Early-Mid July, we had another conference, this
one about project development, planning and execution. To attend the conference, we were asked to
bring along a Mozambican counterpart, or colleague, from our community.
I brought a professor named Shek. Shek is actually originally from the
Congo. He worked with an NGO
(non-governmental organization) in the Congo helping the Unaccompanied Children,
primarily working to locate their own families or finding other families to
take these kids in. However, as a result
of the civil unrest in the country, Shek was forced to flee the Congo and he
and his family went to South Africa and then later Mozambique. His wife and children were later permitted to
reside in the USA, in Arizona, where Shek joined them four years later. For personal reasons, Shek was forced to
return to Africa while his wife and three daughters still live in Arizona. Quite the crazy life this man has lived!
Anyways, Shek loved the conference and is eager to
help me out with any projects around the Murrupula community. We hope to soon begin work on establishing an
English library/resource center/language center/student area (can you tell the
plans are still in the idea phase?), so I will keep you all updated on that
progress!
During this same week as our conference, Nampula
city was the site of the 7th annual National Cultural Festival in
which people from every province gather together for dancing, food, art, and
music. Several stages were constructed
around the city in various locations, somewhat like a county fair. (Big stages, like normal American standards
with huge sound systems, speakers, etc.)
From what I understand, groups first compete in local provincial
competitions before they come to the national festival, and the government pays
for all their travel and living expenses during the festival.
I unfortunately didn’t see any of the dance
performances due to scheduling conflicts, but I did meander around the “food
court” area where each province had some dishes special to their region,
sampling a little of this kind of xima or a little of that kind of matapa.
There was also a big art festival set up in the
pavilion nearby. (I was also surprised
to learn they had a big pavilion in the city – it is a huge stadium, the size
of a basketball stadium.) Here, vendors
from each province displayed their artwork, wood carvings, jewelry,
knick-knacks, paintings, etc. I limited
myself to buying a carved and painted wooden bowl with giraffes and elephants,
a wooden mask, and a carved rhinoceros.
It was actually a pretty surprising and impressive event for our usually
not so impressive, run-down Nampula city!
After an all too fast three week school break, the
third trimester will be beginning soon and it’ll be back to actually having
work to do again. It’s hard to believe
this school year is almost over!
