It was well deserved for everyone: For the volunteers that spent a countless amount of time collecting gifts around the city, for the kids that were excitingly waiting for it and for the I2I family to finally have an excuse to get together and share some laughters before the holidays.
It started with a piece about the nativity, starring volunteers ( my dear canadian friend alain made a terrific Jesus) and kids. Then the dance class put up a great show for us and everyone ended up dancing around before the gifts were given to the kids.
Christmas this year was a really interesting period for me : Through my facebook campaign to collect gifts, I discovered how people were moved by the I2I project and how they were willing to help. Friends of friends gave us books and pens, some offered to ship gifts from abroad, formers volunteers sent donations... That generosity moved me a lot and for the first time, I felt I was doing something good.
I also discovered how wrong people were telling me that no Carioca will ever support or help our project as they just reject the favelas. The biggest donations I received were from Cariocas. It's true, very few are doing volunteer work in NGOs, unless they are from the community. But it's hard to be willing to enter a favela when you grew up watching the brazilian news... but let's discuss that in another post.
I also realised that, being at the institut a few days a week, without really speaking portuguese, I wasn't seeing the whole picture... But by december I was getting close to fluent and could start having conversations with the organisation's direction. And I discovered that I had no idea what was going on in some kids' families. I would have that picture of noisy, happy, smiling kids and a very romantic image of the favela. It's such a happy place you just tend to forget that people just don't choose to live there. They have to. They can't afford anything else. And some families can't afford buying food, clothes and school supplies for their children. I discovered a whole reality I wasn't even suspecting. So christmas was also the occasion for I2I to buy some basic products (rice, beans, milk, oil...) for 5 students' families along with clothes for the students themselves. In Brazil, school year begins in february and it's a tradition to give children a backpack and some clothes for them to start the new semester. So we followed the tradition, hoping it will lead them to a terrific new year studying both in school and with us.
So it was my first christmas away from home and it wasn't an easy one but I learned a lot and I felt a great amount of love surrounded by all those happy faces at the I2I Christmas party.
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