World Cups and Working in the Field

The world’s greatest sporting tournament is already well under way and I have been swept into the football madness that is consuming the city of Maputo. Now I am not a very committed or motivated soccer fan but I absolutely go crazy for the World Cup. To me it is the epitome of sports as politics and I cannot help but become infatuated by the socio-political subplots and the exceptional displays of skill on the field. Now if only international disputes could be solved in accordance with the beautiful game…then we would really be on to something!!

As a Canadian, our sporting passion is generally fueled by hockey, not soccer, and most Canadians have long given up on our nation’s chance of qualifying for soccer’s greatest tournament. As a result, most Canadians tend to throw their support behind their family’s country of origin. I’ve always said that if Canadian were to ever qualify again for the World Cup (we did once in 1986, failed to score a goal and promptly lost all three opening round matches) most Canadians would still cheer for either Germany, Italy, Portugal, England, Brazil over our boys playing under the Maple Leaf.

When it comes to my allegiances in International Soccer I tend to throw my support behind England, although their pitiful display against Paraguay on Saturday left me to believe that the English fans will have to wait another four years before they will come close to being crowed world champions. I also have the tendency to always root for the underdog in sports and at the World Cup that has generally caused me to cheer for the African representatives. I was particularly interested in the Angola-Portugal game in which the Angolan side tried tenaciously to defeat their former colonial rulers but could not overcome an early 1-0 deficit and lost by a single goal.

The Brazilian community here in Maputo has had a considerable impact on the local population as most Mozambicans are quite emphatic supporters of Brazil…as well as any African nation going up against a European powerhouse. It looks to be a fascinating tournament and it will be interesting to see who will pull off the shocking upsets, the memorable moments and eventually end up as World Champions.

My posting will likely continue to be sporadic in the coming weeks as my colleague Cremildo and I are once again heading up into Northern Mozambique to work in the field. We will be working with three different partners during that time and it promises to be a very eventful two weeks. We will be completing the first phase of our impact study on HIV/AIDS training for Banco Oportunidade in the Zambezie Province then heading back to the city of Nampula to work with Caixa das Mulheres (CMN) and Ophavela.

When we began this project we underestimated the difficulties that we would have in encouraging progress with our northern partners that are separated from us by almost 3000 km. CMN especially needs a lot of onsite assistance and this visit will hopefully inspire them to work harder on their partnership building and implementation of their HIV/AIDS workplan. I am also extremely excited to work once again with Ophavela in the field as we will have the opportunity to train their staff in conducting focus group discussions with their members. We will then travel into the rural districts to discuss with the members about potential changes in their group policies to better accommodate members that are either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. This is the type of grassroots microfinance that is really inspiring to me and it continues to impress me with the benefits it brings to the members.

So I guess I’m signing off for the next little while as the internet connection tends to be spotty at best when we travel up north. Enjoy the World Cup everyone and I will be back towards the end of the month.

Cheers,

Jp