muito bonito

Marshall and I went to visit a village (called 3 de Fevereiro) on Sept 25, which was Armed Forces Day - the first day of the uprising against Portuguese rule. The celebration was fun & interesting - women doing traditional dances, everyone singing songs about Frelimo (the ruling party), and some government leaders giving speeches which we couldn't understand. The singing and speeches definitely had a communist/socialist feel to them, a reminder to an earlier era not that long ago, even though the country is on a road to democracy.



Youth involved with my work also put on a skit about the need to use condoms to protect against sexually transmitted infections. I see the same type of drama all the time and while they are fine, it would be nice if could mix up their repertoire and model empowering alternatives to sex as well (like girls running away or saying NO to older men who approach them, kids saying they want to wait until after they finish their education, etc). One of the reasons I think this is so important is that often the vast majority of the audience for their skits is made up of younger kids below the age of 14.



Oh, while we were leaving, I said next time I want to see more of the girls participating in the drama activities. One of the youth leaders responded that maybe they would, especially if Marshall is around, and that I should be careful because they might want to steal my husband since he's "muito bonito" (very cute)!! Right. We got a good laugh out of that.