A social program?

Bom dia,

Afternoon sun from the school

Things have been pretty tough here the last few weeks at the English school as we seem to be going down in student numbers and we have numerous problems with the building, with the land lord threatening to kick us out. As I have experienced life as an ESL teacher in several different places and different types of schools, I can say that quality of education we are providing is good, but there are other problems which are hard to surpass. The target audience for our classes are the low income earners of Bahia, but it is providing challenging to get the students to commit to classes and learning, as the attitude is very relaxed here, if students show up, they often come about an hour late, and student retention is extremely difficult as people give up. My observation would be that the education system here does not instil the mindset of personal development and opening opportunities for oneself, therefore it is very difficult to keep people interested in a long term commitment like learning a new language. That´s only an observation, the last thing I want to do here is try to make people think like I do, nor force my beliefs and way of thinking on a different culture, I only want to open the doors of opportunity to those who want it. Australia and other countries in the ´western world´ can definitely learn a thing or two about life from the people here too.

Pelourinho in the afternoon.

In light of all this, in the short term we have shifted our focus to offering classes to organisations like restaurants, governments, tourism organisations and cultural retail stores. We continue to run our classes in the school for those who want to come, but if we are kicked out, we need a sustainable form of continuing the school until we find another place and can teach the people we want to help.

Note: The following section expresses some of my opinions/impressions, I will state that these are only my opinions and are probably based on a lack of proper and solid information, so thus are rather just impressions from what I have seen.

Relocation of a people

A ´favela´ by the highway

Right now I am feeling fine in this city, the challenge is keeping me motivated, but I do admit that it is roller-coaster and it´s not all smiles and fun. Salvador is a big adjustment for me and time has a different rhythm  here. I have definitely been seeing some interesting things and learning a lot. My colleague Renato is a photographer, and he was contracted by a program to take photos of many favelas in Salvador and correspondingly of government housing commissions. The governments plan is to destroy a lot of the favelas, because they are built on Government land, people just settle there and start building and before the government arrives there is a whole community and it´s too late to kick them out. However, in the Brazilian constitution it states that everybody has the right to proper housing, the Goverment is claiming that the favelas are not ´proper housing´ and they are building big uniform apartment buildings in which they are going to relocate people out of the favelas to. I don´t deny that the conditions in some favelas are not great, but I think other things could be done to work with the people to improve this, rather than kicking them out of their homes.

Another ´favela´

The ´solution´

We went inside several favelas, what I saw was a very beautiful people, living like a community, playing games on the street, elderly people playing chess and checkers, kids and music in the street, everyone with a smile on their face and people sharing with each other. All you hear about in the media is the violence, drugs and crime; these elements may be a part of it, but who´s to say that an a apartment building is going to change any of that. I don´t really like the solution, or I don´t really think it´s a solution, they are kicking people out of there homes and communities, and putting them in uniform housing where they will most likely lose the community aspect and keep the problems they have. 

Community life

It seems they did the same thing about 20 years ago and you can see those buildings now, they look very run down and decrepit  from what people have told me they are not a good place to live either. I believe that the governments solution is not developed with a long term focus, my impression is that they are trying to make this city look cleaner for the coming visitors of the world cup, and they want to use the land where the favelas are to build apartments and hotels for people with a lot of money. I am not against development, and definitely this city needs it, I just think it could be done a bit more carefully and working with the people, rather than giving them no option.

A community on the water, note the fishing boats.

More Government housing: Out of sight, out of mind?

Inside a community.

Can you help us?

We need material!

I mentioned in my last blog entry that there are some ways in which you can help us here in the school. One of my problems is I am spending all my time and efforts in trying to make the place work I haven´t had time to develop material for the school (which so far is non-existent). I would like to have our own material for classes, so anyone who would like to help can do so by sending us any of the following:

• Audio files (Recorded by you or from another source)
• Pictures (any pictures you own which you think we could use for class, and would be happy to ´lend´us)
• Fun exercises you can find on the internet
• Basic conversations (be creative and write a conversation for us which we can use in class!)
• Material from the internet that we can adapt (please be sure to include a reference)

I would like our material to cover English situations for everyday life, to shift the focus away from grammar and more to the practical use of English. Some example situations could be:

• Introductions, Greetings and Farewells
• Ordering food
• Offering a drink
• Meeting with friends
• Talking about colours
• Talking about free time
• Days of the week
• Buying something
• Talking about family members

The above are just some examples, feel free to be creative. If you are sending me material, please bear in mind that our students are beginners, so keep the language simple and clear! If you have any questions or are sending me material you can do so to my email alexander.rg.schmidt@gmail.com, or simply post it as a reply to my blog.

I always like to use music in my classes.

More government housing commissions

Out on shoot.

Thanks everbody and speak soon!

Beach life.

The road less travelled

Forenote: Hello everybody. It has been over 6 months since my last blog post, I was writing for my old Spanish school in Australia with the purpose of sharing my storing of learning Spanish, studying the TESOL and travelling to Chile to teach English. The school and I came to the agreement that my story had been successfully told and we decided to put and end to my blog posts, I would like to thank The Spanish Cat for the seed of the Spanish language they planted in me and the opportunity to share my story with their current students. I have decided to continue writing on my own, mainly for my own enjoyment but also to share a bit with family and friends of what I am doing and to give me something to look back upon.

Where am I now?
I am now teaching English in a small school in the north of Brazil, a city called Salvador da Bahia, famous for it´s Carnaval, history, beaches, music, art, and culture and somewhat infamous for it´s poverty and crime.

Salvador has more than 350 historical churches, at least one for every day of the year.

Recap of Chile
Leaving Chile was even harder than leaving home, not because I love it more than my own country but because leaving home I always had the expectation of going back. Leaving Chile felt like saying goodbye to a whole life forever, not easy to do. I can´t even begin to imagine what it might be like for past and present generations of immigrants jumping onto a boat and knowing they will never hear from those close to them again. Time is a strange thing, you can spend years doing the same thing over and over, you will wake up five years, ten years, a lifetime later and nothing has changed. Or if you are lucky, you will find yourself experiencing something quite opposite, where each day seems like a year, and a short period of your life can seem like a lifetime. I feel as though such happened to me in Chile, and a big piece of my heart will always belong to that. Being in Latin America has always given me a deep happiness that I feel nowhere else in the world, I felt it from the first day I stepped foot in this continent over 4 years ago, some connection deeper than I can describe. It pulled me back, and it gives me happiness and energy each day I am here, if it weren´t for something just as strong pulling me home, I would stay here forever.

My family (left) visited me in Chile, and my love for them will always pull me home.

Why did I leave?
I try to live my life following the signs which are presented to me, such a sign was presented to me and I feel I was pulled to Brazil, and I didn´t resist. I would have happily stayed another year in Chile, another lifetime, but I feel like I achieved what I went there to do and I had to continue my path of personal growth. I didn´t want to stay just because I felt comfortable and happy, I believe that is a trap a lot people fall into in their lives; in relationships, in jobs, in trying to break out of monotony. The fear of the unknown or the uncomfortable stops you from doing what you really want, and I didn´t want to fall into that trap, which is one of the reasons I left Australia in the first place. For me, Chile was one world, and Brazil is a whole other world altogether. Plus in Portuguese, I have the fun of learning a whole new language.


My current mission
As mentioned above, I am working in a small school in Salvador da Bahia. Salvador is a city with a lot of need, there is a lot of crime and drugs. Here in the historical centre of Pelourinho it´s very common to see crack users walking the streets hassling tourists, and they are often kids. This is only the visible front of a much larger problem, there are police forces patrolling the streets, only with the objective of protecting tourists, but nothing is done to address the core of the issue. Pelourinho is the tourist centre of the city, you have a contrast of beautifully maintained historical buildings and churches, expensive hotels and people sleeping on the street. For those with money and a blind eye to the problems around, it can be heaven, for others it can be hell. My co-worker in this school Renato established the school with the aim of providing English classes at a price that the people here can afford, the problem with English schools here is that they are all at crazy prices that only well educated and wealthy people can access, which reflects another problem of the society here. Renato´s vision is to teach people English to open a door of opportunity in their lives. Salvador is a very touristy location, with events like the World Cup of 2014, the Olympics of 2016 and of course the yearly world famous Carnaval, knowing English open countless opportunities for people in this community. The problem is, with prices for classes so low, and an unreliable target audience often with little or no education, it is hard to establish the school and keep it financially viable. I am trying to help here, I am not only lending my services as an English teacher but my real aim is to work with Renato to lift this school to a place where it can be self-sustainable, a social project with teachers coming in from around the world and Renato able to manage it and teach. And I would love all your help, in my coming blog entries I will add some little things you can all do which will make a big difference for us. In the meantime you can visit our site www.talk-express.com and like our facebook page facebook.com/talkexpress!

Talk Express school, so many chairs waiting to be filled...

Tempations of Rio
Around two weeks ago I went to visit Rio with a good friend of mine from Australia Din, we visited another friend of mine Antonio who took us in and showed us the very best of his city. I won´t lie that after battling with money here in Salvador and living in a hammock, I was provided a solid temptation to stay in Rio by the Samba, the beautiful women and the big city of opportunities everywhere for English teachers. However, I decided this time the road less travelled is the one I am going to take, and I hope the more rewarding. I have a mission here and I want to see it through. I hope I made the right choice. And Rio will always be there for me later!

An iconic view of Rio - Cristo o Redentor

La boca del cielo

Posted on Thursday, 28 June 2012 in Chile
Note: I originally wrote this blog entry for my old Spanish school in Australia (The Spanish Cat), hence the error in the date above.

Every now and then in your life you visit a place in which you feel transported to a period before humanity existed, where time stands still and the infinity of nature and the universe directly confront you, make you feel humble and small and your problems seem to fade away into non-existence. I had the good fortune to visit such a place last weekend.

Los Vilos, a few hours north of Santiago

It has been a few months since my trip to Uruguay, and I realised that that was the last time I left Santiago. While I love it here, there is always a part of me that needs to escape the city and rejuvenate in ´el campo´.

Front window view

A distinct coastline

I have been lucky to meet some amazing people on my travels, and none better than my friend Jose whom I met in Varkala, India. I´ve always felt that you can know someone for years in what you might call a ´normal situation´, failing to know them as well as you do when you are thrown together for only a few days out of your comfort zone. You find yourselfinan intense situation, in which intense friendships and personal connections develop where none of the usual hang ups of society exist and people can just be themselves. Whilst this is pretty normal whilst ´travelling´, what is special for me is when that connection remains and you meet that person again in another part of the world and you feel as if no time has passed since you parted. In this case, Jose was able to share with us a very special place for him, where he spent a lot of his childhood.

Amigos - Jose, Gabriel, Manuel and Alex

Indian cookup - Aloo Gobi

Manuel unleashing some creativity, fitting surroundings

Dining

Always a big interest of mine, the wildlife on the coast of Chile is refreshingly undisturbed. Being in such a place you feel connected with your surroundings and can watch birds and animals as they might be in a world without human disruption. Sometimes you feel if a dinosaur were to pass by it wouldn´t be a surprise.

Hawks passing by

Cool looking lizard

Some very interesting vegetation

Aside from that light house, one has to wonder, has it changed much in the last million years?

Cool looking crabby (yes it´dead sorry, I found it that way)

Passing Pelicans

We also had a chance to visit the nearest town ´Los Vilos´, quite beautifully coloured and interesting place with some very nice people. I always love meeting people in country towns, the vibe is so different from the city.

Los Vilos beach front

Beach

Contemplando la vida

Preparing for a surf

Colour

Just before leaving back to Santiago we decided to climb down the rocks and watch the sunset.

On the way down

Looking back up at the house

Aproaching the ocean

Subiendo

Sun salutation

Manuel contemplando la vida

United in the moment

Pelicans

Puesta del sol

Special guests

It´s moments like this, getting to know a new place which completely surprises you, sharing with people and learning about yourself that really make going out of your comfort zone and travelling across the world worthwhile. To leave you this week here is a short video I made of the place, the music is by Inti Illimani. And for those interested in their music, they are playing in Australia in October!

Amores Perros

Posted on Thursday, 14 June 2012 in Chile
Note: I originally wrote this blog entry for my old Spanish school in Australia (The Spanish Cat), hence the error in the date above.

The weather here is getting pretty cold and I believe the ski season is already open, so I am looking forward to hitting the slopes over the next month or two. I have shown this view out my apartment in several posts, however I swear it changes every day and always draws my attention and wonder.

An ever-changing portrait of the mountains

Because I love animals, this blog post is dedicated to my canine friends living on the streets of Santiago. For anyone who has travelled in South America, you have probably noticed in most cities the abundance of ´street dogs´, well Santiago is no exception. However, these dogs all seem to be very well fed and looked after, sometimes you will even see street dogs with ´dog clothes´ gifted to them for the cold Santiago winter. Also these dogs often appear to be pure breed like German Shepherds and Labradors. However, from what I have seen, I would say however that these dogs are ´tolerated´ rather than looked after with love and are mostly ignored. I find these dogs very interesting and they make walking around the city and watching their behaviour an enjoyable affair for me, though I think it´s incredible that something is not done in the way of contraception to keep their numbers down.

Some of these dogs spend all their days chasing cars and barking at bicycles, sometimes narrowly avoiding being flattened...

Curious dog

Hey mate!

This guy in the top of the photo is too lazy to chase cars, he spends his days on the side of the road barking lazily as they pass. It shows...

My mate, very friendly!

Shy

Not a dog, but some beautiful leaves to mark the season.

Skinny dog 

A lonely life

Dogs looking a bit sheepish

Sleeping contently

Sleeping puppy

Another curious dog

I was having dinner and this guy jumped up behind me on the couch to snuggle up for some warmth.

In other news, Santiago was elected the third most ´captivating´ city in the world by CNN (story here). You never know how they make these rankings, but I definitely believe there are some great things about this city which make it worth visiting and/or living in. However to give you a Chileans perspective on this, I think my friend Gabriel summed it up with the following comment ~ "In my opinion, we are far from being the third most "captivating city" but I can see why it´s there, from a foreigners point of view. If you have plenty of money, and time to enjoy the city, Santiago can really be captivating: spend morning time at the ski resorts for cheap price, then come down through beautiful roads, enjoy some latin music, have nice food in Vitacura, stay in amazing hotels, etc... That doesn't make it "liveable", but I think it is, at least more than other Latin American capitals. Yesterday also Santiago was chosen to be the safest city in Latin America, and I also agree with that. We just need to improve our education system, stop building massive apartments (and more parks) and lots of bike lanes. And above all, clean air..."

Lastly here is a song by an American band about Santiago, it´s been my theme song riding around the city on my bike for the last few weeks. It names many places in the city and talks about some of the aspects of life here. Enjoy!

This city is silver in the moon

And mountains heaped with sugar spoons
The click and clatter of my feet
On lonely crooked cobbled streets
Like castanets

Down past the window shutter tie
The hollow of a haunted night
It's raining now out on the beach
The chitter-chatter of my teeth
Like Castanets

I'm following the coffee trail
And drink it black and by the bail
The pesos turn to paper cups
My fingers tremble at the touch
Like castanets

Across the Mapocho
Santa Lucia
Barrio Bella vista
San Cristobal

Across the Mapocho
La Moneda
La Casa de Neruda

And on the cable car I climb
Up to the sacred virgin shrine
This city's smothered in the smog
The snippy-snap of wild dogs
Like Castanets

Tomorrow is Assumption Day
I ask them what they celebrate
Daniello says he can't explain
But he'll be clappin' anyway
Like Castanets

Ohh…Like Castanets