This past Tuesday was definitely my favorite day at work so far. An M&E (monitoring and evaluation) specialist from SCIP Nampula came down to work with our team. We spent all day out in the field visiting communities that collaborate with SCIP Monapo. The objective of our visits was to focus on the monitoring and evaluation systems that are currently in place for the comités de agua (community water committees) and clubes de jovens agricultores (youth agriculture clubs). The specialist from Nampula randomly picked 4 communities in Monapo district for us to visit. For 2 of the communities, we focused only on the comités de agua and for the other 2 communities, we looked at the M&E for the clubes de jovens agricultores.
The first community we went to, called Napala, is the one I am the most familiar with. It is the closest community to Monapo vila (where I live), only 9K, so I’ve been fortunate enough to attend many meetings and trainings there. One of the community members actually recognized me from a previous training I was at and greeted me, “Bom dia mana Adriana”. It made my day! We met the secretary of Napala’s comité de agua and walked with him to his house, where we sat on an esteira (large straw mat) underneath of a huge cashew tree. The M&E specialist and Duado, the M&E team member from my office, talked to the secretary and looked over forms. The specialist pointed out places where forms were completed incorrectly and Duado translated this information into Makua (the local language) for the secretary. The forms are really basic. They are written in Portuguese and are created by the leaders of SCIP Nampula. For example, the first page asks you to list the names of all members of the comité de agua. Pretty easy stuff. But things become tricky when you are asking an elderly man, with very limited schooling and Portuguese, to fill them out. So the specialist and Duado spent a lot of time going over the forms with the secretary, pointing out what he did correctly and what he needs to revise. Because Napala is so close to our office, team members are always making visits for trainings, meetings, or to simply check up. Therefore, the comité de agua is really organized and well-documented. The comités de agua and clubes de jovens agricultores of the other communities we visited that day were not nearly as organized or well documented. In one case, there was evidence of false reporting. Our SCIP Monapo records showed that the youth agriculture club had 38 members, which are required to be 10-24 years of age. But when we arrived to the community, their ledger only showed 20-some registered members, many of which were over 25 years. Additionally, the club was basically non-functioning. They had only received 1 visit from our clubes de jovens agricultores team member since the creation of the club. That visit was over a year ago. They hadn’t received seeds, gardening tools, or technical trainings on plant cultivation. So even though our documents showed a large, functioning club, in reality it was anything but.
The rest of our day continued in the same manner: traveling out to the communities, searching for the chefe (leader) or secretary of either the comité de agua or clube de jovens agricultores, and looking over and comparing our forms. We finished around 4pm and were treated to food and drink at a restaurant in the neighboring town. We ate conchs, fresh from Ilha de Moçambique, and cabrito (goat) with chunks of bread. Not your typical “happy hour” fare, but it was delicious with a cold beer after a long, hot day. Afterwards, we returned to the office for a brief and awkward meeting. The specialist informed our coordinator (my boss) of our findings and explained the severity of false reporting.
This was a special day. Not every day, in fact most, are not like this. First of all, when we go out into the communities almost everything is spoken in Makua. Fortunately, the M&E specialist is from Zambezia province where the local language is not Makua. It’s frustrating not understanding what is going on during meetings or trainings, but its more important that the community members understand. Some days I go to the office, wait 30 minutes for somebody else to show up, and then proceed to sit and play on my phone for several hours while they type away on their computers. Then, someone says “let us go” and we hop into the SCIP 4x4 truck and are out in the field until 5pm. Some days my “work day” is over at 10am. Some days I get to go back to the nun’s house for lunch. Some days we’re out in the field all afternoon and I’m famished by dinnertime. You just never know. So I make sure to wear comfortable clothing and shoes everyday (which is easy because jeans are considered “business dress” in Mozambique) and lather up with sunscreen before leaving the house.
