When we came back from the orphanage visit it was home time and there was a surprise waiting. The whole school was assembled and Brett (the other volunteer) and myself were called up the front. I had already been feeling a bit teary in the last two days, but this was the turning point, now the tears started rolling steadily. The whole school sang two songs to us – I tried to look as many in the eye as I could, but there were more than 150 kids and teachers.

It’s a weird feeling being in front of 150 kids and some adults and crying without any ability to stop. But at the same time it felt OK. I had been on a real journey with the kids and carefully put them into challenging and vulnerable situations (like solo singing and performances). Now it was my turn to be vulnerable.

When the songs finished they swarmed in, dozens of them. I was surrounded from all angles by kids saying goodbye, hugging me, handing over handfuls of little letters of love and affection, and threats of them hiding in my suitcase. It was very powerful.

Juliana (the academic co-ordinator of Estrela do Mar) had already asked that I take along some musical instruments to do a presentation at the orphanage similar to what we did at the Nursing home (there is a video for that here). But just as we were about to do that, I had a different idea on the spur of the moment.

Instead of a performance ‘to’ the kids at the orphanage, I put some of the instruments (berimbau, reco-reco, agogo) into the hands of the kids of the orphanage, and then invited some of the kids from Estrela do Mar to come up and show them how to hold and play the instruments.

This turned out to be a wonderful idea for both sides, the orphanage kids obviously loved holding the instruments and playing them rather than sitting there passively and just listening. And the kids from Escola Estrela do Mar were empowered to not only show what they had learned in the last two months, but also to act with the responsibility of a teacher.

It was great!

This ongoing program also presents the children with many ideas about what they could do later in life. Seeing these kinds of role models from the community is really vital for these kids (well all kids really).

I try and read “Gazeta de Alagoas” everyday. Its in Portuguese so its a good way for me to learn more. Bear in mind that potentially 1/3 of the people in Alagoas are supposedly illiterate, so my feeling is that this paper is aimed at the wealthier end of the state.

Friday 23 Oct:

“On the first day after the strike that lasted nearly a month, the Federal Savings Bank yesterday re-opened its branches…”
[This is very common here. Banco do Brasil was also on strike last month for several weeks. It must literally paralyse the nation. Forget about BillPay and Internet banking - people do their banking by queuing up at branches. With the branches closed for so long I really dont know how things functioned. Public school teachers also ended a 60 day strike while I was here as well].

“Jesus would have to call Judas to make a coalition”.
[I can't quite follow this one, but basically Brazilian President Lula seems to have caused a stir with the above comment. I think he was making reference to the next President having to form alliances with minor parties (and hence make alliances with traitors)]. He upset Congress and the council of Bishops with this comment].

“Driver of vehicle carrying beer to taken to State Hospital after truck crashes”
[Is this for real? Seems like something from an episode of the Simpsons...]

“Registration of birth available at the Maternity Hospital”
[A new system allowing parents to get their birth certificate at the hospital will provide greater efficiency. Knowing Brazil the old system was probably a very bureaucratic process, involving queueing for hours at a building as far as geographically possible from the hospital of birth.]

“Chavez ‘seeks’ 3 minute showers”
[Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, yesterday asked the people of Venezuela to stop singing in the shower as well as restricting their baths to three minutes, because there are serious problems of water supply and electricity in the country].

“Drug war already has 41 arrests – Rio de Janeiro”
[...According to Military Police, 33 people have died in the fighting since Saturday. Already seized 31 weapons and five grenades...]

“Military Police negotiate removal of slum families “
[About 200 families living in the Favela Portelinha and remainder of the City of Lona will have to leave their shacks in the coming hours. They will be installed in improvised dwellings...In the place where they live new low-income housing is being constructed...]

“Two more executions in Maceio”
[...the two men were shot to death on Wednesday, about 21h, in the house where they lived....They were identified as vendors of pirated CDs and DVDs...an investigation begins."

"Vigilante may have committed 16 homicides"
[...arrested on Wednesday for domestic violence in a shantytown...And according to information he may have committed, in fact 16 homicides]

Well, make of that what you will – that’s a cross section of Friday 23 Oct. Seems to be about right to me. The usual content of frighteningly violent things; some banal things (the beer story) and other stuff. Friday 23 seems to be representative of most days in the paper.

The classes are big – up to 40 in each room, and the noise level was pretty chaotic, I think it would be a challenging environment to learn in. Probably about 2/3 of the class pay attention at any one time, the other 1/3 make a fair racket with constant chit chat. And Wagner is pretty assertive with them and good at keeping them under control. I think a more mild teacher would get drowned out.

So after the basic questions of “Where are you from?”; “Why are you here?” etc, we got down to the serious stuff….So here I am up the front of the room with 40 Brazilian teenagers that Ive never seen before and I get asked the following kinds of questions:

“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Which girl is the prettiest in this class?”
“Do people in Australia have sex everywhere (outside etc?)”
“What do you like about Brazilian girls?”

Talk about being put on the spot and having to put the deflector shields up! I was squirming a bit as I tried to think of a witty but neutral way to answer those kinds of questions. Previously I think I lost serious “cred” with most of the 17 year olds – they asked me “What is your favourite soccer team?” to which I replied that I didnt follow soccer. Then they asked me if I liked to drive my car like a racing driver to which I replied that I preferred to ride my bicycle.

But I managed to claw back some credibility when I was asked “What do you like about Brazilian girls”. Thinking quickly I replied “I think they are intelligent”…Suddenly, at least every girl in the class thought I was OK.

This little girl’s name is Glecie. Everyday she comes running up and hugs me wrapping her arms around me like a limpet (well up to my hips anyway), for no apparent cause or reason, other than I’m just being me and she’s just being her.

Glecie is six and is like a little buddah – she’s incredibly well behaved, pays continual attention, is extremely gifted musically and always wants to help. While a good chunk of her class causes absolute chaos and mayhem at the slightest opportunity, she sits there silently and patiently waiting to be shown something new, or to show what she has learned – always with the same irresistible smile.

Early on in my classes, and in my effort to illustrate that anything can be an instrument even items of rubbish (see Magic Moment post), I reinforced this message by telling my classes that the stone I was using on my berimbau I had just found somewhere on the street. I encouraged all the kids to look for stones that might be useful for the berimbau on their way home. So here is Glecie in this photo, with approximately her 3rd offering to me of tiny little berimbau stones. Most of them are too small to be useful – but I always graciously and lovingly accept this little gift…

I think I now have about 100 tiny little stones now from various kids…Every day new ones arrive.

I’ve been teaching the 7, 8, 9 and 10 year old classes Berimbau for some weeks now (and just started with the 3, 4, 5 and 6 year olds too!).

To play the berimbau properly you need to use a stone. I show how to use it in my berimbau video. But when you use the stone it becomes devilishly tricky to hold the rest of the instrument. Basically you are only left with two fingers that are wrapped around this big long instrument supporting it – you need the other fingers free to use the stone. Needless to say, stability goes out the window when you’re learning to use the stone with the berimbau.

I was aware of this so I approached it from a different angle to teach the kids. In the first weeks we just held the berimbau like a broom stick with all 4 fingers and thumb – and with no stone at all. This allows maximum stability and lets them concentrate on other things like how to hold the little stick and coordinating their timing, percussion ability and sense of rhythm.

Once they’ve got that under control, I get them to stretch their little finger downward and hook it under the rope (see video if you are interested). This is the next step, it decreases stability for holding it, but is a step towards allowing you to use the stone.

During these weeks, the kids were just begging me every day “When can we use the stone, When!, When!”. They were pretty much unrelenting, but I knew they weren’t quite ready for it. Every class they see me use the stone when I’m singing or just playing…and being good students they want to be just like the teacher.

So yesterday for the first time, before I handed out the berimbaus, I picked up a little bucket full of carefully selected smooth white stones and I tipped it forward a little so they could see inside. Well, the response was incredible. They started and yelling and screaming with unbridled excitement. You would swear I was Father Christmas pulling up outside with a sled full of toys.

I’ve never in my life seen a bunch of kids react so enthusiastically to a bucket full of stones. And I probably never will again.

In the 7 year old class is Beatriz, a 10 year old. Shes in a class younger than her, because when she came to the school she couldn’t read and had learning difficulties.

She had previously been in a public school where she was slipping behind further and further. According to her mother, the other kids there picked on her and told her she was dumb. The public school teacher suggested that the mother beat Beatriz so her learning would improve.

But now at Esrtrela do Mar she’s doing great. She’s very enthusiastic and vocal, always keen and engaged. And she really stands out – shes head and shoulders above the others in her class (quite literally – she’s 3 years older than them!)

What a surprise that she didnt actually need to be physically beaten to improve.

I am in total amazement at this and thank you all so dearly. I hoped I could raise some money to help with musical instruments for my time here, but I never expected this level of support. Its incredible.

In fact, I’ve almost managed to get enough instruments for the school to fulfill the musical vision I had, so I asked David Leiner, the founder what other things the school was seriously lacking. He told me the school urgently needs books for the library. So some of the money contributed will be used to buy books for the school.

Thank you all once again for being so generous, open minded and open hearted.

Paul.

Amidst what will be a horrid, hostile and dangerous environment live some families, eking out an existence as best they can. They wait for the next rubbish truck to arrive and scramble through the trash looking for food and anything they can use.

It’s a real survival story, full of tragedy and despair; David already told me one child here was killed by being too close to the rubbish truck while it was emptying. Even in the most uninhabitable place imaginable, competitiveness for the first new food scraps can still be high, high enough to force these people to get close to the rubbish first, and dance with death in the process.

I have no idea what to expect, David said to wear shoes and dont waste time having a shower beforehand – as you’ll need one after.

I’m going to take along my video equipment and try and capture this way of life, hopefully talk to the people and find out what their life is like. It’s a slice of life hidden from normal view, and one that no city could be proud of.

My objective in Brazil, through stories and video is to portray the spectrum of existence; the good and the bad, the hopeful and the desperate. I dont want to portray lots of photos of smiling kids all the time – that would be artificial. But I could easily do it, and you might conclude its paradise here, I assure it not.

Fingers Crossed for tomorrow… (Hmmm, I dont recall packing any gumboots)