The weather is miserable. We had heavy rain and high winds all night last night. There was debris everywhere this morning. I passed one building where part of the roof had blown off. It reminded me of our hurricane in the Bahamas. Today wasn't much better. No pictures since I didn't want to risk ruining my camera.
We spent the morning in orientation for our programs. It was more extensive than for our one week program since for that they did most of the planning for us. We broke up into our groups to make plans for the week. There will be two others at Madre Teresa with me. We tried to do a walking tour of the neighborhood but didn't get far due to the bad weather.
This afternoon I ventured out to the nearby museum that houses a collection of 18th and 19th century decorative arts. I fell in love with their collection of slave jewelry that comes only from Bahia. Fred, our history teacher, says he will bring me some more information that he has on the jewelry. I also went in search of washcloths. I forgot they don't have them here. I never even found a substitute.
In the afternoon we had a Portuguese class and tonight was our history lecture from Fred. He reminded me just how poor the city is with such a high percentage of the population living in the favellas (slums). He is a huge proponent of the power of education to change the future of Salvador and all of Brazil. He teaches high school in a favella, as well as being a university professor.
Tomorrow morning I'm off to Madre Teresa. I'm looking forward to seeing which children are still there and I'm told there are new faces as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment