Skills exchange

There is a question I have discussed so many times with friends, colleges and family. Maybe my social working background is the responsible one of my high interest to find an asnwere for it, however I can't still find a clear statement. The question is: by nature, human beings are meant to compete or to collaborate? I have read different theories deffending one and the other position. I don't know what the answere is, but when it comes to work, to behave or just to define my values, I have it clear: I go for collaborate. And I love when I find people and groups on the way enjoying from collaborating, sharing and exchanging with each other.

My volunteering project is with a group of ladies in a rural community. When they are done in their gardens, they wave baskets. The group is an excuse for them to meet, to share, to support and learn from each other...
With the programme, I can meet other volunteers in Uganda, like Ana. She works for a group in Nansana, a city besides Kampala. The members of her group are mainly teenager mothers with difficult situations. When young girls get pregnant they have to quit school and sometimes they are also abandoned by their families. The group brings them together to support them and teach different skills.
One of the good points of meeting other volunteers and their projects it's the possibilities that this can bring itself to the projects. That was our situation, when we realized that both our groups could benefit from the other one by exchanging skills. We proposed the idea to our groups and they were more than glad to meet up and share a day together.

When the day both groups agreed on, the girls from Nansana came to our village in Kikooba. For them also coming out of the city was already something interesting and took them from routine. By the time they arrived in the morning, some ladies were already preparing the food for the lunch.
When the group was ready, the girls from Nansana, with her leader, started explainning how to prepare charcoal briquettes with natural local materials. We all sat under the mango tree on the mats. The ladies were taking notes and making questions along the explanation.

At the end of the proccess, all of them practiced to do those balls.

Then we had lunch together, and when the dishes were taken away, it was the time to seat together and learn how to do the baskets. While in the morning it was more a magistral class, one person talking for the big group, in the afternoon was about seating one-one and learning from what they were seeing.

It was also very interesting the fact that they all were women, from different ages, and in diferent locations (city and rural area).
The fact of being able to prepare these briquettes themselves, saves money as they don't need to use that much charcoal for cooking. But also it can be a source of income, as they can sell those briquettes to the street food sellers. That's what the girls do in Nansana.

A little note about the charcoal briquettes: they are made out of charcoal, soil and cassava flour. It is used in the small cooks. It last longer than charcoal, that's why it is used a lot by the street food sellers, who are all the day cooking some meat sticks, chapatis or maiz.

And the last, but not the least, just a clarification on what it's to cook here: once per week, take a leaf from the banana tree and make kind of a hat with it. Take the machette and go to the mountain to collect branches. Make a big pale with those branches, put them in the head and walk back home. When it's cooking time, in between three big stones, put the sticks, with some other small ones collected from around and light up the fire. Then, cook in these iron pan. To control the strenth of the heat, either add more branches to the fire, or remove some of them.