A Picnic at Pascoa's

When I returned in August I was surprised by the sight of Pascoa.  Her constant coughing and her low weight betrayed that she was ill.  Her responsibility of overseeing 80 children from the nutrition program out in the bairros had worn her resistence down.  She had contracted TB.

One third of the world's population carries the TB bacteria.  And of course, TB disproportionately affects people in Africa where poverty is the norm. With three million new active TB cases a year, Africa accounts for one third of the global total. And since it has the lowest detection rate in the world, most likely those stats are low.  There is also a new strain of TB that is drug-resistant and deadly.  Pascoa is our third activista in the last two years to contract TB while working in Project Life.

When the reports came back positive, Pascoa was very worried that she would lose her job as an activista.  This was devastating news to this single mother of five. It takes about two months to complete the series of medications for TB and recovery.   But we hatched a plan to encourage her. All the activistas (including myself) surprised her one day at her mud home with an "American" picnic lunch. Sandwiches and oranges, cookies and coke, our lunch even included paper plates purchased at Shoprite in Beira.  The look on her face when we came to her door was worth all the cokes in China.

We sat outside under the mango tree on esteiras (straw mats).  The neighborhood children came running at the sight of food like ants to uh....well, a picnic of course.  I had brought extra anticipating the communal affair.  Seventeen happy faces munched on food alongside Pascoa's wide grin and sparkling eyes. But I had saved the best for last.  Earlier this year I had created a video with her as the "star" along with some of the other activistas' photos in order to raise funds for a new Green Door truck.  It was the story of Pascoa's life, reflecting the lives of many women in Mozambique. My computer on my lap, they sat close around me and watched the show.  My only regret was not having my Canon to capture their expressions as their eyes absorbed the screen. In elation I reported that by the grace of God, together as a team we had raised the funds for the truck. They laughed enthusiastically over this great news.  (Naturally they all volunteered to be in the next video.)  :-)

No one wanted to leave the comfortable camaraderie under the tree until the wind shot a few unripened mangoes our way like flying golf balls. We had equally experienced the encouragement that comforting another can bring. As Anne Frank once said, "I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains."