Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

GNP Welcomes Peace Corps Volunteer to the Park

Jul 14, 2010

In January, Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) Sinead Brien was invited to work with the Gorongosa Restoration Project on Environmental Education.  Sinead has already served in other regions of Mozambique for two years.  Gorongosa Restoration Project worked with Peace Corps/Mozambique to bring Sinead to work in Gorongosa for a third year of service. Soon, more Peace Corps volunteers will work with the Gorongosa Restoration Project.



Gorongosa Restoration Project: Where did you serve before you came to Gorongosa?

Sinead Brien: I was the Biology teacher at the Agrarian Institute of Chókwè in Chókwè, Gaza.

GRP: What were some of your projects there?

SB: As a science teacher, my goal was not only to teach students biology, but to also improve their critical thinking skills.  A fun way to do this was to organize a local science fair.  I organized a local science fair during both years of my time in Chókwè.  And the first year, I co-coordinated the first-ever Southern Regional Science Fair.  Through the completion of a science fair project and the presentation of that project, students learned to use the scientific method to find answers to questions and practical solutions to real problems.

I also ran a cooking club for female students.  The girls learned how to prepare different dishes using local ingredients.  We mostly focused on cakes, biscuits, cookies, and breads.  Through this club, girls came to see cooking skills as something to be proud of, not just a chore that women are required to do.  The club also gave the girls an opportunity to discuss issues from nutrition to sexual health.  During my second year, I started a boys cooking group, as well.  The boys learned how to cook and were provided with a comfortable place to talk about gender roles.



During my second year, I found out that the girls’ soccer team did not have a coach, so I offered to coach.  We held practice three to five days per week.  The girls improved their soccer skills, learned about teamwork and had a time to just have fun and play. I also taught P.E. twice a week at the local school because they didn’t have a P.E. teacher. 

GRP: What made you want to continue for another year in Gorongosa?

SB: I greatly enjoyed my two years in Mozambique.  I loved learning about the culture and getting to know my host family and my colleagues, neighbors and students in Chókwè.  I knew I would enjoy spending more time in Mozambique and could learn even more.  Still, I wasn’t ready to stay for another year unless there was a specific reason for me to stay.  I missed my friends and family in the U.S. and want to continue my education.  Then I heard about the opportunity to serve in Gorongosa National Park and help plan and run environmental education workshops for children, teachers and community leaders in the Park’s buffer zone communities.  I like working with kids.  I enjoy teaching, especially when it’s about ecology and the environment.  I have experience working within the Mozambican education system and creating lesson plans from scratch.  The job was perfect.  There was no way I could pass up this opportunity.

GRP: What languages do you speak?

SB: Spanish and Portuguese.

GRP: How is Gorongosa different from your previous site in Mozambique?

SB: The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Chókwè was how flat it is.  Chókwè is known for its agriculture, specifically its tomatoes and its rice.  I loved Chókwè, but I did miss the hills.  I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m not exactly used to flat.  Gorongosa is anything but flat.
Chókwè is also a city.  It’s busy, full of cars, the houses in town are made of cement, and there are two main markets, many stores, three secondary-level schools, a polytechnic institute and two hospitals.  I lived outside of the town center, but I could walk into town and have access to pretty much any resource I could want.  Gorongosa National Park is just that, a National Park, so there isn’t a market here.  The majority of the houses I’ve seen in the buffer zone communities are made of bamboo with thatched roofs.  Most of the cars I’ve seen have been Park cars.  The only secondary school is in Vila Gorongosa.  The only hospital is in Vila Gorongosa.  I guess, in a word, Gorongosa is more rural than Chókwè.

The main difference for me is my position in the community.  In Chókwè, I lived in the teachers’ neighborhood of my school.  I lived in the community I was working in.  In Gorongosa, I’m working with multiple communities and am living in the National Park.  I don’t have the same relationship with each community in the buffer zone as I had with my community in Chókwè, but hopefully I will be effective in multiple communities.

GRP: What have you begun working on?

SB: I am working with Mr. Herculano Ernesto, and right now we are planning a program to increase community awareness of Gorongosa National Park and the importance of conservation for both the global environment and the community. We are also going to focus on how the community can help protect the Park and how this will improve the welfare of the community.  This program will include the formation of Enviro Clubs in elementary schools, workshops for teachers on how to include environmental issues in their lessons, workshops for students about ecology, the environment and the importance of conservation and workshops for community leaders on the sustainable use of natural resources.
Right now, we have begun meeting with community leaders and school directors to discuss our ideas and to get input from the actual communities we would like to work with about what programs are already in place and which issues are most important for each community.

GRP: What projects are you going to work on in the future?

SB: I will be working on the implementation of environmental education workshops at the Community Education Center, follow-up visits to communities after workshops, and follow-up visits to school Enviro Clubs.

GRP: Is there a particular project that you are looking forward to doing?

SB: I am especially looking forward to working with the children in the buffer zone communities, to familiarize them with the basics of ecology and get them excited about conservation. 

We are also planning to form a model garden close to the Community Education Center, in order to teach sustainable agriculture techniques and the basics of nutrition.  I am very excited to show community members the garden and – hopefully -- see the application of some of these techniques in their own farms and the formation of school gardens.

GRP: Where are you from in the US?

SB: I am from Newark, California, which is in the San Francisco Bay Area.

GRP: What is your background?

SB: I have a Bachelor’s degree in both biology and Spanish from Willamette University.  I have interned in two laboratories and worked as a teaching assistant for an Ecology, Evolution and Diversity laboratory course.

I am 24-years-old and know that there is so much more that I want to learn.  I haven’t quite decided if that learning will be in the direction of medicine or wildlife biology, or perhaps some interesting combination of the two.  Whatever I do, it will include some aspect of teaching because while I don’t plan to be a career teacher, I do love teaching and want to incorporate it into my future career. 

GRP: What do you tell your friends and family about Gorongosa?

SB:  Gorongosa is beautiful. The people are friendly.  I’ve seen quite a few animals, and everyone should come visit me.  I’ve also told people back home a tiny bit about the history of the area.  Mostly we’ve talked about the Gorongosa Restoration Project and my job in the Environmental Education Department.  They’ve heard a little bit about the communities in the buffer zone that I have been able to visit so far.  They’ve heard about the drought that was going on when I arrived and then the two straight weeks of rain that finally fell.