6 days in and all I can say is I am drained: physically, mentally, and emotionally. We are told that fatigue is a characteristic of the GSE program, but the location of this particular GSE only exacerbates this trait.
Every day, there are tons of Rotary Club meetings we must attend, vocational exchanges where we visit the exact and related professions of our team members, interaction time with our host families and other Rotarians, visits to famous landmarks and museums, and what seems like endless travel in the GSE van.
A Picture of Our Van
In addition, I've come to the realization that Paulistanos (residents of Sao Paulo) do not have a special place in their hearts for sleep. During the week, everything goes late into the night. Work, school, dinner, exercise, socializing, more work, more school, more dinner, more exercise, and more socializing. I am not 100% sure but I'm almost positive I haven't had dinner any earlier than 9 PM, and in some cases as late as 11:30 PM. Many Rotary Club meetings don't begin until 9 PM. They go until 10:30 or 11:00 and the Rotarians stick around to chat with us until about midnight. The meeting venues literally kick the Rotarians out or they won't go home. Once this happens, they invite us back to their homes for more conversation, or out to the city for a drink or dance. These aren't people my age that I speak of. 30, 40, 50, even 60 something year-olds that are creatures of the night. When I turn down invitations and say that I need to sleep, they respond with "você pode dormir quando você morrer." (You can sleep when you die) No matter what time they go to sleep, they are up and running by 7 AM. In fact, if you want to be at work on time, you better be navigating your car through the streets of Sao Paulo before 7 AM, or you will hit bumper to bumper traffic.
My brother, sister, and mother say that I'm crazy for nagging them about sleeping too much. Well, they're going to hate me when I get back. I attempt to go about my day with a goal of being done with my obligations in time to sleep 8 hours. Very rarely do I accomplish my mission, but if I do not make an attempt, I probably won't get 6 hours of sleep. I always complain that I am tired and need rest. After this week, I wonder if that is my imagination making excuses for me. If all these Paulistanos can go about their days without worrying about going to sleep, I feel I should be able to as well. It's not like they look any older or more stressed out than we do in the States. I know that when I'm out of the house by 6 AM, I feel that I've moved mountains by the time I'm in bed. Usually, to get up in time to do this, my eyes HAVE to be shut before midnight. At this moment, I am planning to be up and running by 6 AM regardless of what time I go to sleep when I return to Los Angeles. Sorry Pac. (Of course, I may just be writing from a source of temporary inspiration and motivation. I could be bullshitting for all I know)
As for my day today. I went to bed last night at about 3:30 AM, Sao Paulo time, and had to be up at 5:45 AM. My "host mom" Thais (that is what we call our hosts, "host mom and dad," although Thais and her husband Renato are only about 7 or 8 years older than me, but look younger) is the president of the Rotary Club at which we presented this morning, Nove de Julho, and, as such, was my ride to the meeting. It began at 8:00 AM, and as president, Thais had to be there by 7:00 AM to prepare. Because of the Sao Paulo traffic, she has no choice but to leave at 6:30 AM even though the location is about 15 minutes away. A fender bender can ruin the entire day's schedule. I had no choice but to run on less than two and a half hours of sleep.
After the first meeting, it was off to a police station, designed specifically for battered women. We had a long discussion with the head investigator and the chief of the station. Domestic abuse is obviously a problem found all around the world. However, Sao Paulo did not take any specific measures to combat domestic violence until about 25 years ago. If a husband killed his wife for suspecting her of being unfaithful, no questions were asked. That's just the way it was. A few high profile cases involving extreme violence and celebrities finally forced the city to create laws and programs designed to help battered women. We compared stories and learned about the specific programs implemented in Sao Paulo. Here are some pictures:
(Can you see how sleepy I am? I swear I was paying attention)
I was placed behind bars yet again. These Sao Paulo police officers get a kick out of this. (Oh and Brooklyn is a gang in Brazil)
Then it was off to another Rotary Club, Villa Mariana, established just 2 months ago.
Mindy is the only Portuguese speaker in our GSE team. (She lived in Salvador Bahia, Brazil for a few months as part of her Master's degree) She has to translate for us almost all day. Let's just say she's drained. During the past week, I've been doing my best to pick up as much Portuguese as possible. I can pretty much read it, understand it if spoken slowly, and know enough to communicate. Having noticed my improvement, Mindy forced me to present in Portuguese. While I have ways to go, out of respect for Mindy's sanity and my desire to become trilingual by the time I leave, I went ahead and did as asked. I actually did pretty well. I told the Rotarians that this was my first time presenting in Portuguese, and they actually gave me a nice hand when I was done.
We were very happy to be given the afternoon off. The plan was to go shopping, but everyone was so tired that we all decided to go to our respective homes and nap. We only had two hours between being dropped off and picked up, so I only got about 45 minutes of sleep in.
Then, it was off to the final meeting of the night, at the Rotary Club- Parque Do Ibirapuera. This was another small club. Again, I had to speak in Portuguese, and this time I did it without rehearsing. Looks like I'm getting somewhere! This club takes the award for having the best food at dinner. (Even better than those huge pieces of cow I posted two nights ago) The name of the venue was Villa Fiore. Everyone was very friendly and we stayed chatting for about two hours after the meeting was done.
So, we set our record thus far, with 3 presentations in a day. After this meeting was done, we got to go home. I was able to get back just in time to see Ron Artest hit the game winner for the Lakers :) (By the way, if you can't find an NBA game on TV in a foreign country, justin.tv should have it)
That's it for today. As tired as I am, I don't have much more to say. Tomorrow, I will be visiting the YMCA of Sao Paulo. I'm pretty excited to visit. Before my trip, I tried researching the Y in Sao Paulo and was unsuccessful. Once I got to Sao Paulo, I was informed the YMCA in Brazil is called the ACM, Associação de Mosos Cristianos. It's a direct translation, but the Y and M become just an M (Young Men = Mosos) Anyway, I found the website: It looks pretty damn nice!
PEACE!
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