Indian Day
The biggest excitement here this past week was the slated arrival of a group of indigenous guests that were going to be participating in a cultural program last week at the Methodist school, Izabela Hendrix, and sleeping at São Gabriel. April 19th is officially "Indian Day" in Brazil, and the group was supposed to arrive on the afternoon of Tuesday the 17th from the neighboring state of Bahia. The staff and children here at São Gabriel were very excited and anxious to meet the guests, but none moreso than Daniel. Daniel is currently working mornings at São Gabriel and leaving after lunch, but on the day the group was slated to arrive, he showed up at São Gabriel in the late afternoon with a flimsy excuse for skipping his nightschool classes and spent the night waiting with Valdener (the caretaker) for the guests. A few of us stayed after work to greet them but gave up around 9:00 PM. The group finally arrived at 2:30 a.m. because their van broke down on the highway.
The next morning, the group was off to their engagement downtown before most of us had arrived at São Gabriel. Daniel spent all of his time Wednesday telling people about the group, what they looked like, what they did when they arrived, etc. Wednesday night, I ended up staying after work waiting to let the group back in, and although somebody had called from downtown at 5:30 saying the group was on their way back, they didn't arrive until a little after 8:00. I opened the dormitory for them, told them about the food waiting for them in the kitchen and asked if I could take a few pictures because Silene had asked me to take some with her camera. They all spoke Portuguese, and the only obvious difference was that they have body and facial tattoos. I asked one of the girls what the name of their tribe meant, and she didn't know. One of the little boys (in the last photo below) came up to me when I was sitting outside and asked me if I knew how to tie shoes. When I replied "Yes," much to my amusement, he then put his tennis shoe on, shoved it in my face and said "tie it."
On Friday, the group returned a little earlier from the school downtown and had a chance to interact with the Shade and Fresh Water kids at São Gabriel. Although I wasn't there because I was at Liberdade, Silene took photos and was kind enough to let me use the photos from her camera. The temporary coordinator here remarked that it's funny that the kids here are so accustomed to receiving foreign visitors that they no longer even bat an eye, but when a group of Brazilian indians arrives, everybody is in a frenzy.
Two boys in the group of indigenous guests at São Gabriel
Making crafts
Making crafts (cont.)
I found it interesting that this guy's feet were tatooed as well
Thanks to Silene for the following pictures:
Kids at São Gabriel on Indian Day
Some of the indigenous guests with the São Gabriel kids on Friday
Guess which one is the "indian"...the one on the right, who was the one that had me tie his shoes
Thursday at Liberdade, I handed out knitting needles and yarn for the first group of kids to be able to take home. They were very excited, especially when I showed them a pattern book that had hundreds of swatches of various geometric designs that you can knit. I explained that with the stitches I would teach them, they could make many of those designs. Several of the kids were saying, "I want to make this one and this one and that one...", but I was really impressed when one of the boys said, "If my mother tells me we need a present for Cousin John and we don't have any money, I will tell her, 'I will make one' and if we need a present for baby Kathy, I will say 'I can make one'", etc. For the knitting classes, I split the kids up into mini-groups so I won't have more than 6 or 7 at a time, so each mini-group has a knitting class every two weeks. The kids that didn't have their class last week (and therefore didn't get their needles yet) were pestering me "PLEASE let me have my needles now. I can't wait a whole week. PLEASE!". It's good to see them so motivated about something.
But it's never completely smooth sailing for very long. The very next day, the coordinator at Liberdade had to go to a doctor's appointment and left after reviewing the behavior rules for the project with them and saying that the teacher of a particular class is the authority for them at that time. All of this went out the window less than five minutes after she left. The first group I had was difficult but bearable, and we got through the theater exercises I had spontaneously come up with when I knew we, the two remaining teachers, would each have to each take one big group (and therefore I wouldn't teach English like I normally would on Friday). The second group was horrible, and even the kids that are normally well-behaved didn't stop throwing gravel the entire time (my "classroom" is the garden in back), and finally after several attempts to get them back on track, I consulted with the other teacher and dismissed them without their snack (which I already knew was only koolaid and cookies that day).
By some miracle, the afternoon kids on Friday were well-behaved (they are normally the most difficult ones), and I was so grateful that I sang to them during their snack time to thank them for their good behavior.
I had already planned a "Me and Jesus" date for Friday night after work because the Cultural Center downtown was offering a free Scandanavian film. [I often use the phrase "Me and Jesus" to describe situations where I'm alone.] I stopped at a luncheonette to get a small pastry to eat for dinner and waited to be let into the area where they were showing the film. Although I knew nothing about it other than the Portuguese title and the name of the director, it was actually pretty good, and I enjoyed it. Afterward, I only had to go around the corner to catch the bus to my neighborhood. When I got back to my neighborhood, I was walking towards the small park/plaza down the street from my building when I heard a guitar playing. I saw several people sitting, chatting and listening to the guitarist, so I stopped and sat with them. It turns out that everybody is from the neighborhood and that the guitarist likes to play there every once in a while for a "serenade." When he started to play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," I said that it was an American song, and then he asked me if I could sing it. So I ended up sitting there and singing various American and Brazilian songs with the group for more than an hour before finally leaving for my apartment. It was really nice to have such a nice evening after being down for a while.
And a final word about music. I'm not sure why only recently, I began to think more about the lyrics to various sacred songs and about the intensity of the emotions the composers must have experienced. I've long known the lyrics to many hymns, but for some reason have just now started to stop and imagine what the composers felt to inspire such music.
The next morning, the group was off to their engagement downtown before most of us had arrived at São Gabriel. Daniel spent all of his time Wednesday telling people about the group, what they looked like, what they did when they arrived, etc. Wednesday night, I ended up staying after work waiting to let the group back in, and although somebody had called from downtown at 5:30 saying the group was on their way back, they didn't arrive until a little after 8:00. I opened the dormitory for them, told them about the food waiting for them in the kitchen and asked if I could take a few pictures because Silene had asked me to take some with her camera. They all spoke Portuguese, and the only obvious difference was that they have body and facial tattoos. I asked one of the girls what the name of their tribe meant, and she didn't know. One of the little boys (in the last photo below) came up to me when I was sitting outside and asked me if I knew how to tie shoes. When I replied "Yes," much to my amusement, he then put his tennis shoe on, shoved it in my face and said "tie it."
On Friday, the group returned a little earlier from the school downtown and had a chance to interact with the Shade and Fresh Water kids at São Gabriel. Although I wasn't there because I was at Liberdade, Silene took photos and was kind enough to let me use the photos from her camera. The temporary coordinator here remarked that it's funny that the kids here are so accustomed to receiving foreign visitors that they no longer even bat an eye, but when a group of Brazilian indians arrives, everybody is in a frenzy.
Two boys in the group of indigenous guests at São Gabriel
Making crafts
Making crafts (cont.)
I found it interesting that this guy's feet were tatooed as well
Thanks to Silene for the following pictures:
Kids at São Gabriel on Indian Day
Some of the indigenous guests with the São Gabriel kids on Friday
Guess which one is the "indian"...the one on the right, who was the one that had me tie his shoes
Thursday at Liberdade, I handed out knitting needles and yarn for the first group of kids to be able to take home. They were very excited, especially when I showed them a pattern book that had hundreds of swatches of various geometric designs that you can knit. I explained that with the stitches I would teach them, they could make many of those designs. Several of the kids were saying, "I want to make this one and this one and that one...", but I was really impressed when one of the boys said, "If my mother tells me we need a present for Cousin John and we don't have any money, I will tell her, 'I will make one' and if we need a present for baby Kathy, I will say 'I can make one'", etc. For the knitting classes, I split the kids up into mini-groups so I won't have more than 6 or 7 at a time, so each mini-group has a knitting class every two weeks. The kids that didn't have their class last week (and therefore didn't get their needles yet) were pestering me "PLEASE let me have my needles now. I can't wait a whole week. PLEASE!". It's good to see them so motivated about something.
But it's never completely smooth sailing for very long. The very next day, the coordinator at Liberdade had to go to a doctor's appointment and left after reviewing the behavior rules for the project with them and saying that the teacher of a particular class is the authority for them at that time. All of this went out the window less than five minutes after she left. The first group I had was difficult but bearable, and we got through the theater exercises I had spontaneously come up with when I knew we, the two remaining teachers, would each have to each take one big group (and therefore I wouldn't teach English like I normally would on Friday). The second group was horrible, and even the kids that are normally well-behaved didn't stop throwing gravel the entire time (my "classroom" is the garden in back), and finally after several attempts to get them back on track, I consulted with the other teacher and dismissed them without their snack (which I already knew was only koolaid and cookies that day).
By some miracle, the afternoon kids on Friday were well-behaved (they are normally the most difficult ones), and I was so grateful that I sang to them during their snack time to thank them for their good behavior.
I had already planned a "Me and Jesus" date for Friday night after work because the Cultural Center downtown was offering a free Scandanavian film. [I often use the phrase "Me and Jesus" to describe situations where I'm alone.] I stopped at a luncheonette to get a small pastry to eat for dinner and waited to be let into the area where they were showing the film. Although I knew nothing about it other than the Portuguese title and the name of the director, it was actually pretty good, and I enjoyed it. Afterward, I only had to go around the corner to catch the bus to my neighborhood. When I got back to my neighborhood, I was walking towards the small park/plaza down the street from my building when I heard a guitar playing. I saw several people sitting, chatting and listening to the guitarist, so I stopped and sat with them. It turns out that everybody is from the neighborhood and that the guitarist likes to play there every once in a while for a "serenade." When he started to play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," I said that it was an American song, and then he asked me if I could sing it. So I ended up sitting there and singing various American and Brazilian songs with the group for more than an hour before finally leaving for my apartment. It was really nice to have such a nice evening after being down for a while.
And a final word about music. I'm not sure why only recently, I began to think more about the lyrics to various sacred songs and about the intensity of the emotions the composers must have experienced. I've long known the lyrics to many hymns, but for some reason have just now started to stop and imagine what the composers felt to inspire such music.
posted by Christine Piggee at
1:11 PM
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