Touchdown in Curibita

COUNTRY: Brazil
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Wildlife Conservation & Youth Work
WRITTEN BY: Laura Watts

Oi, tudo bem!

It's only the end of the first official week (in actual fact it's our third) in the often rain-drenched city of Curitiba in Brazil, but it already feels like a glorious lifetime has been spent here. There was a frantic night when Kirsten was meant to arrive; she was stranded in São Paulo airport for a night due to a delayed flight. But through the haze of our first few days here- usually spent either asleep or in excited but confused conversations somewhere between English and Portuguese, we all emerged at the other end. We were perhaps a bit bemused but definitely already feeling at home, a testament to the welcoming nature of our Brazilian host families.

The next week was pretty much dedicated to getting us settled. We met with Rafaela, the in-country partner, and Betina, her assistant, and were walked through some aspects of the program and larger organisation that is Brazilian Experience.

The building we first met in was about to become very familiar to us as we spent the next week doing an introductory Brazilian Portuguese language course there. Gone were the mornings spent sleeping in, but it wasn't all at a loss: Jackson and I still managed to make it home for our host Mum's excellent lunches everyday. Oh, and we also learnt some Portuguese (note the opening line). Kirsten was managing to make some practical use of the lessons by frequenting the subway near her house.

The lessons were intense - it took about five minutes after first getting into class to realise that really the only language that was being spoken by the teacher was Portuguese, and another five minutes to realise that she wasn't going to stop. There were some clueless looks shot between the three of us that morning as she picked on each of us to read out conversations. Definitely a good way to make sure your students are paying attention! We joined forces with the friendly German, American and Mexican students also in the class, and by the end of the week it all felt a little bit less foreign.

We ended our lessons with lots of food: at lunch time we visited a nearby bakery to practice ordering in Portuguese (although we all ended up at the self-serve bar), and at dinner we ate overwhelmingly large (and delicious) Mexican meals with the company of the language class and other Brazilian Experience volunteers.

I think all three of us have been very lucky with our host families. Jackson and I have a very big family, who are all really lovely and happy to humour our bad pronunciation of Portuguese words and clap when we finish sentences successfully. It's been challenging at times due to the language barriers - the first few days were spent dealing with extreme shower temperatures (scalding hot for Jackson, freezing cold for myself) before we managed to ask in sketchy Portuguese if there was a way around this - but it's also ridiculously good fun.

We are kept entertained by the antics of little toddler Eduardo (Dudu for short) and well fed with all of the good food. Not to mention we appear to have happened upon a family of social butterflies, who are the life of every party. Except on Sundays, which is usually spent wandering the house in pjs and sleeping as often as is possible in one day. Although the Brazilians do possess a particular talent of making Friday night to Saturday night feel like an excessive amount of weekend despite the fact it's only really taken a day, so they earn their rests on Sundays. Some of the Friday/Saturday excitement thus far has consisted of having drinks with friends in a noisy bar, a churrasco held in a local park bbqing area, an elaborate ball that started at 11pm and finished well into the early hours of dawn (although we bailed at 3:30am), a churrasco held at our own house, and various other outings.

Kirsten seems equally lucky with her host family, who speak a little more English than ours, so conversations are easier. Her family is a bit smaller, but seem very helpful. She's staying in an apartment block that is a lot closer to the centre of the city, and was telling us about the excessive amount of keys to get in and out of the place if the doorman is not around, which was pretty funny. Her location makes it easier for her to see some of the sites of Curitiba, although all three of us plan to make a big effort to see more of the city while we are here.

The first week of volunteering started with a thunderstorm, and Betina frantically messaged us just before we planned to leave telling us that the news group that wanted to interview us wanted to do so that day! The interview was part of a national volunteering week Paraná state, but the problem was we hadn't started volunteering yet! We arrived early and were at first unsure if the rather plain building we came across was indeed the children's centre, but it was, and we were soon ushered in and introduced to Jeoline, a social worker, and she told us all about the project.

A drive through the neighbourhood shifted all of our perspectives: the Curitiba we'd been seeing had been clean, orderly, with modern buildings and well dressed people rushing around their busy corporate lives (so kind of like Australia) - but this was different. We went down narrow streets where the houses were the size of one bedroom and some of the sewerage is totally exposed. We pulled up nearby some land where tired looking workers were packing paper and cardboard that had been dumped into a small trailer-sized cart to sell. Really think about how much paper/cardboard it takes to fill a trailer - all of that! And it only earns them about 20 reais (equivalent to $10AUD). It really drives through the divide between rich and poor here. We arrived back at the centre with a new understanding and a new sense of purpose.

The whole of our first week we spent mainly observing to get a better idea of what our role at this place would be. We were welcomed with open arms. The kids are so much fun, and the language barriers have become a game to some, who spend minutes at a time breaking every single word up for us to repeat back to their cheeky little smiles. We play soccer and dodgeball (Jackson is quite good, but it's not my forte - a whole group of girls clapped for the rare occasion that I caught the ball), Kirsten and I hold the skipping ropes until our arms are ready to fall off, and all along the time is flying by. We feel particularly useful in the English lessons, as we can go around correcting work and answer some basic questions.

By the end of the week another news crew had decided to interview us. We still feel like we don't really deserve the attention - but as long as more people find out about this place, it's a good thing. I am thoroughly impressed by the full-time staff here, who know these kids so well and add so much fun and structure to their lives.

One particular morning we ended up on a bus that took us 30 minutes in the wrong direction from placement. We ended up finding a taxi, where the driver was nice enough to brush off the fact that we didn't have nearly enough money. We had tried telling him to stop when the meter reached the 30 reais mark, but he couldn't understand us. After that we decided to take more Portuguese lessons.

One week in and already everything is happening. Next Monday we start painting - we're not sure what yet, walls and floors was the general impression I got. Portuguese lessons have been organised for the next 4 weeks, and by the end of it I'm sure life will be much easier. Jackson and I have had a go at cooking for our host family, which have ended in relative forms of disaster, and plan to try again soon, whilst Kirsten is given condolences over the 6am start we have three times a week by her host family.

We hope everyone back home is well and soaking up any Spring sunshine they come across - we're doing our best to do the same here.

Til next time,
Tchau!!