Things are happening quicker than I can actually write about them in detail. Here´s just a few quick things. I´ll try to write about other things later that I want to spend more time on like visiting the favela which was amazing.
I saw a penguin yesterday and a failed penguin rescue attempt. It was really cool to see until I realized how sad it is that they need to come to Brazil and how bad they´re doing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/endangeredhabitats.brazil
We played Brazilians vs Americans in soccer and then in basketball. Some things have very predictable results...
On Brazilian beaches you can get cooked cheese on a stick with spices on it. I think the moment I discovered this was the best moment of my life.
We went to a yacht club that Gabby (one of the Brazilian girls) is a member of yesterday. I can officially confirm that when people say the rich in Brazil are really rich they are describing things accurately.
Professor Genaulto (no clue on spelling) is the Professor hosting as at UFBA and he put together a little show for us on Friday. It started with an amazing capoeira performance by one of the best groups in Salvador (go to youtube if you don´t know what capoeira is, its hard to explain without seeing it. We all got to try and play with them to mixed results, my roommate Eli said me trying to do capoeira was the highlight of his trip.
After the capoeira there was a dance troupe that was actually just these guys who play dominoes in front of our school. It ended up basically being the most sexual dance of all time for half an hour and no one knew what to do. We´re pretty sure Genaulto was playing a joke on everyone by getting them there but no ones quite sure what to make of it.
Anyone I´ll try and update more soon. Email me!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Too much to write about...
I haven't written all week and there's way more to talk about than I'll get a chance to.
Everyone is basically running out of time to do our projects and getting frustrated about it. The problem is that all the issues we're dealing with are so complicated that 3 weeks isn't even enough time to understand them, let alone work towards fixing them. It would be easy if we were in a small community where we could say, "ok, these people need a bridge or a well or a school, let's build it" and work towards completing that in 3 weeks. But when you say "public schools in Brazil are a joke because the government doesn't care, people are so poor that their kids need to work, and its accepted that anyone who has any money goes to private school" its hard to really come up with any kind of solution in 3 weeks.
We visited a public school the other day which was an interesting experience. We met with the principal first and there were kids in the hallway everywhere. She said that the teachers don't show up often so the kids just hang out in the hallway. Then we went to meet with the kids and they basically went crazy telling us everything that was wrong with the school, it felt like it was the first time anyone had asked them their opinion. The classroom was packed and there were more kids outside yelling in at us, and then when we tried to leave they gathered around us and kept yelling.
Our project now is to try and start a civic education program for these kids where they can learn about government and how they can use democracy to fight for better education. The problem is we only have a week now to write the program and get it implemented, and we were planning to use the principal at this school but it seems like the school is about to start a mutiny against her and she even admitted to us that she's getting fired soon. The problem is she is the only contact we have there, and we need to partner with someone for the program.
Everyone is basically running out of time to do our projects and getting frustrated about it. The problem is that all the issues we're dealing with are so complicated that 3 weeks isn't even enough time to understand them, let alone work towards fixing them. It would be easy if we were in a small community where we could say, "ok, these people need a bridge or a well or a school, let's build it" and work towards completing that in 3 weeks. But when you say "public schools in Brazil are a joke because the government doesn't care, people are so poor that their kids need to work, and its accepted that anyone who has any money goes to private school" its hard to really come up with any kind of solution in 3 weeks.
We visited a public school the other day which was an interesting experience. We met with the principal first and there were kids in the hallway everywhere. She said that the teachers don't show up often so the kids just hang out in the hallway. Then we went to meet with the kids and they basically went crazy telling us everything that was wrong with the school, it felt like it was the first time anyone had asked them their opinion. The classroom was packed and there were more kids outside yelling in at us, and then when we tried to leave they gathered around us and kept yelling.
Our project now is to try and start a civic education program for these kids where they can learn about government and how they can use democracy to fight for better education. The problem is we only have a week now to write the program and get it implemented, and we were planning to use the principal at this school but it seems like the school is about to start a mutiny against her and she even admitted to us that she's getting fired soon. The problem is she is the only contact we have there, and we need to partner with someone for the program.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Weekend
Haven´t really had a chance to update in a few days, everything has been great here though.
On Saturday we went to the Tomarro Project which is on a beach around an hour outside of Salvador. The drive out was interesting because in the direction we were going we went through around 20 favelas, it was amazing to see how many there are. The houses are all packed on the hill so close that you can only get up through tiny staircases. Its been interesting to see how they compare to what we thought they would be like...all Americans really know about favelas is from City of God so we assume that they´re all violent and controlled by drug lords. That movie is about one specific favela in Rio which is one specific city in Brazil, so when you see how many people live in favelas you realize how ridiculous it is to assume they´re all the same. Most of them are also not really violent, just really really poor, and its kind of stupid how much we focus on the violence compared to the poverty which is so much more overwhelming of a problem.
Anyway the Tomarro Project was nice and we got to hang out on the beaches around there all day with a lot of the Brazilian students. I like the beaches here so much better than on the islands I´ve been to because they basically go on forever...in the Dominican and Jamaica its like small resorts with a small beach and then the next resort with their beach. The beaches in Brazil you can basically walk on forever, even the city beaches feel untouched compared to the other places I´ve been to. The town that was by Tomarro was really nice too and everyone did a lot of shopping there.
On Sunday we went back to Pelourinho which is the area that has most of the cool touristy things in Salvador. The neighboorhood has tons of cool architecture and all the buildings are crazy colors, its the first place where the Portuguese first settled in Brazil so they went pretty crazy with everything. When you walk through Pelourinho you eventually get to a point where you´re about 8 stories up looking out over the bay with water all around you, and there´s an elevator that goes down to the lower city that has a lot of shopping and more cool things to see like capoirera. I got a really nice painting there on Sunday for 25 Reais, which is about 15 dollars.
On Sunday night Gabrielle and Pedro, who are 2 of the Brazilian students, took a few of us to a concert. It was Motumba...there´s tons of videos on Youtube if you want to check out what its like. It was really fun, it was in a huge open air place and I couldn´t believe how many people were there and how crazy everyone went. The band had drummers, horn players, tons of girls dancing, and constant crazy lighting and cofetti. Between that watching all the Brazilians dance there was way too much going on to keep track of it all, it went by really quick.
Anyway that´s about it for now. My eyes are exhausted from looking at the computer screen, I guess I´ve stopped staring at it as often so they aren´t as used to it.
On Saturday we went to the Tomarro Project which is on a beach around an hour outside of Salvador. The drive out was interesting because in the direction we were going we went through around 20 favelas, it was amazing to see how many there are. The houses are all packed on the hill so close that you can only get up through tiny staircases. Its been interesting to see how they compare to what we thought they would be like...all Americans really know about favelas is from City of God so we assume that they´re all violent and controlled by drug lords. That movie is about one specific favela in Rio which is one specific city in Brazil, so when you see how many people live in favelas you realize how ridiculous it is to assume they´re all the same. Most of them are also not really violent, just really really poor, and its kind of stupid how much we focus on the violence compared to the poverty which is so much more overwhelming of a problem.
Anyway the Tomarro Project was nice and we got to hang out on the beaches around there all day with a lot of the Brazilian students. I like the beaches here so much better than on the islands I´ve been to because they basically go on forever...in the Dominican and Jamaica its like small resorts with a small beach and then the next resort with their beach. The beaches in Brazil you can basically walk on forever, even the city beaches feel untouched compared to the other places I´ve been to. The town that was by Tomarro was really nice too and everyone did a lot of shopping there.
On Sunday we went back to Pelourinho which is the area that has most of the cool touristy things in Salvador. The neighboorhood has tons of cool architecture and all the buildings are crazy colors, its the first place where the Portuguese first settled in Brazil so they went pretty crazy with everything. When you walk through Pelourinho you eventually get to a point where you´re about 8 stories up looking out over the bay with water all around you, and there´s an elevator that goes down to the lower city that has a lot of shopping and more cool things to see like capoirera. I got a really nice painting there on Sunday for 25 Reais, which is about 15 dollars.
On Sunday night Gabrielle and Pedro, who are 2 of the Brazilian students, took a few of us to a concert. It was Motumba...there´s tons of videos on Youtube if you want to check out what its like. It was really fun, it was in a huge open air place and I couldn´t believe how many people were there and how crazy everyone went. The band had drummers, horn players, tons of girls dancing, and constant crazy lighting and cofetti. Between that watching all the Brazilians dance there was way too much going on to keep track of it all, it went by really quick.
Anyway that´s about it for now. My eyes are exhausted from looking at the computer screen, I guess I´ve stopped staring at it as often so they aren´t as used to it.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
GPACT program
I have a little bit of time so I figured I would explain a little about what we´re doing in the GPACT program.
The program is around 30 students, pretty much half Brazilian and half American. We´re split into groups, ours has 2 Brazilians and 3 Americans. One of the Brazilians speaks English fluently to translate (the other doesn´t at all) and one of the Americans speaks almost fluent Portuguese so can translate too.
We had to pick a problem in Salvador to work towards solving, and look at what the causes of it are to try and figure out how to fix it. We´re focusing on why so many students drop out of Brazilian public schools and don´t graduate and are going to a school in the favela (Brazilian slums that are built into hills) tomorrow to interview a principal, students, and teachers. Talking to the Brazilian students about this has been really interesting, they can´t believe that in America its illegal for parents to not let their children go to school...they said in Brazil if that was a law they would have to arrest half the country.
Hope this gives you a general idea of what we´re doing....I´ll definitely update more soon
The program is around 30 students, pretty much half Brazilian and half American. We´re split into groups, ours has 2 Brazilians and 3 Americans. One of the Brazilians speaks English fluently to translate (the other doesn´t at all) and one of the Americans speaks almost fluent Portuguese so can translate too.
We had to pick a problem in Salvador to work towards solving, and look at what the causes of it are to try and figure out how to fix it. We´re focusing on why so many students drop out of Brazilian public schools and don´t graduate and are going to a school in the favela (Brazilian slums that are built into hills) tomorrow to interview a principal, students, and teachers. Talking to the Brazilian students about this has been really interesting, they can´t believe that in America its illegal for parents to not let their children go to school...they said in Brazil if that was a law they would have to arrest half the country.
Hope this gives you a general idea of what we´re doing....I´ll definitely update more soon
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Finally online (and out of Sao Paulo)
I haven´t really had any time to get online since I got too Salvador, everythings been extremely busy and you have to either catch one of the 3 people who have laptops when no one else is using them or go to a cafe to get online (at the university half the computers don´t go online and the Brazilians take all the ones that work while we walk around like idiots trying to find them).
Getting to Salvador was an absolute nightmare, we missed our connection from Sao Paulo after a 3 hour to Kennedy (on no sleep) and had to fly out at 5 in the morning, meaning we couldn´t sleep a second night in a row...i´m just starting to recover now.
The hotel in Bahia is pretty good by 3rd world standards..........with the emphasis on the second part of that statement. It has a pool on the roof which is really nice and we have a nice little balcony that you can see a tiny chunk of ocean from, and a parrot feeder that never has any parrots on it yet.
The school is really nice, and all the Brazilian students are very helpful and nice. 90% of all the Brazilians we meet are really nice, most are impressed with my Portuguese and can´t believe I´ve never been to Brazil before. The most important phrase for an American in Brazil to know is
eu no gosto bush.........eu gosto obama.
I dont have much time, ill talk more about everything in salvador soon but ill leave with one story of the 10% of Brazilians who arent very nice.
We went to Pelurhino (no clue how to spell) which is a huge party spot with bars outside and live music. Its really fun and everyone just dances in the streets, theres also a huge drum troupe that you can march around with and everyone dances...then they start playing so fast that you can´t even dance to it (although when I said this I was told that I mean Americans can´t dance to it). But anyway, a group of the American students were drinking Capharinas (Brazilian drink with rum and sugar) and a guy came up to me and asked if one of the girls was my girl. I said yes because he looked really scary and he nodded and took my drink out of my hand. He threw the straw at me and then chugged the whole drink, and crumpled up the plastic cup and threw it at me and then walked away yelling in Portuguese. No one knew what to do, and he came up later and tried to be our friend, to which I responded that he´s not my friend if he took my drink without asking.
Anyway, gotta run, Í´ll update more soon.
Getting to Salvador was an absolute nightmare, we missed our connection from Sao Paulo after a 3 hour to Kennedy (on no sleep) and had to fly out at 5 in the morning, meaning we couldn´t sleep a second night in a row...i´m just starting to recover now.
The hotel in Bahia is pretty good by 3rd world standards..........with the emphasis on the second part of that statement. It has a pool on the roof which is really nice and we have a nice little balcony that you can see a tiny chunk of ocean from, and a parrot feeder that never has any parrots on it yet.
The school is really nice, and all the Brazilian students are very helpful and nice. 90% of all the Brazilians we meet are really nice, most are impressed with my Portuguese and can´t believe I´ve never been to Brazil before. The most important phrase for an American in Brazil to know is
eu no gosto bush.........eu gosto obama.
I dont have much time, ill talk more about everything in salvador soon but ill leave with one story of the 10% of Brazilians who arent very nice.
We went to Pelurhino (no clue how to spell) which is a huge party spot with bars outside and live music. Its really fun and everyone just dances in the streets, theres also a huge drum troupe that you can march around with and everyone dances...then they start playing so fast that you can´t even dance to it (although when I said this I was told that I mean Americans can´t dance to it). But anyway, a group of the American students were drinking Capharinas (Brazilian drink with rum and sugar) and a guy came up to me and asked if one of the girls was my girl. I said yes because he looked really scary and he nodded and took my drink out of my hand. He threw the straw at me and then chugged the whole drink, and crumpled up the plastic cup and threw it at me and then walked away yelling in Portuguese. No one knew what to do, and he came up later and tried to be our friend, to which I responded that he´s not my friend if he took my drink without asking.
Anyway, gotta run, Í´ll update more soon.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
This is my blog for when I'm in Brazil. I just decided I'm not going to bring my laptop with me, so I don't know how often I'll be able to update it, but I will be able to check email so send mail to Lavender.A@neu.edu if you need to talk to me.
I'm mainly writing this for my own memories, so that in 20 years I can look back and say "wow I was really immature/a really bad writer when I went to Brazil". So if you want to read it feel free, but don't feel obligated to because you're my friend...I won't hold it against you if you find more interesting ways to kill time online
I'm mainly writing this for my own memories, so that in 20 years I can look back and say "wow I was really immature/a really bad writer when I went to Brazil". So if you want to read it feel free, but don't feel obligated to because you're my friend...I won't hold it against you if you find more interesting ways to kill time online
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