Sunday, July 4, 2010
I love this place: July 2, 2010
Yes, I know....Brazil lost to the netherlands. It was a blast watching the game at a restaurant on the beach but as you might expect people were pretty sad and bummed. The mood of the city was pretty somber the rest of the day. But we decided to cure this sentiment for ourselves by taking a van up to Corcovado mountain to see the Cristo Redentor statue. The van ride up was a little scary because the drivers are taking these switchbacks turns up through the Tijuca forest at higher-than necessary speeds. It was amuzing though I suppose. Once we got to the top we were at the highest point in the city and you can literally see all of Rio and beyond. It was a truly specatulcar view (yet another) and we amused ourselves by taking lots of (touristy) pictures and asking Olavo what certain buildings were below (as part of the running joke poking fun at how people in our group expect him to know everything about Brazil and Rio...even though he is fom Sao Paulo.) Being up there truly was a moment of sheer beauty and awe. We then made a tasty stir fry dinner, I finally got to see my family and Patches on Skype, and then we finished out the night with more samba dancing in Lapa. This never fails as a good time....and we met some of Tamo's PhD. friends who helped us with our samba moves. More incredibly friendly and nice Braziian women!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
"We're Brazilian, we don't give up.:"
Another school visit…this time to another favela but one that was about 40 min outside of downtown Rio. Another view of poverty in Rio. Life is not easy here and infrastructure is certainly not great. Malnourished wild horses grazing around dirt patches near the street…this was something I hadn’t seen before. It was obvious to me as we walked up to the school that it was going to be one of the poorest that we saw. It was very small and the students said that the structure of the school is one thing they would really like to change. As we walked past some of the students they chanted “Ghana, Ghana!” to us as a joke. Ha. NOT FUNNY. Haha. We visited a 9th,10th, and 11th grade class. I was interested by the students’ disapproval of the quota system that exists for letting minorities into university. They do not want to be “let in” to the universities because they said that this does not give them any pride and that the private school kids very much look down on students who get in through the quota system. These kids feel very inferior but amazingly are still so determined to work hard and change their reality. When asked what they do if they don’t do well on the Vestibular (their version of the SAT that they HAVE to pass to get into university) the first time, one kid said “Try again. We’re Brasilian, we don’t give up.” Unfortunately, the quality of instruction that these students receive, combined with the fact that they have 16 different subjects each week and only 4 hours of class a day means that I remain skeptical about how much they are actually learning…and this is evident in how unlikely it is that most of them (most because there are always your bright students who manage to rise above) will go to university. I will save the rest of my thoughts on that for my “final musings” later.
Anyways, I pretty much won over a fan club at this school and as Doug says he felt like he was walking around with Jessica Simpson. I mean all I did was answer their question about what we like about Rio so far with “bailefunk” (which is the type of dance that they all like to do) and immediately won some street cred I guess…..because when we walked out of another class later one of the girls ran up to me and hugged me and wouldn’t let me go and said “don’t leave!” and then they all wanted to dance with me. Oh it was so funny, they were giving me gifts, asking me if I was married, and teaching me some funny little dances from a tv show they like called Panico. Luckily one of the girls spoke some broken English so with my little bit of Portuguese combined with that I was able to talk to her and this group of kids and answer the questions they had about education and mainly college in the US. They really want to know what it is like there and what kind of opportunities kids in the US have. I was also thrilled to hear that so many of them love biology!
One thing that has come up at every school we have visited as a question from either the students or teachers is about gangs and violence in our schools. There is a pervasive perception here that we have a lot of violence and bullying in our schools in the US. While this is true to an extent it seems like they are somewhat misinformed about the prevalence of it so we always have to spend some time clarifying what the reality is.
I am really trying hard to learn as much (even though it’s only a little) Portuguese while I am here as I can. We have had 4 language lessons now and I am thoroughly enjoying them. Plus, meeting people and making contacts is motivation to learn more of the language so that I can communicate with them…especially since I think I want to do some collaborative projects (i.e. mock trials, social issue analysis) with my future students and students in Rio. Don’t take this personally because obviously I miss all of you and there are many things I look forward to enjoying back in the states (cheap PB and cereal, chips and salsa, tap water and tennis on tv…to name a few!) ….but I started thinking about how I don’t really feel homesick here…..homesick in the sense of feeling really displaced from where I “belong.” In fact, I would venture to say that even after living in Savannah for 2 years, I feel more at-home here in Rio after two weeks than I did there. There is just something about this place….the food, the music, the beaches/mountains/nature, the culture, and most importantly the PEOPLE that just relax me and make me feel like….well, ME. I like it.
Joyce is here this week to help us with our projects and so we are all going to eat dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant on the beach tonight. Should be fun! Only 8 days left here for me! Crazy how fast time goes….
Anyways, I pretty much won over a fan club at this school and as Doug says he felt like he was walking around with Jessica Simpson. I mean all I did was answer their question about what we like about Rio so far with “bailefunk” (which is the type of dance that they all like to do) and immediately won some street cred I guess…..because when we walked out of another class later one of the girls ran up to me and hugged me and wouldn’t let me go and said “don’t leave!” and then they all wanted to dance with me. Oh it was so funny, they were giving me gifts, asking me if I was married, and teaching me some funny little dances from a tv show they like called Panico. Luckily one of the girls spoke some broken English so with my little bit of Portuguese combined with that I was able to talk to her and this group of kids and answer the questions they had about education and mainly college in the US. They really want to know what it is like there and what kind of opportunities kids in the US have. I was also thrilled to hear that so many of them love biology!
One thing that has come up at every school we have visited as a question from either the students or teachers is about gangs and violence in our schools. There is a pervasive perception here that we have a lot of violence and bullying in our schools in the US. While this is true to an extent it seems like they are somewhat misinformed about the prevalence of it so we always have to spend some time clarifying what the reality is.
I am really trying hard to learn as much (even though it’s only a little) Portuguese while I am here as I can. We have had 4 language lessons now and I am thoroughly enjoying them. Plus, meeting people and making contacts is motivation to learn more of the language so that I can communicate with them…especially since I think I want to do some collaborative projects (i.e. mock trials, social issue analysis) with my future students and students in Rio. Don’t take this personally because obviously I miss all of you and there are many things I look forward to enjoying back in the states (cheap PB and cereal, chips and salsa, tap water and tennis on tv…to name a few!) ….but I started thinking about how I don’t really feel homesick here…..homesick in the sense of feeling really displaced from where I “belong.” In fact, I would venture to say that even after living in Savannah for 2 years, I feel more at-home here in Rio after two weeks than I did there. There is just something about this place….the food, the music, the beaches/mountains/nature, the culture, and most importantly the PEOPLE that just relax me and make me feel like….well, ME. I like it.
Joyce is here this week to help us with our projects and so we are all going to eat dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant on the beach tonight. Should be fun! Only 8 days left here for me! Crazy how fast time goes….
Monday, June 28, 2010
A walk in the park...
Mon. 6/28
Well I think I mentioned before that our school visit for today got cancelled because it was a “national holiday.” This was probably a good thing since we are without Tamo and Olavo who are in Sao Paulo until tomorrow and whose translation skills are useful!
So we decided to sleep in a bit and then take the bus to Jardim Botanico, which is an enormous hidden getaway of acres and acres of natural goodness. In other words, it is a well-known collection of Brazilian and exotic flora. Dr. Finke would love this and I have to thank her botany class at X for turning this place into a green playground for me! Ahhh it was so beautiful and peaceful especially in contrast to the noise of the city on the outside. It had everything from waterfalls, to palm trees, to bamboo forests, to orchids, to lily pads that were four feet in diameter! There was also a Biblical garden and an Amazon region which made me feel as I was channeling my inner Bear Grylls. No sightings of lemon-flavored ants though. My favorite part was the medical plant garden. Oh mahhh goodness. I was in hog-heaven (or I suppose “homeopathic heaven” would be more appropriate) and I’m pretty sure I took a picture of about 75 % of the descriptive signs for the dozens of medical plants they had. I was amazed at how many biological/anatomical/medicinal words look similar in Portuguese to what they are in English meaning I could read about what all of the plants are used for. God bless Latin root words!! I kept saying that I would love to work there and I had an interesting conversation with Dmitri about one of his professors who did research in Mexico on the use of medicinal plants among women. Hmm, I think I hear wheels turning…
Minor side note: There were a lot of people wearing green and yellow and jerseys today. And after taking a nap on the beach mid-afternoon we got up to go sit at a table at kiosk and order some beverages and snacks and every tv at every kiosk had the SAME CHANNEL ON! What is wrong with these people?! I just wanted to watch Oprah (which believe it or not is on here in Rio, complete with Portuguese subtitles) and all they had on was some soccer game. Sheesh. And then the strangest thing happened. Three, count ‘em THREE times during the 2 hours that we sat enjoying our nosh and bev the city erupted in noise and firecrackers and horns and the waiter would run around yelling GGGOOOOOOAAAALLL!!!!! The waiters even stopped serving during the game so they could watch! It was so weird. I don’t know why everyone made such a big deal out if it but boy was I glad that I happened to have my Brazil flag sarong, green/yellow earrings and Brazil flag headband on…..without that I fear I would have felt slightly left out….! And so I used context clues to come to the conclusion that the Brazilian soccer team was playing in a very important match in something called the Copa de Mundo against a neighboring country, Chile and that it was a really good thing that they won….because now I guess they get to play again or something? I don’t know, it all seems a little crazy to me. Almost as crazy as the street parties that commenced after this and are still audible outside my window right now as I sit here watching a documentary on Ronaldinho and eating kiwi. These cariocas really take this soccer thing seriously….maybe I should join in the fun….
Well I think I mentioned before that our school visit for today got cancelled because it was a “national holiday.” This was probably a good thing since we are without Tamo and Olavo who are in Sao Paulo until tomorrow and whose translation skills are useful!
So we decided to sleep in a bit and then take the bus to Jardim Botanico, which is an enormous hidden getaway of acres and acres of natural goodness. In other words, it is a well-known collection of Brazilian and exotic flora. Dr. Finke would love this and I have to thank her botany class at X for turning this place into a green playground for me! Ahhh it was so beautiful and peaceful especially in contrast to the noise of the city on the outside. It had everything from waterfalls, to palm trees, to bamboo forests, to orchids, to lily pads that were four feet in diameter! There was also a Biblical garden and an Amazon region which made me feel as I was channeling my inner Bear Grylls. No sightings of lemon-flavored ants though. My favorite part was the medical plant garden. Oh mahhh goodness. I was in hog-heaven (or I suppose “homeopathic heaven” would be more appropriate) and I’m pretty sure I took a picture of about 75 % of the descriptive signs for the dozens of medical plants they had. I was amazed at how many biological/anatomical/medicinal words look similar in Portuguese to what they are in English meaning I could read about what all of the plants are used for. God bless Latin root words!! I kept saying that I would love to work there and I had an interesting conversation with Dmitri about one of his professors who did research in Mexico on the use of medicinal plants among women. Hmm, I think I hear wheels turning…
Minor side note: There were a lot of people wearing green and yellow and jerseys today. And after taking a nap on the beach mid-afternoon we got up to go sit at a table at kiosk and order some beverages and snacks and every tv at every kiosk had the SAME CHANNEL ON! What is wrong with these people?! I just wanted to watch Oprah (which believe it or not is on here in Rio, complete with Portuguese subtitles) and all they had on was some soccer game. Sheesh. And then the strangest thing happened. Three, count ‘em THREE times during the 2 hours that we sat enjoying our nosh and bev the city erupted in noise and firecrackers and horns and the waiter would run around yelling GGGOOOOOOAAAALLL!!!!! The waiters even stopped serving during the game so they could watch! It was so weird. I don’t know why everyone made such a big deal out if it but boy was I glad that I happened to have my Brazil flag sarong, green/yellow earrings and Brazil flag headband on…..without that I fear I would have felt slightly left out….! And so I used context clues to come to the conclusion that the Brazilian soccer team was playing in a very important match in something called the Copa de Mundo against a neighboring country, Chile and that it was a really good thing that they won….because now I guess they get to play again or something? I don’t know, it all seems a little crazy to me. Almost as crazy as the street parties that commenced after this and are still audible outside my window right now as I sit here watching a documentary on Ronaldinho and eating kiwi. These cariocas really take this soccer thing seriously….maybe I should join in the fun….
Monks and Markets
Sun. 6/27
Got up early and several of us took the metro downtown and then to the top of hill atop which stood a 17th century monastery. I was amazed at how ornate the entire interior of the church was and inside it was very dim and we were greeted with an intense aroma of incense. I have never been in a building that old. Mass was a little tiring because I was really struggling to keep up with and understand any of what they were saying unlike the past two masses I have been to here. Luckily, the real reason we decided to go was because it was a Gregorian chant mass. It sounded absolutely heavenly (hehe) and was well worth getting up early and making the trek down.
The day only got better because then we to the Ipanema Hippie Fair (no really, this is what it is called) which is a huge fair of artisan vendors that set up in a park every Sunday. If you are thinking this sounds like your average craft fair with woodwork door decorations and paisley-patterned handmade purses think again…...”craft fairs” are wayyyyy cooler in Brazil and let’s just say I wanted everything. Brazil is apparently known for its leather and I saw some of the most amazing chairs, shoes, bags and jewelry made from leather…all of which smelled really good! If only I didn’t have to fly home I totally would have purchased an ottoman. Ha. Because the exchange rate is so good here I bought so many things for so cheap. I even did a little bartering! The highlights for me must have been the artwork (which is all SO COLORFUL!) the jewelry and the caramelized coconut that I bought from a food vendor. It was just such a happy feeling to walk through this park and see all of the beautiful and creative things that these Brasileiros had created, eating good food and sharing with Molly a sense of excitement when we saw a table full of infant-sized leather sandals. Life is good and I am definitely going back next week!
To cap off the night I got to walk down to the rocks at Arpoador which juts out into the ocean in between Copacabana and Ipanema beach. The sun had just set behind the mountains and there were dozens of people out on the rocks sharing food, embracing, playing guitar, or walking with their kids. The set of lights illuminating the water by the rocks allows surfers to do some night surfing and people to fish off of the rock formations as onlookers enjoy the sight. The most amazing thing was that it was a full moon and I don’t think I have even seen it so big and orange….and to think we are all under that same moon. God’s gifts of nature were at their finest at this spot in beautiful Brazil. Do I have to leave?
Got up early and several of us took the metro downtown and then to the top of hill atop which stood a 17th century monastery. I was amazed at how ornate the entire interior of the church was and inside it was very dim and we were greeted with an intense aroma of incense. I have never been in a building that old. Mass was a little tiring because I was really struggling to keep up with and understand any of what they were saying unlike the past two masses I have been to here. Luckily, the real reason we decided to go was because it was a Gregorian chant mass. It sounded absolutely heavenly (hehe) and was well worth getting up early and making the trek down.
The day only got better because then we to the Ipanema Hippie Fair (no really, this is what it is called) which is a huge fair of artisan vendors that set up in a park every Sunday. If you are thinking this sounds like your average craft fair with woodwork door decorations and paisley-patterned handmade purses think again…...”craft fairs” are wayyyyy cooler in Brazil and let’s just say I wanted everything. Brazil is apparently known for its leather and I saw some of the most amazing chairs, shoes, bags and jewelry made from leather…all of which smelled really good! If only I didn’t have to fly home I totally would have purchased an ottoman. Ha. Because the exchange rate is so good here I bought so many things for so cheap. I even did a little bartering! The highlights for me must have been the artwork (which is all SO COLORFUL!) the jewelry and the caramelized coconut that I bought from a food vendor. It was just such a happy feeling to walk through this park and see all of the beautiful and creative things that these Brasileiros had created, eating good food and sharing with Molly a sense of excitement when we saw a table full of infant-sized leather sandals. Life is good and I am definitely going back next week!
To cap off the night I got to walk down to the rocks at Arpoador which juts out into the ocean in between Copacabana and Ipanema beach. The sun had just set behind the mountains and there were dozens of people out on the rocks sharing food, embracing, playing guitar, or walking with their kids. The set of lights illuminating the water by the rocks allows surfers to do some night surfing and people to fish off of the rock formations as onlookers enjoy the sight. The most amazing thing was that it was a full moon and I don’t think I have even seen it so big and orange….and to think we are all under that same moon. God’s gifts of nature were at their finest at this spot in beautiful Brazil. Do I have to leave?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
A little comic relief...
A couple of funny stories:
Swimwear:
So I figured if I am going to be in Brazil I have to buy a swimsuit here. However, the challenge was to find something that would actually be socially acceptable to wear in the US as well. Megan and Molly went with me and the lady that helped me didn't speak English of course...sooo after trying on several she noticed I kept going back to the racks and she look at me kind of asking what was wrong with the ones I tried on...and finally she just said "pequinha?" (meaning small haha) and I just started laughing and saying "Sim! Muito pequinha!" (Yes! Very Small!...as in...I am an Americana and I have too many tan lines to be abe to pull off your barely-there Brazilian swimwear!) So she kept throwing suits into the dressing room for me and finally found one that I could actually wear somewhere other than Rio haha. Good enough. "Que Legal!" (That's cool) she assured me....SUCCESS.
Doug:
Since I am on the topic of being scantily clad, allow me to tell you about an interesting middle-of-the-night moment a member of our group had. Doug, a thirty-something master teacher was trying to sleep in his second floor apartment on a Friday night in Copacabana when he heard some loud ramblings outside. Probably just a bar fight, right? WRONG. Rather, when he went to his window he was a little surprised (although I'm not sure why...it's Rio) to see a woman, completely naked standing in the middle of the street yelling a lot of crazy things. Actually, it's really not a laughing matter because she was obviousl on something, but in hindsight it is kind of funny because.....the next thing he knew some guy came out of one of the stores with a bucket of water and just threw it in order to try and snap her out of it. Yeah. That happened. Weird story I know, but things like that definitely don't happen everyday, and needless to say Doug had some trouble sleeping after that. haha.
Churros!:
So Dmitri and I have been trying since after dinner last Tuesday to find churros for dessert. If you don't know what a churro is you are really missing out. They are cylindrical pieces of TASTY dough fried and dipped in cinammon-sugar. The best one I have ever had was on the Santa Monica pier...but here you can get them with FILLING...either dolce de lece (like a caramel), chocolate (pronounced "show-ko-lah-tchee" in Rio>) or coconut. So clearly this is why we are dying to have one. We see the vendors on the streets everywhere we go and they are selling these (along with other amazing treats like corn in the husk, tapiocas of all sorts, kettle corn and guarana) but after dinner when we want it we can never find it! So D and I walked up and down the patterned sidewalks of Copacabana beach after our dinner the other night and of course there was only one vendor on the whole stinkin beach and he was selling CORN! Arghhhh. I think one day when I am pregnant churros will surely be what I crave. So we will continue our search to find a churro man at the time of night when he is really of essence. I will keep you posted on my (hopeful) successes.
Babies:
Well the streak of cute Brazilian baby/kid sightings continues. Sheesh. They are everywhere. One in particular today was waking hand-in-hand with who I am assuming was his dad....and he just kept staring as he walked so his dad stopped and kept saying something to him while I smiled at the little tot (and did everything in my power to resist the temptation to take him...hahaha) and then finally the kid just takes his hand and blows me a huge kiss. Uhhhhh, pretty much the most adorable thing I have ever seen.
HEXA!:
Well we had to wake up early to get ready and walk down to Ipanema to get a seat at place to watch the Brazil v. Portugal game. This is a huge rivalry, for obvious reasons. So we paid our cover charge to get into the restuarant which was utterly decked out in green, yellow, and soccer garb. There was a live band playing and surprisingly enough our waiter spoke a little Engligh and they had pretty standard American fare. But anyways in addition to the rowdy fans and good music perhaps the best part of this outing was that they passed out cards to everyone where you predicted 5 things about the game before it began and for everyone you got right they would give you a free chopp (draft beer.) And whaddya know part of the way through the first half Fabiano gets the first card of the game and I win! Yeah. I know my Brazilian soccer. What can I say.... :) Hexa!!!
Lapa:
So Rio nightlife is something everyone should experience in their life. In a part of the city known as Lapa you can find everything from samba (which we did last week), to jazz, to bossa nova, to baile funk (which we did this week.) I will spare the blog the details of nights out in Rio and if you are interested in hearing them just let me know. The music here is absolutely fantastic though and you can't help but enjoy yourself. Oh Brazil....
FIFA:
So we went to watch the US v. Ghana game at the FIFA Fan Fest venue on the beach. This is truely an experience because you get to watch soccer on a ginormous screen while laying in the sand and being surrounded by tons of other fans (really the only place you can go in Rio and find this many people speaking English.) So the tv station that is covering the World Cup in Rio comes over to us and the guy is being all excited in Portuguese and sits down next to us and interviews us. We know he is saying something about us being "bonita" and being "Americanas." So we threw out a few words we knew and then I just finished by chanting USA! USA! into the camera. So hopefully I will be on tv in Rio next week wearing my true colors! It's funny though we never know if people are making fun of us so we asked some guys in front of us who spoke English and Portuguese and he assured us that they weren't. There were an awful lot of Ghana fans who didn't look Ghanaian though.... Grrrrr. Good game boys. Oh and also, now we can't stop imitating the way that Portuguese-speakers say the name of our opponent....."Estados Unidos e Guuuuuuh-nuhhh"!
One last thing...I am sampling so many good desserts here in Brazil. I had no idea they were known for such amazing sweets. And my fridge officially smells of goiba...a delicious new fruit that I now love eating for breakfast.
Swimwear:
So I figured if I am going to be in Brazil I have to buy a swimsuit here. However, the challenge was to find something that would actually be socially acceptable to wear in the US as well. Megan and Molly went with me and the lady that helped me didn't speak English of course...sooo after trying on several she noticed I kept going back to the racks and she look at me kind of asking what was wrong with the ones I tried on...and finally she just said "pequinha?" (meaning small haha) and I just started laughing and saying "Sim! Muito pequinha!" (Yes! Very Small!...as in...I am an Americana and I have too many tan lines to be abe to pull off your barely-there Brazilian swimwear!) So she kept throwing suits into the dressing room for me and finally found one that I could actually wear somewhere other than Rio haha. Good enough. "Que Legal!" (That's cool) she assured me....SUCCESS.
Doug:
Since I am on the topic of being scantily clad, allow me to tell you about an interesting middle-of-the-night moment a member of our group had. Doug, a thirty-something master teacher was trying to sleep in his second floor apartment on a Friday night in Copacabana when he heard some loud ramblings outside. Probably just a bar fight, right? WRONG. Rather, when he went to his window he was a little surprised (although I'm not sure why...it's Rio) to see a woman, completely naked standing in the middle of the street yelling a lot of crazy things. Actually, it's really not a laughing matter because she was obviousl on something, but in hindsight it is kind of funny because.....the next thing he knew some guy came out of one of the stores with a bucket of water and just threw it in order to try and snap her out of it. Yeah. That happened. Weird story I know, but things like that definitely don't happen everyday, and needless to say Doug had some trouble sleeping after that. haha.
Churros!:
So Dmitri and I have been trying since after dinner last Tuesday to find churros for dessert. If you don't know what a churro is you are really missing out. They are cylindrical pieces of TASTY dough fried and dipped in cinammon-sugar. The best one I have ever had was on the Santa Monica pier...but here you can get them with FILLING...either dolce de lece (like a caramel), chocolate (pronounced "show-ko-lah-tchee" in Rio>) or coconut. So clearly this is why we are dying to have one. We see the vendors on the streets everywhere we go and they are selling these (along with other amazing treats like corn in the husk, tapiocas of all sorts, kettle corn and guarana) but after dinner when we want it we can never find it! So D and I walked up and down the patterned sidewalks of Copacabana beach after our dinner the other night and of course there was only one vendor on the whole stinkin beach and he was selling CORN! Arghhhh. I think one day when I am pregnant churros will surely be what I crave. So we will continue our search to find a churro man at the time of night when he is really of essence. I will keep you posted on my (hopeful) successes.
Babies:
Well the streak of cute Brazilian baby/kid sightings continues. Sheesh. They are everywhere. One in particular today was waking hand-in-hand with who I am assuming was his dad....and he just kept staring as he walked so his dad stopped and kept saying something to him while I smiled at the little tot (and did everything in my power to resist the temptation to take him...hahaha) and then finally the kid just takes his hand and blows me a huge kiss. Uhhhhh, pretty much the most adorable thing I have ever seen.
HEXA!:
Well we had to wake up early to get ready and walk down to Ipanema to get a seat at place to watch the Brazil v. Portugal game. This is a huge rivalry, for obvious reasons. So we paid our cover charge to get into the restuarant which was utterly decked out in green, yellow, and soccer garb. There was a live band playing and surprisingly enough our waiter spoke a little Engligh and they had pretty standard American fare. But anyways in addition to the rowdy fans and good music perhaps the best part of this outing was that they passed out cards to everyone where you predicted 5 things about the game before it began and for everyone you got right they would give you a free chopp (draft beer.) And whaddya know part of the way through the first half Fabiano gets the first card of the game and I win! Yeah. I know my Brazilian soccer. What can I say.... :) Hexa!!!
Lapa:
So Rio nightlife is something everyone should experience in their life. In a part of the city known as Lapa you can find everything from samba (which we did last week), to jazz, to bossa nova, to baile funk (which we did this week.) I will spare the blog the details of nights out in Rio and if you are interested in hearing them just let me know. The music here is absolutely fantastic though and you can't help but enjoy yourself. Oh Brazil....
FIFA:
So we went to watch the US v. Ghana game at the FIFA Fan Fest venue on the beach. This is truely an experience because you get to watch soccer on a ginormous screen while laying in the sand and being surrounded by tons of other fans (really the only place you can go in Rio and find this many people speaking English.) So the tv station that is covering the World Cup in Rio comes over to us and the guy is being all excited in Portuguese and sits down next to us and interviews us. We know he is saying something about us being "bonita" and being "Americanas." So we threw out a few words we knew and then I just finished by chanting USA! USA! into the camera. So hopefully I will be on tv in Rio next week wearing my true colors! It's funny though we never know if people are making fun of us so we asked some guys in front of us who spoke English and Portuguese and he assured us that they weren't. There were an awful lot of Ghana fans who didn't look Ghanaian though.... Grrrrr. Good game boys. Oh and also, now we can't stop imitating the way that Portuguese-speakers say the name of our opponent....."Estados Unidos e Guuuuuuh-nuhhh"!
One last thing...I am sampling so many good desserts here in Brazil. I had no idea they were known for such amazing sweets. And my fridge officially smells of goiba...a delicious new fruit that I now love eating for breakfast.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Through a different lens...
Thurs. 6/24
Today we visited the second of the two public schools that is partially funded by a private sector. This school, called NAVE happens to be sponsored by a phone company and is geared towards technology training. Both NATA and NAVE are model schools for the state of Rio and there is a third one that is in the works that will be geared towards marine biology and sea port jobs skills with related businesses that will sponsor it. At NAVE they see the teachers more as researchers so they have a lot of time where they are not in the classroom to do their research and to plan cross-curricularly (such as having students write, record, edit, and produce songs and screenplays about content knowledge such as the French Revolution for example.)…pretty cool stuff. Any student can attend but they have to take and do well on a test to get in. It sort of resembles our magnet schools and their acceptance rate is 30-1….more selective than Ivy League colleges. So even though it is a public school this testing-in situation still perpetuates a socioeconomic gap because you can imagine that for the most part only students who already attended good schools are going to have the knowledge base to get in. It was a shocking feeling walking into a school that is basically a techie’s playground (kind of resembled COSI or a museum…video games and computers in the lobby) which was such a contrast to yesterday’s school visit in the favela and it was sort of difficult to stomach. My feeling of amazement at the facilities and focus of the students was immediately met with a feeling of frustration and jaded-ness (?) at the comparison between these two schools. I suppose we have the same thing in the US but the contrast here just seems a lot greater. It just seems like they are selecting for somewhat privileged students even though it is a public school. As I mentioned before, they don’t have to pay tuition but it stands to reason that the majority of students who do well on the exam have had access to a decent primary education which is usually not a luxury afforded to kids in the favelas. Ahh….the inequalities of offering today’s youth access to quality education….therein lies the rub. But the good news is that the private businesses are “doing good” in at least giving some students an opportunity for a better education that they might have had otherwise.
After lunch we had the privilege of attending a sort of roundtable discussion ut the the systemic problems in the education system and this was with a professor (a friend of Tamo’s) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He, his colleague, and a few students of his were all there and they were very laid-back, informal yet very academic and intelligent people. And for the first time I really stopped in my tracks and thought about what I have the privilege to be a part of here in Rio. This is a true involved look at the issues surrounding social inequality in education in a still-developing country that really allows and forces me to make connections to and think critically about not only these issues but also those in the US (although it does make me incredibly thankful for many of the systems we do have in place.) Basically I just feel very blessed that my opportunities in education (thank you mom, dad and teachers!) have brought me here at this point in time and I just hope that the journey doesn’t end here.
Anyways….for those of you who are interested, here are some musings on these said issues….(Lauren Staley you would have loved to be in on this conversation….) There is a large stratification in public vs. private schools here and even more inequality in the public system itself. There is no geographic limitation on enrollment (i.e. districting) and kids can go anywhere they want. Yet, they still end up with black/white schools, etc. For example, a school right next to the favela may have a “darker, poorer” student population and there might be a school right across the street with “whiter” kids….and the researchers are asking WHY does this happen?
There is no accountability for the existence of this disparity. For me this kind of highlights the importance of assessment, evaluation and standardization of education especially in developing nations. Apparently in Brazil (Rio) the issue used to be access to education and now it has become the quality of education. As the budget increased 15 years ago the quality of education somehow went down. They discussed how teacher preparation plays a role in this and we found out that when teachers here graduate from university they are professionals meaning they really have no training period that they go through (like that of doctors or lawyers.) They only receive practical training by teaching 5 fifty-minute lessons over the course of 5 semesters. Practical “in the classroom” training is for some reason resisted and there are systems in place to mandate it. Most teachers work a 3-5different schools in order to make enough to live on (i.e. make minimum wage!) This in turn leaves little time for professional development or lesson planning. So being a teacher in Brazil is not unlike having to work several retail or food industry jobs in the US in order to support a family.
Well the academic discourse continued for about 2.5 hours and I will spare you the rest of the details but it was super interesting and very informative and really got me thinking a lot about issues in the education systems. It’s good to be able to look at things from this angle while having the in-classroom perspective as well I think.
Today we visited the second of the two public schools that is partially funded by a private sector. This school, called NAVE happens to be sponsored by a phone company and is geared towards technology training. Both NATA and NAVE are model schools for the state of Rio and there is a third one that is in the works that will be geared towards marine biology and sea port jobs skills with related businesses that will sponsor it. At NAVE they see the teachers more as researchers so they have a lot of time where they are not in the classroom to do their research and to plan cross-curricularly (such as having students write, record, edit, and produce songs and screenplays about content knowledge such as the French Revolution for example.)…pretty cool stuff. Any student can attend but they have to take and do well on a test to get in. It sort of resembles our magnet schools and their acceptance rate is 30-1….more selective than Ivy League colleges. So even though it is a public school this testing-in situation still perpetuates a socioeconomic gap because you can imagine that for the most part only students who already attended good schools are going to have the knowledge base to get in. It was a shocking feeling walking into a school that is basically a techie’s playground (kind of resembled COSI or a museum…video games and computers in the lobby) which was such a contrast to yesterday’s school visit in the favela and it was sort of difficult to stomach. My feeling of amazement at the facilities and focus of the students was immediately met with a feeling of frustration and jaded-ness (?) at the comparison between these two schools. I suppose we have the same thing in the US but the contrast here just seems a lot greater. It just seems like they are selecting for somewhat privileged students even though it is a public school. As I mentioned before, they don’t have to pay tuition but it stands to reason that the majority of students who do well on the exam have had access to a decent primary education which is usually not a luxury afforded to kids in the favelas. Ahh….the inequalities of offering today’s youth access to quality education….therein lies the rub. But the good news is that the private businesses are “doing good” in at least giving some students an opportunity for a better education that they might have had otherwise.
After lunch we had the privilege of attending a sort of roundtable discussion ut the the systemic problems in the education system and this was with a professor (a friend of Tamo’s) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He, his colleague, and a few students of his were all there and they were very laid-back, informal yet very academic and intelligent people. And for the first time I really stopped in my tracks and thought about what I have the privilege to be a part of here in Rio. This is a true involved look at the issues surrounding social inequality in education in a still-developing country that really allows and forces me to make connections to and think critically about not only these issues but also those in the US (although it does make me incredibly thankful for many of the systems we do have in place.) Basically I just feel very blessed that my opportunities in education (thank you mom, dad and teachers!) have brought me here at this point in time and I just hope that the journey doesn’t end here.
Anyways….for those of you who are interested, here are some musings on these said issues….(Lauren Staley you would have loved to be in on this conversation….) There is a large stratification in public vs. private schools here and even more inequality in the public system itself. There is no geographic limitation on enrollment (i.e. districting) and kids can go anywhere they want. Yet, they still end up with black/white schools, etc. For example, a school right next to the favela may have a “darker, poorer” student population and there might be a school right across the street with “whiter” kids….and the researchers are asking WHY does this happen?
There is no accountability for the existence of this disparity. For me this kind of highlights the importance of assessment, evaluation and standardization of education especially in developing nations. Apparently in Brazil (Rio) the issue used to be access to education and now it has become the quality of education. As the budget increased 15 years ago the quality of education somehow went down. They discussed how teacher preparation plays a role in this and we found out that when teachers here graduate from university they are professionals meaning they really have no training period that they go through (like that of doctors or lawyers.) They only receive practical training by teaching 5 fifty-minute lessons over the course of 5 semesters. Practical “in the classroom” training is for some reason resisted and there are systems in place to mandate it. Most teachers work a 3-5different schools in order to make enough to live on (i.e. make minimum wage!) This in turn leaves little time for professional development or lesson planning. So being a teacher in Brazil is not unlike having to work several retail or food industry jobs in the US in order to support a family.
Well the academic discourse continued for about 2.5 hours and I will spare you the rest of the details but it was super interesting and very informative and really got me thinking a lot about issues in the education systems. It’s good to be able to look at things from this angle while having the in-classroom perspective as well I think.
Leave your fear at the door and we'll teach you how to jerk...
Weds. 6/23
So we met up this morning and the first thing Tamo, our leader, tells us is that there was a shooting somewhere in the favela we were supposed to be visiting a school in and that we have the option of not going if we don’t feel comfortable. Dear God, is he for real?!?!? However, we met up with the Under-Secretariat who was to take us there by van (because taking a cab there WOULD be unsafe…you don’t just wander into these places like that) …she told us that the shooting was on the other side of the mountain and that we were safe to go. So we went….sorry mom. No but really, reality hit for me today. And while according to Tamo, the shoddy brick shacks in the poorest of the favelas would be luxury to people in India, this is still pretty harsh poverty and this particular favela is known to be the most violent as evidenced b the bloody pictures of drug raids that the principal showed us to give us an idea of the community in which this school serves. This favela is unpacified meaning that the drug traffickers basically run the neighborhood. There is no police presence there and there are even retractable metal rods in the middle of the streets that are raised when police try and raid the area. INTENSE STUFF. So the school we visited had recently gotten a new principal who has apparently turned the school around from kids doing crack (a recently-arrived drug in Rio) in the hallways to having sex in class….I kid you not….to a school where discipline problems are very minimal and kids get sent home if they are out of uniform. She is trying to run a school of 1,000 students on a budget meant for 500. All students are served a free lunch and dinner and they even serve drug addicts on the streets meals if they come asking for one. She and her staff feel very strongly about education and the impact it can have on the students’ lives but they face the challenge of convincing many kids to stay in school even though they could go make a lot of money being part of the drug trade. A hard sell when families here only make an average of $120 a month. While the reality for the people these communities is bleak and the students really don’t even envision life outside of the favela (i.e. college) the gem is that there are caring people here that have a lot of heart. They value the balance between work and play and the principal wants the teachers to feel welcomed and have fun at their job. They told us that they hope we leave the favela with more hope and love and less fear because there are people who care and believe things can change. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to spread this word either….
The students performed samba music and dance for us and eventually the whole school and some of the neighbors started to filter out into the schoolyard to where we were. In a place like this news travels fast that a group of American teachers are here to visit… There was a woman from one the Rio’s best samba schools who was there shaking it in ways I didn’t know were possible and “trying” to teach us. I looooove any opportunity to dance so it was so fun but I know I must have looked like a fool.
By the way, I eat so much fruit here it’s amazing. This makes up for the lack of water I drink since everything has to come from a bottle and not the tap. The tap water here is not potable in large quantities. The persimmons especially are to die for and there are just dozens of types of tropical fruits available fresh from the rainforests in all grocery stores and on every street corner. This is what Heaven must be like! The interesting thing is that you never see obese people here. This is not to say that everyone is skinny but still it’s quite different. Even in the poorest neighborhoods like in the favela we went to today there is an abundance of fresh produce being sold at every corner. It was too risky (and in my opinion rude) to take pictures in the narrow, downtrodden (yet lively! Music filled the air everywhere…like a soundtrack to their lives) streets of the favela but I really wish I could take that street and bring it back to you all…just so you could experience its uniqueness.
The school lunch (which they kindly asked us to stay for) was rice, black beans, cooked squash w/ chicken and lettuce/carrots/cabbage/beets. All of the kids get free lunch but what a healthy meal for cheap! SO different from what a free lunch looks like in the US. Sure fresh produce may be a little more readily available here but if a developing nation can feed its below-poverty line students healthy meals then an industrialized nation can surely find a way to do the same for all of its student….call me crazy, but it’s just a thought. Anyways I just love that all of the kids liked beets and that they were watching soccer during lunch!
The boys breakdancing team did a 10-min show for us and it was honestly the SICKEST thing I have ever seen. It was as good as America’s Best Dance Crew except it was even better because their heart and spirit for what they do was just oozing out of them. LOVE IT. But wait, it gets better. My friend Lara and figured out how to ask them if they could teach us some moves and like a couple of high school girls we giddily approached them when we finished our lunch and asked. Of course they obliged ( I mean come on…) and we got a little dance session with them in their “rehearsal space”….complete with sweet music. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time….so add that to my Brazil dance repertoire. Haha.
Crazy though that we got there as complete strangers and when we left 3 hours later it felt like we were leaving friends. Such welcoming people these Brazilians are...
So we met up this morning and the first thing Tamo, our leader, tells us is that there was a shooting somewhere in the favela we were supposed to be visiting a school in and that we have the option of not going if we don’t feel comfortable. Dear God, is he for real?!?!? However, we met up with the Under-Secretariat who was to take us there by van (because taking a cab there WOULD be unsafe…you don’t just wander into these places like that) …she told us that the shooting was on the other side of the mountain and that we were safe to go. So we went….sorry mom. No but really, reality hit for me today. And while according to Tamo, the shoddy brick shacks in the poorest of the favelas would be luxury to people in India, this is still pretty harsh poverty and this particular favela is known to be the most violent as evidenced b the bloody pictures of drug raids that the principal showed us to give us an idea of the community in which this school serves. This favela is unpacified meaning that the drug traffickers basically run the neighborhood. There is no police presence there and there are even retractable metal rods in the middle of the streets that are raised when police try and raid the area. INTENSE STUFF. So the school we visited had recently gotten a new principal who has apparently turned the school around from kids doing crack (a recently-arrived drug in Rio) in the hallways to having sex in class….I kid you not….to a school where discipline problems are very minimal and kids get sent home if they are out of uniform. She is trying to run a school of 1,000 students on a budget meant for 500. All students are served a free lunch and dinner and they even serve drug addicts on the streets meals if they come asking for one. She and her staff feel very strongly about education and the impact it can have on the students’ lives but they face the challenge of convincing many kids to stay in school even though they could go make a lot of money being part of the drug trade. A hard sell when families here only make an average of $120 a month. While the reality for the people these communities is bleak and the students really don’t even envision life outside of the favela (i.e. college) the gem is that there are caring people here that have a lot of heart. They value the balance between work and play and the principal wants the teachers to feel welcomed and have fun at their job. They told us that they hope we leave the favela with more hope and love and less fear because there are people who care and believe things can change. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to spread this word either….
The students performed samba music and dance for us and eventually the whole school and some of the neighbors started to filter out into the schoolyard to where we were. In a place like this news travels fast that a group of American teachers are here to visit… There was a woman from one the Rio’s best samba schools who was there shaking it in ways I didn’t know were possible and “trying” to teach us. I looooove any opportunity to dance so it was so fun but I know I must have looked like a fool.
By the way, I eat so much fruit here it’s amazing. This makes up for the lack of water I drink since everything has to come from a bottle and not the tap. The tap water here is not potable in large quantities. The persimmons especially are to die for and there are just dozens of types of tropical fruits available fresh from the rainforests in all grocery stores and on every street corner. This is what Heaven must be like! The interesting thing is that you never see obese people here. This is not to say that everyone is skinny but still it’s quite different. Even in the poorest neighborhoods like in the favela we went to today there is an abundance of fresh produce being sold at every corner. It was too risky (and in my opinion rude) to take pictures in the narrow, downtrodden (yet lively! Music filled the air everywhere…like a soundtrack to their lives) streets of the favela but I really wish I could take that street and bring it back to you all…just so you could experience its uniqueness.
The school lunch (which they kindly asked us to stay for) was rice, black beans, cooked squash w/ chicken and lettuce/carrots/cabbage/beets. All of the kids get free lunch but what a healthy meal for cheap! SO different from what a free lunch looks like in the US. Sure fresh produce may be a little more readily available here but if a developing nation can feed its below-poverty line students healthy meals then an industrialized nation can surely find a way to do the same for all of its student….call me crazy, but it’s just a thought. Anyways I just love that all of the kids liked beets and that they were watching soccer during lunch!
The boys breakdancing team did a 10-min show for us and it was honestly the SICKEST thing I have ever seen. It was as good as America’s Best Dance Crew except it was even better because their heart and spirit for what they do was just oozing out of them. LOVE IT. But wait, it gets better. My friend Lara and figured out how to ask them if they could teach us some moves and like a couple of high school girls we giddily approached them when we finished our lunch and asked. Of course they obliged ( I mean come on…) and we got a little dance session with them in their “rehearsal space”….complete with sweet music. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time….so add that to my Brazil dance repertoire. Haha.
Crazy though that we got there as complete strangers and when we left 3 hours later it felt like we were leaving friends. Such welcoming people these Brazilians are...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
