Why I'm No Soule Mama

I have a friend who enjoys reading a blog by this woman who calls herself Soule Mama.  I went on the site once a couple years ago and went away feeling totally inadequate, so didn't go back until a couple of months ago.  Soule Mama lives in Maine.  She has five children, and does things like take artistic pictures of herself snowshoeing (pregnant) with her other 4 children.  Then, they go back home and paint the floor of their ironic Maine farmhouse white, and then she knits an afghan for her children and then they plant organic seeds in preparation for spring gardening.

I have been working like a crazy woman for the last three months, juggling like I never thought I could juggle.  Until last week, I was putting the kids to bed and then working again until I'd start falling asleep.  One night I came home from work and the kids were eating Doublestuff Oreos for dinner (thanks to Matias and  trip to South Africa).  Nalia told me that I should "just resign at Save the Children"... I didn't even know that she knew that word.  One day Matias and the kids came to pick me up at the office where I have been working (I left the Save the Children office for a few months to work on this project at another NGO).  So, Elio walks in, looks around, checks out the bathroom, the kitchen, does the full inspection, and asks very directly and intensely, "So, now you live here?" 

But, here's the thing.  I'm no Soule Mama, and I'm not knocking Soule Mama, but I am who I am... "This above all: to thine own self be true" says Shakespeare.  Since May, I have been writing the manuals for the community health workers in Mozambique, together with two other women, one from Brazil and the other from here.  I don't think I've ever worked this hard, but out of it, the community health workers here in Mozambique can now treat and save children from malaria, pneumonia and other diseases, and that's what makes me tick.  And on a personal level, I made two new friends who will be in my life for awhile, and I also learned quite a bit.  I had to write the manuals in Portuguese, and I learned how to treat just about any bug the kids could get here in Mozambique, from scabies to conjuntivitis to plain old diarreia. 

I like my life, and I think Matias and the kids do too.  I am not perfect.  My house is cluttered...  sometimes my kids don't eat vegetables every day.  Sometimes they have dessert before dinner.  Sometimes we watch TV and don't read a book.  There are two boxes still unpacked from moving here last year.  But it's ok.  Because really those things don't matter.  My kids know that mommy is writing the manuals because there are some kids who cannot get to doctors when they get sick, so we have to help bring medicines to people in their communities.  Nalia has gone to see the community health workers in their huts, with dirt floors, walls made of sticks an mud.  She saw a 4 year old so listless from malaria she could barely wake up, but then Nalia saw the community health worker treat the sick child.  Sure, she complained about the bumpy car ride and the heat and asked if she could watch Hannah Montana when we got back to town, but she will remember what she saw and think about it... and maybe, just maybe, these experiences will shape the person she is and the decisions she makes. 

Elio as Spider Man, Homem Aranha in Portuguese!

Nalia and Kingdom Barbie

Community Health Worker on the right

Communith Health Worker standing in front of her hut

Nalia.  I love this picture.