Volunteer in Brazil: The Blog

Hi bloggers.

Apologies for my absence, this has been owing to my poor time management skills as of late and a lack of creative juice … but I am back now! I know you haven’t been totally starved of news as Jackie has since made her blogging debut so I am not going to feel terribly guilty, just a little!

It seems like we have quite a bit of catching up to do … where to begin?! So, as Jackie has already mentioned in her blog, we had annual Children’s Day at the project and to celebrate this special day the kids had, what is music to all children’s ears (and many adults’ too), news that they were going to be spending the afternoon at an all you can eat pizza lunch. Well it has to be said I have never seen so much pizza in all my days. Not only was I staggered at the volume of pizza that was served and consumed but it was the sheer variety of toppings … I mean, chocolate pizza, who knew there existed such a thing, well apart from Joe, Laura and past volunteers that is! I felt like re-enacting that well known part of Peter Kaye’s comedy act about garlic bread! Plus the journey home on all those winding roads in and around Santa Teresa had us a ll a little green around the gills. C’mon guys, you didn’t think I was going to be rude enough not to participate in this food fest did you, it would be rude to abstain!

It was so funny to hear that some of the kids wanted to really ensure that they got their moneys’ worth from this gastronomic spectacular so much so that they skipped their meals the day before to make room – ah kids, they are the best, they don’t miss a trick!

Beth and I left Rio for a few days and went to the state of Espirito Santo, we stayed in the city of Vitoria but also got the chance to go and visit the city of Venda Nova. Vitoria is in complete contrast to Rio, as where here in Rio the rich and poor live cheek by jowl, in Vitoria you could almost be forgiven for thinking that there was no poverty whatsoever. And as ashamed as I am to admit this, it was a nice change as there, provided you are living in the right ‘zip code’, you don’t have to live with the sound of gunfire and/or the constant anxiety that brings, like you have in Rio. Oddly enough you only realise that you live with this anxiety once you leave Rio, before I’d never really notice. Of course this sort of segregated living isn’t desirable in an ideal world as it poses the obvious risk that the more wealthy sections of society, who consequently it seems are also those with the power, may become ignorant of the social problems facing the less well off in their community but who lives in an ideal world. Anyway, even the wealthy and powerful in Rio do a good job of closing their eyes to what is right on their doorstep, so who is to say?! Vitoria is like a new city, it has many modern buildings, large shopping centres, etc. It has an abundance of wonderful beaches and I felt very privileged to be staying at Beth’s apartment there which literally had a beach on its doorstep, ah what bliss.

As I mentioned, I got to visit the city of Venda Nova and I absolutely fell in love with the place, it is stunning with vistas to die for. Its history is very interesting and the European influence there from a bygone era is obvious, as you wander around you feel as though you may possibly be in Europe as its houses wouldn’t look out of place in the Alps. It seems that one of the city’s main revenue streams is generated by what they term ‘Agroturism’ so, for example, you go and visit local food producers and buy their fresh produce and/or go for lunch at a fazenda, etc. If any of you get the chance to visit this storybook city please take it as it is a place not to be missed.

On my return from my trip with Beth I took time to reflect upon the time I have spent in Rio so far, to see whether I felt I was being true to my original inspiration for volunteering or whether I had unwittingly deviated therefrom. Although I am here for one year time does have a habit of going awfully quickly. I was quite shocked to realise that I have already been here for two months and I do not want to get so far down the line to only to realise that I had not achieved what I had set out to. I think as a volunteer it is important to keep a check on yourself as it is all too easy to get distracted and lose sight of why it was you came to be a volunteer in the first place. I am still in this reflective period but I have to say that I am, on the whole, happy with my progress thus far but I will never be completely satisfied, I always strive to do better.

This Sunday the project is hosting its annual Feijoada Festa here at the Assumption Convent. The kids have been feverishly selling tickets for the event, tickets cost BR.5 and entitle the bearer to a plate of the best feijoada in the city, neigh the country, and a drink. Rumour has it that Beth is making her deadly caipirinha! I just hope the attendees don’t forget that in order for them to get home there are a considerable amount of steps that they have to traverse and I don’t want to be pulling stragglers out of the hedges the next morning as I make my way down to street level for my walk! Actually I can be honest with you, I would love for this to happen and on the off chance I think I will take a camera with me! Watch this space bloggers……!

Ate mais!

Anne.x

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.