Grupo Amizade Troca

            Amizade. Friendship. All of the jovens I work with at CACHES are part of Grupo Amizade, a theatre group they formed three years ago, but they like to say they do everything—“fazemos tudo.” After the criancas leave CACHES every night at 1800h when it gets dark, Grupo Amizade meets. Since I have been here they have spent every other night practicing for the English Theatre competition coming up at the end of this month. English Theatre is a Peace Corps sponsored secondary project that lets PCVs work with community groups to write and perform an original skit in English. Vivienne has been working with Grupo Amizade on their skit so since I arrived I have been helping out as well. Vivienne works with Grupo Amizade through JUNTOS, another Peace Corps secondary project. JUNTOS stands for Jovens Unidos No Trabalho, Opportunidades e Sucesos and gives PCVs the opportunity to work with groups of jovens.

This past Saturday Grupo Amizade sponsored a troca (get-together/exchange) with a JUNTOS group from just 30 minutes away in Macia. Megan, a PCV there, has been working with this group AJAAB and my friends Mike and Marisa (married), brand-new PCVs like myself, will be taking over when she leaves in November. The troca was an opportunity for the two groups to get together and discuss their theatre work and exchange ideas.

On Thursday, I went with Vivienne and our empregada Dona Rachel to Xai-Xai to buy all the food for the event. We went to the central market to get all of the vegetables. There was a little confusion about where we were meeting Dona Rachel because we were in the front part of the market, but she was waiting for us in an area behind the market—I think only local Mozambicans know about it. I had never seen anything like it, but at the same time I had expected to see more markets like this in Mozambique. Vivienne said she had never seen anything like it before either. It was such a contrast from the front part of the market where women are lined up on large tables with their displays of onions, tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce. Everything is neatly piled and organized ready to sell. We usually do all of shopping in this part of the market where all the senoras try to win you over by giving you bacelas (freebies) you’re your purchase. But in the back part of the market, everything is just strewn on the beds of trucks and women are standing amongst the heads of lettuce shouting prices at you. Then there are women walking around trying to sell you peppers and tomatoes just out of bags. Little boys are selling plastic bags for 5 mets each so you can carry all of your produce. Let’s just say, I was glad Dona Rachel was with us to handle all of the heckling and the prices. We were able to get 20 heads of lettuce for just 30 mets (27 mets=$1). Ridiculous.  Dona Rachel did all the cooking for the day, which included a massacre of 12 chickens to prepare for the group.

At CACHES on Friday night Sam, CACHES Director, had a meeting with all the jovens to plan out the events for Saturday. He asked them all to arrive at 700h Saturday morning to clean up around CACHES in time for the other group to arrive at 900h. When we showed up at 800h, they had already raked the sand yard (yes, Mozambicans always rake their yards. Presentation is key), tidied up the indoor and outdoor meeting spaces and tended to their machamba (garden). The group from Macia surprisingly arrived very close to 900h and the troca began.

The group from Macia unloaded off their rented chapa. They had 23 people in a 15-passenger van, nothing out of the ordinary here in Moz. We all gathered in the outdoor rotunda at CACHES and Sam gave a formal welcome and introduction to the group. We then started with some ice-breakers and name games for everyone to get to know each other. Grupo Amizade is made up of six boys and three girls all in their upper teens or early 20s. AJAAB was about twice the size of our group and all of them ranged from about 10-20 in age. The difference in age or size didn’t matter as the two groups meshed well together. The jovens led a game of musical chairs for seven people at a time. Joao, one of the jovens, and I were the last two left. I didn’t realize that musical chairs was also actually an opportunity for a dance-off. Little did I know this was just the beginning of the day’s dancing. The day then continued with theatre performances from both groups. AJAAB’s performance was mostly in Changana, the local language, about a family whose daughter got HIV. Then Grupo Amizade did a skit on a drug trade and the corruption of the police. It was great to see how informational both skits were. Their skit was in Portuguese and Changana, so I understood more or less most of it. Some of the criancas who come to CACHES on a regular basis had gathered to watch what was going on. They were so good to just sit and watch taking it all in. When it came time for lunch they all started to line up to get a plate as well, but I had to be the bad guy to tell them the food wasn’t for them. I felt so bad, but the event wasn’t for them, it was for the jovens. Luckily, Nelio, one of the jovens, had the idea to tell them that the food was just for people with name tags. No nametag, no food. It was still hard to tell these kids that they couldn’t eat. Both groups lined up with their plates—which they brought from home—to get some of the food Dona Rachel had been preparing all morning. Everyone got a heaping portion of rice, salad and chicken. Vivienne and I set out a box to collect all the bones and leftover food for our dogs. We didn’t want to leave them out of the feast.

After lunch, two jovens from Grupo Amizade, Beto and Calvino, did a lesson on the rules of the theatre. They brought out the large chalkboard and led a discussion on stage presence, props, voice and facial expression. Following this discussion, we closed the day with a questions and comments session. And then, they finished with a few more games. Remember Chefe Cadei from my first day? Yes, they did that. And then they just blasted the music and it turned into a dance party! Unfortunately AJAAB’s chapa arrived so they had to leave, but Grupo Amizade continued to dance for the next hour. It was now 1600h when most of the criancas arrive at CACHES every day so they jumped in on the dance party as well. At first I stood back a bit intimidated by all of the rhythm and moves of the Mozambicans. Who am I to try to keep up? But then, I realized that I got nothing to lose. A group of about four young girls circled around me and started dancing mimicking all of my white girl moves. Ya know, the two-step snap and then hands up, then hands down move. I added in a little hip wiggle, they did too. Everything I did, they did. I’d like to think they weren’t making fun of me, but ya never know. One girl even had a baby tied on her back with a capalana, but that didn’t hold her back. So I decided to have a little fun with it. I started to do a crisscross hop-step move, I am sure it has a more technical name, but I don’t know what to call it. They tried as well, but they ended up just kind of jumping around. They were still having fun with it. I didn’t realize that Sam and some of the jovens stopped their Mozambican moves and were trying to copy the new move I introduced. At first, I got really embarrassed, but then I decided to just embrace it and try to teach them. They obviously seemed like they wanted to learn it. Sam got it. The others are still working on it. We decided that they would continue to work on that and I would try to learn some of their Mozambican moves. They tried to teach me a few, but I think it will take me a little longer to get the hang of those.

Overall, the troca was a lot of fun for everyone involved. It was such a hot day, but that didn’t stop anyone from enjoying themselves. And as they have told me, it is only going to get hotter.  I was happy to see how events like this run. It was really interesting to see how much of a back seat the PCVs Vivienne and Megan took and how much they leave the events up to their Mozambican counterparts and the jovens themselves.

I look forward to having more trocas in the future. And I have a feeling that this was just the first of many dance parties to come. When we got home, Vivienne told me that was the first time she had really danced with them. Oops. I guess they must have been a little surprised when I was willing to jump right in.