We began the day by driving to a monument in Santos, Mirante Oscar Niemeyer, designed by the great Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer. The monument points directly to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. The viewing deck provided yet another breathtaking view of the city of Santos.
We proceeded to visit a senior home named Las Vicentino. In my work, I come across seniors very often. In fact our YMCA is practically full with nothing but seniors until about 10 or 11 in the morning. However, I am very uneducated when it comes to working with seniors outside of being personable and friendly. Monika’s selection as our team leader couldn’t have come in more handily. Her field is gerontology, the study of aging, so today was her vocational day, and we got to tag along. Seeing her in action today was utterly inspirational.
Las Vicentino houses about 70 seniors and, incredibly, has 50 people on the payroll. Like any other senior home there are many challenges, and one of the most demanding is dealing with patients who have Alzheimer’s.
The lady on the left, Dona Marina, was very friendly when we met her. She asked me if I had a girlfriend, and when I replied that I did, she jokingly said that I should leave my girlfriend to stay with her. She held my hand tightly and even asked to touch my spikey hair. (By the way, if you ever visit seniors, Monika says that you should try to touch them as much as possible. They long for contact, as most people keep their distance) Perhaps two minutes into my interaction with her, her demeanor changed, she became aggravated, forgot that she had just met me, and screamed at me, asking to leave her alone. It was very distressing.
Today, the Las Vicentino staff was distributing flu vaccines. While most of the seniors took their shots very matter-of-factly, it was almost funny to see some of them doing their best impersonation of a young child; staff almost having to drag them to receive their vaccination.
After leaving the home, we stopped to have lunch at Torre Grill, an all-you-can-eat buffet, (everything in Brazil seems to be all-you-can-eat) and then went to an ice cream plant named Kascao. I’m not sure why we visited the plant, but it turned out to be pretty interesting and, best of all, I got four free ice cream bars.
Then, it was on to a Rotary-funded Hospital named “Pronto Socorro,” the only general hospital in a community of 200,000. We toured the hospital and were saddened to see it in a very poor state: ancient equipment, walls that haven’t been painted in at least 20 years, dirty restrooms, and bumpy floors. However, the resolve of the staff was one of drive and determination. They do the best they can with what they have.
We then stopped at the Rotary Youth Exchange office. Sharing some similarities with GSE, the Youth Exchange program in District 4420 (State of Sao Paulo) is home to students of 17 different nationalities. The kids stay for a short-term program (one month) or a long-term (one year). The families of the children pay for their airfare, medical and life insurance, visas, and agree to house an exchange student from another country. Rotary covers the administrative work, finds volunteers to coordinate the program, and ensures that participating schools waive any tuition fees.
The chubby white kid in the front who looks like Jonah Hill’s stunt-double in Superbad is named Will. We spent the day with Will, 18, and two other students. Will has been in the exchange program for about nine months. Originally from Seattle, Will’s family moved to Phoenix, Arizona just a few years ago. His family has adopted six children, five of Latin descent and one of Asian descent. The five Latinos were children to deported immigrants with sketchy, criminal backgrounds. Will’s family traveled to China where they adopted his young sister, who was in need of a loving home. After nine months in Brazil, Will now speaks Portuguese as if though he were Brazilian.
Definitely not one to bite his tongue, Will quickly shared his political and personal views on a multitude of subjects. Rather than summarize his entire agenda, I will share something that hit close to home. Will felt the largest problem facing the United States, and also requiring the most immediate action, is immigration reform. Before coming to Brazil, Will was in favor of closing the border permanently and allowing the National Guard to figure out how to resolve the problem. However, after his experience in Brazil, Will became a devout supporter of illegal immigrants’ rights. Hearing about SB1070, the now infamous Arizona law hijacking illegal immigrants’ rights¸ Will has become practically embarrassed to call the State of Arizona home. When I asked Will why he felt this way, he replied, “Why can’t the whole world just work together, and get along? We are all the same. We all face the same problems; the only difference is how we solve them.”
To those of you who don’t know me too well, I’d like to share a little background.
My father came to the United States when I was about three years old. He flew into Tijuana, snuck across the border, and eventually secured a work permit. A few months later, my mother followed, bringing me and my brother Frank along on a tourist visa. (My mom recently told me that when we hit customs in the US, I kept mentioning, in the presence of INS staff, that I was going to see my “papito,” and of course, the last thing INS wanted was for another immigrant family to come live with their work-permit possessing father in the States) Like many other families, we overstayed our visas, and became illegal immigrants in a matter of months. Facing the uncertainty of what they would be able to provide their two bright sons, my parents entered a visa lottery in the early 90’s. Miraculously, they were selected. The rest is history, and because of my parents’ hard work and good fortune, my brother and I were able to receive financial assistance to attend college in the prestigious University of California system.
Undocumented students are unfairly stripped of this right, and must either apply for extremely limited private scholarships or work their way through college. Those who make this accomplishment then face an uncertain professional future. Unable to legally work in the States, they are faced with the decision to do something with their degree in their home country or pick up an under-the-table job that would usually be reserved for people of less education.
Now that you know my background, I’m sure you can connect the dots to determine my position on immigration. Just in case you can’t, I’d like to share lyrics that I wrote for a song called, "For My People," a few years ago:
We the ones that you will turn to when you wanna build a house/
When you wanna eat a meal, when you wanna clean a blouse/
When your ride is getting dirty, and you want that car to shine/
When you gotta get it done, but you just don’t got the time/
While, mom and daddy working at the job that really pays them/
They paying so our mothers help em with the kids and raise em/
The momma can’t believe it, her children she can’t manage/
But they listen to senora and she speak to em in Spanish/
Tell me who you turn to when your toilet’s getting clogged/
Yeah you might have paid a white man, but who came to do the job?/
We working with our hands, so that when you work you sit down/
Do it at a discount, and now you want us kicked out/
They chased us out the park, cuz we marching for our rights/
We just trying to start a life, tell me, why we gotta fight/
A nation built by immigrants, but we the ones you singling/
Deport em where they came from? Then deport yaselves to England!
Took our land for pennies on the dollar, and it wasn’t many/
And now you asking for no less than dollars on the penny/
And that’s the compromise not even all of us accept/
Cuz the chance to chase our dreams, seems to get you all upset/
Do we not bleed the same? Do we not breathe the same air?/
Smile when we happy, when we hurt, feel that pain there/
Deep in the heart, so look deep in ya heart/
There’s nothing to be afraid of you, we just deep in the dark/
Cuz we gotta hide, and we gotta run/
But we must survive, so we must succumb/
Gotta do what you got to when you pay a lotta fees/
And when you gotta couple other mouths you gotta feed/
Our kids could be positioned, to become our physician/
But because your position, mo fees for their tuition/
Sometimes it seems conditions, will prevent their endeavors/
Because the opposition wants us leaving here forever…
We aint trying to take what’s yours, we aint trying to pick a battle/
We just trying to open doors, sick of living in the shadows/
We sick of having nothing, sick of asking may I please/
Sick of trying to get a job, carrying a fake ID/
Sick of waiting on the corner, waiting for the work to come/
Just to see the man arrive, and say I prefer the one/
Standing off there by the left, means he aint talking to me/
Got me hating on a person, with the same problem as me/
I’m sick of having nothing, wish that I could find success/
When my child asks me for something, wish that I could tell him yes/
Sick of always searching, diggin other peoples trash/
Trying to gather cans and bottles, and then turn em in for cash/
Or posted at the corner, selling flowers, selling fruit/
Sick of not having it already, sick of being in pursuit/
We all trying to come up, the same thing we go through/
Immigrants, they built this nation, why you kicking out the crew? …Cuz what if it was you?
CHORUS:
It’s for my people, from the moment we arrived, coming to this country, we just hoping to survive/
It’s for my people, who aint doing nothing wrong, dedicate this song, hoping that you staying strong/
It’s for my people, we the victim of their views, they can’t understand us cuz they aren’t in our shoes/
It’s for my people, dedicate this to my people…stuck outside the margin always peeping through a peephole
Sorry if you're not into my hip-hop side. It's my blog.
Back to the subject, it was very touching to see what a Youth Exchange program can do to a teenager. After I recited the first verse from the song above, Will said, “that was really, really dope,” and promised to share it with all of his friends. If only Governor Brewer would have been sent on an exchange….
At night, it was off to our first presentation in what seemed like forever, but has only been four days. We presented at a new Rotary Club, Sao Vicente, the club that showed us around the city earlier in the day. Like every other club we’ve visited, we felt very welcome and were happy to be there.
Once again, I did my part in Portuguese. I’m getting there.
It turned out the club meeting was a floor beneath the Mirante Oscar Niemeyer, the same monument we had visited in the morning. I got to go upstairs after the meeting and take some pictures of the spectacular view of the Santos seashore at night.
Well, that is all for now. Tomorrow, I will be taking a tour of the Port of Santos, spending time at the 6th Military Police Battalion, visiting a Prosecution office that deals strictly with juveniles, and presenting at another meeting for dinner. Boa noite!
