Macarena WHAT?

I write you from the internet cafe!

Placement:
My apologies for not  blogging the last two days. Time flies here b/c there is so much going  on. If we arent at our volunteer placement we are learning something  about the culture or studying our Portuguese. I am also going to  apologize up front for my wrong punctuation. The keyboards are different  here and dont have the same keys. IE: aren~t, don~t, can~t should all  have apostrophes.

So today was my third day at placement. We had a feedback  session after lunch today. Here was my feedback:
Number one  challenge is not communication with the kiddos, but with the instructor.  Because I am only here two weeks, I didnt want to interfere with how  she runs the room and I am having trouble asking if I can get the  children do to something.  I was/am totally wrong in this thinking;  according to Vinny, we are not interfering by bringing in `lessons`.  They actually take the ideas we have and use them once we leave. I am  working with Mari in a classroom of 18. Prior to coming I thought two  things: 1. 18 kids aren~t too bad (THEY ARE 2). 2. We only are at  placement for 4 hours a day? Let me just tell you this,  CCS has been  doing this a long time and they know what they are doing when they place  you and for the amount of time they place you. 4 hours a day with two  year olds can exhaust anyone out especially when you throw in the  language barrier. I do however understand why they need volunteers year  round. There just flat out isnt enough hands to go around. These kids  need love, hugs, some sort of structure and just attention. One of the  challenges I think short term volunteers have is feeling that they arent  contributing because we are here for such a short amount of time. NOT  TRUE. I asked Vinny what Mari has said about me being there (feedback  feedback feedback) and he said that she looked at him and just said,  thank you thank you` and `you arent going to leave me without a  volunteer right? Overall, I would say that Im forsure out of my comfort  zone, but staying patient is key.

To me, the second most important thing they  need besides extra hands is the tools to learn. This afternoon when I  got back, I got very emotional about not being able to find books to  read to them. Books are the key to learning. I looked all over the  classroom and there were about three books. They didn~t correlate though  with the age range. Even though they didnt correlate, I thought well,  lets read anyway. They ran over and just circled around me and were  THRILLED to see what was in the book and where trying to point out what  stuff was in it. IE: elephant, monkey I was thinking about where I live  and the amount of books that are available to kids and not just books,  but leap frog, interactive learning etc.As far as toys go, there is a  basket with random toys. You might find thre or four random leggos, a  head to a doll, a large piece of plastic that came from some sort of  playset at one point. This allowed me to see the IMAGINATION the  children have. I ate a lot of imaginary food today! My tummy was FULLL!

As an  educator here, you have to be extremely creative and use what resources  you have. So tonight Im going to use a magazine and cut out categories  of stuff like colors, parts of the body, transportation, numbers and  paste them to paper. Although I cant leave what I bring (due to CCS  rules which are in the best interest of the children), hopefully it will  give Mari and idea of something she can do. Ive pretty much planned out  the next several days so that things can go as smoothly as possible.  The more group activities we involve the kids in, the better the day  goes. I think this is a universal concept! =-)

Macarena what?:
Two nights ago we had Capoeria  lessons at the house. You might be wondering what Capoeria is. Our  pictures do it NO justice. My video isnt loading, so I will have to share when get back to Texas! Capoeria is a type of dancing/fighting. When slaves where  brought over from Africa, they practiced fighting, but made it look like  dancing so that their owners did not know what they were doing. When  they practiced they would `duck` so they didnt actually kick each other,  but then when really fighting they would follow through. Its pretty  intersting stuff!

Pelourinho:
Yesterday  afternoon/evening we got a tour of the Pelourinho. This is where the  orginally city of Salvador was at. It was enclosed by a wall all the way  around and had a north and south entrance. Today is consists of the  upper and lower city. This is a picture of the lower portion. Pelourinho  stands for pole. A pole stood at one end of the city and they would  sadly tie slaves to the pole and beat them.....

On Tuesday nights the Pelo turns into a different place! This is the night that people in Salvador go out and listen the drums play and dance until late into the night. We only stayed until about 10:00.  The story behind is the night life on Tuesdays is that a group of drummers called Olodum, they used to go out in the streets and play music to sell their albums. It grew into a community wide event. Now, on Tuesday nights, you can find the Pelo filled with people and goups of people playing drums everywhere. IT IS AWESOME!!!
 This was one of the groups we saw last night. I have video that I will have upload later!

This is a youtube video of Olodum  from youtube. This is what you will find at the Pelho on Tuesday nights!(kind of small, sorry!)

This is a church that has over 500 kilos of gold. A rosary was taking place when I took this picture! All that you see is GOLD!

Although Catholic is the main religion here (they have 365 churches alone in Salvador, and I thought Keller had a lot of churches!) Candomble is a also a type of religion that is practiced here. There are eight different God and to find out which God protects you, you roll shells. Below is a picture of the main food for each God. If you see the third picture it is popcorn. When we were standing there as a group I said, `Bryan worships that God!` hehehe...everyone laughed! Love you babe!

Below is a picture of their `Pepper`. They truly only have salt (not that ANY additional is needed in the food!)on the table. If you want pepper, this is what you use! Cammie, I promie this would even be too hot for you to load on your food! lol

Tchau for now!

I really miss my family and friends back home! Love you!