Saturday, October 18, 2008
I LOVE CAPITALISM
There's a group of about 10 people from Vanderbilt here this week. Trying to start a new project/collaboration within FGH that involves the business school, divinity school, anthropology department, and microloans and economic development. We met with them this morning, and I can't wipe the grin off my face. I'm not quite sure how to express what I'm feeling right now about capitalism and all the good that comes with empowering people to run their own lives and have the freedom to succeed. Not the guarantee, but the possibility. That little shred of hope and optimism. I'm seriously at a loss as to how I can express my current state of elation. Maybe I'll write a poem...or do an interpretive dance...or make up a song on my harmonica.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Work your magic
Saturday I went to Inhassunge for a meeting with about 20 curanderos, the term for witchdoctors, or if you want to be p.c. "traditional healers." I totally expected a group of pierced and tattooed individuals to emerge from the fields of palm trees and mandioca and arrive at the clinic wearing traditional dress and carrying eye of newt and chicken bones. Instead, about 10 men and 10 women showed up wearing t-shirts, blue jeans, and dresses. Turns out the curanderos in Mozambique have their own formal organization and governing body, sort of like the AMA. They also have a couple branches of practice: one group focuses on praying and casting out evil spirits, the other group works with herbs and remedies. Kind of like their version of medicine and surgery.
We set up shop under a tin roof, and the meeting commenced in the usual Mozambican fashion...everyone stands up and introduces themselves, we do a little chanting and clapping, and then someone starts singing and the whole place turns into a dance party for about 5 minutes.
The point of the meeting was to discuss HIV and TB with the curanderos in the hope of forming some sort of alliance with regards to patient care. So, when people get sick here, they go see the curandero, not the doctor or nurse at the clinic. As a result, people tend to resort to western medicine only when they are deathly ill, and many cases of HIV and TB go undiagnosed until it is too late. So we discussed what causes these two diseases, how they are transmitted, what the symptoms are, and what we do to treat them. Then we asked them that if they see a person with symptoms X, Y, and Z, they need to send the person to see us.
One of the most interesting parts was when the curanderos described what they believe about these diseases. Examples:
--When someone in a household dies, the curandero goes to the house to perform some sort of rituals. If someone in the house takes one of the possessions of the deceased person before the rituals are performed, that person will get TB.
--When someone in a household dies, the members of the household or family have to wait one week before having sex. If they don't, then they'll get TB.
--HIV can be transmitted by bad spirits.
--HIV is a curable disease.
Another interesting thing: we had bottles of pop at lunch. And before the curanderos drank it, they poured a drop out on the ground "for the spirits." It reminded me of pouring a little out for our fallen comrades.
When the meeting ended, we packed in the truck and headed down the bumpy dirt road for an hour, en route to the dock. 2 in the front, 4 in the back, and about 12 in the truck bed...singing, clapping, and chanting of course. The driver stopped the truck next to a field of mandioca. I looked outside and saw a couple of the twiggly trunks rocking back and forth. Then all of a sudden I saw a little furry face pop up from the side of the road and look at us. It was a monkey! The whole field was filled with little wild monkeys! This was a real rarity, since most animals in Mozambique were killed during the civil war.
We set up shop under a tin roof, and the meeting commenced in the usual Mozambican fashion...everyone stands up and introduces themselves, we do a little chanting and clapping, and then someone starts singing and the whole place turns into a dance party for about 5 minutes.
The point of the meeting was to discuss HIV and TB with the curanderos in the hope of forming some sort of alliance with regards to patient care. So, when people get sick here, they go see the curandero, not the doctor or nurse at the clinic. As a result, people tend to resort to western medicine only when they are deathly ill, and many cases of HIV and TB go undiagnosed until it is too late. So we discussed what causes these two diseases, how they are transmitted, what the symptoms are, and what we do to treat them. Then we asked them that if they see a person with symptoms X, Y, and Z, they need to send the person to see us.
One of the most interesting parts was when the curanderos described what they believe about these diseases. Examples:
--When someone in a household dies, the curandero goes to the house to perform some sort of rituals. If someone in the house takes one of the possessions of the deceased person before the rituals are performed, that person will get TB.
--When someone in a household dies, the members of the household or family have to wait one week before having sex. If they don't, then they'll get TB.
--HIV can be transmitted by bad spirits.
--HIV is a curable disease.
Another interesting thing: we had bottles of pop at lunch. And before the curanderos drank it, they poured a drop out on the ground "for the spirits." It reminded me of pouring a little out for our fallen comrades.
When the meeting ended, we packed in the truck and headed down the bumpy dirt road for an hour, en route to the dock. 2 in the front, 4 in the back, and about 12 in the truck bed...singing, clapping, and chanting of course. The driver stopped the truck next to a field of mandioca. I looked outside and saw a couple of the twiggly trunks rocking back and forth. Then all of a sudden I saw a little furry face pop up from the side of the road and look at us. It was a monkey! The whole field was filled with little wild monkeys! This was a real rarity, since most animals in Mozambique were killed during the civil war.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The Great Depression
There are many things about my childhood for which I am eternally grateful. One being that I was raised by parents who were brought up with a Great Depression Era mentality, which was then passed on to me. Now, years of training on how to live frugally are paying off. Since Amy and I have only a small amount of money to live off for who knows how long, we made a list of needs/not needs/rations. As we constructed this list, Amy's face began to melt and I think she may have even shed a single tear. Turns out, Amy has expensive tastes and was not raised in a household that had a bomb shelter-esque room in the basement filled with non-perishables that were bought in bulk once a year when Meijer had their huge sale.
Needs: rice, beans (dried...canned is too expensive), coconuts, bread
Not Needs: restaurants, cheese, milk, chocolate, peanut butter, nutella, instant coffee, and frivolous shopping
Rations: jelly, butter, beer, diet coke
...the adventure continues
Needs: rice, beans (dried...canned is too expensive), coconuts, bread
Not Needs: restaurants, cheese, milk, chocolate, peanut butter, nutella, instant coffee, and frivolous shopping
Rations: jelly, butter, beer, diet coke
...the adventure continues
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
This is what I get for reading smutty magazines
I can recall making one purchase while at Heathrow, and that was a hot off the press HELLO! magazine—England’s version of People or In Touch. Hey, I had a long flight ahead of me, and it was the Angelina Jolie baby issue. Stop judging. If you didn’t buy the magazine, you at least perused it while standing in line at the grocery checkout. Well, that little guilty pleasure has come around to bite me. Somehow, someone in England got access to my bank account and tried to drain me of my loan money this weekend. I knew that guy at the magazine kiosk looked shady! The upshot: the crapweasel tried to steel from me, but the bank saw the shifty transactions and immediately closed my account. The bad news: I have about $4 to my name and no way to get money.
But every cloud has a silver lining. Amy and I have a few assets: a house that currently has no electricity, 4 cans of warming beer, rice, a couple coconuts, and a pint of gin. We also have a pair of harmonicas and probably 50 books. And the sky is really pretty today, so that’s a bonus.
But every cloud has a silver lining. Amy and I have a few assets: a house that currently has no electricity, 4 cans of warming beer, rice, a couple coconuts, and a pint of gin. We also have a pair of harmonicas and probably 50 books. And the sky is really pretty today, so that’s a bonus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
