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!