Caught in the Middle

Mario and Samuel had their first encounter with the orange-eating group of oppositionist church leaders. That the leaders agreed to allow them to come to the meeting at all was a small victory, considering that they have been rebuffing me since the fall. I'll accept that as a tiny morsel of evidence that our nationals-first strategy of implementing this program is working: with Mario and Samuel in the lead, we were finally granted another hearing.

Of course, that we were granted another hearing is not to say that the leaders were completely ready to accept our ideas. The leaders provided our two new program coordinators with the same impassioned drubbing that they had given me.

Mario expressed afterwards that, despite our warnings, he was unprepared for their combativeness.

Samuel, who had been part of that very leadership team before accepting the current assignment, knew what he was up against but was still disheartened by their reaction. He understood the drive behind their bordering-on-belligerent behaviour, but now sees it as plain old selfishness.

They were, in a sense, caught between us, their employers, and them, their compatriots.

Mario and Samuel shared with the leaders the village-based savings and loan program that we learned about on our trip to Nampula. They explained that they see this program as a foundation that will serve to build up the financial capital necessary to successfully implement other programs: micro-enterprise training, chicken farm franchises, and more.

The unhappy leaders recycled their old complains: they don't want to save their own money, and they don't want loans. They want us to give them money with as few strings attached as possible. Preferably none, please.

But they would like to participate in the first group. I guess that's a sort of back-handed endorsement that they see merit in the idea, even if it's not their first choice.

Perhaps the best news of the day came afterwards, when Mario and Samuel expressed that they remain convinced that what they witnessed in Nampula would be positively received by communities here in Maputo, and are determined to march forward.

They have identified an ally among the group of leaders, and are intent on implementing a pilot project in his community sometime in the first half of April. The clock is ticking...