I made the mistake of asking my host family how long they had been married. The two were simply “enamorados,” the Brazilian term for a boyfriend and girlfriend. They weren’t offended, or at least pretended like they weren’t, but I wonder if it ruffled their feathers a bit. (Especially since the girlfriend’s reaction gave off the impression that she thought they should be married by now.) Anyway, it turned out that I didn’t actually have a host family. I only had a host dad, Tarcisio. His “enamorada” spent the first night in the apartment, but I didn’t actually see her again. Now, I hate to sound ungrateful, but I’m not sure why Tarcisio would offer his place to house a GSE team member. I was placed in a room that was probably smaller than a jail cell. I didn’t fit in the bed I was given, and by the end of my stay in Guaruya, my back was out of whack. My host dad told me he had two children from a previous marriage, so I assume the two tiny beds were for them. However, I discovered his son was 29 and his daughter was 22. Perhaps it’s been a long time since they visited. Tarcisio did his best to make me feel at home, but because he lived in a bachelor pad that really only had enough room for the bachelor, it was an uncomfortable accommodation. Considering some of the circumstances I have seen in Brazil, I really shouldn’t be complaining. I am very thankful I had a place to stay, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking immediately forward to my next host. And really, my back is now killing me.
Let me tell you about our activities in Guaruya. The three days we spent in Guaruya were the busiest three days we’ve had. The first day went from 8 AM until 10 PM, the second from 630 AM until 11 PM, and the third from 8 AM until 10 PM as well. I hate to beat a dead horse, but I was EXTREMELY tired when it came time to leave Guaruya.
On our first day, we began by visiting a school that is partially funded by Rotary, named after Joaquim Fernandes. The school is exclusively for local children from the local favelas and other underprivileged areas. While it wasn’t exactly the best school I’ve seen, it definitely wasn’t the worst. We paraded around the school, visiting each of the classrooms and getting to know some of the kids.
My favorite experience was when we visited the first room, which I believe was the equivalent of Kindergarten or 1st grade. The kids became very excited as soon as they saw us. Some of the kids pointed us out to their friends, and within a few seconds, the entire classroom was waving at us, yelling “Oi,” “Hallllo,” and “Hiiiiii.”
Within a few minutes, the whole classroom bombarded me. The children wanted me to pick them up, and as soon as I picked one up, they made a line. I had no choice but to oblige.
Then, it was off to visit the toddlers. They were absolutely adorable.
This kid was the troublemaker!
It was lunchtime for the kids. The school’s director informed us that they feed the children five times a day: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. Relatively speaking, the school was doing well but the administration was hopeful they would find additional funding so that they could serve more children in the community. Unfortunately, many of the children in the community fall victim to the same circumstances we’ve encountered in all of the poor areas of Sao Paulo; parents who use drugs, prostitute themselves to buy drugs, are involved in the drug trade, and are generally absent in their children’s upbringing. Many kids stop going to school at an early age, and become entrapped in the same lifestyle of their parents.
After we left the school, we were off to the mayor’s office. Unfortunately, the mayor was stuck in traffic on the way back to Guaruya from Sao Paulo, so we weren’t able to meet her. Her staff sat us down in her office, and we enjoyed a nice view of the city, as well as an informative roundtable discussion.
After having heard negative reviews of President Lula from most of the Brasileiros I had come across, I was eager to ask Guaruya’s prefeitura (city hall) to give me a review. I was suspicious that most of Lula detractors I met were wealthy folks who weren’t happy that their increased taxes were funding many innovative social projects in the country. After discussing this topic with the prefeitura, I believe my suspicions were validated. The prefeitura in Guaruya is busy realizing a significant number of ambitious projects to improve living conditions for their residents, so they were very content with the support they have received from Lula as well as the progress he has made towards leveling the social disparity I have described in detail throughout this blog. However, they mentioned that the prefeita (mayor) was previously a member of Lula’s party, but recently switched parties. That made us a little curious…
We visited another Rotary-funded project, an elementary school that also served as the home base for an adult literacy project.
The literacy rate in Guaruya is very low. There are many projects being undertaken to increase the ability of adults to read and write. Unfortunately, many of these projects suffer from a lack of funding and, more troublingly, a lack of interest from the community.
After visiting a local hotel (one of the “Best Hotels in the World,” or whatever that list is called), we were off to visit a local courthouse, dealing specifically with labor law.
We met with a judge who was willing to speak to us despite having no idea we were coming. (The planning for this trip has been frustrating at times, to say the least) He was very helpful and educated us on some of the unique aspects of the Brazilian labor system. (To quickly name some interesting things: there is no exempt or non-exempt status in Brazil, everyone is subject to overtime pay, except for domestic workers and CEO’s, every single Brazilian worker must register with the federal government and possess a laborer’s identification card, and Brazilian domestic workers tend to take their employers to court very often, which I found strange considering all the domestic workers we’ve met seemed to be very happy in their current capacities.)
We visited a local hospital, Hospital Santo Amaro. Although the hospital was definitely deteriorated, the staff was very proud of some of the work they have done.
Our tour guide was a doctor who worked at the hospital, and was also a Rotarian. He gave us a very informative and detailed tour of the hospital. Among some of the things I learned that are worth mentioning:
- Considering the lack of funding faced by the Brazilian medical system, its work is among the very best in the world. In fact, the United States medical system is studying their Brazilian counterparts to improve their service.
- Over the last 20 years, Brazil has made humongous strides in their prenatal and postnatal care areas, as well as improving their childhood immunization systems. As a result, the pediatric wing of the hospital we visited was practically empty. Our tour guide informed us that 20 years ago, this area was always crowded.
- On average, the annual cost of providing medical care for a Brazilian is about $150. In the United States, this cost is almost $3,000. In other words, medical care in the United States about 20 times as expensive as it is in Brazil!
As I mentioned before, the aesthetics of the hospital were very poor. This has been the case in every hospital or clinic that we have visited. I am assuming that this must contribute to the reduced cost of medical care in Brazil. It seems that Brazilian doctors simply feel that the quality of care is much more important than the cleanliness and condition of the facilities.
Our first marathon day concluded with a presentation at the Rotary Club de Guaruya- Ilha de Santa Amaro. The club hosted us with an indoor barbeque, which was absolutely delicious.
Earlier we were told that the mayor of Guaruya was going to come to the evening’s meeting. When our presentation came and went, we assumed that she wasn’t going to make it after all. However, just as we thought we were about to leave, she arrived.
She was extremely friendly and answered all of the questions we asked. I couldn’t help but ask her about President Lula. She told us that she worked very hard to help get Lula elected, was his campaign manager in Guaruya, and highly approved of the work he’s accomplished. She stated that were she given another opportunity, she would vote for Lula once again. This sounded a little strange, because no one actually asked her if she would vote for him again, so I think it meant there was something she wasn’t telling us. I didn’t want to ruin the pleasant conversation we were having by asking for more details. She did explain that she switched political parties recently because the party she joined was more in line with her current objectives as mayor of Guaruya. What can I say? Another case of politicians being politicians. Nonetheless, we felt very honored that she took the time to meet us, especially considering that Guaruya is a fairly large city of about 400,000 people.
In my next blog entry, I’ll tell you about the rest of my stay in Guaruya: boat rides, relocation projects, favelas in the mangrove and rainforest, and a robbery that occurred no less than 50 feet away from where we were presenting.
