Friday, 20, 1:43 am

Wednesday was, well to sum it up in two words: new experience.

Since we’ve arrived to Brazil I haven’t been able to put myself to sleep before 2 am. Part of it is because I stay up late writing my blog and chatting w/ family and friends online. The other part is the 5 hour time difference from Utah. But whatever it is, I need to get to bed earlier because I’m killing myself. We’ve been getting up between 7:00 and 7:30 every day, and my eyes are starting to sting real bad cause they are so tired.

Friday, 20, 18:11 hours

Okay, so I was so tired that I just went to bed after typing that last paragraph. I just said to myself, you know it’s not worth it.


But let me go back to telling about Wednesday: It was our second day teaching the workshop. Here they call it CASP (curso de auto-sufficiencia profissional – Employment Workshop). I was assigned by Elder Burrup and Alexandre (a local volunteer who teaches with us) to teach the “power statement” section of the workshop. This is where we teach how to answer questions during interviews talking about specific strengths or qualities one might have by giving specific examples and specific results of your ability so you can accurately show your potential and impress your employer. It’s a fun section to teach and was probably one of the parts I liked best when I took the course. The best part is they finally feel comfortable answering interview questions when they know somewhat the things they are to say.

After the class was over we hung around the office for a few more hours learning how things work and meeting more of the volunteers. It seems there are 3 regular volunteers that help. But to understand what they do, I guess I first need to explain how the SRE center works. Anyone and everyone can come to the center and they register themselves on the center’s website. On the website has a listing of job openings and many specifics for each job and such. The computer access is free (which in most other places its not) and so are the phone calls when they’re related to job searching. Job openings are updated regularly, so the people have to come in and keep checking what’s available. At the center they get help with their resumes and things like that. All this takes place in the front area where area. Wood tiles decorate the floors and wooden booths house the 8 computers available for use. About 8 round glass tables are scattered around with newspapers and magazines geared to give more job ideas or training. To get in, like most brazil offices, you have to put the receptionist who then looks at the person through the security camera and then opens the door for each person.

Pierre is one of the main directors of the center, and his office has a window looking out at those on the computers. He’s a cool guy. Light skinned, ex-missionary, ex-bishop, married and has 3 young kids (7,5, and 5 months). I met his wife and youngest daughter today after the office was closed. He is a paid employee.

Humberto is the head of the SRE in Porto Alegre and the volunteer centers that branch from Porto Alegre – like Florianopolis. I gave a brief description of him the other day, and over the past few days he has shown just how awesome he is. We are yet to meet his family, but we’ve seen pictures of his lovely family and his kids. He is also paid.

Alexandre is a volunteer teacher of CASP. He’s a large man, dark, a few inches shorter than me, and is married with a few children as well – but I’m not sure how many. He relates very well with the participants and has a nice humor.

Karla is another volunteer. She doesn’t teach CASP, but helps people in the front room w/ questions about the website and jobs and all the good stuff. She’s a very nice lady, light skinned and married w/ kids my age.

Diego is a 18 year old volunteer. He’s a large boy, and very nice and helpful w/ just about anything. These days I have him typing up some reviews from our first week of class.

And then there’s Jocilaine. I believe she gets paid to be the cleaning woman, but she seems to mostly clean when the day is over. During the rest of the day she helps with questions and concerns in the front. She’s kinda dark skinned, curly dark hair, married, and funny – fun to work w/.

Wednesday afternoon we hung out w/ one of David’s mission buddies, Fabrice (or Chu-Chu as people call him). He picked us up in his father’s VW Gol (just like the American Golf) and we went to his apartment, which was right above his father’s apartment and next to his father’s. On the way, Fabrice got a phone call from a friend who had just been car-jacked. His car, phone, everything was stolen from him at gunpoint. He was calling to see if Fabrice had any connections w/ the police… I guess if you do they work faster. Scary. At Fabrice’s house we met his father who speaks perfect English. He has an accent, but that’s normal. I guess he teaches English to companies and stuff. Nice guy. After eating some fast food from Habeeb’s (brazilian fast food) we got a ride from one of his friends, Danielle, to church for their choir practice. Dave’s a big singer, so he enjoyed the practice. I hung around for the first few minutes meeting people, but once they started singing I snuck into the overflow and took a nap. We were there for a good 2 hours at least. They had a good choir. After the choir Fabrice’s father picked us up and after he let us drop him off at his home and take his car out. We went to Danielle’s house. Another very nice house. Almost impossible to tell it’s not American. Right when we pulled up we ran through the pooring rain into their garage just as their mother and friend were on their way to the police station. Believe it or not, Danielle and her two girl friends that were with her were carjacked. Nobody was hurt, thankfully, but her car and cell phone were gone. Actually, so was David’s Sociology homework that he left in her backseat. What a crazy night. So we stayed at their house with Danielle’s sister – I forget her name, but she went to BYU for a few years and then she recently decided to move back to Porto Alegre. Amazingly when Danielle arrived home she was completely fine… not even startled.

We made it home safely. Fabrice drove us all the way to our hotel with no problems… just heavy rain. It had been raining every day since we arrived… so the weather had cooled down too.

Now I’ll talk about Thursday:

Woke up with my eyes almost sewn together. So TIRED!

Thursday was our last day of CASP for the current group. We took time to do a mock interview for each participant and video taped and then watched it with everyone. It was pretty funny. Everyone had a good time laughing at themselves and everyone else, but it was a good for them to really see the little things they need to change.

While they were waiting to be interviewed I went over how to answer tough questions, especially when you have things about your past that are not very positive for the interview. That went very well, everyone worked well together and helped each other with their problems and solutions.

A group picture was taken, so when I get a copy I’ll try to post it here.

INTERNAÇIONAL - Porto Alegre Professional Soccer Team

After the course was over I used the rest of my afternoon trying to get myself a press pass to one of the local professional soccer teams to take pictures. The two local teams were Grémio and Internaçional. They’re huge rivals. When I called I told them I was a photographer from a university in the United States, BYU, and that I was only in town for a week and wanted to get permission to take pictures during a game. Grémio was very cool about it, but after I hung up my friend down here, Jefferson, told me the game was on Sunday. So I decided I wouldn’t be going. So then I called Internaçional and at first they made me call someone else. That didn’t end up working. So I called back and talked to a different person this time and they connected me with Leonel, who was incharge of this kinda stuff. He had me fax them my passport and visa info. and tell them what university I was from. After I did that I called back and they told me to show up a 1/2 hour before game time to check in. I was like, woah! Sweet! I was nervous and really excited all of a sudden.

So when I got back to the hotel I took out the manual for my camera and actually read it for the first time. Ha… it was good I did. I learned a few good tricks that helped during the game. I made sure my batteries were all charged (I brought 3 but only ended up using 1 at the game… but I was prepared :o)), and that my memory card was working.

At 7:15 pm I went down to the front desk to verify the directions they had given me earlier. This time the guy reassured me it was fine to take the bus to the game, and then a taxi back (I was gonna take a taxi each way. I was just nervous about my camera and stuff). So that’s what I did. I got the stadium just find, and after walking in circles a bit I found the press place between gate 1 and 2. When I got there I asked to speak with Leonel, who was just in the next room. The first thing he did was ask to see my equipment, and then once he saw it he apologized and explained that in the past they had had problems so he just wanted to make sure I was for real. As he was giving me my press-penny (shirt) to wear 2 other photographers showed up that he knew. He joked around w/ one of them about practicing their English w/ me, and that immediately started a conversation… since I was American. I told him I was a student and was interested in being a sports photographer and I asked him how he got started in the business. He then gave me his business card (MCFOTOPRESS . ironic name, eh?) and he was nice enough to show me around the stadium and kinda tell me the ropes of shooting during the game. The game was awesome! What an amazing experience. It was a huge stadium, lots of fans, loud, rowdy, the score was 3-1. Inter beat Gaucho. Below is a link to my pictures.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EaNnLNs5Zsbk

Here are a few teasers. The link shows a lot more.




After the game I waited a bit for the crowds to die down. I watched the press conference w/ the team coach, and then got directions to find the closest cab. I was nervous walking there, but there were no problems. I got home just fine.

After the game I talked w/ mom and dad and scott on skype while I prepared my pics to put them online. Unfortunatly the connection is way to slow here in the hotel and I couldn’t put any pictures online. So that wasn’t accomplished until this evening at the SRE office. But I’ll give more details about that later when I talk about today.

Gotta go. Going to hang out w/ Rubia’s brother who lives here in Porto Alegre (rubia is a friend from the FLSR at byu).