They're back...
Today was the kids' first day back at both of the projects, and it was a long day for me in São Gabriel. It's amazing how much more energy it takes just to be around the kids, and I wasn't even responsible for teaching anything today. It was nice that another volunteer, Chris, made a CD of the pictures we took at the country bumpkin festival last month and had them printed up at the mall so we could display them on the bulletin boards. The kids really enjoyed seeing the pictures of themselves.
I'm helping two of the kids write to American penpals, so that means translating the letters and helping them sit down and write letters that I basically translate into English and e-mail. I was also able to take pictures to send digitally to their penpals. It's such a funny contrast to the days of old when I got a penpal from the "Big Blue Marble" television program and sent correspondence through the postal mail.
For the month of August, both projects are having special activities revolving around folklore because there's a national Folklore Day on August 22nd. Brazil is a country rich in folklore, with all kinds of legends, dances, music, crafts, etc. One of the most popular folklore characters is an Afro-Brazilian, one-legged smurf with a red hat and a pipe called Saci-Pererê. According to a couple of sites I found, he lost his leg in a capoeira (Afro-Brazilian martial arts) match.
The kids at São Gabriel have been divided into teams, and each team has been assigned a specific region of the country. Today they were supposed to construct their team flag for their particular region. If they finished that in time (which nobody did), they were then supposed to work on their team song/chant. The teams will then be researching their respective regions and the folklore of those regions to teach the rest of the group. From what I've seen of the group dynamics thus far, it should be "very interesting."
One side note--it's striking how obsessed the kids are with using rulers (even when the results are not that perfect) and copying/tracing things. At least amongst the kids in the projects, individual creativity has not yet been nourished to fruition. It could also be more of a cultural thing, but I don't have enough data yet to say.
Preparations are in full-swing for a work team (17 people!) from Virginia that is slated to arrive next week. I feel bad because if this were the U.S., I could be much more helpful with the planning, but here, there's not a whole lot I can do other than help translate and work with them once there are here.
I finally took a couple of concrete steps this weekend towards getting a social life. On Saturday, I took the bus to the other side of town to one of the dance studios that offers flamenco lessons. I signed up to take a free trial class next weekend. It was good to be back in the dance environment, so if I can find a way to afford to take lessons on Saturdays, that will be cool. One weird thing was that you have to buzz to get let into the dance studio property and get buzzed out as well because the gate is always locked (like most things here). It was funny and typically Brazilian that the classes that I saw on Saturday seem to stop in the middle for a coffee break.
I walked back across town from the flamenco place to try to get the monthly schedule of events from the cultural center, but they were closed. I did manage, however, to find out about a free concert in one of the nice plazas downtown and went to that yesterday evening. It was billed as Brazilian guitar music, but was actually jazz performed by two guitars and a trumpet, which was fine. I was surprised that they appeared to have started on time (I got there about five minutes late). Getting there was easy (I could catch a bus at my regular bus stop close to the apartment and it was still light) but I have to work on the getting home part because the place I walked to in order to catch the bus home was less-than-optimum, especially in the dark. It's funny that I often plan for hours before an actual outing to figure out what bus to take to get there, where to get off the bus, how to walk from the bus stop to the destination, what bus to take to get home, what bus stop to walk to in order to get home, etc. While that is a lot of work, at this point I definitely prefer taking the bus to the idea of trying to drive here (and those of you who've ridden with me know that I'm no pansy behind the wheel).
I had an interesting discussion with my roommate yesterday because I heard another person say that Brazil's biggest problem was teenage pregnancy, and I asked her opinion. My roommate thinks, and I agree, that Brazil's biggest problem is the distribution of resources and the huge economic inequality that seems to largely affect those of African descent (among others). It's interesting that things that would be racial stereotypes in the U.S. are more class stereotypes here.
And since I've already written more than anyone other than my parents will read, I'll call it quits for now... :)
I'm helping two of the kids write to American penpals, so that means translating the letters and helping them sit down and write letters that I basically translate into English and e-mail. I was also able to take pictures to send digitally to their penpals. It's such a funny contrast to the days of old when I got a penpal from the "Big Blue Marble" television program and sent correspondence through the postal mail.
For the month of August, both projects are having special activities revolving around folklore because there's a national Folklore Day on August 22nd. Brazil is a country rich in folklore, with all kinds of legends, dances, music, crafts, etc. One of the most popular folklore characters is an Afro-Brazilian, one-legged smurf with a red hat and a pipe called Saci-Pererê. According to a couple of sites I found, he lost his leg in a capoeira (Afro-Brazilian martial arts) match.
The kids at São Gabriel have been divided into teams, and each team has been assigned a specific region of the country. Today they were supposed to construct their team flag for their particular region. If they finished that in time (which nobody did), they were then supposed to work on their team song/chant. The teams will then be researching their respective regions and the folklore of those regions to teach the rest of the group. From what I've seen of the group dynamics thus far, it should be "very interesting."
One side note--it's striking how obsessed the kids are with using rulers (even when the results are not that perfect) and copying/tracing things. At least amongst the kids in the projects, individual creativity has not yet been nourished to fruition. It could also be more of a cultural thing, but I don't have enough data yet to say.
Preparations are in full-swing for a work team (17 people!) from Virginia that is slated to arrive next week. I feel bad because if this were the U.S., I could be much more helpful with the planning, but here, there's not a whole lot I can do other than help translate and work with them once there are here.
I finally took a couple of concrete steps this weekend towards getting a social life. On Saturday, I took the bus to the other side of town to one of the dance studios that offers flamenco lessons. I signed up to take a free trial class next weekend. It was good to be back in the dance environment, so if I can find a way to afford to take lessons on Saturdays, that will be cool. One weird thing was that you have to buzz to get let into the dance studio property and get buzzed out as well because the gate is always locked (like most things here). It was funny and typically Brazilian that the classes that I saw on Saturday seem to stop in the middle for a coffee break.
I walked back across town from the flamenco place to try to get the monthly schedule of events from the cultural center, but they were closed. I did manage, however, to find out about a free concert in one of the nice plazas downtown and went to that yesterday evening. It was billed as Brazilian guitar music, but was actually jazz performed by two guitars and a trumpet, which was fine. I was surprised that they appeared to have started on time (I got there about five minutes late). Getting there was easy (I could catch a bus at my regular bus stop close to the apartment and it was still light) but I have to work on the getting home part because the place I walked to in order to catch the bus home was less-than-optimum, especially in the dark. It's funny that I often plan for hours before an actual outing to figure out what bus to take to get there, where to get off the bus, how to walk from the bus stop to the destination, what bus to take to get home, what bus stop to walk to in order to get home, etc. While that is a lot of work, at this point I definitely prefer taking the bus to the idea of trying to drive here (and those of you who've ridden with me know that I'm no pansy behind the wheel).
I had an interesting discussion with my roommate yesterday because I heard another person say that Brazil's biggest problem was teenage pregnancy, and I asked her opinion. My roommate thinks, and I agree, that Brazil's biggest problem is the distribution of resources and the huge economic inequality that seems to largely affect those of African descent (among others). It's interesting that things that would be racial stereotypes in the U.S. are more class stereotypes here.
And since I've already written more than anyone other than my parents will read, I'll call it quits for now... :)
posted by Christine Piggee at
6:30 PM
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