Brazil A-Term - Day 4: Bracelets, Whatsapp, and Bernie's Wacky Adventure By Fabricio Guerra and Bernardo Guerra
When Thiago had given us his version of the two week agenda, I was curious by what "Art Therapy" entitled. My assumption was that we have the kids some paper and some coloring pencils and let them draw what they wanted to, but I had completely forgotten that "Art" is a lot more than just drawings. Coming into this fourth day I didn't know the details of our activity, but I was excited to share some of my art skills with the little ones. Before Art Therapy however, there was breakfast. Since most of the kids don't get breakfast, Desengarrafando Mentes offers free breakfast for those who are going to participate in the activities. Usually it was just bananas, bread, and milk, and we didn't think of that as a very fulfilling breakfast, so we decided that today we were going to be providing the breakfast. So, before going to the HQ, we went to the brand new supermarket called the Bom Gosto (Good Taste) and bought some more diverse foods. There was already bread and bananas at the HQ, so we bought some papayas, some chocolate-vanilla cake, sliced bread, chocolate milk, and finally the holy grail of breakfast drinks, strawberry yoghurt. After we drove to HQ and set up breakfast, everyone started eating (including myself, we got up so early that I didn't get the chance to eat my own breakfast so I had to survive the rest of the morning on bananas and papayas). Apparently, the kids love papaya, two of them even said they share the same eating record at school: an astonishing 37 slices of papaya in one sitting. It's so interesting what you hear talking to the kids during the downtimes.
After breakfast the art volunteer lady came and I went downstairs with her to start the activity whilst Bernie helped the World Packers clean up the front yard after the previous days winds. The lady brought with her a box filled with fishing line and beads, and then she told me that today's activity will be making bracelets. Going back to me thinking that we were going to be drawing, I was caught way off guard by the idea of bracelets. It had been a very, very, very long time since I had made a bracelet, so it was excited to use up some creative energy to fabricate something nice. All the children were excited too, I'm pretty sure this was their first time ever making a bracelet. However, before we started making those bracelets, we watched an animated music video that was about fears and bravery. What she wanted us to do was to create a bracelet that represented an emotion that counteracted a certain fear, and after a small discussion we were underway with our production. Everyone was super picky about what beads and letters they wanted to put on their bracelets, but after the first round of bracelets were produced, it became a bracelet production frenzy. Initially the box full of beads was full, but by the end of our activity, it had been severely reduced. When the time came to share what we made, some people even made rings. They were all mostly excited to share their bracelets with others when they were going to go to school later that day, but through some of the hastily made ones there were some gems. My favorite out of all of them came from a boy also called Fabricio (full name Fabriciano), and his bracelet represented love to defeat the fear of being alone. After the activity was over, I had to leave, but Bernie stayed there all day and had some very interesting experiences that he wrote about, so take it away Bernie!
While brainstorming the schedule for our A-Term this year, the Worldpackers had been brought up many times through our discussion. I thought that seeing what the day of a Worldpacker at Unbottling Minds looks like would be a great addition to the whole experience. To do this, I arrived at the Unbottling Minds the day before, to see what it was like to eat dinner and sleep at the Unbottling Minds HQ. When I arrived at the sleeping area I was welcomed in by all the other Worldpackers, as it was already very late the Worldpackers were already preparing to go to sleep. Before going to bed they gave me a rundown of what being a Worldpacker is like, such as the work they do, what they do in their free time, etc. The Worldpackers participate in various volunteer activities that most other people prefer not to do, it involves working with your hand's lot. Having to clean the whole HQ, take care of the garden, etc. The day starts at around 6:00 AM. Right after eating a small breakfast cooked by the Worldpackers and me, Thiago told us all the work that had to be completed. For Today, that included, cleaning all the bathrooms, cleaning the kitchen, and cleaning up the front yard The Worldpackers themselves decided who would do what. I along with another Worldpacker Elen had volunteered to take care of the most challenging chores, cleaning up all the decomposing plants in the front yard. This was a task that took many hours of patience, hard work, and being bitten by mosquitos. Just dealing with all the spiders hiding in the rotten plants was a nightmare in itself, let alone all the other bugs. after 3-4 hours of cleaning up the front yard, Thiago had told us that we had another task to complete: cleaning up all of the old broken tiles that were stacked up in a corner of the front yard. Doing this with not much protection led me to cut my finger open, which didn't feel great. Reflecting on that next time I should definitely think about using some protection when dealing with sharp objects. after another hour of sorting these broken tiles, we finished our tasks for today, now it was time to relax or maybe explore the area. Two other Worldpackers, Elen and Evelin had plans for today to explore a nearby beach called Pauba. I asked if I could tag along to see what a Worldpacker does in their free time. As I was more familiar with the area, they let me lead the trip. What I didn't know is that we were going to do this 9-mile journey on foot. We went from the Unbotelling Minds HQ to the Pauba trail (a trail that leads from Maresias to the City of Pauba), from the City of Pauba to the beach. During the trial, we encountered many interesting people, including other volunteer workers, travelers from far away, and even a repel team from Maresias Tur. Also while on the trail, we had found this little cave on the cliff of the hill, which had a very pretty view. When we got to the beach we explored around, looking for a place to sit down and relax. Eventually, we stumbled across these rocks. We relaxed near the rocks for an hour or two after we decided we were ready to walk back to the HQ. As it was already getting dark, we had to rush. So instead of going back to Maresias through the trail, we decided that we were going to go through the rocks that separate the beaches of Maresias and Pauba. This was a terrible idea. Not only were the rocks, sharp (I had cut my feet in at least 5 different places), slippery, and mosquito-infested, but it was also almost twice as long as the trail. After finally getting through the rocks and onto the Maresias beach, we walked back to the HQ. At this point, I was at that point of tiredness where nothing affects me any more. We made our way back to the HQ, exhausted, and I prepared for the next activity.
Thank you for sharing your interesting adventure Bernie, but now back to the agenda. In the evening I came back to help with the digitalization of the elderly. I was afraid that this class would be similar to the literacy class, where no one showed up, but I was wrong. This time we did have two participants, Thiago's father and a store owner who lived up the road. The volunteer teacher was an online marketer, and she planned today's lesson to be a how-to for Whatsapp. I thought that I could be a helper, but when we started to watch an introductory video, I realized how much didn't know about Whatsapp. I thought it was just like Messages, but it has little flavors of Facebook in it too, and all the different options, it was too much for me at once. After the video though, we talked about how your phone can also track a ton of different other things like your health and your preferences. We left off on how algorithms can be programmed to feed your addictions, which I know seems complicated but it was a very lively discussion with everyone pitching in to add ideas.
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