"Basic Brazilian Portuguese and/or Intermediate Spanish is strongly recommended, otherwise volunteers may find communication difficult. Enthusiastic, hardworking and committed volunteers are needed."
It was true, I had (and still have) no Portuguese speaking skills the only thing I was banking on was enthusiasm and a passion to learn surfing. "But how can you teach kids to surf when you yourself don't know how to surf?" was the common cry. The project description then goes onto say:
"It is recommended that you are a reasonable swimmer with a strong interest in surfing!"
So armed with nothing but being able to swim and an interest in surfing I enlisted in this project and soon found myself in Rio de Janeiro working at Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro.
The Surf school is run by a local that goes by the name of Jean (better known as "Shrek"). The aim is to provide Surf school lessons to the local youth as to provide an alternative means to keep them occupied during their time off from school. As many kids are easily influence by gangs and other malicious activities giving them the opportunity to surf is a means of getting them off the street. Each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday they have classes from 8-10 am and 2-4 pm. The role of the volunteer is to support Shrek with board maintenance as well as helping him take the warm ups and support the kids in the ocean.
Sounds good in theory, so here's my take on the project. Like all volunteers I was also given a nickname. Mosquito, I'm not too sure if he has any basis for giving nicknames other than picking words from his limited English vernacular. In any case I can't think of any positive reasons to being called an annoying pest. My first lessons took place one overcast day, I was immediately asked to throw on a wetsuit top that had the words "Professor" scrolled across the chest. What took place was my very first surfing lesson, despite being one of the most tiring activities I did manage to catch a couple of waves in what would be a rewarding experience. It would have helped if I knew some portuguese although the two words that I did manage to pick up were: paddle ("remo") and stand up ("estande"). The thing that humoured me was that most of the kids on that day were better surfers than I. How would I be assisting?
The kids that I was lucky enough to interact with were all male in the age bracket from 8-14. Despite having limited English they appeared to be extremely enthusiastic in the presence of an English speaking volunteer, they constantly tried to speak the language and tried to make jokes each trying to make me laugh to impress me. Of the few that I did speak to, many of them complained of being hungry and having no money to buy food. Some of the kids went around asking the other surfers for food, one even managed to steal some packets of Mayonnaise from a local beach vendor and greedily sucked them down. It does play on your mind and instinctively you want to buy them food although I'm not too sure what they expect from you. I found it easy to just bring a packet of biscuits so that they could share amongst each other after each lesson.
It was a case of being unlucky. I would have to use one word to describe the experience, frustrating. Not because of what I was supposed to do but what I could actually do. Over the course of the 2 weeks I was 'penciled' in to help with 6 days. What wasn't clear to me was that during the 2 weeks that I was here, Rio De Janeiro had 3 public holidays, 2 of which overlapped on my days down at Ipanema. Consequently classes were not on on those days. Perhaps the most annoying thing but most obvious reason for interruption was the weather or surf conditions. Classes aren't held if it's raining or if the water is too rough to surf in, which makes entire sense. Unfortunately for me, this scenario played out more than once.
Of the 2 weeks I was scheduled to help out, I only managed to help one class, my first and only day. I think it's a combination of things which makes it frustrating, waking up early to get to Ipanema by 8 only to be told that classes aren't on then trying to occupy the rest of the day with sightseeing. The other thing is having the intent to help the local community only having it blow up in your face.
The only saving grace is that Rio De Janeiro is a beautiful city with many things to keep the senses occupied and stimulated. My volunteer work has been less than memorable, since extending my South American trip I plan to head to Ipanema once more; hopefully, just hopefully I'll be able to participate in one last class.
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