Drip Drip Drop (Part I)

An old fable that tells how, when the forest was burning and all the animals stood around watching, the tiny hummingbird flew back and forth from the river to the fire throwing one drop of water on it at a time.  When the other animals asked how the hummingbird thought it could actually make a difference, he replied, "It's the best I can do."  Thus was borne the theme of this year's GIN of the America's Conference.

The idea of the GIN Conference (Global Issues Network) is a student-led forum focusing on environmental and social topics, which is held around the world.  The conference is new to South America - this is only the second annual event here - but has been present and immensely successful annually in other continents including Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America for many years.

This year's conference was hosted by another American international school a short drive away in São Paulo and included schools from Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and even my old school in Colombia.

Throughout the three days students heard numerous keynote speakers on a variety of topics, many young eco-entreprenuers, as well as attended workshops presented by their peers on various projects, campaigns, and initiatives they have been working on at their respective schools.

It was impressive and inspiring to here the work and successes of students working to end malaria, create sustainable recycling programs in poor neighborhoods, and increase technological literacy for orphans, among many other projects.  Anyone who thinks the world's youth is on downward spiral needs to attend a GIN Conference to see otherwise.

Keynote speaker Bruno Massote, current president of Terracycle in Brazil,
talks about the concept of "eco-capitalism."  He's 29 years old.

One of my students presenting on improving literacy
of favila children through story-telling workshops.

Students from Venezuela discussing their project of recycling & reformatting
computers for use in teaching necessary basic computer skills to orphans
living in poverty in their city of Maracaibo.

Coming soon: Drip Drip Drop (Part II) will include profiles of projects the students I advise are working on.

Centimeter by Centimeter

As opposed to "Inch by Inch"

The business hasn't slowed down and looks to keep up for awhile.  I honestly haven't been this busy since my first year teaching!  I guess that's what four new courses, a new age group, and school will do to you.  I've been so busy I went and sailed swiftly and ignorantly past my two month point; a perfect time for a check in on progress.  

Fortunately, there has been some and I need to remind myself of this more often, especially when the lady at the bakery is simply asking me if I want a bag or not and all I want to do is snatch my croissant and change from her hand and run down the street screaming.

A few more caipirinha-filled afternoons
would be nice...

• I am finally wrapping my thick Gringo skull around centigrade.  My Canadian friends can now rejoice!  The temperature never really fluctuated much in Cali (Colombia) so I new what the lower to mid-30's felt like...and then my education into the mysterious "C" pretty much went on permanent vacation.  There are seasons here, which means fluctuation.
• My trainer at the gym invited me to play soccer with him and some of his friends.  Despite falling down once and being stuck in goal for the seven most terrifying minutes of my life, I appreciated the blind support and encouragement, from everyone.  According to my trainer, "In Brazil, we just like to play the game and have a good time; it doesn't matter if you're good."  It should be noted he said this before I even stepped on the pitch.
• I just discovered a built-in cutting board in my kitchen.
• The number of parent emails I have been receiving keeps going down exponentially by the week.  So, thus far my goal for surviving middle school - covering my rear ten times - seems to be working.
• I finally passed the One Direction quiz.  (Pass = above 60%)

Success in Portuguese is not on this list.

Little by little, bit by bit, pouco a pouco...

Forecast: Frio

In 6th grade science we are studying changes of states of matter.  I hit my own freezing point today.

Supposedly, spring began last week.  That was the word on the street sometime last week.  I didn't take much notice as to the exact date as the end of "winter" was fairly pleasant with cool mornings, crystal-clear blue and sunny skies all day, and a nice gentle breeze in the evenings.  I felt more of the same was on the horizon.

Last week was close to 35˚C (around 95˚F) and humid.  The air-conditioning in my classroom broke and I found out the nice evening breeze doesn't blow straight into my apartment, but parallel to it.  I slept on top of the covers with the ceiling fan on high.

Then today this happened:

I wore my jacket all day long.  And I wished the entire time I also had a sweater.  Now I know I am shaming my Minnesota roots with this admission of meteorologic weakness, however, 55˚F is not warm.  After being free of the hardy mid-west winters for over five years and adjusted to the eternally summer heat of Cali, I would not have snubbed my nose at a parka today.

So, is this a freak event?  According to the forecast, Campinas will have to endure one more day of this:

You know its a bad sign when the temperature color gradient only goes from frio (cold) to mais frio (colder).

The weather was so ridiculous the other night between intermittent splashes of rain and the whistling, whipping wind - my window shutters on the 14th floor woke me up at 4:30am - you would have thought a hurricane was-a-comin' were Campinas not a good 96 km inland.

Found this posted on Facebook during the deep freeze.
Title: "Temperature of the Day in Campinas"
Switch Settings: Alaskan Cold, Tornado Wind, Hard Rain
and Desert Heat

I know its getting colder in the northern hemisphere, but down here on the flip-side of the equator I feel it should be going the other way.  Come June when the school year is coming to a close and winter is setting in, I will be happy to escape to the warm Minnesota summer sun.

I don't feel its too much to ask for Brazil to get its seasons straight.  Or reversed.  Or whatever they're supposed to be down here!

Someone Needs An Education (Edition I)

Teaching Middle School students has given me a newfound appreciation for what I apparently do not know.  This is a semi-frequent post series high-lighting things I, according to my students, should be educated on.  I share my education with you all...

 This is One Direction:

They are a British boy-band from some prior season of that country's X-Factor reality show contest.  Every middle school girl wants to marry them.  They are the imported N*SYNC - and New Kids On The Block before that - of this generation.  Except they all look twelve.

Except they're not twelve.  They are [average age] nineteen.

They also apparently have names.  If you don't know them you are old and lame.

Two of these 19 year-old pop tarts have tattoos.  These two go by "Harry" and "Zayn" (not a misspelling, by the way).  One's social standing amongst friends could potentially be ruined if you a) do not have an opinion on said tattoos and b) if your opinion is wrong.

How did I escape this loaded question unscathed and blissfully still ignorant?

Well, it turns out "Harry" has been inked only a couple times.  "Zayn," however, has eight.  Or maybe nine.  Or eight.  This was a hot-button issue and, fearing for my life, I saw my escape and side-shuffled away just in time.

Lesson Learned: "Clean-cut," parent-friendly teeny-boppers singing harmless, catchy puppy-love songs apparently rival some bikers in the tat department.  What would Joey McIntyre think?!?

******EDITED TO ADD (21 - September, 2012)******

These girls aren't messing around.  Today I received a quiz.  One question, five points, spelling counts.

I failed.

Fortunately, the policy at my school holds that for any summative assessment where the student scores less than 70% they have the opportunity to do a "retake."  As you can see, I was kindly extended this option.


For your advanced education:

190 Candles

In the city of Campinas, the morning of September 7th would be a great day to rob a house and a terrible day to have a power outage or a heart attack.

That's because every single one of the city's police, medical workers, ambulances, utility trucks, and even school busses are making their way down the Independence Day parade route.  And based on this experience, Campinas does overkill well.

After a long delayed start, the parade began with a proverbial flexing of the muscles that every country is allowed to do on their country's birthday.  Every branch and regiment of the military and municipal police force marched down the street in full dress, lead by the (very good) Military Band.  This includes bike cops, police dogs, and ambulance drivers among others.

 

Then we all waited some more and along came the corps of public employees.  This being a national day off from work, I'm sure they were all thrilled to have to marching down the street waving at all those they service.  The crowning moment - after all the power, gas, and electric workers and their vehicles passed by - was the parade of never-ending school-busses.  

Arguably the worst part of the parade for all the kids trying to enjoy
their day off of school.

Now, I could be wrong, being that my Portuguese is still "developing," but I think these may have been new busses for the city's schools and this was their grand premier.  The crowd's excitement was moderate at the beginning and faded exponentially with each subsequent vehicle.

There was yet another long mysterious break, at which point various marching bands and city-wide organizations had their moment in the pavement.  I tried to use today as a practice session for future processional-like events I may want to photograph, such as Carnival, however, I may need a few more practices; parades are surprisingly challenging to photograph well.  Regardless, here are a few shots from the rest of the event:

I'm pretty certain this is the Campinas chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance.
But I don't speak Portuguese so I could be wrong.

Happy 190th Birthday, Brazil!

I Only Live Here

"It's her house, you just happen to live there."

This was the response I received several years ago after battling a silent weekly battle with my first maid.  I felt that my short white socks should be kept in the same drawer with my work-out attire.  I never really wore them at any other time than on runs and trips to the gym so that made perfect sense to me.  The Help, however, felt my socks would rather reside next to my equally white t-shirts, a few drawers away.

She eventually won.

Today I got my first visit from my new maid.  I am convinced there is a maid handbook replete with universal advise for how the employer should be living.

Allow me to take you on tour of my first-day-after discoveries...

Exhibits A & B: I believe a ruler was used.  All items perfectly aligned to the edges and each other?  Check.  Evenly distributed with equal parts space and materials?  Check.  Coasters precision fanned?  Check.

(Why my camera charger and US cell phone need to be on my night stand I can not yet answer.)

Exhibit C: Let the war begin.  I understand needing to clean the glass.  However, dropping the used wine corks down into the vase so that they are all standing upright requires both skill and time.  I tried.  We'll see how long this battle can be kept up; the number of corks will only grow so this could get interesting!

Exhibit D: Well, "Olá!" new potted plant on my kitchen table!  Where did you come from?  I guess my apartment was not as aesthetically pleasing as it should heave been.  My apologies. 

Exhibit E: The other war.  These glass storage containers - coffee, sugar, rice, and oats - were lined up single-file along the back counter wall when I left for work.  Now they are interpreting the ancient pyramids.  What if I don't want to eat oats next?  

Exhibit "pièce de résistance": The Code of the Unadorned Nail.  To quote the International Maid Handbook, "Leave no metal protrusion of the wall naked when you leave the residence.  Any object would be fortunate to have the elevated vantage point of a picture frame or coat hook and should be displayed with pride."


"I don't know why Bananagrams is hanging from my bedroom wall," I will tell future visitors to my apartment, "I only live here."

School House Rock

Following the brief (by no fault other than its own) city tour, I now present to you minha escola:

Upper School computer, math, and science classrooms.
The large pine trees to the left are the school's mascot's namesake: Go Giants!

Hallway outside my classroom.

The front half of my beautifully spacious classroom. 

The back lab half of my classroom.  (Complete with busy little 6th graders!)

The rest of the Upper School campus.

The bottom of campus: picnic area, cafeteria, gymnasium, playing fields...

There are monkeys on campus too.  Little tiny ones.  One of these days I hope to have a camera on hand to catch one in action.  Photos from the tree top canopies don't do the little simians justice.