Firstly... I apologise for my lack of blogs.
A lot has happened since my last blog post. We left Rio shortly after I wrote that blog and travelled to São Paulo - a very different Brazilian environment. The quicker pace of activity in São Paulo was evident as soon as we got into Congonhas Airport (the airport in São Paulo). I think the majority, if not all, of the fellows were sad to leave the relaxed atmosphere of Rio but at the same time the change let me know that we were moving on and that we definitely had many more things in Brazil to experience.
Meeting my host family was one of the most daunting things I've ever had to do... honestly. I was so nervous... about so many things: whether they would like me, whether we would be able to communicate properly, where I would be staying, what the school would be like... but mostly whether they would like me.
Looking back now, I can say that the nerves were in vain because I couldn't have had a better experience. They made me feel like one of their own and I learnt so much from them. On the first weekend they took me to this little market town in São Paulo called Embu and it was beautiful. There were stalls and shops filled with Brazillian handcrafts of all kinds from jewellry to furniture and it was lovely to walk around - I did a lot of "oooo's" and "ahhhh's." Throughout the week I got up early and went to school with my host sister Maria - Julia who is 16 and in the evenings we had the chance to get to know each other and by the end of the 2 weeks I felt very attached to them - even, (shamefully), sharing a couple of tears when it came to goodbyes.
During my time there my host family took me to two restaurants and I got the chance to try even more food... which I loved. We went to a Japanese restaurant and a steak house and both times I came out adament that I would never eat again because I was so full. The Japanese food was amazing but the steak house was particularly memorable. There, I had the chance to use a bit of portugese and ordered a pasta dish which I was proud of and if I was paid based on the amount of times I said "não obrigada (no thank you)," to the waiters who brought ridiculous amounts of meat to the table, I know I would be a very rich lady. I also tried a chicken heart which was... sausage like... and my host family practically had to force-feed me to get me to try it and having tasted it, I think the one time is definitely enough.
Talking to the host family proved difficult initially because of the language barrier. Don't get me wrong, their english was good, despite their lack of confidence but a Brazillian accent can be difficult to understand sometimes, as I'm sure my own London accent was to them. By the 2nd week however, I could pretty much determine their sentences before they finished them which made conversation a lot easier as they didn't have to struggle to mentally translate portugese words into english. Nonetheless, I felt guilty at times. I didn't have much of a chance to learn more portugese and this was because they did their best to speak english as much as possible to make me feel comfortable. I just thought that being in Brazil, I should do what the Brazillians do... speak portugese.
The 2nd phase of the trip has given me a chance to reflect upon language and the people that I had met so far and I felt really inspired by the drive to learn more languages. My host, (of which there were 3 girls and their lovely mother), all spoke portugese and a good level of english, except my youngest host sister who knew the very basics. My host sister Maria - Julia also knew basic spanish and had private english lessons as well as a school english classes. I love how dedicated she was to learning english and she recognised the barriers that she would break by doing so. I reflected on the fact that the erosion of language barriers has aided considerably in globalisation and how my host sister recognised that by knowing english she would benefit in the long-run. After pondering on that I started to make comparisons to the UK and I personally feel that the British students aren't encouraged enough to learn languages and with predictions that say that Portuguese will soon become one of the most important languages in the world, maybe French to a basic gcse level isn't enough for the future generations of the UK to interact in an integrated world.
Being at Collegio São Luis however was a true learning experience. I am truly grateful for the British education system. I took the opportunity to sit in some of the classes and observe the lessons and I guess the consensus on the atmosphere of the lessons there was very subjective. Some of the fellows felt that the lessons were pretty similar to that of our own. Others disagreed and argued that Brazillian students didn't have much respect for the teachers and didn't regard education too highly.
In my opinion, whilst I could definitely see similarities in the classroom to my own educational experience, I did feel that the students at São Luis in the morning were a lot more relaxed than I would have ever been allowed to be in my own school. Maybe this slight disappointment was due to us fellows expecting a hardworking environment. However, I was only able to witness morning students as my host went to school in the morning. I heard that the evening students had a very different experience and hopefully future fellows will be able to experience both sides.
Having now entered university finally I'm grateful for our university admissions system despite the stress it causes. Brazilians have a very different experience. Entering university in Brazil appeared to be rather traumatic to me, the stress put onto one test is immense and I met several Brazilians who took out a year just to study for that particular exam; medicine hopefuls who had been studying for 5 years and had failed 5 university exams because that was the route they had chosen. In the UK, students are presented with other options to get employment or make careers for themselves whereas Brazil, to put bluntly, offers university or poverty. Of course situations are never that black and white but I hope that in the near future, the Brazilian government looks into transforming their education system. After having conversations with the fellows and watching their presentations, one of the messages that stuck in my mind was: "education is development," with this I do agree.