For over a year now, I've been posting a lot of entries that highlight my positive experiences here in Mozambique. While, overall, my service has been invaluable so far, there have been some events going on in the country that I have no control over and that make my stomach feel as though it's a washing machine tumbling a heavy load inside. I've decided to write a post about the corrupção, corruption, in Mozambique and hopefully it will shed light on the cruelty.
1. Logging- According to my friend, many people from other countries are cutting down trees like a kid cutting odd shapes on a piece of paper, carelessly and recklessly. The trees are then shipped
to other countries to get manufactured. My friend noted that these invaders aren't getting taxed for amputating these trees. The Mozambican government doesn't seem to be stopping them.
In other words, people from other nations are cutting down forests here for free and making a profit off
of the wood. This can have some serious long-term effects for the habitat in this country and the rest of the planet. Here's a picture I took of one of many places in Mozambique where they store the logs before they get shipped off. This is only 30 minutes away from where I live. It's not the best picture. There were a bunch of other logs that can't be seen in the picture.
2. Child servants- There are many children who are babás, nannies, in my community and in the country.
When I say children, I'm not talking about a 15-year-old. I'm talking about a five, six, seven, eight, or nine
year old child. These kids are providing free labor for other families because perhaps their own parents are sick or have died, or can't afford to feed her. So these little babás are sent to other families where they do their laundry by hand, wash dishes, change a baby's diapers, go to the market, plow the fields, cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and much more. Maybe it's not
so bad after all, since they have a house to stay in and food to eat. But seeing a six-year-old try to balance
a bucket of water on her head seems like torture on her growing spines and necks. It breaks my heart when the adults yell at them for wanting to watch cartoons or play with the other children. They're just kids who want to dance, jump rope, and tell ghost stories with their peers.
3. Corrupção with the teachers- The teachers at my school and I have just finished correcting the national exams. Corruption with the teachers is so bad in Mozambique, that the students have to write their names on the corner of an answer sheet and later, staff will cut off the corners of the tests and write a number on the corner that corresponds with the number on the other part of the test. After the teachers grade the tests, the cut-off corners are reattached to the students' answer sheet.
The idea is that the teachers won't be able to tell whose test they are grading,
because all they see is a number because the corner with the student's name has been detached. However, some of the teachers managed to get the numbers of certain students. The teachers asked other teachers if they could change certain grades so that they'd be able to pass particular students. But why did some of the teachers go out of their way to find out the numbers of certain students and beg other teachers to change their marks? Well, this is where the corruption really comes in. Some of the teachers promised certain students that they'd give them passing grades in all of the subjects if they gave them money. Sometimes the teachers promised passing grades in exchange for sexual favors. I felt hopeless as I graded papers. The teachers didn't ask me to change the grades because I was handed a pre-scanned stack of papers of students' exams that didn't need their grades
augmented (thank goodness!). I had no proof that the teachers bribed the students for sex or money,
but unfortunately, bribes of this sort very common here.
4. Lack of medical supplies- As with many developing countries, many of the hospitals in Mozambique quickly run out of medical supplies. Last week, someone in my community recently had problems with her stomach and the hospital didn't have medicine or other supplies left to help
her. She is back from the hospital and reports that she's doing a little bit better. I asked other people where the closest hospital is that would have medical supplies and they responded that it would probably be a city in Nampula, which is four-eight hours away depending on transportation and the situation of the roads.
This is the reality of the country right now. As Mozambique develops and more awareness is spread about these issues, I'm hopeful that these four points will be resolved in the future.
On a brighter note, things are going well. School won't be starting until February and I plan to visit other volunteers during my long vacation and hopefully visit neighboring countries. I'll keep you all updated. :)
