Fun with kids, fantastic food, and a trip to Florianopolis

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

Another two weeks have gone by, and they have been so full on- yet again! In fact, as I write this post I keep thinking that we must have been here for longer; how can all that we've done have happened in just a month and a half?

We have completed our Portuguese lessons and equipped ourselves with dictionaries and language books as we plan to study at the wildlife centre. We concluded the lessons in true Brazilian style, at an absolutely delightful churrascaria where we all ate more than you'd think was humanly possible. We're getting rather good at that.

We have spent some time figuring out our donations for the children's centre. Jackson has already donated a ping pong table which has been a massive hit (no pun intended), and between Kirsten and I we have donated a veggie garden (all the supplies for it and setting it up), canvases for the kids to paint with, and meat for lunches. Plans are also well on the way for our Australia Day farewell party. We have practiced making scrolls, lamingtons and sausage rolls with varying amounts of frustration and success, and are very eagerly awaiting our packages of tim tams, caramello koalas and vegemite to compliment our baking. Not at all for our own cravings...

Tracking down Blinky Bill episodes to translate, Australian animal templates for colouring in, and searching for traditional games to play have also been on the agenda. We spent a couple of days implementing our donations, which was a really rewarding feeling. We planted the vegetable garden straight away, and have slowly been adding to it and happily noting the gradual growth of the seedlings.

About a week was dedicated to painting the canvases, which was a rather calm exercise for a change, and gave our Portuguese some well needed practice as 'devagar' (slowly) became our mantra in assisting the kids. It was kind of funny though, because almost all of them ended up choosing Adventure Time characters, superheroes or the minions from Despicable Me to paint - and thank goodness, because it was mostly up to us three to actually draw the designs on the canvases and that was a challenge in itself. Nevertheless, all of the kids enjoyed themselves and it was really good to see how excited they were to be able to create something like that.

We have all had to take at least one sick day, and have accepted that as a sign to take it easy for a few days. At the same time that this was happening, we had the opportunity to assist Tati and Jeoline on some of their house visits. They seem to do these fortnightly, dropping off excess donations of grains, pasta, nappies, etc to the families of the kids. It's a truly heart warming experience and although we all wish our Portuguese was perfect so we could have offered something else to these families, we still managed to get by and were humbled by how dedicated the staff at the centre are to bettering the lives of these families in whatever way they can - whether it be sitting down to have a chat, or praying with them to put their minds at ease.

The kids now greet us very enthusiastically with hugs, running up to meet us. We play a lot of games with them, like tips, gathering all the rules we can as we run from the determined tipper. Some of their other pastimes include tackling Jackson, tickling the three of us and laughing at our attempts to communicate with them in Portuguese. Despite their cheekiness (or maybe because of it) we have ridiculous amounts of fun.

Last weekend we made a trip to Florianopolis, which is an island in Santa Catarina state where previous volunteers of this program have lived. It meant another bus ride, though not nearly as bad as the previous one - only four and a half hours this time.

The next morning we went to the beach, which was just 15 minutes from where we were staying, and spent about two hours walking along the beach, enjoying the sight of the windswept waves and the feeling of refreshing water lapping at our ankles. When we reached the end of the beach there was a welcoming site: a Brazilian set up! There were red and yellow chairs near tables with striped beach umbrellas, and two or three juice stands on the sand itself, with a couple of restaurants and a small market set up closer to the road. There were still heaps of people out and about, playing beach volleyball and swimming in tiny swim wear and lazing around.

After our walk we were all very hungry, so we decided to share some fish and chips at one of the restaurants before going for a swim. With the help of a kind garçom (waiter) we got exactly what we wanted. And then to top it off, one of the churro sellers walked by and, sensing our indecision, doubled back and convinced us to get what we would discover to be the best churros of our lives. It was even filled with caramel sauce!
We separated shortly after that, so that Jackson could look for some presents at the markets and Kirsten and I could get some juice and açai bowls which were also well worth it.

Jackson and I then braved the constant waves for a swim, although when the current got a bit strong we both bailed and all headed back to the hostel. There we relaxed in hammocks before enjoying a super delicious dinner of pizza (I have to say the food is very good here, if you haven't been able to tell from my food-centred blog updates).

The journey home went quickly as usual, and before we knew it we were back in Curitiba, and already planning our next weekend trip, which will be to Rio de Janeiro!

On Friday we are heading off to the wildlife centre for three weeks, and as much as we love the children's centre I think we are looking forward to the change in routine. We are all enjoying our time here, and will keep you posted on the next few weeks.

Till next time,

Laura

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!!

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)

Tyre playground construction in Brazil

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

How has it been 3 weeks already!!

Our trip to the Children Centre on our beautiful day off proved to be the turning point for productivity. The teachers obviously realised we were on a path of construction as the next couple of weeks were a hive of activity. We painted the lines for soccer on the courts on Wednesday and moved the new goals in. Then we painted the vegetable garden logs on the same day.

Felix's birthday was on the 30th and to celebrate we decided to just have drinks at his house. Highlights of the evening included reminiscing over Lonely Island songs and video clips, Holly lighting her hair on fire while trying to light the cake, Tom distracting Felix while we were getting the cake ready by saying "WAIT THEY ALL DECIDED TO GET CHANGED YOU CAN'T COME DOWN" and Amanda (Felix's host sister)'s friends making him a legit caipirinha that was actually good!

Thursday is Capoeira day, with our favourite teacher at the centre Cascau. We did cartwheels (shockingly) and were tested on the instruments - bandeira, atabaqui and berimbao comprised of the dobrum, cabasa, baketa, verja and aram and our favourite CASHISHI!! (of course I spelt all of them wrong - pandeiro, atabaque, berimbau, dobrão, cabaça, baqueta, verga, arame and caxixi). Friday is usually games day at the centre but me, Tom and Jed painted yellow lines for the volleyball court and the backboards for the basketball nets.

The productive rhythm that had started the week earlier continued when we were left alone. Kind of. On Monday Felix and Maddy taught English classes in the morning but when me and Belinda arrived at 12 the place was strangely quiet and empty of kids. Del explained that there was a municipal strike and so there were no teachers and thus no kids coming this afternoon. Felix and Maddy went to Lagoa in the afternoon, to Point 16, while me and Belinda planned the tyre playground, bought coloured paper for upcoming English classes and had discussions about life. On Tuesday the real work began as Felix and I got to work on the tyre playground. As usual the kids were eager to help dig which resulted in us not really doing much after mapping out where they needed to dig until the teachers told the kids to let us have a turn. This was surprisingly mostly finished by fruit time (10AM) and we added a few more tyres to Felix's hopscotch before relaxing a bit before lunch. We expected that Maddy and Belinda would paint the tyres in the afternoon but instead they were directed to paint the benches to match the rainbow playground.


Wendesday was my first real class. I had "taught" before with Holly, Maddy and Belinda but teaching with 4 people and teaching with 2 are very different things. We taught colours to 3 morning classes that we like to call Octavio's class (even though he was absent. Octavio is the most advanced at English in the whole of the centre. Groups in the past have taught him most of what he knows and he has just started an online English course this year. This class is mostly older kids - 11 to14), the angel class (younger children who just adore us and so tend to listen to what we say more than the older kids) and the last "class" was just one girl from the angel class who came late. We thought it'd be a big challenge teaching just one person but she didn't grasp the content too quickly so we were able to go over it again with lots of different games to try and help her remember. Belinda was sick so in the afternoon Felix taught a class on his own; apparently having lots of fun teaching colours and playing team games with his class. One of the kids said he was a good teacher so he must've been doing something right.

Wednesday was also the start of my (allbeit so far shortlived) exercise regime. Me and Maddy went to the park and did a circuit while cars honked at us and people stared from buses. On Thursday the activeness continued as the girls walked to the centre from TICEN and did a short circuit on the way. We had capoeira again before our meeting with Grazi where we learned of our new non-obligitary goals to finish the greenhouse which at the moment has no covering and the paint is worn, and (much to Felix's crazy excitement) to organise and catalog the library. Thursday night brought home made sangria and enchiladas as we bought ingredients and had a little family Mexican night.

That weekend we went to Lagoa and stayed at Maddy and Belinda's family's "pousdada" (mini hotel).Belinda met us in the evening and after settling in to our room we went to Sushi Roots with Dani (Belinda and Maddy's host sister). I am ashamed to say I fell asleep at the table but in my defense none of the others had woken up at 7 as I had that morning and we were seated on the ground in the comfy section. On Sunday Felix, Maddy and I went horse riding which consisted of us getting lost and finally finding the ranch, climbing on to horses and riding away with these two crazy dudes. We reflected that our parents would not be pleased that we had been given no helmets but nothing bad happened so it's all ok right? We rode into this strange pine forest that seemed to be rooted in the sand as it was in the middle of big dunes leading to the beach. After our ride Felix went to his family bbq and I crashed Maddy and Belinda's. It was delicious as all Brazilian (and Australian) bbqs are - it's hard for meat to taste bad once it's been seasoned with so much salt. Before we left we went to the turtle sanctuary and watched a turtle be freed and went on a walk to the "natural swimming pool" a calm patch of water in this alcove of rocks.

This past week as well as the usual teaching English classes and capoeira, we painted the tables inside the greenhouse (which we're told will be covered next week), painted the tyres and weeded the vegetable garden; freeing beetroots from under the grass. It was a beautiful day on Wednesday and me and Maddy went back to Barra da Lagoa for a nice swim in the calm water and go stand up paddleboarding.

This weekend we (Felix, Maddy and I) journeyed to Iguazu Falls. via a 16hour overnight bus trip both ways. It was an unbelievably hot day; giving us Christ the Redeemed flashbacks however thankfully it was not so uphill. The falls were beautiful and never ended. At the end we were glad for the wind spraying the water onto us as we went out onto the platform that looks over the edge of the waterfall. Felix left a lock on the railing where others had left string and other locks and threw the key into the river. Maddy left her hair tie there. After I dragged them to the bird park so I could get more pictures for my bird-enthusiast mother (I think now I have just become a bird-enthusiast too thanks to this trip!)

Until next time!
Alice Clarke

An epic run-down of the last three weeks in Brazil

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

We dropped off the face of the Earth but now we're back - The past few weeks in Brazil
There is so much to fill this post with seeing as I haven't written anything for 3 weeks, so I hope you don't mind a lengthy read.

Part 1 - First 3 weeks separated :(
Felix, Maddy, Belinda and I have only just returned to Florianopolis after 3 weeks in Curitiba (and 4 days in Rio of course but that's a story for part 2). We left on the 30th of September and our first day in Curitiba was... eventful. When we arrived at the bus terminal Rafaela and Marcela greeted us and loaded Rafaela's fairly average sized car with our 4 tightly packed packs. For "lunch" (it was actually about 3pm) we went to Jacobina; an ecclectic restaurant that serves some typically Brazilian food with a menu that changes according to the day. For dessert Maddy defied her mother and got brownie, I tried tapioca ice cream and, Felix and Belinda shared guava cheesecake and chocolate cake. Rafaela was trying to get us to the sanctuary by 5 as that is when the doorman (he does other things too apparently) Alan officially finishes work. Now a quick point about the sanctuary - it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere; 30 km from Curitiba and 3 km from the small town on the other side of it.

When we got off the freeway we took the only dirt road you can take to get there. Unfortunately it was no longer a dirt road but a mud road and Rafaela's week old car got stuck. Despite Felix's best efforts at manliness the car would not budge and Rafaela was getting more and more stressed because she could only reach her insurance company in Curitiba who still had to come all the way to this unmarked road and pull us out. But of course the day was saved by two knights in shining cowboy hats, riding atop their trusty tractor. After being towed to the sancturary it was far too late for a tour or anything other than a brief orientation and a delicious improvised dinner of spaghetti and tuna sauce crafted by Felix and Belinda.

The place we stayed in Curitiba was like a little apartment. It was the top level on a 3 story building that contained the kitchen for storing and preparing animal food and a room for birds that were sick or just didn't have a space in the averies yet. There were 2 bedrooms with connecting bathrooms and a kitchen/living/dining area. It was a very nice place even if the kitchen was too small for 4 people to help cook and the internet rarely worked. Investigating the myriad of food we had in our cupboards and fridge was a highlight of our first evening; mountains of pasta, a slab of milk, OJ, grape juice, coke and guarana, popcorn, chocolate, pringles... we were set for life. Apart from the lack of vegetables and tea.

Our first real day on the project was incredible to say the least. Marcela came to give us a tour at 9 but because Beto the biologist was there he joined us and gave us a little extra information about all of the animals. They have over 190 species at the sanctuary, most of which are birds - many species of monkey, a tapir, sloths, pumas, small cats, tamaduas, giant anteaters, toucans, macaws, parrots, ducks and geese, harpie eagles, and of course jaguars just to name a handful. They have two species of tortoise which we got to pick up and hold; learning how to distinguish males and females - whether their undershell is concave or flat - and how to tell the difference between the species - aside from a slight colour and size difference, one had an extra lip of shell on it's underside. We also met the evil chicken-like bird that occupies some territory in the top corner of the sanctuary. Once you enter he follows you, running behind, waiting for the perfect moment to jump up and attack your head. Maintaining eye contact is the only was to sort of stop him.

After our tour we got down to business. At this project, each day you go with a one of the seven animal carers and help them with their animals. Ana Paula, the vet at the sanctuary gathered us all in her office and decided who we would go with. Maddy went with Elisangela and fed and cleaned two of the Jaguar enclosures. She loved that they had a toilet so they could flush the poo after cleaning. They also cleaned a few of the bird enclosures. Felix went with Francisco. Unfortunately we were too late to assist with cutting fruit as it is Francisco's domain - sharpening knives and cutting his arm hair with them because they're so sharp, telling us not to cut ourselves and showing us his various scars. Fransisco cleans the tapir and tortoise enclosures and the parrot house with 20 odd cages. Belinda was with Marco who looks after many of the monkey species in the sanctuary. She got to hold these orange monkies with beards and fed and cleaned the tapir enclosure.

He also showed her one of the many bridges in the forest area of the sanctuary that leads to his house on the property. While the others were busy getting soaked by the pressure hoses and splashed with poo and fruit, I went with another biologist, Willian. We went around to a handful of bird cages - with the larger phesant-like birds in them - and looked for eggs. There were only 4 to clean, lable and put away in the incubators. He also introduced me to the youngest jaguars who are relatively friendly and we touched them through the fence. He also took me into the small bird avery and climbed to the lookout. The view from anywhere high on the proeperty is just amazing. It spans for an impossibly long way with enclosures, forest and houses of some of the workers.

The rest of our days at the santuary followed much the same pattern but mostly always with different animals to feed as we rotated through the carers. None of them spoke English but we got the basics - eu ajudo?, lavar, não amigo and agressivo. Mostly always said incorrectly; but they got the idea. Throughout the first week we got to touch and hold various animals - toucans, monkies, tamanduas, tapir and sloths. We helped cut up fruit most mornings and sometimes unloaded the truck and sorted the haphazard crates into tidy fruit groups. It didn't take us long to start eating the perfectly good fruit that they got crates of every single day - pinapples, papayas, apples, watermelon, grapes, bananas, you name it. At least once or twice a day the carers would take a break to eat some of the fruit too. I miss it now that I'm back in Flori.

Our first weekend we ventured in to Curitiba. Instead of paying for a direct transfer we decide to take the bus from Campos Grande do Sul - the town 3km away. To get there we could walk or get Alan to drive us. Alan drove us, laden with our weekend bags, in his tiny, Grandfather's VW beetle that had a bouncy backseat, on the dirt road (dry now thankfully) but still riddled with potholes. Surprise we survived that short adventure, we arrived in Curitiba to find long ATM lines and others not working. After a stress-vanishing sugar cane juice (for me) we walked to our hostel. Hostel Roma was a nice hostel across the road from a park, shopping centre and a short(ish) walk from the bus terminal. We were too preoccupied with the free wifi to really care about anything else and it was hard to tear ourselves away in order to satisfy Felix and Maddy's desire to hit the town. We went to Mustang Sally; a Mexican/American bar/restaurant and enjoyed "margaritas" that were nothing like margaritas, and an ultimate nachos. Much to Maddy and Felix's dismay I was too tired to continue on to a club we hadn't found yet and so we walked home.

We were up bright and early on Sunday for a tour of Curitiba. We got distracted by a market on the way to meet Marcela and ended up having to get her to meet us because it was so enormous. She introduced us to Ramon - a Spanish guy who would be joining us at the sanctuary for the rest or our time there. He was not at all up to our expectations of a hulking, Spaniard with a flowing mane of hair and a stunning mustache. He was in fact 30ish, bald and had glasses. We all got separated and so began the pattern of waiting for ages for everyone to regroup - it happened far to much over the next weekends. For lunch we had "The World's Best Burger". It was OK. Better than their iced tea which was literally just cold tea with no embellishments; not even a simple lemon slice. After this we FINALLY got to the tour bus. In Curitiba there is a bus that goes past and stops at many of their attractions. Your ticket gets you to 4 of the stops but we only got to 2 - the Botanic Gardens and Oscar Niemeyer Museum.

The whole day was the beginning of our unfortunate habit of leading Marcela on a wild goose chase whenever she was trying to help us. After a walk in the Pope garden and brief sit in the park where some people were doing Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics we made our way back home by befriending some English speaking people who sort of knew where they were going and sort of knew where our hostel was in relation to their house. Although we planned to go out on Sunday night we were all too tired s owe bought a bottle of vodka and attempted a room party. This rocking party consisted of me attempting to teach the non-Melbournites how to juicy wiggle, playing "I have never...' and, brainstorming dares we'd never do. What a rager eh? On Monday we were going home but first me and Maddy made it our mission to collect as many of the prostitute advertisement cards as we could. Rewind. Explain. Throughout Brazil they have these bright teal hemispheres that have phones in them and in Curitiba, especially near the centre, they are filled with small paper slips advertising prostitutes (quite nicely arranged I might add). Although it was annoying Belinda and Felix, we were having a ball as we marvelled at how fast the "pimp" could refill them and then found him refilling them as we came back from lunch. The others came round too as we sorted through all 820 we had collected (75 different ones) and played XXX Factor.

On Friday we went on a hike with Luciano, some of his friends and Ramon. I win the prize for stuggling the most: getting insanely muddy, bitten, falling over in the rivers and on rocks. In my defense the trail was basically vertical and the steps were like a metre high - definitely a workout for all of our legs. Towards the end we pushed through the wall by thinking of things that were harder than the trail including finding a nice bra that's bigger than an A cup, taking public transport in Florianopolis and finding peanut butter in Brazil. At the top/end of the trail Maddy and Felix took a dip in the pool at the end of the waterfall and slid down the natural waterslide created by slime on the rock face. When we finished we all went and got pastels (Brazilian pastry) on the way back to the sanctuary.

On Saturday it was Oktoberfest time and the guys at the sanctuary got a transfer to Curitiba so we could catch our tour bus at 9am while Jed, Holly and Tom got to relax for a bit before getting their bus to Blumenau. Felix, Maddy, Belinda and I, and the rest of the group which included people from Germany, Mexico, Holland, France and Brazi, had lunch at a "german" buffet. Felix wasn't too impressed with the food that was a Brazilian take on traditional German cuisine but he still managed to eat a couple of plates worth of food. When we got to Blumenau we watched the Oktoberfest Parade (in our serparate groups - attempting to find each other in the huge crowd of people by doing the emu just did not work) and the Curitiba group headed to the official Oktoberfest party while the Florianopolis group had something to eat.

The Oktoberfest in Blumenau is the second largest in the world after the one in Germany (apparently) but we would not have known because we pretty much stayed in the same spot for most of the night with members of the group leaving at different stages. The Curitiba group banded together with two girls from Germany - Sabine and Nina and taught them English drinking songs. The reunion between the groups rivaled the reunion between Peter and Shadow at the end of Homeward Bound... but 12 times. It was a great night until we had to go our serparate ways at about midnight. Our bus was supposed to leave at 2AM back to Curitiba but Maddy and Felix got lost, delaying our departure by an hour and a half. Thus we were late getting back to meet Marcela on Sunday.

Our final week at the sanctuary saw photos, tree planting, a lot of walking and saying goodbye. On Wednesday we went with the tractor guys (who we thought just rode around on a tractor all day and didn't actually do anything) to feed the "pigs" - peccaries to be exact and they're way more interesting than just pigs; they're in the Melbourne Zoo! Afterwards we planted trees in a burnt section of the forest. We headed back into the sanctuary and to our surprise, stopped at the greenhouse again and loaded the trailor full of trees. We asked "hoje?" and were greeted with nods. But then our horror was put to rest as they said "oh nao, amanha". Thank goodness!!! After that Lee took us around some of the walking tracks and showed us a "secret"way of getting back to our room. On our last day Alan took us on another walk and let us into the animal cages to take photos and say goodbye. Lots of fun was had with the tamanduas and sloths and a tapir who lay down so we could scratch his belly and didn't get back up. Alan and Marcela freaked out because they thought it was dying but as soon as we left it got back up. Willian took us to Luciano and Cris' house to plant our trees with a sign that says our name and where we're from. Everyone except Felix struggled a bit with digging the hole for our seedling to go in but it was all good in the end. Rafaela picked us up on Thursday afternoon and after saying our goodbyes to Alan, Ramon and Willian we forlornly departed.

While we were living it up in Curitiba, the others were holding down the fort in Florianopolis. From what I can gather from their reports, they were in the preliminary stage of all the goals we have to achieve while working there and it was hard for them to feel as though they weren't doing anything useful because they'd only play with the kids every day instead of completing our projects - hard evidence of our contribution. The first weekend separated they went to a uni party with Tom's brothers. They began English lessons and found it challenging to be seen as a teacher to the kids after we were introduced as playmates. They were involved in numerous parties and celebration with ours and other children centres and joined in samba and caipoeira performances.

Part 2 - Rio
Though we left at roughly the same time from Florianopolis and Curitiba, we arrived at vastly different times due to my, Felix, Maddy and Belinda's stop over in Sao Paulo. We met up at the hostel after we got there and went shopping for a few lunch and dinner items before being convinced by Alex (a guy at the hostel desk) to get loco at LapaLoca that night. We got discounted entry and the girls got free caipirinhas until midnight (which were awful and we shared with the guys). Before that though we went to the night market where we had a look around, got dinner and Holly and I sang 'Breaking Free' from Highschool Musical in a small kareoke bar to a standing ovation. We had a dance, we had a drink (or a few) and then we went home. A bit of drama getting home after there was a problem with my card and when I went back down Holly, Belinda and Jed had left without me. Not wanting to pay to get back in, or stay on the street by myself, I got a cab home but couldn't tell them my address because I had lost the piece of paper and my phone had stopped working. Such a shamozzle. But taxi drivers are suprisingly good at problem solving (screw engineering I'm going to be a taxi driver to utilise my problem solving ability) and we found my way home; safe and sound. Due to the lack of clean water that you did not have to buy, many of us were in a bad state on Saturday morning. But we all ventured down to the beach, had a dip in the icy water and then attempted to visit sugarloaf for sunset. After walking for about half an hour and only being less than half way there, we took a couple of cabs to the entrance only to discover there was a really long line. The sun had pretty much set and it was getting cloudy so we decided it wasn't worth it and so went to get churos and mediocre corn on the cob while we figured out what to do next. We decided to go to a free art exhibit of Yayoi Kusama.

Sunday was my birthday (woo) and I was thankful for the relatively tame night before as I felt much better than I felt on Saturday. Tom headed off early to go to the national park and the rest of us left later with the intention of hiring bikes and going for a ride. Instead we headed down to the Copa-Copacobana and had a walk along the beach, walked to Ipanema and then to the Sunday 'Hippie Markets' a block or two away from the beach. After we ate and had a look around before Jed and Holly headed home and Felix, Maddy, Belinda and I went to Lagoa to Mil Fruitas ice cream shop. After about half an hour of tastings, Maddy finally made up her mind and we got to have a short walk around the lake before getting a taxi home. Waiting for me on the rooftop of the hostel was a banner reading "feliz anniversario", balloons, cake, fruit salad and passionfruit juice. It was a great celebration before we had to get ready for the football (soccer) game at

Maracanã Stadium that night. We got picked up and taken to the game with an old Canadian man who was quite a character. We also met other football fans from the Netherlands, England and Australia. I still don't know what the teams were (they were both black and white) but it was an exciting game that ended in a draw 2 all. Upon returning to the hostel, Alex was just finishing and offered to take us to this restaurant that specialised in pastels. It was so good!! They had pastels with all different fillings and we all tried a few different ones as well as having dessert pastels. The last day in Rio reached 38 degrees. Holly and I had a coconut on the beach and then went to Christ the Redeemer with Felix, Maddy and Tom, Jed slept off the all nighter that he, Maddy and Felix had pulled and Belinda tried to go to Santa Teresa but couldn't because the tram was not running as it was a public holiday. We finished the day on the beach before Jed, Tom and Holly had to get their flight home. For the remaining hours, the rest of us met a Brazilian/Ukranian man who showed us the best caipirinha in Brazil (it was pretty good) and had dinner where Maddy got "chicken surprise" and almost made us miss our transfer because it took so long to come out.

Part 3 - This week in Flori
This week at the Children Centre seemed to be quite productive. We finished planting the vegetable garden on Tuesday and now just need to paint it. The morning group bought seedlings of tomato, lettuce, beetroot, herbs and cabbage, prepared most of the soil and planted a few while the afternoon group finished the soil preparation and planting. On Tuesday night my host family threw a surprise party for my birthday. All the group made an effort to come even though it was a bit out of the way and it was a nice night with dinner, cake and a little movie they made about my time here. On Wednesday both groups taught an English class. In the morning the girls taught numbers and played a game of bingo that was unfortunately cut short and the boys in the afternoon taught basic phrases and greetings. Since classes seem to be quite inconsistent in terms of which kids are in the class, we have developed the goal to be not making sure they retain every piece of information we teach them but instead creating the association in their mind that learning English is fun. We felt accomplished because we got Rafael, a shy kid in the morning class who didn't want to participate when we had the students spelling the numbers 1-20 on the board, to spell nineteen. We also taught Octavio, one of the more proficient in English, to say "you're welcome" when someone says "thank you".

For the girls Wednesday afternoon brought Brazilian bikini shopping. Everyone here wears very skimpy bikinis with bather bottoms that are basically thongs and Holly had made the decision that we all had to buy one before we leave. On Thursday we had a meeting with Grazi so we were all there from 12 and had a caipoiera class and joined in the art class before we left at 3.30. Friday is game day at the kid centre so in the morning, while Jed and Tom played the kids' version of cricket, I planned some things for our other goals including the tyre playground and possible projects for when it is raining. This weekend the weather has turned nice after a rainy week and on Saturday the girls had a successful bikini shopping adventure and we all went to dinner at Guacamole; this mexican restaurant in Floripa where there are tequila cowboys with tequila in holsters and shot glasses strapped to their chest like bullets. On Sunday we all (minus Tom) and Belinda and Maddy's host sister Dani went rafting.Unfortunately none of us got a group photo in our dorky rafting gear but we looked hilarious. After rafting we had hot showers and went to Lagoa for a late lunch, sarong shopping (where Maddy tried unsuccessfully to barter) and a browse around the markets. It was very windy and we all got stung by flying sand as we walked past the inland dunes.

Unfortunately this was our last weekend together in Florianopolis for the next month as Jed, Tom and Holly are of to Curitiba next Saturday.

Fun filled beach weekend for Brazil Gappers

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

We got Friday off this week because the teachers at Cidade de Criança were having a teacher meeting. No kids meant no us apparently. Having visited Lagoa da Conceição on Wednesday AND Thursday because of the AMAZINNNNNG juice/smoothie place we took the opportunity so explore the north part of the island. We took the bus to Santo Antonio de Lisboa and then a bus that was supposed to take us to Jurere; the beach Tom's host brothers said was the best and which seemed rather long according to our map and was close to where all the movie stars go on holiday (according to Felix). When we got off at the last stop on the line there was a relatively small beach, deserted except for a pregnant photoshoot. We parked ourselves on the lovely warm, white sand assuming this is where we were going despite the lack of signs or people.

I was eager to get my tan on given that a teacher at the school made fun of my ridiculously pale skin; saying I needed sunscreen. However I was persuaded to venture into The Atlantic and after Jed was so excited at his first dip in this ocean I couldn't resist. Bad move. Not only was the water cold enough to drive Belinda back to her towel but the waves were so strong that I was dunked multiple times: once getting hit by Maddy as she attempted to body surf. Felix was happy to achieve a few good distances body surfing though.

After about an hour we scaled mountains (no where here is a flat, easy walk) to find a lunch spot on another beach. The beach restaurants here (and there are a lot) have their tables on the sand. In Flori they eat a lot of seafood which was bad for Holly seeing as she doesn't really like anything but fish - she tried a battered prawn (one of Felix and my favouriter things now) and didn't seem to repulsed - but she settled for salad (I shouldn't say 'settled' because it is a scarce item in our homes and she actually genuinely wanted just a salad). The food here is a whole other can of worms that I can't open completely in this post but I will say that in the spirit of trying new things, Felix ate a fish eye that I not so delicately removed from the fish head remaining on our platter (#beargrylls).

Today (Sunday) Felix, Maddy, Tom and I along with Grazi and her daughter and boyfriend and a Mexican girl called Maythe went on a bike tour of the south of the island. We saw whales at Morro das Pedras and also had sugar cane juice (amazing!!!), dipped our feet in at Lagoa do Peri - risky because of the alligators that inhabit the water, walked up the island at Armação where we saw a baby quero quero and took some great photos. We had lunch at Bar do Arante - a relatively touristy buffet restaurant where diners write a message and stick it on the wall (Tom confessed his love for Demi Lovato on his). The food was amazing and we all got to share the experience because Jed, Holly and Belinda made it just in time to see us before we set off again (they had spent most of the day waiting for buses but our public transport situation is a story for another day). On our way back to the bike place we stopped at Campeche beach - only a few kilometres away from where Tom lives. Although the late afternoon is not a time when it is in full glory Tom thinks it's the best beach and we plan to go there again some time soon. After the bike tour we were all glad to be heading home as we are all bloody exhausted.

I know it seems like we have spent none of our time working and that is partially true because volunteering at Cidade de Criança isn't really like work. We play with the kids most of the time - football (soccer), tennis, basketball, pingpong, rugby, skipping, drawing, joining in playing xbox and watching movies (in Portuguese so we understand nothing). Each week we have a goal that we have to fulfil this week it was planning all of our English lessons that will run twice a week for 9 weeks. We couldn't finish our first week's goal of painting the sports courts because it was raining for most of the week but we will no doubt begin that project along with the veggie garden and tyre playground soon.

Felix, Maddy, Belinda and I head to Curitiba tomorrow for what we've been told will be the highlight of the trip (however if there are no sloths I'm sure I will be disappointed no matter what). Jed, Holly and Tom will be holding down the fort in Flori and beginning with English lessons. We are going to have to write a lot of blog posts to update you all on the exciting weekend activities we have lined up and our misadventures with food and public transport AND of course our work part of the placement, but I'm sure we will manage it.

Thanks,
Alice

First week in Brazil - "I love spending every minute of my life confused!"

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

Our first week here in Florianopolis/São Jose has been a delicate mixture of familiarity, excitement, relaxation, stress and a lot of confusion. Floripa (the city centre) is a lot like Melbourne or Sydney: multicultural, busy, with similiar buildings and streets. The tropical trees and plants and the odd brightly coloured, colonial building are the only things that give the city away. That, and that everyone is speaking Portuguese. Coming here made me realise how much we (or at least I) take English for granted. We just expect everyone to speak English and when they don't we have no choice (for the moment at least) but to say when someone addresses us in Portuguese "Não falo/falamos portugues".

Not even the weather gives Florianopolis away as being a city in Brazil as opposed to Australia. It may not be exactly Four Seasons In One Day but I'd say a bright and sunny 35 degree Sunday and next minute a cold, wet and windy Monday onwards is a bit Melbourne-esque (plus it randomly decides to become sunny the day I decide to be pessimistic and not bring my sunglasses).

A major challenge for some of us has been our host family environment. Apart from being scattered across Island and mainland in different neighbourhoods; our host families and houses are very different.

I am one of the furthest away from the project at the Children's City. Located in São Jose my Brazilian middle-class (not to be confused with Australian middle class who are amazingly richer than the people of my neighbourhood) family consists of my host mother and step-father and four sisters, three of which live at home. Usually all three sisters share one room but now I am sharing with the two younger (11 and 14) while the oldest sleeps on the couch. The house is more than half the size of mine in Australia and because they are undergoing renovations it is leaking in the rain we've had this week. They also speak very little English and don't understand much of what I say if I speak it. I am understanding more and more Portuguese though and for the rest we use google translate. The language barrier is very challenging but they are an overwhelmingly welcoming family.

Each family has a different level of wealth, English ability and protectiveness over us. Maddy & Belinda's host family for example live in a gated community. They almost have an infinity pool (omg) and their host sister who lives at home, Dani, speaks relatively fluent English. Like me, they have to cross the bridge from São Jose to Florianopoils to get to the central bus terminal (from which all other buses depart) which ends up as about an hour's trip (and some early mornings).

All of us agree that Felix seems to have had the most chill and easy transition into host family life; with the exception of the hottest setting of his shower being "lukewarm at best". His favourite phrases say it all - "tudo faz" (whatever) and "sereno" (peace and serene). His host parents and sisters were lovely and welcoming and on the first day gave him a tour of the island and sat on the beach drinking beers. They have the laidback mentality that Brazilians are famous for; similar to Australians except the sisters have a particular zeal for going out every night of the week and bringing Felix along (and then they drive him to the placement the next day - so jelly).

Jed and Tom, in separate houses are both near the beach. Jed's front door opens onto the beach and his host sister, Fernanda speaks fluent English so he finds it easy to communicate with his family. He enjoys playing with his brother Pedro and spending time with the family because they are so warm and welcoming.

Tom lives in Campeche; five minutes from the beach. His host brothers Pietro and Ian speak fluent English and have been to Australia before. This is fairly lucky because Tom hadn't learnt Portuguese before he arrived. The Portuguese classes have helped with numbers and basic phrases but as the teachers speak Portuguese the whole time it is hard to understand unless you have already done a bit of language study. He knows the important words though - beer and cheers.

All of us have such welcoming and beautiful families that have made Florianopolis feel like home even if they do think it's totally normal to put their toilet paper in the bin instead of the toilet.
Follow Jed and Felix's blog at http://jedandfelix.tumblr.com/

I hope that's alright and not too long!!

Thanks,
Alice Clark

Why I'll miss my life in Brazil

COUNTRY: Brazil
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Wildlife Conservation & Youth Work
WRITTEN BY: Hannah McHardy

On the last day at the Childrens Centre we had work from 11-4, a really long day that ended with a big show from the kids where they performed for us and the kids performed what we had taught them. Unfortunately due to the inability for some kids to make it to the centre that day, my group didnt get to perform! Camille, Emily, Cat and I had worked really hard and so had the kids to teach them a funny Cow Boy and Girl dance to the song 5,6,7,8!

In the end I think the time we spent with them teaching and the fun we had is more important, so Im glad we got the opportunity to spend that time with them anyway. Sarah, Steph, Ellen, Tegan and Kittys children performed "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"! It was so gorgeous to see all the kids dressed up in their Santa Hats and using English! Other performances included the choir bunch singing tradational Brasilian songs for us that everyone else watching got involved in as well.

Musical instruments come out and they did a Capohera dance for us. Some sambering happened after that even some of the teachers got into! There were lots of photos and videos taken with the kids on this day and they made a special lunch for us which was delicious. There were lots of salads and the classic Feijao (traditional Brazilian dish) with rice and an assortment of meats.

The kitchen ladies worked so hard to arrange a wonderful dessert for everyone, by baking a giant cake! Everyone went back for thirds and ice cream was served to everyone! It was so nice sitting around chatting and seeing all the kids one last time. By the time it got to the end of the day so many of the kids, even if they hadnt spoken to you before, came running for hugs and kisses and to say goodbye. Gustavo and Amelia got very emotional and were crying.

It was such a big realisation seeing how much we have greatly affected their lives by coming here, donating the money we have and spending time with the kids. "We love you all, please dont leave, we want you to stay" were just some of the things they were saying! Not letting us go and holding onto our legs made it so hard (literally) to walk out of the centre that day.

In my last week, I spent most of my days with Camille hanging out in Ingleses and going to the beach. Lots of visits to the Sorviatariam (Im not sure thats how you spell it so dont quote me...) making our own ice creams and buying some last minute merch! One night we had a bonfire with the other girls at Santinho beach. Camille and I decided it was a fabulous idea to walk from our house to where the bonfire was, not realising we would be walking for a good hour and a half to get there.

In theory, it didnt seem like it would be that long. We walked over the sand dunes under the stars and had the life scared out of us by a crow sqwaking at us through the darkness. We had a sick night sitting around the fire with Diego and some of his friends and it was an awesome way to spend time with the girls before saying goodbye in a couple of days time.

On the last night we went to dinner at a pizza place in Ingleses! It was so nice having everyone there with some of their families for a group dinner as a send off. We ate more than our fair share of pizza each and when the chocolate pizza selections came out at the end, there was no stopping us.

Brasil, and more specifically, Florianopolis, had become home to all of us and I could tell everyone in the group had such a tough time saying goodbye to the city and their families. Everyone had become so close with their families and for me, leaving them behind in the paradise that they live in was really overwhelming and I defintely shed many many tears! All through the day and night before and on the way to the airport. My host Mum and I used google translate to have a quiet chat the morning before I left while my host brother and sister werent around. She typed to me, "I think of you as a beautiful, intelligent, very nice person and I am delighted to have had you living in my house and being an older sister to my children who have enjoyed your company just as much. Everyone will miss you". I was so happy to read this and know that I had had such an impact on these peoples lives as they have had on mine!

I never thought I would miss the culture I thought bothered me! Like barely sleeping at night then a nice siesta the following afternoon, or eating the foods that have made me gain kilo upon kilo (no lie), or walking down streets where horses roamed free amongst the people. Even thinking that I wont get to experience these things again makes me really sad. There are definite plans to go back in the future.

Now another adventure awaits me! Even though Brasil is behind us it has given us so much to take with us and has given us the opportunity to become better people. I think since that first day at Babel (where I casually got a migraine, standard) to the last night at dinner with everyone we have changed physically (definitely) and emotionally that allowed us to adapt to life in Florianopolis. So many important and lifelong friendships have been made. We wont ever forget it!

Thanks so much!! Also just so you know, I would be happy to speak at any information night for next year and go to the camp. Would love to share things with the new people!!

Hannah

So much to see in Rio De Janeiro!

COUNTRY: Brazil
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Wildlife Conservation & Youth Work
WRITTEN BY: Hannah McHardy

The last month has been very busy! Since the first week of returning from Curitiba, the girls and I have been doing volunteer work each day, venturing out to explore the island of Florianopolis and have made many new friends. It has been good coming back to a place that has easy access to internet and basic things, such as shopping centres.

The first weekend back in Floripa was a quiet one. Camille and I went to the beach with my host family called Giavota near our suburb. There has been lovely weather and it has been getting hotter and hotter with an occasional cold day. We have finally wrapped our heads around the bus system on our daily expedition from Ingleses to Centro! We catch the 7:20am yellow “Ingleses” rider that goes from the tip of our street. It is very comfortable and easy and takes us straight there! It is so nice to see the whole island each day during our bus trip, it really has become like home. The bus system has been very temperamental; buses are either extremely late or don’t come at all! This has proved to be a problem to get places on time or get anywhere at all...

On our second week back, the public holiday long weekend took us to Rio de Janeiro! It was such a good time as it was all nine of us there (our new German friend Kitty, who is a host sister to Steph, came along!) staying in Copa Fun Hostel! It lived up to its name; we all had a blast there. It was comfortable and the complimentary breakfasts proved extremely satisfying for all. Four days was simply NOT ENOUGH!

One thing we realised is that there is so much to see in Rio! Christ the Redeemer, Lapa Stairs, Sugar Loaf mountain, some famous beaches, the markets, the Lapa party scene and a Samba Lesson is what we managed to get around to. We all splurged at the Copacabana markets (probably no one nearly as much as myself...) but it was definitely worth it! The extent of all the amazing clothes, jewellery, art, bags and trinkets was incredible. The weekend was nothing but fun and it was disappointing to head home and not to have more time to get to know the city!

The last four weeks of volunteering work have seen us involve ourselves in the sport and other miscellaneous activities, teaching some English lessons and getting to know the children! Camille and I are in the mornings from 8am-12pm with Kitty, and then Cat and Emily take over from 12pm-4pm. It can get very tiring as the children love to get you involved in everything they are doing and it is very tough keeping up with them! There has been lots of basketball playing, skip roping and colouring in!

Today we started painting the play equipment that was looking rather boring in the playground so it brightens up the place; our donation to the centre has paid for the paint and brushes. One day last week they took us on a little excursion to a talent show that included all the centres in Florianopolis. It was so cute to watch some of the kids get up and dance and sing!

The other girls have returned from Curitiba, and we only have three weeks to go! The time has certainly flown and I’m sure the next three weeks will go just as fast. It’s now Cat, Emily, Camille and I in the mornings and the other five girls in the afternoon. Hopefully in these last weeks we can see as much of the city as possible and spend more time at the beach. We have become familiar with the night club “El Divinio” and can hopefully go back again before we have to go. For my host mothers birthday, Camille and my families went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant named “Guacamole” which was really entertaining.

The food was delicious and they have people that come around pouring tequila into mouths and giving your head a shake! After my host mum subjected to taking a shot for her birthday, the whole table was very enthusiastic for me to do one too, so I did! It was really amusing but don’t think I’ll be doing another one, the way they shake your head afterwards is way too much!

A rare experience in Curitiba

COUNTRY: Brazil
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Wildlife Conservation & Youth Work
WRITTEN BY: Hannah McHardy

I apologise for my late blogging and thank Sarah for filling in for me! I am going to give my run down of the first week of Floripa anyway to see if she missed out on anything!

Saying goodbye to my parents and brother at the airport was not what I thought it would be, I did end up tearing up and walked through customs with a blotchy red face! I sat next to Cat on the other side of the aisle on the big trip to Chile, and next to to a Chilean couple that were closest to the window. They got up and sat down within the 13 hr plane ride exactly 32 times. It was NOT okay (this is a term Camille has been saying that has spread to Cat, Emily and I in our time at the animal sanctuary) as most of you will realize this meant I also had to get up 32 times. We then got off the plane and had our transfer to Sao Paolo. When hanging out at the gate we all happened to look at our seats and check our flight number for Cat to realise she had been put on a different flight to the rest of us… it was all figured out after a while and she had to catch her flight alone to Sao Paolo! Brave little Kitty Cat Meow Face (another nick name that has been started by Camille at Curitiba).

I also had not been given a ticket for my transfer flight by the woman who gave me my tickets in Sydney (smart) so I was slightly panicky as well! We had a veeeery delayed flight at Chile and ended up at Sao Paolo with 10 minutes to get off one plane and on another. But we all arrived safely and met our host families.

My host family is wonderful! I have a host mother named Lici, a host sister named Louisi (Lo for short) who is 16 and a host brother named Joao who is 8. I live in a small suburb at the tip of the island called Ingleses and I am loving it here! I live just down the road from Camille and our mothers are sisters so we spent a lot of time together in the first week.

The first week consisted of our Portuguese lessons, wandering blindly about the bus stations and getting lost (mostly Camille and I on our enormous trip home – Ellen and Sarah even further!). I had my first migraine of the trip (surely to be followed by many more) while the other girls were shown to the main bus station and the children’s centre. We went back again during the week and had an English teaching lesson at Babel where we had been having our Portuguese lessons.

We had lunch every day at a buffet styled restaurant we all loved that was remarkably cheap! Half way through her chicken and salad Camille realised her slice was nice and pink and squishy, closer to uncooked than anything else. We looked at the clock and set a ticking time bomb for when the food poisoning should kick in, however the 8 hours ended in surprise when there was no sickness at all! Stomach of steel.

On the weekend we went on a Floripa by Bus tour that took us on an enjoyable drive down the coast to a secluded beach where we took photos, ate ice cream and visited the markets. A few of us bought some necklaces and trinkets which are awesome!

Camille’s host brother named Gus took us on our first Brasilian clubbing adventure that Saturday night. Sarah, Ellen and Steph met us at the club and we all had an awesome first night out together! The clubbing scene has proven to be very different from the Australian! Starts much later into the night and ends closer to midday than not! Although, we went home at a reasonable hour of course. The next day Camille and I had to get grudgingly out of bed to allow ourselves enough time to get to the bus station to get our transfer to Curitiba.

The past month that Camille, Cat, Emily and I have spent in Curitiba has been one of the most incredibly rare experiences of a lifetime. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to live and work at the wildlife sanctuary as it is not only a beautiful place but the owners Cris and Luciano, and all the other workers we met and have grown to love are the most generous, welcoming and wonderful people I have ever met. As I think the other girls would agree. The animals were a challenge at times but I think in those four weeks we have all grown stronger and definitely learnt a few things!

The workers speak very little English so we were forced to start learning to speak the basics a lot more regularly and saw it our responsibility to learn and make use of important words. Our vocab for the last four weeks has consisted of:

Lavar – Wash
Aqui – Here
Agora – Now
Oi – Hi
Tchau – Bye
Obrigada – Thankyou
Por Favor – Please

Stringing sentences together has become easier and the staff have been very patient and comforting to us. Cris and Luciano have been incredibly hospitable, the house we have lived in is beautiful! It is two bed roomed, one room with two beds and another with three that both have adjoining bathrooms.

The main room has a big couch and a flat screen TV with which we used to become unhealthily addicted to House, ER, X-Men, Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Incredibles (along with many more). They have provided us with so much food (our sizeable and eve- growing appetites meant we were low on bread, tuna, cheese and spreads within one or two days) and given us free reign on their 5 star swimming pool! We were so grateful!

On our arrival we met Andrea, the Swedish girl who had already been working there for three weeks and was on her final week of stay. She was very nice, and I shared the double room with her for the first week before Camille moved in on her departure. She had very good English and helped us a lot in our first week for understanding Portuguese and guiding us in what we should be doing while we are here.

Our first day was hard! We were all thrown into many different tasks and things I certainly wasn’t prepared for. I was assigned with Rosie for my first day and she cleans a row of 16 bird cages near the kitchens. After chopping fruit for the first hour (the length of time you spent chopping fruit each morning varied on who you followed for the morning and the animals they feed) she led me to where I was to clean and I grasped a vague idea of what I was supposed to be doing and I was on my way.

Hosing the ground to clean them and taking out the food trays and washing them down was pretty much all you had to do, however being locked in an enclosure with birds you’ve never seen or heard of before was sort of scary! During this week we had many new experiences such as the “tractor incident” on the way to feeding the wild pigs – this included the tractor losing control as we were descending a hill and it flipping, the 6 of us (including a staff member Gabriel) flying from the trailer. To everyone’s surprise and amazement no one had even minor injuries (although from much Cabin Fever that has been questioned from time to time…) and didn’t go to feed the pigs again. Other than washing enclosures, chopping fruit and feeding the animals, hanging around with the staff when there was nothing to do and taking photos, we resorted in the hot weather to hanging by the pool, and cold weather to rugged up watching TV.

We spent two of four weekends in the city of Curitiba. We stayed at a hostel that Rafaela booked for us that was near a shopping mall and an unusual amount of cemeteries and funeral planning stores. We went to a BBQ with Rafaela and her Fiancé on our first weekend there after a lunch at an all you can eat buffet with some Brazilian Experience friends. It was very fun and we got to meet Brazilians our age that could speak English. It was fun to speak to them and we now have some of them on Facebook! Will be good to keep in touch, one of them will be doing Machu Picchu later this year late December after I finish the Brasil placement, hopefully I run into her! The Saturday afterward we went into town and went clubbing with the Brazilian Experience guys we met. We went to “Woods” which had live Brazilian style music. It was a lot of fun and again we met lots more people our age.

After hanging out at the pool the Sunday afternoon we came back from the city, Cris and Luciano invited us to come and feed the baby jaguars with them! It was an awesome experience I will probably never have again. I’m sure you’ve all checked out the photos of us all with the bottles in our hands. However we were all a bit nervous once the bottles were finished as there was no longer anything to distract them from starting to get a little playful. As they have enormous nails and aren’t aware of their own strength, a few of us attained some minor injuries. Charlie jumped onto my back and left a nice long open cut through Emily’s shirt she lent me which bruised nice and purple. Emily got some cat scratches on her side that look like she’s been in a cat fight! This was a wonderful thing to have done on our trip and was a good start to our last week. After this, Emily, Cat and I went and got our things to go to Iguacu.

Iguacu was a very amazing two days. Besides the 10 hour over night bus rides, it’s safe to say it is the most incredible natural wonder any of us have ever seen. The first day we did the Brasilian side of the falls, and the next the Argentinean side. They both offered a very different perspective of the falls and I’m very glad we got the opportunity to do both. On the Brasil side we did a tour of the Bird park (most of the birds we worked with in the animal sanctuary anyway) and the Macuco Safari.

With this we did a small trailer tour through the bush and listened to information about the native plantation and animal life within the forest. Then a 600m walk and saw a very rare flower, which blooms once a year for 24 hours. Extremely lucky, it was beautiful! Then embarked on our speed boat tour that took us through rapids and under the falls. This was exhilarating and beautiful, being so close to the falls and viewing the falls from below. Afterward, Emily and I did a 55m abseil. It was a very active day with lots of walking and buses from lookout to lookout. We’ve got lots of photos that are on Facebook!

The weeks working at the sanctuary went so fast and we all wish we could have stayed longer. We became so close to all the workers and of course, the animals and were all very sad to leave. On our last day we all shed a tear or two but it was so nice to see the other girls again! We had lunch together in a big kitchen area in the garden near Cris and Luciano’s house. We were given our certificates and had to say goodbye to everyone for the last time. We ended up missing our bus because we didn’t want to leave so much and had to wait another hour and half for the next one.

Being back in Floripa has been great! Civilisation (internet, access to speak to friends and family more easily, a greater variety of meal options per day) has its benefits and I think we are all enjoying ourselves. Our first week working at the children's centre has been great! The first day was the day of my birthday. Camille and I spent the morning with Kitty (Steph’s homestay sister from Germany) painting the basketball court green. It went all over our shoes and feet.

The rest of the week was a lot of fun getting to know the kids and learning how to communicate more easily with them. This is hard as they are young and speak to you like they would anyone else – in fluent Portuguese. Our relationships have been easily built anyway as they love to sit on our laps, play with our hair and lead us around to play many games and do activities. Just recently, our donation money for the centre was spent on a new flat screen TV and Xbox with games for the children. They are all very much enjoying it and we can see they are very grateful for our help.

Looking forward to the coming weekend!

Hannah xxx