THE FIRST STEPS OF EDUCATION

Julian, September Team 2008: In Bilibiza, a small village located inside the Quirimbas National Park, in the north side of Mozambique, life passes slowly although it is considerably short.

In Bilibiza, a small village located inside the Quirimbas National Park, in the north side of Mozambique, life passes slowly although it is considerably short. For the many children who live in this village, time is faster than they wish it would be and although it is said “Bilibiza is a sad place” they are able to find happiness anywhere and enjoy it at any moment they can. This makes them equal to any other children in the world.

PREVIOUSLY…

When I arrived in Mozambique, on the 3rd of May 2009, I went to work in TTC Nametil, in Nampula’s province. I stayed there for 2 months and during that time I could develop ideas of how I wanted to use my willingness to work with the children. Since I first heard about CICD my desire was to work with children and knowing that in any project we choose we can work with them, it was not hard to do so. In Nametil, three days a week I was going to nearby or not so nearby preschools to supervise our teacher trainees. I should watch their classes and make evaluations. That period was good not only to realize how the educational system of Mozambique works but also to get to know the Mozambican youth.

I started to get used to them quite fast. After a few days there I met two Americans from an NGO called Peace Corps. We met a few times to discuss our work and one day they invited me to teach Geography at the local secondary school. I started to do it and soon I could realize how short was the knowledge of those kids and teenagers about the world around them and how I could improve that by just explaining about our own planet. At the same time, I was teaching Geography also at the TTC, as well as History.
Although I liked to participate of those supervisions and evaluations, such as maintenances at these preschools, my desire to work more deeply in the place where the first education was more needed was leading me a bit further up north. So I went to Bilibiza.

AT THIS MOMENT….

I live in a DI house inside ADPP Cabo Delgado, just 10 minutes away from the village. Inside ADPP there’s also my place of work, the Escolinha (means “Little School” in Portuguese). It is a project that was created by DI’s like me a few years ago; the idea was to make a place where the children could learn basic things before going to school, so they should be from 3 up to 5 years old.

It started quite modestly but today I can say it looks a lot better. We have a playground and a room for teaching.

Every day around 7 o’clock in the morning, the children from the village come to play and learn. They don’t speak the national language, Portuguese, just the local language, Macua. That makes things a little bit more difficult since we speak different languages but it also makes the challenge more interesting. The number of children coming to the Escolinha is around 30, although we have 49 registered children for the year. They play at the playground with a lot of joy, climbing up ladder to the tree-house, going down the slide… shouting out to me “Titio” so I can see how glad they are to be there.

A couple of months ago I’ve found a bag inside my house full of toys, so I sorted them out separating the good ones from the bad ones or dangerous ones and I started to bring these toys to the Escolinha every morning. Even though practically all the toys were broken or having missing parts, they played with them and enjoythem like they were brand new. It’s not difficult to realize why, back in the village the only toys they have are the one they build with their own hands or their own imagination. A plastic gin bottle becomes a car, tomato sauce cans become a truck, and a piece of plastic becomes an airplane. So for them playing with an armless Hulk, a Power Ranger without legs or a car without any tire is no matter at all.

When it’s time to get into the classroom it’s not difficult to do it, I just need to shot “Entrada!” once and they all run into the room. Just a few months back this “classroom” meant a few sticks supporting a roof made of straw. It had no walls. But during the last raining season the strong wind tore down this roof so once again we were back where we begun.  At the beginning of this year the good will of some people made it possible to build a stainless steel roof, but we still didn’t have walls. That was the situation when I arrived so I decided to buy some bamboos and with the help of another DI we could arrange an action with students from Agriculture School to build it. Not only this; we could also re-build the latrine that once was destroyed by the fire. Together with a team-mate DI we cleaned up all around and eliminated the high grass that covered the surroundings of the Escolinha. That change of environment made things a lot better, indeed.

When I took over the Escolinha my biggest fear was what exactly should I do or teach them, especially because I’ve never had any experience with children, although I’ve always liked them. The answer came quickly, at the second day I felt I got myself on the right track of it. Being with these children on their first steps of education I just had to remember my own first steps. So that’s how I did it, teaching them the names of colours, numbers from 1 to 10, vowels, names of animals, fruits, transports… and since then that’s what they’ve been learning and I feel glad when I get the feeling that those kids who next year are going to start school will get there already knowing these basic things of Portuguese.

Constantly I get the help of Sergio, a man who the school hired to help out at the Escolinha. It obviously makes things a lot easier since he can speak Macua and therefore communicates normally with the children. Sometimes I just sit to talk with the children, with the help of Sergio, to try to make them understand the importance of studying. Even knowing these children are quite young, I feel like I need to tell them that the only way of getting a better life is studying. Though that’s the reality not only in Africa but anywhere in this planet.

Sometimes I walk through the village and I meet some of the children from the Escolinha. I can hear them shouting “Titio” from far away, It’s such a pleasant moment when they run to me and speak a whole sentence which I can only understand 1 or 2 words. Our communication is different but never limited or poor. I see their homes, I see their daily life where they are just gathered outside in the sand finding any fun they can and it takes me back to my own childhood, where things were not like in a first world country but it was also far from how it is in Mozambique. I had health, I had safety, I had plenty of food and someone was always watching out for me. So I get that question of justice and equality.

I’m not up for psychology but I keep looking for the answer: what does it take to build our character? Is it our childhood? Our parent’s genes? Our environment? The people around us; or maybe just our own mind, behavior and sense of ethics? The progress or non-progress of fate? Well, whatever it is I’m sure the character may create feelings like the wish of seeking for changes for your own life and that’s exactly my duty here at the Escolinha. And being from a different background each day I have to police myself not to forget being open-minded, so I can realize and respect the cultural differences.

It results my job being not only to play with the children or teach them numbers, Portuguese and the world around them, but to teach them how to respect each other, to say “Thank you”, to wait their turn, to not beat each other and to show their parents how much they love them. That’s all not only the first steps of education but also the first step of humanity.