Tristan in Brazil.

My Scholarship entry - My Kind of Adventure

tcrisante — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:17:41 GMT

I found out about this scholarship only one day before the due date so I didn't have time to produce anything specifically for this purpose. Carnaval was inspired by the fact that I was lucky enough to participate in one and the fruit was chosen because my grandparents (nonno and nonna) are originally farmers and find this kind of thing interesting. I have limited filmmaking experience but do have extensive acting experience in community theatre and high school.

I think a lot of documentaries tend to accentuate stereotypes rather than challenge them, i.e. Colombia = drugs Peru = Incas etc. Latin America has an unparalleled wealth of cultural, environmental and political diversity and I'd love to expose lesser known aspects of this.

On two separate occasions I have spent 8 months doing volunteer work an impoverished community on the outskirts of Rio (I speak fluent Portuguese), however I have never been there during Carnaval! I'd love to include some people from this community, perhaps present the way they celebrate it, far from the glamour of the Sambodromo. Ideally, my video would focus on the individuals who make Brazil such an incredible and exciting place to visit.

The light at the end of the tunnel

tcrisante — Mon, 7 Nov 2011 12:43:00 GMT

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Hey everyone, I finish working at Casa around my birthday and I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My time here has been quite strange and often difficult, I have learnt a lot about people and friendship.

Enemies

1. Dogs

Xerem is full of street dogs, but in town they tend to behave OK (although the other day on my friend's motorbike we almost collided with a scared horse that was being chased by a stupid dog). On the caminho longo, in the middle of the bush, the dogs aren't very nice. A little over a month ago I was riding along at sunset, taking in the rolling hills and green pastures, enjoying the different shades of blue, orange and purple across the sky, thinking about how lucky I was to experience such a beautiful view. It’s so hard to capture these moments with a camera.

Suddenly an angry dog came out of the fields and started barking, chasing me and jumping and snapping its jaws in the air. It was only about the size of a border collie but it was still scary. I wanted to ride faster but this only makes them chase you more. The dog would come really close to me and I would yell at it and it would back off for a second before coming back again. After a while it seemed to give up, but when I went around the next corner 5 dogs were waiting for me, it was a bloody ambush! Most of them were small but the biggest and angriest one was the height of a labrador. This time I got off my bike and walked very slowly, again they were snarling and snapping their jaws at me and the dog from before must have heard the party and decided to come check it out. It was really scary because they had me surrounded, I tried to keep the bike between me and the dogs. I really wanted to kick them in the face but I was worried about pissing them off even more and getting bitten. There was nobody around, and I really didn't want to risk getting rabies. Luckily a car came past and for whatever reason it distracted them enough for me to get out of there. I no longer take the caminho longo.

2. Children (when I'm trying to teach them English)

We started an English course for kids about a month ago for children from the community, it isn't free but it's very cheap. Normally hanging out with children that aren't from the orphanage is kind of refreshing, they are much more polite and generally seem like angels in comparison. However, my first class with the kids was a nightmare, one of them just slept on the floor (turns out he was actually chewing the mat) and another kept trying to correct me.

ALL of them ate my props (they were pieces of fruit I used for vocab and doing numbers). I have since passed the class on to a girl who sings and dances with them, I think all parties are much happier, although the kids might miss the food.

3. Poo

Whilst I highly enjoy making jokes and talking about poo, its presence in Xerem is hardly a laughing matter. Poo is everywhere and it takes various forms. It can be found in the toilets that always run out of water or blocked, or in the street. Dogs not only crap everywhere they also rummage through the abundant rubbish bags left on the street, which often contain used toilet paper (toilets in Latin America don't have the pressure to flush it down). I once saw two dogs fighting over a plastic bag filled with used toilet paper (my enemies are strange).

4. Time

Time has to be the most frustrating thing in life. It disappears when you're not even paying attention and never comes back. I don't think I have ever been so busy in my life, nor have I ever had a to-do list which I knowingly cannot complete in the forseeable future. When I used to work as an English teacher in Australia, I would simply arrive, prepare my lessons, teach and leave. Any minor problems, beit a dirty floor/bathroom, maintenance problems, another worker not showing up etc etc, were none of my concern. Someone else would take care of it.

At the Centro Cultural, everything is our responsibility. If something doesn't work - fix it, if it's dirty - clean it, if it needs doing - do it! Sometimes I will come to work to prepare lessons and spend the whole time trying to fix a toilet (our water system is terrible, we have to turn on the pump every morning but people often forget) or cleaning the kitchen, entrance or classrooms because they are simply not taken care of. Instead of merely teaching my courses, I also needed to develop them and organise resources, promote the Centro Cultural on the radio, in schools, at the local market etc etc. And of course, I had to work in administration and reception, trying to figure out payments and enrollments, calling students etc etc. Unfortunately, most other workers did not take their responsibilities very seriously and I was generally working alone.

For the majority of my time here I also did one shift as a carer the orphanage. My week would start at 6:30 on Monday morning, riding up to the orphanage for the carer’s meeting. The rest of the day would involve serving meals, general cleaning, making sure the children scrubbed their teeth, showered, got ready for school, didn't kill each other etc etc. A lot of the work involves defusing situations (the kids fight a lot), but there are some beautiful moments too, reading with them, playing games, singing before dinner etc etc. Despite a general lack of discipline and respect the kids are both adorable and hilariously amusing! I often slept in the boys room. It was almost always hard to sleep, I think it was just the presence of so many people in one space. Sometimes the kids would wake up crying or shaking, and one particular enemy would wake up to pee and instead of going to the toilet, would simply stand in the doorway of the bathroom and let loose!

On Tuesday I would get up at 6.00 and try to wake the kids up too. For the next two hours we do chores. Working in the laundry, washing clothes and wet sheets, raking leaves, sweeping up, cleaning the bathroom etc etc. The kids also have to do chores and generally we have to help/monitor them.

At 9.30am: I would return to Xerem to work, hopefully avoiding any confrontations with the dogs.

Working at the orphanage was by far the most enjoyable aspect of my work. The Centro Cultural was often lifeless and stressful. There were a lot of arguments, selfishness and general bad vibes. I often worked 10-12 hour days and had many six day weeks. I had never worked so hard in my life, I realized that working too much not only means not having the time for other activities (i.e. gym, socializing) one also ends up falling into a vacuum where the only thing that exists is work. I didn’t have time for myself, to read, to lie in bed thinking, to sleep properly. The months of June-August are a big blur for me.

Friends

1. Co-workers

Despite not having much time for socializing I have made some really great friends through work. Many interesting and talented people come to work at Casa do Caminho and volunteers are generally awesome. My best friend is an English volunteer called Sophie, we have been the only two peace-keepers in the Centro Cultural team. Seeing as we all work and live together it can be a little bit like Big Brother and people don't always get on. Conflict resolution is a constant and tiresome task and some people are just so selfish or immature they are incapable of seeing things from another point of view (or simply shutting the hell up!).In late August some of the bad eggs were kicked out and this has made things a lot more chilled.

2. Students

It took a while but now I have some students who are good mates who come to most of the Centro Cultural's events and invite me to parties.

There is a wider group of people who are sympathetic to our cause, such as the radio station where we have a weekly spot to talk about our courses. It's nice to feel that we are part of a team and all working towards the same goal.

3. The Children

My relationship with the kids is nothing like it was last time I was here. Before I would arrive at the orphanage and they would come running and fight over my attention. I also lived there full time and all my work (when I wasn't bludging) was focused on them. At that time there hadn't been very many volunteers at the organisation and we were still a huge novelty, now the kids are much more closed and indifferent towards us. On top of this, I am only there once a week. I try to spend most of my free time there and I have a nice friendship with some of the kids. Rodrigo, who I had to chase after and lock in a room when he first arrived (see earlier posts ^^), is now really cool and chilled with me, whenever he starts getting angry I ask him for a hug and he generally chills out again. http://journals.worldnomads.com/tcrisante/photo/29501/798034/Brazil I really like this photo of him.

I also have a good friendship with some of the teenagers, it's funny how some of them become adults and others remain children. One of them will be going to Europe because some donors sponsored him and I have been teaching him English.

Frenemies

1. Co-workers

Unfortunately Frenemies are what I have the most of, and it really sucks, I would love to tell all these people to go shove it and declare them proper enemies, but that would make my life and work much more difficult!

Technically, I wasn't supposed to be the only English Teacher at the Culture Centre. Daniel, from the Central Coast, was also part of the team and we have similar experience teaching back home. However, Daniel decided early on that he hates the Culture Centre and treated everything and everyone with general disdain. You could always trust on him to be against any idea or proposition, and I preferred to work alone than to have to deal with his shit. I also hoped that I could serve as an example but that didn't work either. Other than teaching 6 hours a week and doing reception, he did nothing to help me or anyone else. It required a lot of patience to deal with this and I’m not sure if it would have been better to simply tell him to shove it a long time ago. I’ve had to swallow a lot of anger in my time here and I’m not sure it’s healthy!

2. Churches

Xerem has the highest concentration of evangelical churches of any city in Brazil. Evangelicals wage an eternal war against sin, which also coincides with a war on peace, common sense and free time. They have replaced some old bald man in a robe calmly reading a bible (i.e. a normal nice quiet priest) with some angry guy armed with a microphone and enough speakers for a rock concert. They yell and berate and carry on like a bunch of Nazis, there is even one church that has a picture of a crowd doing the Heil Hitler to a flock of sheep.

The thing that pisses me off the most (other than the noise) is that it is such a huge waste of time. I have had so many students who can only study one night a week because the others are dedicated to yelling at God. On top of this, I don't see why the Churches can't get together and actually do something about the situation in Xerem - i.e. clean up the filthy streets, take care of the dogs, reduce illiteracy, volunteer at the Centro Cultural etc etc.

A friend attended a session and apparently they were all praying for people not to go to Rock in Rio, because rock concerts are "the devil's playground". This is in a region where people die from malnutrition and a lack of basic medical services. On top of this a significant numbers of young people are dying as a result of the drug-war - Xerem is quite chilled but the surrounding cities are amongst the most dangerous in Brazil. In other words, stop praying/yelling about irrelevant issues and start doing something!

I have put the churches in the "frenemies" section purely because of political and practical realities preventing me from declaring war. Everyone here is "religious". Even (or maybe especially) people who don't go to church, do drugs, cheat on their wives etc etc. Despite the fact that there are obviously a lot of people who are not big fans, criticism is not accepted. I hate it when people ask me if I'm religious.

Enemies, friends and frenemies.

tcrisante — Mon, 5 Sep 2011 01:41:00 GMT

Hey everyone, I finish working at Casa around my birthday and I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I thought I'd let you know how things are going for me.

Enemies

There are two different routes we can choose to go from the town to the orphanage, the caminho longo and caminho corto (long and short way) - the problem with the short way is that it involves going up a massive hill and the narrow road is full of crater-esque holes. You have to be really careful riding down and riding up is a job only for iron-man. The problem with the caminho longo is that it is a good 7kms longer and the dogs. Xerem is full of street dogs, but in town they tend to behave OK (although the other day on my friend's motorbike we almost collided with a scared horse that was being chased by a stupid dog). On the caminho longo, in the middle of a bush, the dogs aren't very nice. A little over a month ago I was riding on the caminho longo to go to a local bar with some friends, it was sunset (which is really quick here cos we are so close to the Equator)and I was taking in the beautiful hills and green pastures, thinking about how hard it is to capture their beauty with a camera, when some angry dog came out of the fields and started barking at me, chasing me and snapping it's jaws in the air. It was about the size of a border collie but it was still scary. I wanted to ride faster but this only makes them chase you more, and it would come really close to me and I would yell at it and every time I yelled I think it got a bit scared and would back off for a bit before coming back again. After a while it seemed to have given up, but when I went around the next corner 5 dogs were waiting for me, it was a bloody ambush! Most of them were small but the biggest and angriest one was about the height of a labrador. This time I got off my bike and walked very slowly, but again they were barking and snapping their jaws at me and the dog from before must have heard the party and came back too. It was really scary because they had me surrounded, I was trying to keep the bike between me and the dogs and was looking for a stick to hit them with. I really wanted to kick them in the face but I was worried about getting bitten. It's also scary because there's just nobody around. Luckily a car came past and for whatever reason it seemed to scare them off for a bit and they ignored me for long enough for me to get out of there.

I no longer take the long way, but there are so many street dogs in Xerem and on the way home I ride past a pit bull and I just want to buy a shotgun and kill them all, dirty disease ridden social menaces!!

THE BEST OLYMPICS OF MY LIFE!!!

tcrisante — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:59:00 GMT

Last week was probably the best time I've had since returning to Brazil... The Olympics, not Beijing, or Athens or Rio or anywhere crappy like that - CASA DO CAMINHO!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4zq-PUeEgE        just watch the video don't bother reading my boring rant!!!

This was Casa´s fourth olympics, it began as a sporting event but has evolved into something quite different which has very little to do with the "normal" Olympics. Prior to the event, the adults divide themselves into teams, choose countries, and try to distribute the children in the most balanced and fair way. All of the children from the orphanage, plus ex-residents and kids from the community participate, around 60 in total. Adults don't participate directly, but we are team leaders and are responsible for our team's behaviour and preparation. Nobody is ever allowed to be Brazil (because everyone would want to be in it) or Holland (because that is where the director comes from). The countries represented were Mexico, Cuba, U.S.A and of course, Australia.

The Olympics inauguration was on a Monday night, with the closing ceremony the following Thursday...   On Monday afternoon, Renato (Casa's founder) and I took all the children and teenagers out of the orphanage so that the inauguration could be a surprise for them. I minded the kids at a river, while Renato made them dig holes and move dirt.. The smallest boy shat his pants and I ended up cleaning his rear with leaves.. We didn't return until it was already dark, an organizer met us on the way there and made us march in a single line while he played the pan pipes at the front. When we got to the orphanage there was a huge crowd of people all clapping a rythm and singing "Casa do Caminho welcomes its champions to the Olympics, with lots of love and pride" (something like that but it sounded much better in Portuguese) and they made a corridor with bamboo lanterns with all the other lights turned off it felt like survivor or something. It was awesome. Afterwards there were dangerously low fireworks and a series of shows (breakdancing/fire juggling/ we also watched a movie that volunteers had made with the children). There was a great energy at the orphanage. I really felt, WOW!! The Olympics has really started!! I can only imagine how exciting it must be for the kids.

. The cool thing about the Olympics is that they are used to promote the education of the children in general. People earn points for their team by helping out, being the first team to be ready for breakfast, doing their chores, encouraging and cheering on other teams, etc etc. Making fun of the other teams, getting into fights, refusing to do work, and any other kind of bad behaviour results in a loss of points. Casa do Caminho's theatre teacher, Geovane, is the judge and takes it very seriously, as we are in Brazil, corruption is rampant, you also get points for sucking up to the him. Geovane had his car washed several times and was often served sweets.

I slept in the boys' room on Monday night because I am always educador (child minder) on Mondays. The kids were only supposed to be ready for breakfast at 8 and yet at 6:30 kids started helping their teammates shower, get ready etc. It's amazing what a sense of competition does to kids, normally it is such a struggle to get them out of bed! Everybody was ready for breakfast an hour early. There are also many special Olympics traditions, before we eat everybody does this special "agradecimento" (at casa we thank God before every meal, with a prayer and a song) but during the Olympics everyone runs and dances around the table doing some kind of retarted conga line, it's pretty cool but gets a bit old by the fourth day.

After breakfast each team went off to its own area to design a flag, uniform, anthem and war cry/dance. This is where team Australia started to fall apart. Australia's team leaders were all people who have been working at Casa for a short time and are yet to have strong authority over the children, also, two team leaders basically never showed up. To make things worse, we had a lot of little kids (who are generally worse behaved and always require more attention) and 6 teenage girls (the other teams had 1 or 2). Nobody in my team works with the teenage girls, who are generally unberable brats (they are constantly getting kicked out or banned from the Centro Cultural). While the other teams were making cool costumes and practicing war cries, we were running after naughty kids, breaking up fights and trying to get the teenage girls to do something other than bitch at each other. A lot of the kids were already complaining that we were the weak team and we were going to lose – before anything had even started..

Then came the presentation of the teams, by far the coolest country was the Cherokees, led by Bart, the director of the orphanage. All the boys shaved their heads to have mohawks, all the girls had reed skirts, and everybody had face paint and a club made of bamboo. They had a funny chant and played out the hunting and killing of a buffalo. Australia had face paint on the adults and little kids who let themselves be painted, and our war cry fell apart halfway through when everyone forgot the words and we just ended up yelling AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA WOO YEAH...      end result = 0 points for us.

The next phase wasn’t easy for us either; it involved a series of sports competitions at a nearby country club that lets the children in for free on weekdays. First it was a tug of war, which we lost. Then it was a sack race – lost. Then we were supposed to do some kind of activity involving water bombs, but one of the volunteers unknowingly and irresponsibly started a water bomb fight involving ALL the children, it was pretty funny because some people had spent a good 3 hours filling up bombs, and they all got used up in about 2 minutes. Then it was a football game which we lost and finally a swimming relay which also coincidentally we lost. There was also a wrestling competition on a plastic tarp covered in horse shampoo, that was pretty awesome because there was an adults vs. adults comp too. Again my team lost, mainly because we had a huge pussy who basically just watched me get manhandled by two dirty Spanish men and then complained that I didn’t follow his strategy.

The walk home was kind of depressing. Throughout the day the other teams were constantly waving their flags and cheering, whilst Australia’s kids were showing either complete disinterest, or were hanging out with other teams and singing their chants! The other team leaders and I tried to get everyone positive and motivated but it just didn’t work.

That night we had to present a silent theatre piece. I suggested we do something about kangaroos and our presentation was actually pretty cool. Two of the girls made kangaroo pouches using bed linen and the smallest kids climbed in, then some hunters came and killed them, and they were about to eat one of the children (to represent this the teenagers put one of the smallest kids in a huge pot) when their wife stopped them and decided to adopt him – what a beautiful story! That night there was also a general knowledge competition where correct answers were rewarded with points and incorrect answers meant a pie in the face, this was a chance for the adults to have some revenge on the children!

The next day was the day of the “Epic Run”. It’s kind of like an orienteering activity, the teams have to pass through various points where they collect a clue which will lead them to the next point. It is supposed to last the whole day and apparently last year they did it in two hours, so this year the organizers made sure it was really really Epic. Some of the teams ended up walking for over 6 hours and the last team had to be picked up and brought home. It was dark and some of the Dutch kids´parents (we had a group of Dutch sponsors visit us and their children participated in the games) were really worried about their kids.

The Epic Run marked a turning point for Australia. The night before it was decided that we could have an extra team member, an ex-resident who had helped organize the Epic run – so we had an awesome advantage. Also, we had kicked out some of the naughty kids and extra-bitchy teenagers (by the end we kicked out 5, a third of our team), good riddance! In the morning when we were preparing our uniforms, the kids were still down, and I left the orphanage thinking that I would probably go back to town to do something useful at the Cultural Centre seeing as I’d pretty much taken the whole week off. However, I decided to help out at one of the points during the afternoon, the stop where the children had lunch. Something amazing had happened during the run, and when Australia´s kids came past they were all singing loudly and banging drums and waving the flags and everything! I was so excited I hugged all of them and took photos and it was so special I almost cried! I decided to stick it out until the final day of the games.

That night we had another theatre competition, my team presented a piece about the responsible use of water, an awesomely Australian topic I know. Our play was actually really funny because it played on domestic disputes., However it was obviously too hilarious as the kids started laughing ¾ through and didn’t really stop.

The following and final day was the most dramatic and exciting. The kids had to complete a series of “tests” individually, in a kind of team relay. The tests were really funny, in one they had to eat off a plate with no hands, walk through a series of obstacles while carrying an egg on a spoon on their mouth, a series of army style obstacles, a flying fox etc etc. The best test was a bamboo bridge the kids had to walk across, it was only about 15 metres long but to the kids it must have seemed colossal.I have to admit it made me feel good when some of the spoilt shitty kids fell and cried.

Australia, due to its new high spirits, was chanting throughout the entire competition, we were even leading for the majority of the competition. However, a kid got injured on the the final test and we ended up in second place. The judge had been announcing the points at the end of each day, and obviously Australia had consistently been dead last throughout the competition. However our 2^nd place on the final day plus our new enthusiasm won us extra points and we jumped out of last place to finish a glorious third!!!

Even though finishing third out of four doesn’t sound that great the mere fact of not finishing last was a huge relief and victory for us. At the end of the day the prize for the team coming first was more symbolic than anything, they got to hold and have their photo taken with the “Olympícs Cup” and were able to have first dibs on a huge pile of donations from the Dutch people. The four Dutch teenagers who were integrated in the teams created a really beautiful bond with Casa’s kids. At first they were very shy and kind of stuck to their parents, but by the end they were always with the other kids. It was cool seeing them overcome the language barrier. Obviouslyit was all tears when it was time for them to go.

I have included a series of photos from the Olympics, I hope these capture the vibe better than my incessant story-telling. Sometimes things at Casa are so different from any other reality it’s really hard to explain everything and give a good idea of life here in a blog. I hope it’s not boring.

As much as it's been really difficult for me this second time around, I'm really proud to be a part of this organisation and at events like the Olympics you really get a feeling of what it's all about. I often wonder what the hell I'm doing here, why I'm not enjoying my much easier and simpler life in Australia. At the same time, however, life makes much more sense here than it does in mind-numbing suburbia. Here people care about each other, everybody at Casa obviously has a different story and different motives for being here, but we all share a common concern for the well being of the children and the people it supports. Here I have worked harder than at any other time in my life because I am working towards real goals that will have a direct impact on other people's lives, not just numbers in my bank account. I think it would emotionally be a lot easier being here if I were living at the orphanage, but at the same time I'm proud that I am helping CRCC in a way that is best for the organisation as a whole and not just what suits me better.

Right now I have a little over a month left, I am more or less counting the days. I haven't had the time or the opportunity to make any real contacts outside of the organisation, and I need to get my life back. Sometimes I feel so immeresed in Casa that I feel like I can't talk to outside people about normal subjects anymore... maybe I'm going crazy!

Lots of love, kisses and hugs

Tristan

Photos: OLYMPICS!

tcrisante — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:40:00 GMT

Photos: Xerem and Casa

tcrisante — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:46:00 GMT

Photos: Rio

tcrisante — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:08:00 GMT

HALFWAY THERE 15/7/11

tcrisante — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:06:00 GMT

Hey everyone, things have changed a bit since my last update but nothing that dramatic or exciting!

Centro Cultural - we moved out of the school, which is awesome, because we can actually "go to work" and have a bit more privacy and time to ourselves. However, there are now five of us in a 3 room apartment so it's quite squishy and uncomfortable. Other than that, little progress has been acheived, we haven't been doing much marketing because we haven't had the time and the disorganised nature of work hasn't allowed this, but with the arrival of new workers hopefully we can change this. I am going to spend at least one day a week being one of those annoying people in the street who tries to chat to you and gives you a pamphlet and a speech etc etc.

I have also talked on the radio twice! I think I am close to becoming quite famous here! Next time I am going to give you all the internet link so you can hear my beautiful voice on the airwaves!

The orphanage:

Even more kids have arrived, but more workers have come too. Things seem to be a bit more chilled right now. We had a big "Saint John" party last week, which is quite a common thing in Brazil. Everyone dresses up like country bumpkins and eats traditional food and does a silly traditional dance in a huge group. My partner was one of the adolescent girls from Casa and it was quite fun! Unfortunately I was working most of the night in one of those fishing game things (where the kids have to catch a plastic fish and then get a prize) so I didn't get to take many photos.

My relationship with the kids is improving, but it's still difficult because I only spend one day a week there and it's hard to develop trust in such a short time. Still, some of them are really cute and fun, they have such a wide range of personalities, from the emotionally closed who pretty much want nothing to do with you, to those who always ask for attention. A couple of weeks ago one of the boys was down for the entire day. He barely spoke or ate or anything, and went to bed early, when he came down for dinner, I asked him what was wrong, he started talking about his Mum and why she hasn't come to get him and how the authorities should have never taken him away and all he wants is to see her or hear her voice and he basically just cried in my arms for about 2 hours. I tried getting him to eat, reading him a story and doing colouring in but nothing could cheer him up, meanwhile another boy was going around proudly announcing "today my father visited me and he gave me heaps and heaps of chocolate!".

In general:

I still don't have a social life outside the NGO, I'm considering becoming an evangelical just so I have people to hang out with. Who knows, maybe yelling at God really is the best way to spend a Sunday.

Also, people's behaviour here is starting to get on my nerves. It's strange because people are quite friendly and easy going, but at the same time quite rude and simply annoying. Students are always coming late, not turning off their phones, coming in and out of the room, etc etc I feel like an old Mum nagging them.

I only have three months here, for some reason I'm no longer feeling very excited about being in Rio, it's really expensive and despite being a really beautiful city it's lost most of its novelty for me.

Sometimes I want to abandon the Centro Cultural and either go and travel or do something more fun or go and live at the orphanage, which is by no means a piece of cake but will probably be much more gratifying. However I feel that if I leave this project the English program will more or less come to a complete stop for the next few months - and I don't think that will be very nice!

I hope things get better, maybe I will make some cool friends and everything will change!

Tristan

Another Day at the Office 13/6/11

tcrisante — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:46:00 GMT

On my last educador shift two boys were caught having sex and another kid threatened me and another volunteer with a knife before running away to live somewhere else.

Things have gotten so bad that today one of the directors was telling the children that those who don`t improve their behaviour will be sent away.

Last week I was supposed to be doing English workshops in a school but this wasn`t possible because the teachers are on strike indefinitely.

Sometimes I miss my life in Sydney.

Trip to the Doctor 30/5/11

tcrisante — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 07:42:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

Like I said in an earlier update, every Monday I work at the main orphanage complex (Sede) in a context completely different from the Culture Centre. When I got here in April there were 9 kids, almost all of them have been living at Casa for fairly long time and are well acquainted with the organization's rules and general outlook. Apart from getting into the odd fight or not wanting to do their chores, the kids aren't going to cause you a great deal of trouble. Since April, however, Casa has recieved 6 new boys, and this has definitely changed the dynamics of the orphanage.

The first two were Pablo and Lorran, they already had a sister living here, Lorena. This family is from a favela (slum), they still have their mother but were involved in many disturbing activities and this led to the government taking them away and sending them to Casa. Their behaviour very clearly shows the kind of environment they used to live in, they spit, swear, have tattoos and piercings, and dance and sing Brazilian Funk (music about sex and violence which is originally from the slums and is now quite popular). In many ways I feel more innocent than them and hate to think of the things they were involved in before arriving in Casa. While it's nice to think they still have a mother, she is in no way a positive influence for them, one day Lorena got angry with another child and picked up a brick and tried to smash her on the head with it, luckily an educador saw it happening and stopped her. When asked why she did this, Lorena said that her mother had told her that if anyone gives her trouble she should pick up something heavy and hit them with it, great parenting!

It's taking a while for these kids to get used to the rules and we have to be very patient, they have a lot of problems with authority and unfortunately some of the other kids have started spitting, swearing and imitating them in general - monkey see monkey do.

On the completely other end of the spectrum are Joao, Leonardo and Leandro, three brothers who we assume come from somewhere very isolated the country. They are 6, 9 and 10, however like most kids at Casa they look much younger and are quite small, (this is normally due to the conditions they were living in prior to arriving at Casa). None of the boys can speak properly, they have huge pronunciation problems and are quite difficult to understand. On top of this they lack basic vocabulary (shoe, hand etc) and don't know how to read, write or count. Supposedly their mother has psychological problems and never talked to them, I don't really know, (at Casa somebody will often create a story which explains a situation and then this becomes "fact"). The middle child, Leandro, has clear learning problems, he often appears in another planet and seems to have dual personalities, sometimes he just switches off and getting him to do the simplest thing (leave the room, sit down, give back something that isn't his) becomes a huge ordeal because he will just sit down, look at you blankly and refuse to do whatever you say, there is no reasoning with him, showers are a daily battle. The youngest, Joao, is really funny and outspoken, I hope he will be able to learn quickly and hopefully not be held back by his past. All the brothers arrived at Casa quite scared and fragile, and every meal they eat as much as they can as if it's going to be their last. We have to constantly stop the other kids from bullying them.

In the short time that I have been working as educador things have gone from relatively breezy to quite chaotic and stressful. My shift last week was one such example. Rodrigo (another new kid I didn't tell you about) got into a fight with Leonardo. Casa has a no violence policy and Conny (the other educadora I work with) told them both to sit down for 10 minutes to think about what they had done etc etc, normally after this you would make them do some kind of chore together and it would all be over. However, Rodrigo decided that sitting down is for losers and kept running around and making fun of both Conny and Leonardo, she walked after him and he ran away to the kids' playground. I was nearby and was asked to get him to sit down, by running after him and grabbing him if necessary. I hate the idea of coming all the way to Brazil to chase naughty kids, and I think running after them makes it a game when it shouldn't be, so I was very patient with him for maybe twenty minutes. However after everyone yelling at me to get him I finally gave in and caught him. Rodrigo refused to walk so with the help of another volunteer I had to carry him to the boys' bedroom. Rodrigo's eyes rolled up and he was frothing at the mouth and acting crazy. It took me about 20 minutes to get him to sit still, finally we counted together until 30 and he seemed calm and I called Conny so she could talk to him. She came in the room, left the door open and sat down. Rodrigo waited for a pause in her little speech and scrammed out of the room and again, the chase was on. This time I didn't wait for anyone's advice, I ran after him, he ran through some bushes and I followed him, almost tripping and kind of twisting my ankle. We took him to the "detention room" (a step up from the bedroom in terms of punishment) and left him there, later that afternoon he played with me and seemed to have forgotten about the whole incident, unfortunately my ankle hadn´t.

I noticed that night that it looked a bit funny but didn't really have the time or the mind to think much of it. The following day I rode my bike back to town, ended up walking half the way because my chain broke, and also had to take some kids to the dentist. By the end of the day my ankle was red and swollen. It also felt kind of hot and the swelling was both above and below the ankle, which weirded me out so I went to the local medical centre.

When I worked here in 2006 I used to take kids to this centre for speech therapy. I remember seeing a lot of down and out patients waiting what seemed like centuries and wondering what it must have been to get treatment there. Well now was my time to find out, after doing some strange burocratical stuff, (telling them my parents' names, having my blood pressure measured) I was called to see the doctor, public health seems to have a truly open door policy and people freely enter the room during your consultation, I instinctively closed the door when I walked in and was immediately scolded "This is a public hospital!!".

I'd hate to have some kind of genital problem as it would inevitably be a frighteningly public experience. I told the doctor about my problem and he casually told me that I had a sprained ankle and to put some ice on it and basically stop being a little girl. I have sprained my ankle before and was sure this was different so I insisted he have a look at it (he was actually going to finish his diagnosis without looking at my foot), when he did he said "that's not a sprained ankle!! Why didn't you tell me you had an infection!". I was then sent to have a blood exam and an X-ray, I was so dazed and confused I actually had the X-ray, however I'm pretty sure looking back that they are designed for identifying broken bones and not SKIN INFECTIONS! Anyway about 3 hours later my test results were ready and I took them to the doctor, he was starting to tell me his diagnosis when an old mate of his walked in, they had a good chat for about 40 minutes, they were even polite enough to include me and ask me about kangaroos and the like. During the blood test and X-ray I had to endure similar stories, also learning all about the X-ray man's marital problems and telling him it'd probably be the same with an Australian girl. I might add that throughout the day there were more waiting patients than chairs available for them to sit on. Although the staff's jovial nature might be mildly amusing it's also quite disgusting.

When the doctor and his mate finished their chat (the doctor also wrote him a prescription for a "friend") I was finally allowed the privilege of hearing my diagnosis, the doctor had delightful honesty, he wasn't sure. But he told me to take some antibiotics and that if it didn't improve in 24 hours to come and see another doctor who might have a better idea, very reassuring!

Luckily things have gotten better and I'm now fine, I didn't even end up going to a private clinic, so for me Brazilian Public Health was a success! However, as I struggle to get local highschool teachers to collaborate with the projects I'm working on here, I wonder wether I should be surprised, if the doctors don't take their jobs seriously, who else should?

Photos: 1st month in Brazil

tcrisante — Sun, 22 May 2011 08:11:00 GMT

Casa do Caminho - initiation!

tcrisante — Sun, 22 May 2011 06:57:00 GMT

It's about 3 weeks since I started working at Casa do Caminho, I'm quite settled now, but that doesn't mean things are going swimmingly either. Basically the Cultural Centre is still trying to get on its feet, so instead of actually spending my time teaching I'm trying to sort out administrative issues or marketing the school. There are very few classes running and most of them have around 3 students. People like to indulge in different excuses to explain the perceived lack of interest and attendance at the centre.

"People in Xerem are too ocuppied with Funk (raunchy Brazilian music), going to church and playing football" "they don't have the time, between work, other studies and church" "they are too ignorant and lazy to be bothered learning another language".

All these loser-mentality attitudes get thrown around, yet nobody can explain why there are other schools capable of making a profit in this town, with much higher fees and running costs (i.e. they actually have to employ people instead of using volunteers), without being able to offer the glamour of native English teachers. The only advantage these other schools have over us is that they are well-known companies and are able to offer their students recognised certificates, even though most people end up with a certificate and no ability to actually speak English.

Previous to my arrival, there were two experienced teachers at the school, and from what I've heard they had quite a high student-base. For whatever reason those students are nowhere to be found, and I doubt that it's because they're all too busy speaking fluent English in Brazilian embassies around the globe. It's hard to market the school knoning that student retention is a major problem, even moreso given the fact that in 5 months´ time I'll no longer be here.

The centre also has some undeniable structural and administrative issues. For example, there is no permanent receptionist/student liason person. The only person permanently employed here is a volunteer-turned staff member from Argentina, who is a good person but has no experience running a school and refuses to teach, based on his own proclamation that he is the worst teacher in the world (not sure if that makes him the best candidate to run an education centre). This has meant that I am the only Spanish teacher at the centre, which is quite challenging but also fun - like most things at Casa do Caminho!

Tomorrow we are staging a "surprise event" in the main square of the town, which will have theater and singing in order to raise the centre's profile and next week I will be visiting public schools and doing English workshops with teenagers. If this doesn't work we have two more options, marketing in churches and in companies. If that doesn't work we might as well give up!

It can be a little bit unmotivating working at the school, especially because there are no kids here and I don't really feel like I'm part of the organisation like I was before. It's good that I have a fixed shift up at the main orphanage, where I am responsible for the kids (about 12) along with another volunteer. This basically means I sleep in their room at night, make sure they are ready for school, that they do all their chores and that they don't kill each other, etc etc. The job itself is quite stressful but it's great being up at the orphanage, it's at a really beautiful location in between rolling green hills and the site just has a unique energy that's hard to describe.

It's nice to get out because the centre really lacks privacy, it kinda sucks to live where you work. The building is actually just an old house, it isn't very big and isn't in very good condition, it's clearly not designed to be a school (you have to walk through the kitchen to get to most of the classrooms) and the left-over space for the 4 residents is not very much. The team I am working from is made up of a guy from the Central Coast (BOGAN ALERT!), France (SNOB ALERT!), and a woman from the UK (PROPERNESS ALERT!).

The team is quite energetic and positive, minus the French part, but it's kind of strange living in a Brazilian town with 3 other foreigners. I try to spend as much time as I can with Brazilians but this isn't always possible.

Sorry if this is all too factual and boring, and you'd really rather hear about me getting up to wild Brazilian adventures involving seductive natives and jungle escapades, but it's actually quite nice for me to get all this out, because working here your life tends to end up just being Casa do Caminho, all the time, and I might be going crazy!

Also, check out my photos from this awesome mountain climb I did in Rio! The other people in the pictures are volunteers from Casa do Caminho.

Take care,

I miss you all,

Tristan

Welcome to Brazil

tcrisante — Wed, 6 Apr 2011 22:57:00 GMT

Hello everyone!

I did promise to make a blog so here goes... To me the concept of a blog seems inherently self-indulgent and egotistical. Why should other people care about my random and often purely hedonostic trappings around the globe? I hope you are not bored to tears. Ideally you'll find this blog so inspirational you'll actually come see me and we can drink from coconuts on some beach together!

I have been in Brazil for just over 3 weeks now... It's nice to be back although a little bit strange as well. I spent the first week in Sao Paulo, and felt like crap pretty much the entire time. Paulistanos (people from Sao Paulo) will go on and on about how lovely and wonderful their city is, but I think you have to be either from here or a "big city person". For me Sao Paulo is an unnimaginably vast mass of high-rise buildings and chaos. The soundtrack to this chaos consists of incessant barking, car horns and helicopter traffic (transport problems and crime have led a lot of business people to fly to work). I found the first few days there pretty nauseating, on top of the noise, it is impossible to see the horizon because there are buildings in every direction you look and it's kind of off-putting. Still I got to see some really cool stuff, there are some interesting museums and the old part of the city is quite beautiful. Sao Paulo's nightlife is really crazy, there are a lot of "alternative" places and people stay out all night. This is truly a 24-hr city, there is a shopping centre for pets (where you can buy absolutely everything your spoilt poodle doesn`t need) which is open 24/7, just in case you need some cat nip to help Felix deal with his 4am come-down. I also saw for the first time in my life male prostitutes on the street who aren't transvestites, just normal-looking guys wearing normal clothes standing around in a park at 4 am, I could pass as one of them!

I also went to a graduation party in a town in the northern part of Sao Paulo state. In Brazil university graduation is a HUGE event. Everyone gets all dressed up like it's a wedding, and the party takes place in a massive hall about the size of a football field, there is a proper elevated stage with a few different bands playing accompanied by dancers with jumbo-sized silicone body parts and accordingly skanky clothes. It starts off quite chilled with everyone just having a few beers, taking a few fancy pictures and picking at the buffet. At around 1am all the graduants line up and as their names are called out they walk forward to recieve their award. It is all filmed and put on big screens like it's the Oscars or something, and the families scream and shoot these weird confetti bazukas at the graduant when their name is called out. This takes about an hour because there are so many graduants, after this they dance a waltz and then the real party starts. Some wierd erformers go around doing tricks with fire and stuff, the cocktails kick in and everyone dances either forro, samba or Brazilian country music - the cool thing about most parties in Brazil is that there are almost always a few different stages playing different music so it never gets boring or repetitive. The family I was with got quite wasted, the uncle of the graduant lost his jacket and one of his contact lenses, and everybody young and old was taking me around the party trying to find me a Brazilian girlfriend... Some people have no shame. When the sun came up breakfast was served and then we finally straggled home.

After that I went to Penedo to visit a friend I met in Australia. Penedo is halfway between Rio and Sao Paulo. There is a huge national park where monkeys and jaguars supposedly live (I didn't see any), there are also some nice waterfalls and pretty views etc but the best thing by far is the "Finnish town" which exists there. I don't know how, why or when but a whole bunch of Finnish migrants went there with Santa Claus and set up a delightful chocolate and icecream factory!

After this I finally went to Rio. I went straight to Xerem the town where I worked last time I was in Brazil, for an NGO called Casa do Caminho, which mainly functions as an orphanage. Xerem is quite poor with very high rates of unemployment and related social problems (alcoholism, teen pregnancy etc). Despite this, many things had changed in the five years I´d been gone, there were so many more shopping centres and businesses, although all the slums and polluted rivers remain unchanged. The expansion of the Brazilian economy is actually quite noticeable, no more donkeys and carts, a lot more new cars and buildings and almost everything is a lot more expensive. However it is also clear that a lot of people are yet to be included in Brazil´s economic boom.

When I arrived in the main square I immediately saw a "kid" from the orphanage, he´s only one year younger than me and he was riding a bicycle while carrying a baby... turns out he had one with a girl from the orphanage. There are A LOT of similar stories from Casa, I guess it´s inevitable.

Only a few of the kids recognised me, generally the older teenagers.. although a couple of the little ones knew who I was and that was really nice. In general it´s been kinda sad to see the kids because a lot of them used to be innocent children and now they are teenagers with attitude, and instead of wanting to kick a ball with you they just want to ask you if you have a girlfriend and if you like sex and other delightful questions like that. The teenage boys on the other hand have absolutely nothing to say at all!

Seeing my old co-workers was quite nice too, although the staff has changed dramatically, basically five years ago the volunteers were considered "helpers" and there were paid staff responsible for the majority of taks.. now there are very few local staff and the majority of responibilities are borne by volunteers. I think this has really improved the functions of the organization, not just because a lot of money can now be spent on other things, but also because we have an energized and motivated team, whereas some of the old staff became a little too comfortable in their positions.

There is also a plan to set up a "Green Community" in the site of the orphanage, which is located in the bush about 30 minutes from the town. They are in the process of establishing an organic farm and one day become fully-fledged self-sufficient hippies. I think it´s a nice idea, living like that doesn´t require any concerns about the problems in the Middle-East, rising inflation, your super-annuation or any other measly issues.

After visiting the orphanage I finally went to Rio. I´m not sure if there´s a city on Earth that better represents both heaven and hell at the same time. The bus arrives at a famous station called Estacao Central do Brasil, but it could easily be a scene from Calcutta, Manila, or Port Au Prince. Seeing so much poverty, rubbish and chaos does not bring to mind the image of Rio you see in the postcards. The trip into Rio from the interior passes a heavily polluted area which is mainly populated by slums.

However, when I went and visited my friend in Barra da Tijuca, one of the richest areas in Rio, far from the city centre but surrounded by picturesque mountains and beautiful beaches, I really did feel like I was in paradise!

I´ve also been to a Brazilian wedding, but it was just a fancy dinner with some fancy people in a fancy restaurant. Not much to report, it´s actually been a little strange for me this time round as the contrast between different economic groups is so huge, not just in terms of material wealth, but also in terms of attitudes and culture.

Next week I start working for Casa (the orphanage) where I´ll be teaching at a cultural centre, both to children from the organisation and local residents who pay very low fees. It´s going to be tough as the living conditions are extremely basic and the resources of the school are quite limited, also I´ll be the most experienced teacher there so instead of asking others for help and advice I´ll supposedly be the one giving it. Nevertheless, I´m really looking forward to it.

p.s. sorry if this is all really boring!!