The Importance of Evaluation

Yesterday we met with the government here in Mozambique. We were given very little notice that we would be meeting with them. However, I was not nervous because I had written up an evaluation proposal. I showed them my evaluation proposal. I even tried translating parts of it into Portuguese. The lady we met with really liked it. Our interview with the government official was to show them the evaluation I am doing for Care for Life. Care for Life was hoping that by showing the government what we are doing, they will know how serious Care for Life is and offer more assistance to the program. I think we were successful at doing that. We are gathering some great data and I hope to be able to give them an accurate evaluation of their program so they can continue to help people in Mozambique.

Going to the Hair Salon

When I sat down to rest under this tree, I had no idea I was actually going to get my hair done. Yeah. I got an awesome do by this little girl. Her name is pronounced "Myn". She really liked my hair. The funny thing is that I haven't washed it for over four days. Even I don't want to touch it!

A Realidade

The people are extremely poor here. If you haven't been here, you just don't know. It's as poor as it gets. Nobody, nobody in the States is as poor as some of the better off people here. Today our electricity got cut off and again we have been without water for a couple of days now. We have some flour to make some bread and today we bought some chicken. I know many people are starving and I felt guilty eating the small piece of chicken I got today. I know people are dying everyday for lack of food or other illnesses. I am getting much better at speaking Portuguese. It is difficult to speak with the natives since they have their dialects. Today we visited a village community where I made some friends. A group of kids who just followed us everywhere we went. Raquel called it my posee. The little girl in this picture really liked my hair. She gave me the most awesome hair do! I love the people here. This experience has strengthened my belief in education. Many people here are not literate. The problem is knowing how to motivate the people. They cannot relate to many things since all they know is their little villages and the conditions they have lived in their entire lives. The trick is helping them have a desire to read and write and then teaching them in a way that they will relate and see results so that they will feel motivated to improve their lives. On the other hand, there is a small population of the higher class people who are so so smart. I was talking with one of the workers here in Care for Life and he knew SPSS and he was talking to me about pedagogies used to teach the villagers. SPSS! Yeah. Many of them know English too. They know words but they aren't comfortable speaking it.