Like many rich languages of the world, Konkani does not have a word that easily fits good bye. For our MOP site in Cacra, Goa, that has been such a special thing. When we left in 2013, we said ‘ yeta’ to our children. Literally meaning we will be back but metaphorically meaning we are leaving.
Nearly one and half years ago we closed our work on this site, citing lack of Resource Persons, lack of funding, lack of safe space and poor attendance from the children as reasons. Some were true and some were just hard areas to navigate around.
But the work and the geographies of our work ensure that we meet our children at different corners. Many of the Cacra children access a school we work very closely with, Auxilium Caranzalem. It is here that we nurture reading in the classroom every week through the Library in Schools program ( LiS) and it is here that we would always reinforce the phrase ‘ yeta‘ when the children would ask “ tumi cacra yeta?”
At our fortnightly MOP meeting the knights of the MOP table, Niju and Melcom decided that we must explore Cacra again and so it has come to pass that we are back. Indeed ‘ami aile‘ and Cacra MOP is now scheduled for every Friday at a space designated by the community.
