A Month Away from Brazilian Learning!

I was going through the calendar on my phone and realized that we are almost exactly one month away from leaving for our Brazilian adventure!  

I am not nervous about the journey to Brazil.

I am not nervous about exploring Brazil.

I am entirely excited to meet our new partner teachers and colleagues,  and to get to know our new Brazilian students.

I am a bit nervous to work with people (and youth!) in a setting in which I do not fluently (or really much at all!) speak the mother tongue.

I live in Arizona - I can communicate in Spanish to a sufficient-enough degree - but Portuguese, while kind of similar to, is different enough from Spanish that I am a bit concerned.  Surely, it is not an insurmountable issue!  Google Translate has been a god-send, and I'm willing to bet, will continue to be.

I feel a bit embarrassed to admit that, prior to learning my IREX assignment to Brazil, I was not super familiar with much of the country.  Aside from it's geographical location, most of what I knew about Brazil was that which I had learned from an exchange student we had when I was in high school...and most of that was regarding sports, in general....soccer, to be specific.

As I began reading up on Brazil and the political and social climate, I realized just how incredible this immersive experience would be for me.

Poverty is a constant issue - both globally and locally, and is certainly a primary societal issue in Brazil.  The education of homeless youth is a cause very dear to my heart here in the States - while tragic, this is a connection I believe I will be able to very clearly see during my time in Brazil, and it is one I do intend to explore and research while there.

With my eyes wide-open for any and all things "Brazil," I came across a gut-wrenching article from Al Jazeera (source here) that was elaborating upon the issue of unsolved murders of homeless individuals in an area of Brazil not-too-far from where we will be beginning our journey.  The article is dealing with a human rights crisis in Goiana, which is about 210 kilometers from Brasilia.  As I was reading it, I realized a few things:

1. The impoverished and marginalized of society are easy victims - on many scales, and to many degrees of detriment.

2. Intentional victimization of the homeless is not an unfamiliar issue to the States.  While this is happening just outside of the capital of Brazil, it could just as easily be happening just outside the capital of the United States.  No nation is immune to the violation of rights of those unable to speak out on their own behalf.

3. Children living in poverty are doubly at-risk.

The article does not focus on homeless youth, nor does it detail the involvement of the education system in the lives of those young people - but I am eager to continue to learn about the role that teachers play - in the lives of those who live comfortably, but particularly, those who live in poverty and under the specter of homelessness.

It's a heavy responsibility to be a teacher to any child - an even greater one, to those who are at-risk or underserved.

The things that are bouncing around my mind prior to leaving:

- In what ways does Brazil seek to educate it's population of homeless children?

- What roles do teachers play in the lives of these children?

- What learning outcomes are expected from these children?

- What can I learn from the Brazilian educators that can make my own community better?

- How are our experiences shared?  In what ways do our cultures and societies mirror each other through educational practices?