REDES Troca

I spent an afternoon and evening in Nova Mambone, which was beautiful. It's about 50km off the EN1 with little huts scattered along the road and open fields, and just has a completely calm and comfortable feeling. The school I visited was very new and quite beautiful (Kate has benches situated under mango trees just out her back door. I have no idea how she makes it to class instead of camping out there with a book all day.) I was able to watch her English theater practice which was hilarious! Her students got so into it, improvising and acting with their whole bodies (very rarely do I see that here), and their English was pretty fantastic.


This morning, we brought a group of 4 girls to Machungue for a REDES troca. We first caught a chapa into town, walked 20 minutes to the Rio Save, took a canoe made from a hallowed out tree across the river, trekked through the mud, walked 30 more minutes, and finally arrived at Micah's school, situated on a mission. (Let me now point out that it's about 1030am which is hot with the sun beating down, I'm covered in mud from mid-calf down, and I have by two bags weighing about 80lbs on me. I'm getting tougher.) Ok- enough about me- the REDES troca involved 4 of Kate's girls, 9 of Micah's girls, and 5 girls who live about 20 minutes down the road. We started by introducing the topic of the day: How do you know if a boy will make a good boyfriend? A good boyfriend make a good husband? How can a man show he loves you? All of these questions and more we discussed all afternoon as we cooked. It was interesting to hear their thoughts. Many of the girls talked about respect and communication being important in relationships. Good. Several girls talked about not being able to trust men because none of them are faithful. Hmm. “All men cheat?” I asked. “Yes.” That made me depressed, that it is so culturally acceptable that men have wives but other women on the side. I've heard this before but still, I really feel for these girls. Also, it's a complete double standard. There's no way it's ok for a woman to have a husband and men on the side. We also talked about future plans: If your future plans do not line up with his, do you still marry him or try to find someone with similar life goals? This question seemed to confuse all of them. “Future goals? Like if I want to be a doctor and he wants to be a mechanic, should we still get married? Sure, as long as we respect each others jobs.” Of course that's not at all what I was trying to get at, but the concept of future plans is not something that many people think of or maybe even understand. Again, something I've heard before, but there must be something about hearing it from girls I've never talked to before and from a completely different region of the country that hit me hard. We continued talking all throughout lunch, sharing stories and whatnot, and then two of the three groups put on skits about women's rights and the importance of taking care of your body, because it's YOURS and nobody else's. I love hearing girls take like that :)

So I'm currently sitting in Micah's house, listening to a drum circle happening just outside his house with kids dancing and singing. I think I'm going to go check this out...

Turns out it was a dance party going on at the girls dorm. Something they typically do each weekend, break out the drums and break it down for an hour or so before dinner. Seemed pretty great to me :)