Topic: meu fin de semena de Churrasco x tres, novo amigos, e futbol. Via Corinthians!
Muito Bom Fin de Semena.
Tranlsation: My weekend of Brazillian BBQ x 3, new friends, and soccer. Go Corinthians.
A very good weekend !
There were too many amazing moment this weekend for me describe them all...so once again I give a nod to David Letterman and present my top 3 list of memories from the weekend.
Location: Presidente Bernardes, Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Gracias Hosts: The Alexandre Family...Flavio Alexandre, Idilene Alexandre, Ana
Clara Alexandre, and Osny Alexendre and the extended Alexandre and Viaria family.
Last weekend, I was invited to spend the long, holiday weekend with the Alexandre family in Sao Paulo state. I met the Flazio and Gee and thier daughters my second week at CLM. They came for lunch on Sunday, and we hit it off as I stuttered through some Portugeuse and they extended the audible olive branch of English conversation. They adopted their youngest daughter, Osny, from CLM three years ago, and have made surpisingly not lost connection with CLM, which is very untypical. Osny is a beautiful 12 year old girl, who melted my heart with her sweet shyness and coy smiles. Their oldest daughter, Ana Clara, is sixteen...however, She carriers her 16 years more maturely than I carry my 25. She speaks perfect English, and was a great translator and friend to me the whole weekend. The weekend was like an exercise in trust and faith. I was never entirely sure where we were going, what we were doing, or what surprise would be awaiting us around the next corner. (Think of that trust fall thing-where you fall backwards into a criss-cross of hands and arms. Except instead of hands, I fell into a criss-cross of food and laughter and futbol.
It was a holiday weekend so their entire Itilian family gathered at their cottage outside of town to celebrate. I am not entirely sure what the holiday was being celebrated, but oh my, did we celebrate it. In 3 days, I went to 3 Churrascos - imagine a BBQ but, instead of hotdog and hamburgers, they have steak, chicken wings, suasage, more steak, and chicken hearts (yes, chicken hearts are delicious). The weekend was a blur of new experiences and bi-lingual conversation...My portuguese improved leaps and bounds because I was able to converse with adults, who took the time to speak slowly for me and tolorated my clunky construction of sentences. Also, every morning Flavio and I read the paper over coffee. He doesn't speak any English, but he is Italian. So he speaks more with his hands and his expressions than his words. Through the universal code for gestures and facial expression we read all about Brazilian polticals, futbol, and pig flu (creepe suane). I never got tired of hearing Flavio smile (yes, you can hear smiles) and shout "Exactamenche!" when the meaning of sentence or word would dawn on me. Because of Flavio's gesturing, Gee's and Anna's translation, and all my conversations with the Aunts and Uncles - I can safely say I have entered into the conversational range of portueguese expertise. I can also now see that being at CLM is not the best place to learn the language. Too many people here speak english and even when I talk to the kids I usually only use 1 or 2 words. This weekend, I got a chance to talk to very educated and friendly adults and the pressure of the situation combined with my ability to laugh at myself taught me more than any book or study session could ever be.
It was a holiday weekend so their entire Itilian family gathered at their cottage outside of town to celebrate. I am not entirely sure what the holiday was being celebrated, but oh my, did we celebrate it. In 3 days, I went to 3 Churrascos - imagine a BBQ but, instead of hotdog and hamburgers, they have steak, chicken wings, suasage, more steak, and chicken hearts (yes, chicken hearts are delicious). The weekend was a blur of new experiences and bi-lingual conversation...My portuguese improved leaps and bounds because I was able to converse with adults, who took the time to speak slowly for me and tolorated my clunky construction of sentences. Also, every morning Flavio and I read the paper over coffee. He doesn't speak any English, but he is Italian. So he speaks more with his hands and his expressions than his words. Through the universal code for gestures and facial expression we read all about Brazilian polticals, futbol, and pig flu (creepe suane). I never got tired of hearing Flavio smile (yes, you can hear smiles) and shout "Exactamenche!" when the meaning of sentence or word would dawn on me. Because of Flavio's gesturing, Gee's and Anna's translation, and all my conversations with the Aunts and Uncles - I can safely say I have entered into the conversational range of portueguese expertise. I can also now see that being at CLM is not the best place to learn the language. Too many people here speak english and even when I talk to the kids I usually only use 1 or 2 words. This weekend, I got a chance to talk to very educated and friendly adults and the pressure of the situation combined with my ability to laugh at myself taught me more than any book or study session could ever be.
There were too many amazing moment this weekend for me describe them all...so once again I give a nod to David Letterman and present my top 3 list of memories from the weekend.
- Churrasco highlights - Horses, Fruta, and mais food - On Friday, after we finished eat our first Churrasco, Gee's Dad and Brothers showed me around the cottage area. Imagine a cabine and swimming pool in the middle of a farm and orchard. They gave me 7 different kinds of fruta directly from the branch to eat - none of which I could identify (save Passion Fruit), but all of them were unbelivable sweet and yummy for the already full tummy. Then we cut down some Sugar Cane to chew and suck on. Then, I was given a tour of their personal coffee fields...rows and rows and rows of coffee plants... all full of beautiful chocolate brown coffee beans.... Even know as I write this... i am getting tear eyed and perclemped just thinking about the caffinated glory of it all...On Saturday, after we finished gorging ourselves on Churrasco #2, the kids took me ona hike through the streams around the cottage. It reminded me of being a kid and playing the woods and streams around our houses... catching frogs, swinging from percarious vines, and not thinking twice about leaving the sandles behind and slashing in the water. Later, one of the Uncle's sadled up some of the horses and we took turns riding around the fields as the sun turned orange and sank lower and lower being the green rolling hills. Let me add that there were two horses - a black stallion of an animal that had grown up wild and ran like it and a calm, little, tan-colored domesticed mop of a horse - While most the other adults rode the black horse, I was only invited to ride the kiddy-horse, which I was sorta insulted by... but more thankful for.
- The futbal game... becoming a Corinthians fan. We ended up staying an extra day for the Sunday night semi-final soccer game between Santos and Corinthians. Once again my love for soccer and my knowledge of the game made me sorta of an American novelity, and the entire weekend different factions of the family tried to woo me towards their club. Flavio is-die hard Palmerios fan, Gee's oldest brother is a Sao Paulo fan (as was the pastor of the church), but the rest of the family was Corinthian's fans - and because of thier overwhelming energy (and majority rule) I am now a Corinthians fan. The game itself was so-so but having the entire family - outfitted with flags and jerseys - sitting around the TV together living and dieing with every close shot was an amazing moment for me (not one I've every experienced in the states for a soccer game). After the Corinthians victory, one of the uncles, who was particularly in fever pitch spirits began shooting off fireworks from the poarch. Then, we piled into two cars and drove in circles around main street where hundreds of supports and dozens of cars celebrated by singing, dancing, and honking... I don't know if I every stopped smiling for the hour we drove in circles..especually, when we broke the horn in the car from pushing on it too hard and we were force to sing our celebration as we waved our flags from the windows.
- Junxtapostion of Brazillian culture and completion of a family. My final unforgetable moment is really a conglameration of moments, observations, and impressions. This weekened was truly a learning experience. I was taken and welcomed inside of Brazillian upper-middle class life, which is considerably more like American life than life on the farm. We visited a mall (a mall looks the same in any country ), the boys ate Mcdonalds, and we tried to go bowling Saturday night, which is maybe what you did on Saturday night...haha. It was interesting to get the perspective of the adults - all of whom were highly educated professions. They were passionate about governement (including Obama), up-to-date on the state of the world, and cultured in way that the Brazillians here in Viktoria are not. I got to peek over the wall of another class structure, and there I saw, Osny. An girl adopted into a great family, who came from the streets, was raised at CLM and is now becoming a women with nothing but opportunity infront of her. I doubt most short-terms here at CLM get the chance to see the completion of the adaption process, which begins with the love and family here on the farm. It's both uplifting and painful to realize that only some of these kids get as lucky as Osny. But only some get the chance to jump over the obsticales class and curcumstancs...for most of our kids - after the age of 6 - they are destined to live at CLM their whole lives, which is a good thing because those kids have a family and a support network. If we pull back the lens a little further you realize that the huge majority of kids that need a family and need love and deserve a future are still on the streets or in the slums. Seeing Osny with her cousins, uncles, sister, and parents I realized that ...while we are fighting a losing battle here at CLM, Osny's shy smile and every smile like it makes this long defeat worth fighting.
Pat
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