This young girl answered that call with zeal and excitement.
Her story began like so many other volunteers. She quickly packed up her life-somewhat successfully into the requisite 80lbs of luggage- and was off to fulfill a long time dream in Mozambique.
She struggled a bit at the beginning of Pre-Service Training, but soon made many friends, gained a few new family members, learned muito and had fun. After she swore-in she was ready and once again excited to begin her service...
That is however until she entered...the INTEGRATION PERIOD!!
Our young heroine once again packed her bags and after one final hot shower and a hurried buffet breakfast she was whisked away to a magical land called Inharrime.
When she arrived at her new home she was greeted by many new faces including her fairy god-mother disguised as her new temporary roommate, currently COSing (close of service) volunteer Ann.
Almost immediately, and all according to plan, the young woman was paraded around the tiny yet bustling town where she was introduced to many important members of the community including the Chief of Police, Dona Joanna, and several "Chefes do Bairro" (local neighborhood leaders).
After was seemed like a fairy-tale beginning the real story began. At the urging of her roommate the young woman was pushed into giving a palestra (lecture) to the activistas (community health workers) at her new organization, most of whom spoke only Copi (the local dialect) and could not read or write. She found it difficult at first to tailor her lesson to this group and became increasingly more aware that her Portuguese skills were definitely not up to par but that even if they were nearly everything that happened at site happened in Copi!
Felizmente! (fourtunately), she was equipped with an excellent book of medical information specifically written for Mozambicans (or at the very least Portuguese speaking Mozambicans). This amazing resource continues to serve her very well during her first three months of service. Our young heroine has giving mini palestras on cholera, TB, Cancroid, Leperasy, Diabetes, PTV and even Children's Rights (thanks to good ol' MozSoft).
Although she is enjoying her work and she believes that her activistas are benefiting from her presence she has come up against two major (allbeit forseen) opponents:
1)Pronunciation-as if she weren't already self-concious about her language skills, having to explain complicated medical jargon has proved to be ten times worse! How can she expect people whose first language also isn't Portuguese to understand what ganglios or meningues are when she isn't even sure she saying it correctly!?
2) The "Misinformation Male Chauvinist "-there is one gentleman in particular at her organization who believes that he is God's gift to Tivikeli. He saunters into the weekly meetings late (if at all) the interrupts the "replicas" (when the weeks selected activistas translate and desiminate the information I gave them on the chose topic in Copi) wuth his own version of what causes and transmits diseases. Then the ladies have a ten minute conversation in Copi and the young lady fears that they are propogating the wrong information he has just given them simply because he is a man.
To get over these obstacles, the young woman has begun to read, write and speak more in Portuguese. She beleives that practice makes perfect so she has decided to talk to everyone and anyone without being embarrassed or offended when people correct her. As for the misinformation being spread, she has started to raise her hand and her voice more during the meetings and makes sure that if she sees or hears something amiss that she corrects it immediately.
All-in-all her integration period was not as scary or stressful as she thought it'd be. In fact it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Our volunteer has traveled, experimented with new recipes, made more friends and has started to accumulate quite an impressive collection of capulana clothing.
At the end of the integration period her roommate/ fairy god-mother, who helped make her adjustment to life in Inharrime and as a Health Volunteer in general pain free left to return home. Thus begins the next chapter in the life of our heroine-living alone in a foreign country!
Stay tuned...
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