So for the past few weeks, I have been working with three friends: Jess, Emily, and Autumn on putting together a “palestra” (workshop) for Nova Vida, a small community based organization here in Namaacha. For our “Practicum,” each of the health trainees was grouped together and assigned to work with a different Namaacha-based organization.
At our first meeting, about eight members met with us to talk about their organization and its goals. After a lot of talk about their ambitious but well intentioned aspirations (that ranged from buying video recording equipment to holding weekly workshops for community members about agriculture), we were able to understand that Nova Vida is a theater group.
A group of all teenage students, Nova Vida performs community theater on a variety of different social issues including: HIV/AIDS, education (especially for girls), nutrition, and health.
Nova Vida was started a few years ago with money from the National Aids Network of Mozambique. Because of its funding, members of Nova Vida are expected to do home visits to families in Namaacha to discuss issues similar to those highlighted in their theater. In particular, these visits are to ensure people living with HIV/AIDS are taking their ARVs and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Unfortunately, home visits are an afterthought for many of the members of Nova Vida, who are much more excited about performing theater at the market on Saturdays than visiting and counseling their sick neighbors. As Eduardo, the group leader said, he is an actor first and an activista (health worker) second.
In Mozambique there is this phenomenon that I imagine will drive me crazy over the next two years, we call it chefe syndrome. The chefe, or the boss, shows how important he is by making you wait for him. The more important the person, the longer you will wait. After many hours of waiting and being stood up twice (after an hour of waiting we gave up each time), my group was able to meet with the head of the group. Eduardo was very patient with our Portuguese and helped us to understand how the group was started and what the members do on a daily basis. When Autumn asked him what he would want to happen if he had a Peace Corps Volunteer working with Nova Vida for two years, Eduardo explained he would want someone to help re-train the people who do home visits. We told him we would be happy to put something together for him, and after some brainstorming, we decided on four different options. Eduardo liked the idea of both a workshop on transmission of HIV and one about adherence to ARVs. Though the two subjects are related, we had to work a while on making them logically go together in one one-hour session.
We were all nervous about having to explain things like drug resistance and sexual networks in Portuguese, but we practiced all day on Tuesday under our lichi tree (the house where we have our health tech sessions has this great lichi tree under which we have most of our classes – it is our inspiration). Nova Vida was supposed to be there at 3:30, and knowing Eduardo, we expected that meant closer to 4:00. At 4:15 we called and he said he was on his way. Pessimistic that anyone was going to show up at all, I set out a couple of chairs. To our surprise, six members of Nova Vida showed up at 4:30. Not only did they show up, they all brought paper and pencils and were really excited to work with us.
After a couple of ice breakers, discussion started and we were really able to engage the group in conversation about information they should be bringing into the homes they visit. We did a true and false game about some of the myths surrounding HIV in Mozambique that really got some discussion going. We also played a game that demonstrates how HIV is spread and the ways to prevent it. The group seemed impressed with the creative ways we taught information and we helped the group learn how to do the games on their own, so they could use the games within the community.
As we went to thank them, Eduardo interrupted me and asked if we wanted to see some of their theater. World AIDS Day is December 1, and they have been practicing their piece to perform in the town square that day. Honored that they would perform for us, we rearranged the room, and watched the group perform. The play (or the parts that I understood, theater is apparently at regular Portuguese speed not “oh you are an American so I will talk extremely slowly and clearly” speed, which is the speech that I best understand) was about a man who is diagnosed with HIV and then not allowed to work at the bar where he works. The people in the bar and the bar-keeper discriminate against the man and eventually leave him all alone.
Discrimination can be a difficult thing to talk about, and we have discussed in our tech sessions about how to address these kinds of issues, and I never thought of theater as a venue. Addressing discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS is extremely important because home visits can be potentially very stigmatizing. We talked with the group about some of these issues and then celebrated the afternoon with some cookies and lots of pictures.
While we spent a lot of time waiting for Nova Vida, in the end I think the practicum was a total success.
Also, the group asked for us to be “extras” in the play, so on World AIDS Day, you can see me asking for a “refresco” in the bar in the play!
So excited for your theater debut! Have you been rehearsing your lines?
ReplyDeleteI am glad for this post, because I was wondering what Nova Vida is. What a perfect group for you to work with!