The most significant moment for me was when I organised a “rapid pass” for the bus. This pass allows you to upload credit and pass through the gate inside the bus with one beep. The inferior alternative is scrounging around in your wallet for some money and waiting for the ‘bus man’ to find the correct change. Meanwhile, the bus has taken off having you bash from structure to structure on each side, and sometimes even hitting the fellow passengers. Every time this happened, we weren’t being integrated in the Brazilian culture. We stood out like sore thumbs and held up the line. Then, everything changed with the “rapid pass.” We no longer bashed through the entrance, but breezed through. The day I got my rapid pass was the same day I began being approached by Brazilians asking about the bus timetable or route. I always tried my hardest to explain my expertise, but I think they always left more confused than to begin with.
Our voluntary work placement is also starting to become easier, and with the ease came a whole other level of relationships with the children. There is nothing better than walking into the hall in the morning and seeing all the bright faces looking up at you, just so excited about the fact that you are there. For children that are experiencing a challenging upbringing, they are certainly more cooperative and willing than I imagined. Whenever we want to teach them a new game or organise an activity they are always so keen to participate. They are also a lot more tolerant of the mistakes we make in Portuguese, which allows them to understand us more. During the second week Lucas and I even started to take some English classes. Due to the laid back nature of the program we never know what days we will be taking the classes, but every morning, without fail, every child asks at least twice if we are having them that day. They are extremely excited about the thought of being able to understand Justin Beiber’s lyrics.
We have decided that a worthwhile contribution to the project would be to paint some rooms and perhaps replace some furniture. We think this will make the building look slightly more official, but more importantly a nice place for the children to spend their mornings or afternoons. We are not sure when this will be done, but we are organising now exactly what needs to be done. For now, we are really enjoying keeping the children occupied and having the freedom to assist in any activity that we want to. Every day we can chose from playing soccer, volleyball, board games, dancing or teaching English. However, most of the time it is playing soccer as for the kids the sport is nothing less than an obsession. Lucas was already a soccer player, so he has a fun time flaunting his tricks, but for us three girls it has been a great bonus getting to know the game and finding that we aren’t actually as uncoordinated as we thought. At the moment I am trying to teach them some volleyball. They have the equipment and the motivation, but they just insist on always using their feet. I have come to the conclusion that it’s in their genes.
Working with the underprivileged children at Cidade da Crianca, is a big contrast to the somewhat materialistic nights that we spend out clubbing. Both of our host brother’s absolutely love to party and could almost be classified as nocturnal. There is no doubt that we have a hard time trying to keep up with them, sometimes there are nights when a movie and popcorn is just so much more tempting than a club. Needless to say, we have had some great nights out, meeting lots of new people and dancing to some great music. One of my most vivid memories of this city will be driving down ‘Beiramar Avenue’ in my host mother’s car, listening to awesome brazilian music and gawking at the incredible lit-up city around me. The only way I could describe it is as magical.
Another one of my favorite memories is the day that we all spent with Ange and Ellen’s host family on the South of the Island. We drove there in the morning and found ourselves in a cute little restaurant on the beach. This restaurant was something out of a movie, or perhaps an artistic magazine. Every wall and every bit of roof was covered in letters from the people that had eaten in the restaurant. It was breathtaking, even before I got to taste the food. Our lunch was a ‘all you can eat’ seafood buffet followed by an ‘all you can eat dessert.’ Everything was delicious, apart from the traditional 70% alcohol that they tried to make us ‘shoot’ at the beginning. We felt a little bit weak having to refuse the drink, but then again, the Brazilians dry retch from trying Vegemite, so I suppose everything is relative.
The weekend after this Ange and Ellen’s family took them and Lucas to the ‘Oktober Fest’ in a town called ‘Blumenau.’ I had to sit out on this one because I woke up extremely exhausted this day, but hearing about all the stories certainly makes me a little bit jealous. The really rowdy party occurs during the night, but the others only went during they day so I guess their experience was more civilised. They did still drink beer, they did still dance and they did still have a great time, regardless of what the Brazilians classify as a ‘great time.’ Sometimes I want to remind them that you don’t have to be drunk, stumbling around and groping someone of the opposite sex to have a great time. Oh dear, I sound like my Mother.
The other day we were lucky to catch up with three Australian girls that are doing the Antipodeans program in Argentina. We took them to a typical Brazilian restaurant where we exchanged stories of our programs so far. They sound like they are having a great time, and were also very impressed by what we had to share. It was very refreshing catching up with people that understand how challenging the cultural immersion can be. Even their accents made us feel closer to home. We wanted to go out with them last night but they unfortunately had sunstroke from getting way to excited about the clear sky. I hope that their bus ride to another part of Brazil wasn’t too painful. The next day was a ‘feriado,’ which is a curriculum day. As Brazil seems to have a countless amount of these, we decided to make this one special by going to a theme park. We went with Ange and Ellen’s brother and sister who enjoyed reminiscing in childhood days with us. Everything about the theme park was extravagant; the colours, the food, the sculptures on the rides, the extreme car show- My head was spinning just from the sight of the place and that was even before we went on the ‘fire whip’ ride. After the park we drove to have dinner in a town called Bulenario, where we hope to spend next weekend with Carla, the other host sister.
After that weekend Lucas, Ellen and I have our trip to Rio de Janeiro and Angela has her trip to Buenos Aires. After that we will be on the home stretch. It’s scary to think about how fast the time is flying. There is still so much that we want to do and see, but so little time left, so here is where the ‘living each day as if it’s your last’ comes in to play. Come to think about it, if it were my ‘last day’ I would do something along the lines of what I have been doing. Spending time with amazing kids that appreciate life, eating delicious food and sipping on great coffee, soaking up the sun on some of the most amazing beaches in the world, drinking the world’s best juices, dancing to great music and spending time with great people. LG. Life’s Good.
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