March 28, 2014

School entrance

-->

As usual sorry to leave the school, wonderful teachers who work so hard. A great group of people so eager to make their school grow and it should; with such a well-organized program and so child centered. They love children so much and working so hard to give them the best. When I arrived Monday I took a picture of the banana tree, which had some blossoms. I went back to see it today and couldn’t believe the growth. I also saw a fruit picker by the avocado tree, something I’ve always wanted but couldn’t find. Andrea went and bought me one this morning. I am so excited about using to pick apples this fall.

I wonder what lives in here?

Orange trees protected by a sharp wall

Orchid at school

(Friday- now I have one, thank you Andrea)

Fruit picker....I want one - (Wednesday)

Lovely mango trees at school

Strange plant in school yard.

March 27, 2014, Londrina Brazil.

School flowers

Same banana tree on Friday

Bananas  - Monday

Downtown

Behind my hotel

Now that the presentation to parents is over I have time to have a life. Monday morning I was picked up at my hotel by the school owner.  Since classes don’t start till 1:30 PM we had a meeting with the teachers all morning. It’s a new school just beginning, but will pick up lots of students as it’s a very good program. In after noon I observe classes, very small and as usual with teachers who just love children. What a wonderful place, the school building was a home and the rooms are large and comfortable. It was quite a house when it was used as a home, all tile and granite. The grounds are amazing, banana, orange, lemon, tangerine, avocado and mango. The trees are huge, I can’t imagine how they harvest the mangoes.

I knew I had to do a parents’ talk but thought it was Thursday. It was Wednesday so had to scramble and work day and night on it to be ready for Wednesday evening. They had this wonderful speaker first, a psychologist, and even if I didn’t know what he was saying I knew he was good. Hard act to follow, I had a slide show but it was translated into Portuguese, and then I had to make comments about it. After was a lot easier with some question and answers.

Tonight I’m so happy it was scheduled for Wednesday instead of Thursday. School staff is as usual great people.  We walk to lunch every day to a market nearby. We pass acerola trees (the fruit looks like tiny little red apples), there is a tree full of oranges on the other side of a fence and coffee bushes are growing by the side of the road. 

Appreciating the the climate which is so wonderful especially with the big blizzard raging at home. The trees and vines and flowering trees are amazing. Its like the most beautiful day of summer we have.

Breakfast is every morning at the hotel; it’s a feast. Eggs, rolls, yogurt, granola, fruit, meat, and lots of croissants with cheeses and other fillings. There is also many sweets that we would call desserts. One more day and here and it flew by so fast. 

Oranges

avocado

Coffee in the raw

acerola

Looking up at the school

Acerola in the tree

March 23, Londrina

Moving on to Londrina. I managed to squeeze all I had into the one suitcase, one carry on and one backpack. Suitcase was a bit over but the girl at the counter never said anything. My problem was the surge protector, it weighs a lot, so I had to stuff it in my back pack.  I tried to check in early but I didn’t have all the information needed including the name of the airline and they misspelled my name and put down the wrong month of birth on my ticket. Taxi driver picked me up and we arrived at the airport and it took him about 10 minutes to sort out where I was to check on. I gave him a nice tip and he shut of the taxi and walked in with me and found my check in. During all this he couldn’t speak English and me no Portuguese. Getting better at sign language.  Was picked up and taken to my hotel, very nice except it  smells too good/bad. There is a large mall behind the hotel with a huge Carrefour grocery store, so I took a walk up to get water and fruit.

Tomorrow I hit the ground running. I hope this school is a great as the other two I visited.

This is Londrina, a nice city

Looking out my window

Huge displays of Easter Eggs in Carrefour.

Saturday March 22.

This morning I realized why I was so dead tired after school yesterday. I needed to take an allergy pill since I had a reaction from a strong smell. I have two kinds, drowsy and non drowsy. Well I took the drowsy by mistake. I am sure they are better than any sleeping pill.
 Today I went looking for the market but it doesn't exist where I thought it should be, so I had a nice walk in between the work I have to do. Its a lovely day but those rain clouds are rolling in.Looks like more thunder and rain.
I had been so busy here, I hadn't looked at what the next school wanted until last night. The want an 1/2 day in service Monday morning. Got my work cut out today, no more sightseeing. Realizing for sure I'm not a tourist.
All packed and ready to go tomorrow. I'll fly to Londrina to another school.

In a church close by

Inside the church

Some names just don't translate well

Beautiful wall

This fellow had the traffic held up for about 10 minutes. Still don't know how he ever got the trailer in there.

Flower on a tree

Little Toddler.

This morning I went to their other school for the first part of the morning. I observed and took two little boys aside to give a quick opinion. It was truly amazing when we saw how one fellow's printing and pictures were improved remarkably by using coloured paper. He also loved listening to and following along as I read a book to him. He will be helped greatly by using the coloured plastic overlays and by using coloured paper instead of white.
Today and yesterday at the Vila Nova School I was in Toddler but today was Little Toddler. They just leaned to walk, some 14 months old. Now that is a challenging class, like herding chickens, but the teachers do a wonderful job. They are constantly changing activities. to keep them interested.  They teachers have to be continually up beat and super interesting. What a cute group. 
Teachers and administration wonderful people. 
My late nights getting ready for school caught up with me this afternoon. When I arrived back at hotel I fell asleep for 3 hours. This weekend will be spent writing up a report for the school I was with all week and getting ready for this parent's evening talk this coming Thursday. 
I see there is a weekend market very close to the hotel, so I will be going there tomorrow morning.

These two fellows are painting the building across the street.

My 4 buds I brought with me. They have helped me out  a lot in the classrooms.

Wednesday March 19,

Before they cut the trees it was a rain forrest.

Daily buckets of rain

But.... warm rain I must add.

Today I was in Toddler A, the class of 2-3 year olds. Another great teacher and class. Again I’ll say what beautiful children, I was looking at pictures on their family trees in class, no wonder they are so cute, their mothers look like models.

Before noon I got a message my cab was waiting to take me to another school, owned by the same people. Met with some teachers and observed some children. I just happened to have my Irlen materials in my bag and was able to do some preliminary Irlen screening (he didn’t have much English) and I think he may do better with Irlen overlays and coloured paper when he writes. 

I had lunch with two teachers and one began to describe her Irlen symptoms; she is a definite Irlen person for sure.   www.irlen.com  Check out the webpage so you will know what I’m referring to.

Got a taxi back to my morning school and before I knew it they were telling me my taxi was waiting to go back to the hotel. I’ll be up late tonight, getting ready for a session with not one but two schools. They will combine the two schools.

Then tomorrow I’ll have to condense my two suitcases into one 23 kilo for my domestic flights to Londrina and Vitoria. Looks like I’ll have to leave behind the dollar store goodies and anything else not necessary.

Tuesday March 18

Another great day at school. Enjoying the people I'm working with and the children. Poured rain again this afternoon, as usual warm torrential rain...but then I guess we are in a rain forest. Had lunch at another great buffet restaurant. My supper is always at the hotel.I t starts at 7:00 and I'm ready to eat by then, usually the first there, Brazilians eat very late. I took a walk for a km or so around the hotel neighborhood looking for a store to buy water. I found a grocery store close by and lots of nice fruit but the the hotel provided enough and more.

Thunder storm again

Church near by

Flower on my walk

More flowers

My hotel

Huge tree

Monday March 17th. Hello Vila Nova

-->

Mix up this morning, no ride and didn’t know how I was getting to school. Figured out how to use the phone,(so many numbers, what is local?) and my ride picked me up. I was in one classroom all day, 20 three year olds, with one teacher and 2 aides in the morning and in the afternoon about 12-14 children on the afternoon shift, with one teacher and 2 aides. Beautiful children!

Another great school, I would send my children to either school if I were in Sao Paulo. Brazilians love children.

Found out I was scheduled to do an hour session with teachers TOMORROW after school. Thank goodness it’s rescheduled until Thursday. So glad I brought my bag of tricks from the Dollar Store.

They called me a taxi to go home and it’s hard to believe but these fellows have mini TV sets playing on their dash. The taxi that took me to Carrefour also had a mini TV on his dash, just like a GPS.

TV is below the meter, its part of his dash display. No need to get bored on a long trip!

Graffiti next door to my hotel.

Sunday March 16th. Vila Nova

Not sure why my posts don't have the correct date since my computer does.

Packed everything last night and was ready to go at noon. I brought a lot of  (heavy) books and a whole suitcase of Dollar Store things teachers can turn into learning activities. The Dollar Store things will be staying in Brazil, won’t be needing them on the way home. Called the taxi and had quite a long drive to my next destination, Vila Nova, which is also part of Sao Paulo. I’m not sure about the taxi driver, the meter said 70 reals but he insisted it was 120 reals being a Sunday and going from city to city. I asked for someone from the hotel to confirm if he were correct, they agreed, so I had to give him his amount. (One Canadian $ equals 2.13 Brazil reals.)

This hotel is the Intercity Premium, Ibirapuera, very nice, no carpet, which I like. It’s similar to the Delta in Halifax and on a street that looks like it’s a business district, very nice area.

Sao Paulo is the king of street graffiti, it is everywhere.

Looking out my window in Vila Nova

Looking right

Right across the street

Looking left

Saturday March 15th Walk down Kennedy Avenue

This morning after breakfast my job was to somewhere find a fuse to fit my surge protector. Front desk guys tried to help by putting wire around the fuse so it would run, but defeating the whole idea of a fuse. I got directions on how to get to the road with Carrefour (huge grocery/department store) on it and the shopping center. I walked to Carrefour, about 2 km and no luck with the fuse there. Every place that looked like they may sell fuses I went in. The electrical shop didn’t carry them, neither did the garage but someone directed me to a hardware store. I showed them the fuse when I went in and they said no, and shook their heads. I had a feeling they may be there so I explored the store and there they were, five different sizes. So I bought all 5 sizes with about 10 in each package. I put the lowest amp one in the surge protector and the computer is charging. 

Looking up at my hotel

Squeezing sugar cane for juice. I had a glass of coconut water before I saw this.

Street market

Now that's bananas

My favorite here, papaya

Walked this street to find fuse.

My hotel

Looking like more rain to come