I discovered one of my greatest passions one summer in a small favela outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its called Bangu, and its home to some of the most amazing kids you could ever meet. I was given the opportunity by JIVE! Brazil to teach English and Music to these kids, and its a summer I will never forget. Let me start at the beginning.
I never thought travel was a possibility for me, until I did some actual research. I have always seen study and work abroad opportunities before, but I always felt like I wouldn’t really be making an impact, which was nonnegotiable for me. I then found IVHQ, which would allow me to go to Brazil for a month to teach music. I remember getting chills when I was reading all about it on their website. It just felt like I was meant to do this. There was so much to learn and I would have the opportunity to gain valuable perspectives.
I stopped dreaming about doing it and applied for a position in the program. Fortunately I was admitted, and I started preparing immediately. I had to get a passport, a visa, do my training, get a background check, get travel insurance, get plane tickets, and not to mention get 4 vaccination shots (ouch!). But it was all worth it the day I was dropped off at the Chicago Airport. I’d have a layover in Houston, and then be on my way to Rio De Janeiro. I kept a journal with me, to make sure I didn’t forget a moment of the experience. After an 12 hour flight, I had arrived.
One of the staff from the program picked me up and drove me to my living accommodations in Gloria. I had messaged the other people in the program, and we were very excited to meet each other. There were 3 girls my age that were staying with me, and we all clicked immediately. One girl was from Nevada, and the other two were from England! They said that they were waiting on me to go to the beach, and the next thing I know I am laying out in the sun at the Copacabana. It all happened so fast. There were some volunteers that had been there for a few weeks and taught me everything I needed to know about getting around and converting my money to reals. Over the next month, I would go to many amazing places like Christ the Redeemer, and see breathtaking views in many of Brazil’s national forests. The Highlight of my trip however was a small group of kids that I would come to know and love in a favela called Bangu.
On the first day of work, I was told very little about where we were going and what we would be doing. I was up for an adventure however and was excited to what was next. They broke us up into groups, and a small number of us was told that we were going to a small daycare in Bangu. We would have to take the metro for 40 minutes, and then a bus for 30. However, the metro went through the majestic mountains, so I didn’t mind. We arrived to a small orange building that was falling apart. There were holes in the roof as well as black mold in the corners of the rooms. We asked what we could help with and it was made clear very quickly that the woman who ran the daycare didn’t see what we saw. She just wanted us to play with the kids, and perhaps paint a mural on top of the water damage.
This daycare was for kids of any age to have a place to go during the day when they weren’t in school so that they wouldn’t get involved with gangs or drugs, which are both epidemics in Brazil. When I met the kids, there were a lot less of them then I was anticipating. I took this as an opportunity to get some one on one time with some of them, and really teach them as much as I could. The language barrier was very difficult at first, especially because most of them couldn’t read in any language yet. Therefore, if I didn’t pronounce a Portuguese word correctly, they would be very confused as to what I was talking about.
I found a way past this by implementing singing and dancing into our lessons. They had a tiny dance studio inside the building, and the kids were very excited to participate in whatever I had in store. I taught a dance routine that included singing the names of certain body parts and actions. For example, we would do a grapevine and then jump, and the kids would yell out “Jump!”. We would follow with a shimmy and singing “Shoulders!”. I remember the kids running up to me excited to show me this particular move every day.
Each week, the kids got better and better and English, and I even taught some music theory! Some days we would be missing more than half the kids, and I wondered where they were and what they did when they left. The area we were in was extremely poor, with a lot of crime. Volunteers had told me horror stories of seeing kids rent machine guns from the corrupt police officers so that they could use them in gang related activity. I hoped that the kids I had come to know and love did not get involved in this. I wanted these kids to succeed.
By the end of my month, the kids could exchange greetings in English, as well as say the alphabet and count to 100. They could name most of the parts of the body, and could tell me the days of the week and months of the year. One kid in particular, named Gabriel, I bonded with greatly. I would always ask how he was, just for him to respond excitingly, “Fine, how are you!!!”. It was hard saying goodbye, but I knew that these kids were bright, and had good people helping them stay on the right path.
This trip taught me patience, and what is really important in life. I saw how beautiful nature could really be, and I met amazing people with different perspectives. The kids I worked with were very poor, and had never even seen an iPhone before. They played with a broken basketball hoop and a rusty slide that was falling apart. They didn’t notice however, as they were the happiest kids I had ever seen. They didn’t start misbehaving and fighting until we introduced the games on our phones. Music and dancing was enough to keep them happy. I think that we should learn from that.
One day, I will return to beautiful Brazil. :)