My public speaking debut

A church in the area called Projecta Nova Vida has been planning a special event for a few months now. It's called "English around the World" and they wanted to create an American coffeehouse atmosphere while promoting English learning. They partnered up with Yes, my school, and asked if there was a teacher who would be willing to speak at the event. Bruno asked me and I agreed.

So, last saturday, after the cultural fair, Kelly, Lance, Alex, Aline and me rushed off to Extra (the Wal-Mart of Brasil) to do some quick shopping before I had to get ready to leave for my big public speaking debut. Unfortunatly I think the five of us bought a little too much for Alex's car and we were pretty squished in there...especially Aline.

By the time we got back I hardly had a minute to eat something before Bruno was there to pick me up and take me to Projecta Nova Vida.

The room was set up nicely with picnic tables. The evening began with a live band playing some accustic Christian music. Then I went up for my talk. Bruno translate. I basically gave my story, who I am, what I do, why I am here and why it is important to learn English. After that they played some trivial games and Yes gave out scholorships as prizes. Then Kelly and Lance showed up and the three of us went on stage for a question and answer session. They wanted to know about our church, but also the cultural differences that we have experienced since we have been here. That seems to be a very common question.
After the questions and answers they had the Lifehouse skit and then we had hot chocolate, cheese bread, sandwiches and all sorts of good snack. We also met some really great people who we hope to keep in touch with.

Yes Culture Fair

For the past several weeks at Yes, my school, we have been preparing for the Cultural Fair. The different classes were assigned different English Speaking countries to present on. My students were able to choose their own topic, clothing, music, food ect and then they had to research that topic. Once the research was complete we began working on their speaches and the posters and decorations. Most of my students are really beginners, so the idea of speaking in English infront of other people was pretty terrifing, but I helped as best as I could and we worked on pronunciation and we practiced their speaches in class. Yesterday was the fair. They were all told to be there at 8:30am....so around 9:30 they began showing up. (Except for Enrique, who was there before I was at 8:30am...I am pretty sure that he is not really Brasilian). They had a lot of work to do, decorating the classrooms and last minute preparation for the speaches. I have six different classes broken up into three different countries, so I had to be everywhere at once. My Jump In class is made up of 11-14 year olds, so they require a lot of attention anyway, but then some of the adults didn't feel comforitable with their speaches yet, and everyone needed tape or markers or scissors or something. But for me, I was in my element, I really loce that type of stress and excitement.

The presentations were suppose to start at 10:00am...so around 10:45am Bruno (the director) began rounding people up to get started. Everyone did really well, and I know that some of them were so nervous...even though the audience was really just the other students and teachers. Ever few parents came, but Kelly and Lance did, and they were pulled into the USA picture, being that they are actually from the USA. Some people brought in traditional food from their countries. There was this really strange dessert sitting by the Australia table...it looked like an apple upside down cake....Kelly asked me, mmm...is that a traditional Australia dessert..."no, It's from the US...it's apple pie." "Oh." she said back and we looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

My Speak Out 1 class presented on Canada...they are the first level of adult students. Big Leo, from across the street and my friend Aline are both in this group. Speak Out 2...the next level up, presented on Ireland. This group includes my friends Alex and Enrique.

The presentations were all great. Afterwards I started the clean up process. I began ripping down streamers before Bruno told me that we were going to save them...we saved the streamers...

The day was really fun, and it was good to have all of my students (well most of my students) all in the same place at the same time.

The Rest of Brasilia

I have now seen the rest of what there is to see in Brasilia. Enrique and I have sucessfully been to every single tourist sight in the city. Brasilia is the country capital, so it there are a lot of political sights. Today we went to the congress...where the senate and the house meet. There are two bowls over each side to represent that the house (also called the "camera") is open and the senate is closed. We went in to see the house meeting. It was a Friday so there weren't many people there, but one man was talking about Brasilia's new affirmative action type law that they are considering putting into affect. One of the problems is that, unlike in the States, Brasilian's don't really keep track of their lineage and everyone is sort of a mix of everything.

During our tour we were led through all the state flags of Brasil, and past this unknow statue.

We saw a miniture model of the city and then we went to the park to see all the monuments.



Afterwards we headed all the way to the other side of the "airplane" and went up the TV tower to get a view of the city. You can see the congress building way in the distance, and the museum from last weeks adventure is to the right.

I feel that I have sufficently tourer this city now, and I am ready to start traveling outside the city limites.

Kelly's Typical Day

Kelly has been working at her new job for about a month now…and she always seems to come home with amazing stories. She is one of the first grade teachers at a bilingual school in Lago Sul. She is still struggling a little to gain complete control of her class. It’s always a challenge to start a class in the middle of the school year, especially a Brasilian class, where they are not used to sitting down or staying still. They are not accustomed to her rules or her patterns and routines. But little by little…either she is getting used to them, or they are getting used to her…I’m not totally sure which.
Today when I arrived home from school Lance had prepared an amazing meal. The chicken was perfect, and the rice and beans were exceptional. I think he decided to stop trying to be a Brasilian cook and instead is just a really good cook. Over dinner Kelly decided to tell us about her day, and I decided that it was worth sharing with you. She starts her day with calendar time…they are suppose to be sitting quietly and paying attention to the teacher. Instead they are all completely ignoring her, hitting and punching each other…one of the little boy’s Fernando decided to leave. Apparently he was steeling the other children’s snacks and stuffing them into his backpack. While she was trying to somehow gain control of this situation she was also thinking about the fact that she had to give a spelling test after this. Her plan was to divide the students into two groups. One group would quietly work on coloring a picture that was related to the story she was about to read while she helped the other students with the spelling test. She has about 24 5-6 year old students in the class, which makes it very difficult to give all of them the attention that they need. Unfortunately this plan of quietly coloring during the spelling test didn’t work exactly how she had planned. First of all two of the students decided to not participate at all and were playing on the rug, while others were hitting and shouting. Also, for some reason the school’s spelling tests have the answers on the back. Apparently the students are suppose to self check once they have completed the test…but needless to say, this theory doesn’t always work. She somehow got through her morning and the students were having recess. A really well behaved little Asian boy ran up to her, ‘Miss Kelly, Miss Kelly, Luis is throwing mangos at the chickens!!” Up until this point Kelly was not aware that there were chickens at the school…but sure enough there was a little chicken coop, and Luis had somehow climbed up and into the coop and was indeed throwing mangos right at the chickens and hitting them pretty hard in the head. Fortunately the chickens all survived…but I am sure that are suffering some sort of emotional trauma. All day she was dealing with children hitting and punching each other, and hanging on each other’s clothing. In Portuguese the words for “let go” and “jump” are very similar. Fernando hanging on another boy’s towel. The other boy was yelling, “let go! let go!” Kelly got a hold of Fernando, and even though she is suppose to be speaking just in English said to him in her very stern voice and in Portuguese, “Fernando, when he tells you to jump, you jump!” Of course Fernando didn’t take her seriously, “Ok Miss Kelly, I will jump.” This is probably why she should stick to English. In the afternoon she was having a teachers meeting with the other teachers. They were talking about Fernando and how he seems to be having a lot of problems, just then, Fernando runs into the room, runs into a table, then runs straight into the bathroom. He doesn’t turn on the light, and he doesn’t shut the door…but then they all hear the familiar sound of a little boy going to the bathroom. Kelly can’t help but roll her eyes and shake her head. This is her life. She had glitter play dough for all the children as a reward for good behavior. Fernando didn’t earn his today, but he didn’t like that. He created a huge fuss and her assistant ended up talking to him for a while. Apparently the outcome is that if he doesn’t hit anyone all day tomorrow then he can have glitter glue then. At the end of the day he came up to Kelly with green glitter play dough in his hand. “Miss Kelly, someone left there play dough, here.” “Thanks Fernando, and you will get yours tomorrow, right?” He smiled and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. So maybe this day wasn’t so bad after all.

Also, I should mention that all day long Kelly has been suffering with an annoying case of diarrhea…which, by the way, isn’t merciful just because you are alone teaching a class of screaming six year olds. After dinner she asked Lance if he could go to the store to get her some medicine. The good husband that he is, he got on his bike and headed off to the drug store. It wasn’t until he returned, having successful purchased anti-diarrhea medicine that Kelly wondered, “How did you…? What did you….?” “How did I communicate what I wanted?” Lance finished for her. “yeah?” she wondered. “Well, I said, ‘medicina para estomacho?’ and the lady handed me some ant-acid…I said, ‘no, otra medicina?’ she looked at me weird so I added, ‘banho, mutio banho.’” Kelly and I cracked up and this and Lance in his defense said, “What was I suppose to do? Act it out?” “Or draw a picture?” (Which is apparently what he did to get his tools.) “No, babe,” Kelly said through her laughter, “you did perfect.”

The Museum

I have a new job tutoring at Caixa at 1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at 12pm on Wednesdays and Fridays...which is great, but it creates a long gap in the day, which isn't quite long enough for me to go home...but is quite a while to just hang around the Caixa building. My morning classes usually end between 9am and 9:30am.
So my friend Enrique offered to take me to the museum durning one of my morning breaks. He met me right after my morning class and we started our walk over to the museum. On the way there we ran into my other friend Alex. Alex and Aline are students at Yes, and Alex works for Caixa but in a different building. It was really odd to see in downtown Brasilia (or in other words, the Plano). Apparently I have been in this city long enough to run into my friends all over the place.
Anyway, we got to the museum, which is a very modern white dome building, but it was closed. It was suppose to open at 9am, and even though it was almost 10am it still wasn't open...huh. Enrique said to me, "Welcome to Brazil, it looks good, but it doesn't work." Which has sort of been the theme of our whole experience here. So we decided to walk over to the Catherdal while we were waiting. The Cathedral is a very unique building made up almost completely of stain glass...yet it is really cool inside. Enrique and I were expecting it to have more of the greenhouse effect.


After a short look around we went back to the museum, but some how entered the wrong door. They were having some sort of forum on Brasilia culture...but it wasn't much of a museum...just an auditorium. We were about to give up and leave when we realized that the upstairs entrance might lead to the real museum...and it did. It was nice...quiet...but not terrible unique or extrodinary...except for this native Brasilian tribe weapon. I am glad to see that the coke bottle has come to good use. I am still looking for a glass one for my collection.


Enrique has actually been a really great tour guide, because he is rich with information on Brasilian culture. Apparently there are areas of the Amazon rain forest that are completely primative and have not been contacted by outside civilization. These pictures were take earlier this year by a helicopter...when the trible people saw the helicopter for the first time they atempted to attack it with their bows and arrows.





Also, I learned that Capoeira is a very popular martial art form here in Brasil. They are still not sure if it originated in Africa and was brought over by the slaves or if it originated here in Brasil. Either way, they combate to the music of drums and tambourines, apparently because they needed to make it look like dancing. The slave owners would never have allowed their slaves to practive fighting skills, but they didn't mind them dancing. It is a really beautiful martial art.

The Club

On Sunday my friend Leo brought me, Aline and Alex to his club. Clubs are very popular here and they are often added benefits given by your employer. They are large areas with pools, volleyball courts, soccer fields...everything that you could want for a Sunday afternoon. Leo's mother is a nurse and she has access to a club nearby. Apparently Leo is allowed to bring four guest for free.
Unfortunately it is rainy season. So we spent much of the afternoon under the covering of the food court. But it was stil warm, so Leo and I found time to get in the pool.


The most interesting part about the club experience was the medical exam. Apparently this is a very common pratice here, becasue none of the Brasilians I was with flinched at all at the idea. Before I was allowed to go into the pool...or even into the pool area I needed to get a medical exam. The medical exam was in a different building and I had to pay R$5 for it. A man in a medical coat took me to the back room, where I was told to take off everything except for my bathing suit. He then looked very closely at my hands, front and back. Then he looked at my body closely, front and back. And that was it. I went back to the man I had paid and he gave me a black wrist band...he also had yellow ones...I'm still not sure why I got the black one. I didn't feel very comforitable going for a medical exam and then given a black wrist band. I was certain that it mean one of my legs needed to be amputated or something. Not to mention I had just paid R$5 to stand in a room with just a bikini on while a man looked me over. This is a strange country.

The Feira

On Saturdays I have about a 2 hour lunch break between classes. I am sure that I am suppose to go home for a long lunch and a nap, but being an American I usually just grab a sandwich and get back to work. This Saturday I decided to take a stroll to the Feira, which is right across the street from my school. The feira is a large covered market that sells everything from clothes to fish, to hamcock. Our first few weeks Kelly and I spend a lot of time combing the stall for good deals on pots and pans and wastepaper baskets...all those things necessary for a new home. After a while though, we found that the prices really weren't much better than the grocery store, and the feira is really too crowded to get anything done. But, the clothes were always a great deal. A few weeks ago Kelly went on a little shopping spree for clothes and came back with some amazing purchases. Since then I have been saving up for my shopping day. Since I just got two new tutoring jobs and they both pay pretty well, and since I am pretty tired of all of my clothes I decided it was time. So I headed to the feira during my lunch break. It's always interesting in a crowded place like that, especially when you don't speak the language. Honestly I think I spent 20 minutes with one sales lady before she knew that I didn't completely understand Portuguese...I communicated mostly with shruggs and points...apparently that didn't clue her in. The changing rooms are just little curtains hung up in a courner and each shop is about 10 by 10 feet...so it was pretty cozy. I found what I wanted and was delighted in the prices. Many things here in Brazil are more expensive than in the states, but I was able to find some really nice tops to about $2.50. So you can't beat that.

Guara II, QE 38

Block 38, where we live, is known as the poorer part of Guara II...which suits us just fine as we were able to get a pretty big sized house for relatively cheap. Some of the poorer people in the area can't afford cars...but need to transport heavey loads daily...so they do what anyone in their position would do, they get a horse. Although it is not uncommon to see a horse and cart around Guara, especially in our neighborhood, it still strikes me as add. We are not in the country. There are no farms nearby...I'm not even sure where these horses are kept...probably in the garage. So every once in a while a horse and cart will trout down the road, right through cars and buses and whatever else is in the way. They obey all the traffic signs and don't seem to be bothered my the speed bumps much. Last week I was walking to my bus stop and I heard a horse approaching from behind. I turned to noticed that it was not attached to a cart, and it was actually completely unrestrained. This is unusual. And what is more unusual is that I noticed a little sound from behind it, and sure enough, there was a tiny baby following along. It really was pretty neat to be walking to work, dodging motorcyles and automobiles, and then to bump into a little horse family, minding their own business on this city street.

Boliche (Bowling)

Last night Kelly was at a pool party with her new employer. She has a new job which seemed really good, but has been a little challenging this first week. While she was out with her co-workers, my friend/student Enrique and I went to the mall to go bowling. I know this sounds so American, right? Well the bus ride there wasn't very American, these little buses are really bumpy and crowded. But we got there in one piece and we desided to get dinner at the food court first. During the walk around the mall I noticed how much I felt like I was back in the states, especially since Enrique's English is very good and I didn't have to struggle to communicate. But of course, it was Halloween and there wasn't a pumpkin or a witch to be seen. So I knew that I wasn't home. In the middle of the mall there is a beautiful area with fountains. Enrique explained that in July they cover it over for ice skating... yes, we all know that winter here is in July, but still...shouldn't ice skating be at Christmas time??
On the McDonalds placemats at dinner there were funny little pictures and expressions of things that people love to do. I love walking my dog, I love napping in the afternoon, I love laying at the beach, I love smelling new books....I was trying to translate these from Portuguese and Enrique was helping...smelling books? That can't be right? That is listed as someone's favorite past time. "What? You don't like smelling new books?" He asked me. "Well..no, I mean, I like how they smell, but I just can't imagine smelling books being my favorite thing to do." After dinner we headed to the bowling alley. In true Brasilian tradition it was gorgeous, well lit, beautiful murals, hard wood floors everywhere...but it didn't work...about every other ball we had to call the guy over to fix it because it didn't re-set. I used to bowl quite a bit in Pittsburgh, but it has been a while. I didn't bowl my best score, let's just put it that way. After bowling we decided to walk around a little more, then we past a book store. We decided that this would be a good oppertunity to smell the books. They weren't too bad. Then we got ice cream and headed home. It was the most American evening since I have been here.

The Perfect Storm

Yesterday there was a major rain storm. Thunder, lightning, cats and dogs of rain! It was a challenge getting to work...and when I arrived...I discovered that the roof had collapsed.
This is the cafeteria...where I usaually get my afternoon expresso... Luckily it didn't affect any of the classrooms.

The Weekend

The day before yesterday was apparently the hottest day in Brasilian since the city started...about 50, 60 years ago...I'm not sure of the exact temperature...but it was hot...and dry...and lately we haven't been able to do anything but lay on the bed spralled out...trying not to use any energy. But on a possitive note, the mango's are ripening faster. Last weekend I had class on Saturday and then Leo and I were going to go to this Christian concert that his church was putting on, with a pretty well known Portuguese Christian singer. Usually after class Alex and Aline drive me home, so I was hoping that they could do the same today with Leo as well...and then we would figure out how to get there from there. Well instead...after a bit of Portuguese discussion between Leo and Alex, I found out that they were going to drive us to the concert...which definitely was not on their way to anyway...and was actually quite a ways a way...I was a little concerned because I still had my lap top computer with me, and hadn't planned on taking it to the concert...but they assured me that I could leave it in the car and that they would pick us up later...after the concert. Now this is just ridiculos. No one is that nice. Especially since the concert was not quite as easy to find as Leo had made it sound. We drove around in circles quite a few times...I couldn't stop laughing...but also we were back in Estructual...not the best part of town...but through Aline's quick detective work and Alex's expert driving skills we eventually found it, tucked behind some giant concrete wall.
It was a lot of fun. There were probably 6-8 thousand people there. Mostly teenagers who were all dressed in similar colors to identify with their particular church branch. We got hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner...not exactly the same as we get...the hot dogs were...I think boiled and then heated on a skillet...and placed in a bun with corn and little french fries. The hamburger includes the patty, a slice of ham, a slice of provolone cheese and some little french fries.

Afterwards Aline and Alex picked us up as promised and Aline had made some Pave for me (my absolute favorite dessert...it's like a chocolate pudding type thing) in a to go container. Are you guys understanding how ridiculously nice these people are? They drove us all the way out of their way...and then made my favorite dessert...and then brought it while picking us up and driving us home...which is also out of their way...and then Alex took Leo somewhere...I'm not sure...closer to his house so that he could catch the right bus. Leo lives pretty far away, and the busses are not his friend. None of the busses to his city pass by my house, so he always has to take a combination of busses and the metro to get home...but on weekends the metro stops earlier...so it makes it even harder. Anyway, the next day after church Leo came over again and we had all been invited over to Aline and Alex's for lunch. Alex came and picked us up and we had an excellent meal at their house, complete with Fillet Minion and rice and salad (because they know that Kelly likes salad) and ice cream cake and of course, more pave. Then we watched two movies. One American movie and one Brasilian movie. It was really a nice Sunday afternoon.

the 24th day

Today started like any other ordinary day...I took the bus into Brasilia and started walking down the hill towards the Caixa building. I noticed almost immediately that it was quite...usually their is loud blaring music starting at the crack of dawn, so that the whole neighborhood knows that there is a strike...and there are air horns...and occationally some announcement over a loud speaker...but today it was quiet...maybe it is still early...or maybe...sure enough, when I turned to corner there was no one in front of the building...no Caixa security guards...no one holding signs or passing out flyers...nothing. It was completely silent. So the strike is over.
I went up to the 14 floor...and it was bustling with people. For the past few weeks it has been like a ghost town inside the building...but today was everyone's first day back so they were all chatting and pretending to start working again. Apparently they ended up getting an 8.5% raise, and some other benefits that I didn't completely understand.
So...that's over...until next year.

The 21st Day

So the Greve (strike) is on it's 21st day... And it's been a pretty interesting experience for me. I have ben told some horror stories about the strike, but everyone seems to agree that this is a pretty weak strike. There are hardly any strikers...just a few people to hold the sign. I think everyone is just treating this as a vacation. Now, I am getting my information from a variety of sources...none of whom speak perfect English and none of which are the same. But from what I gather...the strikers are asking for 6 hour work days instead of 8, but with no pay decrease...aparantly this is the equivalent of a 12% raise...which seems pretty high. Well last week everyone seemed convinced that the strike was going to end on Thursday or Friday. On Thursday they had a meeting (like everyday) and from what I understood the result was that the strikers were suppose to return to work on Friday, but didn't. They were offered 9% and everyone was convinced that they would accept (let me remind you that this is a national strike, and they workers in my building really can't do anything about it...in fact, Danyel, one of my students is a top advisor to the President of all of Caixa, and he explained to me...that she can't even do anything about it, because it is a federal bank, and the government has to agree to the workers demains...even though it is the company that is lossing money by not having any employees these last few week. It doesn't really make sense to me.) Well anyway, they didn't accept the 9%, so on Monday, the government removed their offer and are now offering nothing! So we are back to square one, and everyone is getting impatience so tension is a little high. The strikers latest tactect is to use giant blow horns and blow then in the faces of people trying to enter. I got there early enough to avoid it yesterday, but I saw some friendly fire on my way out. The other strikers were complaining to the man with the airhorn that he is blowing it too often. Today as I started to approach the building I noticed that they had tied a sign all the way across the front of the entrance...hum...I thought, this should be interesting. There was a man going in a little ahead of me, so I paced myself to see what would happen. The man just tore the sign down with two yanks and the the strikers started moking him and clapping like "way to go old man, you got the sign down." I was really hoping that they wouldn't be able to put it back up before I got there. Well, one man was tying up one side and the other man was just holding it and leaning against the other post. I thought for a breif second of just turning around, but it was a little too late. I was already making good stride towards the door. I found myself right infront of the man holding the sign...I said, in my most humble tone possible "desculpe senhor." (excuse me sir.) Just looked at me and just said, "well you are going to have to go under," (in portuguese of course...or a least that's what I think he said) as he lifted the sign a little and I crawled under. Tomorrow should be interesting. I haven't felt the least bit threatened yet because the security guards hired by Caixa out number the strikers 3 to 1.

Our weekend meals (this one's for you Dad).

This was a pretty busy weekend, and we are all sick from eating too much. On Friday night our friend Leo came over (big Leo...not to be confused with little Leo.) Big Leo is our neighbor and he stops by almost every night, just to chat. This Friday he brought his sax with him. He told us a few weeks ago that he plays the sax and we have been asking him to bring it over and play for us. So on Friday he did. It was really fun. He has a book of church hymn songs that he plays, assumingly with a band, at church. He has a Portuguese one with the music and an English song book. So he played and we sang for quit a while.