Saying Goodbye to Brazil

So I'm leaving Brazil today. For those of you who are counting, yes - it is one week earlier than I originally planned. I had a great time while I was here, but for a variety of reasons the time is now right for me to leave. I suppose one reason is that I am not particularly enamored with the Brazilian people and the Brazilian culture. That's not to say that I haven't met some wonderful people, but I have not found the country itself to be particularly welcoming to visitors. In every other place I have ever been (with the exception of North Korea) I have found the people to be open and welcoming and freiendly. This has not been my experience with Brazil. I don't know, some of it may be attributed to that machismo culture which as a woman makes me crazy. Some of it may also be attributed to the less than stellar relationship that currently exists between the U.S. and Brazil. Either way, it has not proven to be a particularly welcoming country.

That being said, I would not typically give up a weeks worth of volunteer work just because I didn't like the culture. I have lived and worked in much more difficult places and stayed for the amount of time I committed to. This is different though. I show my students a video when we study Brazil of how the wealthy people live in neighborhoods called "Alphavilles" in gated and secure communities and avoid any contact with those in poverty. Some do so to the extent that they commute via helicopter to work to avoid driving through some of the favela neighborhoods. I have always been horrified by that section of the video which is why I wanted to come to Brazil and volunteer. I didn't expect to be living in a similar situation (without the helicopters). We live in a house in an upper middle class neighborhood. It has a gate out front that you can only get in by being buzzed in. There is electrified fencing surrounding the property. There are bars on every window, including my third floor bedroom. When they take us to go volunteer, they put us in a van and drive us there, dropping us outside the gate where it is quickly unlocked to let us in before locking us into the school. I am much more used to living among the people that I am serving and getting to know them on a personal level. While I understand their need to protect our safety, there were times with this living situation that I felt more like a part of the problem than a part of the solution.

Finally, the biggest reason I am choosing to leave is that I have realized that I just can't watch the treatment of the children in the classroom anymore. It's still very hard to figure out this teacher. She is the only one of them who lives in the same favela as the students and she plays an integral role in getting the students into the school and yet she treats them in ways that I just can't live with or watch on a daily basis.

So, to make a long story short (it's too late for that I know!) I'm heading out to the airport in about 45 minutes to go on a vacation to the ends of the earth. Or perhaps more aptly, to the belly button of the earth. I'm not sure what my internet situation will be there but I will post some pictures when I get back.