Cali July 2007

 

 

BRAZIL

Brasil: 3a semana

Brasil: 3a Semana

Well my last week has ended and an incredible week it was!!! All the work we've done with the kids was "put to the test" on my last day at the project, I was extremely pleased! And the work continues with them, the two other volunteers I worked with will be staying a while, but what we did work on while I was there was done.

Monday we made posters with information on Tuberculosis, Dengue, STD & AIDS. We also gathered posters that we got from other health departments and put the address to the classroom so that people could come and get more information, and attend the clinic sessions. The children don't run the clinic sessions, instead the project leader and other adults come to the classroom and take BP's and glucose level tests on any adults in the community that are interested. They then give them information (provided by a "Poste de Saude" gov. health dep.) if their results were at an abnormal level. We stayed a bit late finishing the posters and preparing the materials for Wednesday's campaigning, but I was happy that we got it all done. Sonya (the school/project leader) had a lot of great information that has been donated to them. I am grateful, because my Portuguese gramar is not at all near useful. On the other hand, neither is my English because I just spelled "gramar" with one m. ehehee .
We also had a great discussion with the kids. One of the volunteer teachers (not with Iko Poran, she is a school teacher in Rio) began the discussion by talking to the kids about the future. She told them that they should always aspire to do what is in their heart. She cried a bit as she explained how she also came from a very poor family, lived in a favela as well, but aspired to be a teacher and accomplished it. The kids were extremely attentive and receptive to what she had to say. It touched me deeply to listen to her because it reminded me once again how blessed I am. I thought to myself, "... to those who much is given much is required..." I know that to be true and aspire to live up to that responsibility.

Tuesday we went to Corcovado to see the Christes. It was amazing! No, it it was breath taking!!! Its location is very symbolic . It is located it one of the highest points of the city. You can see for miles in all directions, the ocean, the city, the forest, everything! It is now one of the 7 wonders of the world. It was incredible!
Afterwards we decide to go to Copacabana since I had yet to go. 2 taxis, 1 metro, some bargaining and a bus later we finally got to the beach. It was beautiful, it really was. But I must say I didn't really like the "touristy" feeling it has. Either way the beach was beautiful because of Pau de acuar right behind. We walked around and enjoyed the scenery. I must say I got a bit disoriented while at the beach though, because after living in the west coast for so long, I have gotten used to the sun setting at the beach... next thing I knew, the moon was rising from the ocean..beautiful none the less.
Wednesday was my last day at the project, and certainly a very fulfilling one. We began early by distributing the materials and posters to the kids. We then went into their Favela "Moro do URUBU." It was the second time I had been into on, but never as long as I had before. I also got to interact with the people living in the favela. It was great! We put up the posters and handed out brochures. We got to go to one of the local day cares (payed for by the government.) It was neat to see all the young kids. I wanted to take them all home with me! We ten walked by some pretty shady areas where some young teens were walking around with machine guns, some were also sleeping on the ground, kind of all over the place. But we just made sure to be pretty quiet. I had no idea we would be in a situation like that, but I put all my trust in Sonia. And I'm still alive of course. I suppose the only real danger would have probably been to ask the young boys with the weapons, if I could take a picture of them (it was so dang temping though!!!!)
We met some very sick people that day. In particular a woman by the name of Mariza. She has AIDS. She and her 7 year old girl have AIDS and most likely her husband, but he refuses to be diagnosed and or be treated. Unfortunately he left her when he found out she had AIDS. Mariza has had AIDS for 7 years now, but has only known about it for the past 3 years, which is also when they found out her daughter has AIDS (and Hepatitis C.) Mariza has 5 kids. One of her other daughters also has Cerebral Dystrophy. Talking with her is an experience that will be ingrained in me forever. It was very real, had never before spoken to someone with AIDS. It was so eyeopening. I could not believe everything she told us that she has to do for her treatments. She told us that her little girl with AIDS does not always want to go to school or out to play because she is now the "sick girl." Through my broken Portuguese I told Mariza "Voce e uma mulher forte. Deus abençoará a voce." She nodded. I could not help but cry a little bit. Mariza is an incredible mama!

When we got back from the Favela it was time to say goodbye to the kids. I gave them all tons of beijos and hugs! I could not believe that was the end of my time with them. But why make it bitter by being sad, right? I am so extreemly thankful to the Lord for this opportunity. I learned so much from these kids. I learned about many health issues that exist. I cannot believe all the work that was acomplished. I am so extreemly pleased and grateful!

I suppose thursday and friday AND saturday were really what I like to call : "erica has never missed home like this before"... I wont go into the flight mess, I guess I did get to stay in Brazil and extra day, but I certainly was glad to be home when I did. Thank goodness for a really hard working brazilian woman who wouldnt give me her name but did tel me she was the Varig Supervisor. I bought her some chocolates with the last ouple Reais I had, I was soo glad she found a flight for me! Anyhow I thank God I was able to go work in Brazil and that He protected me all the way home.

Thank you all who have supported me in this. To all those who donated you will be receiving a official letter. Muito Obrigada!

I love muito muito!!!

beijos!

eriquita



ps.... when I finally got back to my gate at the airport, I got really hungry and only had like 5 Reais left so I went to find some food. To \my delight I found "little america" which sold everything from expensive chocolate, to expensive um chocolate! A woman walked in the store and asked if there were any places in this part of the airport that sold Salgados...? I was like "Amen Irma!!!!" Man I started to miss Brazil REAL fast!

Brasil: 2a Semana

Brazil: 2da Semana

This week has gone by faster than I could have imagined! So many things have occured, so much has been accomplished at the project, I have been very please.
Tuesday was our day off so we went to Centro and spent the day there with one of the new volunteers Suez, from London. Centro is an interesting place, because it is very busy and lively during the week, there are hundreds of people constantly walking around (which is such a mistery to me becuase I wonder what they are all doing ``out of the office`` yes y ingnorant side of me comes out) yet in the weekends, most shops are closed and the only people there are the homeless people who sleep there. Anyhow so Centro was a great place to spend a week day at. People sell all kinds of things... another mistery I have yet to solve: where tdo they get ALL the stuff they sell: magnifying glasses, candy, gas tank openers, all kinds of random things! We went to a place where Suez got some food, its a buffet kind of place wher eyou pay by Kilo, so you pretty much get all the food you want to eat and then weight your plate and pay how ever much the rate it. So for example the rate might be R$2.30 per Kilo. Suez really liked the food, I thought it was an interesting concept. I ate at this Salgado place that is right next to the bus station, Ive gotten pretty famliar with the people at this particular salgado store and they have become prety familiar with me too. By the end of the week when I went to go get a Joelho I had not even walked in and they were already serving me my Joelho and grabing a glass for my juice. They are so friendly! Someitmes I will stay a couple minutes longer and ask them questions about what things are called and what kind of fruits each juice is made of. They are great! I will miss them a bit, as well as their delicioud cheap food!

That night we went out to eat at this traditional Brazilian restaurant where they make typical food from the Northeastern part of Brazil. Its pretty much rice beans and yuka, but they also have other things like good sausage and meat. One of the volunteers named Nic pretty much went there twice a week for 2 months, and this was his last week here, so on the way out the owner came running behind Nic as we were leaving and handed him an authentic beer as a gift, for being such a great ``customer.`` I thought that was pretty thoughtful.

Wednesday was a great day at the project! We had a mini ``Festa Junhina`` (june party) We did typeical dances with the kids wehere you dance with a partner and then dance in a circle together and under everyones arms and then we had to go dance with someone else and then our original partner had to come ``get us back`` it was all very cute. I especially loved how all the girls all wanted to dance with Paul so badly, because they all have a crush on him, even though hes almost 10 years older then some of them. eheheheee Afterwards we had some skits. The kids roll played typical scence from a typical day in a favela... which pretty much included violence or discrimination. Afterwards we went back into the class room and discussed what we observed/learned from those skits. It was a great discussion, although I must say i wish my Portuguesse was a bit better so that I could have expressed myself better about the issues we talked about about. They asked me alot of questions ad I felt I could not exppress myself in debt. Regardless, it was a great experience with them. The kids are wonderful, they are constantly asking questions, I love their hunger for knoledge. Speaking of which they really love to read, they have a small area in their class room with about 3 shelves full of books. Most of them are 20-30 years old, but none the less they have them and read from them. During my brief examination of their collection of books, I came across a blue book entittled ``O Libro de Mormon.`` No doubt I took a picture!
Thursday was my other day off, but I decided to go to Mamikos project to get a feel of what she got to do. On the bus ride we got the priviladge of sitting next to a lady and her 3 year old boy. He was the cuttest thing in the world! He was wearing cow shapped glasses. He kept putting htem on upsidedown. There was only one othe rperson in the bus since it was fairly early in the morning, so I asked the lady ``podo tirar uma foto de su filho?`` and she was like ``pode, pode!`` So I did. I am glad too becuase if there is one thing that kills me here in Brazil, it is that one is constatnly discouraged from using a camera, because of the danger. Yes, it kills me I wish I could take more pictures. But I guess you cant have cake and eat it as well, right?
The project that Mamiko is involved in was very different from mine, so I am glad I got to experience it.

Since there have been a lot of new volunteers in the past two weeks, there was a dinner for all of us on Thursday. It was a lot of fun, becuase we dont always get to be together, sicne we all have different projects. It was great to talk about where we all come from and why we decided to be a part of this volunteer org.

Random note,but I wanted to say that the graffitti here is incredible. It is EVERYWHERE. and i mean EVERYWHERE! Practiacally every wall, building, even road will have some type of graffitti on it. They really value it here. Yes thats quit new fo rme too. One of the girsl in my class asked me the other day if I wanted one of th eboys to draw me a picure. He draws REALLY GOOD grafitti. she said. Aaah yes I would like that I lot I told her. It sounded so funny to me. ehehe So he drew me a picture and sure enough it was very good! He even wrote a message on it for me. He wrote ``you ar Biriful`` what a sweetheart!

Friday was another day at work, and I loved it of course. We met with ``the afternoon`` group. We had yet to meet them. They were a lolt of fun of course! they also were full of questions and I must say I would be rich if I got a dollor for every teen that asks me for my Orkuti account. Its pretty much like My space or Facebook. I dont refuse to get one, I just wont allow myself to spend time on one, so the students have been pretty bumbed when I tell them I dont have & or want one. eheheeee Anyhow they presented two skits for us. One was a ``hippy hoppy`` beat boxing and the other was a skit about a man who gets diagnosed with and STD. I wish I could have understood it, it apparently was a funny skit, but I didn~t really get it. But its ok, I enjoyed it none the less. Mamiko accompanied me to my project this time and fortunately brought her camera. She recorded the skit and the beat boxing. Its on You Tube under: Amamu
Friday night was an exciting night. We unfortuntaly went to what I like to call ``The depths of dispair`` We went to a place called Lapa. Its pretty much the arches wehr ethe Bonge crosses to get to Santa Teresa. For those of you who know what it is, I am sure you know what I am talking about. For those of you that dont, I am sorry its not really worth explaining. Anyhow we had a nice walk at night getting there, but o boy let me tell you, if I ever get the oportunity to go to Lapa again, I will run run run as fast and far away as I can! Id probably run a PR too! It was the nastiest place in the world, I wont really go in to detail, but the reason I bring it up beside the fact that it occured in my trip, is that I stepped back for a momment and looked at the thousands of young people everywehere and reflected on the kind of life they must have in comparisson to mine. It wasnt too deep of a reflection, but it certainly was areminder of what the world is like much too often. Well anyways there were no buses that went up to Santa Teresa so I turned to Mamiko and told her I would be leaving on a Taxi, she turned to Martin and said, hey we ar eleaving on a Taxi. So we both hopped on a taxi and went home. And OF COURSE we got jipped. I shouldnt have talked in English dang it! But o well I would have paid anything really to get out of Lapa. Once we got to our place we gave the Tai driver a R$20 and asked for our R$10 back sice he said it would be $10 and he was like ``por dois`` OF COURSE, what was thinking! ehehe anyhow so just as out night finally winds down, our neighbor had to give us grief!
We were getting ready for bed and all of the sudden we hear the door bell ring. So we looked out the window and sure enough we couldnt see anyone. The door bell rang again, and still we couldnt see anyone at the gate, so I yelled ``quien es?`` I am sure thats not even portugues, but our neighbor popped his head up and began waving a clip board around at me and telling me he needed our names and passport numbers. I told him we were trying to go to bed that he could come talk to us in the morning. So of course he told us he wouldnt be able to go to bed peacefully until he had that information. O geesh! That poor man was so drunk. Mamiko and I went to bed and said to one another ``what a great place this is: gun shots in the background, extreemly loud getto music and a drunk neighbor.`` In all seriousness though, regardless of all the things that surround us, I have no doubt we are being protected. There is not one day I dont walk out of my appartment without first praying to the Lord to protect us.
Saturday was a great day! (Who would have guessed?!) Santa Teresa has what is called ``Portas Abertas`` or Open Doors. Pretty much every person in the town and from everywehere you can think of opens their doors (from their house or restaurants or shops, etc..) and sells their art (this includes food of course, yahoo!) It is bsaically all of saturday and SUnday and then again next weekend. It is pretty much like a HUGE TOWN size saturday market, except for no vegetables or hippie music. Definately TONS of HIPPIES, tons of rastas and lots samba. The art work and crafts were incredible! I loved just walking around all day, looking at art and oh did I mention eating tons of pastries! Yeah for brazilian (cheap cheap) food!
Wait it didnt end there: After the festival we went to the beach to watch the Botafogo game. (a local soccer team) we found a pizzaria that charged R$13 for unlitmited pizza. They just had half a dozen waitors who brought different kids of pizzas and you could choose as they walked by. And just as we decided we had probably each had an entire pizza worth of slices, they cleared our place and brough us new plates for the ``dulce pizzas`` you bet I looked 1 months along by the en dof the night! I could not believe how much food we ate! It was definately fun!
Afterwards we pretty much fell on our beds when we got home and made a hole in them cause we were so dang fat! ehee

And Sunday, o glorious Sunday! I FOUDN THE CHURCH! and not just the church mission office, the actual Igreja!!! And it didnt cost me as much either! The first seeions was relief society. The sisters were wonderful, they were all like ``benvinda`` (sp) I could not help but feel the instant love! The lesson was great! The sister who taught talked about Nefi and his brothers and the diference in attitute they all had. She encouraged us to be as obedient as Nefi (1 Nephi 3:7) as well as have faith in what He directs us to do. Absolutely beautiful! They also announced that during the week they would be collecting clothes to donate which is incredible, becuase I brought an entire suitcase full of clothes just for that. So I will give them to Sister Janete on Thursday before I leave, so that she can donate them to charity.
I met a really nice guy who served his mission in Machusets, his name is Leonardo. He is moving to Utah in August to go to LDS business college so we exchanged information. I told him if he needed help getting around there I could help. During sacrament meeting I could not help but bear my testimony. I know my portuguese is not all that great, but I had a feeling in my heart that I could not ignore. So I did, I bore my testimony about the Spirit. I said that even though I might not have beenable to undesrtand everything that was said in church that day I certainly did understand one thing and that was the voice of the Spirit. Testifiquei que sei que meu Salvador é Jesus Cristo. Eu não tenho nenhuma dúvida no meu coração. Sei que Deus me ama e eu sei que este evangelho é verdadeiro. Eu não posso negar.
I absolutely had a most wonderful fast Sunday. I am reassured once again that this gospel is perfect. No matter where in the world, the gospel is THE SAME. How grateful I am to have it in my life!

Que tenhan uma noite linda. Eu voy a dormir agora. Ate mais!

Eriquita