On my Brazilian hometown, pt 2

Oi gente!

There still seems to be a rather overwhelming amount to write about my life in Juiz de Fora and Brazilian travels, and sometimes I wonder what it says about me that almost a year since I left (note: left, not came back) for Brazil, I am still trying to write about all that. Ideally I would have liked to have written about it as it was happening, but on the other hand having had time and distance since my internship has allowed me to think a little clearer and reflect better about my life there. I would still encourage others to try and write as much as they can about their current special experiences and travels, but perhaps in my case I needed some time to let it settle. Besides it's also quite therapeutical to be able to write about Brazil.

In the beginning of July, the weekend after my birthday, was my last full week working at the school. On Monday someone dropped a word that it was my birthday the past weekend, and I was sung a birthday song by the people in the lunch room, led by teacher Wagner. Haha. That week we had to finish the preparations for the South Africa cultural lunch on Friday, and the class responsible, which has such cuuute kids in it of 7-8 years old, had me (and Bryley!) to help them that week with the activities beforehand, as well as general games. The kids in that class are really fun, and there are several girls who are just crazily affectionate, they were the ones who would always run up to me in the school yard screaming during the break in their afternoon class, 'Marina! Marina!' and hang themselves off me. Aww, kids. There is nothing like their sincere affection, is there, especially at that age (before they start developing complex (pre)adolescence character traits and behaviors). I have to say though, as much as I loved the affection (and attention) they showed, when two or three of them would try to sit on me at the same time, that got pretty heavy. Just holding one 7-year-old on your lap can get pretty heavy after a while, let alone three!

This was an interesting week in a slightly different way from previous ones because I had a gringa-friend with me to show around and take along to places ;) From Saci, to my first host-family's house for a visit, to Vico's Portuguese classes, to shopping for sneakers (where we ended up getting the same pair of All Stars), to watching the Holland game against Uruguai in the semi-final, to the amazing Japanese cones at the Cone e Cia restaurant, to samba at Muzik with my Brazilian host-sisters and friends, dinner at an Arabic-style dinner place with friends, and going out at W100 with Mari and Cacau (after we waited for an HOUR in a stuffed crowd to get in) and trying those yummy watermelon cocktails, Bryley had accompanied me around that week in JF. And, of course, the two main events of the week, my Russian-themed birthday party at Vico's house (hehe, yes I'm that self-centered), and the Holland final against Spain (with that interview with the Tribuna de Minas newspaper sports reporter beforehand as well, that I wrote about in my entry on the World Cup), both in the weekend. But about that a bit later.

Introducing a friend from another country to everyone at your workplace, to your friends, host family, etc, is interesting. Oh, and helping to translate the language when you run into people who don't speak English, which happened often enough in Brazil. (Although, Bryley was quick to start understanding the language). And it's interesting for all parties involved: for Bryley to see all the people I've met, for the people I've met to meet another gringa, and for me to see how everyone reacted, and to get Bryley's reaction to everything around her that to her was new, but for me became so familar already. The newcomer's perspective on the life that you'd gotten used to is a curious thing to observe.

On Monday, we went to see my first host family, because I haven't been back for a while since I moved, and it was funny to bring a friend along. But to me, as I remember it, the funniest was to come into the house and start chatting around with my family, in Portuguese, and it was so... easy! The language, I mean; my host family is lovely, but when I lived with them I still had much of the language to learn (I still do, actually), but when I came back in July, chatting to them in Portuguese went so easily and spontaneously, it was a surprise for me too, in fact. So I wonder what Bryley was thinking as I was talking to Aninha and her parents and sister, bla bla bla in Portuguese; I turned into a true Brazilian (meaning, you don't stop talking!). I mean, I even dragged her to Portuguese classes at Vico's school, and at some point we were learning about past tenses: preterito perfeito and preterito imperfeito, which I even had trouble with. Imagine someone who just came to the country trying to keep up with all that language overload! Well, I know how that feels, actually. And, for the record, Bryley also accompanied me to a couple of Vico's English classes too, to impart her own language skills to help his students.

I remember my friend Fernanda at Saci told me that she learned quite a lot of Spanish working with the children in Ecuador; she said to me, let the kids teach you Portuguese, but it was hard for me to learn from the kids as it was my job to speak to them in English, and the little ones were actually pretty difficult still to understand. Many of the kids did figure out by the end though that I'd learned much of the language, some of the bigger ones even consciously spoke some Portuguese with me. Well, at the end of that week I even gave an almost hour long presentation about myself and my culture to about 30-40 kids of 6-11 years old, all in Portuguese! I guess that was evidence enough for them after all that I did learn it :) (Some have been wondering about it for a while, but I was often a little vague about it, should they stop speaking English to me at all, while it was my responsibility to help them progress, hehe).

I really liked my job at Saci, it was relaxed and varied, sometimes with more responsibilities and tasks than at other times, and I really liked working with kids (under the teacher's hardcore supervision!). The kids at this school come from quite well off families though, and until my last week working at Saci, I haven't actually come into much contact with the less fortunate children in Brazil. Some older students at Saci went every so often to a Centro do Promocao do Menor in JF, a kind of social organization which houses a number of children who have come to live there because of difficult family circumstances or even abuse. That week, Bryley and I were taken along with the class and some teachers, and it was so interesting and moving to visit these children. Most of them are still quite young, not older than 10, and I just remember one of the teachers, who's really good with kids (I know because I went on a school trip to Tiradentes where she was in charge), sitting among a bunch of these cute, shy kids, with one on her lap, and a few holding close. The students from Saci were standing around as Maria do Carmo (the teacher) entertained the kids with conversation. Later, the students gave out the little gift packages with candy they brought for the kids and helped the children open them up; and everyone sat around, talking or playing with different children. Meanwhile, some boys were running around the yard like crazy (boys will be boys!).

This was a unique experience for me as it was one of the few times in Brazil when I came closer in contact with the more difficult side of the Brazilian social circumstances (as Maria do Carmo put it, if I recall correctly). Until that moment I was mostly working with quite well-off or middle-class children at the school, so I confess coming to this center made me a little uncertain at first how to behave there, how exactly to interact with the children, many of whom have had quite difficult childhoods. On the other hand, of course, children are just children anywhere, and those children just want to have affection and love as any others. There was a cute boy there who seemed to be quite fond of me, holding on to me, talking and smiling, and it's the same kind of affection other kids at Saci have shown, too. But as I said, somehow being there for the first time made me less certain how to interact with these children as many come from quite difficult circumstances, and you don't know what they are; and some children were quite shy, and it's overall a rather sensitive issue. I wish now I could have had the opportunity to go there with the school more often, so I could have become more familiar there while the children would become more used to me, too. As Maria do Carmo said, she visits often and the children are easy and comfortable with her, as well as some of the other students.

And now for something completely different! After quite a full and intense week in JF, on Saturday we have gathered a bunch of AIESEC people together at Vico's house for my birthday party, Russian style. With Russian pancakes (for which we had to freeze the Brazilian creme de leite for lack of creme freche), a birthday cake (thanks girls!), Russian souvenirs on display, drinks (including the funky Russian liquour from Ufa, the city near the Ural mountains in Russia) and crazy Russian videos with a lot of female nudity (thanks again for showing to everyone what kind of media goes around my country, Vico ;)). Aaaah, it was such a fun party. All these people around, everyone in great spirits; with a birthday song (for me! yay) and cake the girls sneaked out to get while the first serving of pancakes was ready on the table, Tammy waving around the Russian flag, Yuen sleeping randomly on the couch, AIESEC committee president Leo in full Dutch football spirit in the orange Holland sweatshirt, hugging the Russian teddy-bear for all the photos, taking lots of pictures, making a deal with Mariana that she'll come to Holland for NYE (which she kept up), and just lots of fun randomness like that (like those naked Russian videos... ahem. I didn't even know they got quite that explicit!).

Afterwards, some of us went to have some more food at an Italian restaurant, where our long table had a paper cover, which got covered by writing in various languages throughout our dinner, and no, there were no children at the table, it was just us making all those scribbles, drawings, little games. =) And I so vividly remember, when we left the restaurant, it was raining lightly outside after a very dry winter (Brazilian winter, that is) period. Huh.

The next day, it was game time at a local bar, that is, time to watch the final between Holland and Spain. As I wrote before, we have gathered quite a group (mostly consisting of not-in-Holland-living-people but actually Brazilians) to watch the game, dressed in orange, taking lots of photos and waving around the Dutch flags and wearing the orange glasses for the photos, under the curious gazes of the other Brazilians at the bar. Well, Holland lost, but oh well. It didn't stop us from going over to a Japanese restaurant around the corner from Mari's place and eating all their sushi. Or at least some of it.

Well, that's my story for today, and look I kept my promise, got over my 'saudade' and wrote more about JF. Woohoo!

Um beijo grande!