Between laughing children and financial regression

Dear Friends,

With this newsletter we would like to thank all of those who support us and allow them to be a part of the new developments in our project.

Kindergarten and after care

We are very happy to report, that on the 22^nd of September, one day after “Spring Day” here in Brazil and two years after the founding of our association, our kindergarten started. We actually intended to start in February, at the beginning of the school year in Brazil, but our nursery school teacher pulled out at the last minute. Through Renate Keller (Monte Azul) we found another, very experienced nursery school teacher. She moved here from Sao Paulo, which is 2000km away, with nothing but two suitcases. The journey took Solange 32 hours by bus. After only one day of rest she began her work with 12 children and right away the house was full of children’s laughter.

Solange comes from the favela Monte Azul and was one of the first children there, who was taken care of by Ute Craemer, the founder of Monte Azul. She has 20 years of practical experience as a Waldorf nursery school behind her. This is very important, as the people here are not yet familiar with Waldorf education.

We are going to have to have a lot of patience with the parents, particularly when they tell us that their children are happiest when they can spend the whole day in front of the television and say that they are then pleasantly quiet and make no other demands. The parents do complain about a certain restlessness in their children (disturbed sleeping patterns and behavioral problems), but they can’t see that this might have something to do with the television abuse.

Seven of the members of our association are doing a Waldorf teacher training at the moment. It consists of four one week modules per year over four years. Doris is also taking part in the training, in order to better understand the language and culture of this country. In addition, we regularly take part in the meetings for Waldorf initiatives in the province of Bahia.

On the 7^th of September the day of independence was celebrated in this prefecture. The local schools presented extensive programmes, comparable with the monthly celebrations at Waldorf schools. Doris’ recorder group also performed. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough time to practice the national anthem, in which case our Waldorf scholars –that is how they were announced – would have had the honour of playing the anthem. But nonetheless, we were mentioned, we were seen, were applauded. In short, we have started integrating into the local population.

Market crash and regression

Our joy at the start of our kindergarten is now mixed with our worries about the future of our project. The Brazilian Waldorf initiatives too are feeling the effects of the worldwide regression. The only ready existing Waldorf School in Bahia had to retrench teachers in order to balance out their budget.

To make things more difficult, we also have a private financial crisis. As we have already reported, after the early death of Doris’ brother his company became insolvent. The interest from her shares in his company was helping to cover her expenses in Germany (costs for the training of her son, Thomas, etc.) to a large degree, in that way also making it possible for her to be here.

If we cannot realize a good business idea in the near future, then Doris will have to return to Germany and work as a teacher again. This would be a significant delay for the development of our project.

In order not to be completely dependent on donations, we had started an iron recycling project. We had to give it up again. Due to the regression, the selling price fell below the buying price.

We made a further attempt with sand. As it hasn’t rained for months, there isn’t any sand to be had for building in the whole city. When it rains, sand collects on the dirt roads and is then scraped off. We tried to fetch sand from 70 km away with our truck so we could sell it. We met with so many hindrances on the trip that we shall not be continuing with this idea. In the middle of nowhere the truck wouldn’t start and Doris had to drive out with her VW Passat. Then the brakes of our heavily loaded truck weren’t working properly and then the headlights failed, leaving us with nothing but the right indicator as a sign of our existence. Three kilometres away from the city – we could already see the lights – two tyres burst and we all had to get into Doris’ car. Our attempt had failed.

We are trying to maintain the children’s’ status as inhabitants of this prefecture, so that they (like needy families) continue to receive support from the state. But we also need further donations and, if possible, patrons for the children.

A volunteer, a guest house and a withered garden

We are also able to report, that we have a German volunteer here as a helper. He started in October and will be staying for one year. He went to the Waldorf school in Witten and has come through the “weltwärts” programme.

We are busy renovating the former house master’s cottage on the school grounds, so that we can have our own guest house and lodging for our volunteers. In autumn and winter we will have visitors from Germany and they will also be able to stay there. There are a few guest houses here (pousadas), but they are about as charming as the toilets at a train station and are not to be recommended, even to experienced globetrotters.

It hasn’t rained for months and all the grass has withered away and so we have had to sell our last two cows to the butcher. In comparison to the neighbours cows they were astonishingly well nourished, because we had been feeding them on the fruit which grows on the school property (Mangos and Jacas). Now the neighbour’s donkey is grazing on our property. He is much less demanding than the cows and has become our new lawn mower.

We tried planting maize, manioc and beans, but everything has withered away. Of the many, many carrots we were able to harvest 1 kg after one year of care and irrigation. We would’ve been able to sell them for 1 euro. What grew astonishingly well, was tomatoes and paprika .Unfortunately however, they were attacked by pests.

We have a teacher here for a visit, who is teaching unemployed teenagers about organic agriculture. They are going to use our garden as an object of study and so also bring is up to scratch.

The problems in our school system

Two examples that make apparent how different the Brazilian concept of professionalism is to ours:

1.      For example: the handyman who installed the locks into our doors, installed them with the keyhole facing upwards. On seeing our questioning looks, he said that he had to do it that way, because otherwise the tongue of the lock would show in the wrong direction. When we told him that one can turn the tongue, he said that he had never heard that and that his other customers had never complained, particularly as one can insert the key more easily this way. This shows that we have different priorities, or see problems that don’t exist for the Brazilians.

2.      Another example: a teacher mentioned that she wanted to give a lesson on fractions and percentages the next day, but that she herself had never learnt these things properly. Our test question was; “In a herd of 80 cows, there are 20 black cows. How many percent of the herd is black?” She didn’t know the answer.

Brazil, similar to Germany, is not exactly up at the top in the results of the Pisa study. This contrasts strongly with the fact that children should be able to read and write by the age of four. On the other hand, there are many people in their twenties who are still attending class four. The class is simply repeated until they marry, move away or die.

But these weaknesses are nothing when one regards the joyfulness, amiability, readiness to help and hospitality of the Brazilians.

We hope for any kind of new contact and help for the future of our project.

Doris Knipping, info(at)projuventutebahia.org

Further Information

• Report 07/2009
• Back to main page