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After leaving Brazil after a crazy action packed week of carnival, I arrived at Fortaleza's International Airport with just 2 hours sleep and my trusty rucksack. After grabbing my luggage I strode out of the Arrival doors to find that there was in fact no one waiting to collect me and that I was effectively stranded at the airport with no idea of where I was meant to be going or who was supposed to be meeting me. Luckily there was an internet cafe upstairs in the terminal so I logged on to find an email from my placement representitive giving me an address to goto in the event that no one showed up. I grabbed a taxi from outside the terminal and we set off to find my placement. Somewhat disconcertingly, the taxi driver struggled to find it and kept driving a few blocks before pulling up and asking locals for directions. Eventually we pulled up in front the Igreca Alliancia Baptista, the church I was supposed to be working with, but no one was there and it was all locked up. I felt essentially stranded until some crazy toothless old man who had been sitting outside the church, came up to me and garbled in portugese for me to follow him. He led me to a house where a woman and a young man came out and gestured for me to come inside and kept saying 'James here' (James is my friend who was in Fortaleza before I arrived). By this point the taxi had already sped off making me feel extremly vunerable but the mention of my friends name gave me the confidence to venture in and hope for the best. That evening Paixinha who worked at the church came round and gave me a letter in English from Pastor Daniel the placement supervisor saying that I should meet him at the church the following morning.
The next morning I met Gemma my placement partner and Daniel at the church. He explained our duties and introduced us to Yana and Paixinha who will be looking after us for our 4 months here. Both speak hardly any English so we have to rely on our rough portugese to get us by. After the briefing Yana took us for a tour of the area. Unfortuntly, after hearing so many times from everyone at the church how dangerous the area was, I was mugged in broad daylight on my first day in Fortaleza. Luckily, it wasnt really a mugging as all my bulging pockets contained was a dictionary and a phrasebook the mugger looked at the later in disgust and then threw it on the ground in disgust. Within minutes the police were on site and police bikes were searching the area to no avail. However, the pastors of the church made sure to introduce Gemma and I to the congragation on the first Sunday and since then we've had no problems at all.
Three weeks into my placement however, and everything is fantastic! For the first two weeks we had no work so Arlisson my Brazilian brother and Tchiago his cousin took us to the beach nearly everyday. The beaches out here are near-perfect like something out of a postcard. Unlike Copacabana and Ipanema in Rio the water is warm and calm (in Rio the waters were extremly dangerous). The beaches are nearly always empty and have beach bars with waiters to bring your drinks out to you on the beach. In our second week we met up with Tom and Cat the other two gappers in Fortaleza and spent alot of time chilling out with them. In the weekends we head of to Drago de Mar the nightclub area of Fortaleza where all the young Brazilians go on their nights out.
In my house there are two bedrooms and one general living/kitchen room yet there are 6 of us living there. Its absolute anarchy and there never a moment when things get dull. The granny is always in the kitchen insisting that I eat more, rarely is there a time when shes not yelling 'mais mais' at one of the four boys in the house. However, unlike the other boys I'm not used to eating mountains of rice and beans everday for lunch. Arlisson eats so much that hes got a specialised bucket-type bowel which Mrs. Ogosto (the cleaning women) brings to him religiously at whatever late hour he gets up at. Anderson the other brother is never around asides from in the evenings, unlike Arlisson he works in the days and in the weekends hes with his fiance. Arlisson however is currently on a three month break from his job and has thus descended into complete slothfulness. Rarely is there a day when he wakes up before 12pm (despite his mothers crys of 'Arlisson Levantar!') and during the day he occupies his life by either watching Brazilian soaps (everyone adores them out here there are hundreds and hundreds of them) or playing football. However, despite not speaking english, Arlisson is great fun to hang out with and is always cracking jokes. He's also seemingly known by everyone in Fortaleza and keeps taking me out to meet his friends. In many respects hes the renegade of the church as most the kids who attend the church dont party or drink at all wheras there's rarely a night when Arlisson hasnt suggested going out. This has in fact got him in quite a bit of trouble.
My first class was at 2.30 but I'd gone out with Arlisson and some of his friends to a Forro (a type of Brazilian dancing) club and we'd gone back to one of the Brazilian girls houses who lives on the other side of the city. We only slept for 2 hours so could have gone back on time but, being Brazilians, the girls decided to cook us lunch and insisted we couldnt leave until we ate it all (plus extra helpings). We then went on a mad-hap drive through Fortaleza to get to the lesson in time. Seems most the class didnt mind although Arlisson got a lot of flak from some of the Pastors as they dont like the fact we've been partying most weekends.
Teaching is tough though. The varying abilities really challenge one as a teacher as in one of my classes two of the students are pratically fluent whilst the rest rely on a basic 'hello how are you?' type english. The more competent ones can get cocky and start trying to teach the other students so the trick is to give them work suitable to their abilities. In my first lesson I was shocked to find that one of the students had decided to explain the use of the word 'would' in biblical terms on the board and then questioned me whether I believed in Jesus. Most my students are between the ages of 30-50 and in one class I have a student who's 84 so I cant really run through a 'heads shoulders knees and toes' routine to keep them amused! Having kids in the class though does keep the energy levels up. In my beginners class I have 4 kids who attend the Sao Pivete project and they seemingly never get tierd which is great as the rest of the class follow suite. Lessons are usually between 2 and 3 hours long so it is essential to find things to occupy your students without boring them to death. The dreaded Saturday lesson can drag on for years if your not careful. If I run out of ideas and have covered everything I needed to teach I dont usually have a problem with letting a class go early. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we help out on Sao Pivete a project to help keep kids off the streets and keep them mentally and physically challenged. We have yet to start but looks like it'll be great fun. We've been teaching Enhique the man who runs the project, english for the last 2 weeks as he's leaving in a month to run the London Marathon and knows no english. He's a fantastic guy and acts like an overexcited kid himself especially when he learns a new word in English. I have alot of respect for the work he's doing though, he even used to run Sao Pivete from his home which is so small I couldnt imagine how he could fit so many kids in it. Its been great to start to know so many people in the community though as it gives you a sense of protection and means that you'll always bump into people you know when walking around our neighbourhood.
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