rio remembrance
The first time I gave anyone an account of my time in Rio, I was informed that it was a very "factual" telling. I'm afraid my previous three posts may have been rather factual as well, so I will throw in my favorite memory here...
Monday afternoon, at CEACA, we met one of the soccer classes. Jason divided everyone into teams, with 2 Americans and 4 Brasilians. We spent much of our time playing name games- the kids spoke in Portuguese and we had to figure out what they were saying, and we spoke in English and they had to figure it out as well. This particular time, it was me, Angie, and 5 adolescent boys. Everyone had to say their name, their age, and something that they liked. My language skills had improved so the name and age part was fine. The first kid said cookies, the next kites, and the third soccer, followed by another kites. Then we came to the last kid, the oldest at 14.
"What do you like?"
"To study."
I'm sorry, did you say to study? Yep, he did. And the grin on his face when I told him I was a teacher... priceless.
rio, days 7-8
Thursday of our time in Rio was a national holiday, so there was no school for the kids. Because they were free all day, Jason, Kristin, and Jeremy had planned a field trip for us and 25 of their kids to a
sitio, a site about 45 minutes outside of Rio. A
sitio (there were many of them) is rented out for large group events. This one had a large soccer field, a sand volleyball court, a pool, ping pong table, snooker table, playground, and a large grilling/ eating area. And was decorated with lots of gnomes and other silly garden art.
We spent the majority of the day playing with the kids- soccer, ultimate (we won this time!), volleyball, making jewelry and being crafty, flying kites. [I don't think I mentioned what a big thing kite-flying is in Brasil. Just like in
The Kite Runner. Kids showed us their hands where they were cut and scarred from the glue/glass on their strings.] We also did another couple of skits, silly and serious, and Angie shared her testimony. And of course, had an American BBQ for lunch- hamburgers and hot dogs! The kids seemed to have a great time- they really seemed to enjoy getting out of the city and just seemed freer.
At the end of the day, we all piled on their bus to say goodbye, as we would not see them on Friday. We returned to Jeremy's apartment and packed up to head to a hotel at the beach that night for debriefing Friday morning.
We stayed at an awesome hotel in LeBlon- the next up and coming beach, adjacent to Ipanema. Friday morning, we went up on its roof to debrief from the week. That took most of our morning, by which time it had started raining. Thankfully, our only rain of the week, except for the drive out to the
sitio. But, as we had the afternoon free, it did put a damper on our plans to be tourists. So we headed to the mall to stay dry. As did everyone else, it seemed.
Around 5pm, Angie, Laura, and I headed to the rodovario to catch a bus to start our vacation, while everyone else headed to the airport to catch their flight home.
4 to go
I only have 4 restaurants remaining on my list, and 2 1/2 weeks in which to eat at them. I knocked two out this weekend, with little planning.
Christina and I headed to
Sun in My Belly for brunch on Saturday morning. I had the french toast, stuffed with ricotta and covered in berries. While I love all of those things, I think Highland Bakery's french toast takes the cake. So, her choice was the winner: a scrambled egg panini with bacon and cheese. It was good food, but nothing to shout about- definitely the conversation is what made it most enjoyable!
It has been quite a weekend to catch up with old friends who are in town, which included a visit from Eva! She was in town for work, so it was a bit dubious as to whether or not I would even be able to see her, but on Sunday night, we had dinner. I hadn't even thought about where to go, but as a faithful blog reader, she wisely suggested we go somewhere on my list. So we headed down to
Agave. They have a large tequila bar, so I branched out a little and had a different margarita from the house. Not really sure I could tell you what the difference was, but it was tasty. We started with some fried calamari, which was excellent. Light, salty, perfect. For dinner, I had the Spicy Tequila Anejo Shrimp, with a cheddar cheese grits cake and asparagus. Eva had the blue corn chicken enchiladas with pinto beans. She cleaned her plate, so it must've been good. Mine was also quite tasty, though not the best shrimp and grits I've ever had. I would eat it again though. Overall, a solid place, vastly improved by the company.
Labels: good eatin'
rio, days 4-6
Monday morning, we got up and headed back to Kristin and Jason' church, to work at the Compassion-sponsored daycare center. We spent most of the morning cleaning a room which had been used as a study room/ play room. We scrubbed it from top to bottom, cleaned all the toys and rearranged the furniture so it could now also function as a computer lab. When we finished, we got to spend a little bit of time playing with the kids there. We played soccer in their ball court, drew pictures, painted their nails, and gave them temporary tattoos.
From my experience, Brazilians are
very hospitable and they laid out a spread for us at lunch.
Valdete is the director of the daycare center and it was her birthday that week. After lunch, there was another cake for her and she celebrated with each class at the daycare center.
The coolest thing about the church/daycare center, other than seeing and meeting Jason and Kristin's church body in Rio, was actually seeing a Compassion-sponsored daycare center. Compassion is something I've known about since elementary school, but it has always been a far-off thing. Seeing the kids who are served by sponsors, and seeing their bulletin board full of pictures and letters from sponsors was really moving and really showed what a difference Compassion and sponsors make in these kids lives.
Shortly after Val's party, we headed to Morro dos Macacos (Monkey Hill), the favela where Jason and Kristin spend most of their efforts. They work with kids at a community center, CEACA, which was described as being similar to FCS in Atlanta in terms of its function. Through the community center, they teach 3 or 4 classes of soccer school and Bible study to varying ages of kids.
Going into this favela for the first time was a singular experience for me. Morro dos Macacos is a larger (pop. ~150,000) and more dangerous favela than where the their church is. I've spent a fair amount of time in "dangerous" places: a summer in a housing project in the 9th ward of New Orleans, the slums of Mexico City, and working for a couple years in Zone 3. But never before had I been so aware of my own mortality. Not that I was necessarily in imminent danger, but as we walked up the street (instead of driving) into the community, a group of ten who were clearly American, I had this sense that if anyone with a gun did not want me there, little would stop them from shooting me.
We spent the next three days meeting and hanging out with the kids they teach. This involved lots of name games in a mix of Portuguese and English, make-up, soccer, foosball, ultimate, and generally getting to know them. We shared a ridiculous skit, a testimony, and conversed over the answers to some deep questions.
Jeremy, Jason, and Kristin focus on a group of 15 teenagers. In April, when our team decided to come down to Rio, they started teaching the kids to play ultimate in order to play against the Americans. So, on Tuesday afternoon, we played, Brasilians vs. Americans. And we lost. In the meantime, I picked up a nickname from the kids: Xuxa, a Brasilian children's TV host. We later googled her, learned some scary things about her, and saw some pics. I don't really see it, but the nickname stuck for the week.
rio, days 1-3
June 5, I headed with 6 other folks from my church to Rio, for a mission trip working with kids in the Rio's favelas. I wrote a post on the overall experience for
Sombra Road's blog, but I'll elaborate a little more here.
The road to Rio was fraught with obstacles. At the start of May, Brazil changed its visa-obtaining policies for US citizens, making the process take around three weeks. Unfortunately, we were unaware of these changes and had to hire an expediting service and get everyone we know praying that our visas would come in time. We were to leave Friday night, and Thursday afternoon around 4:30, we learned that we had, in fact, gotten our visas. They arrived in Atlanta on Friday morning. Once at the airport, we learned that our flight to Miami had been delayed long enough that we would miss our connecting flight. So another round of prayer began, that American could work it out with Delta so that the 7 of us could have the 7 remaining seats on Delta's direct to Rio flight that night. They worked it out. Mostly. Till we approached the ticket counter at 9:00 for our new 9:45 flight and Laura, Angie, and I had seats on the flight, but no tickets. More prayer and a trip to the Delta ticket counter: by 9:25 I had a seat and a ticket on the flight and boarding had begun!
Upon arriving Saturday morning, Jason, Kristin, and Jeremy, the missionaries we would be working with, met us at the airport and drove us to Jeremy's apartment, where we would spend the week. Jeremy's two-bedroom apartment, known as the Sombra Road House, where he lives with two young men whom the ministry disciples. And then came the seven of us. Never have I spent a week in such close quarters with 9 other people and had such an easy time of it.
They were kind enough to let us take naps, and then we headed out for some sight-seeing. We headed up to Corcovado- the Christ the Redeemer statue, atop the highest peak in Rio. It was a cloudy, windy day, and packed with tourists, but worth it for the amazing views of the city.
(I can't get it to turn right side up.)
That evening, we headed down to the beach at Ipanema to play around and get to know each other better.
We spent most of Sunday as tourists again. I recall being in the shower that morning and thinking I heard pigs squealing, grunting, and rooting around in the mud. But I thought to myself, No way- I am in the middle of a city. And then, as we walked to an ATM, there were the pigs on the side of the road. We headed to the Ipanema Hippie Fair and artist market and spent most of the afternoon there.
That evening, we went to Jason and Kristin's church. They worship at a Presbyterian church in a favela, where there is also a Compassion-sponsored daycare center. As we drove up into the favela, Kristin explained that it is standard practice to turn your headlights off and the lights inside the car on as you drive up, so that the armed guards (teenage boys with semi-automatic weapons) can see who is in the car. As we approached, this armed guard approached our car because we had apparently not turned the headlights off quickly enough. Somehow, this experience left me unaffected.
There were maybe 50 people there. Worshiping in a language you don't speak is an interesting experience. We sang a few songs in Portuguese that we sing at Intown in English, so that was helpful. During the sermon, the seven of us left the service to go outside and pray for the church. After the service, the church had a birthday party for everyone with June birthdays. This gave us an opportunity I really appreciated to spend more time with the people Kristin and Jason worship with.
More to come!
Labels: travel
accomplished
I have now accomplished the year's travel goals. The goal each year is one new state and one new country. Didn't happen in 2008. But in 2009, I've got Austria, Brazil, and Czech Republic. And I just returned from my first trip to Utah. That leaves 13 states and countless countries left to visit.
More on Brazil and Utah to follow.
Labels: travel
1 Comments:
oh, brilliant
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