Week 2 of work

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Back to work on Monday and it was the same kind of motions as last week: some youngsters just continually cried while little Davien and Ehnah were a bundle of joy and fun. The ladies who work with us go about their day and let us slip into their system of feeding, rocking and playing with the children. By noon I am tired and ready to set off home/hostel bound. I love these children but my goodness they are a lot of work! We decided to get some rays today, so we headed further south than hostel all the way to the famous Impanema beach. Its amazing how less full it is on week days in comparison to the weekend, and finding a spot near the water was easy. We had the whole afternoon to soak up the heat, but the NO SWIMMING signs were up in their red glory because the pull and waves were so strong. I attempted to have a cool off dip but the timing to even enter the water without being swallowed, spun and spat out by the next huge wave was impossible for me so I stuck to the showers. There was even one rescue made that occurred nearby us not soon after my mission failed! We stayed on the beach, bargaining down the price of some sarongs and napping in the sun until the sun began to set, at which point we headed over to the Arpoador rocks down the beach for the view. Watching such a change in the colour of the sky as the sun sinks behind the mountains can never get boring for me, and we had the amusement of daring surfers below us dodging the rocks to catch the huge waves.



I don’t have much to report to you all about Tuesday, as much as I enjoyed my time with my favourite kids in the age group 1 to 2 years. But on Wednesday it was back to the little babies, and for once majority of them were asleep at the same time, and earlier than planned at around 11. This gave us an hour of peace to see them sleeping in the most hilarious but-up or star-fish positions their little bodies could achieve. We tried to stop at a clothing market on the way home but none of the people around us spoke English so we couldn’t find out if we were even in the right area let alone which way to head – mission failed. Our Brazilian friends we made on our hike in Tijuca forest had told us about some Jazz happening in a square called Parque Tiradentes. I asked the cool reception guys who I have become good friends with (through my countless questions and enquiries) and one told me he was going himself and it was well worth our time. We arrived into an alternative university crowd enjoying the live and festive jazz happening in the centre on the stage, and I loved it. Not only was the music good, but we were surrounded by old buildings and one chapel which were all illuminated giving it a majestic feel to the night.



So we are a group of gap-year youth, before or after the undergrad period in our lives and into the wild side. This is a terrible excuse but I’m sorry mum, you only live once and I’m living large. NO I didn’t try some dangerous and exotic drug, NO I did not rob a bank and NO I did not get a tattoo… however a bunch of us have decided to get a piercing so that Rio can leave its (temporary) mark. The problem was that all the tattoo parlours in our area were damn expensive because of the rent they have to keep up with, so we decided the area where we work at would be a lot cheaper, and possibly not too dodgy… we hoped. We walked into the parlour before work to check out the price, and it was a third of what they were asking for in our area, so we were all in for the event after work was finished.



Work was my best yet, not only because I was working with the above 1 year-olds, but because my favourite boy Pedro now comes to me for kisses and hugs. Some of the other children broke into the bathroom next door and had a water party out of the sinks, only to be dragged out by one of the ladies leaving a trail of puddles behind them. They were dried, changed, and sent to sit against the wall while one of the ladies came over to them a scolded them. They gazed my tearfully and bewildered as they were told how naughty they were, and I sat opposite amazed at the torture they felt of being in the naughty corner. Eventually the lady turned around to face me, seemingly done with the lesson, until she burst out laughing at the entire situation, hugging me and telling me how funny they looked in Portuguese. (Which I somehow got the gist of) It was a fun day with this bunch, even when I opened up a nappy to find a dirty surprise… it took only one flabbergasted look at one of the ladies and the little shit (or not so little) was whisked away for a wipe and wash. Phewf!



The walk back from work was a lot faster because most of us were eager to see if Teddy’s claims were true about his family trait of inability not to faint or go queasy from needles. For this reason he went first for all of our entertainment. He was getting an earring in the top of his ear and they did sterilized the earring before hand as well as drawing the long needle out of a sealed green packet in his store box. At this point I should have closed my eyes for my own imaginations sake but curiosity got the better of me and I joined my camera and Matt’s iPhone in soaking up Teddy’s hilarious facial expressions as the needle went through his ear, followed by the earring, followed by the guy taking a quick break outside to say hi to his girl before returning with the ball of the earring to secure it. His face went rather pale so we made him lie down on the rickety hospital bed in the corner of the small room till he regained normality. Sadly there was no dramatic faint from Teddy, and I was next on the hot seat. It took me long enough to decide on the position of my nose ring and after the nod o approval from Charlotte I sat down and gave the guy (Wallace, who was about to stab my nostril with a long needle) one of my full, double row grins accompanied by my pristine Portuguese sentence: ´Tudo Bem´. He got his one finger (gloved might I add) snugly inside my nostril while the other hand jerked the needle into my nose. As much as I was prepared to spew out as many swearwords I knew in multiple languages, I felt hardly any pain from the jab. I kept my eyes closed while he fiddled around with the large needle and nose stud, all the way through the uncomfortable scrapping and stubbing of the needle inside my nose as he tried to angle it out what I though was my large nostril. When I got the ‘all done’ from charlotte, I opened my eyes to see a tiny sparkle of an obstruction in my view. (Being that of the new addition to my face) I was chuffed it didn’t hurt and smiling away, until a hot flush hit me, and I blurted out ‘I don’t feel so-’ and that’s as much as I remember before I feel down, head between my knees like a rag doll in the midst of a weird deep dream about robots (I think) accompanied by the loud background Brazilian music that was playing in the tattoo parlour. I came to rather slowly and startled, opening my eyes to see strange faces of men peering over me while I was lying down. Was I in South Africa, was I in Europe, what had I been doing, who were these strange men, oh my god have I been ‘Taken’??? I got up only to be pushed back down which confused me further, until I heard charlotte repeating ‘its okay Josie, you just fainted’ while Matt cracked up in the background. When I got the puzzle of my brain organized and realized what had just happened, I burst out laughing and clapping, only to change the worried look on the tattoos face to that of a completely startled and confused stare. I sure had them stressing to the point they had whipped me up onto the hospital bed for a fanning. Once again, I was well rested and full of beans after my second experience of fainting. After the whole ordeal I felt fabulous and Wallace (the guy who had his finder up my nose moment earlier) insisted on a picture and giving us his card with his ‘facey-booky’ address on it. What an afternoon.



To tie up the day, we had a Tappis evening for Kenny and Charlottes last night. For those of you who have no idea what that means, its when each person brings an appetizer size of their own dish to the meal and share it with the group until a selection of different dishes covers the dinner table. The two boys, Teddy and Matt, are more of the dish cleaners rather than cookers in our group (to put it lightly) but they were no aloud to step down from the challenge. With a little help they made their own dish each and the night’s meal was a real eclectic feast: Sushi, burgers, ravioli, stir-fry, brochette, bacon-wrapped chicken, sausages, you name it! I’m going to miss this gang!

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Photos

My fav boys
Lucas and Pedro