Hi everyone. I have had a great week since my last update and am now currently sitting in a internet cafe off the main road in aldeia, only a walks distance away from where we are staying.
The day after my last update we went to the local presbyterian church in aldeia. There is no formal service in the morning and therefore the service was at 6pm. When we got there we were very well welcomed and the service was very lively and great fun. Whilst we there, a 19 year old boy was standing next to the pastor and translating his words to english when he required it. We were introduced to the church by the pastor. As soon as the service was over we met the 19 year old boy called Daniel and we were soon invited to the chinese resturant that his father owned. In there amazing generousity they paid for our meal, which is a great reflection of the generous culture of Brazil. We had great food and conversation and the other boys had a long talk abut football. Due to the obvious interest in football that the other boys in our team had, we were asked to play football on the friday with the church which was a great oppportunity to meet new people and build relationships, and also improve my football playing.
We started work again on monday, the girls continuing the clearing and the boys digging trenches for a small wall. After 4 days of work at the house, we were asked to help a couple of latin link long term striders to paint a clear out a building they planned to use for childrens work. this was a nice break from our usual surrounds because it was near the large city of Recife, and it was great for more team bonding. As soon as we got off the bus on our way back to Aldeia, me and the other boys went off to play in the football match with people our age from the church. There were may teams of six and we played with Daniel, the english speaking boy from church. it was great to play a different way than in England, with such things as no slide tackles and all the brazilians would pass alot more than we did. Today we had a well needed lie in and im am now looking forward to my time ahead in brazil. We hope to play football agian today.
Thank you for reading
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Saturday, 27 March 2010
Saturday, 20 March 2010
20th March Update
Hi everyone.
Things are going well with my trip, have had a good couple of days with my group. I have managed to get to an internet cafe in the city of Recife to write this blog update. I am gettting on really well with my group and i am gettting used to all the bugs and the incredible heat, it has been averaging around 35 degrees C.
We arrived at our accomodation at midnight brazil time on Wednesday the 16th and even in the dark it was a beautiful place. It was a slighty uncomfortable nights sleep, due to the heat and jet lag, but we got enough sleep for the next day. We had a day of relaxing the next day, waiting to be told what to do which gave us time to catch up on lost sleep. On friday we started work in the afternoon. The girls took on the weeding of an area by the house for a kids play park and the boys started making steps down to the Mission Training Centre. That day I was on domestic duty with another member of the team and I cleaned the house and helped cook the meal, this meant i didnt have to do the work outside. After a good nights sleep we all starting work on the jobs we had. Me and 2 other boys started digging out shallow foundations for a wall that would surround a football and volleyball pitch. It was very hard work in the heat, and the ground was very hard to dig up. By the end of one day we had dug one side of the area and we were happy with what we had done. After we had all showered and called down we had a time of worship, which i lead, and it was very nice. Today we travelled in to the city of Recife to look around the city and to also get to an internet cafe. There is an internet cafe nearer where we are staying but it is a long walk and is not a well equiped.
Here are a couple pf pictures of my sccomidation and what i am doin:
So far, my trip has been really good and i am looking forward to going to the local church and everything else that will come.
Thank you for reading
Look out for more updates
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Things are going well with my trip, have had a good couple of days with my group. I have managed to get to an internet cafe in the city of Recife to write this blog update. I am gettting on really well with my group and i am gettting used to all the bugs and the incredible heat, it has been averaging around 35 degrees C.
We arrived at our accomodation at midnight brazil time on Wednesday the 16th and even in the dark it was a beautiful place. It was a slighty uncomfortable nights sleep, due to the heat and jet lag, but we got enough sleep for the next day. We had a day of relaxing the next day, waiting to be told what to do which gave us time to catch up on lost sleep. On friday we started work in the afternoon. The girls took on the weeding of an area by the house for a kids play park and the boys started making steps down to the Mission Training Centre. That day I was on domestic duty with another member of the team and I cleaned the house and helped cook the meal, this meant i didnt have to do the work outside. After a good nights sleep we all starting work on the jobs we had. Me and 2 other boys started digging out shallow foundations for a wall that would surround a football and volleyball pitch. It was very hard work in the heat, and the ground was very hard to dig up. By the end of one day we had dug one side of the area and we were happy with what we had done. After we had all showered and called down we had a time of worship, which i lead, and it was very nice. Today we travelled in to the city of Recife to look around the city and to also get to an internet cafe. There is an internet cafe nearer where we are staying but it is a long walk and is not a well equiped.
Here are a couple pf pictures of my sccomidation and what i am doin:
So far, my trip has been really good and i am looking forward to going to the local church and everything else that will come.
Thank you for reading
Look out for more updates
Share
Monday, 15 March 2010
Orientation and leaving for Brazil
Hi everyone.
In the last couple of weeks I have been busy preparing for my trip and the biggest thing i have done is the Orientation weekend that was from March 3rd to the 7th. This involved talks about culture, food and drink, health and safety and many other needed subjects. The best thing was an activity called "The Excursion." This was a type of role play where the staff members dressed up and became local South American people. We were thrown into many different scenarios, such as plane flight, passport control and also a busy market square. All of these scenarios were very exaggerated, with people trying to take your possessions or taking you into their car. There was a point to the whole activity, which is to give you a better idea of difficulties you could face in South America and what to watch out for.
It was really great to finally meet my team. All of them seem really nice and easy to get on with, which is handy when you are spending 4 months with them. I am looking forward to getting to know my team and building great relationships.
After all this preparation I am now ready to go to Brazil. I am leaving on the plane at 1200 tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th of March, and getting back on the 15th of July. The whole trip will be a great experience and i hope that I will learn more about myself and another country. I will be updating this blog every week with what I have been up to and will post pictures and possibly videos. I will have limited access to a computer but i will try and get to one as much as possible.
This will be my last blog entry in the UK for a while so the next entry will be in Brazil.
Thank you for reading and look out for more updates
Share
In the last couple of weeks I have been busy preparing for my trip and the biggest thing i have done is the Orientation weekend that was from March 3rd to the 7th. This involved talks about culture, food and drink, health and safety and many other needed subjects. The best thing was an activity called "The Excursion." This was a type of role play where the staff members dressed up and became local South American people. We were thrown into many different scenarios, such as plane flight, passport control and also a busy market square. All of these scenarios were very exaggerated, with people trying to take your possessions or taking you into their car. There was a point to the whole activity, which is to give you a better idea of difficulties you could face in South America and what to watch out for.
It was really great to finally meet my team. All of them seem really nice and easy to get on with, which is handy when you are spending 4 months with them. I am looking forward to getting to know my team and building great relationships.
After all this preparation I am now ready to go to Brazil. I am leaving on the plane at 1200 tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th of March, and getting back on the 15th of July. The whole trip will be a great experience and i hope that I will learn more about myself and another country. I will be updating this blog every week with what I have been up to and will post pictures and possibly videos. I will have limited access to a computer but i will try and get to one as much as possible.
This will be my last blog entry in the UK for a while so the next entry will be in Brazil.
Thank you for reading and look out for more updates
Share
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