Hard to believe a full week has passed and we are preparing for the concert. Will everyone be ready? I hope so. They sounded good today but still dependent on their sheet music so we will try to project the words up on the wall for them. Good thing I'm not doing that, as techi-challenged as I am. I am having a hard enough time with trying to film it. I hope i have enough space but I'm thinking not, we'll see.
I'm really impressed with the younger kids, they really pick up the tunes and words quickly. They are also our largest group. Tomorrow is dress rehearsal first, than concert at night. Considering it's only been a week, I think they're doing really well. I also think our expectations are not as high as last time, knowing we had only half the time to prepare. As long as they try and do their best and hopefully enjoy the process, that is all we can ask. Until tomorrow......stay tuned!
Thursday, July 31, 2014
T Minus One Day
Hello to All and Happy Birthday, Racquel (Or, as they say in Brazil, para bens!)
Today was a busy day. I thought I planned out lessons last night before hitting the hay, but as it turned out, I was only conscious long enough to make plans for our first class. After getting up early, I wrote out my plans for the day- all of which involved running the songs we know in preparation for tomorrow's concert.
My voice is not doing so hot, so I stayed home to rest and spend a few more minutes warming up while Sue and Ann visited the creche. The 9:00 and 2:00 classes were adorable and we were even able to run Soon and Very Soon with the band. They sound great! Edna surprised me today with a gift- a white shirt (Our uniform for the concert) and an angel statue. That was very sweet of her!
Sue keeps attendance at every class and today's 2:00 group had ten extra kids in it! They've never shown up before! I'm glad word has gotten out about the classes, but I'm afraid we won't have enough bandanas for the kids tomorrow! Sue and I weren't in town long enough to buy shirts for this year's performance, so everyone is getting a bandana. Not too shabby, right?
Phew! I am running out of things to write. Not for lack of events, I'm just growing more tired by the minute and bed is calling my name. Let me see...
Since today is Racquel's birthday, we had a special Mass for her and a lovely party afterwards. Only in Brazil does Mass start 20 minutes late because we're waiting for the birthday girl. I couldn't believe Padres Jose and Edmundo waited! The party was wonderful- dinner, dancing, and, inevitably, me playing with 4 year olds. I had to keep silent for most of the evening so I wouldn't hurt my voice, but it was still a lot of fun. I even convinced Gustavo, my other lovely godchild, to dance with me for 5 seconds! Sue got it on camera, so we have proof (or blackmail, depending on how you look at it! haha)
That's all for now. I can't wait for tomorrow- we're going to be exhausted, but it will be completely worth it!
Lots of love,
Jamie
Today was a busy day. I thought I planned out lessons last night before hitting the hay, but as it turned out, I was only conscious long enough to make plans for our first class. After getting up early, I wrote out my plans for the day- all of which involved running the songs we know in preparation for tomorrow's concert.
My voice is not doing so hot, so I stayed home to rest and spend a few more minutes warming up while Sue and Ann visited the creche. The 9:00 and 2:00 classes were adorable and we were even able to run Soon and Very Soon with the band. They sound great! Edna surprised me today with a gift- a white shirt (Our uniform for the concert) and an angel statue. That was very sweet of her!
Sue keeps attendance at every class and today's 2:00 group had ten extra kids in it! They've never shown up before! I'm glad word has gotten out about the classes, but I'm afraid we won't have enough bandanas for the kids tomorrow! Sue and I weren't in town long enough to buy shirts for this year's performance, so everyone is getting a bandana. Not too shabby, right?
Phew! I am running out of things to write. Not for lack of events, I'm just growing more tired by the minute and bed is calling my name. Let me see...
Since today is Racquel's birthday, we had a special Mass for her and a lovely party afterwards. Only in Brazil does Mass start 20 minutes late because we're waiting for the birthday girl. I couldn't believe Padres Jose and Edmundo waited! The party was wonderful- dinner, dancing, and, inevitably, me playing with 4 year olds. I had to keep silent for most of the evening so I wouldn't hurt my voice, but it was still a lot of fun. I even convinced Gustavo, my other lovely godchild, to dance with me for 5 seconds! Sue got it on camera, so we have proof (
That's all for now. I can't wait for tomorrow- we're going to be exhausted, but it will be completely worth it!
Lots of love,
Jamie
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
techi problems again!
remember i told you i was having techi issues, well, looks like my picture didn't come through and the video I wanted to send wasn't accepted. Sorry folks, guess we'll have to wait until I get back. It was a really cute picture too.
capoeira
This evening we had the pleasure of visiting a Capoeira class. My sponsored child, Eugenio is in the class. It was very interesting to watch the moves, so agile and I love that they do it to the beat of musical instruments while chanting, at least I call it chanting although, technically it's not, so I am told.
Meet my new sponsored child Rian. As you may recall from an earlier post, my sponsored child Danhilo's family has moved to another area and no longer receives services from the creche, so I will no longer be supporting him financially, but as I said before, I will always be his madriña.
Rian has an older sibling and younger sister of 8 months. I got to meet his mother when she picked him up and took him home on the back of a bicycle.
While at the office of the creche (daycare in Portuguese), a woman came up and asked for a food basket as she had no food for her children. Now food baskets are customary for the families of sponsored children, but as it turns out this woman did not have any children in the program but came all the way from the "interior" which apparently is quite a distance for even if her kids qualified for the program, which I'm sure they did, it was too far to bring them. This woman looked older than her years, weathered by the elements. She told them she had 6 children, the oldest was 8 yrs. old. The woman of St. Joseph Center, the creche, are so compassionate that they gave her a basket, for that is why they are here. To help feed and nourish the children of Remanso and if they have to extend their borders once in a while they find a way to do it. Isn't that what charity is all about. God bless these women for all they do.
Meet my new sponsored child Rian. As you may recall from an earlier post, my sponsored child Danhilo's family has moved to another area and no longer receives services from the creche, so I will no longer be supporting him financially, but as I said before, I will always be his madriña.
Rian has an older sibling and younger sister of 8 months. I got to meet his mother when she picked him up and took him home on the back of a bicycle.
While at the office of the creche (daycare in Portuguese), a woman came up and asked for a food basket as she had no food for her children. Now food baskets are customary for the families of sponsored children, but as it turns out this woman did not have any children in the program but came all the way from the "interior" which apparently is quite a distance for even if her kids qualified for the program, which I'm sure they did, it was too far to bring them. This woman looked older than her years, weathered by the elements. She told them she had 6 children, the oldest was 8 yrs. old. The woman of St. Joseph Center, the creche, are so compassionate that they gave her a basket, for that is why they are here. To help feed and nourish the children of Remanso and if they have to extend their borders once in a while they find a way to do it. Isn't that what charity is all about. God bless these women for all they do.
Let The Children Come to Me
Boa Noite!
Here we are in the middle of the week--I can't believe how quickly our visit is passing. I've been feeling under the weather for most of the week and today I felt particularly wiped out (no need to be alarmed, I'm doing fine tonight). The last thing I felt like doing this morning was sitting in the house doing nothing, so I accompanied Sue and Ann to the creche to sing with the littlest kids. We visited one classroom of Pre-K aged kids and there was this rambunctious little girl who stole the show. She knew everyone's name and ordered people to sing and dance with her. Adorable. The kids loved singing with us and their smiles could make even the most depressed person smile.
While working with the orchestra yesterday, we determined they don't read modern music notation, that is to say, they learn by ear and on solfegge syllables (Think Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music). As I was trying to be accommodating, I wrote the syllables to 'Soon and Very Soon' into the music for them to learn. Only when I got to rehearsal this morning did it occur to me they may not use; moveable Do'. Sure enough, in Brazil, Do is supposed to reference the same pitch, no matter what the key. Therefore, it is fixed Do. Ugh! (Yes, I go to NotreDame...) Fortunately, the music teacher here understood what I attemtped to do and taught the children as they are used to learning. In fact, the band is rehearsing now (It's 8:30PM here) and they sound good!
I was feeling really tired by 1:30, despite a very nice nap. I teach three classes, back to back, in the afternoon and I just knew it was going to be hard to push through. To my delight, the 2:00 kids were active, attentive, and energized. As a teacher, I can tell you first hand its REALLY tough to teach when the people you're standing in front of want to be somewhere else. To try and give 100% of yourself (or whatever amount of energy you have in a day), only to be met with blank stares can take all the wind out of your sails. It was such a blessing to have these young kids give back the same amount of energy I was giving them. I am so proud of their work ethic and their talent. It gave me enough energy to keep working until 5:00. My voice was more tired than my mind, but I was able to make it!! To see a child light up when they perform gives me all the energy in the world. That's why teachers do what they do, right?
After class, we attended Mass and watched our friend (Sue's godchild) Eugenio dance Capoiera. I never knew singing and instruments were a part of Capoiera too! It was really cool to watch Eugenio and other boys from our classes practice their craft. I am so proud of them!
More work is to be done tomorrow- it's our last full day of classes until dress rehearsal on Friday! Time sure does fly. Please continue to keep the kids in your prayers. They are working really hard and I think they're going to be fabulous Friday night!
Love,
Jamie
Here we are in the middle of the week--I can't believe how quickly our visit is passing. I've been feeling under the weather for most of the week and today I felt particularly wiped out (no need to be alarmed, I'm doing fine tonight). The last thing I felt like doing this morning was sitting in the house doing nothing, so I accompanied Sue and Ann to the creche to sing with the littlest kids. We visited one classroom of Pre-K aged kids and there was this rambunctious little girl who stole the show. She knew everyone's name and ordered people to sing and dance with her. Adorable. The kids loved singing with us and their smiles could make even the most depressed person smile.
While working with the orchestra yesterday, we determined they don't read modern music notation, that is to say, they learn by ear and on solfegge syllables (Think Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music). As I was trying to be accommodating, I wrote the syllables to 'Soon and Very Soon' into the music for them to learn. Only when I got to rehearsal this morning did it occur to me they may not use; moveable Do'. Sure enough, in Brazil, Do is supposed to reference the same pitch, no matter what the key. Therefore, it is fixed Do. Ugh! (
I was feeling really tired by 1:30, despite a very nice nap. I teach three classes, back to back, in the afternoon and I just knew it was going to be hard to push through. To my delight, the 2:00 kids were active, attentive, and energized. As a teacher, I can tell you first hand its REALLY tough to teach when the people you're standing in front of want to be somewhere else. To try and give 100% of yourself (or whatever amount of energy you have in a day), only to be met with blank stares can take all the wind out of your sails. It was such a blessing to have these young kids give back the same amount of energy I was giving them. I am so proud of their work ethic and their talent. It gave me enough energy to keep working until 5:00. My voice was more tired than my mind, but I was able to make it!! To see a child light up when they perform gives me all the energy in the world. That's why teachers do what they do, right?
After class, we attended Mass and watched our friend (Sue's godchild) Eugenio dance Capoiera. I never knew singing and instruments were a part of Capoiera too! It was really cool to watch Eugenio and other boys from our classes practice their craft. I am so proud of them!
More work is to be done tomorrow- it's our last full day of classes until dress rehearsal on Friday! Time sure does fly. Please continue to keep the kids in your prayers. They are working really hard and I think they're going to be fabulous Friday night!
Love,
Jamie
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| More cute creche kids. Our startlet is closest to me. |
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| 2:00 superstars!! (No, I'm not biased just because Edna is in the group!) |
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Technology fatigue
Well after Pedro fixed and returned our router last night I was able to return to trying to solve my storage issues on my iPad. It took me until one in the AM and a lot of shifting, deleting, who knows where all my pictures are right now, but I finally have enough space to take photos and videos and eventually film the concert on fri. Woohoo! I always have to learn things the hard way. As a result, today seemed like a long day as Ann and I were up singing with the children at 8am. By the time the last class was over I was pooped. Today I had the pleasure of meeting the sponsored child of a good friend of mine. Her name is Sara and she has big beautiful dark eyes. Her grandmother brought her to meet me at the daycare, she is her caretaker. The look on Sara's face and in her eyes spoke to me of her need for more love. I've seen the look on others as well, so starved for affection, many living with aunts, grandmothers while their mother looks for work.
I also got to meet 3 adorable young boys in the daycare center for the preschoolers. As my godchild Danhilo no longer receives services, I decided to sponsor another child and asked them to tell me who has the most need. These 3 young boys were presented to me as all in need, so you can pick one. aHHH! Don't make me choose and not in front of them, I wish I could sponsor all of them, but I can't.
Ann began a storytime with the children in the pre-school center and that seems to be going well. I think the kids really enjoy it! We later were invited to speak on the radio for a short interview-asked why did we come to Remanso? We spoke of our mission, the power of music, the building of confidence, but really when you look into the eyes of these young children you say how could we not come?
I also got to meet 3 adorable young boys in the daycare center for the preschoolers. As my godchild Danhilo no longer receives services, I decided to sponsor another child and asked them to tell me who has the most need. These 3 young boys were presented to me as all in need, so you can pick one. aHHH! Don't make me choose and not in front of them, I wish I could sponsor all of them, but I can't.
Ann began a storytime with the children in the pre-school center and that seems to be going well. I think the kids really enjoy it! We later were invited to speak on the radio for a short interview-asked why did we come to Remanso? We spoke of our mission, the power of music, the building of confidence, but really when you look into the eyes of these young children you say how could we not come?
The Results are... In?
Greetings to all!
I forgot to mention in yesterday's post it RAINED!! I've never heard of it raining in Brazil in July. Even our friends said it was a rare occurrance. The cooler weather was a welcome change. I only remembered it today, as the students and I sat in the creche auditorium feeling very warm. I think the heat may have affected all of us, but I wasn't too sure the kids were understanding a lot of the lesson. More than that, I'm not sure I made it very enjoyable for them. Despite the language barrier, they were all so engaged yesterday--did the cooler weather really have a more positive effect on their energy? Perhaps. I tried to keep mine up all day, which is why I am dog tired tonight.
I will say our middle/high school boys really showed their stuff today! In order to pique the kids' interest, we are moving to a lot of our songs. The boys (who were all sitting in the front row!) showed wonderful coordination and even seemed to enjoy the small amount of dancing we did. Love it! All the students in the middle/high school group are picking up the English.
Soon and Very Soon is finished! Each class has sung through the entire piece! I am really proud of them for picking it up so quickly. I hate to say it, but we may be abandoning Ubi caritas this trip. We have two days left until our final rehearsal and I don't want everyone to stress about not knowing the Latin. It seems English is easier for them to learn. Who'd have thought so!?
After our last class, we went to the local radio station to be interviewed. How cool is that? One of the young men conducting the interview is the director of music for Our Lady of the Rosary parish (Nossa Senhora de Rosario) here in town. He sang with us on our last trip. I wish he were singing again, but he has no time. Not surprising, when you run the music program of the largest church in town! They asked us questions about why we're visiting and what we hope the kids will gain from our visit. Sue, Ann, and I had the opportunity to answer a question. It was very nice of them to show such interest in our visit. I was also asked to sing. After a full day of teaching, I'm not sure I was in good voice, but they seemed to enjoy my rendition of Soon and Very Soon.
Off to plan for tomorrow and then get to bed early. Until tomorrow!
Jamie
I forgot to mention in yesterday's post it RAINED!! I've never heard of it raining in Brazil in July. Even our friends said it was a rare occurrance. The cooler weather was a welcome change. I only remembered it today, as the students and I sat in the creche auditorium feeling very warm. I think the heat may have affected all of us, but I wasn't too sure the kids were understanding a lot of the lesson. More than that, I'm not sure I made it very enjoyable for them. Despite the language barrier, they were all so engaged yesterday--did the cooler weather really have a more positive effect on their energy? Perhaps. I tried to keep mine up all day, which is why I am dog tired tonight.
I will say our middle/high school boys really showed their stuff today! In order to pique the kids' interest, we are moving to a lot of our songs. The boys (who were all sitting in the front row!) showed wonderful coordination and even seemed to enjoy the small amount of dancing we did. Love it! All the students in the middle/high school group are picking up the English.
Soon and Very Soon is finished! Each class has sung through the entire piece! I am really proud of them for picking it up so quickly. I hate to say it, but we may be abandoning Ubi caritas this trip. We have two days left until our final rehearsal and I don't want everyone to stress about not knowing the Latin. It seems English is easier for them to learn. Who'd have thought so!?
After our last class, we went to the local radio station to be interviewed. How cool is that? One of the young men conducting the interview is the director of music for Our Lady of the Rosary parish (Nossa Senhora de Rosario) here in town. He sang with us on our last trip. I wish he were singing again, but he has no time. Not surprising, when you run the music program of the largest church in town! They asked us questions about why we're visiting and what we hope the kids will gain from our visit. Sue, Ann, and I had the opportunity to answer a question. It was very nice of them to show such interest in our visit. I was also asked to sing. After a full day of teaching, I'm not sure I was in good voice, but they seemed to enjoy my rendition of Soon and Very Soon.
Off to plan for tomorrow and then get to bed early. Until tomorrow!
Jamie
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