Final Report: Cidadela das Criancas

It was only 2.5 weeks but it felt like much, much longer. Personally one of my biggest faults and professionally one of my biggest assets is my tendency to become invested in a project, and quickly. Definitely true here. After only 1 day at the project Brian and I spent a good part of our (glorious) five day holiday in Tofo discussing the things that needed to be done in Cidadela and how we could help to get them done. And we arrived at the project armed with enthusiasm, ideas, and a long To Do list.

Wednesday we left the project with mixed results.

As with all things in Africa I suspect, and perhaps as in all things in life, nothing has been concluded in a neat and tidy package as I had hoped. Two weeks ago I listed out our goals, and I had hoped that today I would be able to list out our achievements as clearly. Not gonna happen.

Things get in the way. Language barriers get in the way. Cultures get in the way. And people also get in the way. Oftentimes the very same people we are here to work with; to help.

Knowing that we were about to leave Juan the only DI at Cidadela, the three of us sat down and came up with a series of systems that we hoped would tackle the majority of health and hygiene problems at the project AND be sustainable, aka be able to run by people other than DI’s. The systems part was easy – I typed up a complete breakdown of 7 systems ranging from the running of the health clinic to the shared use of the one shower block. To me, it seemed I was handing the school a solution on a silver platter. (Yes in hindsight this seems arrogant – it is one thing to learn development theories on paper and quite another to put them in practice in person. This was one of the first lessons in development I learned through experience and I think it is quite a big one – meet the people where they are at, work with them, rather than speak down to them – perhaps the crux of sustainable development yet easier said than done). In large part it required no additional resources except a little time, a little personal responsibility, and a little teamwork.

Upon presentation to the teachers, however, we ran into a bit of a roadblock. For the sake of time and positive thinking I won’t go into the issue. It was my first run in with gender discrimination and, whether I run into more severe versions in the future or not, I won’t ever forget it so no need to record for posterity’s sake. I also came face to face with what I perceived to be incompetence (or lack of skills/knowledge if you want to be more polite) and, perhaps worse, a severe lack of motivation. At the conclusion of the meeting, it was unclear whether any of our suggestions were going to be adopted, my confidence in the effectiveness, necessity, and sustainability of our investment in the shower blocks was severely shaken, and for the first time in my whole life, after having completed my masters in International Relations with a thesis on Sustainable Development, I seriously considered the fact that maybe development is a waste of time. I’m still not sure, hence the lack of a neat and tidy package of results to present.

We have not accomplished all we wanted to accomplish, but we have accomplished quite a lot for 2.5 weeks. All of the kids have mosquito nets, which will hopefully reduce the amount of infections they get. Most of the kids have been seen by a doctor (who will hopefully return regularly), some of them have received the medication they needed, and three have been identified with heart problems. Their current health conditions are being seen to. In addition, there are now working showers, although I am not 100% confident that they will be used fairly and properly. I am fairly confident that, with a little perseverance on Juans part, a garbage disposal system will be put in place. There is a health center, although again I am far from confident in its sustainability. Concerns about the project have been brought up with staff at ADPP’s headquarters, hopefully starting better oversight of the project. In short, nothing has been neatly wrapped up but a whole lot of things have been shaken up, have been started.

So it’s a mixed bag. I leave Mozambique with mixed feelings. For having never expected to even visit this country I find myself reluctant to leave. It’s a lovely country. I have had some amazing experiences that I will never have anywhere else. The kids were the best part, able to put a smile on my face and make me laugh even when I wanted to kill them the minute before. I loved buying bread and vegetables from the women at the stalls on the side of the road every day. I loved the extreme openness and kindness of the people who stopped to pick us up and went to great lengths to make sure we got to where we needed to go. I loved hitching rides, the freedom of standing up on the back of a truck with the wind whipping around me. I even liked being crammed into the back of a rickety chappa, driving down the palm tree lined coast, wind whipping in through the windows and African music blaring all around us. I did not however like the food = ). In short, I am deeply grateful that I not only was able to see some of its beauty as a tourist, I was able to live in it and to meet the real people of the country. I am proud that I was able to handle many of the challenges that presented themselves to me much better than I would have predicted from the comfort of home. The language was not nearly as much of a barrier as I expected thanks to a combination of 5 years basic Spanish classes, helpful translators and comical sign language. My body has held up better than expected to the water, food, and extreme heat. As has my ability to ‘suck it up’ in the face of mosquitoes, cockroaches, salamanders, and frogs.


So in the end, after my first month in Africa I have learned a lot about development, about myself, and Mozambique, about how to effectively work with people, and about what to do better next time. For me, not a bad start.