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Third time lucky Ann (another volunteer) managed to wake me up out of my unconsiousness...with a late start I made my way downstairs to meet the other two volunteers, Kane and Tilly. After a brief chat, with me performing well giving a 'great' first impression (hey its not like they count!) our taxi arrived and we made our way to the favella. With my backpack I began the great climb to our accomadation, already slightly dreading the hygine differences I was delighted to nearly step on a dead rat within the first few minuets, despite this I headed on, kind of thankful I was still slightly drunk from the Favella party. However this pleasant drunk feeling did not last long, walking up the very steep, uneven, s*** covered, cockroach infested path I very quickly sobered up. I was however pleasantly surprised by the accomadation for the volunteers (some photos in the Rochinha album). We then went to the day care centre for the introduction and to start volunteering.
The centre runs for children from new born to 15ish years however we were working with the younger children. It provides day care, 2 meals a day, a shower and extra education. I had the 3 - 4 year olds and I was quickly involved in the everyday routines. I was here from Monday to Friday with washing, playing, feeding and some teaching! It was great to see the community and how heavily they needed and used the centre. I also realised the 'slum' is not what I would initially imagine, they have shops, cafes, internet cafes, bars and restuarants, sky TV and clothes shops (with Brazillian maniquins sporting a rather ghetto sized bootangs!). However there is still imense poverty and sanitary issues but despite this the sense of community provides a feeling of safety and an overwhelming happiness in both the children and the parents. After discussion with a local who was teaching us basic portueguese (still only remembering as much as 'obrigada' and accidently speaking French like a typical Brit) we learnt more of the underlying gang and drug issues however like in most communities this ran underneath the surface and due to the obvious police presence in the centre (the bottom) this was undercontrol-ish. We've had great weather expect one morning of very heavy rain in which I found out umbrellas and favellas did not go well together!
On the evening we would walk down to the bottom and flag down the local minibus back to central Rio for dinner, this journey again was an experience with the usual personal space boundaries been pushed to the limit - very like the london tube at rush hour! Due to the dangers of walking through the Favella at night, mainly for us gringos, we had to be back around 9pm. My first walk back I was pretty apprehensive and this was not helped by the unleashed rottweiler and the image of the dead rat that morning. With my eyes glued to the floor I walked very quickly to the accomadation. It was at this point when I realised I was pretty much scared of every living thing - human, animal or invertebrate! This did ease up towards the end however I jumped out of my skin everything a random dog came running down the narrow street...slightly worried about the jungle part of the trip now!
At the end of weekend I have really enjoyed working with the children but slightly sick of rice and beans for dinner however I am beginning to climatise to the ever so slightly slack street hygine! Bring on week two, you never know at this rate I could be joining a gang and become more local than gringo...but for now time for Copacobana!
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