Albina's words and thoughts about her TCE experience

"People here, at least most of them, dream of having much more, of working in Romania although they don’t even know where it is, they only dream of the white man’s world where they can have so much money..."

Her role and feelings in the project:

"I already managed to stage a little sketch (theatre) for the National Day of Mozambique which was on the 25th of June. It was about a guy with his immune system (the immune system was me) walking around and the immune system fighting away the tuberculose, diarea and malaria (played by other three colleagues). But then he meets a nice girl who walks with her immune system and some HIV viruses from which one is coming to the guy and beats the immune system up. It was real fun I’m telling you! Then I am involved in training some future counselors working as volunteers in the community. I tried to make a game with them by showing one of them the HIV virus and let him describe it to the others in a way for them to be able to draw it. They were a little bit shocked but had in the end a lot of fun."

"This week I am teaching in intense sessions English to 4 field officers who are about to go to Zimbabwe to the school of Humana called Front Line. It is sometimes frustrating to see that everything I explained a day before is totally lost the day after although they are writing everything down and I can start explaining again."

"IN the meantime I am enjoying free rides on African streets in backs of trucks, and also some very nice people who I work with. I had some big arguments with the leadership of the project, but as a very good friend of mine taught me once there are three stages of building a team: norming, storming and performing. So now I am over the first storming period."

"my project leader is a great support. I have never thought to meet such a woman. I admire her from all my heart, almost as I admire my most beloved grandmother. Despite her age (over 50), Birgit is running almost every morning without any problem around 4 km and is the calmness in person, solving many of the conflicts with her people with a joke."

"I also had many small achievements, for example when being in the field I met teenagers who were shy when talking about their private life or were only bragging they want condoms but didn’t know how to use them and I managed a very good communication with them so the result was they were asking in the end a lot of questions and were talking more or less open about the HIV and sex issue and seemed to understand that it is a serious matter."

"I had the opportunity to assist the field officers in their daily work. I also had some long talks with the officers. I learned from them and I think they learned some things from me. We noticed that there is not enough personal approach in the contact to the people. I tried to push them to ask more personal questions and to touch the people’s hearts."


Health:

"I manage to stay healthy considering what a bad reputation has Mozambique from this point of view... I’m eating a lot of row garlic and onion which to this people here is so strange even if it is so healthy and they could all have a much better life if they would do like me. And sometimes I manage to wake up at 5:30 to go jogging. Another important thing is to drink enough water or tea (without sugar) and most important to boil the water previously or to use Certeza, a substance with clore used to purify the water."


Cultural differences:

"I still don’t understand the body language of this people here. When rehersing for our small sketch I noticed the women were very shy when coming closer to the guys. I could almost say they didn’t like even a friendly hug for the sake of the theatre. On the other hand you can often see men holding hands. As one of my volunteer friends was saying, the funniest scene is to see two police men holding hands… which again is normal for them."

"People here, most of them dream of having much more, of working in Romania although they don’t even know where it is, they only dream of the white man’s world where they can have so much money they can buy for themselves fancy gadgets, a car and other things to brag with. Me, who already had it all feel how big the illusion is, and it almost hurts to see I am not able to make them understand that the world of the white man is not how they imagine it, they would not bathe in milk and honey there neither"

"It was surprising for me the reaction of the field officers especially when I told them that I don’t have a serious relationship because after a short while I start disagreeing with how I am treated and tell the guys it is over. The field officers (FOs) were surprised and laughed and started asking questions about it. Then I also had some interesting feedback about how I should handle the problem. I was in the beginning afraid the FOs, I mean the men, will profit of my opening to get to me (here many men see me as a possible way out of Mozambique in the world of the rich people) but they behaved very well and didn’t try anything yet. "

"...and I was so cought up with explaining that I didn’t realize where the words were coming from. I was just talking and talking… with words hands and feet. IN the meantime I learned so much Portuguese to make myself understood and I started learning a few words in Chimanica (shona of this region)"

"I noticed the locals have a very good memory but not such a developed logical thinking compared to me who rely more on logic than on memory. Still this is not such a big gap so it can be crossed. I am giving my best to make sure I am understood and understand what I am told."

Missing home:

"There is no such time where I don’t think about you my friends from home and around the world. I whish you could see this places and live this adventures with me and get rich with this experience and with this other world."


For those interested on the whole texts their are here for download:

The first letter
The second letter
The golden cut report