gust_brazil

So...we have these tapes that are an hour long for our reflections, unfortunately we did not start these until this week and I have yet to even start mine. So instead, it will be a whole trip reflection.
It is Friday, two days before leaving for the US. We are all anxious to see our families and friends but are heartbroken at the same time to have to say goodbye. Everyone in the town has been so welcoming and kind to us during our stay and it will surely be only teary eyes on Sunday. Our kids continue to ask us to stay, even if only for a few days. It´s sad to have to reply with a no, but we have promised to keep in contact. Heather, Laura, and I decided which child we would take back with us if we could: Heather would take Marcello, Laura - Alexander, and I- Everton. However, we would all like to take them all. It is sad to have to finally say goodbye, even though there is always the possibility of returning. These kids have become like our own kids, or siblings in some cases and it is like leaving another family.
More will be written by me later, but for now that is all.

Love to all my family and friends, I am excited to see you all!

Gail

i have 9 minutes left to post so i will make this entry brief. there´s much to be said baout our last week here in salvador, but still the thoughts are too unorganized to really make any sense of them. yesterday was our last day of class and our students through us a surprise party after class. there was tons of food and cake and music. they put a lot of thought into it and we were all touched greatly. we hope to be able to keep in touch with all of them though it will be difficult seeing as though there really are no addresses here except for that of the nearest post office and then it is up to them to travel a couple of miles to pick it up. that is, if they know its there. i´ve been silent lately, i can´t get my body to catch up with my thoughts and being a bit sick has not helped the matter.
the kids in the town keep asking us to stay longer and we can´t. its hard to get this thought across to them without being too harsh but theyre starting to understand. tomorrow is their day and hopefully it will be sunny and happy.
i will write more today before going to bed. hopefully by then my thoughts will make a little more sense.

laura

gail, "we're sad"
heather, "wahhhh"
laura, "i came with interesting people"

this is how we started the discussion on what to post today.


so, we finally made it to the social action office to ask why we were not picked up for an entire week to go to the morning sessions. they ran out of gas. this seems silly i know but i think it's a clear window into just how rough the economical situation is here. there simply was not enough money to buy gas for the car. there also was not enough money to open PETI, the first school we were at. this is not uncommon here and i wish i could have filled up their gas tank.

we have a very busy week ahead of us. come, we'll plan together.

monday - class at 2 . bompreço @ 4 to buy cleaning supplies (for the beach) and art supplies to play with the kiddies. interviews the rest of the night and some of ceci's fine cuisines.

tuesday - PETI (the first school) at 8 am. yes, we're going back, but we'll be careful. ceci's lovely lunch. class at 1:30, the class will be occuring at an unknown location picked out by our lovely students. 4:30 - meeting at the CDS with Fernanda to plan a social program, more on that later.

wednesday - second school madness at 8. learn to cook by ceci, delicious. 2 pm class again. then we've got more interviews and dinner out with ceci at the restaurant we've been craving for 4 weeks (except for keith who just asked what restaurant it was).

thursday - mysterious island child detention center? fabulous ceci meal. our last class at 2 for which we must provide food that will not be nearly as good as ceci's. more interviews that night and our last night out with the town's folk at the local and glorious bar.

friday - we head to salvador in the morning. friends of maria, then dida, then street, then dida. no fine cuisine, just street vendors and loud drums.

saturday - we head back early to spend the day with the kids. we will spend time cleaning the beach with them and teaching them why its important. later we plan on having a bit of a feira/fest.

sunday, we head back. lets not talk about that.

abraços, and we'll post later.

i feel like i must make clear that the things that i am writing in the journal are for the most part observations or first reactions to the things that have occured during our trip. i will come to conclusions i´m sure, and i will post these. but for now, this is all i have and i have not reflected nearly enough on it.
also, i´ll probably end up writing some excerpts from a letter i wrote to a friend. they seem understandable and clear.
last wednesday, Keith and i attended the child detention center in northern salvador. we were not allowed to roam freely, though we did not expect to be able to, but, we did get a lot of information and a limited tour of the clinic. i am still unsteady and shaken by what i saw. don´t take this the wrong way, we saw no signs for concern. it is probably my own skepticism caused by reading horror stories of other child detention centers in the area. in all honesty though,the place looked clean, and the people looked friendly. i hope this holds true within the prison walls.



this past sunday we also went to the beach with the kids. we did not take the football in an attempt to be able to play with the kids some other games. i guess this is an opportunity to introduce you to some of "our kids"



Tiago is in the front, acting tough as usual. baldy is in the back, and Chu-Chui (sp?) in the middle.




this is me with Raquel. she is beautiful and strong. on this day keith pulled out 1 splinter, she had 7. curse the pineapple of the sea....

today we visited Friends of Maria again. again we were overcome by smiling children calling to be played with. i´ll post some more pictures of that as well. we had a great time with the kids. the house lacks a lot of resources ut they make due with what they have. heather found that we had accidentally stolen one of their tiny plastic balls so we are returning to bring it back.



this is a picture of Gail before the little boy sitting on her began to pee on her jeans.




Heather was loved by all the girls and boys.




this above picture was taken last week, but i love it so much i posted it anyway.

i appologize to all of you about my grammer but the amount of time we have to write is very limited and i don´t really go back and read what i´ve written because of it, not to mention i seem to be in a fight with the shift key and therefore can´t seem to capitalize anything.

i will write more before we leave for manguinhos again.

beleza

Laura

It is unfortunate the lack of resources we have to complete the projects we wish to complete, in agreement with Laura´s statement before, we are safe and completely taken care of with things that some people and children think of as a treat. We have a warm meal every night, while some go with none or just bread. Today, we are back in Salvador, and have just returned from visiting Friends of Maria again. The attention we gave the children there I´m sure was much needed and it makes my heart hurt for how many youngins´ are left without the attention I´m sure allows for proper growth both mentally and physically. The children, upon our entry, run to us climbing into our arms to be tickled and hugged and spoken to, they want to show toys and tell stories, and all at the same time they want to just be kids. Lucky for them they are in a room/building where they are cared for, meagerly but still cared for, by women who are there to be there for them. I am glad these children are not playing with glass in the streets or making toys out of trash, as some do. But I leave there wondering what happens at night, when they are left in family or self-care.

Heather and I often talk about how we wish we were doing more, how we are bored of sitting but fortunately and unfortunately we found a place to live where it is safe and the children are in the streets but not really in an urban environment, they have violence and crime but not as prevalent as on the mainland. We have made friends and confidantes in the children of our town and feel at home, but life is slow and more can be done, but I wonder how, when we are apart from it so often. I am hoping this weekend will prove especially beneficial with interviews to do, and information and knowledge to learn.

Essentially we could do more every night and I hope we do, cards are fun but painting is too, and soon i hope we can sit with some children everynight and just talk, well by that i mean Laura talk for all of us, and we listen, just listen.

That is my thought for today, sprung while wandering with the french girl and irish man today, showing them the groups we work with, it was fun, I enjoyed the none quartet company, and will probably write more tomorrow.

Love to all,
Gail

today i´m tired. i´m not sure why i feel so worn but the past couple of days have laid heavily on my body and heart. body i think because i´ve been up past our regular 8 pm bedtime. heart because of the amount of things i want to be able to do and just do not have either the time or the resources to accomplish. we have seen selective poverty. we visit it daily and are invited into the lives of people who survive weekly on less than i use in a single day, then i leave. even the nights we spend at the house on itaparica. we have our warm meal, then sit around playing cards till bedtime. i feel blessed to have this life, but at the same time i feel like its holding me back from really understanding the situation. we are in a place that is labeled safe, but the most help is needed in the places that aren´t. i know this seems redundant and like i am rambling, cause i am, but thats how i feel today.
yesterday we designed some things for DIDA and are hoping to be able to print them by next friday. we also visited the friends of maria building. the meninos were so beautiful and happy. i was the first to walk into the door and i tried to explain to the woman why we were there but before i was able to i was pulled in by a boy to join in a game of football. all of us noticed the craving these children had for one on one attention and care. today we visited saramandaia again, a favela here in salvador. i made friends with the kids quickly. they asked us to come back and i hope we get the chance. next weekend will be hectic.
im going to post some pictures now seeing as though my writing is not very good today and my thoughts are swirled together.


this was taken at friends of maria



this is a view of saramandaia





these were some pictures of the social program in saramandaia.

i´ll write and post more later

abraços, laura

Hello!
So we are back in Salvador for the weekend and this morning had quite the welcome. We went to Friends of Maria and the second we walked in the door the kids were begging to play with us and jumping all over us which was wonderful. We only stayed for a little while and left some donations. Next week we´ll go back with more donations and get to play again. We also got to witness the cutest sight ever which was five little girls standing naked in line for the shower shivering and grinning at us.

So Gail, Keith and I really are improving our Portugese. Now rather than simply saying Oi or obrigada(thank you) to everything, we can actually form simple sentences. During our afternoon English class the other day we had them do skits to practice their speaking and then the three of us did our own in Portugese. And we were actually able to formulate a conversation between the three of us! Although the one thing that needs improvement is we discovered the other day that Keith has been saying tudo BOOM rather than tudo BEM, which means he has constantly been saying that everything has been booming which has been a source of great amusement for all of us.

Today we are working with Dida to create a flyer for them and later tonight we´ll be outside of their club encouraging people to go in because it is difficult for people from the street to realize that it even exists. It is a really great program that we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with. I feel that it would be the perfect place to give my old trumpet since after looking through a room of instruments the two trumpets I saw were missing slides and valves.

I know that Laura already posted about us being changed to another school. But I just wanted to add how truly disappointed I am about it. Although we were told be numerous people that the first neighborhood was dangerous, each day all we would do is walk twenty feet from the cab to the school and be safe. I adored the kids we were working with. They did act up quite a bit but their personalities were great and they were a lot of fun to be around. I would love to go back and spend more time with them but now we won´t. It´s really too bad that we didn´t get the opportunity to even discuss the situation before being moved.

Anyway, on a lighter note, I really feel that our afternoon class is making a lot of progress. They are able to write complete sentences and are starting to get some of the pronunciations that they find really difficult. The TH sound has been practically impossible for them but I think they really are catching on. Of course they are also all beginning to think I´m crazy because Laura enjoys taking advantage of her ability to speak Portugese to tell them strange things such as I wish I could fly with my ears.

It is getting really frustrating to not speak Portugese. Of course we can still play with the kids and have fun with them, but we just can´t connect with them on the level that Laura can and it´s hard. Plus just the day to day attempts at communication with people that ultimately fail really wear on you.

As I type this I am sitting here with probably 50 mosquito bites on just my right knee. Our bodies are completely covered and sometimes the itching can be unbearable. I have now lost the option of wearing skirts and shorts in public because I look diseased, but hopefully the couple day break from the hordes of mosquitos on the island will help to improve the situation.

We are only spending tonight here and are going back late tomorrow so we only have one day to try and avoid clogging the toilet. Last weekend we managed to clog it because we were unaware that some placed around here don´t allow toilet paper in the toilet.

Anyway my time on the internet here at the cafe will soon be out so I´ll write more later. Much of what I said may be a repeat of what Gail is saying at the computer in front of me and I apoligize.

I love and miss everyone back home! Take care!

Heather

So...we´re back in Salvador for the night, and thus I got a chance to post. This week has gone by much quicker than expected, I´m sure for multiple reasons. First of all, the doctor without notice switched our teaching site. We are now teaching, as Laura previously mentioned, in another town, nicer, but still in need, and however much I love the kids there, it is frustrating that we were not consulted. Yes, the other area was more dangerous, but we also weren´t traipsing around town to be hurt, and we were finally used to teaching those kids and they were used to us, so it was a shocker when Monday morning we were brought to another site. We are working on getting back to the original group at least to say goodbye. Unfortunately to just drop a second group would also not be smart. The kids we work with are only getting one month, not a lot, but one week seems almost worthless. Besides that craziness in our schedule, we are doing very well for our second week. Our second class in the afternoon which is in our very own town, less than 2 minutes away from our house has become a group of friends as well as pupils. They are a hoot to work with and are responding very well to the teaching; through this interaction, everyone on the trip has improved their Portuguese.
We are becoming more regular in the town, even to the extent that `Laura´ is heard being yelled from random children never before even met. Heather and I are very popular with the guys, more so for Heather, who has now been dubbed pinky by the class. Apparently, being white is wanted in a girl because that will make their children higher in class. Although it is of course not our whiteness that they want but our beauty, but you all knew that. oooh, time for a random side story, completely off topic but oh well.
so..last weekend the group and Phillip were all travelling around Salvador, mostly on buses due to their inexpensiveness. Anyway, we were all getting off at a stop when suddenly Heather and I look down through the bus window to see Keith and realize the bus was moving!! We had all stood up to go, along with a group of people separating us on the bus, who regardless of their forward movement did not get off. Our faces on the bus were apparently priceless, and I hope that walking back to a stop missed does not become a regular occurance.
OK, back to topic, classes are going great, we are currently working on sentence structure and more and more vocab for our afternoon class, while our morning classes were a restart, and haven´t gotten much further than the basics.
Our current project is a sign and flier for DIDA, currently they are a whole in the wall because no one can find them. Also, the flier is to attract tourists to the performance they hold every Friday night in Pelourinho. Hopefully having four different people walking around and advertising will help a lot.

We just got back from Friends of Maria, after dropping off clothing, filming, and playing with the kids. We are going back next Friday to help out. I have never seen so many kids wanting for attention, it was great to be there, a toddler on a knee, kids circling asking for pictures, with a ball being kicked, capoeira being done, and naked three year-olds huddling in a shower freezing and screaming in glee. It was awesome...then of course came the hike into upper Pelourinho with a big green bag full of donations and our things for the night, not so much fun. But we´re good now, and working on multiple different activities. Tonight is the DIDA performance we´re working at, it should be a great experience and show. I am very excited.

Tommorow we head to Saramandaia to drop off more supplies to the Indy Racecar program in Arte Consciente and film the living conditions and kids found there.

Tonight is our night out of the mosquito nets because they aren´t present around the city away from the water, it will be bliss. Note: All of us our tanning quite nicely, even Heather with her pink tan (that is called a random comment to end all, by the way)

Love to all
Gail

PS: Even in the original teaching location we have been extremely safe and smart so do not worry. Also, more pictures will be posted as soon as possible.

Oi oi
I'm sitting at the secretary for social action office and decided to make a really brief post. I haven't really talked to the rest of the clan about this post so it might be rather personal. We were moved from the school we were working at in the morning without our concent. Our doctor contact decided that it was too dangerous and sent us elsewhere. I'm very dissapointed by this seeing as we had already spent a week with those kids and we didnt have a chance to really tell them why we left. So, we'll be going back soon I hope just to spend some time with them. The school we're in now is smaller and in a much nicer town. Mind you, when I say nicer the people are still living in houses that would not exist in most secotrs of the US and their is much trash on the streets. The town also overlooks the ocean and we will get a picture of how absolutely beautiful yet also startling in contrast this view is. TOday things were changed a little. After discussing how our classes were going we have divided the group into two. Keith, Heather, and Gail, are teaching English to most of the kids. I (Laura) am working with those who are illiterate and teaching them to read and write in their own language. It is difficult but very rewarding.
I would love to write more but there is little time. Tomorrow is Ceci's birthday so we're taking her out.
Abracos
Laura

Another day and learning more. We´ve had the chance to visit many social programs here in Salvador and I want to take this opportunity to fill you in more in depth on who they are, what they do, and our experience with them.

MEDIA ETNICA was our first stop. Here we met founder Rogerio and had some time to talk to him. the program is working through means of technological application especially in the means of film production in order to create a change in the current social problems. they do this by addressing the racial difficulties in Bahia.
as the main point of entry for African slave into the Americas, Salvador has an extensive history of oppression and segregation despite having a 87% black population. although slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, the effects of the mass number of blacks left unemployed, homeless, uneducated, and demoralized, can still be seen. media etnica looks to address this issue and educate the public.

Projeto DIDA was our second stop and also our home for the weekend. The program has a blog. it is : http://www.projetodida.blogger.com.br/ . The page offers some pictures and such but they lack the ability to update because it was set up for them by another person. The program brings in women and children from surrounding favelas to pelourinho, a tourist district where the program is centered. they teach in different arts including dance, vocal, percussion, and capoeira. The idea is similar to the pedagogy of Axe. that is, to give a sense of purpose to the students and allow them opportunities to expand their horizons, become educated, and learn about personal worth. It was founded by Neguinho do Samba, a famous percussion artist in brazil and is currently run by a woman named Vivian who was a former student of DIDA.
after talking to the director of dida we have become more aware of their needs and will be working more closely with them. hopefully establishing a larger blog space, creating advertisement for their weekend performances, and also addressing sevewral orgasnization problems.

CIRCO PICOLINO works also with street children by teaching them circus arts. this seems silly at first glance, but theres a lot more to it. the children are taught literacy, kept in schools, stay off the street, and off of drugs. like dida, circo picolino expands each students horizons and gives them a glimpse of the things they could do with their life when they work hard. we were able to see them perform which was a sweet treat. i even enjoyed the clowns, mostly cause they didnt wear paint and were just silly.

PROJETO CULTURAL ARTE CONSIENTE was started by 5 former students of Axe who lived in the favela Saramandaia. this particular favela had a reputation of being dangerous and with many internal problems. all five young men started a group that worked with the community children, or street childrens as they would be called normally. they created 5 different programs based on each´s specialty. Boxing, graffiti, percussion, circus arts, and dance. under the same pedagogy this group changed the whole atmosphere of the favela in under three years. we´ve been able to visit twice now and felt perfectly safe. the only thing that remains a problem and something that they are planning to address is the amount of trash on the street.
we will be visiting saramandaia again next saturday to film and possibly take part in some of the activities.

this is enough for now, we´re going back to the island so we´ll write next week or so.