day of the karateiros

Hey folks, I just found this in a draft folder from this time last year. Enjoy! I’ll try to have a post up soon on the events that took place THIS YEAR!

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Written in September-October 2007

There’s that overused saying that people reference whenever something like a fight breaks out that ends up becoming more interesting or more of the focus than the intended original event.

e.g. I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out

I was thinking about this saying as I ran over to a large mob of adolescents screaming and waving and generally causin’ a ruckus. I knew what had happened before I arrived to see the assistant school director putting a headlock on a boy or before the driver for our program took off to try and catch a soccer player who had been wielding a meter-long piece of bamboo like a sword. As I entered the fray, I thought “I came to a fight and a soccer tournament/health fair broke out”, and that was right before a kid blindly swung and almost caught my jaw.

So let me rewind a bit.

The ARSH team was wrapping up activities for  fiscal year 2007. I may have briefly talked about this before, but we helped some of our groups try to organize health fairs in their community. Basically, this would be an exposition of the activities that the groups are doing as well as a chance to invite other community organizations to present on health-related topics relevant to the community. All of this would take place during the final day of a community futebol tournament- Our thinking is, we attract the crowd with a highly touted game between two communities, and then during the breaks we have the different groups present their activities to the community.

The thing is, most of these groups are not at the level where they can plan an event like this. Even with our assistance, the health fairs ended up taking a back seat (though most communities did present) to the futebol games. Which, we realized, is ok. They still took away some knowledge in terms of event organization. They had to distribute transport funds, and keep track of team rosters and devise the agendas for the day- skills that they normally do not get to develop out in the bush. And this is the first time we have tried to have groups plan day-long events, so even though the results have been mixed, we feel like there is a good base that we can build off of.

We wound up our supervision of the fairs/tourneys last Saturday. The same Saturday that UCF gallantly played in it’s first REAL home game ever (sadly losing to No. 6 Texas by three points… but a good showing nonetheless, boys!) Luisa went to the fair hosted by Nhacutse in the Xai Xai districet, and I went with Manjate, our driver, to Mandlakaze (pronounced Mahn-jah-kahz-ee) to check out the fair in Mussengue.

When I arrived, the final game of the girl’s bracket had already begun. The other (visiting ) community that participated in the fair was Chalala. The women battled to a 0-0 tie before going to penalty kicks. Right before they started the shootout, Chalala replaced their goalkeeper (who was looking a bit worse for wear) with an Amazon-esque girl who had- up until that point- been playing defense. None of the coaches complained, so they started kicking.

*Quick aside- Flash poll: Do y’all think that calling someone an Amazon is a good thing or bad thing? I’ve heard that it can be positive or negative, but I use it in a strictly positive way. I mean, Wonder Woman was an Amazon, and she kicked ass! Just curious.

Ok, so to cut to the chase, Chalala won on kicks. The Amazon (named Sonia) only let one ball through, and combined with her good defense during the game we awarded her the MVP (and a new soccer ball). Then, it was time for the men to warm up. As the Mussengue girls gave their jerseys to the boys, the Chalala team could, for the first time, get a look at their competition.

Apparently, there had been some confusion with the rules, as Mussengue brought what reminded me of a Varsity college team. These guys were big, especially compared with the 13-15 year olds that Chalala trucked over to serve as cannon fodder. There was lots of shouting, and pointing of fingers, and pointing at papers. Chalala said Mussengue was trying to cheat, and Mussengue was basically calling Chalala a bunch of spineless wimps. Meanwhile, there is an argument brewing off the field between some of the female soccer players. Apparently Mussengue thought it was illegal to switch goalkeepers before the penalty kick phase (I honestly don’t know if it is legal or not; maybe someone can fill me in here on the FIFA rules.) So, we have an outbreak of machismo on the field, allegations of cheating off the field, and me trying to calm down the professors, who seem to be taking this stuff more seriously than anyone. Right as I am showing the professor from Mussengue the part where the paper says “ages of participants in tournament: 13-16″, the rumble begins.

Apparently, a girl from Chalala shouted one too many “we won, you guys suck” taunts at Mussengue, and number 11 came out swingin’. Then, a dude from Mussengue started whipping around his bamboo whuppin’ stick and all hell breaks loose. Aforementioned headlocks and beatings ensue. Manjate and Magaia chase kids into the bushes (kids are not seen again for the rest of the day)

I just couldn’t believe that this harmless soccer tourney/health fair turned into the royal rumble. Adfter we got things settled down, we tried to ask the kids what they were thinking. Responses included the following:

“He looked at me weird”

“They were bigger than us so we deserved to cheat” (we never CALLED you cheaters!!!)

“I am sick, I don’t know what I just did”

So we’ve got a temporary insanity plea, a self-defense arguement, and a whack-job who just likes to lie. Nice.

I felt so depressed upon leaving mUssengue. Not only were thie kids acting like kids, but the professors were just as bad. After all of the ruckus, the Chalala folks were leaving. I asked “so, where is the rest of the money for transport? You used XXX meticais and I gave you XXX meticais.”

The response by the ped. director? “We bought food.”

DAMMIT! If you want to buy food, use your own money or ask us if it’s ok. DOn’t just assume it’s cool to blow over a mil (which is not how much some 30 egg sandwiches cost to make) on food.

Sufficed to say, this was a dark day for the ARSH team. We have meetings with both schools to discuss the behavior. And David is not going to play the nice, caring PCV. Groups need to learn that some organizations do not appreciate getting money stolen from them and used to put on a community karate exhibiton.

 

Update 26-2-07. All clear on the Gaza, MZ front!

Written on 25-2-07

Don´t worry. The cyclone was not even close to Xai Xai.

To my knowledge, all PCVs in Mozambique are safe. The PCMoz staff here has in place an Emergency Action Plan that anticipates possible safety risks such as cyclones and devises strategies for consolidation and evacuation if needed. I know that all of the PCVs of the affected areas were n no danger as Favio hit came ashore. As for my area, we didn’t get so much as a light rain. A nice breeze kicked up Wednesday afternoon, but it did nothing to lessen the awful heat that we experienced this past couple of weeks. However, this weekend we have seen a nice change of pace, getting bands of rain (possibly the residual effects of Favio, but I couldn’t tell you for sure) since Friday night. Actually, yesterday was a perfect beach day until about 1630hrs when, while sitting down to a midafternoon snack at one of the beachfront restaurants, our group encountered quite a storm. Didn’t last too long, but it effectively ended our beach excursion. The rain, though, is much needed here for crops and overall relief from this heat. In the spirit of most of my childhood, I have bought a couple fans and have them on full blast whenever I am home. Not that I even have the option of air-conditioning here, but I have always preferred an open-air household. Being the son of Holly Davies, it was necessary to always have at least 3 fans going in the house at any given time, and it worked quite well. Anything to keep cool here, including taking multiple baths a day if there is enough water.

I have lately hit a bit of a ‘plateau’ when it comes to my Portuguese retention. I don´t think of it as a peak, but with my current work and interaction with folks who speak English on a regular basis, my learning has slowed a bit in comparison to the first month here in XX. I think that I have gotten a little lax on the “Portuguese Only” mandate that I introduced to my coworkers back in December. Some of that is the urgency to get an idea across; being that some of the staff at least understands a fair amount of English, I would say that I have a relatively easier time communicating problems to my coworkers than some PCVs. I need to get back on the wagon, since I am starting to work more in the field, and my counterparts will not always be there to help me out when the kids are mumbling Portuguese through pursed lips and other obstructions.

(Remember when your parents/teachers would always tell you to take your hands away from your mouth when you talk? Well, if it isn’t a hand, it’s a big hunk of sugar cane, gum, pens/pencils, or a necklace that these young’ns are chewin’ on that interrupts the flow of information.)

I think that my biggest problem thus far has not been retaining information, but figuring out how to pronounce all of the words (especially verbs) correctly. I can imagine that really KNOWING Spanish or French would help in terms of the base of vocabulary and verb conjugation as well as general sentence structure, but even the miniscule bit of Spanish that I remember has effectively confused my brain when I attempt to speak Portuguese. I see a word, pronounce it, and usually get this perplexed look from my audience. Either I was way off base, or I missed a syllable here or there, or I am throwing in a bit too much espanol for their liking (or, sometimes I am correct and they just don’t speak Portuguese, which is a whole different problem to be addressed in future months with the aid of a Shangaan tutor). During our QDP training, a couple weeks back, I was selected by my group to present a list of situations and where they would fit in terms of the QDP process. There was the list, up on the board, and there I was with the mic, reading the list.

It was a disaster.

The good news is, I can ‘shusshh’ my S’s and ‘Ow’ my ão’s. But it was awful. The funny thing is, when you are in a training, Mozambican folks are so nice that even if you completely flub the talk/speech, they still say they understand (although I have a sneaking suspicion that a couple of them just wanted to recess for afternoon tea and couldn’t give a shit what came out of my mouth. The thing is, I’ve got a lot of work left before I can read Portuguese WELL.

Práctica, Práctica, e mais Práctica!

Though the language can be extremely frustrating, I have still made a lot of progress with my surrounding community. More and more people know my name every day, and I have learned to play a couple really interesting games with my neighbors´ kids. Mostly, Mozambican kids are all about throwing or kicking various things at each other. I am especially fond of a certain game that involves two teams. It could be considered a futebol drill, but I think it’s one of those games that kids play so they can take shots at their friends (remember kill the carrier and red rover?). Two teams face each other on their goal lines, about 10-15 yards apart (remember, these are young kids). Goals are two sticks placed about 3-4 yards apart. Each team has anywhere between 2-5 players. Team A dropkicks the ball towards Team B’s goal. Team B cannot catch the incoming shot, only deflect it. Then, Team B gets to take a shot on Team A wherever the ball has come to rest. If they score, a player from Team A (I think the person who let the ball go by or last touched it) is out. Then Team A has to dropkick again towards Team B’s goal. If Team A successfully defends, then Team B has to dropkick the ball towards Team A and the whole process is reversed.

I think the dropkick is essentially a serve, with the following shot on goal being the true test of might. Even though I am a big guy, it was still fun to play. I never did win despite my size, though my team eventually won all of the games that we played. I also took a shot to the face that left me dazed for a couple minutes (this one kid who has to be at least 15 just shot at me point-blank. It hurt.)

Why did I just describe a random Mozambican game to people who will never play this game or see it played? For one thing, this is just one of the dozens of games that kids play here. In my neighborhood, there are kids of all ages, and it is a very safe place to run around. Though in my earlier posts I have described the awful stranglehold that TV has started to have on many folks here, it is very encouraging to know that lots of kids still get home after school, shed their uniforms, and bolt for the street to play with friends outside. I have sat on the wall separating my house from the street just watching these kids run around, and I cannot help but think that for many American kids, the ability to run around until dark is practically nonexistent. How many parents Stateside let their kids run off with friends without so much as a ‘ciao!’ Not too many. I remember in high school reading To Kill a Mockingbird. While we were watching the fantabulous movie adaptation, Mrs. Pinkard, our teacher, would ask us to compare the lifestyles of the young protagonists- able to run around the neighborhood, play in other peoples’ yards, and not have a care in the world with regards to security- to our own formative years- which were considerably more restricted. I know that I had a pretty liberal childhood on Sanibel- I could ride my bike anywhere I wanted on the island throughout a lot of my childhood. I also realize that there are pockets within America- specifically more rural areas- where a kid can be gone in the summer from sunrise to sunset without any word and the parents are not worried one bit.

Here in Mozambique, these kids have free reign, and I love it. It reminds me of Scout and Jem and DIll rollicking around in TKAM and I am jealous. Wanna go down the hill and play in the cornfields? Let’s do it. Wanna go spy on the weird white people at the BP? Vamos. I think parents here are not lazy or unattentive. I just think that kids here are streetwise at a much earlier age. In the States, kids learn to swim at 3-4 so they don’t fall into the indoor swimming pools and drown. In Mozambique, kids know how to carry 15 kgs of rice back from the market or 10 liters of water back from the pump as soon as they can walk. They are tough little maninos, and so letting them go off and play down the street doesn’t seem nearly so ludicrous as it does in the States.

Also, I would also like to point out that yes, there are some little fat kids in Mozambique. However, I would not say that Mozambique has a problem with childhood obesity. I know there are parasites and food issues in certain parts, but for the most part kids here are just not little fat slugs who sit and watch Spongebob all day. If more American kids (myself included… I was a lazy little punk) had the work ethic of Mozambican children, we’d all be raising a bunch of juvenile Greek sculptures rather than miniature Peter Paul Reubens portraits (see below). Not to say that the subjects in Rubens’ stuff are not beautiful… just a bit… hefty. Ok, so that last analogy was a stretch, but you get the idea.

Hmmm…see what I mean?

*Not a gram of extra fat on these kids in Mafuiane (a farming community where kids are up at the crack of dawn doing SOMETHING)

So anyway, kids here are buff, working machines, something us western folk have gotten away from. Back quickly to the games these kids play. I also really like that there is a lot of teamwork in these games. Though you see a lot of fancy footwork and ball handling in futebol games (there are ball hogs in every culture), a lot of the games I see are about groups and teams and working in conjunction with each other. I think that this bodes well for the future, both immediate and distant. I am really hoping that it this trend holds true when we start reorganizing the youth groups in the next few months so that they can become more productive. Go team!

So, just want to give a quick but important THANK-YOU to a couple folks who have sent me goodies that I just received from the Peace Corps Office. They came a while ago, but a driver just brought them up for me this past week.

Pat and Bette- the shortbread cookies were absolute heaven, and so were the pistachios. Thank you so much (and yes, the computer is still working out great)

Alexia and Dave- I guess I was a decent RA. Thanks for all of the support and CONGRATULATIONS!!! I am so glad to hear that things are going so well, and thank you for the package. I have already killed the candy (a PCV hosted a movie night the day that I received your goods, everybody loved the Sour Patch treats and express their deepest thanks!).

And of course, MOM! I love you! thanks for all the magazines (especially the Spin!).

Take care all, will hopefully post again soon.