Roland Pickl and Darren Clark went to Homoine for the first time in august 2007. Ian Hefele from the USA Peace Corps introduced them to local authorities (Administration, Police, EDM, Community Radio Homoine, Hospital, school officials). Everybody showed interest and offered support to our project. The Performance was agreed to happen on the 14^th of september in the main square of the city. EDM would provide electricity. Dr Ellen would provide accomodation. The workshop would be held on the next day (a quiet saturday) in Homoine’s ‘Escola Secundaria 25 de Setembro’. Professor Daniel welcomed us into his school.Ian Hefele has worked for almost 2 years in Homoine, teaching English and organising activities like painting the school with messages about HIV-AIDS with a group of children named Joma. He heard of Positivo project from James Kostenblatt, another Peace Corps member who attended Mangunde Pilot Project and reported Positivo’s enthusiasm. To facilitate the workshop, he offered to gather pupils from Geração Biz (HIV-AIDS activists), theatre club and Joma group (artists). A girl from Joma group said she believes singing will help sending the message further.

Ian Hefele : ‘HIV-AIDS is so big here, everything you do is somehow related to the disease.’

At the end of their visit, Roland Pickl and Darren Clark met Brazilian anthropologists who live in Homoine. Omar Thomaz and Luis Enrique have been studying Mozambicans’ perception of rapid social changes in the country for years, publishing articles about HIV-AIDS and the cultural circumstances of the disease. They recommended to us James Pfeiffer’s article and showed interest in attending Positivo project in September.