Author: Arthur
Placement: 5 months at placement 0136
Period:
March - August 2006
TO VIEW THE PLACEMENTS PAGE CLICK HERE
Hi my name is Arthur and I was a volunteer with my best friend Ryan here for approximately 5 months from March to Augus 2006t. The
experience was definitely life changing and positive. During my stay
with the kids we went on several field trips outside of Xerem. In case
you were not aware, the orphanage is situated in the middle of a
tropical rainforest. The kids spend the majority of their time within
the orphange's confines. They attend a school nearby for approximately
3 hours and then return to the house for the remainder of the time.
Field Trips are excellent not only for educational purposes but by
exposing the children to the world outside of their own. I have
written several little reports about the various visits we went on
during my stay at the orphanage.
1.Museum of Earth Sciences (Rio de Janeiro - Urca)
Volunteers in Attendance: Arthur, Ryan, Frederica, Julia and
Alessandro (the capoeira guy)
All the children attended this field trip except Elian, who had hurt
her foot the previous day on a slide. Jennifer was unable to attend
since she was looking after Elian and busy scheduling and preparing
for the upcoming month. Both educadores attended along with our
teacher Arianne. We took a van early in the morning and arrived in Rio
at around 10:30am. The children were given cookies and water for a
snack before we entered the museum. The museum was situated in Urca
which is where the Pao de Acucar is located. (sorry for not putting in
the accents, i don't know how to do it on my computer) The museum had
an excellent dinosaur exhibit. The children though, seemed more
interested in the tools used to dig up the dinosaurs than the
dinosaurs themselves. The exhibit was rather large and the museum
docent was not really enthusiastic but the children still had a great
time. After this exhibit, the children were ushered in to a seperate
large room filled with a large collection of rocks and gems. They were
running around the room and pretending that they were owners of these
precious gems. After this, we went to their cafetaria where the
children were given sandwiches and juice boxes. Jennifer had made the
sandwiches for them earliar in the morning. It was past noon now, and
we left the museum and headed for Praia do Vermellha which was down
the road. It is actually a really nice and safe small beach surrounded
by the Brasilian Navy fort. The kids were able to swim and play
capoeira on the beach. After an hour and a half we went on a hike
along the side of Pao de Acucar. It had a great view with cliffs and
waves crashing against them. We also found that we could climb along
the sides of the hills. We took some nice photos as the children
pretended to be spiderman scaling the rocks. As we headed back, we saw
a large group of monkeys that attacked us... Ok I was kidding, the
monkeys were small but they were there! When the hike was finished the
children were tired and we headed back to ole sweet Home!
2. Caxias Theatre - Little Mermaid
Volunteers in Attendance: Arthur, Ryan, Jennifer and Julia.
This field trip, like many of other ones, was made in the spur of the
moment. Sonia the social worker for Casa do Caminho had some tickets
given to her for a play being put on by a social development group. We
took a bus this time and took only the girls. The boys were still in
trouble for not listening when we took them to Marquenos (swimming
pool nearby)the week before. We took some of the teenage girls along
also, Scarlett, Desielly, Beatrice. The theatre was modern but was
located in a relatively unsafe neighborhood. But we had no problems
due to the fact the girls were accompanied by two CANADIANS!!! The
play itself was good and interactive. They even added a little funk to
the play. (People outside of Brasil might not know, but funk is
similar to reggaeton. Cariocas (people from Rio) love it and dance to
the music all the time. The play was put on by children with similar
backgrounds as our children. Anyways, the play ended rather late and
we got back to the orphanage at night.
3. Museum of Aboriginal Brasil and Brasil Cultural Center (Rio de
Janeiro - Botafogo and Centro)
Volunteers in Attendance: Arthur, Ryan, Jennifer and Julia.
We decided to go once again in the last minute. It's rather normal in
Brasil to make plans as you go. Obviously we would have liked to plan
it earlier. We ended up going a few days after deciding to go. This
time, all the children at the orphanage came. We went on Corpus
Christi June 15, so it was a national holiday. We began the day at the
Museum of Aboriginal Brasil located in Botafogo. We took the van to
rio and the children absolutely enjoyed the ride, singing funk music
all the way. The museum was not crowded so the kids were able to look
at the exhibits undisturbed. That had a great gallery in the bottom
building with a video and slideshow and plenty of pictures. There was
a large hut with artifacts located within it. The children for the
most part enjoyed their time at the museum. We also decided to take
only a handful of children at a time to the exhibits so we could ask
them questions about the displays and answer any questions if they had
any. Next, we went to Centro to the Brasil Cultural Center for some
storytelling. The children waited outside the room and were greeted by
a gypsy looking woman who sang to them and then took them into the
room and began telling them the story of Romeo and Juliet. She was
great, impersonating the voices of Romeo and Juliet and the other
characters. She was also really getting the children involved with
questions and jokes. After the story was told, the children filed out
and enjoyed the additional exhibits located at the Center. The theme
was football, obviously because the world cup was going on at the same
time. There was a fooseball table which the children loved (table
soccer). After a long day, we headed back to Xerem and then to the
orphanage.
4. Caxias Theatre - Play by the teenagers and Sexual Education
Volunteers in Attendance - Arthur, Ryan, Jennifer, Julia, Ross and
Tristan.
This was probably the largest group that we went with on a trip. Our
teenagers were working with a social group leader and one of their
activities was producing a play. The many of the children at the
orphanage, execs, educadores attended this event, along with the
teenagers involved with the play. We rented an entire bus for the
large Casa do Caminho family. The play was excellent and very
creative. It was similar to a Hansel and Gretal story with a touch of
Brasilian flair. Anyways, since there was an additional play about sex
after the teenagers' play we only took down the older girls from the
orphanage to the play. Those girls had a blast, hanging with the
teenagers and staying up really late. When both plays were finished,
Anna, Ovidio, Renato (coordinators at the houses) and many of the
other executives were called on to the stage and given a warm
applause. We arrived back to Xerem from Caxias at 11:30pm. The
children and volunteers were brought back to the orphanage on the
kombi driven by Jennifer!
5. Rio de Janeiro Zoo / Copacabana
Volunteers in Attendance - Arthur and Julia
Julia and I decided to take some kids to the zoo on a friday during
their holidays. Both of us were leaving soon and wanted to do
something special with a few of the children. We took Matheus, Cleiton
V. and Tiago to Rio de Janeiro. The zoo is located at Sao Cristavao
close to Maracana Stadium (where the carioca teams play their soccer
games). The children were extremely excited and surprised. They
thought they were only heading to the beach and nowhere else. We had
some Brasilian hotdogs (sausages marinated in a tomato sauce, eggs,
potatoes, lettuce and onions) before we entered the zoo. The zoo was
relatively large, and crowded with many children (since it was the
holidays). We saw an unreal amount of monkeys, so much so that we
don't even remember the other animals. After the zoo, we left to
Copacabana beach and had ice cream. The day was nice, but the beach
was relatively empty. After the long day we came home just in time for
Rio's rush hour traffic, and finally arrived back in Xerem late at night.
These are the main trips that I went on with the children outside of
Xerem. We did go on many outings around the orphanage and Xerem also.
There are several cachoeiras (waterfalls), rios (rivers) and swimming
pools around the orphanage that we often go to. I hope this gives you
an idea of the sorts of outings we have done with the children during
my time at Casa do Caminho. They absolutely love them. Another
important note is that the outings are paid for by the volunteers.