Day 5 - The Virginia Mars School: Culture & Football!
Wow, just wow, this has been by far my highlight of the entire trip – and that’s saying something after the week we have experienced! Today was all about the culture of Brazil, traditional dances, performances, gifts, cooking, and sport...a competitive game of football of course.
As you can see from the picture below, we where exceptionally excited to get started, here's the first picture of the day...!
We were simply blown away by the students and with what they had prepared for, it really was just fantastic. The day itself comprised of a big injection of culture, some lively dances, a presentation from each ambassador, colorful performances from the children, handing out the donation from each country/ambassador and of course, a very competitive game of football (although we are sure they where going very easy on us).
Our pictures where on the wall as soon as we walked into the school, along side a very cool map showing where we had all come from, a very warm welcome!
First things first, time for us all to pull our weight and do some work, and why not stick to tradition and get us all into the kitchens...with a couple of supply chain and sales professionals we loved the chance to get a production line set up, half of the ambassadors creating a streamlines process for plating up the food, the second half going into distribution:
After serving all of our customers, we had the privilege to watch the children line up and sing the national anthem whilst the flags where raised.
A traditional dance....before we joined in (Ive's was a natural):
Wow, just wow, this has been by far my highlight of the entire trip – and that’s saying something after the week we have experienced! Today was all about the culture of Brazil, traditional dances, performances, gifts, cooking, and sport...a competitive game of football of course.
As you can see from the picture below, we where exceptionally excited to get started, here's the first picture of the day...!
We were simply blown away by the students and with what they had prepared for, it really was just fantastic. The day itself comprised of a big injection of culture, some lively dances, a presentation from each ambassador, colorful performances from the children, handing out the donation from each country/ambassador and of course, a very competitive game of football (although we are sure they where going very easy on us).
Our pictures where on the wall as soon as we walked into the school, along side a very cool map showing where we had all come from, a very warm welcome!
First things first, time for us all to pull our weight and do some work, and why not stick to tradition and get us all into the kitchens...with a couple of supply chain and sales professionals we loved the chance to get a production line set up, half of the ambassadors creating a streamlines process for plating up the food, the second half going into distribution:
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| I think the hair nets suit us! |
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| Happy Customers |
A traditional dance....before we joined in (Ive's was a natural):
Then story time with the younger children, the child reading to us was only 3 years old!
We then got to hand out some of the donations, it was amazing what the ambassadors where able to bring with them for the school, I have tried not to miss anyone out with the collections they brought and the gifts being given out (please let me know if I did!):
Between Francesco (Italy/Dubai), Rany (Indonesia) and Shilin (China) nearly 200 bags and backpacks where donated, almost one for every child.
Then a special shout out to Debbie May in the UK for sourcing some footballs...as you can imagine in Brazil these went down a storm! Along with 40,000 Loom bands (credit for the idea goes to my girlfriend) for the children to get creative with, a big thanks to everyone in the UK that showed support!
Added to this, Brad from the US brought along over 300 Toothbrushes - the school is now going to run a Dentist day, Fadi (Egypt) brought 200 pairs of glasses which will keep the school in stock for some time, and Tim (US) brought a significant amount of money from a number of associates in his office to go towards a computer lab.
From all of us, Louiza (has a huge part in running the school), and all of the students, a big thank you for all of the kind donations and support.
After this wonderful start to the day, it was our turn to present to the Students and let them ask as many questions as they wanted, and they are an inquisitive bunch!
Football!!!
Even with the great skill you can see below, and the Brazilians going easy on us, we where still no triumphant, but all that's really important is that we scored more than last years MAP group...Brazilian Children 4 - Team of international adults 3!
Traditional "Capoeira" Dance - Simply amazing to watch, I did not know the human body was even capable of some of the moves we say today! The atmosphere was electric as the performers got going and the ambassadors/students sand and clapped in time with the music!We then got to hand out some of the donations, it was amazing what the ambassadors where able to bring with them for the school, I have tried not to miss anyone out with the collections they brought and the gifts being given out (please let me know if I did!):
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Then a special shout out to Debbie May in the UK for sourcing some footballs...as you can imagine in Brazil these went down a storm! Along with 40,000 Loom bands (credit for the idea goes to my girlfriend) for the children to get creative with, a big thanks to everyone in the UK that showed support!
From all of us, Louiza (has a huge part in running the school), and all of the students, a big thank you for all of the kind donations and support.
After this wonderful start to the day, it was our turn to present to the Students and let them ask as many questions as they wanted, and they are an inquisitive bunch!
Football!!!
Even with the great skill you can see below, and the Brazilians going easy on us, we where still no triumphant, but all that's really important is that we scored more than last years MAP group...Brazilian Children 4 - Team of international adults 3!
The dance itself combines acrobatics with music...usually to a drum beat, it's got a very mixed and long history that is well worth reading about.
Lunch:
We reversed the teams to prepare the food and serve it, obviously our group really showed what an efficient supply chain should look like - the kitchen staff even offered us jobs!
This wonderful day started to come to a close, but not without one more aspect of the school coming to light, not only does the school look after 240 students, but they also provide classes to the parents on arts and crafts. These classes provide a means to develop skills and a very important way to make some extra money.
Some of the items that where made from such basic materials as cleaned food cartons (handbags), key rings and flowers created from soda cans, there was a phenomenal ingenuity on show here.
The parents where kind enough to try and teach us some of these skills...somewhat successfully, before we had the opportunity to purchase some of their craft items.
I got a number of presents here so I can't post a lot of the images until I'm home!
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| Pretty bags made from old milk cartons |
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| Front: Air fresheners create from found herbs, Similar flowers are created using old soda cans. |
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| A great way to re use a chest of draws to make a jewelry rack |
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| It took us a while! |
So a final, big thank you from all of the 2014 Ambassadors to all of the associates and the students at the MCCS - it's been brilliant and it wouldn't have been the same without every one of you!
P.S An even bigger shout out to Paula and Manu - without whom we wouldn't have had the experience we where so fortunate to be able too, and we certainly wouldn't have been able to interact so easily without Manu's language help!
