It is now nearing the end of the fourth day working for an organisation called ACER (a partner of pronino) in a place called Diedema (near Sao Paulo in Brazil.)
The first day involved the usual meet and greet and we were introduced to some of our colleagues in Telefonica Brazil. We were also taken to the community centre for the first time and shown the ropes as it were.
Day two was straight in to a raft of activities. Because the centre is involved in all manner of community work not just education the various skills of me and my fellow voluntarios are being utilised in many interesting ways. As we knew, we have been teaching and spending time with children andd people from the community but we have also been working on data analysis and preparing to help create a long term strategy for collecting information and developing projects (it´s like being at work!!!!!)
Day three is up there with the great days of my silly little life. A local man named Heginaldo runs a community programme where twice a week he puts on all day activities for local children (this is especially useful now as the schools are all closed due to those naughty little piggies.) Heginaldo receives no funding for his work (he coaches football 5 days a week as well) and lives off unemployment benefits. The day was in tremendous heat and involved various sports and a ridiculopus amount of laughing and dancing (not dignified but good for the old soul.)
Day four was origami and reading lessons in the library then football, then laughing until tears ran down my cheeks, then painting myself in Factor 1000 sunblock (it´s winter here and still thity five degrees and stunning.) I have been eating lots of rice and beans and learning that my skills as a footballer are nothing compared to barefoot eight year old girls. NOT edifying but hey ho.
My fellow vounteers are examples of how to love life and make a difference and I am blushingly priviledged to be amongst them. Felipe is actully superman, Mou is without doubt the worlds grooviest dude, Bianca is wonderful, kind and funny, Jon and Stevie are the Lone Ranger and Tonto with East Kilbride accents and Jason is a cross between the Hulk and a kitten. Perfect.
Adios for now but I´ll be back with more when I get the chance.
Bryn is one of our Pronino volunteers and is blogging from Latin
America. To find out more about Proniño, head to
http://dnc.o2.co.uk/home/Pronino.
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