Boas Entradas

Our maiden voyage out to Ihla dos Porcos.

Happy New Year.Or as they say here in Mozambique, “Boas Entradas”.I spent the holidays in Inhambane at the beach with some of my Peace Corps colleagues. It was not exactly a white Christmas, but we spent it on the (almost) white sand beach of Tofo. I wasn’t able to bring my camera, but my friends Mike and Marisa did an awesome job documenting the week so I encourage you to check out their blog to see pictures from the week. It wasn’t until the holidays were all said and done and I am now alone back at site that it hit me… I missed the holidays at home. I hope that you all had the merriest of holidays and truly enjoyed the holiday season with family and friends. Know that I am definitely thinking about you all covered in snow as the temperature here continues to climb. The other day it was 35 deg. C, which is about 95 deg. F. Tem Calor. It is also now the rainy season. It has rained for the past four days with no sign of stopping. The rain at least cools things off a bit, but it comes with incredible force flooding my yard and the roads. As I write now, the rain pounds on my tin roof and I am surrounded by several buckets to collect the rain water that leaks in through my roof. My first introduction to the rainy season in Africa.

The view from my door the past few days...

The new year brings new plans for both of my organizations. Mozambicans may not take New Years Resolutions to the same extremes as Americans do, but with the beginning of a new year, they still make new goals and plans for the new year.Last Wednesday, I was supposed to do a nutrition palestra (informational talk) in the Children at Risk department of the hospital, meet with my EGPAF supervisor and have a 2013 planning meeting at CACHES. The palestra was cancelled, the supervisor meeting was cancelled and everyone showed up 30 minutes late to CACHES. So it goes.Take a step back. Relax.

Even though everything did not go as planned last Wednesday. I met with my supervisor for over an hour on Thursday. CACHES met for about two hours on Thursday and another hour on Friday to begin the planning process for this year. And my nutritional talk and papas demonstratio was rescheduled for next Wednesday. And if the rain holds off it will hopefully take place. I started doing the papas demonstrations back in October with VovoMinda, the head nurse in the Children at Risk department of the hospital. Papas are basically like porridge, which we give to malnourished babies to help them gain weight and grow. So every Wednesday, we set up a mini cooking station outside and get mothers to help prepare the papas. By having them involved in the process they can then make it at home for their children. I started by just really observing the demonstration with VovoMinda, and then I started helping some of activistas who come to work at the hospital and now I take more active role in the demonstrations. One time when I was doing the demonstrations with a group of nursing students, they all did not know how to make papas so they looked to me for each step. I guided them through the process with my limited experience from just making it a couple times prior to that. I thought it turned out pretty well, but when we were serving the papas, Tininha, one of the assistants at the hospital, had a taste and told me that next time we need to crush the peanuts more. Oh well. The next week we made it, I made sure to give her taste and she said it tasted lot better. Since I have been helping out with the papaspalestra, I decided to write up the papas recipe on a poster to provide a visual for the mothers each week. Before I went on vacation for the holidays, I drew out the process on a poster.

Step 1. Pick out the bad peanuts

Step 2. Boil water

Step 3. Put the peanuts in a pan on the stove

Step 4. Take off the peanut shells

Step 5. Crush the peanuts

Some of the maes crushing peanuts for PAPAS

Step 6. Continue to crush the peanuts until it forms a peanut butter

Step 7. Put farinha (flour) in the boiling water

Step 8. Occasionally stir the farinha for the next ten minutes

Step 9. Put sugar and the peanut butter in the pot with the farinha

Step 10. Let boil more, stirring occasionally

Step 11. Serve and enjoy!

Candice, one of the nursing students, helping make PAPAS.

After I drew out the steps, I decided to ask my language tutor, Professora Teresa, to help me write out the step below each picture in Changana. She was thrilled to help, but said she was not entirely sure on the spelling of things in Changana. She brought me to her friend’s house in order to get the correct spelling. She was extremely helpful and together we wrote out all of the steps in Changana. When the poster was done, I brought it into the hospital to give to VovoMinda. She was overjoyed and decided we would go on a little show-and-tell walk around the hospital showing off the poster. At first, I was really embarrassed because the poster wasn’t really that great. I am not the best artist and so I was very critical of my drawings and was scared that the Changana was wrong. But that wasn’t important. VovoMinda was just so excited to have the poster to use. So I decided to let it go and continue to accompany her on our parade around the hospital.

When the following Wednesday came around, the poster was extremely helpful because it was just an activista from the organization Chukwaand I doing the palestra. The poster acted as a guide for us to follow. And this particular Wednesday, a father was there with his 5-month-old very malnourished baby. It is very unusual to see a dad bring his child to the hospital. Usually it is just the mothers and children. And this particular baby was seriously just skin and bones. Whatever pictures you have seen of malnourished children in Africa, that is what this baby looked like. While the father sat outside the hospital, I watched as several hospital staff asked him about the well-being of the baby. This baby’s condition was alarming to them as well.  The dad explained how the mother was very sick. He was very interested in learning how to make the papas. He got involved with the process as he wore the baby wrapped in a capalana on his back, just like all the mothers present. We gave his baby extra servings and then I copied down the recipe from the poster so he could bring it home with him and prepare for the baby. When the papas were done, we served all of the babies of those who helped prepare it. And then we served it to all of the children who are staying in the pediatric wing of the hospital with malnourishment. Professora Teresa, my tutor who helped make my poster, told me that she now also prepares papas at her house for her 9-month-old baby, KaKa.

The plan this year is to continue to do papas palestras on Wednesdays, but also maybe another day like Monday or Friday. Vovo Minda also asked me to continue to do more nutritional talks with each palestra. Last time, I spoke about the importance of including the various food groups in each meal. The plan for this past Wednesday was to talk about the importance of exclusively breastfeeding until six months and then slowly introducing new foods to the baby. So while it may not have happened this week, it doesn’t mean we won’t plan to do it next week.