Volunteer in Brazil: The Blog

Hello All,

I´am so sorry I haven´t been writing, just Joe has been doing such a good job! I´am a little lost for things to tell you as I have been doing everything with Joe. Although I shall give you a recap of everything so far. I must ask you all to excuse me but this is the first time I have ever done a blog, and Joe has just kindly shown me how to do one.

 I views from the convent are amazing. Christ is staring down at you from the top of his mountain and we look on across the vast amount of flat (and favelas) that make up most of Rio. Even at night you can see Christ looking out across Rio watching everything down below.

I must thank Beth she has been fantastic. Truly a second Mother! Which was great for me as I was feeling very Home sick in the first couple of weeks (well first three weeks!!!). You see I haven´t really been away from home by myself for so long. It was a little scary at first.

 The first time we heard there was trouble in the favelas I was a little shocked that everyone was so calm and used to it when all the shooting was happening so nearby. We were into our second week when we heard the first gun shots. We were all still in bed as it was 6 o´clock in the morning when they started. A country girl like myself thought the local gamekeeper was out with his gun, until I opened my eyes and spotted I was no longer at home.

Three or Four weeks have now passed and the fighting is still going on. It has even spread into other favelas all over Rio and even into the city itself.

I will promise to keep writing the blog, emailing, and updating all pictures and news on

Hello again!

Well, it’s about time we had an another installment here. Week 6 is going great so far…but here’s what went on in wk 5: including our visit to one of the most iconic symbols of Rio/Brazil/South America - the statue of Christo Redentor.

-Teaching news. This week, we continue to teach more and more students, particularly as our adult class is ever increasing. So far, we have seven students (from an original 3) in our first night adult English class. 3 project staff members, 2 of the advanced kids, and 2 parents. And now, we’ve also started a new class, as a few more women from the general community of the favelas have asked to join in. Due to the need to start again with the very basics of the language, we’re running that new beginners course simultaneously and separately, with the teaching team of myself and Laura splitting up in order to teach both classes on Mon/Wed/Fri nights. Personally, I’m very pleased with the fact that parents/community members want to sign up, especially as learning English elsewhere is something that would be so out of their range in terms of cost. I can tell from the billboards as we drive around the city that learning English is something that’s in the public consciousness here - both ‘chique’ in that in seems currently in fashion, and also sought after for the connotations it has with getting employment with large international corporations, or in tourism. We also benefit from our teaching too though, as well as being something that is enjoyable in itself, the more we teach, the more (Portuguese) we learn…with having to find the translations for new topics, and having our students help us out with the pronunciation of these!

-Flood-like conditions! Week 6 hasn’t improved monumentally, but the conditions in week 5 really were extreme. We had lots of dramatic cloudscapes, and then, in the hours that followed these, plenty of pounding ‘Chuva’ (rain), along with some of the loudest thunder and most frequent lightning that I’ve ever heard/seen. Thankfully, we remembered to actually close the windows this time - during similar conditions in week 1, I wasn’t quite so resourceful as to think of this, and ended up with a minor flood in the sitting room to show for it. And so, the storms were actually quite enjoyable to behold, even though short walks around the centre necessitated mad dashes instead. Laura took some excellent shots out the sitting room window; see the last two photos.

-Christo! We’re gradually making our way through Rio’s icons…we’ve done Carnival, have Sugar Loaf on the list…but, just recently, have visited the spectacular statue of Christ. It’s recognisable from such great distances, and tends to dominate (with the aforementioned Pão de Açúcar) postcards of the city. It’s visible from the centre here, but, of course, is a miniature detail on the skyline. Hence, even though you know it’s going to be big, the actual size of the statue is the first thing that really takes you by surprise, as the reverse side of it gradually appears through the trees on the ascent up to Corcorvado’s peak. We reached the spot by the obiligatory ‘trem’ (train), that makes it’s way slowly, steadily and steeply up the mountain, and then walked the final steps past the tacky gift shops and up to the platform where the statue is located. Although we went on a weekday, and were told by Beth that it gets much more packed on weekends/holiday times, there was still lots of international tourists -English, American, Italian, Indian, Chinese…and no Brazilians, save for the guides that took various coach groups around, explaining the details of the views. The panoramas were indeed spectacular though, there wasn’t much of Rio that you couldn’t see, particulary as it was a lovely hot, clear day (luckily not one of the stormy times)! The statue itself, was, as you’d expect - stunning…artistic, compelling and intimidating, so recognisable (how long have you had that tiny version in the car, Dad?) and yet so unique. For anyone looking for spiritual value…it’s almost better to look from a distance, without the multi-lingual jostling of position for photographs, but to really appreciate the structure, it has to be seen up close.   

Also, I did a video blog from a cafe there: see it HERE.

-Lenine! ‘Christo’ is obvious, but you may be wondering at this stage who/what the other namesake of this blog is. During week 5, on the Saturday night, I was lucky enough to go with Beth to see one of Brazil’s most talented/well-respected/popular contemporary musicians. He’s a solo artist who’s had a long career and sings, does some good verbal percussion (not quite my ba-ba-booo, but close), plays guitar, and writes a lot of songs for other ‘Música Popular Brasileira’ (MPB)/’Brazilian Popular Music’ singers. Since my first week here, Beth has been playing me some of his ‘toons’ in the car, and I’ve grown to like the sound of his voice a lot now, even though I understand few of the lyrics. So, from a musical point of view I was very interested to see this guy, and dutifully did my research on him, and went along to the show, which turned out to be great. We were in the ‘Circo Voador’ (Flying Circus) in the Lapa neighbourhood, a fantastic, domed, semi-indoor music venue, and one of the things that has apparently helped regenerate and rejuvinate Lapa itself; which is now a fashionable, thriving spot for night-life and culture (hence the two blocos I went to there during carnival). I’ve no prior experience to judge it against, but Lenine seemed very ‘on form’ as well. Although he let us wait (concert start time: 10pm, Lenine appears: 12 midnight), he and his backing band were excellent, providing a surprisingly rocky, upbeat set, and working the youthful crowd perfectly, giving us over an hour and a half’s play. Beth: I think I need to pick up a copy of his new album somewhere. Everyone: Check out his excellent WEBSITE.

The photos (click to view or right click/save…as to download)! Choose your wallpaper carefully…

-The train at the ground-level station.

-Looking up the sunny ascent.

-Some of the dizzying views from the steep train climb.

-Laura standing in front of the amazing views (slightly below Christ).

-Our first glimpse of Christ through the trees and past the tourist shops.

-Laura’s photo looking up at the towering figure.

-Myself trying to get a free slot in front of the statue.

-And Laura attempting to do the same!

-Side view of the statue.

-Tourist scene (giving some idea of the statue’s scale).

-Sugar Loaf from Christo

-My turn to pose (in front of some, er, radio masts).

-Lenine in the Circo Voador

-Lenine, stutting his stuff again…

-Night scene in Lapa

-Stormy days…

-…and nights!

Commentors:

Well done to John, congrats on the UGT news! Jake, quite right to point out my helpful South Ribble Band background…though I’m surprised you didn’t mention the ’Sound of Brazil’ in there. Still available on Skype everyone, by the way, for conversations and audio performances of voice percussion. Coffee ice cream is indeed delicious, though it sounds as recently the UK has possibly had more ice-cream suited weather of late. Coming in wk6…we eat Chocolate pizza, and that’s not the only culinary surprise! Joe H - I’ll get back to you with confirmation on NE plans, and will keep an eye out on the national ‘futebol’ situation.

Love to all,

 Joe

x

A big hello and bem-vindo to all!

Hoping you’re all well, and I’ve even heard rumours that yesterday was sunnier in Penwortham than in Rio, so I hope people enjoyed that temporary climate swap. Well, anyway, it’s that time of the week again, and at the moment I’m thoroughly enjoying the plentiful delights of week 5 here in Rio. First, though, on the blog in all it’s glory…here’s the big moments from week 4.

-Singing! And other more random noises… This week (realtime: last week) at the project we were lucky enough to have a music teacher come in and do a couple of hours of music lessons/’choir’ practice, which is now going to be a regular event every Friday afternoon. It was great fun, kept the kids interested for a long time, and the teacher, Leila, (who is volunteering at the project to get in hours for her teaching degree) was capable and charismatic. As some of you may be unlucky enough to know, singing isn’t my best forte, but it’s something I generally enjoy, and so I muddled my way through some very fast Portuguese lyrics as best as I could, and finished smiling (if a little behind everyone else). Leila also did a couple of creative percussive excercises as a warm-up, and in one of these we had to invent any random verbal percussion sound, and repeat it over and over whilst she indicated various people to stop and start and ‘mixed’ the volume of each of us. Unfortunately, and perhaps hearing I tought drums, she was cruel enough to mix everyone else ‘out’ and leave me repeating my sound solo, before bringing everyone else back in. Hence, as was inevitable, my ridiculous ’sound’ (something like ‘Ba-ba-booo’ in a vague beatbox style), has now become notorious, and keeps being repeated by kids whenever an English lesson fails to interest them.

Frisbee Classes. As promised, the new addition to the curriculum recently got underway, and I have now taken my first Frisbee lesson with each of the kids’ three age groups. As expected, it proved very fun…although it was also difficult, both to play (the wind on the high sports court sometimes picked up to obstructive speeds), and to teach (as you can imagine, I need a whole new set of Vocab for this…some of which still needs to be invented). However, we all had a good time, and from my perspective it was good to be teaching a more active subject, compared to the more static environment of a classroom. Although I have been reflecting on the fact that when I want them to stay still and sit down they’re incredible restless…and when the time comes to running around, spontaneous bouts of laziness seem to creep up…. No, in all seriousness, a lot of the kids seem to really enjoy playing with a disc, some are picking it up with incredible ease (despite never having heard of a frisbee before) and we got into some excellent games of ‘ultimate’ (a team sport) in the latter stages of the classes. I should also mention that our four classes (including the adults) of students have also been developing well in regular English lessons.

That Ice Cream. Ok, so there’s no amzingly entertaining story here, and I may have built the hype to much…but essentially; in week 4 we went out for an ice cream that was extremely nice. And we had it right under Sugar Loaf in the Urca neighbourhood at night, at the cable car station, with the cars almost brushing our heads as they went directly overhead. We were eating at a branch of Soverte Brasil (click to see their charming website), a highly regarded gourmet company, and they didn’t disappoint with taste. I have to admit, my own choice was fairly conversative in the end, but no less delicious for it. Skating over tempation provided by the Chocolate and Tangerine, Banana and Cinamon and (various) Cheese flavours…I opted for a Coffee with Brownie cone. (There’s a great photo below that includes a rare appearence from Essex’s greatest export: Kevin).

Jardim Botanico. I’ll leave it to some photos to do most of the talking, but this week we immensely enjoyed our sojourn into Rio’s magnificent Botanical gardens. It was beautiful on both large and small scales, with towering Palm Trees and minute, fragile Orchids impressing equally. It seems like an extremely historical place, with many statues of important botanists, clear evidence of the King of Portugal nabbing the best of the world’s flora to found it, and a claim that it was on of Darwin’s first stops in South America whilst the seeds of his major theory were still germinating. The monkies (Southern Brown Howlers…you’ll probably know them as Alouatta guariba clamitans) were cute too. On behalf belalf of Laura though, I’ll issue a health and safety notice…Coke near Bees is never the best idea (don’t worry, being meliponines, obviously, they don’t sting…but are still annoying)! 

Modern Sound. Following our foray into a botanists paradise was a trip to a music-lover’s one. ‘Modern Sound’, a store located in Copacobana, is an excellent refuge from city hustle and bustle, and boasts a fantastic selection of CDs from around the world, as well as a great schedule of free live music right there on the shop floor. Think of a ‘borders’ branch, but only for music, and replace Starbucks, in true Brazilian style, with a bar and a stage - and you’ve more or less got the idea. We saw the ‘Sambajazz Trio’ in action for a while (complete with an impressive drummer who, for part of the set, played the drums with one hand and the trumpet with the other), and then a Brazilian female band (though it sounds sexist…I never asked their name), who played in honour of the next day (last Sunday) being the national women’s day in Brazil, and were also top-notch. Another major bonus was the fact that I was able to pick up a copy of U2’s new album, No Line On The Horizon, there…which I have especially enjoyed listening to. In the years since their last release, I’ve become more sceptical of my traditional ‘favourite band’, and so they had it all to prove to me this time around. My opinion: it’s outstanding…some of their best work, combining some more experimental and reflective tracks with ambitious, unapologetic, classic U2.

This week’s photos:

-The Urca Sorvete/Ice Cream

-Me being a huge asset to Choir practice.

-Leila working with the kids in music.

-More music (with Beth and I clearly engaged in an important discussion).

-A stream in the Jardim Botanico.

-Jardim Botanico 2, including some of those Palm Trees.

-One of those howlers…

-Some older archways from the Jardim.

-Laura’s impressive capture of an Orchid.

-More palm trees.

-Modern sound shop floor.

-Modern sound 2.

-Live music at Modern Sound.

-During Ultimate Frisbee with the kids.

-The bigger kids line up for some throwing practice.

-And now it’s the turn of the excitable smaller class…

-Some sort of warm-up exercise.

-Two kids, Natasha and Rita, with a disc - posing…

-Amor

To the commentors:

Thanks for your continued support!! Hope there was some good wallpaper material in those Carnival photos. I’ve since disocvered I can’t truly describe the taste of an Ovalmaltine shake, as John knows, but put Bob’s burgers first on the list (or second, perhaps after some teaching) if you ever visit Rio. Maxine: I too will visit your flower shop when I get back, should have stolen you some orchids from the botanical gardens. Katie: it is a Brazil shirt, of course! And Polly and Joe… I will e-mail you very soon, and will discuss with Beth what’s needed to bring over! And to any friends who are interested…I am now ‘Skype-ready’, so let’s talk…

Time to go and fall asleep to Bono’s dulcet tones,

Amor and Paz,

Joe

x

Hello all,

Apologies once again for a belated blog - things have been busy! Whilst here, I will definitely write a blog for every week, but when exactly they appear in the following week is going to vary constantly depending on my computer access, time, and the microscopic oscillations occuring in the blog-time continuum (as I’m now calling it).

Anyway, let’s waste no more words. As Brazilian signs say: ”Lugar de lixo é na lixeira.” (the place of waste is in the bin)! 

So here’s a flavour of Week 3’s main events…

-The arrival of Kevin and Laura. This week, the English residents here at the centre have tripled…wahayy! From a single representative, myself, to a charming bunch of 3. First to arrive was Kevin, an elderly gentleman from Essex who’s come just to enjoy some time in Rio. He has openness and wit in equal measure, and despite not speaking Portuguese (and the staff here not speaking English), it’s amazing how well he gets on with everyone. Yes, there have been some comical and confusing moments when earnest attempts at communication have been made on both sides, but the essential message of mutual goodwill always seems to get through. It’s a pleasure chatting with him at mealtimes. A couple of days after, we welcomed Laura - my ‘flatmate’ and a new volunteer! At 21, she’s…some… years younger than Southern boy Kev, but just as nice to talk to. It’s good to have someone to share the house and the lessson planning with, so Laura - welcome.  Hopefully I’ll drag her into writing on the blog soon, or at least posting some of her (expert) photography work.

-Back in the classroom. After the carnvial break, the work’s really started. Me and Laura are teaching together every week day - Tuesday and Thursday with the 3 kids classes, and Mon/Wed/Fri with the adults. Two of the girls from the oldest class have asked to join the adult sessions, which is a great sign.  Top of the agenda this week have been telling the time, as well as bigger numbers. Hopefully the kids will put this practical knowledge to use in the future, and for my part, I’m a bit better at drawing clocks. I’ve also now added to my schedule the English tuition of the project’s music teacher, as well as adding a new subject to the PE curriculum: Frisbee. Every class will have a one hour lesson in this new discipine on Wednesdays, including some broader excercise and training. Cool, eh?

-Swimming. I have to say, using the centre’s swimming pool this week has been a real pleasure, especially in the sweltering heat, which is showing no signs, as of yet, of relenting. It reminds me very much of my great Aunt and Uncle’s pool in San Fransico (some will remember the many photos taken last summer), except slightly bigger, and with a more diverse wildlife population seeming to live around it! Planes also go directly overhead and so seem huge, which is quite surreal.

-Samba! (See last week for more carnival info). The event of the week that I will remember the longest, was our (myself, Laura, Beth and Bia’s) all night ‘Samba Vigil’, in the Sambadrome, watching Carnival’s winning ‘Schools’ perform an encore of their parades from the festival week. Each school has 82 minutes to get thousands of dancing members in elaborate costumes from one end of the 700m Samba ‘Avenue’ to the other. We watched the six highest placed parades. Start time: a loose 9pm. You can do the maths. It was a long night, but a great experience. The scale of the whole event, as I touched upon last week, looked huge on TV, so to be there in person to see the costumes, floats and sheer volume of people (The Sambadrome’s max capacity is 88,500 and it was virtually full…+ the dancers) was truly spectacular. The word ’spectacular’, I must mention, could also be applied to the way a “Bob’s Burgers” cheeseburger tastes at 1am, especially when accompanied by an ovalmaltine milkshake, of which I will be purchasing more from the many branches of Bob’s scattered around the city. Anyway, there quite a few photos below that should give some sense of what the experience was like. Here’s a map of the Sambadrome itself: MAP. As you can see, it’s less of a ’drome’ (whatever that may be), and more of a large ’runway’. We were positioned right at the end, in the Frisas in front of sectors 4/6, near the iconic archway. Whilst we had to wait a while at the start for the parades to arrive, it was great to see the dancers from ground level, and we got some good views of the detail of the parades when they split up at the end to go either side of us. I learnt about the various schools and the ‘themed’ parades, sang along to their samba lyrics where I could follow, and emerged from the drome (after dawn) bleary eyed but still tapping my feet. Eterna paixao! I’d love a cheeseburger right now though…  

-Other cullinary delights. Whilst I’m on food, I can’t help but mention that scrumptious meat dish soaked in bread and white wine sauce at (local bar) Devassa. And it would be impolite not to discuss the creamy, fresh, house ale from the same place. And then there was that pizza in Copacobana, and the many ice cold glasses of the main brazilian soft drink ‘Guarana’, complete with slices of lemon or lime. And there was this Ice Cream we had under Sugar Loaf in Urca that you really should hear about….but, hang on - techically, it was week four by that point. So I’ll leave you on that cliff hanger…

Lots of photos (including, kindly, some of Laura’s shots)! Click to view or right click and ’save…as’ to download. Hope the connection speed is ok.

-The spectacular views from last week’s beach!

-The long Sambadrome in all it’s glory.

-Part of the winning ‘Salguero’ parade.

-In the dromo with Beth and Bia.

-And with Laura/Bia.

-Iconic city symbols, or shallow voyeurism?

-An amazing ‘human compass’ from the ‘Mangeuria’ school.

-Glittering Carnvial atmosphere.

-A stunning (and rather complementary) interpretation of Louis XIV, King of France.

-A towering, egyptian-themed display.

-Some of the more light-hearted costumes (they’re ’showers’).

-Another colourful float/car, whatever we should call it!

-Proof we really were there all night!

-Me, as dawn breaks across the Sambadromo.

……………………………….

To the commenters:

Thanks again, great feedback on the whole, and it’s great to have so much interest in the blog. Michelle (a close friend of Bia’s) and Katie, welcome! But hey hey hey…I thought I set the challenges around here! Only kidding…did I really think I could control my audience?

However, I would like to remind everyone that, whilst we all love banter, this is a public blog, not set-up, administered or owned by myself, and it needs to be suitable for anyone and everyone to read. If we could continue to post in that spirit, I’d be grateful.

Much Love,

Miss you all back home,

Joe

x

(P.S. Expect Week 4 very shortly!)

A full, photo-laden report from Week 3 will be posted soon, but to keep my most eager fans (you know who you are) happy, here’s a video blog.

I don’t think I can embed them here on the blog page, but I didn’t want to let that small technical detail stop me, so the plan is to record a video blog once in a while, and then upload and host it on youtube. I’ll also upload any random video clips I take with my camera to that youtube channel…so keep an eye out!

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO BLOG #1 !

Obrigado,

Joe x