Pastor's Place - December 2007

Reports from Brazil

Holidays have their own meanings, and they also become “mile markers” in our lives. This will be the first Christmas in 21 years that I have NOT spent with my oldest daughter. Elisa is in Brazil and several of you have expressed an interest in hearing about her experience. I’ve taken excerpts from several of her emails to compile this report:

I’m living and going to school in Niteroi, which is a city suburb of Rio. We’re in the state of Rio de Janeiro, right across the bay from the big city. People are very friendly. The other Middlebury students are Roberto, Ruby (both juniors), and Ashley (senior), and so far we have proven to be an awesome group.

Roberto, Ruby and I live in a neighborhood called Sao Francisco, which is really nice and safe - big houses, high fences, security guards, etc. Roberto and I live next door and both have apartments attached to the main houses. My apartment is small but has a couch, kitchenette and bathroom. My host parents are Cristina and Marcos and my host brothers are Vitor and Eduardo, who are about 13 and 15. So far they have all been very friendly and helpful, and I think we’re going to get along well. They already gave me the soccer jersey to their favorite club in Rio, Fluminense, and are promising to take me to the next game at the Maracan - the biggest soccer stadium in the world!

So far, classes are great. I decided on the following three: History of Brazil III (modern), Sociology of Development in Brazil, and Social and Political Organization of Brazil (a political science class). The classes are mostly a mix of lecture and discussion. The professors always know I’m American, so sometimes I am used as the resident source of American perspective: “Do you learn about Gilberto Freyre in the US?” “Please explain to the class what the Pentagon is.” “Would you say Americans are very interested in politics?” So that’s pretty entertaining.

I especially like my Sociology of Development in Brazil class; we read a book called The Second Abolition, a manifesto proposed for the eradication of poverty in Brazil, by a renowned Brazilian academic and politician. Brazil is the country with the largest gap between rich and poor in the world - in other words, the greatest concentration of wealth. The ideas proposed in this book are really inspiring and leave me with some hope that Brazilians will come together with the common will to eradicate the desperate poverty and exclusion of so many of the population.

I’m excited about my internship. I’m working at a community services center called Legio de Boa Vontade (Legion of Goodwill), and specifically with the kids’ daycare. I go in two days a week for about six hours each, and help out with the activities they do with kids when they’re not in school so they won’t be out on the streets (most of them are kids from the favela). I teach English class and lead recreation. The kids are all so cute and really excited to have English class. I think it will also be good to have someone lead them in organized games. I’m trying games such as duck duck goose, sharks and minnows, freeze tag, etc. The most successful activities so far have been bingo and cootie-catcher making.

It has proven very easy to be vegetarian here - my family has hosted vegetarians in the past, so when cooking for me they separate the meat and make me soy meat. Also, the staple of every single meal is beans and rice, so I always have plenty to eat. When we go out, I usually get pasta or pizza (except here they make pizza without tomato sauce and eat it with ketchup, which is really weird).

When Ashley’s boyfriend from Argentina, Nano, came to visit, we took him to a bar with some of our Brazilian friends, and it was quite entertaining to watch the Brazilians and Argentines argue over soccer and the merits of their respective countries. Brazil and Argentina have a huge, long-standing rivalry in everything, especially the question of the best soccer player in history - Argentine Maradona or Brazilian Pele? Don’t bring up the topic if you don’t want a long-winded and heated defense of their national heroes. The experience was also interesting because they used English to communicate, since the Brazilians don’t speak Spanish and Nano’s Portuguese is pretty limited. It was bizarre that the common language of the South American neighbors was ours.

Pastor April