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 2nd 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
