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?
