Falete

This morning, Chantelle and I met Charles at the school on the bottom of our hill at 8:30. From there, we walked to the Flamengo beachfront (and stopped at this awesome sandwhich/juice bar called "Panque de Flamengo," which I will be frequenting often when I hit up Flamengo beach within the next few weeks ;), and took the 410 bus to the Falete favela. It was a lot like the other favelas we went to yesterday, but of course each favela is unique in its own way. Unlike Julio Otoni and Prazeres, the community center we went to was right at the entrance of the favela on the bottom of a hill. Outside of the center we met Bibi, who is one of Charles's old students (he's 21). He was toting a boombox and waited with us while we were waiting for Paulo (who has keys to the gate in front of the center) to open the gate. While we were waiting, we were joined by Jose (a friend of Bibi's who is 17) and then by a group of kids came and began talking to Charles and Bebe. We soon discovered that they would be some of the kids that would be taking part in my class and the drama class Chantelle will be doing. They were super talkative and friendly. If I can remember all of their names, there was: Kassie, Paula, Matheus, Nathan, Livia, and Vanessa. They all ranged in age from 6 to 14. Livia (she's 6) actually asked me: "Voce tem filhos?" ("Do you have kids?"), which was a question another little girl asked me yesterday in Julio Otoni. It was bizarre at first, but I guess they're just used to girls my age already having kids by now.
After Paulo came and opened the gate, we went inside and Charles talked to and explained to the kids who Chantelle and I were and what we would be doing with them. They seemed really receptive of us and genuinely excited, so that was really nice :). After that, we scooted some of the benches out of the center of the cement floor and they showed us a dance they had been putting together (led by Bibi, who is quite a good dancer) to Chris Brown's "With You" (which is really hilarious, actually, because the day Anouska left she told us that she got the impression that Brasilians really love Chris Brown, and that "With You" would always remind her of Rio because she always heard it being blasted in cars and stores; so I thought of her the whole time ;). They were actually pretty in sync and very into it. It was so cute :). Charles said they're actually planning to do a presentation of the dance they put together and what they learn in drama with Chantelle on August 4th. Unfortunately I won't be here for that :(.
After that, Charles talked to us about which days Chantelle and I would be working with the kids. He decided that Chantelle would do two hours of drama with them on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and that I would do English with them Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (Fridays will be divided into half a day of English and half a day of drama). I was ok with the plan but then thought about a glitch: Charles wants me to teach 2 hours of English to one group of kids in the morning (9 to 11) and then 2 hours to another group of kids in the afternoon (from 2 to 4). So, I would have 3 hours in between, and he said I could just take the bus back to Catete (which is the part of Rio where our hostel is; it's a 20 min. busride, and then about a 15 min. walk up the hill to our hostel) and then back to Falete in the afternoon. But unfortunately I'm not ballin like that (the bus is 2 reais each way, which doesn't seem like much, but adds up if you have to take it 4 times in one day). I feel bad being an inconvenience and I definitely want to help the kids all I can but I just feel like it'll be too much for one day. I'm going to talk to him tomorrow and ask if I can teach one hr. of English to one group of kids and then another hr. to the second (especially because it's ridiculously difficult to try and make kids that young sit still for 2 whole hours). We'll see how that goes.
Chantelle and I got home early (around 12ish), so I basically lounged around the hostel the rest of the day, which was nice and relaxing :). Ambar got home at 4 and around 7ish we went down the hill to "Big Nectar" (our new spot in Rio ;); we've decided we'll probably do dinner there every night we're here cuz it's cheap, yum and healthy--they have awesome fresh-squeezed fruit juices and great sanwhiches), where we shared an Acai smoothie (acai is a berry that grows in the Amazon and is big here in Brasil). It was delish ;).
It's off to bed now. I'll let you know how my first day of (official) teaching goes tomorrow. Tchau! :)