Seeds Begin to Sprout

On Sunday, Laura and I packed into a Land Cruiser and headed for a church in Intaca, a small rural community about an hour outside of Maputo. The entire excursion was about six hours long, much of which was driving along abusive muddy roads and narrow thornbush-lined footpaths.

It would have taken less time had we known exactly where to go, but with roads that don't have names, in a village that doesn't have maps, in a community spotted with caniço home after caniço home, everything looks the same. And all roads seemed to lead to one particular building with peeling white paint.

From that intersection, we tried every possible direction. Straight, left, right -- every attempt led back to that familiar peeling white paint. Frustration mounted as everybody in the car had different advice on where to turn next. It didn't take long to realize that everybody was long on opinions but short on knowledge.

Once we had finally extricated ourselves from the quagmire of muddy paths, we found Intaca church. We were very late, but church hadn't yet started. In fact, nobody seemed to know what time it was supposed to start; people start walking from their homes when they hear that singing has started. Olga, the pastor's wife, gave us a tour of a sewing training centre that she and her husband operate.

Laura and I wanted to visit Intaca because Olga and her husband Ricardo are looking for ways to partner with Semente Para A Comunidade -- the Portuguese name that Mario and Samuel gave to our economic development program -- to increase the number of sewing machines that they have in order to meet demand for their training program.

These sewing machines are the old-fashioned peddle kind that don't require electricity. The women use them to learn to make school uniforms for their children and decorative linens to sell in local markets.

* * * * *

Mario and Samuel hitched a ride with us part-way. They were headed to Khongolote church to invite congregants to an inaugural village-based savings and loan program meeting next Saturday. Because they asked, I decided that we could again break the rules and give them a ride, saving them a two- or three-hour minibus ride. But I didn't want to be at the church for the meeting: it is their program. Afterwards, Mario and Samuel reported significant interest from the church.

Another opportunity for the Semente Para A Comunidade program (which literally means Seed for the Community, reflecting the potential for economic growth) started taking root when Samuel recently met with a local bakery run by a Christian woman. She is tired of employees who cheat and steal, and whose drinking the night before makes their morning work less than productive. She is looking for opportunities to partner with Semente to provide employment opportunities to church members. Samuel and Mario, through the Semente program, would be responsible for providing Biblically-based moral standards training.

These ideas are slightly divergent from what I had originally envisioned for the program, but that doesn't make them bad. They provide an avenue for the church to be a good witness to the community; they also conform with the program's vision of removing barriers to economic development for church members.

These are the exciting ideas that spring up when Mozambicans are empowered to have control over their own program rather than merely being implementing agents of a foreignly-concocted scheme.