An outing in the poor quarter of São Lázaro

Vor sieben Jahren begann Fabiana Naka, bei sich zuhause mit einigen Kindern künstlerisch zu arbeiten. Bald wurde sie von Ihrer Mutter Lais, einer langjährigen Waldorflehrerin unterstützt – und heute kümmert sich mit ihnen ein ganzes Team ehrenamtlicher Mitarbeiter täglich um fast 70 Kinder. – Ein Mädchen nimmt Sie jetzt mit in seine Welt...

Dear Friends

I am your little guide and I wish you a good day. We are in Ondina, a wealthy part of town in Salvador, the capital city of our federal state of Bahia. As you will see, nearly all the people I know are dark skinned. Come, I will lead you to the São Lázaro church, after which our part of town is named.

Here we have to go up some steps. In these narrow alleys live about 2000 people , 250 families, grandparents, parents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, youths and many children. Many of my friends don’t know their father and their mothers have to work very hard in order that there is rice and beans on the table. The grandmothers or aunts or cousins look after the children - or all of them but none of them really properly. I have four brothers and sisters and a sweet niece.

My parents have a bar directly on the alleyway near the church. I think it is a shame that many parents are out of work or drink too much that they get nervous and then hit their children and wives and sometimes there are big fights between the grown up men.

That often makes me sad and thoughtful. I see many young people sitting on the streets because it is too nervous or too crowded at home. Do you know what? Some of them steal things so that they have possessions that they couldn’t buy. Others take drugs and are only busy trying to get enough money together. It is even worse with the girls who have many friends in order to earn a little bit of money and then they get pregnant and don’t know what to do with he child.

Are you getting tired already? We are almost there. There is the church of São Lázaro. Every Monday there is a special service. The beautiful Bahianas bless the Believers with popcorn - that is a tradition of the Candomblés, an African religion that has many followers here.

Perhaps you find the area fairly ugly and poor - but look at the lovely tower blocks across the street. Unfortunately we are not allowed in there, you have to show your id card… and on the other side there is a zoo with evergreen trees and over there you can see the government palace. There further to the right you can see the promise of the blue strip of sea. Our houses are small, crowded and often pretty dirty. In summer we have no water for days on end and we have to wash ourselves in buckets but we know that other people live better...

I like living here. When I hear that another of the young people (sometimes someone that I often saw in my parents’ bar) has been killed over drug dealing, I get afraid and want to hide myself away- but with time the shock goes away.

Arrived at the project

Here on the left is the Salva Dor project. Here we can eat, learn, play, sing, make music and laugh every day. The teacher always greets us heartily and with joy and she helps us to do the boring homework that we get in the state school. The little ones who go to kindergarten are lucky, they can play, listen to stories, sing, sleep and paint and don’t have to learn anything. They have their own bathroom- sometimes I wish I was a little girl again...

Did you know that our teacher has to learn as well. For two weeks they have been here with lots of other teachers from Bahia and do a „Waldorf pedagogical course.“ Sometimes I see them come out with hand made puppets and animals. I hope they teach us that next year…

In this room a doctor sees patients from our quarter once a week. The people like her and when it is necessary, she visits the old folk in their homes. I think there are too few doctors for all of us and for all the illnesses there are…

The project takes in many children and the mothers want them to take in the very little ones so that they can go back to work. My niece will stay here too next year. Her mother was herself here four years ago. She is pretty young and still goes to school- who would look after Milena then?

Last year we had real recorder lessons with Vivian and the older ones learned some beautiful songs and performed them. I kike playing the recorder but it was hard…

Our cook always tries to make something out of the little she has, which she sometimes manages better than other times—we all like to eat meat here but that is too expensive and if you don’t get anything to eat you are happy for anything and don’t ask for more…

So did you like it here with us? Are you coming again soon to visit us. We would be happy to see you again. See you soon, good bye, yours Larissa.

Laïs Naka, Vivian Fraenkel (translated by Martyn Rawson)

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