During the 3 years of doing my bachelor I had the idea to go and travel to South-America. On my own. Meeting new people, seeing, feeling, hearing and tasting the world in a totally different way. So I started planning while the idea popped in my head that this trip could be even more perfect when I could combine this traveling with doing any kind of social work. That´s where I found AIESEC and later on this wonderful EduAction Project. But wait, I have to confess; until I arrived in São Paulo for the Project Summit I didn´t have a very clear idea of what I was going to do here in Brazil. When my friends asked me about it, the average conversation kind of went like this: “So what are you going to teach these kids?“ ...(me) “I´m not really sure, something about different cultures, multiculturalism?“. “And that´s all going to be in Portuguese?“ ..(me) “Yeah I guess so“. “But you don´t speak Portuguese, just Spanish! What about that?“ ..(me) “Mmmm, good question, what about that. I have no idea..but I´m sure it´s going to work out fine!“
Well, it did work out and deciding to come here was one of the best decisions I could have made!
Luckily for me we had the 2-day Summit in São Paulo that explained a lot about the project and got us all very motivated to start this project! And indeed we started. Nine teams in nine different cities, giving classes to Brazilian kids, trying to expand their world view a little and show them bit by bit that also for them there are many chances in this world to get to where ever they want to go in this world.
Of course, this is easier said than done, but at the same time I´m very sure that if we are the first ones to say that this goal is never going to be achieved, then nothing is going to happen here.
And good things are happening here in Porto Alegre. I´m part of a great team of 14 ´estrangeiros´ that is trying to give their all every class we give. I think I can speak for us all that we were all quite scared before starting the classes because of the language barrier we faced. Few of us spoke more than 20 words in Portuguese so the 7 Portuguese lessons that the volunteers of AIESEC PoA gave us were a very pleasant surprise!
Furthermore, I can tell you that even though understanding and speaking Portuguese is still a challenge for me, I found out that when I give my all and try to speak from my heart the kids will almost always understand me (or they´re just very good at pretending they do, haha..!). I know this is a very powerful project, but always we need to remind ourselves that it is US doing this and nobody else. WE can make a change here, but only if we stay focused and remember why we are here.
Well, I only have 1 more week left here before I will start my trip around South-America. I know for sure that I´m going to enjoy these last days as much as possible. Together with the new wonderful people I met here, with new friends I made, together here in the nice city of Porto Alegre that I´ve got to know in a very special way! I will also leave Brazil, a beautiful country that has so much more to offer than just samba, caipirinhas and football! It´s going to be sad farewell, but I hope I can look at it the way somebody told me last week: “It´s better to look back and smile about what happened than to cry because it is over”.
Kirsten van der Vleuten
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
No comments:
Post a Comment