My Africa Experience Friday May 16th

On Friday May 16th we went to the pier in the center of Maputo to get on a boat and ride it about two hours across the ocean to Inhaca Island. Good thing I took some Dramamine because it was a very choppy ride, especially when I had to go to the bathroom (word of warning...just go before you get on the boat and try and hold it until after you get back onto land. It's a terrible experience.)

The tide was very low so the boat was not able to pull up to the dock, for this reason we had to climb out of the boat and wade through the ocean water to get to the shore. I wore flip flops which wouldn't stay on so I had to take off my shoes and with my sensitive feet it was hard to walk along the pokey bottom. We came to find out that the bottom of the ocean was lined with awesome blue and yellow starfish. 

I finally had stepped foot on my very first tropical island, the weather was just about perfect. Everyone began walking and we of course just followed suit. The trail landed us at "Lucas Restaurant" which was a seafood place, making it impossible for me to eat anything. I ordered a salad and chips and received what looked like coleslaw and french fries. The food took FOREVER to come to us and by the time we were all done eating we had used up most of our time on the island.  While we were waiting for our food we each took turns to head over to the little shops. I bought a shirt, a little guitar made out of a coconut from one and a headscarf from another. At the first shop there was a young handicapped boy who was asking for money, he was trying to hug us and hold our hands, I felt very badly for this young boy already and then I witnessed him being shoved and yelled at by the shop owner and a few other people.

One very disappointing thing about the island trip was the fact that only six people went snorkeling. I was hoping to go, and am very glad I didn't pay ahead of time. Kathleen, Rod, Eddie and I were hustled for a shortcut on the beach after the restaurant.  A gentlemen told us that he knew a short cut, which he did, but proceeded to ask us for fifty meticai each when we had reached our destination. That's only about $1.50 US each which isn't a big deal, but we learned that many people here are definitely opportunists. We visited one more small shop on the beach and I purchased a few items, including a purse made out of a coconut. 

Upon leaving the island we of course had to ride the boat another two hours to shore, this ride was much more smooth. Rod and I took "matching" pictures on the front of the boat even. His cracks me up.

I really enjoyed talking with Kathleen's mom, she is a very interesting lady. Once we reached land we went to the Maputo shopping center to eat and shop around for a bit. The shops in this mall were very expensive, visiting this shop definitely gave us the real feel for the divide between upper class and lower class in Africa and also showed us that there really is not a middle class to speak of. 

We ate at an Italian place and I had some amazing vegan mushroom pasta. It was so awesome to eat a hearty meal. I have been limited on food, and eating a lot of snacks so a big meal was awesome. The meal took quite some time to get to us, two other groups who got there after us got their food before us, and then the waiter added his own tip but didn't understand when were questioning him. We also didn't purchase anything in the mall, like I said it was expensive, but I thought I may be able to afford SOMETHING, but alas even a Portuguese Peter Pan book was over 800 Meticai. 

This night was really sad because it was Kathleen's last night with us until we meet up again in South Africa. I really hope she and I stay friends outside this trip.

My Africa Experience: Thursday May 15th's Amazing Adventure

Today was one of the best days of the trip thus far. I may have found my life calling. As many of you know i have been prepping for months to put togther a feminine hygiene presentation for this trip. Well today I got very lucky and was able to make it happen. We were invited to travel with the Hamblin's to the Fourth of October school which sits very close to Mozambique South Africa border. 

currently there are about sixty girls which attend this school who are sponsored through the Hablin's. They provided them with a pair of leggings and a new pair of flip flops. We also left 100 pairs of flip flops to be passed out to other students who may not have shoes. After the girls all got a photo taken to send to their sponsor we were able to put on our presentation. The girls were so engaged and interested in learning, they cheered when they found out we'd be giving them each two cloth pads and a carrying bag and they clapped when they found out that we were the ones who made the pads. 

We discussed things such as the reproductive system, menstruation, and UTI's. We asked the girls what they know and then filled in the blanks. Many of the girls already use pads which was great, but we let them know the reusable ones are cheaper and make no waste, which is something Mozambique could really use. 

Afterward there were many people who stated that they believe it went very well and that these girls really needed the information we provided. They stated they wanted to do another program like this for another group of girls because they do not have programs such as this already. 

We had celebratory sodas at a little market, but they only had Pepsi....gross. I got some crazy fruit soda.

The construction between South Africa and Mozambique is crazy, they have many people who sell drinks and food on the side of the road to people stuck in traffic, these ladies were pretty amazing.

I feel so amazing after this great day, and I feel that we really touched the lives of these girls. I honestly want to find out what I need to do to get funded for research trips to provide more girls with this important information. 

My Africa Experience: Saturday May 10-Wednesday May 14

I haven't updated in almost a week, oops. Mostly just because we've been working out asses off to get the center done, we leave at 8am and by the time we get back to the lodge it's already dark and I just want to eat and hangout with a few of the most awesome people I've encountered in my life. I especially don't want to do homework. Speaking of which I should probably figure out what the heck I even have to do. 

We have leveled out the entire inside and began to pour cement, 

we have primed the outside and prepped to paint a mural inside as well

raised gardens have been prepped and built up, and the chicken coop foundation has been dug out.

 It's been a lot of hard work and I have officially joined the blistery hands club. I also got a slight sunburn. But it's been worth it, I love being here and doing this work. 

The not work parts have been few but have definitely been fun. This past Sunday when many people were at church we got to go with a couple locals to a restaraunt. It was very nice, and outdoor. We won't talk about the excessive speed and feeling like we were going to die on the way there because we were trying to catch up with the other vehicle to figure out where the heck we were even going. Or getting honked at by the police for Gabby needing to get her head back in the sunroof on the way back, we'll just stick with the more interesting parts.....wait. haha. 

(pictured left to right: myself, Jaco, Dusty, Veronica, Mercedes, Eddie, Kathleen, Rod, Mackenzie, Gabby)

The food was very good, they didn't have wraps so I ordered an unwrapped wrap. I don't normally like cabbage but I enjoyed this meal a lot, plus the french fries were a lot less salty than in America which got points in my book. Apparently ketchup isn't a thing, it's tomato sauce. 

and even though the pina colada I got cost more than my plate of food I feel good about the choice. 

All the ladies got umbrellas, either in our drinks or our new friend Jaco requested some for the others, so we had to take a picture. 

Also, there is no better way to end an evening here than by sitting out on the deck watching the sunset. 

My Africa Experience: Friday May 9th 2014

Sleeping didn't come easy but waking up was alright.  Still no sleeping pill! There were omelets for breakfast but I had a piece of toast and jam, and three cups of some AMAZING coffee. Sitting outside to have a cup of coffee was amazing, it's humid but cool. 

One thing that's bothered me is that there is another vegetarian on this trip, and I was hoping it would be like an alliance type thing but all I've seen him doing is complaining about not having food or a bunch of hot water for everyone to shower. I didn't even take a shower since we've been in Mozambique, plus....get over it! You can see peoples houses from our lodge, and they clearly don't even have power. Plus the ladies and gentlemen who are cooking for us are so sweet, just appreciate what you do have and don't be a jerk. That's like a rule of life. 

We took a Choppa through the city, we had a pitstop at a shoprite to get some things for lunches/snacks. 

They have a lot of things that are similar to American but some that are not even close. Also, they keep things very differently than we do, eggs are kept in stacks without refrigeration and there are things like intestines and whole giant fish on display.

When we got to the Women's Center. We were greeting by singing and it was a really heart warming experience. 

There was a welcoming ceremony and we were paired up with women to do interviews. It was awesome to sit in the school house with the women and hear the translations of what the Hamblin's were saying. 

Our initial interviews consisted of asking the woman's age, marital status, age of their children and various health questions. They were surprisingly receptive to the questions and it was interesting trying to communicate with the language barrier. 

After the welcoming center we were able to walk and see the building that's being constructed to be the women's center. Something got mixed up with the building plans and the building is three times bigger than it should be. This is causing problems because the walls are too thin to hold up the roof, they are currently working to put in metal supports to help relieve the tension in the roof. 

There is a major garbage problem everywhere in Mozambique. They also do not have a garbage man or a dump, they simply create a large pile of garbage and burn it. One part of our job was to collect the garbage and put it in piles. Without tools we used out feet and hands to level out the floor and smash large dirt clods. There was also a frog, sapo, in one of the rooms and I rescued him from certain death as someone suggested killing him. 

We finished out our first day at the women's center about an hour and a half before we had scheduled to be there, which was nice because we were all exhausted. Getting on the choppa we began the travel back to the lodge. It's hard to take pictures out the window of the moving vehicle but I got this good one of one version of public transportation that they have in the city. Many people travel this way or stuffed into vans.

For dinner we had an awesome authentic Mozambican dinner. Matapa which is made out of cassava leaves and coconut milk, rice and xima, which is cornflour and water. You take a piece of the xima and roll it into a ball and dip it into the Matapa/rice mix. It's AMAZING. Beatrice, the lady of the house told us she would be doing more experiments with authentic food. I'm very excited.

My Africa Experience: First couple days rolled into one.

Tuesday was spent on an airplane, four hours to Atlanta (which was a first), during our layover I ate at a place called El Taco and got a "vegan mercado." It was really good! It had cactus on it I think. 

We then boarded a second plane for about 14 hours and 40 minutes across the planet to the continent of Africa.  It was extremely difficult to sleep on the plane, I was in a middle seat, and every time I'd try to watch a movie they'd make some sort of announcement and it would be like screaming over my headphones.  I watched the movie "saving mr banks" and part of the movie "milk" on the ride. They were both really good and so was my vodka cranberry. Bonus on international flights, free movies and alcohol. The food sucked though, they got the vegan part right but basically just made everything the same without meat or cheese. First meal was okay it was a veggie patties and carrots. 

The snack, a roll with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers (everyone else got sandwiches), and the second meal, burned tofu on bread, I could have done without. 

          We landed at the tumbo airport in South Africa around 5 pm. We had to wait in a line to get our passport stamped and everything went smoothly. It was very interesting to see all the culture as we got off the plane, there were a lot of people in Muslim robes and many women with their full bodies covered. No one lost their bags which was a huge relief. 

Once we got our bags we went to wait for the shuttle to take us to the airport, there were clearly more of us than they thought because it took two rounds to get us to The Sunrock Lodge, which is where we stayed the first night. It was a really nice place to stay, we had dinner provided (although I only rice and salad, everyone elses food looked really good.) There was plenty of hot water and wifi throughout the lodge which was something that was totally unexpected. Except Netflix and Pandora do not work in this country. 

Waking up on Thursday was pretty easy, I haven't even had to take a sleeping pill yet! We got all of our stuff together and got on a large coach, almost like a grayhound bus.  The bus ride here was pretty slow, it was interesting to see abortion advertisements and penis enlargement flyers all over the city. We did stop at a gas station for lunch and there were water buffalo, rhinos and ostriches outside. It was awesome to see! 

South African currancy is called Rand, it runs about 10 Rand to 1 USD. I used an ATM at the gas station and bought some snacks.

It took about six hours to get to the South Africa/Mozambique border. We had to get out and walk through the boarder crossing, getting one stamp on the South Africa side and then getting another stamp on the Mozambique side. The man at the window spoke english and was trying to talk to me, and I felt bad because it was so loud in the building that I couldn't really understand him. They also were burning trash and there was ash flying everywhere. 

There was a lot of construction and not a whole lot to look at. One thing I did realize is that the culture here is very divided, you can drive past a giant casino one second and then see a huge cluster of tin shacks. 

The lodge we're staying at is down a dirt road, and there were puddles, it made it so the giant bus couldn't get down the road. We had to unload and walk to the lodge. It was really dark and we had no idea where we were going but we made it.  It was so dark when we got to the lodge that we couldn't really enjoy the view, also they had just painted a couple of the rooms so our room arrangements had to switch a little bit. We currently have 4 people in beds and one on the floor on 2 mattresses. 

Luckily we have a fan because the air conditioner isn't working and it was HOT in that room. Dinner was salad, noodles and something that tasted sort of like baked beans. 

Education and it's importance to society

David Hamblin with the first group of "Granny Charlotte's Girls.
Photo Credit: No Poor Among Us

The value that is added to society when women and girls are educated is unsurpassed. Women make up half of the population and therefore are very important in family life, the business world and the community (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). Access to education is a basic human right and has been shown to break the cycle of poverty and will also help improve the quality of life for children, communities and countries (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). Worldwide there are about 122 girls that lack educations for every 100 boys (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.).  This in turn contributes to two-thirds of the 781 million illiterate adults being women (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.).

          Sheryl WuDunn has a great quote, “When you educate a girl, there is a ripple effect that goes beyond what you would get from a normal investment…when you educate a girl; you educate a village (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.).” Women and girls who are educated are more likely to delay marriage, have fewer and  healthier children, and use reliable family planning methods (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). Formal education also helps empower women so that they feel more self confident to become active and help make decisions within their home, and want to be a stronger part of their communities (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). It is also a proven fact that educated women will encourage their children to attend, remain in school, and gain higher education which will contribute to a generational poverty reduction (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). 

          According to the United Nations, and the Millennium Development Goals, number two is Achieve Universal Primary Education (The United Nations). This is a goal not just for girls but for boys as well. They have seen a huge jump in literacy in places like that Africa and Asia from 1990-2011 (The United Nations). Northern Africa went from 68 percent to about 89 percent, and Southern Asia jumped from 60 percent to 81 percent, there has also been a narrowing of the gender gap in these areas (The United Nations). Many times poverty is a huge factor when it comes to children being uneducated. People who come from poor households are three times more likely to be without an education (The United Nations). Around the world about 123 million youths lack writing and reading skills, 61 percent of these youths are in fact women (The United Nations).

          One of the most powerful tools to help reduce the occurrence of HIV/AIDS is girls’ education. A study in Zambia proved that AIDS spread twice as slow among girls with access to education (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). With the help of the Millenium Development Goal number 6, there is an attempt to provide a more comprehensive knowledge of HIV transmission among young people (The United Nations).  Those with an education are also less vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced prostitution (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). 

          Unfortunately even though there is so much positive information about women and girls getting an education there are still barriers (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). Such as male children being seen as a priority; in many cultures it is the son whose educations seems like a much more long term investment (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). There is also the fact that many families believe that a girl will make a larger impact to the family by staying at home and helping with the domestic duties (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). Another huge factor is that in many developing countries there is a large distance between villages and schools, this creates the danger of girls being harassed or even raped and many schools do not cater to females (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). They do not provide appropriate bathrooms and many times girls are faced with hostile school environments (Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S.). Overall, educating women puts twice as many skilled people out in the world and that simply could not be a negative thing, so breaking down these stereotypical walls, and helping girls become further educated is in all of our best interests.






References:
The United Nations. (2014). Millennium Development Goals and Beyond 2015. 
Retrieved from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/education.shtml

The United Nations. (2014). Millennium Development Goals and Beyond 2015. 
Retrieved from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/aids.shtml

Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S. (n.d.). Half the Sky Movement. 
Retrieved from http://www.halftheskymovement.org/issues/education

Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S. (2010). 
Half the sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide.

Empowering Mozambican Women: Feminine Hygiene

One of the greatest concern in Mozambique is the fact that many girls discontinue their education due to lack of feminine hygiene resources. Through our interdisciplinary class composed of geography, women's studies and dance, we students are learning about the cultural, socio-political, and demographic aspects of Mozambique. In an attempt to enhance the quality of life among the women and girls who reside in the rural areas in Mozambique we have designed and created washable menstrual pads and fabric bags to be utilized by the girls while they are on their monthly periods. Completing this project has included creating a pattern, finding the appropriate fabric, cutting, and sewing. We will also be creating "wet bags" which are bags to hold used pads so that women and girls can attend school and work without any worry about washing the pads right away or packing them around freely. A secondary part of the project will be to collect underwear so that the women will be able to use the pads that will be given to them.

Furthermore, we are putting together a booklet with information regarding the female reproductive system, menstruation and it's purpose in life; prevention of urinary tract infections; and proper use of the washable menstrual pads.  The menstrual cycle and anatomy sections of the project consist of a packet with pictures and Portuguese translations explaining how the female body and menstrual cycle works. We are hoping it will improve the view on what is considered in some cultures to be "dirty". We chose this project because the girls in Mozambique have the tendency to abandon their education because  they do not have the proper hygiene aids to assist them during their menstrual cycle. As a result, many of them do not return to school. According to the CIA World Factbook, only 43% of women in this African country are literate in comparison to the 71% of males. 

Our goal is to provide the Mozambican girls with information and skills so that having a period will not be an impediment to their education. Additionally, the group members traveling to Mozambique in May will not only be taking a good number of washable napkins, but teaching the girls how to create them. This project has provided us with the great sense of fulfillment because it is our hope to be an impact that can help girls remain in school. As they get a higher level of education they can become pro-active within their communities. 

This project also has a positive environmental impact component because it will help decrease the amount of waste produced due to the fact that cloth pads typically last five years and also cut down on factory pollution because they can be made locally and simply without using harmful chemicals or traditional factory methods. Through this opportunity we have learned collaboration skills and the importance of humanitarian work which will enhance our lives professionally and personally. 

Example of the washable pads we're creating, along with the wet bag.