Bahia Street News
May 21, 2007 | Margaret WillsonDear Friends,
It has been too long since you received news from Bahia Street, perhaps because so much has been going on both here and in Salvador. Before we slow down for the summer, I wanted to take a moment to share with you what is happening at the Bahia Street Center and with Bahia Street outside of Brazil.
Rita and I were discussing the start of the school year in March, and Rita noted that she now had more girls than ever before, putting a strain on the budget and building, and generally straining the energy level of the school. Then she told me that she had enrolled 61 girls! When I asked about the number, Rita exclaimed that she simply couldn’t turn the additional girls away. “You’re not the one having to turn them away!” she said to me. So many more girls are now being referred to the Center than we could ever possibly accommodate. The fact that the building reconstruction is essentially completed allows more of the space to be used to benefit these additional students.
The students are now able to learn capoeira at the Center in part because of the additional space we have, but also because of continuing support of /Grupo de Capoeira Senzala Seattle/. They raised another $5,000 at the second annual “Rites of Change” performance event in Seattle, which will fund uniforms, instruments, and the teacher for this school year. Rita was fortunate to be able to hire a female capoeira master, Linda, who comes from a similar background as the girls. She gives the girls yet another role model to hers who transcends the debilitating effects of poverty. It is revolutionary to have a female capoeira instructor given the historically male dominance of capoeira in Brazil. The program promotes physical health, strength in self defense, and pride in their African-Brazilian heritage. Every girl who is physically able plays capoeira now at the Center.
With more girls and new programs, we are working on ways to support the Center beyond raising funds. In late fall 2006, we began the library project based on Rita’s expressed need for books to fill the library at the Center. Brazil is notorious for its lack of libraries that serve the poor, which coupled with the relatively high cost of books, is indicative of the low literacy rates for Brazil’s poor. Bahia Street did not have the funds to fill the library, so we began looking for opportunities to receive donated books for the Center. Our first grant came from Alibris, which awarded Bahia Street $1,000 to buy English language books. With this money, we bought easy readers and ESL texts to support our volunteer ESL program. Other books continue to arrive from Alibris’ Donate-A-Book program (http://www.alibris.com/wish/donate-a-book.cfm). On the Portuguese language side, I have been working closely with Bloomsbury Publishing Company editorial director Sarah Odedina in securing donations from Brazilian publishers, such as Companhia das Letras and Editora Rocco, among others. Additionally, Seattle volunteer Melanie Wyffels lined up language kits from Yazigi language centers.
Just when we thought that we were wrapping up the library project, the phone rang. Dr. Mitchell Davis learned about Bahia Street through Alibris. He called the office and asked how to buy 500 books for the school, offering $2,500 to fund Portuguese language books in Salvador. Dr. Davis has a strong interest in health and nutrition and inquired about the Center’s nutrition program. Learning that we can provide the only meal a day that the girls usually receive, he offered funds for a second meal as well. Dr. Davis sent $15,000 last month, one of the largest individual donations ever received by Bahia Street. Dr. Davis told Nancy that one of the reasons he supports Bahia Street is because it is a small organization where a donation of this size has a significant impact on the lives of the people being served. His generosity also demonstrates the power of the Internet for small non-profits to connect with a community of people beyond our hubs of activity.
Increasingly, we are working on projects that extend our experiences with poverty, race, and international development into different disciplines. One such project is our partnership with the University of Washington Department of Chemistry, which is running an “Exploration Seminar” to Salvador in August 2007. Led by Dr. Richard Gammon, “Chemistry, Climate Change, and Culture” will focus on the science, public policy, and social justice issues surrounding the topic of global warming and climate change. Bahia Street is a key partner in the project because a knowledge of local culture is critical in the implementation of climate change solutions, and many of the people most affected by climate change are the rural and urban poor: shantytown residents, fishermen, and subsistence farmers. Students will be visiting the Bahia Street Center, having homestays with university students in Santo Antonio de Jesus, and meeting local people in Arembepe, a fishing village north of Salvador.
And finally, a few activities to mark on your calendar! Bahia Street will have a table at the *All Nations Cup* soccer event during the weekend of *July 21 and 22* at Fort Dent Park in Tukwila. We will also have a table at *Brasilfest* on *August 19* at Seattle Center. Please email info@bahiastreet.org for volunteer opportunities—there will be many!
This gives you a taste of all that is going on. While this means that we are very busy, it is exciting to see our programs energize others to work for change in Brazil and beyond. This past week, we participated in a program about international NGO management—an event organized by our present interns—and we were struck by the poise, thoughtfulness, and sense of activism of our former interns serving on the event’s panel. Bahia Street inspired each of them in a different way, and they in turn inspire us to broaden our educational programs outside of Brazil. I feel surrounded now by the growth, the energy, and the dynamic force that Bahia Street has become. You and all involved with Bahia Street have made this possible. And we are standing on the verge of so much more. It is exciting. We can all be delighted and proud of this in our lives.
Happy summer and laughter,
Margaret
–
Dr. Margaret Willson
International Director
2006 Appeal Letter
November 12, 2006 | Bahia StreetNovember 12, 2006
Dear Friends,
Instead of writing you a letter myself at this end of the calendar year, I am sending this letter written by Chris Dawson, who just returned from Salvador. Over the years, as I have watched Bahia Street grow, I have been continually moved by the community that has grown with it. It has always been that I have learned from the voices and perspectives of others in this community. This letter from Chris is no exception. I think you will agree with me once you have read it.
My warmest thoughts and grandes abraços.
Margaret Willson
International Director
My name is Chris Dawson. Two years ago my brother and I donated money to purchase a building for Bahia Street in Salvador, Brazil.If you are like me, you see a lot of problems in this world. Crime, violence and immorality are all around us—and I am only talking about the politicians. It is a frustrating and sad world. For so long I felt I was battling windmills, yelling at the talking heads on television who were not addressing the real problems, or at the politicians in power who were not demanding positive change.I now think, however, that I was wrong about that perception of things. I now believe that the only way to make change in the world is to make change in the world. In your hands right now, with this letter, you have an opportunity to make that change.I just returned from Salvador, Bahia to visit the Bahia Street Center. This was my first time at the Center, and it was nothing short of amazing.
(Chris has published photos of his visit on the web at Flickr.)
I called Rita when I arrived. She beckoned me to come to the Center, so I wrote down the address after some difficulty. Talking in Portuguese on the phone is still very difficult for me; I rely on being able to see the person’s face to aid my comprehension. I wasn’t sure where it was, so I went down to the lobby to ask. One of the bellboys there lived in the area, but he had not heard of the street. However, he assured me a cab driver would know, so I hopped in a cab with the laptop that I had brought for Rita.
As we got closer and closer, my worries intensified, due more to my perceptions of where I was than to the actuality of life in that part of town. What I saw was that this was a busy neighborhood, and it looked to me like it was on the edge of a slum. My greatest fear, and I think I share this with a lot of Brazilians and tourists, is that I would mistakenly stumble into a slum with no sense of my bearings. Too many Brazilians have warned “don’t go into a favela, they will kill you there.” I know this is pure hyperbole, but at that moment, these words echoed in my head.
We had to stop and ask for directions once we arrived in the general area, which worried me even more: This would of course let everyone know that I did not know where I was going. We wound up a small hill, then rolled around a small road, which descended through a small alley paved with cobblestones. The buildings were dilapidated. After about a hundred feet we stopped at the address Rita had given me. I was relieved to see her appear immediately after I knocked. The door was open, but there was an iron gate in the way with a padlock on it. She let me in. I had arrived, and safely!
I quickly found out that I had not come on a normal day. This was the week of gincana, which as far as I could tell is a celebratory competition. The girls were broken into teams of four to compete for points that were tabulated over the course of the week. There were various forms of competition, judged by teachers and visitors like me.
One of the most amusing was when six opaque plastic jars filled with liquid and a surprise object were placed on the table. One girl from each team had to stick her hand into each jar while blindfolded and whisper what she thought it was to Juliana, one of the younger teachers there. (She was also the first student to come to Bahia Street ten years ago. She is teaching at the Center while also attending university.) Most of the girls stuck their hand in only for a second before yanking it out. Everyone was laughing, and the girls not involved in the competition were rapt at attention.
After everyone had tried each of the six jars, the items were removed and placed on the table. They were all plastic toys: A rat, a ladybug, a frog, a snake and a spider. It was hilarious to see the looks on the girls faces when they saw what they really felt: the rat was mistaken for a shrimp, the ladybug for an onion, and the spider for a plant. It was also fitting for me, as I noticed the connections and disconnections between what the girls felt and what was really there. I had experienced the same thing only moments before, in the cab, my own reality grazing up against the new reality in which I found myself.
On Thursday I returned to the Center. Rita showed me the upstairs, which is still under construction. She told me how when Margaret visited the new building for the first time a few years ago, she worried because the building was so derelict that she wondered how she would tell her board of directors in Seattle. I really laughed at this, because after spending a day there I was convinced this was the best money I had ever spent in my life. Being around the girls for even a moment makes you want to commit anything to them. It is obviously a place of safety and happiness for them, and I imagine that these qualities have not always been present in their lives.
On Friday, the girls had the last day of gincana. They had a competition to see which team could jump rope the longest. One of the teams never made it past one as the girls spun the rope too fast for the jumper to enter. She was very frustrated by that. Another competition involved skits where the girls had ten minutes to make a commercial for sunblock. In the last competition, the teams had to take a song, use the same lyrics, but change the genre, going from hip-hop to classical, for example.
The last team to compete had three of the younger girls in leotards and tutus while the oldest sang in a beautiful opera style voice. She truly was amazing, and to compose the song in a few minutes made it doubly so. As she sat down, the teachers asked if she sang in church, and she responded that she did. I was asked to be a judge again for the final competition, and the sight of those shy eight-year-olds in tutus dancing while their older mentor sang alone in front of sixty people made my heart melt. Needless to say, they had my vote.
Fio and Rita then tabulated the points. Over the course of the week, there had been various competitions, and different teams had succeeded in different ways. The winning team, in the end, was the one with the young girls in the tutus dancing to opera. They exploded when they won. Rita noticed that some of the other teams were disappointed and made an inspiring speech about teamwork. She said the team that won competed as a team, was not negative towards their teammates, and supported each other over the course of the week.
I really got the importance of the gincana right there, and it was inspiring to see Rita re-collect everyone at the end of the week for a common purpose. The winners took home gold medallions suspended around their necks by a ribbon; they all proceeded to bite on the metal as if to prove the consistency of the gold. Everyone got medals of some kind, even me—chocolate medallions made to look like Canadian currency. As the girls left with their mothers or caregivers, they clutched the medals and showed them to everyone around.
I had to leave for the airport mid-day Monday, so I did not get to say goodbye after school. I knew I was going to bawl when I left. It has meant so much to me to be around these brave and beautiful little girls.
As I look out and see the state of the world, with all the wars and conflict, I see these issues stemming from two major roots: lack of education and lack of connection. Wars are permitted only because people on both sides do not know the other side, and this comes from a lack of education regarding the world in which we live. Time and time again we see that nations wage war because both sides have never learned that their enemies could be their allies and friends.
I look at Bahia Street and see that these girls, who might have before never known about the world outside their neighborhood, are now learning English; they now know about my state of Oregon. They get at least one square meal per day at the Center. They can take showers in a clean and safe place. They have advocates for their well being and mental health from the same communities in which they live.
By expanding their world, they will expand the world for the people around them, like waves rippling across a lake. These girls have also given me an education, Bahia Street has expanded my world as well. Changing the world through education is the only sure way to peace.
With Bahia Street, we have an opportunity to make a direct difference and direct connection to these young women. We get to watch them grow. Rather than sending money to some large bureaucratic organization where only a small percentage is actually spent on positive change, we get to see these girls change in amazing ways.
In order to maintain its stability, complete work on the building and everything else it does, Bahia Street needs our help, a consistent and unwavering commitment. As we connect the world and these young women, we are changing the world.
Please consider giving generously this holiday season. Please consider making a monthly donation to Bahia Street. It is so easy to change the world and make it a better place. We can start today.
And thank you for your involvement in Bahia Street!
Best wishes,
Chris Dawson
Bahia Street News
March 10, 2006 | Margaret WillsonDear All,
I am freezing! Yesterday was spring, and today it’s winter again. Nancy and I just walked to the bank and my fingers are so cold I can hardly type. March is making sure we notice its lion entrance.
By contrast, I was just speaking with Rita yesterday, and she says Salvador this year is hotter than she can remember. She cannot sleep at night, and people are actually getting sick from the heat. Salvador—and other parts of Bahia—are also not getting the rain they should, Rita has seen very little since November. The girls are all returning to classes after Carnival, and Rita is trying to obtain extra fans to make the classroom heat tolerable.
Fio and Rita have spent the summer months painting the interior of the (new) Bahia Street Center, and Rita says the walls are now all bright pinks and yellows. She will be sending us photos which we will put up on the website. They are very busy now with the beginning of the year, hiring new teachers and organizing the schedules of the girls. This is incredibly complicated. All the girls go to public schools (in addition to Bahia Street) for four hours a day, but the school day in Salvador is divided into three parts for the students, one session in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Bahia Street classes are all in the afternoon. All the girls go to different schools in neighborhoods scattered all over the city. This means that Rita and Fio have to negotiate with all these schools to get the girls put into the morning public school session so they can attend Bahia Street in the afternoon. A huge undertaking, particularly when we consider that they are doing this for fifty girls.
However, our efforts are paying off. Daza was one of the early girls to join Bahia Street. She is also one of the girls whose mother has always been very supportive of her work. And this year, on her first try, Daza passed the university exam. Not only did she pass, but with the high marks that will allow her to enter Salvador’s federal university. These federal universities are the most difficult to gain admittance, but they are free if one gets in. So, Daza is this month beginning her first year at the Federal University of Bahia in Communications. This makes the second girl from Bahia Street to enter university, Juliana last year and Daza this year. Bahia Street is a long term investment in people, but we are now beginning to see the wonderful and concrete results of our work. Thank you all for your support over the years.
And speaking of support, Nancy received an email this week from one of our supporters here in Seattle, Peg, that particularly touched us. Peg is the mother of twin girls who are in the sixth grade. She and her older daughter, Miriam, came to the Bahia Street gathering in January and returned home very excited. This was the result as Peg wrote in an email to Nancy:
“I don’t know if you’ve gotten word of this yet from Naomi and Eliana, but they were very taken with what Miriam and I had to say about Bahia Street. It was their birthday this past week, and they asked their friends and relatives to send them donations to Bahia Street instead of gifts. Many complied, and we have raised over $500!”
It is remarkable to think that these girls would choose to use their birthday gifts to give to others. I feel glad for our future with young people like that around.
We have several exciting events on the horizon. First, Rita is coming to Seattle! We are setting this up for the last two weeks of September and will be having a formal dinner honoring her and celebrating the Tenth Year Anniversary of Bahia Street! (I find this personally amazing). We will let you know more about her visit and the events associated with it as they develop.
Also, following the impressive success of this year’s trip, we are hosting a Study Trip to Bahia again this year. The trip will be a total of seven days in Bahia, scheduled for November. Check out the Bahia Street website at www.bahiastreet.org for more details. The trip is a chance to have fun, learn about the realities of Bahia life, the culture, inequalities, African influences, and to have a chance to meet the Bahia Street girls and see our work first hand. Please email Nancy at nancy@bahiastreet.org if you might be interested in joining us!
And finally, Senzala Seattle, a Seattle based capoeira group, is putting on a benefit for Bahia Street on March 31 entitled Rites of Change at the Velocity Dance Center (915 East Pine Street). It looks to be a wonderful event. It features Brazilian-themed performances by Bem Brazil, DJ Joe Mojo, Roda de Fogo, Erin MacNamee, Senzala Seattle, and Capoeira Malês. Additionally there will be an auction featuring an amazing collection of arts and crafts. The proceeds will benefit an expanded capoeira program at the Bahia Street Center. Tickets cost $10 at the door or through www.brownpapertickets.com. For more information, visit www.bahiastreet.org/events or give us a call at (206)633-1724.
A few days have passed since I began this letter and in that short time spring has reemerged. When I stopped for my morning coffee this morning, everyone was talking about their favorite spot for viewing Seattle’s spring blossoms, one told of the Asian cherry trees in the Arboretum, another of the jasmine at the Locks. Everywhere the air is filled with the scent of blossoms and the ground dotted with the bright yellow of daffodils. The explosion of spring brings such joy.
My very best to you all.
Margaret
Bahia Street News
November 2, 2005 | Margaret WillsonDear All,
The smells of autumn are coming through the open window, a clear scent of recent rain and damp leaves. In these months, the slant of early winter sun creates an actual glow in the leaves, a shimmering arbor of magenta and gold, punctuated by the occasional black-green fir.
The change of autumn is perhaps my favorite time of year, and I pause at least once each day, thinking how precious are these moments of joy. I feel privileged to have friends with whom to share them.
Nancy, our project director, said something to me the other week that I found important: Our search for meaning is interconnected with a need for purpose. I can see it in the numerous e-mails we receive weekly from people wanting to volunteer for us in Bahia. I see it in the outpouring of sentiment and individual effort in response to suffering exacerbated by recent natural disasters. I see it when I am talking with our volunteers here — and in myself. Such involvement gives our lives purpose and meaning.
I was thinking about this when I rang Rita a few weeks ago. It was late Thursday and she was still at the Bahia Street Center. First she told me of difficulties. The university teachers were on strike, the police administration was on strike, government offices were on strike, the postal workers were on strike and the banks were on strike. Chris, the English teacher, laughed in the background and shouted to me over the phone line, “We’re the only people working! Bahia Street, that’s it!”
The bus fares have gone up again, Rita said. The government wanted to raise fares to R$2.20 per ride, but the people protested in the streets, so they only raised it to R$1.70. Minimum wage — what most people in Salvador earn if they’re lucky — is R$300 a month. This means that people can hardly afford to ride the bus to work and certainly cannot send their children to school.
I felt there was little positive I could say in response to all this, so I asked Rita what she was doing so late at the Center.
“I’m cooking,” she said. She began crunching on something.
“What are you eating?”
“A dried shrimp.”
“Oh?”
“I’m making carurú.” She paused and shouted to someone passing in the street in front of the Center.” Antonio! Carurú, tomorrow!”
Carurú, for the non-Brazilians reading this letter, is a wonderful
traditional food of Bahia made from finely chopped okra prepared by as many community hands as possible, dried shrimp crushed with onion and lots of African palm oil. Carurú is a ritual food, symbolic of community, of sharing one’s life with the people who, like the food we eat, sustain us.
In Bahia, September is a special month for sharing carurú in honor of the twin Catholic saints, Cosme and Damião, also known in candomblé, the African Brazilian religion of Bahia, as Ibejis, the guardian saints of young boys and twins. In the final weeks of September, people make carurú and invite everyone, particularly children in groups of seven. The carurú is placed in a large bowl at the center of the room. The children sit on the floor around the bowl and eat first, using only their hands. The adults generally sing to call the Ibejis while they wait for the children
to finish. Putting on a carurú is believed to ensure good health and a good future, particularly for twins and children.
Given the importance of children’s welfare related to this festival, it is not surprising that Rita was making a huge carurú for the Bahia Street Center and all the neighbors who have been so helpful and supportive of Bahia Street, especially during the construction of the Center. Rita later sent photos of the carurú which you can see on the Bahia Street website: www.bahiastreet.org. There’s a link to a carurú recipe there,
too.
Rita also had good news about Juliana, who was our first Bahia Street student eight years ago. She is doing well at university and has moved into an apartment by herself — quite an adventurous and feminist thing to do in Bahia where most young people, particularly women, stay with their parents (or in Juliana’s case, with her older sister, since she’s an orphan) until they marry. She is coming back to the Bahia Street Center regularly and giving talks to the young girls, inspiring them with her achievements.
Things are a bit tight for Bahia Street right now, despite the success of the program, in part because the U.S. dollar is falling relative to the Brazilian currency. We are trying to keep all fifty girls, however, and maintain our current programs of daily meals, academic excellence, family outreach, literacy, health and violence counseling. Since we pay bus fare for all the girls, the increased bus fare affects us as well.
I leave November 11th for Brazil, staying for a month. We are taking ten visitors this year on a study tour which will include Bahia Street and its work. A few weeks after we return, we will be having a party in Seattle on January 22. The trip participants will be there with photos and tales to tell of their experiences and adventures. We will send you more details as the time nears, but put the date in your calendars now. It will be good to share — if not a carurú — certainly good food, good memories and good cheer.
Until then…
grandes abraços
Margaret
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