The saga continues

In case anyone was wondering if I'm enjoying my stay in Brazil, here are some highlights from the previous week in Fortaleza: ate a pound of shrimp in one sitting, watched the sunset while swimming in the Caribbean sea, watched the best soccer game I've ever seen (Santos vs Flamengo 5-4), attended a national retreat for Brazil's leading youth activists, and toured the local Ministry of Human Rights (yes there does exist such an institution).

First things first; despite the fact that Brazil has been able to double the size of its middle class in the last 5 years, it still faces enormous obstacles in lifting millions of people out of extreme poverty. There is a long journey ahead, but the government is in the process of developing some impressive infrastructure to lift up its people. I was already envious of the fact that Brazil had a ministry of culture, which is hard to imagine in the states where funding for the arts is more difficult to find that good music on the radio. My envy was multiplied when I learned that Brazil now has a Ministry of Human Rights. Within that ministry, there are separate departments for racial equality, LGBTQ rights, children and youth advocacy, senior citizen advocacy, and people with disabilities. Each department creates public awareness campaigns, hosts free public events, organizes forums and retreats and more, all of which are entirely funded by the government. Imagine the reaction from the employees of the LBGTQ ministry when I told them I come from San Francisco, where there is no such ministry to speak of. These groups have their hands full in their fight for human rights, but the fact that the government has validated their struggle by funding them is an amazing step in the right direction.

To anyone who has even a remote interest in futbol and did not have the fortune of watching Santos vs Flamengo, you have my sympathy (The match ended 5-4 on a late goal from Ronaldinho). You must at least watch this goal from rising star Neymar – one of the best I've ever seen.

Back on the Youth Venture front, I attended yet another inspirational event, entitled Forum de Juventude por Capacitacao, organized by React and Change, whose mission is to combat gender inequality and youth apathy. Although many of the youth were well versed in English, the difficulty of pronouncing "React and Change" led them to the nickname Rachinchin. Youth from all over of the country were selected to participate in this 5 day retreat of workshops, networking and project development. The entire retreat was organized by youth, who managed to secure the selection of participants, lodging and transportation to Fortaleza, as well as funding from sources such as the Brazilian federal government, the U.S. department of state, and several major banks and institutions.

I attended the retreat with Pamela, who shared her life story of activism and social work, inspiring the youth to never give up on their dreams, no matter how grandiose they might seem (more on this below). Like most of her presentations Ive witnessed, this one ended with everyone in the room in tears and exchanging prolonged hugs. Also joining the expedition were 3 GMM youth who shared their own equally inspiring projects of social transformation through hip hop, art, and socially conscious event planning. The group of 40 youth was divided into 4 groups, each working on separate campaign to address domestic violence, homophobia, bullying and youth apathy. I sat in on a break out session with the bullying group, in which they were developing a national network to advance their cause. The retreat ended in a formal graduation, for which I was terribly under dressed, but all was forgiven when everyone removed their jackets and ties and ended the evening with a soul train line.

Simply put, Geracao Muda Mundo is kickin butt. The local program is a seething cauldron of innovation, with new projects being constantly dreamed up and born into reality . Currently in the works are Fora da Mala - a traveling youth art exhibition, Bora Negrada - a local talent showcase, the 2nd annual Festival de Juventude, and last but definitely not least – Africa.

As far as dream realization goes, it doesn’t get much larger than this. Since I first met Pamela, I've heard her relate many times over her dream of working with youth in Africa, which she has been striving for since age 5. Literally right before my eyes, I've seen this dream transform into a direct plan of action. Through a series of serendipitous events, a direct path to Africa materialized in the last week, morphing into something far more ambitious than she had ever dreamed. Now the plan is to mobilize resources to charter an entire plane from Fortaleza to Cape Verde off the northwest coast of Africa. Filling this plane will be 150 youth and social educators from Brazil, all on a unified mission to do community building projects, as a kind of reparations for the slave labor that was used to develop Brazil. Can you imagine how powerful it will be to show the world, that youth are taking matters into their own hands, and taking the initiative to do the work that the government has failed to do? And what if an unlikely American citizen participated in the process? This is not a longshot by any means. Stay tuned...

Oasis Abaiara

My first 24 hours in Fortaleza, Brazil were a strikingly accurate indication of the experiences to come. During that time, my field of vision was occupied by dungeons and dragons on xbox with a 9 year old, a forro (traditional music of northeastern brasil) fundraiser for an orphanage for children with HIV, basketball with youth in flip flops, and the best break dancing cypher ive ever seen. In other words, Ive been instantly immersed into the chaotic, beautiful and inspiring world of Geracao Muda Mundo, the Brazilian manifestation of Youth Venture.


The most inspiring event I've been involved in so far was OASIS Abaiara, a gathering to mobilize a community in the interior of Ceara - a treacherous 11 hour drive from my base in the capital city of Fortaleza. The crew for this journey consisted of Pamela - local GMM leader, Ellen - local community partner and driver, as well as Amanda, Evelyne and Alex - 3 GMM alumni who are now leaders in the program. The 5 smallest members of the team crammed into Ellen's hatchback, which was loaded to the brim with supplies, while Alex and I headed to the bus station for an equally arduous journey.


Due to an annual party taking place in Juazireo do Norte - the closest major city to Abaira, we were forced to take an alternative route which began with a sleepless night in a bus journey to Iguatu, due to the notoriously powerful AC of Brazilian buses. After surviving the opening leg of the journey, we boarded a local minivan to vizare allegre, then another to juaziero do norte, which was interrupted by several encounters with herds of cattle being corralled down the highway. Next was yet another minivan headed to abaira, slowed by a traffic jam caused by a truck that apparently had run over a cow and was awaiting the police and other authorities to retrieve its body from underneath. After arriving on the outskirts of Ãbaira, we made our final transfer onto a random truck which delivered us into the town center of Vila Sao jose.

After transferring in and out of 6 different vehicles and 15 hours of traveling time we were reunited with the rest of the team in the town of Abaira and introduced to the casinha - little house - where we would be sleeping for the next 3 nights. After navigating our way through the 5ft tall door, we were greeted with the first of many amazing home cooked meals, including local specialities like vatapa, baiao do dois, and carne do sol. After lunch, we dove right into the mobilizing that was already under way. The purpose of OASIS is to mobilize community members to dream up ideas for improving their community with the resources they have and organize collective action.


By the time Alex and I arrived, the children of Abaira had already mapped out their dreams for their community and were in the process of narrowing this down into an achievable action plan. The result was a 2 part plan;1) to revitalize the town square and create a playground/ futbol field for the children, and 2) develop a cultural center inside of the church. After brainstorming a plan of action, it was decided that the mobilizing action would be the revitalization of the town square. A small army of children proceeded to clean the town square, and scour the community for any available resources for their project. In addition, the GMM staff went into high gear, posting videos and blog posts on the Internet with a call to action in support of the project. in less than 48 hours they were able to raise over 5000 reais (about $3000) to purchase additional materials on top of the paint, wood, concrete, bricks, and local labor that the children were able to find in the community.


Day 2
The children of Abaira were so eager to begin work on the town square they requested to meet at 6am, although we were able to negotiate and settle for 8am. Thus began one of the longest and most inspirational days of my life. Everyone arrived at the town church with whatever materials they were able to provide - shovels, hammers, paint, wheelbarrows, paint brushes etc, which we proceed to label to ensure they were returned to the owner, and distributed them to several of the older children in the group.

Paint mixing commenced and the children were organized into small groups to focus on different areas of the plaza. Public announcements blasted from the church megaphone, inviting community members to come lend a hand to the project, bringing people out of the wood works, first marveling in curiosity at what the children were doing and then joining in themselves. Workers from the local government arrived, and began creating new benches to replace the ones that had been destroyed fireworks and repairing the road that passed in front of the town church.


The children quickly made their way into the hearts of everyone involved, with their determination to finish painting, going well into the darkness of the night to ensure the project was complete. Along the way, they were cheered on by a local band of cabecal and the 94 year old priest of the local church. In addition to thier work ethic, they easily won me over with thier taste in music. See below;

When night fell, we retired to our casinha and were greeted by one of the community members who had helped organize the support of the local government. She came bearing 2 freshly made cakes for Amanda, who was celebrating her 21st birthday.


On the last day, we closed out with an emotional circle led by Pamela, which ended with everyone exchanging a bounty of hugs and tears. When we returned to our cabin to prepare for our departure, the children tracked us down and delivered a hand written letter, thanking us for inspiring them to take action and promising that they would in turn inspire other children to take similar action.


For our return journey, we piled 5 deep (minus Alex, who was so moved that he decided to stay behind for the weekend to assist in developing the futbol field) into a 2 door hatchback, everyone with a lap full of luggage. We hit the open road around 2pm, beginning our 11 hour journey, which required constant swerving to avoid the potholes that plagued the road. Some were so deep that they required coming to a complete stop and delicately moving forward at a 45 degree angle. Along the way, we passed various entrepreneurial minded individuals who were shoveling dirt into the potholes and soliciting donations for their much needed work.


At 1am we finally returned to Fortaleza, exhausted, covered in paint, sweat, dust and tears and absolutely satisfied.

A video of the journey;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMVE3ApqSZo&feature=player_embedded#at=17

Photos;

https://picasaweb.google.com/gpastoring/GeracaoMudaMundoBrasil