More rewarding work

A trip to Brazil would not be complete without flirting with one of the local favelas (or shanty towns). It would be fair to say that exploring Rio de Janeiro without seeing let alone interacting with locals from the favelas would be near impossible. Of the local demographics, approximately 25% of Rio inhabitants live in a favela (Wikipedia)! So after visiting what would be considered one of Rio's least threatening favelas last week today I would be a guest to Tom's Favela; considered to be one of the most dangerous in South America.

Tom, one of the i-to-i volunteers here at Baron Gardens let me tag along to the local project where for the last 5 weeks has been working. Our day started off leaving the house at 9:00 walking down to the Gloria bus stop before catching two buses to our final destination 1.5 hours away. Whilst driving in I was informed that the road we were traveling on was the main road to many of the fevelas are housed. The road was littered with many sand-bag checkpoints; each contained military personnel with automatic rifles and surveillance equipment to ensure that the fevelas are in check.


From what I can tell Brazilian primary education is split up into two sessions, a morning session whereby half the students attend and an afternoon session where the other half attend. In saying that (from what I understand) kids only receive 3-4 hours of education per day, which isn't a terrible amount of learning to be had. The common theme is that the child's grades begin to slide. Soon enough they have to repeat the same grade and in an act to save themselves the embarrassment or shame they simply just drop out of school and turn to the streets (drug dealers, prostitution, etc).

The actual place where the project was held is a small school at the entry of the favela. They offer English as well as basic computer skills to the local community. We arrived just before 11:00 am just in time for the first English lesson. Most of the kids who attend are those who have school during the afternoon. As a visitor to the project my role was minimal at best, but despite having to read a couple of words from the textbook and point out a couple of objects the experience was definitely one of the most rewarding. Some of the kids were definitely making an effort to grasp the words whilst there were some who would have rather be somewhere else.

Lunch was taken at a food bar across the road run who by day plays the consummate host to all patrons of his restaurants but by night is one of the more notorious drug traffickers of the favela. Immediately following lunch was another English lesson this time offered to all ages, this group had a slightly more advanced grasp of English and we were at times able to have basic conversation. Only after trying to devise a crash course English syllabus in my head I came to realise that teaching a language is quite the task!

Our English teaching for the day was over but that was not the end to our efforts at bettering the community. Come mid afternoon we rolled up our sleeves and began our more 'hands on' work. What took place over the next two and a half hours was some hard labour in the yard. With our trusty tools of a hoe, spade and a rake we dug up the weed infested rock garden and planted grass seeds in hope to grow a nice lawn for the school. The day ended at 4:00 and we made our way home with a leisurely stroll through Centro.

For dinner we constructed the most delicious and possibly most square meal ever to come out of Barren Gardens. The ultimate steak sandwich. Words cannot even begin to describe the chemistry exhibited between the steak, egg, onion, tomato, lettuce and ketchup. The evening ended with a group walk down to the shops for a tall glass of cold açaí. Not a bad end to one of the more fulfilling days.

My short time spent at the favela along with the handful of BJJ classes I attended have been more rewarding than the entire Surf Program (No disrespect to the program, just to my experience). Despite having little or no way to communicate with the locals the amount of effort required to flash them a smile is definitely worth the happiness that it brings to them. Have to sleep soon, have a long day planned ahead for tomorrow, just need to book some accommodation for Buenos Aires.

Work experience at a surf school in Rio

So here it is, my assessment on the Volunteer work that I was assigned to. For those not in the know the project (or my excuse) for choosing to spend two weeks in Brazil was Work Experience at a Surf School in Rio. The prerequisite of this project were:

"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.

Baron Garden House

As previously mentioned my Brazilian sojourn is no fruitless holiday. Well at least not advertised as one. Towards the end of February this year I decided to enroll myself in a volunteer project in Brazil. The project aptly titled Work Experience at a Surf School in Rio is one of many volunteer project offered by the organisation i-to-i. For a somewhat debatable sum of $1800 AUD I have been given the opportunity to work in Brazil with the locals and been given temporary accommodation. The place where all Rio De Janeiro based volunteers are setup is in the small local suburb of Glória. Due to sheer laziness this post will again be predominantly photos.

The place is called Baron Garden House where guests stay in a hostel-esque arrangement. The place itself is locate on top of a hill with the local shops below. Walk up from the Glória shops to the Gardens takes about 5 minutes, the climb is quite steep and most people are left short of breath by the time they reach the house:

The house:

Baron Gardens offers different living arrangements, rooms are not strictly reserved for volunteers and there are always travelers showing up. There are also long term residents who look after the estate. Currently I'm sharing a 3 person room with another volunteer. The male volunteers stay downstairs with majority of the female tenants upstairs. Our room:

My mattress, actually mattress is an overstatement, I would rather considerate a large foam sponge which I suspect is home to many fleas and pests:

The main bathroom:

The kitchen/eating area:

Each house member is given a small tray and allocated a fridge to store groceries and cupboard space to store condiments and food:

Filtered water:

Entertainment Quarters:

Upstairs:


The courageous protectors of the house who by day sleep and laze around the house but are at their noisiest during the early evenings and even earlier mornings.

The Local:

So far my time here has been enjoyable and definitely a new experience. Most of the other volunteers are easily approachable and some of the most entertaining people I've met. That is the insurance of living with people who have put aside their own time and money to give a little back. Majority of the volunteers are English with a handful from America and another from Australia. My latest dilemma is deciding if I should extend my trip...

So it finally happened...

Ever stood at the bagage claim section of the airport and wondered "What if my luggage doesn't arrive?". The doubt initially sets in when a similiar looking peice of luggage remains on the conveyor belt, each time passing you, fooling you for that brief moment. Slowly but surely the crowd thins out, people retrieve their items and still that cousin of a suitcase goes around. You begin to wonder "I hope nobody has taken my luggage in mistake of theirs". Then somebody claims that imposter of a suitcase. Only then you realise that your luggage in fact is not coming.

So here I am, in Rio De Janeiro luggage-less and sitting in an empty dorm room. My suitcase is currently stuck in Miami and won't be arriving until tomorrow afternoon, which wouldn't be so bad except that the other volunteer workers have arranged a road trip away for the Brazilian long weekend. I managed to duck down to the local markets and purchase some essentials, jocks, tshirts, and shorts and of course necessary toilettries.

Arrived at Baron Garden House in Rio De Janeiro and despite the hold up inside the airport I was greeted by the Brazilian Representative for i-to-i. He took me on a short drive in his 25 year old VW Beatle and within 40 minutes I was at the volunteer lodging a loft a mountain in the suburb of Glória.