So, I have been here for nearly two months now, and I still haven't really explained what I'm actually doing here. I apologize for that!

When I arrived here at the end of January, school had not started yet, it was still the big summer holidays (remember than in the southern hemisphere the seasons are at different times) So the first few weeks of my arrival were dedicated to getting used to the culture/ place/climate and life in general. In addition to this, we also had work to do at the Fundação. This work consisted mostly in getting the buildings ready for student habitation again. As a few weeks after Christmas, part of the municipal school building had collapsed; the mayor had requested the use of one of the empty buildings of the Fundação. The reason for the building being empty was that due to funding cuts, the Fundação also had to apply staff cuts, and thus reducing the number of classes it could help. So the big building had been unused for many years, and as it was needed again, it also needed to undergo a major face-lift. This face-lift included, moving furniture around, cleaning all the rooms, mending things and painting the building. We first started with a very thorough cleaning. The rooms were covered in dust about 5 centimetres thick, countless spider webs (inhabited and empty) and much more unspeakable things. Before the actual cleaning, using a gas burner we cleaned the roofs. This burns the spider webs, and any other nests present, allowing for a bug free roof, for a while at least. After that came the sweeping and the washing. I can honestly say that we must have used about 100 litres of water per room (water here is São Miguel is free btw, I'll explain later), and still they were completely clean yet. One room had (my personal favourite find) a lovely dead bat. Larger than I thought they would be, bigger than the palm of my hand. Apparently bats like to hide out in the rafters quite frequently. After washing the rooms, and its tables and chairs, we had to clear the rooms out, as the municipal school would be bringing in their own furniture. Everything was either stored in the small guest room of the building, or moved to the other buildings. All the ventilators were also cleaned of their spiders and the mending started. Finally, everything clean, tidy and fixed, the painting could start. Fortunately this did not fall into our responsibility; the municipality would take care of it. However, apparently, people here in São Miguel don't really comprehend the idea of a nice paint job without dripping paint everywhere. So we had to go and supervise their painting. The very first mistake they made was in mixing the paint, they added so much water that they might as well have painted with just water. When the actual started painting, the ones moving the sheets on the floor were us. The painters didn't really seem bothered with keeping the floor clean. So this was part of the preparation of the municipal school building.

We also had to receive students in the Fundação building, so this also required so preparatory actions. Although far less than in the previous building. We cleaned the rooms, painted certain rooms or just some walls. This being because, the children like to rub their hands and bikes along the walls creating brown smudges. So most of the rooms had a bit of painting to be done. The outside walls and pillars on the entrance side of the building also got a new paint job. It was all easy work, in very hot conditions. We had days were the temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius. Really, really warm! But luckily it wasn't too humid; not saying it was dry heat, but it could have been worst.

These first few weeks I also got to meet the handicapped students and the rest of the staff. I met them on the first Wednesday I was here, as on every other Wednesday it is physiotherapy and speech therapy day. On this day nearly all the handicapped students come in, in the morning to have their bi-monthly sessions. Some come for both, and some come for only one type of therapy. This only happens every 14 days because the specialists come from the neighbouring town Oeiras (which is about 90 km away, but the journey takes nearly two hours due to bad road conditions, and on rainy days, sometimes impossible to pass). It was very nice to meet all the different students, each special in his/her own way. There are numerous different handicaps, but they all have a form of mental disability, some having a physical disability as well, 5 people use wheelchairs. Wheelchairs are not very common here, and only very few get their own at home. The Fundação has four wheelchairs for the use of its students when in the building. At home these students have no access to a wheel chair except for a modified chair. There are two people with Down's syndrome and two with cerebral palsy. As for the rest, I am not sure of what it is they actually have. Some are capable of learning, and actually attend school, but most cannot hold a pencil and cannot read or write, or in some cases even talk. They all need all the help they can get from the Fundação, as at home most of them just sit in a secluded corner all day, and get little or no attention. They are a very special group of people, in every sort of way, and it is a great pleasure to work with them.

Once the school holidays ended, we also got back in business, receiving 50 students each day, 12 in the morning, the remainder in the afternoon. These students all need extra support in their school studies, and so they receive 2 hours extra each day of lessons. I started off with one of the classes, but after two weeks I stopped teaching. These students have a complete different mentality in relation to education, that I, with my European education ideas, could not control the class. This was not so pleasant for me, but most importantly, not helpful for the children, as they weren't receiving much support or learning much. So, someone else took over my class, and I have been helping more with the handicapped children, and doing other things here at the Fundação.

Hope this clarifies things a bit....