A Bittersweet Goodbye

Everything at SBT has been great, but I have noticed another downside to my internship: every week I am forced to say goodbye to one of my new friends. You see, every week one of the Idolos contestants is voted off the show and has to go home.

This week, my favorite contestant received the least amount of votes, and therefore had to go home. Don´t get me wrong, all of the contestants are extemely nice, but he was my favorite because he seemed to have the biggest heart of them all. Angel (pronounced like 'an' 'gel') is one of the most incredible Brazilians that I´ve met so far. (I´ll have to post a picture later, when I´m at another comupter.) Everyone on the Idolos production team thought that Angel was going to be one of the final two contestants, but somehow he got voted off much earlier. He has a family, so even though it was extremely sad to see him go, I knew that it would be good for him to be back home.

Last night was the night everyone had to say goodbye to him, and he and I had one of the best conversations I´ve had yet in Portuguese. He told me that we would be friends for life, and I agreed. But then we started to talk a little more, and I asked him if he believed in Jesus. He said he did! I had guessed that he might, because of his humble attitude, and I told him that his life spoke of the fact that he beleived in God. I didn´t really know enough Portuguese to be able to discuss our beliefs in any great detail, but I´m pretty sure that when he said he believed in Jesus he was talking about truly believing. If I had to bet, I would say that I will see him one day when we are both with God. I told him that not only would be friends for life, but that we would be friends for life "and more." I know this isn´t gramatically correct, but it was the best I could do in Portuguese.

I thank God, becasue I can´t tell you how excited I was to be able to have such a conversation in Portuguese!

Update (7/8/06): It´s over a week later, and I´ve finally found a computer that I can use to post pictures. Here is Angel with his family:

Quick Hello

Hey everyone! I was able to sneak away for couple of minutes to make a quick post. This week has gone well so far in the Idolos house. Last night I got out the New Testament I bought that has English and Portuguese on each page. A couple of the contestants were really interested in it...I think mainly because they want to learn English as much as I want to learn Portuguese. But regardless of their motives, a couple of them were reading short passages out loud, first in Portuguese and then in English. I hope that they will be interested in it enough to want to read a little more tonight. I need to run, thanks for checking in, and as always I´ll try to post as much as possible.

Quanto Tempo! (It's been a long time!)

Wow, it's been a while since the last post...almost a week. I love my new position at SBT. I was a little nervous going into it, because I thought that perhaps the contestants on Idolos would have large egos--they are, after all, quite talented. After moving into the house, I was a little suprised to find them to be exactly like all the other Brazilians I've met--extremely friendly. I don't know what it is about Brazil, but everyone here seems to genuinely love other people.

In America, if a foreigner became an intern at my place of work without being able to carry on even a simple conversation in English, I am pretty sure that I would not recieve him with joy. I'm sure I would be wondering what in the world this new person thought they were doing--coming to work in America without taking the time to learn my language first. I thought that the employees at SBT might have at least some of this attitude towards me, but I have found the opposite to be true. Everyone is enthusiastic about teaching me Portuguese, and no one seems to feel like I am in their way. I am quite impressed with the way I've been received.

Living in the Idolos House has been great...like I said, the Idolos contestants are all very friendly. There are also three employees, other than myself, that live in the house. I'm suprised with how well everyone gets along--in a way, it reminds me of a retreat, because everyone is removed for their reality and secluded from the outside world. It is, of course, a little different from the retreats I'm used to.

I'm the only one in the house that spends a little bit of time every day reading the Bible, and I've already recieved some attention for my habit. Everyone seems to respect it very much, but I'd love to be able to share with them more about why reading the Bible is important to me. (Only one person in the house speaks English, by the way.) I would count it a great priviledge to to be able to share my belief in Christ with these people, and I pray that God will help break down the language barrier so that I have that opportunity. I bought a Bible yesterday that has one column of English and one colomn of Portuguese on every page, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Below are the remaining contestants from Idolos...well, actually, the girl in the red had to go home this week because she was voted off the show, but all the others are still there.



On a side note, I think the worst thing about my new position is that it's basically 24 hours a day. It's not that I don't like being there all the time--I actually enjoy almost every minute that I'm around my new friends and co-workers. The bad thing is that now there is not very much time for me to go out into the city, because I'm always at SBT. This means that I don't really have a lot of free time to help the lower class in Brazil. I haven't forgotten about the favelas, but for now there is not a whole lot I can do. I can (and do) pray, but I want to do something more active as well. I think I will have most weekends off, so maybe I'll have an opportunity then.

As far as a long term impact is concerned, I'm starting to realize that education is probably the best way to effect a change in the economy. I'm sure you've heard something to the effect of, "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." Feeding a family for a day would be nice, but it would be great to do something to help improve the Brazilian schools one day. Public education in Brazil is not anywhere near the quality of public education in America, and there is a huge difference in the education of students that can afford private school and those who cannot.

I had a chance yesterday to go to Escola do Futuro--the private school that my friends at Liberty graduated from. The school held an open-house type activity, and I had an opportunity to stand up and talk to the parents (with a translator, of course). I shared about how impressed I was with the alumni I had met from the school, and told them the graduates that the school produced were the reason I first became interested in coming to Brazil. I hope that I encouraged the parents and helped to reassure them that the money they are paying for tuition is worth it.

I hope to be able to post a little more frequently, but it's very difficult to find time during the week to post. Until next time...I'll appreciate your prayers very much.

Descupa (Sorry)

Once again, thanks for everyone´s commments on my last post, and thanks for the emails I´ve received regarding the blog as well. I apologize for not posting the last couple of days. After 10 or so days of being in Brazil, I started to think that it might be possible to have time to post every day...but alas, my schedule is changing just a bit.

There´s so much I want to update you on, but so little time. I´ll only share the most important details for now. Last night I finally found out where I´ll be staying after Duda´s house, and I´ll be moving in today. Are you ready for this? (I´m pretty excited myself):

You see, there are seven contetants left on the Brazilian version of American Idol (called Idolos), and they all just moved from the hotel they had been staying at to a house on SBT´s property. The opportunity arose for me to live in the house with the seven remaining contestants, and I accepted. Now I will have a flexible on-call schedule with the SuperNanny production team, and I will live with the Idolos contestants so that I can be available to film anything exciting that happens in the house. So now my internship will kind of be 24 hours a day, but it will be relaxed for the majority of the time.

There are a lot of pros and cons to this new living situation. One problem that I won´t have to worry about will be getting to work; it had been kind of difficult since I don´t have a car here. One major con, however, is that there is no computer in the Idolos house. That means my posts may become a little less frequent, and it means that finding a computer I can use to post pictures will be even more difficult. I will do my best to update you whenever possible, and I will try to get pictures posted as much as I can. I hope I´ll be able to post again fairly soon! Until then!

Obrigado (Thank You)

I appreciate everyone's comments on the previous post. I talked some more today with some of my friends about the favelas and I asked them what I could do while I was here to help. They weren't really sure. I think Bob was correct when he said in his comment that the problems third world countries face are very complex. I could never hope to solve all of the problems in Brazil in ten years, let alone two months. But as Bob suggested, I can simply do my best to make what little difference I can. Just because I probably won't make a gigantic dent in solving the problems that Brazil faces doesn't mean I can't help at least a few people. I still don't have a tangible plan of what I will do, but I am determined not to ignore the problem. I'm glad I've posted about this because it kind of keeps me accountable--hopefully now I won't go two months without doing anything. Like I said, I'm still not sure exactly what my plan is, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

A Problem Seen is a Task Assigned

I had another conversation today about the poverty in Brazil. I was riding in the car with Oliani (he is in one of the pictures from the post two days ago), and we drove past a 'favela.' A favela is basically a very poor village consisting of houses that are made with scrap plywood. Anyway, driving past the favela sparked a conversation about the gap between the rich and the poor in Brasil. (There is a middle class, but it's very small.) Once again, it became apparent to me that the cycle of poverty that many Brazilians are trapped in is a problem that is recognized by everyone. Yet, no one really knows what to specifically do about it. I started to wonder to myself if there is anything I can do to help. Is it possible that I can make a difference? I guess the answer to that question is yes, but I am like everyone else in the fact that I don't really know what action to take. I don't want to ignore the problem and passively continue with my life, but unfortuneately I will go to bed tonight still wondering what I should do to help.

A Day Off

Today instead of going to work, I decided to steal the World Cup trophy. Then I found a machine like the one in the movie 'Honey I Blew Up the Kids,' and I made the trophy really big.



In all seriousness, today was a Brazilian holiday, so I didn't have to work. I played soccer again at Escola do Futuro, and then later in the day I actually ended up going to SBT to watch the taping of an episode of Idolos (The Brazilain version of American Idol). I didn't understand anything that was said throughout the entire show, but it was a lot of fun being a part of the audience and watching the production.



The Idolos studio, by the way, is where I watched Brazil's first game of the World Cup the other day. They put the game on all of the Idolos TVs, and a lot of SBT employees gathered around to cheer on their team.

An International Experience, But Not Quite So Brazilian

As I was leaving work at SBT today, I started to wonder what I was going to write about tonight. Today work wasn’t the most exciting thing that ever happened, because the Supernanny production team is not very busy this week.

It was on the way home that I found my story for today. We stopped at a Japanese restaurant for dinner, and I was presented with the opportunity to experience sushi for my first time ever. I have a little book that I received from the Health Department before leaving for Brazil; this little book advises me not to eat anything that hasn’t been cooked. I chose to forget about this advice for the time being.

Brazil, as I’m told, has better sushi than the United States. There is a very large Japanese population in Brazil, so apparently the sushi is more authentic. I’ve been meaning to try sushi for a while now, but until tonight I hadn’t gotten around to it. I was kind of expecting not to like the taste…it is raw fish, after all. I was surprised to find that it was quite delicious. Apparently, being able to say you had sushi is not the only reason to eat sushi.



In the restaurant, there is a little conveyor belt that carries the sushi around on little plates. When you see something you like, you simply grab the plate. When you’re done, a waiter counts your plates, and you pay according to what color each plate was. I remember, from my mom’s trip abroad, that this is how a lot of sushi restaurants in Japan operate. It’s kind of a nifty process, if you ask me.



After the meal, Oliani, Rebecca, and I stopped outside the restaurant to pose for a quick picture. Duda ate with us too, but unfortunately he had to snap the picture for us. By the way, Rebecca is the person that helped me get the internship at SBT. I am so excited to be able to experience new things every day. Every experience, whether good or bad, is helping me grow. What a priviledge!

The Stories of Brazil

Allow me to apologize in advance for the long post that follows. I like to keep my posts as short as possible, but today I have a lot to talk about.

I hope that every post I write will communicate to you a different story about Brazil. Today was Brazil's first game in the World Cup, and I had been looking foward to posting about how much fun it was to watch the game. Brazil, as you probably know, is very passionate about soccer. I couldn't wait to tell the story of my first experience watching the Brazilians cheer passionately about their national team representing their country. Because of a conversation I had yesterday, however, I've decided not to post in detail about my experience watching the game (at least not right now). There is a slightly more important story I wish to communicate to you...

I was talking to one of my co-workers, who happens to speak English very well, and she was telling me about how she doesn't think it's healthy for her country to get so excited about an event like the World Cup. She pointed out that the World Cup is a very entertaining spectacle, but that it does nothing to affect our lives. Let me explain.

She reminded me that Brazil is a country filled with problems, including poverty and a lack of education. Many Brazilians have no way to access information because the public education is Brazil is sub-par, and most of them cannot afford a private education. So many Brazilians are stuck in a cycle of poverty that is very real. In America, everyone has at least some opportunity to get a proper education. I'm not saying that truly equal opportunity exists anywhere in the world, but I'm simply saying that everyone in America has at least some opportunity to succeed. Not all of the world's citizen's are so fortunate.

Back to what I was saying about the World Cup, my co-worker wishes that Brazilians would be as enthusiastic about fixing their country's problems as they are about watching 11 guys trying to kick a ball into a goal. The conversation got me thinking about how often we waste time and energy on things that are not important at all.

That conversation took place yesterday. Today at lunch, I had another conversation with some SBT employees that work with the Brazilian version of Americal Idol. (Below is a picture of me with two of them.) Similar to the conversation I had yesterday, we talked about the problems Brazil faces. They too seemed to be very concerned for the citizens of Brazil that are forced to live in poverty. It's a common attitude I've noticed among the Brazilians of Sao Paulo--they would like for all of Brazil's citizens to have a chance to really live, not just survive. It's a problem that all of the Brazilians recognize, but no one seems to know exactly what they can personally do about it.




If we work together, and if we remember that what mankind ultimately needs is to be reunited with our creator, then I believe God can solve any crisis that our world faces.

Eu Sou Estagierio do SBT (I Am an Intern at SBT)

Today was my first day at work, and I was extremely relieved by the way it turned out. I had been pretty nervous about going to work at a major TV station in Brazil without being able to speak Portuguese. I wasn't sure how I would be received by the employees--whether they would percieve my as a nuissance or be glad to have me. Thankfully, I found the latter to be true. Everyone seemed very enthusiastic about meeting me, and I was very pleased to learn that my work environment is going to be pleasant.

I'll be working specifically with the production of the Brazilian version of Supernanny. This week is a very relaxed week for the Supernanny production team, so it's the perfect week for me to start my internship. Today I was given a tour of all the studios at SBT, and then I spent the rest of the day reading something called the Supernanny Bible. The Supernanny Bible is basically what you might expect judging from its name: it's a book that contains everything a person could want to know about the production process of Supernanny.

It's been fun communicating with the Brazilians; I've used the few Portuguese phrases I know combined with hand motions, and so far I've gotten along fine. A few of my co-workers speak English that is clear enough for me to understand, so I haven't yet found myself in a situation where I am completely unable to communicate. I thank God because He has provided for me in every single tiny detail of this trip so far. I am amazed at the way he has made things fall into place so that everything has gone smoothly.

I apologize for not having any pictures to post today. I was so busy starting the internship that I completely forgot about being a tourist, but hopefully I'll have some pictures of SBT to post soon!

Update (6/13/06): As promised, here is a picture of me at SBT.

Brasileiros (Brazilians)

I mentioned in my previous post that I had met a lot of Brazilians, and added that they have names that are difficult to remember. There's a lot more to Brazilians than their complicated names, however. All the people I've met have been extremely amiable and hospitable. Meeting all of my 'amigos novos' (new friends) has been my favorite part of the trip by far. Here's a snapshot of a few of the Brazilians I've had the pleasure of meeting. Duda, the guy I'm living with for my first week here, is the one closest to the camera.



That picture was taken in a beautiful apartment, which is located on the top floor of a building in the middle of Sao Paulo. We went there yesterday for a 'churrasco' (barbeque). The apartment and the view of the city were both stunning. Below are a couple of pictures taken in the same room.

Everything I Expected

Brazil had been great so far! I don't start work at SBT until Monday, so my first few days have been very relaxed. I've met about 2,578 Brazilians, and they all have names that are hard to remember. I've had the chance to go to my friends' church twice now, because they hold special services to celebrate Pentecost. It's different from Halesford, my church back home, but I like it a lot. Tonight's service was roughly four hours long, but it felt like it could have been half of that.

Earlier today, we played soccer at Escola do Futuro (School of Tomorrow), where my friends from Liberty graduated. The school has a couple gyms, but their gyms are different from gyms in the US in the fact that there are permanent soccer goals built into the ground. There are basketball goals mounted above the soccer goals as well, but I think they were just put there as an afterthought.

Naturally, I expected most of the Brazilians to be better than me at soccer. I didn't really count on the fact that ALL of them would be better than me. I think I did a poor job of representing American soccer, but then again maybe it was an accurate representation. Nonetheless, I had fun, and I can't wait to play again. I tried to take a good picture of our soccer endevours, but I couldn't take a picture with my camera that wasn't blurry. I guess the Brazilians are just that fast:)

Interactive Communication

I want to encourage you to ask questions by leaving comments on the blog, and I'll do my best to respond in a following post. Chad (you can click the link to his blog on the right) wanted to know what I ate yesterday. My lunch consisted of steak, rice, beans, and a Brazilian food that was unlike anything I'd ever tasted before. I don't even really know how to describe it, but it was kind of like cornbread broken up into very tiny peices. For dinner we went to a little food stand in Osasco, a nearby city. We had a sandwich-type food that had two hotdogs and mashed potatoes inside. It was very different, but very good...and it only cost two reals (a little less than one dollar)!!

Update (6/10/06): I didn't have any pictures of Brazilian food when I made this post, but I made a point to take a picture of the lunch I had today because it was very similar to my lunch yesterday. The words on the plate are French, by the way, not Portuguese. I'm confused enough trying to learn Portuguese, and now a third language is being thown at me. My sister is pretty good with French, I'll have to ask her what the plate says later. Oh, yeh...back to the food. The drink in the cup is Guaraná, a popular Brazilian soft drink that tastes similar to Ginger-Ale. Guaraná is 'muito bom' (very good).

Minha casa por um semana (My house for a week)

The house I'm staying in for the first week is absolutely beautiful. Duda's (Duda is Eduardo's nickname, by the way) mom is an interior decorator, and everything in the house is aesthetically pleasing, to say the least. Here's a picture I snapped in their living room...it's just a small taste of the incredible decor.



There is a breathtaking view of the city from Duda's backyard.



As you can see, I am very forunate to have such accomdations for the first week while I'm here. I still don't know exactly where I'll stay for the entire two months, but I'm sure God will allow something to fall in place just in time. He has already provided so much to make this trip fall into place, and I'm learning to trust Him to come through instead of worrying about details.

Oi Brasil! (Hi Brazil!)

I'm here! In Brazil! It's been less than 10 hours since I arrived and there's already so much I want to say. I'll start with the plane ride. Since it was my first time on a commercial flight, I didn't want to seem like too much of a newb, so I promised myself I wouldn't get too excited about seeing the clouds from above. After I was on the plane about an hour, however, the sun went below the clouds. This "sunset" from above was quite spectacular, I don't think the picture below does it very much justice. I think it was worth standing out as an obvious airplane rookie to snap the picture though.



I wasn't exactly sure who was going to pick me up at the airport, but I was expecting either Eduardo or Renata, two of my friends from Liberty. I was a little suprised when a middle aged man approaced me and said, "Chreese?" Roberto didn't speak much English, and I speak even less Portuguese. I immediately began to kick myself for not working harder to learn the language more before I left, but Roberto and I managed to communicate well enough to get me to Eduardo's house, where I'll be staying for the first week. Roberto was extremely friendly, and I hope I get to see him after I learn some more Portuguese so that I can thank him for the ride properly.

After arriving at Eduardo's house, I got to experience my first Brazilian lunch, which was quite delicious. We went to visit his old school and his church, and I got to say, "Muito prazer," (pleased to meet you) to a lot of people. Now we're over at Luis's apartment, who is another friend from Liberty.

It's hard to believe I'm in Sao Paulo. Everything here is different--the roads, the plants, the buildings. At the same time, however, everything is somewhat the same. Up is still up, and down is still down. I am still the same person I was 24 hours ago when I was in the States. Even though I'm in a completely foreign country, it's still obvious that I'm on the Earth God created. And it (it being the Earth) is very beautiful, just like it is in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ebarkment Lurks

Well...I turned in my internship paperwork at Liberty University, expedited my passport, bought a plane ticket, went in person to receive my Visa, and got four shots. Now the adventure begins.



I just found out a few hours ago that I definitely have a place to stay for the first week I'll be down there. My plane leaves tomorrow afternoon from D.C…I haven’t flown since I was six. I remember my Mom, Dad, and I took a 30 minute tour over Myrtle Beach in a little four-person plane, and I remember sitting in the copilot’s seat and thinking that the steering wheel was a toy put there just for me. I started playing with it, and then all the sudden the pilot informed me that I was flying the plane—quite a feat for a six-year-old.

I guess a lot has changed since I was six, but some things will always be the same. I don’t think God will ever stop surprising me with unexpected adventures. A little over a month ago I never would have guessed that I would be spending this entire summer in Brazil. I never imagined I’d be doing an internship at SBT, a major TV station based in Sao Paulo.

I'll come away from this summer with 3 hours of school credit for my internship, 62 days of free Portuguese lessons, and countless memories that will shape my future. In the posts that follow for the next couple months, I hope to share a small bit of insight into my experiences. Enjoy the read, and feel free to post comments as you feel led.