World at Large

Holy SHIT do I wish I could speak Portuguese. I think I'm adding that to the list of things to do. Portuguese is a beautiful language, and though it is often said that if you speak Spanish you'll be able to understand/speak Portuguese, this is not at all the case. Portuguese sounds like a mixture of French, Spanish, and Italian, but does not sound much at all like Spanish when spoken. I can only see the similarity when it's written down.

My project is going EXTREMELY well. Two days ago our group had an awakening. We knew we wanted to work with unemployment in the Favelas, but our trainers kept telling us the idea was too broad and we were getting frustrated because it almost seemed as though we would have to switch our topic to something more generic. (A favela is a Brazilian shanty-town, where make-shift houses are constructed on public property). As we were mulling over whether or not to switch topics, which I was adamantly arguing against, the trainers informed us that we were receiving a new group member, Ingrid (pronounced Ingridje) who had just joined the class and had the choice of choosing which group to work with. She heard that we were hoping to work with unemployment in the favelas and she joiend our group. As it turns out, she was a Godsend. Not only does she speak very good English and has been a great contribution to our bi-lingual communication efforts, but she also has experience working with NGO's; she and her husband started an NGO to keep children who live in favelas involved in activities to keep them away from drugs and crime. We explained to her that we were having trouble nailing a project idea, and she told us that one thing her NGO has a lot of trouble with is advertising to the community. We thought about this for a while, and decided it might be a really good avenue to try. We spoke to one of the professors at the University about or project ideas, and he told us of a meeting in one of the favelas called Saramnudaia, which would be going on that same night at the favela. The meeting would go from 6-9 and we would have a ride there if we so desired. Without question, we all decided to go to the meeting.

Camila's dad drove us to the meeting right after school. The favela is about a half hour away from the University, and located on an enormous hill looking over all of Salvador, and ironically, the largest mall in Bahia. Driving through the favela for the first time was incredible. On the one hand I looked out the window and saw this gorgeous view of the beautiful city, and on the other I was driving through narrow dirt roads with roofless tin and mudbrick houses on either side of the car. Camila's father dropped us off and we walked to the community Church and meeting house. The Church has two floors; the bottom floor is used for community meetings, and is basically just a room with benches on it. The 2nd floor is the actual Church part of the building, and has a small mural, some candles, and a bunch of benches. Windows adorn the walls with their brilliant views out unto commercial dreams. People were congregating downstairs to discuss a plan initiated by Professor Gianalto and some of the community of Saramundaia to stimulate the economy WITHIN the favela. The idea is to create their own community bank and their own currency in order to ensure that the economy within the community grows, generating both producers and consumers, so that people who were formerly living in absolute poverty could not only eat, but have enough money to start their own small business within the community. The project has been on its way for three months. The room was filled with men and women of all ages, all eager to make the project a reality. They all introduced themselves to us in Portuguese ( after which one of the University students translated to us in English); all of these people were heavily involved in pushing their community forward and creating cooperatives which would spur their economy. Each person in the room was either involved in the agricultural production effort, the Community Bank effort, The Informational Center Research effort, or the Embroidery effort. There were a couple of young guys who were swimming coaches, trying to keep kids off the streets by teaching them how to swim and involving them in fun activities.

I realized at this meeting that my passion is to work with community building. It was unlike anything else I had ever experienced to see these people, with the help of Gianalto and the students, making a solid effort to help themselves. And it was an even greater feeling to know that I could be a part of that. It was absolutely exhiliraitng because I'd never really felt completely passionate about any career-related thing before this meeting, in Saramundaia, in Brazil, on a Tuesday night.

One thing we learned after the meeting was that they definitely needed help communicating their efforts to the rest of Saramundaia, because approval of the whole community would be necessary in order to start up this Community Bank. The problem is that door-to-door canvassing would be too invasive and town newsletters wouldn't work because the majority of the community is illiterate. As I was walking to the car on the way back from the meeting, I noticed a radio in almost all of the make-shift houses. The next day as our group was discussing the previous night before our project ideas presentation, I told Ingrid about the radios I'd noticed. I suggested the possibility of creating a pirated radio station where the Cooperatives can communicate their developments to the rest of the community, so that the community can stay informed and get involved. Everyone REALLY loved the idea, and Ingrid even said there may already be a pirated radio station, which would make things even easier. We are going back on Tuesday night to learn more about how the radio system works in the community. I am SUPER excited.

Last night we went back into the Pehlourinho, met a crazy British dude whose been traveling through Brazil for the past five and a half months and told some increidble stories, hung out at a bar for a few hours, and then came home. There wasn't any dancing in the streets last night. There was one really strange, memorable incident, though. Our large group was gathered around a long table in the main square, and Kristen was eating a sandwich on the corner of the table. One of the begger kids came up to me and started snorting in my ear, then made his way around the table, snorting, to Kristen and asked her for her sandwich. She refused to give it to him, but naiively gave him the paper it was wrapped in. He started licking the paper, and then stuffing it into his mouth, all the while pointing to the sandwich Kristen was holding. She kept refusing, and he stuffed more and more of it into his mouth until he had chewed up the entire paper. Finally, as Kristen was taking a bite of her sandwich, he regurgitated it back at her and walked way.

Today was the first day we havent had any class, but we had an excursion go Playa de Foche, which is a beach about two hours from here where they also have a Sea Turtle Refuge. So we checked out the AWESOME turtles and then hung out on the beach all day. It was a LOT of fun, and I think I'm getting a pretty good tan.

In other news, I have some sort of inefction in my mouth. Hopefully it's going away now that I have antibiotics, but yesterday it was maximally bad. It was really adorable, though, because a few of the Brazilians whom I've befriended were helping me call doctors and getting the phone numbers for hospitals and medications.

I love Brazil!