Making Renovations
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
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.
When the construction of the new computer lab was complete, we began computer classes. We teach four one-hour classes each day during which we attempt to maintain order while instructing. Often we end up running around in circles. The classes are divided by age, but surprisingly age does not match up with ability. Many of the children are very bright, but some have mild to severe learning disabilities and even the best behaved still act up. 
Most of them do not have much familiarity with computers, so we had to start with the very basics, for example how to turn on the computers safely. Jimmie has been installing educational programs and our little students are learning quickly and having fun. They have progressed from typing programs, to using a word processor, to exploring the internet. Some things, however, remain challenging for them (and amusing for us), such as their failed attempts to understand the difference between single and double clicking with the mouse.
All you can offer in those instances is the “I-have-know-idea-what-you-just-said” smile, as Jimmie puts it, and start all over, trying to help them with their computer. At the end of the day we are exhausted, but we know that in the morning, smiling faces will be waiting at the door to greet us and beg to be let into the computer lab. In addition to being little monsters at times, the children of Criamar have demonstrated genuine excitement to use the computers and we are surprised by their capacity in this endeavor. The learning curve has been incredible in some cases. Children who had never touched a computer are now beginning to help others when they run into obstacles.
Additionally, the computer lab is serving as a badly needed behavioral incentive for the orphanage. With the help and cooperation of the social moms, we have developed a discipline and reward system that has the prospects of creating some sense of order. As incentive for good behavior (which can be a rarity here), when the children complete all of their responsibilities they are allowed to have free time on the computers after class ends. Their responsibilities are seemingly simple: good personal hygiene, going to school, doing their chores, and respecting their social mom, but the children here are rebellious. We are using behavioral charts to keep track of their progress. For each house we built one chart with all of the children’s names on it and the days of the week. We provided the social moms with different colored pins to represent each responsibility that the children are required to complete in a day. This way we can visually represent who is making progress. The children at Criamar have little sense of inappropriate conduct and without an incentive to behave, they can be wild. Integrating the computer lab and the behavior system has given the social moms more control and the children absolutely love the free time. And they love to cry and throw a fit if they don’t get free time, which is good in a sense, because it means the system is beginning to work. The children value free time and immediately regret acting badly. Each morning before starting the computer classes we visit all of the social moms to chat and check the charts that we developed to see who has been good and who can have free time that day. So far it seems to be working. More of them are doing their chores and behaving well, especially when they see that their friends who have behaved well are playing on the computers.
Computer classes are successfully moving forward for the time being, but we have become concerned with the future viability of the program. We found ourselves wondering what would ensure that the computers remain functional and the children continue to learn after we leave. In order for our impact to be sustainable we had to come up with a creative solution. Earlier, we had thought we would like to involve the high school students at the American School of Brasilia (EAB) in a volunteer project with Criamar, especially since Emily Dobson, a teacher at EAB, was already highly involved with orphanage. Now it seems that the continued success of our computer education program might depend on it. Having students from EAB engaged with the children at Criamar will be beneficial as a service learning experience for the high school students and to sustain the growing program.
We finished the computer room in a single week. As none of us have spent much time doing physical labor, we were all eager to try our hand at construction. Jimmie and Betto began the renovation of the shabby, grafitti-covered room by knocking a door-sized hole in the wall and filling in the hole where the previous door had been—Dirson and Angelica had decided that it would be beneficial to have the door to the computer room facing the door to the office. Jimmie and Betto helped a hired worker to install the new door while Casey and I sanded the concrete-and-plaster walls.
At a loss for what to do while Jimmie and Betto were taking their turn, Casey and I spent several hours clearing the concrete soccer field and playground of the garbage that littered the area and had collected in the corners. We had noticed that the young children, many of whom are too young to understand the danger in eating plastic bags and used Q-Tips, use the field and playground from 4:00-5:00 every day. There are too many children to allow the “social moms” to keep an eye on every one of them, and Casey and I had witnessed more than one child begin to chew a wad of gum that he or she had peeled off of the crumbling cement. We thought, when we cleaned the field and playground, that we were helping the “social moms” do a job that needed to be done but that they themselves were too busy to do. We soon discovered that they, in fact, were responsible for the build-up of refuse, the field and playground being a convenient dumping ground that, unlike a garbage can, does not need to be emptied.
With the room finally plastered, we began painting. Once again, we were faced with too many hands and too few paintbrushes. However, we painted the entire room in a single afternoon. The young boys were equally as enthusiastic about painting as they were about sweeping and there were numerous blobs of pale green paint all over the tile floor by the time we were finished. We were then faced with the problem of procuring desks on which to put the computers. We had the three laptops that Jimmie, Casey, and I carried into the country and two desktops that appeared quite unexpectedly in the storeroom at Criamar while we were searching for paint. The three additional laptops that Casey shipped from Austin are, as of now, still stuck at Brasilia International Airport. We had originally intended to build desks for the computers but as we talked with Dirson and Angelica, we discovered that we did not need to, as there were several desks not in use already at Criamar.
With the room finished and the desks and computers in place, we began the process of acquiring educational software for the children to use. We had decided, when we first discussed the possiblity of a computer room, that teaching the children how to type ought to be one of our first priorities. Thus, Jimmie, our computer guru, spent hours sifting through various typing programs available on the internet in order to find one that works, is virus-free, and would be effective in teaching the children how to type. We settled on one and sat down to plan our first class. Half of the children attend school in the morning and half in the afternoon. Thus, we decided to have two sections in the morning and two in the afternoon. There would be a section for the younger children and a section for the older children in both the morning and the afternoon.
Over the next couple of days, we started construction on what was to be the new computer room. With hammer and chisel, Jimmie and I started breaking away a space for the electricity and internet wires. As Dirson wanted to have the computer room door facing his office for security purposes, we also hammered a giant hole in the wall. In all, it felt as though we spent more time breaking down their orphanage than building new things for them. Meanwhile, Claire and Casey were getting to know all the kids and hearing their thoughts on our project.
We really wanted to make ourselves useful, but we had to pay a construction worker to come and do the more technical aspects of the room. In the afternoons, Jimmie and I tried to organize soccer games, but the enthusiasm was mild.
We finally got one from a locked storage room and wondered why the staff would keep a simple toy as a soccer ball away from the children. One day, however, we arrived at the orphanage to find the remains of our ball, and dozens of pieces all over the playground that had been ripped off. Dirson would later tell us that in the past half year dozens of soccer balls that had been given to the children had been either stolen or destroyed.
As the computer room was making progress, we headed to the airport to pick up the box with three laptops that Casey had sent to Brazil. We had received seven second-hand processors from the IT Department at Lewis & Clark College. Casey had driven these home to Texas, where she wanted to buy monitors and ship them. However, freight shipping to Brazil had recently been cancelled and air shipping was very expensive, so Casey had ended up trading the seven processors for six laptops at an organization that recycles computers. Claire, Jimmie, and she each took one to Brazil in their luggage, and then Casey shipped the other three in one box. 
Gradually making his way through the red tape, Jimmie had found a tax-free number for Criamar, so the computers could be labeled as a donation and we would not have to pay the regular sixty—which later became seventy—percent Brazilian import tax on electronics. Eager to finally get the computers to Criamar, Dirson took us to the post office at the airport. But the last stretch would prove to be the hardest…
Many months of preparation for our Project for Peace finally culminated in our individual arrivals in what Brazilians refer to as the “Marvelous City.” We chose Rio de Janeiro as a meeting point, as it was much cheaper to fly to than Brasilia and, aesthetically speaking, not the worst of places to start a journey. We made brief visits to Copacabana, Ipanema, the statue of Christ the Redeemer, and a classic soccer derby between Flamengo and Vasco. We then traveled eighteen hours by bus to the nation´s futuristic capital, Brasilia, designed in the 1950s as a “modern utopia.”
After experiencing the atmosphere at Criamar in person, a flood of ideas of how we could better achieve our goals was passed between the four of us. We were keen on getting input from the directors and the staff in order to better understand the situation and needs of the orphanage. We had been warned that occasional volunteers from abroad tended to mistakenly bypass the orphanage staff in executing their ideas. Dirson and Angelica gave us some suggestions with regard to our proposal, and we made changes while keeping in mind the immediate needs of Criamar and the feasibility of each option. Finally, we were able to discuss our ideas and proposal with the people who know the needs of the orphanage children best: the social moms and dad. They seemed genuinely excited about our ideas and provided a few very interesting suggestions of their own. For example, they suggested that it would be very beneficial to construct a sandbox for the younger children to play in instead of gnarled concrete.
After getting a feel for Criamar and restructuring our ideas, we arranged for Ms. Maricondi, who was in Brasilia for other work, to still visit Criamar to discuss a possible social training in more detail with the directors. It was good to finally have all involved people in the same room and on the same page. Unfortunately, we found out that Ms. Maricondi´s training would apply mostly to caring for children under the age of six, whereas the social moms already succeeded at doing that and a social worker had already volunteered to provide similar training for free. The urgency was to find a better way to deal with the teenagers, who lacked a sense of responsibility and discipline. Nevertheless, Ms. Maricondi still promised us a set of UNICEF “Familia Brasileira Fortalecida” Kits with information on childcare and child development, that she had reserved for us at the Ministry of Health. In the absence of an age-appropriate training we were left with the task of coming up with new ideas to create a sense of responsibility, discipline, and order among the adolescents of Criamar.
