The Orphanage

On my last day at the school, there was a visit to a nearby orphanage. About 20 of the children from several age groups arrived at the orphanage and were firstly given a talk by the director. She explained the various reasons why or how children become orphans and what life was like for the kids.

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!

🙂