Closing Ceremony- Thursday July 16

Much like the opening ceremony, we sat through many speeches from important people-or rather, their secretaries or representatives, because as Important People, they couldn't join us. Then we had speeches from 5 students-one of them was my Julia, I was so proud! Our Team Coordinator and the coach who was at the site last year also spoke. Then there was a video summary of the program. A funny thing happened in the video-they spelled my team's name wrong!! It was GreyRounds, because in Portuguese the "r" would make an "h" sound in that instance. I asked them to change it afterwards.

Then came the part I was so anxiously awaiting! Time for the final skits from the teams. Mine was the best, and other coaches said so too! A few of the teams didn't do the assignment and made videos for the coaches, or sang them a song. My students did their skit on "societal change" which was the theme of week 4. It was so great. Let me explain it, I don't have a video.

We made a pyramid of poverty, in which the students tried to identify the root cause of poverty in Brazil. In the end, they decided it was corruption. Each student was one of the causes, and the stood in a line facing the audience, standing like dominoes. Below is the script we typed in class. Instead of sitting, they stood in front.

Pyramid of poverty

NATHALIA: I´m sick.

LARISSA: Why are you sick?

NATHALIA: I´m sick because I´m hungry. (PEDRO sits on NATHALIA)

LARISSA: Why are you hungry?

PEDRO: I´m hungry because I´m poor. (LIRA sits on PEDRO)

ISA: Why are you poor?

LIRA: I´m poor because I don´t have a job. (PAULINO sits on LIRA)

ISA: Why don´t you have a job?

PAULINO: I don´t have a job because I can´t read or write. (ISA sits on LIRA)

MESSIAS: Why can´t you read or write?

JOÃO: I can´t read or write because  I don´t have an education. (LARISSA sits on ISA)

MESSIAS: Why don´t you have education?

LOUISE: I don´t have education because corruption takes the money away. (CAMILA pushes everyone down)

CAMILA: I am so rich, I have the biggest house and best cars, the people are ignorant and can never defeat me!

JULIA: Education can save you all. When you are educated, you can make better choices.

REBHECA: Use your education to vote for better leaders!

I can have a job, I can eat, I can be healthy, I can read!

(Then, they all beat up corruption.)

(play “Imagine” by John Lennon)

So all the causes of poverty stacked up, then corruption pushed the first one down, education, and they toppled to the stage floor. Education comes in and saves the day! Then we played the final verse of "Imagine" and sang along. It was so great. 

I was also bursting with pride of my students because they were so well-behaved! They were much quieter than the other groups during the speeches-though not totally silent. 

Something of a cultural difference here: my students observed that Americans get upset when you don't listen to what they are saying. Talking while the teacher was talking was common for them. I feel that in American schools, sitting quietly and not interrupting are really emphasize, which they don't seem to be in Brazil. SO having the quietest team during the speeches was really quite an accomplishment!