Making Renovations
After only two and a half weeks of computer lessons, the children became much more comfortable and independent using the computers. Also, the behavioral incentive system of rewarding the children’s good behavior with free time on the computers is working well after a few initial glitches. As a result of the improved efficiency, we were able to manage the computer room with just two team members, which provided us with an opportunity to get started on another component of our project—structural renovations.
Renovations have been focused on the gnarled concrete lot that the children called a playground. This area consists of a small soccer pitch and a smaller children’s play area. After playing and watching a few games of futebol (soccer) on the pitch, we were able to make some priorities. First, the soccer pitch and the younger children’s area needed to be separated by some sort of fence. This decision was made after we saw one too many soccer balls whiz past the goal into congregations of toddlers playing on the small jungle gym in the children’s area. In addition to protection from wild soccer shots, the fence also provides a designated space for the younger children, ultimately making it easier for the social moms to monitor and keep the meninos (younger children) safe.
To construct the fence, we collected scrape metal left behind from a past construction project and hired a local welder to make it into a functional, aesthetically pleasing fence. After four days of cutting and melting together pieces of metal, the welder—who did not wear protective eye-wear of any kind while staring into the 2,000*F flame of his welding gun—was able to finish the fence and make repairs on the ragged playground equipment.
Finally, the fence and playground equipment were fully functional, but they still looked rather dingy. 
So, we borrowed a paint sprayer, bought a few brushes and cans of paint, and covered the playground equipment and fence in a new coat of bright Brazilian colors (green, yellow, and blue). While painting the equipment, most children were anxious to help but some created trouble. For example, one fourteen-year-old boy said he wanted to help clean up and poured some paint thinner on a rag and walked off. I followed and asked him where he was going and in response he threatened to punch me and then ran away to huff the paint-thinner-soaked rag to get high. This was just another unfortunate reminder about the struggles the kids here are facing and their attempts to escape from them.
After safely putting away the paint, we immediately began our next project, which involved the repair and construction of a waste-water runoff system. 
On one side of the soccer pitch, there used to be a trench that constantly collected sewer runoff. During each soccer match that we played with the children, the ball would fly into the open trench and get covered in a foul smelling mix of water, mud, and other unsanitary materials. Each time the ball got covered in this sewer slime, the children became less motivated to play (I cannot blame them). In addition to the obvious health hazards, the open sewer trench contained stagnant water that provided ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes, which are potential vectors of dengue fever, a disease common to the area.
Unfortunately, the construction of the waste water system has not been going as smoothly as the construction of the fence. The laborer that we hired, supposedly an expert in masonry and the hardest worker in the area, seemed to have the notion that he could make some extra cash by ripping off the American volunteers. 
A project costing 1,000 Reais (USD 600.00) mysteriously became 2,850 Reais after two days of work. The worker claimed that, because the work was very arduous, the common daily rate of 50 Reais would not suffice. He also made it clear that if we paid him the normal rate he would purposely be lazy and make a five-day job into a fifteen-day job. To add to the complication, the laborer spoke slang-ridden Portuguese and could understand little of what we were trying to explain. After getting another worker from the orphanage to help us communicate, the laborer angrily walked away from the orphanage. During the following evening, we tried to decide what would be the best option—hire a new laborer or hope that the old laborer showed up the next day to continue our discussion with him. We decided we would try and keep good relations, get the job done more quickly, and thus do the latter.
The following day, the laborer showed up and we had another hour of business negotiations, half of which was lost in translation. We ultimately agreed to pay the worker for the days that he had already worked and determine a price for the project in total when he would finish the job. For the next week Betto, the laborer, and myself worked side by side to complete the waste water system. The laborer, still angry at us for not giving into the price he wanted, made us do the most monotonous, trying work that consisted of shoveling and carting off thousands of pounds of dirt.
After a week of hard work and newly calloused hands, we ran into another cost problem. We had to buy a sewer grate, which we initially thought was already paid for. We went back to our trusted welder to ask him his price and he quoted us a hefty 3,300 Reais—a price our budget could not handle. For the next few hours, we quickly brainstormed how we could build a cheaper alternative to the sewer grate. Fortunately, we were able to find a young welder across the street who was eager to establish his new business and thus, might do it for less. We apprehensively asked him how much it would cost for him to build the sewer grate. He went outside to assess the foundation the sewer grate would go on top. After punching in seemingly random numbers in his pocket calculator the new welder gave us his price—1,400 Reais. After half an hour, we were able to bargain him down to 1,000 Reais. During our discussion, the new welder noted that the foundation for the grate was incorrectly built. That is, the sleazy laborer we decided to keep in order to get the job done fast and right had not done his job correctly. Nonetheless, in four hours, the sewer grill went from an infeasible 3,300 Reais to a viable 1,000. This proceeding just reiterated a couple of lessons we have learned while in Brazil: 1) do not get disappointed by a seemingly bad situation too soon 2) always ask more than once.
While the days are long (8:00am to 5:30pm), our time at Criamar is passing quickly. In addition to the work that we are doing, the days are filled with interesting (both good and bad) experiences. As I was writing this blog, three teenage boys broke out in a full fist fight just in front of the computer lab door. We have played soccer with twelve-year-olds that have better ball handling skills than I. We have been on a bus full of screaming kids singing the “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” game in Portuguese. We saw a fifteen-year-old boy pull a knife on the director of the orphanage.
Every day we find more out about each of the kids’ personal lives and gain a better understanding of why they behave the way they do. 
We have taught the kids common American games, like rock-paper-scissors, and have learned just as many of the Portuguese counterparts. We have seen a fourteen-year-old boy get more work done in a day than a paid, thirty-year-old laborer. We drank small shards of plastic that supposedly were slipped into our orange juice by an angry child trying to poison us. We have participated in an entirely different style of construction, in which building is more of a haphazard art than a trade. We have spent more hours than I thought possible shopping for a fan, which is extremely expensive and demands many bureaucratic forms in Brazil. We are constantly surrounded by high volume vocals, whether it is a child yelling animal sounds or a good-natured but nonetheless heated political debate (in Portuguese) at the dinner table. We have had computers shock us because there are no grounding wires in Brazil. We saw a nine-year-old boy who had only used a computer once or twice in his life become proficient in computer navigation and typing in just two and a half weeks.