Update

So it's been a busy few days so I have not been posting - and I apologize that the photos on the last entry are no longer showing up, blame it on Picassa.

We've been continuing to meet with NGOs including Sao Martinho which works with street kids all over Rio, often times giving them a place to eat and sleep and working with their families to reintegrate them into their communities. They also have a great internship program where Brazil's large corporations including Coca-Cola offer internships to trained teenagers from San Martinho while they finish their last two years of high school. These internships open doors to the university and to the formal working sector, an area which is often closed to these children.


We visited one of Sao Martinho's houses for young boys (ages 6-14) and got to see hands on all the hard work that they do for them. The boys were happy to see us and had a great time playing with our cameras, some of them took some very artistic pictures of their friends and the plants around the house.

We visited Selaron's steps after our talk with CRIAR which produces programs for community radio stations and Madame Satan the community station in Lapa. Selaron (the Chilean painter) was on the steps and was very happy to inform us that he had just been to see the Incredible Hulk which featured his steps. He also took us around and pointed out tiles from each of our states/countries. From Mexico City to Bagdhad he had it all.


Over the weekend I got together with Ana's dad, Ricardo, Simone and her niece Aline. We had a great lunch as a beautiful restaurant with a wonderful view of Pao de Azucar. Simone showed me the proper way to eat feijoada and of course it was delicious! We then took a tour around the Laguna and took in a little shopping at Shoppign Lemblon, a very dangerous shopping mall (and by dangerous, i of course mean wonderful and chalk full of amazing Brazilian designers).

On Sunday Hillary and I ventured away from beautiful Copacabana into the equally beautiful Ipanema beach.

The past two days have been spent getting to know some more NGOs and visitng on site locations int eh favellas. We've been to the Babilonia CDI site (near Leme at the end of Copacabana beach), where Hillary and I will probably be working instead of Providencia due to some recent incidents. We were guided up the hill to meet the community leader (and stopped in at the "Chill Hostel" yes it's really the name, los of surfers and a cool view). Then we hiked to the top of the community for an amazing view.

On Tuesday afternoon we visited a wonderful school in Canta Galho (at the base of the favela near Ipanema). It started as a nursery in 1992 and has now expanded into a K through 12. I will have to check on the name, but I believe it is Meninhos Solar. Anja and Michelle will be working with Chantal (a photographer from Rio) with cameras to create a newspaper for the school which will be distributed with teh Copacabana local paper.

We watched two amazing films last night at Cine Gloria, one called Moi, homme noire (about Nigerian Immigrants to the Ivory Coat at Bijain in the 1960s) and Letter from Ixping which was created by a group of children in the Amazon and is incredible.

Today, Wednesday we had a nice break, but tomorrow we will be planning out our mapping project, and screening another film. Hillary and I will also be meeting with Roberta from Cinema Nosso to discuss our workshop with the FlipCams over at CDI. It's going to be another busy day!