touring through Malawi and Zambia eventually making it back to Lusaka to spend a couple weeks with them. We are excited about all that is coming up but obviously already making plans to get back to Mozambique as soon as we can. As I was reflecting a bit on our stay I came across something that I wrote when we were six weeks into our internship. I thought I would share it here.
May 27, 2014
-Emma and I have been in Mozambique for six weeks now. The things we are seeing, learning and experiencing daily are often strange and foreign but are fitting into our lives very well. Our eyes have been opened and we have been able to see our classroom learning being applied to real life experiences and opportunities.
We love our little home. It is more than what we could have asked for, we have hot water in our shower, electricity, and two twin beds to sleep on that we have pushed together. Everything that we could have needed we have. Our bedroom is full of blue, our curtains, door, sheets, mosquito net, window frames. The curtains give it a special blue hue in the afternoon as the sun shines through that reminds me of the ocean…or a fish bowl. The pillow and folded blanket under my mattress help to keep the foam pad from sinking into the mismatched slats of the bed. Its our home, for now.
One of our main tasks is to work with the 21 teenage girls that live in the hostel next door. Our friendship and love for them has grown as quick as the covey in the garden outside our front door. They were quick to accept us and we are learning new things from our lively neighbors daily. The nightly activities we do has created a space for us to understand their needs, dreams, desires, and difficulties.
For me coming back was strange because it felt so familiar. The smells resonated of a time of great change and growth in my own life. The green scenery constantly surrounding us reminded me of the natural beauty that Mozambique holds in her culture and landscape. The people reminded me of why the always present and persistent desire to come back only grew stronger with time. Mozambique and its people had truly been holding a piece of me. But I feel complete and at peace now as I grasp Emma’s hand as we walk upon the beaten ground through the small market near our home. Sharing this experience with her has changed me, has changed us.
Everyone wants to learn and speak English. Here they yell to us “good morning teacher” as we walk by or “I am fine, thank you.” Emma and I wanted to help the girls at YA learn English in a new fun way. Emma had the idea that we could contact some of our family and friends in the US and the girls could write pen pal letters to these people. Emma worked really hard finding the people willing to write, getting their information and matching them to with the girls in the hostel. She created a “cheat sheet” of English/Portuguese words and phrases that had potential conversation starters and useful words.
Each Sunday night, the only night that all the girls are at home at once, we would gather everyone together. The girls sat around the wooden tables anxiously waiting to receive the letter from their ‘amigo.’ Emma would call each one by name and hand them their card. Grabbing it quickly they would scan it for words that they recognized or knew and then for the rest would rush over to Emma or me. We would work through the letters with each girl picking apart the lines they did not understand and create a new list of verbs and phrases the girls could learn from and study. They would finish and excitedly give their hand-written letter to Emma. Being satisfied for having written another letter in English and excited to see how their friend would respond . Emma would then take a picture of the letter and send it by email to their pen pal in America.
It was an amazing experience although it may have seemed small and insignificant, each person that corresponded with the girls helped to broaden their vision (vision of life outside of Mozambique, vision of a life outside of poverty, vision of a global community, vision of the importance and usefulness of learning English, etc.) During the last batch of letters, the girls wrote in their Facebook names and emails so that they can continue to have correspondence with their new friends in America.
