© Province 3N The Catenian Association
080225
Bradford President Tim Parr's daughter Emily is spending six months in Sao Paulo in Brazil to help with the care and education of street children. She applied for and received a grant from the Bursary Fund for £700. She has somehow found the time in her hectic days to keep us up to date with her life there.
I'm really enjoying myself, much more than I thought I would. The people are all lovely, we're getting on so well. And the city is amazing, like nowhere I've ever seen before - it's a huge crowded mish-mash of tall buildings and exotic trees, which goes on seemingly forever. Where we're staying is quite a nice area so it feels and seems safe, but the poverty is inescapable. Last night when we went out for dinner and beer at some local cafes we saw the tiny bare-footed street children come out, and I've seen many more of them today wandering around the city. It's very upsetting, but I'm not wallowing in the poverty but remembering why I'm here, to help those kids I can to have a better life. I generally like the city - it's crazy but so vibrant.
This morning we went to a local arts fair and then to the park where we drank coconut milk from coconuts - a Brazilian tradition. We had traditional Brazilian food yesterday - it was really good, and they have tonnes of wheat-free stuff as they use loads of flour other than wheat - cheese bread is my favourite!
We're starting Portuguese tomorrow morning, which is exciting - the only hard thing the last couple of days has been only being able to say thank you (obrigada) and sorry (desculpa) properly, and then having to waffle on in Spanish to get by!
Oi! (hi!)
I'm getting on really well with my Portuguese and have learnt to love cafe which is great here - I start each day with an expresso and pao de quiejo, cheese bread which is gluten free and so yummy! The foods all great and as Rachael is wheat intolerant Sida, the maid, makes me loads of amazing gluten free food. I can now converse fairly proficiently with the Brazilians (eu falo portugues muito bem!), we met a load of young people from the local college last night - our hotel is on a road which is famous throughout the whole of brazil for being gay, so there are loads of gay guys and transvestites!
I've now been here over two weeks and am now settled down here and feeling more at home. However, I'm still missing home and everyone like mad
Lots has happened here since I last wrote. The Mungalow is no longer quite so disgusting - we've cleaned the living area, bathroom and kitchen well; however, new bugs enter daily so it's an ongoing mission to keep the mungalow web, spider and moth free. We've had quite a few barratas (cockroaches) in the house lately but we are successfully keeping them away now and last night we found a frog in the bathroom and a frog in the hall!! It was very exciting especially as I got to be the brave one to save the day as I quite like frogs, whereas many of the volunteers, especially Cat, hate them and were running around screaming - I was very careful and wearing gloves (as many frogs here are poisonous) carried them outside and to the lake, far away from the house. The others promised to return the favour whenever we have spider attacks, as I detest spiders and am sure to jump onto the closest object and scream loudly if one comes along (though I'm even getting a little better dealing with spiders now!).
Work at the Home is still very hard and very intense. I now know most of the children pretty well, which is making normal play much easier. However, for the past two weeks the newly arrived toddler, Kedney, has been making my life hell. He has had a terrible upbringing living with a crack-addicted family who beat him a lot - he thus is not quite all there in his mind, is very aggression and has no attention span. He has thus far bitten me twice and thrown a large toy car and various stones at me, though I have not yet been badly hurt. However, this weekend we made a bit of a breakthrough in our rocky relationship and now I feel like I can control him a little better, though he is still such hard work as he wants to do nothing - "Ele quer fazer nada" is how I sum him up in Portuguese. However, I get on very well with the other children, especially the girls, and play many games with them including a lot of skipping which l uckily I'm still quite good at, although I had not done it for years. I'm starting to earn the respect of many of the older boys too as I help them with their English homework, play music with them and have started doing caipoera, which I'm not that bad at and really enjoy. However, life with the younger boys if often hard as they're very boisterous and can be very rude and a little aggressive, especially to female volunteers whom, I am told, they always react oddly to, with a lot of, especially sexual, bravado, which can be hard. I'm also teaching the cook, Regenaldo, Shakespeare as he's keenly trying to learn English but until now has understood no Shakespeare, despite his fervent attempts at reading it- we've started with the Tempest which is fun and he's understanding more everyday, though he still has no grasp of Shakespeare's rude puns which are very amusing to try to explain in a mix of English and Portuguese! Unfortunately I'm very tired a lot of the time at the moment as with the newly arrived children in the nursery I get no time off, and work at least a 10/11 hour day everyday (today though, with the school run, I work a 15/16 hour day!).
Contradictory to what was written on the Internet and my Brazil guide, the weather is not temperate here but generally boiling, with highs of around 40C everyday. However, the summer storms have also started to come and when it rained for the first time in months yesterday it really rained and all the children ran outside and danced and did caipoeira in the rain, as Peter and I played music under the little cover with the monitors. It was so funny - we'd never get anything done if rain brought on such a reaction in England! However, it's back to being lovely and sunny today, so my tan will continue to increase which I'm very happy about.
As you can probably tell by my email, things have got a lot better here. Though I'm very tired (all the time!) I'm settling down fine here and with less than five months left now I think I'll be able to hack it.
Things in Brazil are going very well. Sadly the weather has been shockingly bad for about two weeks now - the sun seems a distant memory and my tan, I'm afraid, is fading. We've had a long bout of summer storms, complete with rain, thunder, lightning, wind and plenty of frogs. Thus all the outside fun we'd been having has been replaced by board games and indoor sports. This has resulted, however, in increased popularity with the boys here. At first I found life with the boys very difficult; they tend to be very unpredictable and aggressive, especially with the girls. However, all has changed since I introduced them to Mousetrap! They absolutely love it, think it's the most wonderful game ever - it's a little scary sometimes being sat in the centre of nearly twenty boys playing and watching the game but it's also a lot of fun. Furthermore, a couple of the older boys were playing chess and were delighted to discover that I know how to play. One of the boys, Diago, is incredible at it - I've played and beaten a lot of fairly good players in the past but I never have a chance against Diago! Due to the weather, I've also done a lot of drawing and reading (in Portuguese) with the girls, as well as listening to their awful music in their room, a novelty they really enjoy.
Since I last wrote our duties have almost completely changed. With our new timetable, we now do kitchen shifts alone - one person has six hours in the morning, and the other five in the afternoon. This is hard work but good fun, and I can now make a huge salad for over seventy people in about forty minutes. We also now have scheduled work in the lavandaria, putting out, taking in and sorting all the washing everyday. This is, strangely perhaps, our hardest duty now, as it's very long and heavy work - once I had to do it alone, and putting out all the washing took me just less than two hours, and I had to walk back and forth seven times filling up my heavy basket. I may finally be getting a hint of a muscle in my arm?! Finally, we do the school run the same and the bursario (nursery) fairly similarly, though we get to spend a little less time there which is good as being with the small kids is such hard work.
Things in the bursario have been going so much better lately though. Kedney and I now get on really well; he's learnt to say my name, which is really sweet. We play together loads and when I'm in the cozinha he comes to the window, shouts my name and says, 'abraco' (hug) - Donna Dora tells him that I'm not allowed to go out to him though because I've got work to do! Therefore, today is a very sad day for me as Kedney, along with his beautiful baby sister Nicole, are being adopted today and leaving the orphanato. I prayed last night that they wouldn't go in the morning so that I'd get a chance to say goodbye. As Kedney arrived a couple of days after Peter and I, and as we've spent so much time with him after his arrival, we've been able to see his progression from a deeply troubled, incredibly aggressive child who couldn't speak at all, to the sweet boy we know today. He is still very aggressive, but so, so much better, and he's learnt so much language since he's been here, now being able to say 'bom dia', 'tudo bem?', 'almoco', 'abraco' and so much more. I'm really going to miss him but I hope that he can have a really wonderful life in his new family.
As always our Portuguese is improving as we speak more with the monitors and children. Other skills we have picked up here are coming along also. My capoeira is getting better and better and I've also started doing acrobacia which I'm good at, apart from I'm not strong enough - Faisca (the teacher) says I have to eat more beans! I've also been to a couple of capoera music lessons, which are really cool. I've never done any percussion before so was happy to find that my drumming was good - playing the billabong (a special, weird looking instrument used in capoeira) is good fun but very painful to play - I think I need to be a little stronger to play that one well also...
Peter, Cat and I are off to Sao Paulo for a three-day holiday tomorrow - it's our first trip away from the orphanato since we arrived here about a month and a half ago (we've now been in Brazil exactly two months!). We're really looking forward to the break, having time to relax, a comfy bed and a clean, bugless shower. We're also spending one of the days working as volunteers in a favela in Sao Paulo, Dia Dema, working with the girls there who came out to Brazil with us with Oyster, which is very exciting.
Peter is doing very well. As always he seems to talk more than work in the cozinha, but this has its upside, as his Portuguese is very good. He's also had happy news from home with the offer of university interviews coming in for when we return in March. Cat is also doing well, and is now the chief moth killer, whereas I, of course, am still chief frog remover!
Cat's flight back is now booked - she's leaving the 15th of January which will be sad and weird. The new Cat is illegal here as you're only allowed to stay in Brazil for six months at a time, as Cat was informed when trying to get her visa in the Brazilian airport. Thus she has to pay 8 reis a day to be here, which isn't much but builds up over time. Therefore, I think she'll be leaving January also, whereas she was going to stay quite a lot longer before.
I think Cat and I are off to the post-office soon and then to a nice cafe the new Cat showed the boys - it sounds a bit nice for Extrema so Cat and I are excited to give it a try, though we might just have an ice cream instead, which is a lovely treat reserved only for time in Extrema.
Not much else is going on apart from I'm going out tonight which is very exciting. I miss you all loads. I'm starting my advent calendar tomorrow but this year it's less about Christmas and more about counting down to Dad and you visiting.
For some reason our normal internet cafe isn't open this morning which really sucks - but it's the only one in town with skype so we have to go there. I can't call this morning, though after spending an hour here, I'm going to see if the other one's open and give you a call from there if it is. If not, I'm going to try to give you a call from the orphanato tonight.
Anyway, I'm fine. Got a terrible cough (Cat and I seem to have caught it off Wagner) but apart from that I'm tired but doing well. We're buying a Christmas tree in town today which is very exciting. Cat and I have been making lots of snow-flakes with the children, and which are now all stuck up on the windows (though Mattheus pointed out that there are 14 windows panes which need one still so we'll be making more together today). I'm also hoping to do flautas with the children today - I doubt we'll be ready for christmas but they love doing it anyway. We also brought Cat's straighteners up the other day, and since have been doing all of the girls' hairs every night. They really love it! Wagner sleeping a bit better now - having much fewer and less extreme nightmares which is good, though he still wets the bed almost every night. I never sleep well when I stay in the bursario and am not sleeping well generally and so am really tired at the moment. However I get a bit of a break this weekend as we go to get out visas on Friday, stay in Sao Paulo that night and might go to the beach for the day Saturday.
I opened all my Christmas cards on Saturday (the 1st of December) - they were all lovely but made me cry a lot. December's making me miss you all more than usual because I miss all the Christmassy things we do together. I'm trying to stay positive though and to make Christmas here as good as possible.
We gave Peter a much needed haircut last night which was very scary - I did the front which looks rather good but Caro said it 'looks gay' so she 'better do the rest' - so she did the back which looks a bit awful to be honest but hair grows so it'll be fine in a couple of weeks. My hair's getting pretty long now; I don't think I'd fancy a Brazilian hair-cutting experience and I'm not letting Caro anywhere near my head with a pair of scissors so I'im just cutting off any split ends and letting it grow.
I'm sending off my Christmas cards from Sao Paulo on Friday - I hope they'll get there on time - I'm sure Sao Paulo post will be quicker than Extrema. I still haven't received anything other than my packages but fingers crossed something might arrive soon.
Feliz Natal!
Being so busy at the orphanato Christmas seems to have crept up on me suddenly, and I feel a little bemused to now be merging my update with a Christmas letter to you all.
Life here is good at the moment. The orphanato is filled with Christmas lights, trees and various home made decorations and even the mungalow, well decorated, feels positively festive. However, I feel the least Christmassy I ever have as the sun is shining so brightly and many Christmas decorations here are bizarre – there's no holly, but rather flowers and ladybirds, for example. Also, being away from home seems particularly difficult in December as I miss my family so much and all the normal Christmas things we do together every year. However, there are many fun things here also: Cat and I have made many flocos de neve (snowflakes) with the children, using loads of glitter and sequins – they're now all stuck up on the windows and look beautiful. I'm also doing flauta (recorder) lessons with many of the children in preparation for Christmas – many of them can now play about half of Jingle Bells and Silent Night - many of them can play nothing and simply enjoy making loud squeaky noises as many children do when playing the recorder - they all love the lessons though which is the important thing. This week I'm starting to make Christmas Coconuts with the children, an original idea of mine inspired by a coconut nativity I bought at the crafts market in Sao Paulo. Furthermore, in general, the children are all very excited about Christmas which is lovely – they're very pleased that we're all staying for Christmas also, which feels really nice. My Christmas packages and some cards arrived the other day as well, which really cheered me up! I have to confess that my advent calendar this year means little about Christmas to me and much more about the visit of my mum and dad after Christmas - my countdown's started and I only have to wait seventeen more days before I see them!
Our work at the orphanato has once again changes. Now, we work a lot in the nursary once again as it is now the duty of the volunteers to sleep with Wagner every night. This is tiring as Wagner often has truly awful nightmares, where he'll wake up a few times a night and scream and cry as he kicks at his cot and spins in circles. Sometimes they go on for over twenty minutes, us being unable to wake or calm him in any way. It's very frightening when it happens, but happily lately they seem to have calm down so that he has not had a very bad episode for around two weeks. He often has nightmares still but they're not nearly as extreme and they last only five minutes. However, he's still wetting his bed almost every night which is a pain.
Since my last email I've visited Sao Paulo twice, once for a short break and last weekend in order to renew my visa. I had a lovely time there, a much needed break - we visited the park for a picnic, I bought myself some capoeira trousers and we went out for lovely food, including chips! (No rice and beans allowed when I'm on holiday!) Renewing our visas was a bit of a scary adventure as we had to go alone and had so many warnings from many different people - however, the process went very smoothely and I now have three more legal months in Brazil before I return home.
Peter is now in full swing with his English lessons for the monitors - he has many lessons a week with various groups of different levels. He seems to really enjoy it and the monitors all say that he is a 'bom profesor'. Peter also loves working in the kitchen still and is now trusted to make the rice and beans every now and again!
Sadly, Cat decided a few weeks ago that she will leave Brazil early. Her flight is now booked for the fifteenth of January. She just felt too homesick and felt that she'd prefer to really enjoy four months here rather than struggle on for six. I'm supportive of her decision but very upset as I know I will miss her so so much and I'm dreading being left here without her with the horrible German volunteers. However, I know Peter will look after me and that this is the best thing for Cat - I only want her to be happy in the end.
Well, thank you to everyone for your support this year whilst I've been away in Brazil and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I miss you all so much over the holiday season so any emails and news from home would be so so appreciated.
I hope you all had a wonderfully happy and peaceful Christmas period - a cold, normal Christmas in England seems worlds away from what I've experienced in Brazil...
The main celebration day for Christmas in Brazil is Christmas Eve, so excited and thoroughly in a Christmassy mood I set off early to the orphanage to see all the kids. Cat and I, boasting huge smiles, went to the first children we saw and merrily said, 'Feliz Natal!' This was met by a look of confusion and amusement - the Christmas spirit, we found that morning, had missed Extrema. We found the children cleaning their bedrooms, the normal routine - all seemed very ordinary and boring - Cat and I were utterly depressed. We later discovered that although Christmas Eve is their main celebration day, it doesn't get going until night time. Happily, therefore, the day picked up - I spent much of it doing nail varnish specially for the girls, and practicing 'Jingle Bells' with my little recorder group. At seven we all went to the church and had a service where the children in the choir, which I help in, sang, or rather excitedly shouted, their Brazilian Christmas songs.
About half way through came the time for my flauta group to shine. I stood up, ushered the five girls over, but, to my horror, they all sat completely still - overcome with nervousness they claimed they couldn't do it - thirty seconds later, to my relief, they were all stood up playing 'Jingle Bells'. When they finished the church was filled with raptous applause and shouts for more - the girls were so proud of themselves, and I felt so so proud of them all. After the service we went back to the main room in the orphanato where huge presents and beautiful food had appeared. The room looked so beautiful and all the children were so so excited. Adding to the Christmas happiness was the arrival of Helena and Nicky, our friends who work as volunteers in Sao Paulo - they had come to spend Christmas with us and I was so delighted to see them - it was great to have the whole group together for Christmas; they felt like my Brazilian/English family! The feast, much of which was prepared by Peter who is quite the chef, was muito gostoso and enjoyed by all. Typically for a hot Brazilian Christmas, a wealth of fresh fruits was also on the menu - it was delicious. After dinner, the 'real' Father Christmas (as Oscar assured the children, them having been visited by many Father Christmases throughout December) handed out a large bag of presents to each child. They were all so excited as they had their names called out by Santa and then went to collect their bundle - I will always remember the joy on Fernando's face (he arrived earlier this year in June and so this may be his first Christmas with feasting and presents) as Father Christmas handed him his sack - Fernando gave him a great hug and leapt into the air, so excited and so happy. The children all got clothes, new shoes, a digital watch, a doll for the girls and a small game for the boys, and something special from Oscar. After all the children had been called, Santa went on to call the volunteers to our surprise and delight! We got gifts of nutella, cake, wine, chocolate... all the things hungry volunteers need at Christmas! The party then continued through the night, with live music played by Leo, Peter and Bruno, and much dancing. After the orphange party we returned to our mungalow, and exchanged our presents with the Germans - they always have their presents Christmas Eve night as well, and so we agreed to open half our presents then and half the next morning (real Christmas day!).
Waking up the next morning was hard for me however. As I sat on my bed with Peter and opened my stocking Mum and Dad had sent from home, I couldn't help but cry as I'd never done this feeling so alone. Every year of my life I have sat on my bed with all my brothers and sisters and we have opened our stockings together - I missed them so much at that moment, though having Peter there was a great comfort. Determined to have a good day I went through to the main mungalow where Cat and I prepared a special pancake breakfast for all the volunteers with the new non-stick pan we'd purchased. The breakfast was a great success and we went on to open our presents from home and each other before I left for the cozinha. I worked that morning, alongside Helena, helping to make the Christmas lunch feast of over twenty roast chickens, a huge salad, ice-cream and much more. All the tables were moved outside and we ate our Christmas feast in the sun. The day was very happy and fun, though I missed Christmas with my family very much. I talked on the phone to everyone and hearing the sheer chaos at the other end made me feel almost there - Lizzie having gravy and cider spilt on here during one phonecall was an amusing highlight!
Two days later and travelled to Sao Paulo where I met my parents at the most beautiful hotel I've ever known. Waiting for them to arrive at the hotel was hell, and when I heard my dad's voice in the hallway outside my door I could feel my heart beating in my throat. I was so happy to see them - hugging my mummy I felt like I'd never been away . We went on to have a lovely weekend in Sao Paulo, going to the beach, having mass at the cathedral, visiting the municipal market, having a picnic at the Ibapuera Park and enjoying the luxuries of the Fasano Hotel, which seems worlds away from where I live! They then returned to Extrema with me and met all the children. It was great showing them what I was doing here and who I was spending all this time away from home for. We spent New Year's Eve together at the orphanato which they really enjoyed, complete with dancing, a feast, fireworks and non-alcoholic Champagne (the first dry New Year's they've had in many years!). The kids all had an amazing time - it was great that my parents got to see them all so happy, having such a wonderful night. When mum and dad left a couple of days later I was very upset, however their visit has really refeshed me and so, with a great lustre for being here, I am now enjoying my time here - less than two months until I return...
It's been little more than a week since my parents went, yet it feels a lifetime so much has happened. Most notably, a new child, a nine-year-old boy named Lucas, arrived at the orphanato a few days ago. He is very handsome and very sweet and has really taken to me. We spent an evening together walking around everywhere talking - he seemed happy enough until suddenly he took my hand and looking up to me with big teary eyes he told me that he wanted his mum - it broke my heart. Later that night we watched a movie together and I showed him his room and made his bed for him. He now seems to be settling in well, though he is a little quick to fight with the other children. In time I'm hopeful that he'll be very happy here.
Beijos,This may be my final update as with just less than two weeks left in Brazil I fear I will have little more time to write.
Firstly, our trip to Iguaçu Falls was incredible. The falls were spectacuarly beautiful, seemingly going on forever set to a background of wild jungle and palm trees. Peter and I went on a raft boat ride down the rough river, going right into one of the falls - we got completely soaked through but it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I wished that Cat could have been there but in the form of a Rainbow Doll (due to some strange competetion) she was there in spirit and it was great seeing Nicky and Helena anyway.
With only six days left with the children I'm spending my whole time with them and thus I'm having loads of fun but am shattered! They all went back to school properly last week (they'd gone back to school two weeks before but had their second week off as holiday due to Carnival) and thus with the more structured schedule time is racing away. It is nice having them back at school as we get to come to town more, the activities are back on and the kids have study time - as you all know, I have always loved to study and thus helping the kids with their homework is rather a speciality of mine, especially now I can speak the language better. I've helped with biology (generally adding an 'ia' or similar onto the end of English words to hazard a guess at how the answer is in Portuguese - my method is very effective!), maths teaching the kids how to do inequalities and helping them learn their time tables complete with handy tricks, English of course, and even with their Portuguese - Miguel and I wrote a short play for his homework featuring his favourite pop group, the Spice Girls! Doing the activities again is a lot of fun though having had a significant break from capoeira my fitness had gone down, though my ability to play the drum for capoeira has improved which is very nice.
In the last few weeks we've had quite a few new arrivals; firstly little Lucas arrived, then Jhon and then the three brother, Lucas, Mattheus and Tailson. Lucas, who I've spoken of before, has now settled into the orphanato a little more - he still clings to me for protecion a lot and gets himself into many fights, but he has much better control over his temper now and generally seems a very sweet child - he keeps asking me to take him with me when I go - he knows that I can't but it's still sad to have to say no to him almost every day. Jhon has turned out to be the most difficult child in the whole orphanato - this past week he had an unhappy face on his board every single day. He has very little respect for the monitors and voluntarios and has a bad influence on the other kids - he's been here less than a month but has run away three times, taking Rosilene with him the first time (devastatingly she was found and picked up from a local whore house), Gabriel, new little Lucas and Klebinho the second time (three children who've never before run away) and Klebinho again the third time. He is a very annoying child but otherwise fairly pleasant - when he first arrived I really enjoyed spending time with him but now it is very difficult as he can also be quite aggressive - this week he strangled me with a bandage and since I've had to keep my distance. His story is very sad so I try my best to be kind with him but he is very trying - hopefully soon he'll settle into the orphanato more and calm down. The three brothers, on the other hand, have settled into everything perfectly - they're all very nice boys and knew a couple of the kids here already having lived in the same favela.
So many of the kids here are so special to me that, although I'm so looking forward to coming home, thinking of leaving them Sunday makes me so upset. Today I printed off photos to give to many of them and I've made a bracelet for each of the girls and Miguel as a leaving present - we've also got a Play Station to give to the boys. We're leaving Sunday straight after lunch and I feel very scared about the whole process of saying goodbye - I know I'lll return to visit in a year or so but I love so many of them so much that this amount of time seems grossly long.
We thus leave Sunday lunch, arrive in Sao Paulo, drop off our luggage and head off on the night bus to Rio de Janeiro with Nicky and Helena. We stay in Rio for three days and on Thursday go to Diadema with the girls to visit their kids and then spend my birthday and our final weekend in Sao Paulo before taking the plane home Sunday evening.
I'm so excited about seeing you all again, showing photos and telling many stories to all the people I love.
So thanks for all your support over the last six months and see you in two weeks!!