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Bahia Street News

Dear All,

Happy summer! The sun has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest, and we are beginning to enjoy the warmth that comes after many months of cold.

In our Seattle office, we are incredibly busy. With current Brazilian inflation and the weak U.S. dollar, we have to send four times as much money to Rita in Bahia to maintain the same level of support. Rita says that in Salvador, she is seeing one local nonprofit after another falter and fail because of the downturn in the U.S. and global economy. Bahia Street, however, is maintaining its operations– largely because of you. A few years ago, Nancy and I also started developing educational programs here in the States, first Bahia study trips, and more recently programs with students at the University of Washington. Our aim is that these educational programs not only teach Americans about global inequality and issues of poverty as related to Brazil, but also will eventually pay for our administrative costs in the States so that anyone’s entire donation goes entirely to Brazil. We have already been successful enough in this venture that currently about ninety percent of all donations go directly to Brazil. These educational programs also pay for my trips to Bahia so Rita and I can plan and connect. And indeed, a study group of twelve was in Bahia in May at the same time that I was teaching a group of twenty-eight University of Washington students. It was exciting and lots of fun to meet all the interesting people of the study group and to get to know and teach some remarkable young people among the students.

Although our trips to Bahia were very successful, the situation in Salvador is rather grim. Rita feels that the poor are getting poorer and that the hunger in Salvador is worse than ever this year. We read regularly in our papers here about the global food crisis—in Salvador, where so many people live on the margins of survival, it is tipping some of them into the abyss. A kilo of beans in Salvador now costs eight reais; bus fare, per single ride, is two reais. About eighty percent of Salvador’s population make four hundred reais or less a month. Of this they will spend at least eighty in transport to and from work. Rita says the girls eat everything she can give them, and that she continually has to slow them as they eat too fast and get sick. More and more are saying they get no food at all at home. Looking at the girls, the effects of this near-starvation were clear: the first year girls who have only been at Bahia Street a few months are small and look twisted, often with sores on their skin, and they are inattentive in class. The second-year girls are taller and running around, but they are still painfully skinny with every bone visible. Then the girls who have been with Bahia Street a few years–they are tall, jumping around, look strong and healthy, and are able to handle the rigor of learning at a pace on par with some of the best private schools in the city. Bahia Street is feeding the girls twice a day, and the difference of the food alone is much more marked than I ever remember it being in the past.

Perhaps because of the food crisis and its impact on the poor, the new girls this year have come in with more problems than usual. They are more angry and disturbed than girls in the past have been, and Rita says it is the most difficult group she has ever had. For awhile she was ready to expel the entire group, but she has been working intensively with their caregivers and working with their teachers to get the girls to play games that teach them how to read while they gain basic social behavior. Bahia Street now also has a very good psychologist who comes once or twice a week for private sessions with the girls, and this seems to be helping a great deal. And at least these girls are eating, and that alone is helping them to calm them. We have every reason to think at this point that they will be able to stay and grow within our program.

I am sad to report (for us) that our curriculum director Fio has left Salvador to take care of his elderly parents in his native town to the south. His parents gain, but it has left Rita very alone. She has some good assistance with four young women who are taking over various tasks that Fio oversaw before, but not the companionship she had with him. We will miss Fio, and I am focused now on providing Rita all of the moral support that she needs to run the Center in Fio’s absence.

The older girls on the whole continue to do very well, passing their exams and helping with the younger children. Sadly, the youth orchestra group for the girl who is so remarkably good at the violin has been canceled so she has had to stop. This is one area we would love to explore…finding funding to buy classical instruments for girls as several have shown an aptitude, and learning to play gives them a structuring discipline that helps them with their studies.

Both Rita and I continue to be impressed with Julia, an impoverished young woman who Rita hired to work at the Center several years ago. Not able to live with her family, Julia lives in a one-room shack with another girl and runs all of the day-to-day administration of the Center. With Bahia Street’s support, she has finished high school and is now studying for the Vestibular, paid for by Bahia Street. In fact, there are several Bahia Street staff members who use the Center as a place to study for the Vestibular, making use of Bahia Street’s computer room featuring six networked computers. Bahia Street continues to touch the lives of many more people than the sixty girls that it directly serves.

Also amazing is the continuing work on the reconstruction of the building. The January volunteer work party worked with Fio and Rita to paint more of the rooms wonderful bright murals and colors. The reception/administrative room has been expanded (they used to work within a space the size of a cubicle!) with a space broken through the back wall to allow ventilation. The library has been wired and now provides students with a comfortable place to read. The kitchen is now airy and, although still not large, provides space and storage for the feeding of the about eighty people it serves now twice a day (this includes staff, and there always seem to be a few caregivers from the community who also need to be fed.). On the downside, rain is still getting in the roof area and rats are getting in. The building next door has been abandoned and is breeding rats. Small ones are creeping in the roof, and larger ones come up from the ground. Rita and her staff are currently putting out rat poison every two weeks—over the weekends so no children come in at any time while it is out. This situation is also indicative of the deterioration of the general infrastructure of Salvador. We are fortunate, however, to have received a very generous donation from a study trip participant to address some of the most pressing needs of the building—from closing off the roof to installing railings on the stairs— and we continue to write grants to finish it completely.

Here in the States, I am incredibly pleased to report that my recent book (Dance Lest We All Fall Down) has been selling well. The Seattle library system, which originally bought four books, has, because of demand, now bought four more. It was also just awarded a Silver Medal for Multicultural Nonfiction in the annual Independent Book Awards. And, for me, it has been wonderful meeting people who are reading the book, being invited to speak at book clubs and or gatherings. I am learning from other’s insights as they read, resulting in a wonderful exchange. If anyone would like to invite me to speak about the book or have it as a part of their book club, I would be delighted to participate.

So, this letter is a mixed one I am afraid, but that is the reality of our world. Bahia Street is a part of the struggle, and the path will not always be smooth. We must cherish our successes and be strong for each other, extending that strength beyond countries and continents, to those who touch us throughout the globe. I send you my warmest thoughts on this equally warm summer’s day and hope that sometime during this day you will have a moment–a color, watching a bird pass, a pure sound, laugher with a friend–of pure joy.

Abraços,
Margaret