But I write this letter with some sunny news: the building, the Bahia Street Center, is finished!!  For those of you who have been with us for some years, you will know that this has been an eight-year process.  We were able to buy the building at the exact right time (when the dollar was very high and buildings were still relatively inexpensive in Salvador) with first a generous loan, then a bit later, a very generous donation which paid off that loan.  But then we had the task here of raising the funds to rebuild, and in Bahia the huge task of actually reconstructing this building that was in such bad shape that it had to be completely rebuilt.  So to everyone who has donated over the years to make this possible, thank you.

The Bahia Street Center is now a five-story building, complete with a modern kitchen that satisfies all health codes and which can easily feed the hundred or so of people the Center feeds twice daily.  At the back is an outside play area that also includes a stage for school performances and other community events.  The entire rest of the bottom floor is devoted to a dining area.  All stairways now have high and secure banisters to prevent children from falling as they race from floor to floor.

The entrance of the building is now a reception area, there is a teacher’s preparation room, and Rita has a Director’s room where she can finally have private conversations with caregivers and others as needed (also a quiet place to get work done!). The shower room and bathrooms are completely tiled and also up to health codes. There is a large computer room with about 15 computers where they can now have classes in the evenings for community members in addition to the day classes with the girls. The building now hosts numerous classrooms and the library has been moved to a larger room with a window, making it a light and airy space for the girls to read and explore books.  There is a ‘pre-literacy’ room of bright colors, full of toys and games to stimulate the youngest children in preparing them for literacy.  There is a completed activity room where the girls play capoeira and do other physical activities.

And—again this took some time—we finally have a completed science lab!  Thank you to those of you who made donations specifically for this lab.  It has the facilities for chemistry classes, we have a skeleton and the tools needed to teach anatomy and other health sciences classes and other courses related to lab sciences.  This is very important as it will help the girls to prepare in this under-represented area.

The very top of the building is now one large room.  During the day this is used for a classroom, but in the evenings, it is the site of a program started last year to offer courses to girls and women wishing to pass the difficult university entrance exam.  Most students in Brazil, once they graduate from high school, still have to take expensive preparation courses for an exam which permits them to enter various universities.  Bahia Street last year began offering these classes and the demand is overwhelming.  Already last year even in the small pilot program, one girl passed her exam and is now at university, and more are expected to take the exam this year.  It is amazing that although most of the students of the exam preparation course are young women, a few women in their fifties have also joined.

The Bahia Street Center now stands out with its beautiful blue, newly-plastered classic facade facing the street.  A wonderful sign declares Construindo mulheres (“building women”), on top of the Bahia Street logo: layers of bricks on either side of the words “Bahia Street.” For photos of the newly-remodeled center, see our website, www.bahiastreet.org.

Meanwhile the core Bahia Street programs are continuing well.  Four ex-Bahia Street students who are now at university are working as interns at the Center, their wages being used to help support them in their studies.  The school students are going on field trips, such as a recent excursion to a local water treatment plant to understand how clean water is processed, and to the planetarium. 

It is fun also to let you know of a comment in the recent supplement to the main Salvador newspaper in a featured article on ‘the Streets of Salvador.’  In discussing the street upon which the Bahia Street Center is located, the writer suggested that the street name should be changed to Bahia Street in honor of the Center’s important work.  A reflection of impressive local support indeed!

I do hope you all are well.  I suppose, as I look out at the rain again—which has not stopped as I have been writing—that this is better than the horrific heat other areas are suffering. Small consolation I know.  We may just have to find sun in each others smiles.

Thank you all again so much.  It is a joy to be with you all on this journey.

Abraços
Margaret

Dance Lest We All Fall Down: Breaking Cycles of Poverty in Brazil and Beyond is now available for order.

I am laughing as I write this.  I have just been talking with Rita via Skype.  Now, I am a bit slow on the technology, so it is only recently that I have begun to appreciate Skype.  Rita was way ahead, urging me to get the video, which she had already installed.  “We in Brazil are far ahead of you there in the States,” she  said.  On the video I can see her, laughing, tugging her hair. She is so full of energy  these days she actually seems to glow.  Rita is taking swim class, and she now has three remarkable young women working with her to provide her with a wonderful support so she can run Bahia Street with much less stress.

And I have delightful news: Daza, one of the second group of girls that entered Bahia Street, graduated from university a few weeks ago!  She attended the Federal University of Bahia, the most difficult to enter, and graduated in journalism.  Of the tiny percentage of poor Brazilians who get into university, so few are able to finish.  And that is what Daza has done.  She will now be a voice of African-Brazilian women and shantytown residents, the kind of voice that is almost never heard in Brazil.  She has achieved so much, but in so many ways she is also just beginning.  We are so proud of her.  I wait with great curiosity to see what she will do.

And as if this weren’t enough, we have wonderful news of Juliana (a different Juliana to the one who entered a few years ago).  Juliana was never actually an official student at Bahia Street.  She came through an informal program Rita has done for some years, first as a cook helper, then as a cook and finally, with Bahia Street’s help in giving her classes, beginning to work on the computers and administration.  She studied for years to pass her university exam and failed it three times—the exam is extremely difficult particularly for those who have only a public school education.  Bahia Street paid for exam preparation classes, but after the third try, she gave up.  Then Rita asked her what she thought her options would be if she gave up.  Rita also told her that she—Rita—had taken the exam four times before she passed.  So Juliana, with impressive perseverance, took it a fourth time and passed!  And passed with very high grades to get into the Federal University of Bahia in Library Science.  Rita always amazes me in the ways she finds, informally or otherwise, to give young women the support to achieve their dreams.

These are both huge accomplishments for these young women—and for Bahia Street.  For all of you who have helped to make it possible, thank you.

Bahia Street is also expanding its programs. Rita has started, in addition to the daily programs with the girls, an evening program. As she said, “We have this wonderful space, we should use it as much as we can.”  The evening program is just developing, so I will have more details in my next letter, but it includes classes for high school students and for mothers and caregivers of the girls.  All the basic subjects are covered including math and science, and some will even be studying to take their university entrance exams….as you can see it is very ambitious. So please stay tuned for the next letter when I will have many more details!

We have had an eventful summer here in Seattle.  It started with the Summer Beat, a joyous evening of samba, capoeira, music, food and much hilarity.  Next was a house party on Bainbridge at a gracious home on the water, a perfect evening with the moon rising over the sea, great food, and that warm feeling one gets at a really good party.  And finally was the Brazil/America soccer game where, despite a heavy rain shower that chose those exact two hours to pour down, people had a great time—one could win goals on the field—or buy them.  The Brazilians still won (12-10) but there is always next year!  Thank you so much to everyone who helped, participated and donated goods and services to these fantastic events.  And particular thanks to the people who thought them up and organized them.  Bahia Street did make money and—they were a lot of fun.  So, watch out for next summer as it looks as though we may do them all again!

As I finish this, I still have the image of Rita in my head, her laughter and the shouting of joyous children behind her.  We live in a wonderful world.

Abraços,

Margaret

But education in Brazil would be worse if it weren’t for the thousands of invisible educators dedicated to changing the system, such as everybody at Bahia Street. Today I listened to a speech given by one of Chico Mendes’ daughter.  (Chico Mendes was a national environmental hero, activist and union leader in the Northern state of Acre. He was brutally assassinated in 88 by the local ranch mafia). The clarity of her speech and message was amazing!  She obviously received  high quality education in the middle of the Amazon forest.”