Sherry Dickinson: September 2007

My Adventures in Brazil
By. Sherry Dickinson
September 23, 2007
Training and first week of internship
The fun all started as the interns gathered at the University Hotel in Salt Lake City to begin our training. There we spent 5 days learning the course that we would be teaching in our various locations. We studied, practiced and bonded. We were lucky enough to have some great instructors, who brought us to tour Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center to see an overview of the various services the church offers.
After all of the preparation and waiting, the day to go finally arrived! On Sept 17 My partner Kali and began to get nervous as we entered the plane from Atlanta to Rio where everyone was speaking in Portuguese. Soon…ish, we arrived in Brazil and managed to make it through customs and meet our Office Manager Saul Duarte. Who for the record is great!
I think the next interesting topic thus far is our apartment. Granted it really is great and we are lucky to have it, let me tell you of its fun quirks and perks. First it’s in a great location, a block and a half from the beach, on the 9th of 12 floors, and in a very touristy area. It’s a little out of control on the streets, but fun none the less. The sad part is that since I’ve gotten here, in any free time available, I’ve been buried in my books and haven’t yet been able to swim. Where in the world are my priorities?! It’s close to the subway which we take to the center where the office its, which his nice too.

The funny things are that we have one regular bed and one makeshift coach bed with several old crib mattresses (I think) which are less than an inch thick each. You know. We have an infestation of little cockroaches. And yes, we are grateful that even though there are tons, they are small. We have since taken up roach hunting as a sport. Past the coach roaches, some of our neighbors are also interesting, making us glad that the place appears to be secure as it has four locks in the door (one with a 4 sided key), and 3 peep holes and is on the 9th floor, making climbing through the window out of the question. I think.

The Employment center is very busy with so many non-members coming that there are now specific hours that they are allowed to center to make it available more for the members. They teach three CASP courses (to teach self reliance and employment) per day (morning, afternoon and night). Each course lasts 3 days. Kali and I will be responsible for teaching the morning courses and helping out in the center from 8:00-2:00 from Monday to Thursday each week, as well as doing some weekend travel to other areas to teach the course, train local leaders to teach it, and to teach another course to help people start their own small businesses. This week we made lots of phone calls to businesses that we have contracts with to verify openings that they have. I was nervous to make the calls as communication in another language is always more difficult by phone, but it was actually a lot of fun. We are also being taught to go around to businesses to talk with the managers and try to set up contracts with them to help fill their employment openings in the future. So, summed up, there is a lot of work to do.
While in the office for my first day, 2 different people recognized me from my mission that I never even knew. The world is very small. It’s interesting how we stand out sometimes… for good or bad… and people remember us even after more than a year and a half later. One was a boy in a neighboring ward who in one of my areas who is now a missionary in Rio, and the other is a sister from Rio that served in my mission after I left who apparently saw pictures and heard stories about me from other sisters and families in the wards that we both passed through. Even though I didn’t know either of them personally, the fact that they recognized me and that we have mutual acquaintances, made me feel at home. Apparently someone that I taught who was baptized ended up becoming the missionary’s best friend and I trained the sister who was “killed” by ( finished her mission as comps with) the girl. Kinda fun.
Today I had the chance to go to our ward for the first time. We met lots of fun people and will go to a fireside tonight that the mission president will give. Hopefully I will be able to find time between my volunteer work and my school work to go on splits and help the sisters out. On Wednesday after work, we are planning on accompanying the sisters to go to the “Christo Redentor” statue; you know the famous one in all of the pictures of Rio. Yea!!!

Okay, today is the 27th of sept and we finished teaching our first set of classes! It was quite the adventure. We learned alot and hope that the students did too. Either way it was fun. You know, life's good. We now have internet, which is a huge blessing, and i set up a (801) area code phone line through Skype, so it shouldn't cost anything to call me through the computer if you so desire. you can get the number from mom or dad or Elizabeth. okay dokie. Take care, be good, have fun. –Sherry

oh, last night we were walking through some markets by the coast and talked to this crazy guy who travels around the world painting by day and selling this work by night. There are some really fun people in this world!

well, i~m in Brasil, have been for a few days now, and am upto my chin in homework. SO, the goal is to do as much as possible, as fast as possible, before i go crazy. Slowly but surely it~s progressing... as i~m sure you wanted to know. The center here is great, we couldn~t travel this weekend after all, so, it~s back to the books. our Apartemnt is... interesting, great location, interesting apartment... with interesting neighbors. yeah. Well, the goal is to have internet set up in the apartment with a phone line and everything! How exciting... and i~ll set up a skype number so i can call the states and recieve calls from there easily. Crossing my fingers that all works out well. Any way, hope all is well wiht all. Be good, have fun. enjoy life.