Where was I, oh yes... a waterfall of s***, delightful!

So on the return to the favella the rain came down, oh it poured! However with my Duke of Edinburg training I crerated a quick day bag waterproof cover to protect my precious belongings! Anna 'Bear Grylls' Willis I was referred to...anyway! Feeling pretty aprehensive as still not a massive fan of living things, especially wild rats running down narrow steep steps while the s*** is following down from the top, we set off! And to my delight, asif by magic a rat runs across my path just as I am about to take my first step up the s*** creek to the house. Now I am not a great believer in God, however if there is one he was definitely listening to my rant declaring my fears on the bus and was having a great laugh while pissing up in heaven! After this massive confidence boost I headed into the darkness and successfully (my idea of successfully now means s*** splattered legs by the way) made it home with a dry back pack. We headed into the living room and watched some TV. The TV is placed just to the side of large glass patio doors and after my nerves had settled Kane kindly said 'you do not want to look outside right now', so despite this advice I looked to find the most revolting creature I have ever seen within a few meters of myself. It had a rats body but with tall legs, a really thick rats tail but the head of a pig with a long snout!!! no word of a lie. And not only did this thing walk around, stopping me go up to bed it could climb trees and made it's home in our garden! On the bright side I was no longer bothered by your average rat anymore! (This mongoose thing made a few appearances throughout the week just to keep me on my toes).

When morning came the rains had finally cleared and I bumped into one of Paulo's friends on my way to the bathroom, if I didn't explain on the previous entry Paulo is the son of the founder of the day care and he lives and helps maintain the volunteers accomadation. He leads a very eventful life and living in close proximity we get a slight insight into it...mainly a different friend leaving his room every morning, sometimes two! After this we headed to the day care to start week two of the project, this week I swapped with Kane to work with the babies (0 - 1 years). At first I found this very hard as you weren't allowed to pick them up, cuddle them or even comfort them in anyway if they were crying. Although this sounds harsh, and it was heart breaking been there I figured it was becaused unlike England where we normally have 1 adult: 2 babies under 1year, here they had 1 adult: 12 babies under 1 and if you had to comfort them you wouldn't physically be able to look after the other basic needs (nappies, feeding, bath etc). Also the parents had lots of children and this was their culture, and normally the children did settle themselves and as a result rarely cried, espcially in the older classes. Other than this the women in the room played music, tv and lots of toys for the children. My only other major dislike was the way they wiped the children's noses (sorry for the topic matter on this entry but children generally are revolting!),although this maybe a simple method for us Brits it apparently is not the prefered way here... instead of using one tissue per child per wipe we used one flannel, or sheet for the week, wiped the child's noses on it, oh and dribble of course then moved on to the next and the next until at the end we had made a giant snot soaked rag! However not looking at the little things the centre really was a great place and I'm so glad I got the chance to go and help out there for the two weeks.

After talking with the guide as a translator with the founder, Marcia, we found out the history of the centre. At 12 years old she used to help people in the neighbourhood write letters to their family telling them about the work they had found and send money home or details to come and move in to the favella from the countryside. Marcia and her sister did this as the men could not read or write, but after a while her father said no, you cannot keep writing letters you need to teach them to read and write. So in a building built by her father (in the same site as the centre today) she had a room and a table and started to teach the people of the community. This then developed to teaching the children, providing day care for babies and classes for the mothers and also helping them to find work. This expansion came when Marcia met an Italian woman who still finds sponsors to donate as it all runs wholly on donations. Here the children get food, showers, clothes and medication when needed and a start in an educational envirnoment. Without this the community would no doubtly have a much lower quality of life and less chance or hope for a different future. Alongside seeing this work and getting to know the members of the community I also found the favella, maybe just to locals not yet tourists, is a safe place where everyone knows each other and looks out for each other. Not to say there isn't violence and domestic violence alongside the poverty but from my experience in some schools in England in areas of low socio-economic status I have witnesses children with a childhood alot worse, in the favella the children seemed loved and the parents would do what they could with what they had so the little help they got from the daycare they make the most of, which I can not say is true for all the cases with the help the governent gives back home....

Overall the experience was eyeopening, motivational, tiring and enjoyable! I'd recommend it to anyone and here's the website if anyone wants to read more...

www.roupasuja.org, and the charity is UMPMRS.

Anyway lecture over and back to copacobana for the weekend and Lapa: take 2!

A xx