JOMA Conference (Luc)

Jovens para Mudanca e Acção (Youth for Change and Action) is a coed group, so our conference had boys and girls ranging from age 13 to 20. We brought 2 boys and 1 girl as well as a counterpart teacher from our school. Our conference center was really nice, on the outskirts of Chimoio, with lots of grass and a large meeting room which unfortunately had poor acoustics. Our daytime sessions focused on self-esteem, leadership, gender, puberty, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, violence, and our youth’s role in bringing about community change. The chance to speak into a microphone made our already eager students even more keen to participate and hear their voices amplified electronically. At night we played camp-type games like three-legged races, chubby bunny, and an egg drop. Unfortunately we learned Mozambicans are way too competitive to play musical chairs, and smooth concrete floors can get really slick when wet (we had some pretty nasty wipe-outs during our relays after our water balloon toss, and had to send one teacher to get his chin stitched up in the hospital). Since it was a coed group, we had to make sure the boys and girls didn’t get too friendly after hours, but they were pretty good for a large group of teenagers. I had a small group of five boys to lead during the conference, and learned a lot about being a Mozambican young man. Even though these kids are the best students at their high schools, they feel very uncertain about their futures, given the general lack of jobs or college opportunities in this country; sadly they doubt their prospects for building their own homes and creating healthy families. The conference ended with a diploma ceremony (delayed almost 2 hours while we waited for the representative from the Ministry of Education), several choreographed group lip-syncs to Michael Jackson, and a dance party, followed by a 3am wake-up call to make sure our group was on the 4am bus back to Tete. I stayed behind to clean-up and help with the REDES conference, which was a couple day longer, although I had to do so very discretely so as not to upset the all-female atmosphere.