Volunteer in Brazil: The Blog

Hey guys! 

I need some sleep (eh, Beth?); so just a short and sweet update here. 

It’s shortly after midnight in Rio, and in a matter of seven or eight hours, I’ll be leaving the city to travel up to the North East of Brazil. Around a town called Christino Castro, in a state named Piaui, I’ll be visiting and teaching for a few weeks…before heading back to Rio for a couple of days on my way home to England. 

Since my last post, it’s been a great couple of weeks. We’ve just had Easter, of course, during which I enjoyed going to the masses here at the convent, cracking open a couple of large chocolate eggs, having Beth’s delicious Sunday fettuccine meal, and even watching a local football derby (Flamengo vs. Fluminense) in the spectacular Maracanã stadium.  

Working backwards, I’ve also had my last days of teaching the kids – it was a little sad to say ‘Good Afternoon Class’ at the end and hear everyone yell ‘Good Afternoon Teacher’ for the last time, but the chants of ‘Fica, Fica!’ (meaning “Stay, stay!”) from the smallest class at the end of my final lesson were enough for me to hope that I’d done something vaguely right. I’ll look forward to seeing the staff and kids of the project again for a day or two in May, pre my flight home. 

Perhaps it’s also time to reveal the ‘mysterious’ jumping event. When I said we jumped of a 500m cliff and landed on a beach 6 minutes later, I did of course mean that Laura and I went…hang gliding! Hooray! It was quite an experience; I loved the sensation of flying, which was surprisingly peaceful, and the adrenaline of simply running and jumping off was definitely my favourite part. The views were as incredible as you’d imagine, and though I had a few grumbles about the incessant ‘salesmanship’ of the instructor I was flying with, it’s something I’ll certainly never forget. I know Laura loved the experience too…so I will trust her with the task of elaborating a bit on the whole hang gliding event.  

I’d hope to post a couple more short blog updates from the NE, and then perhaps a full write-up when I get back to England. For now, here’s a few tantalising images from our gliding morning. We’d been building up to this for quite some time, so to quote Lenine (never a bad idea) it was “O Salto Do Desejo”; ‘The Jump of Desire’.  

-Preparation never looked so good.

 -The edge…

 -Gone!

-Mid-flight…

-And safely down.

-(That includes both of us!)

Até logo,  

Joe

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