Wowww, we had an amazing morning with the kids today! Fortunately I didn't go out last night (Danni did, and somehow managed to get through it all fine! She came back from the Academia do Cachasa with the opinion that all cahchasa is gross - which I knew already, so didn't miss out on too much there!)
Today with the kids we began by taking photos of each of them to put in their photo frames they made yesterday. It's quite a novelty for them to have their picture taken, so you can just imagine them all clamouring the camera and stuff! We had to take their profile pictures almost like school photos because Olivia said that their parents would be really pleased with that, as photos are such a luxury for them.
After that, we were thinking of doing a fashion show because all the kids had deliberately come in their best clothes and done their make up (very amusing watching Maria - the five year old - put on far too much lipgloss before her photo and then totally flaunting it and pouting insanely!) and hair (hair styles in Brazil seem to involve smoothing everything down with gel - I'm not a fan, but they thought they looked good!). However, we had one head dress that Leanne had made out of a magazine when she came on Friday, and so myself and Olivia began to make a few more. Before we knew it, Danni and Stevie had had to join in too because absolutely all of the kids wanted one! It was totally manic. They were all crying 'Tchia, tchia' (Aunty, aunty) and demanding more bits of feathers be stuck on and for us to make them wristbands too! It was amazingly fun despite the chaos!
Eventually, we got round to the catwalk. The girls were absoutely brilliant (boys got a bit shy as predicted, but still strutted their stuff a bit!). They had a really great model walk and had the serious expression and the flounce at the end of the catwalk down to perfection! They've definitely been practising! It was very fun and very funny, especially when a couple of the boys paired up with the girls... romance in the air...?! Maria (the youngest of the group) was a particular favourite with everyone, she kept coming back for more and blowing kisses and completely milking it! It was a fabulous morning, never mind the exhaustion :D
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Day Off, Day On
As Mondays are our only (week)day off, we decided to make the most of it and do some of the more touristy stuff with hopefully fewer tourists around. (Still havn't got round to Christ yet, waiting for perfect weather for perfect views...)
Instead, we went to the Botanical Gardens. We left stupidly early in the morning because Alison told us that there are often toucans in the trees first thing. Alas, none for us today :( However, the whole place was lovely. Admittedly, it was just trees - very few flowers - and usually that thing is incredibly boring, but it was just such a nice space. Wish I'd taken my book! We wondered around loadssss of different areas: atlantic rainforest, humming bird garden (where we saw zero humming birds, but did spot 2 later on!), insectiverous plant house, japanese garden etc. Took many photos (attempted using macro on my camera, but as I have no idea what I'm doing as regards such things, the photos are pretty mediocre!), including a couple of intrepid-jungle-explorer ones!! Haha, we wish!
After that we walked to the nearby lake (which is huuuuuge) and rented bikes! Momentous occassion as I havn't properly been on a bike for a good few years. Pretty wobbly to start with, especially as I kept playing with the ''I <3 my bike'' bell that I had!! Good stuff! Took us about 40 minutes to go around the whole thing, by which time our thighs were killing us and bums were numb, so we hit up a really nice juice bar we'd seen on the way there. It was absolutely LUSH! I had a proper PassionFruit juice - literally pureed and iced passion fruit, very yummy and very well deserved we felt!!
That afternoon we were absolutely knackered, so had another quite early night. Probably a good thing because we had work this morning and it was so so sooooo tiring! We all thought the kids were about twice as hyper as usual!! While Stevie taught them English (another random missmatched lesson she said!), Danni and I made photoframes with them. We'd gone yesterday and bought loads of coloured card for the task, and asked each kid which colour they wanted. Then, as soon as we got the paints out, they proceeded in painting the whole thing a completely different colour to the original card. We despaired!! But still it was really fun. Actually, fun until it came to clearing up. The water had gone off... NO WATER!! And 15 painty kids. Nightmare!! Fortunately we had one damp towel which just about did everyone and all the desks and tables which were covered in paint. It was just so difficult, because (being Western I suppose!!) the last thing you expect is to not have running water.
All that seemed to make the kids even more hyper and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing ball games with them and trying to stop them fighting each other! - they play a game of boys V girls where they try to keep a ball to their team. Usually results in one poor girl clutching the ball and getting mobbed by loads of screaming boys, or vice versa!! Anyway, was a pretty good morning, we're just wondering how we're going to manage the week after next when we have an afternoon session with another set of kids too!! Seriously, it's so exhausting just having 3 hours in the morning, but another 3 in the afternoon... doesn't bear thinking about yet!! We'll just have to get over that hurdle when it comes along!!
Just uploaded photos of Botanical Gardens and our bikeride to facebook. Happy days :)
Tchau xxxx
Instead, we went to the Botanical Gardens. We left stupidly early in the morning because Alison told us that there are often toucans in the trees first thing. Alas, none for us today :( However, the whole place was lovely. Admittedly, it was just trees - very few flowers - and usually that thing is incredibly boring, but it was just such a nice space. Wish I'd taken my book! We wondered around loadssss of different areas: atlantic rainforest, humming bird garden (where we saw zero humming birds, but did spot 2 later on!), insectiverous plant house, japanese garden etc. Took many photos (attempted using macro on my camera, but as I have no idea what I'm doing as regards such things, the photos are pretty mediocre!), including a couple of intrepid-jungle-explorer ones!! Haha, we wish!
After that we walked to the nearby lake (which is huuuuuge) and rented bikes! Momentous occassion as I havn't properly been on a bike for a good few years. Pretty wobbly to start with, especially as I kept playing with the ''I <3 my bike'' bell that I had!! Good stuff! Took us about 40 minutes to go around the whole thing, by which time our thighs were killing us and bums were numb, so we hit up a really nice juice bar we'd seen on the way there. It was absolutely LUSH! I had a proper PassionFruit juice - literally pureed and iced passion fruit, very yummy and very well deserved we felt!!
That afternoon we were absolutely knackered, so had another quite early night. Probably a good thing because we had work this morning and it was so so sooooo tiring! We all thought the kids were about twice as hyper as usual!! While Stevie taught them English (another random missmatched lesson she said!), Danni and I made photoframes with them. We'd gone yesterday and bought loads of coloured card for the task, and asked each kid which colour they wanted. Then, as soon as we got the paints out, they proceeded in painting the whole thing a completely different colour to the original card. We despaired!! But still it was really fun. Actually, fun until it came to clearing up. The water had gone off... NO WATER!! And 15 painty kids. Nightmare!! Fortunately we had one damp towel which just about did everyone and all the desks and tables which were covered in paint. It was just so difficult, because (being Western I suppose!!) the last thing you expect is to not have running water.
All that seemed to make the kids even more hyper and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing ball games with them and trying to stop them fighting each other! - they play a game of boys V girls where they try to keep a ball to their team. Usually results in one poor girl clutching the ball and getting mobbed by loads of screaming boys, or vice versa!! Anyway, was a pretty good morning, we're just wondering how we're going to manage the week after next when we have an afternoon session with another set of kids too!! Seriously, it's so exhausting just having 3 hours in the morning, but another 3 in the afternoon... doesn't bear thinking about yet!! We'll just have to get over that hurdle when it comes along!!
Just uploaded photos of Botanical Gardens and our bikeride to facebook. Happy days :)
Tchau xxxx
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Another Cultural Day :)
Ahhh, today was niiiiice. We went to bed stupidly early last night (turned down the house party for bed...wild stuff out here. Not!) but it meant we could get up early and hit the beach because it was SUNNYYYYYYYYYYY, hurray!! Totally made the most of it (appear to have got a tad burnt again - darnit!)
That really wasn't too cultural, but we did get interesting, honest! After lunch (of yummy cheese doughballs, good stuff!) we managed to get over to Niteroi - a nice stretch of land on the other side of the bay which you can reach by a huge road bridge or by boat. We went for the boat option (pretty difficult to locate, so had to ask a few locals about buses. Very proud!) It was lush on the boat, nice and shady and good views etc.
Our reason for going to Niteroi was a modern art museum inside a crazy space-ship-shaped building designed by Niemeyer (sp?!). Very interesting - check out the photos. Was totally captivated by one painting of a little boy. His eyes were absolutely amazing, it was so difficult to look away. I actually had to go back to have another look!!
We had a little wonder down to the beach there which was nearly deserted. The sand was lovely, but as with all of the beaches in the bay, the sea was a disgusting green-brown colour and as we don't fancy any Cholera etc, we gave swimming a miss!!
Got back from Niteroi pretty late and havn't really done much. Cooked an AWESOME cheese and fried ham omelette (to follow on from my kick ass Ratatouille yesterday - masterchef in the making!) and are just chilling out tonight. There seems to be a street band setting up right at the bottom of our hill. But bottom of hill means getting back to top of hill.... Hmmmmm!
That really wasn't too cultural, but we did get interesting, honest! After lunch (of yummy cheese doughballs, good stuff!) we managed to get over to Niteroi - a nice stretch of land on the other side of the bay which you can reach by a huge road bridge or by boat. We went for the boat option (pretty difficult to locate, so had to ask a few locals about buses. Very proud!) It was lush on the boat, nice and shady and good views etc.
Our reason for going to Niteroi was a modern art museum inside a crazy space-ship-shaped building designed by Niemeyer (sp?!). Very interesting - check out the photos. Was totally captivated by one painting of a little boy. His eyes were absolutely amazing, it was so difficult to look away. I actually had to go back to have another look!!
We had a little wonder down to the beach there which was nearly deserted. The sand was lovely, but as with all of the beaches in the bay, the sea was a disgusting green-brown colour and as we don't fancy any Cholera etc, we gave swimming a miss!!
Got back from Niteroi pretty late and havn't really done much. Cooked an AWESOME cheese and fried ham omelette (to follow on from my kick ass Ratatouille yesterday - masterchef in the making!) and are just chilling out tonight. There seems to be a street band setting up right at the bottom of our hill. But bottom of hill means getting back to top of hill.... Hmmmmm!
Saturday, 24 January 2009
A Cultural Day, Wow!!!
Today we were cultural, shocking stuff!! (Had of course intended to be cultural whilst here, just hadn't got round to it until now what with one thing and another..!)
Last night in Lapa was pretty good. Cos of the rain it wasn't so much of a street party as the week before, and almost as soon as we arrived one girl had her camera stolen from right out of her hands as she was taking a photo so that sort of put a bit of a downer on things. However, Danni and me and another volunteer called Becky branched off and ended up going to 2 different clubs. The first was realllly weird. We could here the music from outside, and it was pretty cool electro dance stuff so we decided to go in. To do this, you had to pay a woman through a tiny slit in a big concrete wall and you got a sort of credit card affair. You then walked down to another gap in the concrete wall and handed this to a big bouncer who frisked you and then let you into 'the club'(turned out to be concrete walls covered in a corrugated tin roof...!). It was alright inside, but cos no-one was dancing we felt a bit out of place and decided to head on. We found another club which was playing more English music (interesting hearing Brazilians singing along!) which was totally rammed. Got a bit felt up on the way through the dance floor, but managed to shake everyone off and avoid being kissed!!
Today we got up a bit late (yes we did get in late, but it didn't help that a few hours later one of the guys from the house called Trevor came into our room and turned the light on and shouted 'Party Time'... tried to get us to get up again, no way!). But then we headed off to the cathedral and another smaller church and back to the tea rooms again (couldn't resist it, the others in the group hadn't been before and there was no way we could turn it down!!!)
The cathedral is the oddest building. From the outside it is hideous: a huge and dirty concrete cone with loads of slats in the side. But inside, there are 4 huge stained glass windows going up to a translucent cross which makes the ceiling, and all of the slats are actually open to let in the air and means that the whole place is lit naturally. It really was fascinating walking in because the impression from the outside was far from cathedral-esque.
I took quite a few photos today to try to show the cathedral, and also some of inside the tea rooms so you can see why it's such a lovely place to go. I even tried taking some of the cakes on display, but the photos don't really do them justice!!
We're going to have a quiet night in tonight. May head down to 'the local'(haha!) breifly, but we wan't to be on top form for our second day of culture. We are going to venture over to the Modern Art Museum on Niteroi which involves taking a ferry (very exciting for Becky!). Should be good....
xxx
Last night in Lapa was pretty good. Cos of the rain it wasn't so much of a street party as the week before, and almost as soon as we arrived one girl had her camera stolen from right out of her hands as she was taking a photo so that sort of put a bit of a downer on things. However, Danni and me and another volunteer called Becky branched off and ended up going to 2 different clubs. The first was realllly weird. We could here the music from outside, and it was pretty cool electro dance stuff so we decided to go in. To do this, you had to pay a woman through a tiny slit in a big concrete wall and you got a sort of credit card affair. You then walked down to another gap in the concrete wall and handed this to a big bouncer who frisked you and then let you into 'the club'(turned out to be concrete walls covered in a corrugated tin roof...!). It was alright inside, but cos no-one was dancing we felt a bit out of place and decided to head on. We found another club which was playing more English music (interesting hearing Brazilians singing along!) which was totally rammed. Got a bit felt up on the way through the dance floor, but managed to shake everyone off and avoid being kissed!!
Today we got up a bit late (yes we did get in late, but it didn't help that a few hours later one of the guys from the house called Trevor came into our room and turned the light on and shouted 'Party Time'... tried to get us to get up again, no way!). But then we headed off to the cathedral and another smaller church and back to the tea rooms again (couldn't resist it, the others in the group hadn't been before and there was no way we could turn it down!!!)
The cathedral is the oddest building. From the outside it is hideous: a huge and dirty concrete cone with loads of slats in the side. But inside, there are 4 huge stained glass windows going up to a translucent cross which makes the ceiling, and all of the slats are actually open to let in the air and means that the whole place is lit naturally. It really was fascinating walking in because the impression from the outside was far from cathedral-esque.
I took quite a few photos today to try to show the cathedral, and also some of inside the tea rooms so you can see why it's such a lovely place to go. I even tried taking some of the cakes on display, but the photos don't really do them justice!!
We're going to have a quiet night in tonight. May head down to 'the local'(haha!) breifly, but we wan't to be on top form for our second day of culture. We are going to venture over to the Modern Art Museum on Niteroi which involves taking a ferry (very exciting for Becky!). Should be good....
xxx
Friday, 23 January 2009
More Rain :(
So the past few days it has been raining. It sucks, because when it rains here, it pours! Apparently it's been a really bad summer this year (global warming? dare i say it..?!)
Yesterday we didn't go into project because of the rain, but managed to summon up the courage to go out later on. We were trying to find a Jazz cafe which we thought was nearby but on second thoughts was probably further than we thought. Anyway, didn't find it at all but ended up at a little bar that sort of spilled out onto the street as the night went on. Danni and I shared 2 beers, and then were just about to head off home when we were called over by a group of Brazilians so we sat and chatted to them for a while (bit of an issue with language, but one of them spoke good english..!). It was good fun, and we've even been invited to a BBQ with them tomorrow... not sure whether to go or not yet...
It was raining again this morning, but after yesterday we decided we really should make a huge effort (even huger given that we'd got in after midnight so had about 6 hours sleep :O ). It was really good fun once we got there. We took another volunteer called Lianne who got really stuck into making carnival head-dresses out of magazines, and a guy called Rob who immediately started showing some of the older boys how to fix the electrics and shower and stuff. The rest of us did a lot of cutting out people from magazines and then ripping up strips of bright paper to make them little carnival costumes. Good fun but very messy! Later on, Stevie and I attempted to give an English lesson... wasn't great! The kids kept asking us words they wanted to know, so by the end the blackboard was full of words like stadium, flipflop, jumper, How are you?, pencil etc etc. We had been intending on doing colours... never mind!!
So tonight we are just planning to go out to Lapa (but it's raining... :( bad times!). Firstly, however, we are going to play Ring of Fire... could be interesting!!
Tchau xxx
Yesterday we didn't go into project because of the rain, but managed to summon up the courage to go out later on. We were trying to find a Jazz cafe which we thought was nearby but on second thoughts was probably further than we thought. Anyway, didn't find it at all but ended up at a little bar that sort of spilled out onto the street as the night went on. Danni and I shared 2 beers, and then were just about to head off home when we were called over by a group of Brazilians so we sat and chatted to them for a while (bit of an issue with language, but one of them spoke good english..!). It was good fun, and we've even been invited to a BBQ with them tomorrow... not sure whether to go or not yet...
It was raining again this morning, but after yesterday we decided we really should make a huge effort (even huger given that we'd got in after midnight so had about 6 hours sleep :O ). It was really good fun once we got there. We took another volunteer called Lianne who got really stuck into making carnival head-dresses out of magazines, and a guy called Rob who immediately started showing some of the older boys how to fix the electrics and shower and stuff. The rest of us did a lot of cutting out people from magazines and then ripping up strips of bright paper to make them little carnival costumes. Good fun but very messy! Later on, Stevie and I attempted to give an English lesson... wasn't great! The kids kept asking us words they wanted to know, so by the end the blackboard was full of words like stadium, flipflop, jumper, How are you?, pencil etc etc. We had been intending on doing colours... never mind!!
So tonight we are just planning to go out to Lapa (but it's raining... :( bad times!). Firstly, however, we are going to play Ring of Fire... could be interesting!!
Tchau xxx
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Favellas followed by Tea and Cake *cringe* and RAIN
Argh, didn't write on here yesterday and now I feel like there's so much that's happened and I don't want to forget anything. So prepare for waffle!!
Yesterday was our first day going to our project. We had to meet Felipe and his partner Kris (female) at 9 oçlock which felt horrible, but was nothing compared to what's to come!! We had to walk allllll the way down the hill then to the Metro stop. Then it was 8 stops on the metro, then change to a different line and go allllllll the way to the final stop. It's called Pavuna (if anyone's interested..?!). From there we have to get a bus (absolutely ridiculously rickety thing, I think Felipe said that the driver said the bus we were on was on its last day, hah!). The whole journey takes about an hour and a half which means that we have to get up at 6.30am every morning from now on :O definitely going to take some adjusting to!
We got off the bus, and began to walk up the hill into the favella. To begin with, the road was tarmaced and there were little shops selling water and snacks and stuff, and I was thinking that this really wasn't too bad. Then the tarmac stopped. The road is just hideous. It's literally just rubble and clay and its completely covered in shreds of plastic bags and bottles and bits of metal (thank goodness for that tetanus jab!!) and just general crap (don't think it's literally crap, fingers crossed!). It's not far up that road until you get to our project house. It's a lovely little area, despite the surrounding crap. And I say lovely, but by Western standards it certianly isn't... anyway, it's good enough!!
The lady who runs the project is called Olivia and she is absolutely fantastic. She was a volunteer with i-to-i who worked on the same project 2 years ago. Then, it was being run by an absolute arsehole who ended up getting fired because he was using all the money for himself, and kept selling off bits of their land and the fridge and freezer and stuff. Bad times. So Olivia and her friend went home and sold everything they owned and did loads of fundraising so that they could buy the house back and re-start everything. It's only Olivia who's there at the moment, but they really have done a fantastic job! Since she bought it, she's managed to build another big hall our of back which even has a stage so that the kids can perform their circus and dance acts (which they absolutely love! They showed us lots of it today!). Olivia also raised money to have a bit of the road outside the project concreted. Unfortunately because of all the rain recently (there has been a LOT of rain, we got flooded today :O flipping tropical storm!) it has started to collapse already. Would be great to be able to help out and raise some more money to do it properly and do more of it.....hmmm!
The kids there are absolutely fantastic. We were all really shy yesterday and didn't feel like we got very far with them. We are only with them for 3 hours every morning because its the school holidays so (for some reason) they all go home in the afternoon. After the shyness of yesterday, today was brrrrrrilllllliant! We got there and the kids were just starting to arrive. I began by joining in with the boys playing football. Which was tragic I may add. It is totally true what they say about Brazilians and football, and with my mediocre skills it was pretty embarassing. They seemed to appreciate the effort though.
After that, we played a few name games to try to get to grips with all the kids names. So far I've got about 6, the rest are 'hey, you'. Suits me! They were really inquisitive and asked us all loads of questions. They were all really surprised at how we weren't married and didn't have any kids yet, yikes!! Danni and I also played piggy in the middle with a few of them, and attempted a teensy bit of English teaching. Then they showed us lots of their circus skills. They're all like little monkeys! They've got so much energy and are all really cheerful (apart from one boy called Alison (?!) who keeps crying, and the others tease him - they were kicking footballs at him while he was lying on the floor sobbing, so I told them off, yeaaaaah! - but aparently he's just attention seeking... we'll have to suss that one out!)
The afternoon was compleeeetely different to the morning. We went with Olivia back to her apartment (she lives with her boyfriend - possibly soon to be ex-boyfriend! - and his mum and brother in a little suburb surrounded by more favelas). She took us to a place for lunch where there is a massive buffet and you just load up your plate with whatever and then it gets weighed and you pay by weight. It was yummy, but I couldn't help but take a little bit of everything which I didn't recognise - didn't get anything I didn't like so big *thumbs up* for that one!
From there we caught the metro to Urugaina where there are loads of art and craft shops where we bought some paper and paints to start making a Carnival Mural with the kiddiwinks tomorrow. It's amazing how cheap everything is there, definitely going to stock up on certain stuff!!
However, it was absolutely peeing it down all afternoon - a proper tropical storm. So, Olivia took us to her favourite place in Rio: an absolutely gorgeous Art Nouveau cafe. The whole place is covered in gigantic mirrors and fancy lights and stained glass - fabulous! It sells hundreds of different cakes (want to try every sort again, but definitely shouldn't if I want to fit into my carnival costume!) and we had proper tea (very impressive!) and even shared a bottle of wine (woops, sorry mum!!). It was absolutely lush and we are definitely going back there for Danni's birthday in April.
We've just trecked back up to the house, up the hill which is gradually turning into a total waterfall. Aparently if it rains too much we can't get out because it floods at the bottom and the water's too dirty that it's unsafe to get through. I really hope it doesn't because I'm really looking forward to going in and starting to paint tomorrow!
And that's 'HOW'for NOW
Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yesterday was our first day going to our project. We had to meet Felipe and his partner Kris (female) at 9 oçlock which felt horrible, but was nothing compared to what's to come!! We had to walk allllll the way down the hill then to the Metro stop. Then it was 8 stops on the metro, then change to a different line and go allllllll the way to the final stop. It's called Pavuna (if anyone's interested..?!). From there we have to get a bus (absolutely ridiculously rickety thing, I think Felipe said that the driver said the bus we were on was on its last day, hah!). The whole journey takes about an hour and a half which means that we have to get up at 6.30am every morning from now on :O definitely going to take some adjusting to!
We got off the bus, and began to walk up the hill into the favella. To begin with, the road was tarmaced and there were little shops selling water and snacks and stuff, and I was thinking that this really wasn't too bad. Then the tarmac stopped. The road is just hideous. It's literally just rubble and clay and its completely covered in shreds of plastic bags and bottles and bits of metal (thank goodness for that tetanus jab!!) and just general crap (don't think it's literally crap, fingers crossed!). It's not far up that road until you get to our project house. It's a lovely little area, despite the surrounding crap. And I say lovely, but by Western standards it certianly isn't... anyway, it's good enough!!
The lady who runs the project is called Olivia and she is absolutely fantastic. She was a volunteer with i-to-i who worked on the same project 2 years ago. Then, it was being run by an absolute arsehole who ended up getting fired because he was using all the money for himself, and kept selling off bits of their land and the fridge and freezer and stuff. Bad times. So Olivia and her friend went home and sold everything they owned and did loads of fundraising so that they could buy the house back and re-start everything. It's only Olivia who's there at the moment, but they really have done a fantastic job! Since she bought it, she's managed to build another big hall our of back which even has a stage so that the kids can perform their circus and dance acts (which they absolutely love! They showed us lots of it today!). Olivia also raised money to have a bit of the road outside the project concreted. Unfortunately because of all the rain recently (there has been a LOT of rain, we got flooded today :O flipping tropical storm!) it has started to collapse already. Would be great to be able to help out and raise some more money to do it properly and do more of it.....hmmm!
The kids there are absolutely fantastic. We were all really shy yesterday and didn't feel like we got very far with them. We are only with them for 3 hours every morning because its the school holidays so (for some reason) they all go home in the afternoon. After the shyness of yesterday, today was brrrrrrilllllliant! We got there and the kids were just starting to arrive. I began by joining in with the boys playing football. Which was tragic I may add. It is totally true what they say about Brazilians and football, and with my mediocre skills it was pretty embarassing. They seemed to appreciate the effort though.
After that, we played a few name games to try to get to grips with all the kids names. So far I've got about 6, the rest are 'hey, you'. Suits me! They were really inquisitive and asked us all loads of questions. They were all really surprised at how we weren't married and didn't have any kids yet, yikes!! Danni and I also played piggy in the middle with a few of them, and attempted a teensy bit of English teaching. Then they showed us lots of their circus skills. They're all like little monkeys! They've got so much energy and are all really cheerful (apart from one boy called Alison (?!) who keeps crying, and the others tease him - they were kicking footballs at him while he was lying on the floor sobbing, so I told them off, yeaaaaah! - but aparently he's just attention seeking... we'll have to suss that one out!)
The afternoon was compleeeetely different to the morning. We went with Olivia back to her apartment (she lives with her boyfriend - possibly soon to be ex-boyfriend! - and his mum and brother in a little suburb surrounded by more favelas). She took us to a place for lunch where there is a massive buffet and you just load up your plate with whatever and then it gets weighed and you pay by weight. It was yummy, but I couldn't help but take a little bit of everything which I didn't recognise - didn't get anything I didn't like so big *thumbs up* for that one!
From there we caught the metro to Urugaina where there are loads of art and craft shops where we bought some paper and paints to start making a Carnival Mural with the kiddiwinks tomorrow. It's amazing how cheap everything is there, definitely going to stock up on certain stuff!!
However, it was absolutely peeing it down all afternoon - a proper tropical storm. So, Olivia took us to her favourite place in Rio: an absolutely gorgeous Art Nouveau cafe. The whole place is covered in gigantic mirrors and fancy lights and stained glass - fabulous! It sells hundreds of different cakes (want to try every sort again, but definitely shouldn't if I want to fit into my carnival costume!) and we had proper tea (very impressive!) and even shared a bottle of wine (woops, sorry mum!!). It was absolutely lush and we are definitely going back there for Danni's birthday in April.
We've just trecked back up to the house, up the hill which is gradually turning into a total waterfall. Aparently if it rains too much we can't get out because it floods at the bottom and the water's too dirty that it's unsafe to get through. I really hope it doesn't because I'm really looking forward to going in and starting to paint tomorrow!
And that's 'HOW'for NOW
Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Bugs, Samba and Pizza... Lots of Pizza!
Can't quite remember what I wrote last time, but anyway!
Last night we were thinking of going out but were so ridiculously tired (I blame the heat!) that most people went off to have a 'power nap' and no-one got up! However, Danni and I and the girl who has just joined us in our room called Chloe had a rather interesting experience with a massive bug! You probably had to be there, but there was a flipping huuuuuuuuge chicada like thing flying around our room, chucking itself and the light and generally being scary that we got rid of in an absolutely pathetically girly way which involved me wrapped up in my sheets and Danni running away and falling up the stairs because it flew at her! Very amusing afterwards, but pretty scary at the time! Who needs to go out to have an exciting night?!?
So after our lame early night, we decided to get up early and head to the 'hippy fair' near Ipanema beach. It's quite a treck to get to on the Metro and a Bus (we felt rather proud of our efforts there :-) ) but was definitely worht it! So much amazing stuff to buy - probably going to go back there in our last week in April to get souveniers without having to carry them through Peru etc.
Most of us just ended up buying clothes because later on in the afternoon we had been invited to join a nearby Samba school's practice for the main Carnival Parade. Problem was, we had to wear all green and white (they were very strict about that!) and so we had to do some shopping. I bought a tye-died dress which ended up looking like a tent, but never mind!!
The Samba practise was AMAZING once it started! We spent about 2 hours standing around being arranged into lines and then re-arranged into lines and moved backwards so more people could join! But eventually we got to dance through the main Sambodrome, which surprisingly was full of spectators! It was such a great afternoon. The main point was to learn the Samba song because the schools all get judged on all of their participants: how well we know the song, how much we smile and stay in lines etc. And the point of all this is:
WE ARE GOING TO BE IN AN OFFICIAL CARNIVAL PARADE IN COSTUMES!!!!!!!
Cannot wait for that! If today's rehearsal was so good then the real thing is going to be mind blowing!!
After all that dancing, and because it was Jo's birthday, we all went to the local restaurant just down the hill from our house. It's an incredibly place. Downstairs is a buffet where you take everything you want and weigh your plate and then pay by the kilo, and upstairs is a pizza buffet where you pay a set price (worked out at about 5 pounds) and get unlimited pizzas of every type you can imagine! Particular favourites were chips-on-pizza, banana-pizza, chocolate-and-strawberry-pizza, crab-and-chicken-pancakes, and the King of all pizzas: ice-cream-pizza!!!
Absolutely stuffed now and exhausted from all the Samba, so another early night I think so that we can get to Copacabana tomorrow morning and walk around the beach front to Ipanema.....
Chow xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Last night we were thinking of going out but were so ridiculously tired (I blame the heat!) that most people went off to have a 'power nap' and no-one got up! However, Danni and I and the girl who has just joined us in our room called Chloe had a rather interesting experience with a massive bug! You probably had to be there, but there was a flipping huuuuuuuuge chicada like thing flying around our room, chucking itself and the light and generally being scary that we got rid of in an absolutely pathetically girly way which involved me wrapped up in my sheets and Danni running away and falling up the stairs because it flew at her! Very amusing afterwards, but pretty scary at the time! Who needs to go out to have an exciting night?!?
So after our lame early night, we decided to get up early and head to the 'hippy fair' near Ipanema beach. It's quite a treck to get to on the Metro and a Bus (we felt rather proud of our efforts there :-) ) but was definitely worht it! So much amazing stuff to buy - probably going to go back there in our last week in April to get souveniers without having to carry them through Peru etc.
Most of us just ended up buying clothes because later on in the afternoon we had been invited to join a nearby Samba school's practice for the main Carnival Parade. Problem was, we had to wear all green and white (they were very strict about that!) and so we had to do some shopping. I bought a tye-died dress which ended up looking like a tent, but never mind!!
The Samba practise was AMAZING once it started! We spent about 2 hours standing around being arranged into lines and then re-arranged into lines and moved backwards so more people could join! But eventually we got to dance through the main Sambodrome, which surprisingly was full of spectators! It was such a great afternoon. The main point was to learn the Samba song because the schools all get judged on all of their participants: how well we know the song, how much we smile and stay in lines etc. And the point of all this is:
WE ARE GOING TO BE IN AN OFFICIAL CARNIVAL PARADE IN COSTUMES!!!!!!!
Cannot wait for that! If today's rehearsal was so good then the real thing is going to be mind blowing!!
After all that dancing, and because it was Jo's birthday, we all went to the local restaurant just down the hill from our house. It's an incredibly place. Downstairs is a buffet where you take everything you want and weigh your plate and then pay by the kilo, and upstairs is a pizza buffet where you pay a set price (worked out at about 5 pounds) and get unlimited pizzas of every type you can imagine! Particular favourites were chips-on-pizza, banana-pizza, chocolate-and-strawberry-pizza, crab-and-chicken-pancakes, and the King of all pizzas: ice-cream-pizza!!!
Absolutely stuffed now and exhausted from all the Samba, so another early night I think so that we can get to Copacabana tomorrow morning and walk around the beach front to Ipanema.....
Chow xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Saturday, 17 January 2009
Lapa
Hello, again! It's Day 2 but today hasn't really been that interesting, not compared to last night!!
A massive group of us headed down to Lapa district, renowned to be the party central of Rio - and it certainly was! There were hundreds of people just dancing in the streets to the samba bands. We had an amazing time, especially being taught how to samba by an old(ish) sweaty man. I think his main point was that it had to come from your heart, although with neither of us speaking a word of the other's language, this may be completely wrong!!
It's too hard to describe what an amazing night it was. We only had a few beers (I did buy one Caprianha (sp?) but it was farrrr too strong for me to drink, so I gave it to Brian who gave it to Danni who gave it to someone else...!)
Today we have just had our orientation by Felipe. Turns out that Danni and I and a girl called Stevie have had our project changed because of a problem with the other co-ordinator, but the one we are on sounds pretty similar and is run by 3 ex-volunteers who managed to buy the house where its run when it was on the verge of closing. It's still in the favellas and still community work. We start on Tuesday morning at 9 :O but definitely looking forward to it (although very apprehensive about visiting the favellas!)
Not entirely sure what's happening tonight. We've been told about a samba school rehearsal in a club somewhere but after last night's festivities and our vague plans to visit a 'hippy market'in Ipanema tomorrow morning we may decide to have a more chilled out night in the bar down the road with Felipe.... who knows....
xxxxxxxxx
A massive group of us headed down to Lapa district, renowned to be the party central of Rio - and it certainly was! There were hundreds of people just dancing in the streets to the samba bands. We had an amazing time, especially being taught how to samba by an old(ish) sweaty man. I think his main point was that it had to come from your heart, although with neither of us speaking a word of the other's language, this may be completely wrong!!
It's too hard to describe what an amazing night it was. We only had a few beers (I did buy one Caprianha (sp?) but it was farrrr too strong for me to drink, so I gave it to Brian who gave it to Danni who gave it to someone else...!)
Today we have just had our orientation by Felipe. Turns out that Danni and I and a girl called Stevie have had our project changed because of a problem with the other co-ordinator, but the one we are on sounds pretty similar and is run by 3 ex-volunteers who managed to buy the house where its run when it was on the verge of closing. It's still in the favellas and still community work. We start on Tuesday morning at 9 :O but definitely looking forward to it (although very apprehensive about visiting the favellas!)
Not entirely sure what's happening tonight. We've been told about a samba school rehearsal in a club somewhere but after last night's festivities and our vague plans to visit a 'hippy market'in Ipanema tomorrow morning we may decide to have a more chilled out night in the bar down the road with Felipe.... who knows....
xxxxxxxxx
Friday, 16 January 2009
Day 1 in Rio
Argh, this feels like a very momentous occassion: my first proper blog entry! Don't quite know what to write!
So, the journey here was pretty uneventful to be honest. Plane journey was infact only 10 hours long (not 15) and time difference is only 2 hours (not 5 - shows how much we knew!). However, at the other end we did manage to get a little lost in the airport looking for money changing facilities and consequently were the last to meet up with Felipe and the rest of the group who had been on the same plane.
We stepped out onto Brazilian land, to find that it was raining!! But a nice warm, humid (sweaty) rain, not like lame cold English drizzle! We were taken in a taxi up to our house: over the power lines which were across the road because a telegraph pole had fallen over in the street earlier that day!! By the time we got to our accomodation, we pretty much just collapsed into our mosquito-netted beds and slept right through till mid morning! Ace.
Today, we got up and realised we had no food! So we managed to schneck a lift down the hill with Alex, the guy who owns the house and fortunately owns a car *thumbs up*. We went down into the Gloria district and changed some money before going to the local supermarket and stocking up on the basics!
After that, we hitched a lift home with some of the other volunteers we found in town (8 of us in a 5 seater car!!) and thus avoided walking up the hill (a 5 minute walk according to Felipe, but only if you 'walk slowly like a cow'!)
After breakfast/lunch, we headed down to the other volunteer house which is just down the street and decided to hit the beach! Fortunately we met two guys who have been here for a couple of weeks, so they took us on the Metro and we had our first taste of Copacabana (fewer beautiful bronsed Brazilians than expected, phew!). The sea was crazy: it was just like Cornwall only a bit warmer, which I suppose was to be expected from the Atlantic in the Southern Hemisphere Summer!!
We are now back at the volunteer house, having had a hearty and oh so exciting dinner of pasta and tomato sauce and are conisdering whether to head out to Lapa (party!) District with the a few others. Don't worry parents, we're not planning on drinking too much! We just want to try one of the local cocktails (for now). Although having said that, we did have a beer at the bar Felipe recommended at the bottom of the hill before facing the walk up this afternoon!!
I think that's about all for today...!
Love and miss you all, Kat xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
So, the journey here was pretty uneventful to be honest. Plane journey was infact only 10 hours long (not 15) and time difference is only 2 hours (not 5 - shows how much we knew!). However, at the other end we did manage to get a little lost in the airport looking for money changing facilities and consequently were the last to meet up with Felipe and the rest of the group who had been on the same plane.
We stepped out onto Brazilian land, to find that it was raining!! But a nice warm, humid (sweaty) rain, not like lame cold English drizzle! We were taken in a taxi up to our house: over the power lines which were across the road because a telegraph pole had fallen over in the street earlier that day!! By the time we got to our accomodation, we pretty much just collapsed into our mosquito-netted beds and slept right through till mid morning! Ace.
Today, we got up and realised we had no food! So we managed to schneck a lift down the hill with Alex, the guy who owns the house and fortunately owns a car *thumbs up*. We went down into the Gloria district and changed some money before going to the local supermarket and stocking up on the basics!
After that, we hitched a lift home with some of the other volunteers we found in town (8 of us in a 5 seater car!!) and thus avoided walking up the hill (a 5 minute walk according to Felipe, but only if you 'walk slowly like a cow'!)
After breakfast/lunch, we headed down to the other volunteer house which is just down the street and decided to hit the beach! Fortunately we met two guys who have been here for a couple of weeks, so they took us on the Metro and we had our first taste of Copacabana (fewer beautiful bronsed Brazilians than expected, phew!). The sea was crazy: it was just like Cornwall only a bit warmer, which I suppose was to be expected from the Atlantic in the Southern Hemisphere Summer!!
We are now back at the volunteer house, having had a hearty and oh so exciting dinner of pasta and tomato sauce and are conisdering whether to head out to Lapa (party!) District with the a few others. Don't worry parents, we're not planning on drinking too much! We just want to try one of the local cocktails (for now). Although having said that, we did have a beer at the bar Felipe recommended at the bottom of the hill before facing the walk up this afternoon!!
I think that's about all for today...!
Love and miss you all, Kat xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Post 1
Inspired by one Mr Felix Brann, I have decided to set up an online blog so that while I'm away I don't need to send repetitive emails to everyone I know! Instead, you can do the hard work by checking my blog which I will try to update!!
It is currently 8 days until Danni and I leave, and it is drizzling. Bring on Brazil!!!
It is currently 8 days until Danni and I leave, and it is drizzling. Bring on Brazil!!!
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