going to volunteer
Yesterday a classmate and I went to the city commercial center, near Mercado Modelo and the Lacerda elevator, to see about doing volunteer work for an organization that the school has an affiliation with. The organization has a website here: http://www.centraldecidadania.org.br/. Ivanildo was the name of the volunteer coordinator / manager we were supposed to meet there. We took a cab because we were late, which turned out to be a good thing because the cab driver dropped us off on the right street, which we would have had a heck of a time finding if we'd taken the bus. The building was very government-looking, austere, a little dirty, and somewhat institutional-looking. We took the elevator to the 5th floor, which turned out to be a bad idea, since it took forever and we would have made it up the stairs in about 1/10th of the time. In the hallway all of the doors were white, with no signs on them, and numbered like apartments. The doors all looked like they had been there since 1950 and never cleaned.
Ivanildo answered the door and greeted us warmly. In fact, every Brazilian that I've met here and had an interaction with beyond 5 words has been very, very friendly. He had us sit down at his desk, handed us two inch-thick stacks of pictures showing past activities, and proceeded to speak very slowly in Portuguese to explain what it was his organization did and what we would be doing. I was *shocked* at how much I was able to understand just by the fact that he talked so slowly, and I realized that he must be doing it perfectly for our benefit. At the end of our 30-45 minute meeting, he mentioned that volunteers always told him to speak more slowly. He also said (hehe) that we spoke very good Portuguese, which I let flatter myself for all of about 3 seconds. The people sent previously must have had guidebook-level language skills.
He explained that the organization wasn't government funded, because it hadn't been in existence (<3 years) long enough. They therefore survived on what looked like tiny ($10 average) donations from individuals and corporations, and a large chunk of their donations came in the form of goods and/or services from respective corporations. There were a couple of bags of beans and a stack of used books in the corner of the room that he pointed to as an example of this.
The organization was in the process of building a new education facility for after-school type programs, which once it was complete would be pretty nice but still had a lot of work to go. Their work was primarily with families that had out of work parents or were so poor that the parents might as well not work anyway. They provided things like food, educational materials, and educational programs and guidance for kids up to age 14.
I get the feeling that like many organizations in the States, there's sort of a staged approach to volunteering that lets them check you out and vice-versa, so that if either party bales then no one is a whole lot the worse for wear. He said we should meet him Wednesday, at which point he would drive us out to what presumably is their distribution facility, and we'd help load up the truck with packages (food, books, etc.) to be delivered to families in poor neighborhoods. He also said that they needed help translating their (very modest) web pages into English.
So me and 1-3 other students are going to show up there tomorrow to help out with the distribution. Since we'll be dropping them off in poor neighborhoods, I'm preparing myself to see some crazy and/or horrific shit. At the same time I'm really looking forward to it, since it was so surprisingly easy to communicate with Ivanildo, and since I'll actually get to help out some of the people here. Poverty is written on the sleeve of so many people you pass in the street, and it is just everywhere you go.
The city commercial center is right on the edge, or so I've heard, of some really poor neighborhoods as well, and it did look a little bit dirtier than an upscale neighborhood like Barra. It's linked to Pelhourinho by the Lacerda elevator, but you can also take a cheaper elevator / rail car which costs 5 centavos vs. the 1 or 2 reals it costs to take the elevator. This is like 2 cents versus 50 cents. So we went up to Pelhourinho and my German friend told me about the time he almost drowned and was in intensive care for a week. But that's another story.
Ivanildo answered the door and greeted us warmly. In fact, every Brazilian that I've met here and had an interaction with beyond 5 words has been very, very friendly. He had us sit down at his desk, handed us two inch-thick stacks of pictures showing past activities, and proceeded to speak very slowly in Portuguese to explain what it was his organization did and what we would be doing. I was *shocked* at how much I was able to understand just by the fact that he talked so slowly, and I realized that he must be doing it perfectly for our benefit. At the end of our 30-45 minute meeting, he mentioned that volunteers always told him to speak more slowly. He also said (hehe) that we spoke very good Portuguese, which I let flatter myself for all of about 3 seconds. The people sent previously must have had guidebook-level language skills.
He explained that the organization wasn't government funded, because it hadn't been in existence (<3 years) long enough. They therefore survived on what looked like tiny ($10 average) donations from individuals and corporations, and a large chunk of their donations came in the form of goods and/or services from respective corporations. There were a couple of bags of beans and a stack of used books in the corner of the room that he pointed to as an example of this.
The organization was in the process of building a new education facility for after-school type programs, which once it was complete would be pretty nice but still had a lot of work to go. Their work was primarily with families that had out of work parents or were so poor that the parents might as well not work anyway. They provided things like food, educational materials, and educational programs and guidance for kids up to age 14.
I get the feeling that like many organizations in the States, there's sort of a staged approach to volunteering that lets them check you out and vice-versa, so that if either party bales then no one is a whole lot the worse for wear. He said we should meet him Wednesday, at which point he would drive us out to what presumably is their distribution facility, and we'd help load up the truck with packages (food, books, etc.) to be delivered to families in poor neighborhoods. He also said that they needed help translating their (very modest) web pages into English.
So me and 1-3 other students are going to show up there tomorrow to help out with the distribution. Since we'll be dropping them off in poor neighborhoods, I'm preparing myself to see some crazy and/or horrific shit. At the same time I'm really looking forward to it, since it was so surprisingly easy to communicate with Ivanildo, and since I'll actually get to help out some of the people here. Poverty is written on the sleeve of so many people you pass in the street, and it is just everywhere you go.
The city commercial center is right on the edge, or so I've heard, of some really poor neighborhoods as well, and it did look a little bit dirtier than an upscale neighborhood like Barra. It's linked to Pelhourinho by the Lacerda elevator, but you can also take a cheaper elevator / rail car which costs 5 centavos vs. the 1 or 2 reals it costs to take the elevator. This is like 2 cents versus 50 cents. So we went up to Pelhourinho and my German friend told me about the time he almost drowned and was in intensive care for a week. But that's another story.
posted by n10471 at 6:43 AM
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