Oi! (portugese for hi, I´m not being rude I promise
!)
We are in the last week now and due to some issues sending email my updates have been delayed and somewhat truncated.
At the weekend (just gone) we took an overnight trip to the coast and stayed at a wonderful beach resort about 3 hours from Sao Paulo. Due to the fact that it is winter here the beach was really quiet even though the temperature was well in to the thirties and the sun was beating down from a cloudless sky. A very welcome break from a six day working week.
Following our mini break we have resumed our respective duties at ACER. Marcus (our heroic German) has managed to injure himself dancing with the kids and has found himself confined to office duties. Bloodied but unbowed he has began the process of overhauling ACERS data and financial processes. Coupled with the Excel classes we have delivered this means that once we leave the staff here will be able to perform data analysis and manage their files much more efficiently. If this does doesn´t sound fun that is because it isn´t but this is a big part of how we aim to add value even after we have left.
This brings me on to painting. Marshalled by Jason (our in house Napoleon figure) the troops have been able to totally transforn the appearance of ACER and create a much brighter space where children and adults alike can carry out their day to day business.
English classes have continued and it is extremley gratyfying to hold rudimentary chats with people who just two weeks ago spoke no English. To back this up we have created a learning package accross English, Spanish, German and Portugese which will enable the staff and children at ACER to access basic vocab and grammar in all four languages including translations. We had a power failure just as I was completing this and due to myworld class stupidity I hadn´t saved this! So we´ve basically done this twice (it is now saved all over the place!)
I´m off to teach an English class now (I might stop off for a quick samba lesson on the way) so I must dash.
´
I´ll try and get as many blogs sent as possible before we leave but things are a touch hectic as always.
Bye bye,
Bryn
Bryn is one of our Pronino volunteers and is blogging from Latin
America. To find out more about Proniño, head to
http://dnc.o2.co.uk/home/Pronino.
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