So many firsts (see the pics at the end) - and a second try at this post!

May 21, 2017

I write this from São Paulo. I've only just realized how many days have passed since my last post. I apologize for my slackness! ;D

I settled into a routine of teaching English 4 mornings a weeks to very small children. I had to steel myself each time for the intensity. Preschool aged children, the youngest were three, are a difficult mob to control. You have to be well prepared! And when you don't speak their language fluently it can be tricky pulling them into line! But they were lovely children, very eager, with the normal restless energy. I reached out to a couple of friends who have experience in teaching for ideas and scoured the internet. I'm so glad I took my ukulele because the children loved it. Trying to get them to sing "head and shoulders, knees and toes" in English and not in Portuguese was a little challenging. A few of them stubbornly persisted with "cabeça e ombres, joelhos e dedos", but by the 3rd week the older children were singing mostly in English.

(My last class in Rocinha)

In the time I wasn't teaching, I prepared materials for the English classes, such as flashcards of body parts, numbers, colours, weather, feelings and quick reference cards with instructions for future volunteers. On parting with Dylan, the volunteer coordinator, he told me that with the box of materials I had prepared he'd decided to make teaching English (albeit simply) a compulsory part of the duties of the volunteers who were just coming to help mind children in the creche. He seemed very happy with the work I had done. To be honest, I really didn't feel like I had done all that much.

(R: Me with Dylan, volunteer coordinator, and Reuben, graffiti artist, at the top of the favela, Rocinha)

Of course, I also had time to explore Rio. Although, going out at night was only possible if I managed to make some friends to go out with because it's not very safe to go out alone. And a week before I left Rio I decided to change my hostel due to the presence of a couple of men who'd checked in few days before who were heavy drinkers, and one of which kept returning to the hostel quite stoned. The final straw for me was being kept awake till nearly 4 am due to his stoned loud conversations with his equally stoned friend, drawing police (called by angry neighbours), followed by him playing his harmonica and singing loudly on the other side of my dorm wall, ignoring the knocking of the security guard (for a while anyway). I was alone in my dorm that night and decided for my own piece of mind I didn't want to hang around. So I got on booking.com, found another hostel and booked in, packed my bags and lay down fully dressed for a couple of hours nap before I could check out and leave. It was a pity, because that hostel was a really good one, lots of people coming and going (so lots of people to meet and do stuff with) and really friendly staff. It was old, but very clean.

Now, I'm with my dear friend Ivette, a Brasileira. We are being tourists in São Paulo, then in Brasilia for a couple of days (her home city). Then (I'm looking forward to this!) coming home.