Progress in Leaps and Lulls

After one week at the project, allow me to report on our progress. It has come, not slow and steady like the turtle, but in leaps and lulls, for a variety of reasons. Still, I am pretty proud with how much we have gotten done in one week, the skills and resources we utilized to get here, and how much I expect to accomplish here before we leave. All of this, of course, is in conjunction with and only made possible with the help of Juan, the current DI here who is from Spain and who can translate for us in Portuguese. Juan is the only DI living here, and unlike other DI’s is basically on call 24 hours/day. We met him the first day we visited and after seeing how much work the project needed, how hard he was working, and also how hard it was for him to be on his own, we decided to come help out for a few weeks. His ‘pet’ projects that he is focusing on is increasing the nutrition of the kids by giving daily snacks of chocolate milk and/or bananas paid for out of his own pocket and by sponsors from home and building a soccer field for the kids. And now he has been roped into our hygiene projects haha.

Sunday: Arrived at the project. Expressed our desire to focus on hygiene and sanitation during our two weeks here. Intended on looking at the unused shower block but Americo, the Project Leader, randomly and unexpectedly led us into a room filled with junk and started emptying it out. Spent the next two hours emptying two rooms of scrap metal and wood, etc. and uncovering what used to be a nurses office/clinic complete with a bed, scale, old records/logs, and some medical supplies. What baffles me is that Americo has been project leader for 16 years here so he must have known this was here all this time, why did he let it disintegrate and why does he decide to reinstate it now?

Monday: Finished setting up the clinic. Brian cleaned and organized in the clinic, working with some of the older guys here. He set up a clinic with a ‘waiting room’ outside, decorating with art we found in another store room – beautiful and made by the kids here years ago. So far the waiting room has proved useless as the kids don’t understand the concept and keep crowding around us while we help the ‘patient’. I cleaned the house, sunning the beds to get rid of bed bugs, spending two hours learning how to wash bed linens by hand, and bleaching everything and anything in the house with a flat surface, mainly the bathroom. Like many things here, the DI house used to have many things that worked, including running water, a shower, flushing toilet, and refrigerator, but all of these things seem to have broken over the years and not been repaired.

Tuesday: After mentioning on Monday that we had a little money set aside, we were called into Americo’s office to ‘negotiate’ what we could and would pay for. We were presented with three estimates of things the school needs – fixing the kitchen’s refrigerator, plates and spoons so the kids can eat off of something, and mosquito nets – and then told that there wasn’t enough in the budget to cover them all. Oddly enough I was never able to figure out exactly how much there was in the budget, just that they definitely needed our money. We agreed to wait until the plumber came to see how much the showers would cost to fix, since this was a priority for us.

We began seeing the children one by one, trying to identify those who needed care and then giving them that care. By far the three most common problems here are infected mosquito bites (clean with antiseptic and tell them to wash regularly), scabies (clean with special cream that is fast running out) and ringworm which leaves patches of hair missing (apply cream two times/day).

Using sign language and broken Portuguese, we also enlisted the help of some of the older guys to make benches for the dining hall. In the two days we had been here we had noticed that there are not enough seats for the kids during meals and so they are constantly fighting over seats. Meanwhile, there is plenty of wood sitting around in the hallway of one of the buildings, so we asked the older guys to make some benches. Walla – within an afternoon, seats for all. Also, Juan and I began writing to our respective embassies and other nonprofits in the hopes of getting a health worker, someone actually qualified to take care of the kids’ health problems, to come regularly.

Wednesday: Plumber arrived and thankfully the problem with the shower block wasn’t as bad as we had feared. Water was getting to the block, the problem was that the block wasn’t maintained so lots of little pieces needed to be fixed. Brian spoke to an older boy who has been here for 16 years and he doesn’t remember it ever working. So to clarify: Toilets, showers, and laundry area exist. Water can get to the area. However, it has been locked for the past 16 odd years and rather than fix it they began construction of two brand new toilet blocks last week. Do we see a pattern here? I’m still not sure if the inefficiencies here are a money issue, a management issue, or both. So far everyone here has been very helpful and enthusiastic about our initiatives, we have just had to, well, initiate them.

Wednesday night we went into Maputo for a DI dinner where we happened to meet one of the people in charge of the head office here. We got to talking and she gave us a very promising contact for a clinic that might be able to come here regularly. Juan is set to call them tomorrow.

Thursday – Took a chapas into Maputo to buy 80 mosquito nets. Also got the quote from the plumbers and gave them the go ahead. We are going to split both things with Juan. Altogether working showers and toilets (which will prevent infections) and mosquito nets (which will prevent the bites in the first place) cost about $800 – our half is therefore less than a weekend away. The money we had set aside and agreed was fair game to spend should the right project present itself is there thanks to my Dad. My dad had always talked about the possibility of fostering a child, helping someone less fortunate on their way in life. So thanks Dad, because of you 80 kids will have a better chance and, at the very least, a little easier daily life.

By Friday we were well on our way towards meeting our stated goals – progress had leapt forward you might say. Clinic started and kids beginning to be treated, talks about garbage cleanup intiated, plumber hired, search for healthworkers begun, benches made, mosquito nets bought. Friday through to today, Sunday, however, we seem to have hit a lull. This is in large part due to the extreme heat, which has knocked all motivation down to zero. On Friday, for example, we spent 3 hours going to and from the grocery store (Two chapas and a 40 minute walk each way) and then lay in our beds in misery for the rest of the day. Brian has also developed strep throat so he has had a fever for the last two days, although the penicillin we had in our medicine bag has kicked in and he is feeling better today.

So that’s it! Sorry for the long report but I am now caught up and promise that these will be shorter in the future. It is cooler today so motivation is returning, I am coming out of cranky hibernation, and we begin again tomorrow.