Being an A-type highly organized and very structured north-American, adjusting to the more relaxed and fluid Brasil culture hasn’t always been easy.  Today was a perfect example:

Example 1:

Me: I have come to see if my current visa has arrived yet.

Official at the Federal Police:  No.  It isn’t here.  We don’t know where it is, but it isn’t here.

Me:  Well, I have been waiting for 6 months.  My visa is expired and I have to travel out of the country in a few weeks.

Official at the Federal Police:  Well, you can check on the website, call us or come back next week.

Me: Your website doesn’t work, no one picks up your phone, and the official in Brasilia (the capital) told me to come back and check here.

Official at the Federal Police:  Well, you can try again next week.

My blood pressure rises.

Example 2:

ATM: Beep beep beep.  Your card is blocked.  Please see a bank attendant.

Me: (after waiting in line for 30 minutes).  Hi, I need to unblock my debit card.

Bank Teller: Oh, okay.  Punches a few numbers in to her computer.  Oh, I am sorry.  You can’t do that at this agency.  You have to go to the agency where you opened your account.

Me: (after sitting in traffic for 30 minutes, and waiting in line at the bank for an 10 minutes) Hi, my card is blocked and I need to unblock it. 

Bank Teller 2:  Oh okay.  Punches a few keys on her computer.  Oh, I am sorry.  I can’t unblock this card.  You have to go around the corner where they are doing construction and wait in the other line.  But, I can help you open a credit card.

Me:  Thank you.  I already have a credit card.  But, I can’t pay the bill until you unblock my card.  So, I will wait in the next line.

Me:  (after waiting in the 2^nd line for 40 minutes).  Hi, I need to unblock my debit card.

Bank Teller 3:  Why is it blocked?

Me:  No clue.  You tell me.  This is the 3^rd time your bank has blocked it in 4 months. 

Bank Teller 3: Okay, well, sign this and enter in a new password.

Me:  Okay.

Bank Teller 3: No, that password won’t work.  No, that won’t work either.  Nope, sorry, try another.

Me:  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!  I hate your country!  Nothing works here.

My boyfriend:  I know.  It is frustrating.  Nothing seems to work.

 

So, I now understand whole heartedly why so many Brasilians throw up their hands, call it a day, head to the beach and order a pitcher or two of beer! 

Of course, I don’t really hate Brasil.  I love Brasil.  If I didn’t love the people, the culture, the beaches and most of all the PRECE educational movement I wouldn’t stay here.  But, these are typical daily stresses that in the USA seem to be smoothed out in the matter of 10 minutes or a simple phone call.  Here, in Brasil, the lack of organization and dysfunctional bureaucracy are all too often disabling.   

Luckily the PRECE movement has not been deterred by the stressors.  And, amazingly they are taking action and putting in to place organizational systems and plans of actions to better systemize the PRECE EPCs and the wide reaching PRECE movement.

Yesterday and today over 30 PRECE leaders and university students met at a beach retreat where they began to plan best practices to collect and organize data about each of the PRECE EPCs, ways to evaluate and improve yearly PRECE conferences, strategies to teach the more formal cooperative learning methodology to each of the students studying at the PRECE EPCs, forms of communication between the EPCs, and ways to better progress as one unit as opposed to individual projects.  The leaders and university students who are paving the way are scholarship recipients at the Federal University who have been charged with the task of streamlining and systemizing the PRECE movement.  And, the work that they are doing is truly remarkable.  I felt honored to sit in on some of the meetings and observe the way these students are taking matters in to their own hands.  And, I look forward to seeing how the projects they are developing will better PRECE as a whole.  Congratulations!!!  

Physical Fitness... We are on our way!

My parents decided at the age of 3 it was time I become involved in organized athletic activities.  They were tired of me doing flips off the couch and running circles around the house.  Seeing as how they both were extremely athletic they began enrolling me in any and all sporting events- soccer, ballet, gymnastics, swimming, etc.  As a child gymnastics was the sport that won over my heart and I was extremely dedicated and competitive- committing 4 hours a day, 3 days a week to my gym that was 40 miles away.  This is not to mention the weekends my family spent at competitions around the region and summer camps around the country.  As a teenager in high school I played volleyball, basketball, tennis and ran track.  And tennis followed me through college and into adulthood.

So, for a girl who has been extremely athletic since childhood, moving to a region of Brasil where physical fitness is not a top priority was a bit of a struggle.  I got strange looks as I did yoga on the beach.  When jogging along the country roads people asked me “What happened?  What are you running away from?”.  And the daily diet filled with meat and carbs (yes, both rice and pasta for the same meal) did nothing for either my appetite or my figure.  So, you can imagine my excitement when at the Alan Pinho Tabosa Professional School we began to take a different approach to wellness.

Since the beginning of the year the following weekly activities have begun:

A Capoeira Group for adults and children

A Soccer League for teachers and friends of the school

A Girl’s Handball team for the students at the school

Various dances during Physical Education and Art

An Aerobics and Yoga class for the community

And, last week all of the students, teachers and staff members at the school participated in the “Challenge Day” where we all did 30 minutes of aerobics, dance and athletic activity.  I am so excited to be part of a community that is not only bringing new forms of education within the classroom to students, but also is bringing new opportunities and possibilities to the entire community within and without the classroom. 

This week the Girls Handball team (coached by Joyce Mota Campelo), which has 15 girls who have been training for 4 months, will play in their first competition with other teams from the county.  We wish all of the players the very best of luck and applaud them for their hard work! 

Our Shame... and Our Beauty... We are one in the Same

6 years ago a fell in love with a country, a people, a culture, and a rhythm.  I first arrived in Brasil as a skeptic.  I came to the shores of Fortaleza as a part of a mission partnership team from FPC Atlanta to continue building a strong and desired relationship.  But, to be honest, I was so disillusioned by the word "mission" that I was more of a pessimist than an optimist.  Until I arrived here.  It didn't take long.  The mannerisms of the people, the welcoming nature of the people from Ceara, the openness to learn and embrace, the love that exuded from every child and community I encountered.  I was hooked.  It was just a year later when I encountered Prof Manoel Andrade and PRECE, the educational movement, that would set my life on a different path.  I had never seen anything quite as miraculous as it.  It was the hope that was revolutionizing not only education but the lives of entire communities and cities.  I knew I had to be a part of it.

Since moving to Brasil in 2010 I have seen the best and the worst of Brasil.  I have seen families overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.  At the same time I have seen mothers leave babies on street corners while they go beg for food.  I have seen impoverished communities raise themselves out of illiteracy and lack of education to self- sufficiency.  All the while I have seen politicians misuse and abuse their own people.  I have seen people of faith and conviction return to their small communities to build a better tomorrow and plant seeds for the next generation.  And, in the same breath I have seen despair and lack of hope that cripples millions.

But tonight I saw something that I never believed possible even though my friends attested to it.  After my English classes at PRECE ended at 9 p.m. I waited for my friends to finish a meeting and we headed out to one of our favorite neighborhood bars.  We spend many a Thursday/Friday evening there and never have I witnesses any injustice or violence.  Tonight our mistake was that we were out on a night when Ceara (the football team) was playing America (MG).  The stadium is in our neighborhood and just 2 blocks away from the bar where we were eating, drinking and talking.

I had gone to the bathroom when I heard screams, glass breaking, and women running back toward the bathroom.  At the same time I saw a young man and his friends in panic trading shirts and being pushed back out in to the crowd by the waiters.  The waiters were screaming "run, run, run the other direction, but you can't stay here!"  I couldn't imagine what had gone wrong, but I knew that the soccer game had just let out.  But what had led to this?  As I was washing my hands a saw the  mob come closer toward the young man and heard the bottles breaking before being pushed back in to the bathroom by a group of women who warned me we needed to stay there.

Once the noise calmed and we re-entered the bar I saw the young man and a friend washing his bloody and beaten back at the sink and police cars on the other side of the bar.  Amist the broken bottles I found my friends and my belongings.  How had all of this errupted?  It was simple.  Mob mentality at it's worst.  The young man, a fan from the other team, had been scratching cars as he left the stadium.  The Ceara fans had seen him and were ready to attack.  Not only were they ready to attack but they were prepared to take a life.  Granted what he was doing was wrong, but did his crime fit the punishment of death by a mob attack?  Absolutely not.

So, how is it that he survived such a terror.  My friends told me later that 1 woman.  1 woman only stood up to the mob, grabbed the young man, thew him back toward the bathroom area and warned the mob to leave.  The mob stopped when they saw it was a woman.  But, what about the waiters that tried to push him out of the bar telling him to run in the other direction so that their bar wasn't destroyed?  What about me who was hiding in the bathroom with the rest of the terrified women?  What about the rest of the customers whose tables were upturned but ran from the mob instead of helping the boy?  What was our role in this disgusting event?  How were we responsible for what could have been an untimely death?

Tonight I reflect not only on the worst of Brasil- the mob mentality, the lack of pride and resources that cause a nation to wax and wane with the results of a soccer game, and the injustices that plague all of Brasil and make such an event not only a 1 time catastrophy but a weekly happening- but I reflect on what lies within each of us.  I reflect on the spirit of the woman who saved the young man's life as well as the spirit that  lies within those of us who fled thinking only of our own well-being.  Tonight I remember one of my favorite poems by the wise teacher Thich Nhat Hahn who reminds us that the presence of good and evil of beauty and horror lies within each of us at every moment.  Let us always try to live out the beauty.

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow -- 
even today I am still arriving. 

Look deeply: every second I am arriving 
to be a bud on a Spring branch, 
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, 
learning to sing in my new nest, 
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, 
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. 

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, 
to fear and to hope. 

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death 
of all that is alive. 

I am the mayfly metamorphosing 
on the surface of the river. 
And I am the bird 
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly. 

I am the frog swimming happily 
in the clear water of a pond. 
And I am the grass-snake 
that silently feeds itself on the frog. 

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, 
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. 
And I am the arms merchant, 
selling deadly weapons to Uganda. 

I am the twelve-year-old girl, 
refugee on a small boat, 
who throws herself into the ocean 
after being raped by a sea pirate. 
And I am the pirate, 
my heart not yet capable 
of seeing and loving. 

I am a member of the politburo, 
with plenty of power in my hands. 
And I am the man who has to pay 
his "debt of blood" to my people 
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp. 

My joy is like Spring, so warm 
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. 
My pain is like a river of tears, 
so vast it fills the four oceans. 

Please call me by my true names, 
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once, 
so I can see that my joy and pain are one. 

Please call me by my true names, 
so I can wake up, 
and so the door of my heart 
can be left open, 
the door of compassion. 


- Thich Nhat Hahn "Please Call Me By My True Names"

Give Thanks and Divide- The Feeding of the 5,000

There are things that happen every day which we simply cannot explain, understand or even fathom.  They are beyond the stretch of our imagination yet somehow they continue to happen.  People of faith call them miracles and walk in the hope that God will continue to provide for God’s children through every day miracles.

One such miracle we frequently reference at PRECE is the Feeding of the 5,000.  As Jesus was speaking to a crowd of people it began to get late.  The disciples suggested Jesus send the people home.  But Jesus responded, “no, you feed them.”  The disciples searched the crowd and found 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. 

Jesus then did 2 things.

1^st- He gave thanks to God for the resources (food) which had already been provided.

2^nd- He commanded the disciples to divide the food between the people.

The biblical passages say that all 5,000 people there ate and were satisfied and baskets of extras were gathered.  

At PRECE we are always remembering that it too is our responsibility to do the same two things.  We must always give thanks for what we have been given and then divide, share and multiply our resources- our knowledge, our books and technology, our experiences, etc.

This past week the first Cooperative Learning in the Classroom Conference for SEDUC Professors was held in Fortaleza.  50 high school teachers from public schools around the state of Ceará participated in the event where they learned about PRECE and the cooperative learning methodology.  They were reminded, as all PRECE students are, that we need to give thanks for what we have been given and then share our knowledge.  Their new challenge is not simply to impart knowledge upon their students but rather to share their knowledge and facilitate the growth and development of knowledge within the students themselves.  The most exciting part of the conference was not participating in the activities and lessons with the teachers but instead watching their excitement and enthusiasm for the information they were learning.  They realized immediately that this methodology was not one that they would keep to themselves but that they would leave the conference ready to share what they had learned and help others continue in the same way.  I believe strongly that their eagerness for more information and their passion to share what they learned with others will continue to drive the cooperative learning movement in Ceará!  

Cooperative Learning… What is it???

Recently I have written a lot about how PRECE is helping to transform not just the lives of individuals in Pentecoste but the entire public education system in the state of Ceará via the methodology of Cooperative Learning. In fact, this week Prof. Manoel Andrade and other leaders from PRECE and SEDUC (State Secretary of Education) will be leading a conference for professors around the state who are interested in learning the methodology. 3 weeks ago leaders traveled to the state of Mato Grosso to present the methodology at the Federal University. And, 2 weeks ago leaders were in the city of Jaguaribe teaching students from the high schools how to use the PRECE Cooperative Learning methodology. Below is the translation of an article written by SEDUC regarding the training. Read below to hear what the Brazilians themselves are saying.

The Second Cooperative Learning Seminar Promoting Student Leadership in the 11th Region
The Cooperative Learning conference for all high school students in the public schools within the 11th Region happened on the 3rd and 4th of April and carried with it the objective of promoting student leadership. 86 additional people also participated.

The event included the Coordinator of the regional SEDUC office in Jaguaribe, 7 representatives from the Regional Center of School Development, and directors and professor from the region.

The leaders of the seminar included 14 facilitators, 11 from the Office of School Development and Learning as well as 3 from the EEEP Professional High School in Pentecoste. According to the Coordinator, Elizabete Araujo, the group was very competent and available.

“The receptivity of the youth and directors showed us what we were hoping: this initiative is indeed the way to strengthen our youth” declared Elizabete.

At the time, a special thanks was given in the name of all the schools to Prof. Manuel Andrade, the Coordinator of Student Leadership at SEDUC and the entire team.

“The work will continue with a visit to the Professional High School in Pentecoste and the implementation of Cooperative Learning Cells in the schools of the region, beginning with a call for membership to be begun soon”, concluded the coordinator.

Cooperative Learning: is a methodology in which the students work in heterogeneous groups to resolve academic problems concluding in a project or another academic objective. For the development of these activities the students should rely on the guidance of a teacher or facilitator who is responsible for ensuring the presence of the 5 basic elements of cooperative learning which are necessary for proper use of the methodology.

These 5 basic elements are 1) Social Interaction (face to face), 2) Individual Responsibility, 3) Social Skills, 4) Group Processing, and 5) Positive Interdependency (Johnson and Johnson, 1998).

It Take 2 Types of People

Some people are visionaries. They are always looking toward the future, dreaming of a brighter tomorrow, and envisioning realities not yet seen or imagined. Their feet are not always planted on the ground because their thoughts carry them to places above where they can currently touch.

Others find the visionaries to be a bit flighty and label them as dreamers with their heads in the cloud. They don’t have as much faith as the visionaries. But, the skills of these realists are also valuable. They are the ones that put plans in to action and create outlines, timelines, and long range plans to make the dreams become reality. They are the ones who keep everyone in line and on task.

The world needs a nice balance between the visionaries and the realists. Luckily at PRECE we are blessed to have both types of people and that is making a huge difference. 18 years ago Prof. Manoel Andrade had the dream of revolutionizing public education in Brasil. He had witnessed the public education system fail many of his friends, family members and loved ones because of inadequate buildings and resources, too few teachers, and a lack of interest. In 1994, when 7 students from the small community of Cipó in northeastern Brasil began studying together in an old flour mill they had a vision. Their vision was not only to improve their own reality by entering the Federal University in the capital city of Fortaleza, but also to improve the reality of their community by bringing education back to the people and developing new educational, agricultural, business, etc. programs. They were visionaries. And, they put in a great deal of hard work.

Along the way came other visionaries who believed in their dreams as well as realists who were able to recognize the actual situation and put in place a process to change the situation. Over the past 18 years over 500 students who have studied with PRECE have now entered the university. The Federal University (UFC) has taken an interest in the methodology of PRECE and has developed their own Cooperative Learning program. And, the State Secretary of Education (SEDUC) has also taken an interest and given administrative control of a brand new High School and Professional School in Pentecoste to PRECE and the Cooperative Learning Program leaders at UFC.

The realists and the visionaries are walking hand in hand and

building upon each other’s abilities. Since the beginning of 2012 alone, PRECE leaders, teachers from the Professional School, leaders from SEDUC and UFC Professors have visited many high schools and colleges around Brasil to teach the PRECE Cooperative Learning Methodology. They have been to around Ceará and most recently to the state of Mato Grosso. And, now in all Professional High Schools in the state of Ceará the students will use the PRECE Cooperative Learning Methodology during their “study hall”.

In 1994 Professor Manoel Andrade and 7 students had a vision. Today that vision is a reality.

Saudades

Over the past 10 days I have put 2,000 miles on my car and I still have at least another 1,000 to drive before returning to Fortaleza, Brazil. The miles have taken me around town to dinners with best friends, across states to visit family members, and to new churches/schools and familiar landmarks in order to speak about PRECE.

In Atlanta, as I met my friends for dinner we frequented some of our favorite coffee houses and restaurants as well as new places so that I was able to completely erase the taste of rice and beans from my palate. Conversations picked up where they left off in July and I felt surrounded by the love and warmth of friends who are as close as family. As my father and I drove 15 hours overnight from Wabash, Indiana to Middlebury, Vermont I remembered 18 years of overnight car rides that my family made as we travelled from our small community in Indiana to the farthest reaches of the United States- road trips to the southwest ending on the Arizona/California border, yearly Spring Break trips to Vermont to visit my grandparents, yearly summer vacations to our timeshare in Sarasota, Florida, road trips down the east coast of the USA where my father gave historical lectures every 15 miles as he pointed out the historic significance of each flag pole and old plantation home. They are memories filled with love, joy and a deep sense of happiness. As I drove from the south of the USA to the mid-west I passed the same milestones that I passed as I made the familiar drive over the 6 years I lived in Atlanta. Memories of dinners and long conversations I had with college friends who had moved to Louisville, Cincinnati and Indianapolis flooded my memory. And, as, I drove past the exit to Hanover College I was reminded of the 4 formative years I spent there, opening not only my eyes to new and different ideas but also my mind and heart.

My father, mother, sister, grandparents, friends from college and best friends from Atlanta are all a part of my story. They are all a part of me and have helped to mold me in to who I am today. But, being a product of the American culture I never realized how intricately interlaced their stories are with my story. In the United States we are often urged to value independence, individual successes and one’s own gains. We take pride in the advances we apparently make on our own sometimes without giving credit to the community of support that has helped us reach various goals and overcome obstacles.

In Brasil I have learned thousands of new words… all in Portuguese… and one of the most profound words I have learned is the word SAUDADES. The word does not translate accurately in to English but is close to “I miss you”. However, the Portugues word “saudades” carries a weight that is much deeper and more profound. Saudades is a longing for something that is a part of you but missing from you; it is a realization that you are not fully complete without the piece that is currently away from you; it is the recollection of experiences, memories and feelings that brings joy and life amidst the feeling of emptiness. Saudades touches at the core of ones being and the sense that alone, as an individual, we are not whole, we need others to complete us.

When working with the PRECE students and the students the at the High School/Professional School in Pentecoste we refer to this as Interdependence and we stress that they are interdependent upon one another in order to reach their goals. Successes are not achieved by the individual but rather they are intertwined successes in which everyone reaches together. If one student fails, the entire community fails, but when one student succeeds the entire community succeeds. With this mindset and this recognition of interdependence there is a much greater chance of success and less of a chance of failure.

When I am in Brasil I miss my friends and I long to be close to my family in the USA. But, when I am in the USA I feel a sense of “saudades” for the community for PRECE, the part of me that is not complete without the community I have come to know, love and call family.