Despite my flight being delayed for 6 hours in Madrid and only arriving at ACER at 1am, I keenly volunteered to help out at a picnic that the NGO had organised at a park in central São Paulo.
At 8am we collected the supplies from the supermarket, packed up the combi van and set off for the city centre. After setting up the picnic under a shelter in the centre of the park, we had a wander round and waited for the families to arrive. The park was situated amongst the skyscrapers in a wealthy neighbourhood, next to the city's most exclusive shopping centre JK Iguatemi. The innequality between our guests and the park's everyday visitors could not have been more stark.
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| Parque do Povo |
After serving the picnic to our 100 or so guests (hard work!), we spread out into the park and enjoyed the sun. It was really sweet to see children of the everyday visitors lending their bikes and toys to the children of the Familia Guardiã; for most of them it would have been their first time on a bike. It was also great to meet the families and my new colleagues in such a relaxed setting. After another round of sandwiches we took a few team photos, packed up the van and headed back to Eldorado.
On Monday it was straight to work- I´m helping to write a project proposal, using football as a tool for social change, to try and obtain funding from a new grant that is being awarded. I am still working on it now, it was a steep learning curve at first but it has been such an interesting process and it will be interesting to see how it is received. On Tuesday night after work, I managed to help out with an art class which was really good fun and it was cool to get to know some of the kids better. I haven't had a lot of spare time to be able to sit in on other classes, but there is so much going on here all the time, from African dance to Capoeira to cooking classes, the charity is doing such amazing work.
On Thursday we headed back to my old office at the British-Brazilian centre, to celebrate the Queen's birthday party with other Brits in São Paulo. Everyone always feels so much more patriotic when they are abroad, although I am sure the caipirinhas did play their part in helping us belt out the national anthem!
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| Queen's Birthday Party |
After another busy day of work on Friday, I quickly packed a rucksack and headed into São Paulo to meet Vanessa in my old neighbourhood of Vila Madalena, where she takes pole dancing classes!! Let's just say I doubt I will ever be giving it a go! We got back to her ap, ordered pizza and caught up on all our news. We had planned to go out but chatting and an early night seemed so much more appealing after such a busy week.
Following a much needed lie-in while Vanessa had an Italian exam, we took the bus to Jundiaí, a city of about 300,000 an hour from São Paulo, where her parents live. We arrived to the most delicious feijoada cooked by Vanessa's mother. While the sofa did look rather appealing at this point, we got our act together and drove to the biggest outlet shopping centre in São Paulo! Brazil has got to be one of the most shopping-obsessed countries for sure. No luck for me, my big feet and height don't help!
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| Feijoada |
We then headed to a food fair that was taking place at the local football club to celebrate their anniversary. It was good fun and there was so much interesting stuff to try, even if the Beatles cover band playing was slightly dubious!
Sunday was a much needed chilled day. After a long lie in, we went for a walk in the roasting heat. June weather in São Paulo is all over the place, cold and rainy to 30 degree heat in the space of a few hours. After another delicious lunch, we drove back to São Paulo where I said bye to Vanessa and began the long journey back to Diadema. The perfect first weekend, bring on the next one.
My second week has begun just as busily as when I stopped in Friday. We are now in the final stages of the proposal writing and I even went to a concert this evening, given by a Scottish band featuring a man dressed as a rabbit, who says there's not a lot going on in Diadema! Excited to see what the rest of the week holds and then looking forward to the Virada Cultural; 24hrs of free live music in São Paulo.
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