My jigsaw puzzle.

This blog is just pieces of a jigsaw puzzle of people that have made my journey awe- inspiring; the people are humble of their beauty, and are gracious with their time and attention.  Thanks for visiting and allowing me to share these snap shots of what I am experiencing here in Mozambique.

·         I walk about 20 minutes to the hospital every morning and must say “Good Morning” 30 times. The courtesy is rampant among everyone, yet because I look so different that politeness is expanded with simple questions or comments like, “Are you lost? Where do you want to go” (one kid actually turned around to walk me to the bakery”) or “You need to get an umbrella to shade yourself from the sun.” The community here exhibits what kindness is.

       ·         Patience. Over my life time my patience has evaporated, I hope to absorb it back from these women. One example that I see at the hospital is mothers coming in for monthly well baby checkups. Mothers bring their babies in once a month for the first year the date is close to the day the baby was born. The visits are done by steps of service areas, first step is weighing in of the baby then waiting to be called to determine next step; vaccines, further consultation, lab work, and/or the pharmacy. Because of lack of personnel even the techs jump from weights to vaccines to consultation to writing prescriptions. A mother with a three month old that has diarrhea will go home after 5-6 hours of waiting at each step WITHOUT one complaint, grimace, or rudeness.I am reminded of the reactions of people back home being at the grocery store check-out line and the cashier is waiting for a price check .

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    Summer here should be called Inferno (Hell) I am not joking.  For the first time in my life I truly understand what sweating bullets means.  In the last two weeks temperatures have hit over 100ºF/ 40ºC. This is my number one cultural adjustment. Did I hear you say air conditioners?  Not yet, not for a while, aside from the expense of the unit, this country is still working on stable electricity (I think only half of the country has power lines and a water supply in homes - but they are rapidly developing the infrastructure).

·         My district is small, about 2/3 the size of Connecticut, the population is about 67,000, it is rural and agriculturally based. It seems to be a good snap shot of the national poverty line. The high school attendance here is approx. 65% boys and it is not unusual for a girl to drop out of school between 7^th – 9^th grades and have a baby by 17.  I’m working on a needs assessment and one of the questions is “If you could choose to have any job you want, what would it be?”  Their reaction looks like if someone asked you if you won the lottery. The majority of girls have responded “teacher” or “at the hospital”. 

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            Of course the children are beautiful.  They are very curious about me yet timid; the camera seems to break the ice. The teens and adults are mesmerized when looking at their picture. 

All else is going well, I’ve made some friends and my house is equipped with the necessities and comfortable. I’m keeping busy with doing a community needs assessment, and trying to get some projects started at the hospital.  Next month my PCV group meets in the city for week long training and I’m looking forward to that.

My next blog will be pictures of the landscape so come back and see the beauty of this country so stay tuned!  xo