Aussies put on final Christmas show for Brazilian students

COUNTRY: Brazil
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Wildlife Conservation & Youth Work
WRITTEN BY: Alice Clarke

We never believed it would be over; and so quickly!!!

Our final week without the others was spent freaking out about how much we still haven't done and seen in Flori. Belinda had gone to Santo Antonio and Riberao while we were away and so the rest of us had some catching up to do. The main activity we have been trying (still not yet accomplished) to do is sandboarding at Joaquina. We have probably tried 8 times to get there; but because of the buses and the weather we haven't made it (at least Maddy, Holly and I haven't, the others went one afternoon when we had other activities on).

As for the centre we spent our time trying to decide what to do for the "Final Show" that would be performed at the inauguration for the courts, playground and vegetable garden and deciding what party food to make. Brazil has strict guidelines about what public institutions can feed the children; the nurtritionist said that we could only bring in fresh fruit and vegetables - crashing out Aussie BBQ suggestion into the side of a mountain. Our plan to make 300 miniature meat pies was probably a bit too ambitious and was abandoned in the last week. We settled on ANZAC biscuits and lamingtons.

Once the others were back, time flew as we tried to teach the kids We Wish You A Merry Christmas and Jingle Bells. We also helped to paint the greenhouse after it was finally covered with the plastic the group bought two years ago. Belinda's boyfriend Doug joined us for the final week too. This was when we tried and failed to get to Joaquina, resulting in a few afternoons at Lagoa drinking smoothies at Suco de Saude and visiting the markets. Maddy got a dread from this guy Simon who could just telepathically sense her plan for a hippie lifestyle in the not too distant future. Me and Maddy also went flyboarding with our new best friend Tchello. It was amazing!! Basically a flyboard is a snowboard propelled upwards, out of the water by jets on the bottom. We were pretty pro, Tchello was impressed with us. We also had a photoshoot by the water in our Brazilian bikinis, much to Holly's delight - she's been waiting for it for 3 months.

On the Thursday before the final show, we gathered at Felix's to make ANZAC biscuits (we scrapped the idea of making lamingtons for 300 people) MasterChef style. We had a full on production line going and the biscuits were delish.

The ultimate day at the children's centre finally arrived. We sat around a lot in the morning waiting for it to start, practicing our 7 Australian Days of Christmas and organising our props and santa hats for the kids. There were speeches followed by a choral performance (where they sung Jingle Bells in Portuguese much to our concern as our English version could not possibly follow that). Then half of the students disappeared while the Secretary of Social Services gave his speech only to return and give a wonderful capoeira performance. While we waited for the kids to come back after getting changed out of their canvas skirts, we presented our gifts - Holly's painting, and mp3 player, dvd player and microphone and speaker. THEN THE FINAL SHOW!! We first performed the 7 Australian Days of Christmas which we wrote ourselves - Tom played guitar and the rest of us help puppets and tubes of Vegemite.

On the Seth day of Christmas my sheila gave to me 7 surfer dudes (heckerz), 6 possums eating, 5 wombats sleeping, 4 boomerangs, 3 emus walking, 2 tubes of vegemite and a koala in a gum tree.

The we sung with the kids and Del lead us outside to cut the green ribbon at each of our projects. Then it was lunch time and soon after, leaving for good time :( Some of the kids were upset, some didn't realise we were going forever. We were pretty sad to be leaving such a beautiful group of kids.

Now, the girls have all had Brazilian waxes, the boys have all found fireworks, we've wrote our letter to next years volunteers and we're all ready to go our seperate ways next week. It feels surreal. How can we go from seeing these people everyday to living in different cities/the other side of the world?!

What I will miss about Brazil:

- Açai
- Coconuts on the beach
- Pastels
- Lagoa
- Every place we ever went
- People waking me up on the bus if I fall asleep
- Octavio, Diego, Everton, Larissa, Hillary and ALL the kids at the kids centre
- Cascau, Ana Claudia and Del
- Grazi and Rafaela AND MARCELA
- Gelataria Max (the best ice cream place ever!!!)
- buffet ice cream
- Portuguese
- My host family
- Amazing fruit
- Everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (except putting salt on lettuce. I will not miss that)