Back.

I once read that anyone who wants to have a successful blog (and here I suppose successful means widely read) must update regularly. If that's the case, then I think I've failed. Alas. The internet situation was a bit complicated these past week or so; hopefully I'll be a bit more consistent again.

Some good news is that I've finally started working. It feels nice to be productive again. It feels even nicer to be learning new things, and meeting new people, and seeing more of Brazil.

The place that I'm working at (hereafter referred to as P.) is an NGO based in Rio de Janeiro. They do a wide range of things. They're best known for their work with young men to prevent violence and promote gender equality, but they've expanded into programs for women empowerment, promoting the acceptance of sexual diversity, promoting children's rights. Lots of stuff done through various campaigns, such as no-words videos or training manuals to lead workshops to educate people and to promote critical reflection about stereotypes and issues in their lives.

My role so far is to work on English content and/or editing of the website, of various training manuals, and of a toolkit that they're putting together for the UN. The nice thing about this organization is that they do a lot of local work, but they also do a lot of international work. So, for example, the work that they did with young men has been adapted in India, and I can look at a book with Hindi cartoons, and pretty soon (although probably after I leave), they'll have a similar Tamil version.

I've been learning a lot through this. It seems to be a great blend of academics and hands-on applications. Who knows, maybe it will lead me to do a public health degree. If you want the name of the organization, let me know and I'll email it to you. I'm trying to keep this blog as anonymous as possible.

I began working last Monday. Thursday was a national holiday, so it was a short week, and a long four day weekend. Raj got sick on Wednesday, though, so a couple of those days were spent at home, hoping he felt better and wondering whether he needed to see a doctor.

On Saturday evening, we went to see a Brazilian guitarist named Guigno. It was an instrumental set that lasted for a little over an hour, the main guitarist accompanied by another and by a clarinet player. It was so beautiful. It made me really miss my oboe, and it made me really appreciative for the chance to have been a musician in my past, and potentially to become a musician again in my future. Once I get back and start working (and live in a city for more than two months), hopefully I can start taking lessons again.

After the concert, we walked a bit around Lapa, the 'happening' part of Rio. Lapa is a place where the streets are always crowded at night, shared by families, young people, and prostitutes, and everyone kind of blends in happily and minds their own business. Henriqué showed us a really cool bar/lounge/restaurant - it's an old antique store, and it has three different floors, each with tons of different rooms and nooks to sit, drink, eat, and chat. On the bottom floor there's a band and people dancing (samba? salsa? some sort of dance that Leyla can probably do, and I definitely can't, and that one day I may take classes in), and the two floors above have balconies overlooking it so that you can watch. It's a crazy, wonderful atmosphere - very lively, and happy, and extremely kitschy, what with the display of chairs on the ceiling or typewriters by the stairs. I've never been anywhere like it before. We only stayed for a few minutes to check it out, but hopefully we'll go back sometime.

My Portuguese is perhaps slowly improving. I haven't been focused enough on Pimsleur, or Portuguese for Dummies, or Teach Yourself Portuguese, but I go to lunch everyday with some people from work, and the conversation is generally in Portuguese, so that's a good impetus to learn. I've found that if I focus, I can pick up anywhere from 20 to 35% of what's being said, but after I've eaten a bit and start to get a little sleepy, it's easy to fall into my own thoughts and tune it out. Everyone is quite nice, though, and speaks in English when they do talk to me, but I do feel like I should try to use Portuguese whenever I can since I am in Brazil. Sometimes it's just so embarrassing to be an American, what with our monolingualism (as a nation, not just me personally) and our limited knowledge of any world events or history not directly pertaining to us or our European roots. I think most people at P. are at least bilingual, and generally trilingual. It's quite impressive.