ICS blog

‘We are happy when these things happen to us’, were the words of the women’s song that broke spontaneously into our planning session in Phalazi village. Despite the formality brought to our sessions here by the presence of chiefs (or ‘traditional authorities’), we have found people here more than willing to find time to express themselves in less rigid ways such as this.

Everywhere that we go the pride that the Hondurans have in their nation is clear to see,  and so it came as no surprise when we met with the Director of the local school, La Republica, and he requested that the mural which we will be working on for the remainder of our time in Marcala should reflect the history and culture of Honduras and, in particular, that of the local department of La Paz.

We awoke to find a smoky haze distorting the sun rise and ash scattered all over the court yard; there had been a forest fire in Mozonte.

Our first experience of the BaTonga’s culture and history was on our tour of the BaTonga Museum situated in the centre of Binga town in Zimbabwe. We gained valuable knowledge of the BaTonga people and learnt much about their livelihoods based along the banks of the River Zambezi, now known as Lake Kariba, situated in the north west of the country. 

One of the intentions of Progressio and the partner organisation COMUCAP is to give local women the chance to improve their confidence as well as exchanging cultural understanding with the volunteers. Even in the short time we have been working on Alba’s farm her confidence has noticeably grown. She is proud of the fact that she could teach us how to turn the soil, to make beds ready for planting and lay out an irrigation system effectively. We learnt a lot from her and her family.

It was our first week at the office following the orientation in Harare, it was exciting though as we were the new kids on the block. All ground introductions and welcome remarks were made and left us feeling comfortable for our placement. 

All protocols were observed as we visited the police officer in charge, the officers at the president’s office, the D.E.O, the D.A and the D.A.C officer for introductions.

Having been in Regina for two weeks, everything seems to be finally slipping into place. We have mostly spent the last two weeks organising our activities and meeting with the different groups of people that we will be working with throughout the placement, however we have also managed to start a few of our sessions and have completed our first set of home visits. 

On our first day in Marcala, the small town bustles with the energy of the schoolchildren who dart amongst us and the friendliness of the locals who wish us a good day as we pass. But amongst the liveliness of this modest town, there is one thing that is particularly prominent to us – a solitary sign, situated in the park which marks the centre of the town, listing the murders of six women in Marcala. These murders are categorised as femicides, because they have been motivated by misogynist attitudes.