First Week in Curitiba

Hello All,

So I've left Rio and made it to my next city Curitiba. I left Rio last Wednesday morning and arrived in Curitiba Wednesday afternoon. Getting to the Rio Airport is quiet the journey. When trying to figure out the best way to get their I thought taking the bus would be the cheapest. From where I was staying a cab ride cost between 100-150 Brazilian Real's. Not much in USD, but I still wanted to try the bus. After the first two buses I was hoping to get on didn't show up, I picked another bus that was going the same way. Ironically this bus ended up taking me to the airport gates. Call it luck or destiny I'm not really sure, but hey I made to the airport at 7 in the morning.

Arriving in Curitiba I was greeted by the coordinator of Lionsraw, the organization that I will be volunteering with while in Curitiba. Leaving the airport I could already feel the different vibe Curitiba has from Rio. The streets appear much more clean and the roads themselves are in better conditions. Throughout my research this past school year, I've found that Curitiba itself is not only on of the most sustainable cities in the world, but it also has one of the best bus transits in the world as well. The flat that I am staying in is quiet nice and is right near the downtown part of the city. There are about 1.5 million people living in the city of Curitiba, the size of the city reminds me of a Cincinnati or Columbus. While in Curitiba, I am staying with six other volunteers. Three are from the United States, two from Wales, and one is from Thailand. The flat is very nice with a view of the city and close to a bus station. Arriving at the flat in the middle of Wednesday there wasn't much work for me to do with the organization so I walked around the city for a bit. An interesting fact about Curitiba is that it over 600 square feet of green space per resident, making it one of the greenest cities in the world. While exploring the city I found it interesting that a lot of parks are named in honor of different countries and cultures. From walking around I passed a Japanese park as well as a Spanish Park. The heritage within Curitiba is very European and quiet a lot of the residents look like "gringos" as people in Rio typically call white people. Just in my few days within Curitiba two people have asked me if I was from Alemanha (Germany in Portuguese). The structure of the city with its small, but numerous parks and rapid transportation system remind me of a European city. Walking around a few hours I also learned that the Curitibanos love their malls. Everywhere I go there seems to be some sort of mall on a street corner with food and loads of clothing shops. Walking around a few hours I was able to gain some baring on the size of Curitiba and how to get around it. Luckily there are also not as much hills in Curitiba as there are on Rio, making it easier to walk.

On Thursday I began my first day working with the Lionsraw Project. Lionsraw is a soccer project that goes around to impoverished parts of the city and puts on soccer clinics for kids in the neighborhood. Most of the kids are teenagers on holiday wanting to learn some soccer techniques and learn some English while me and the other volunteers try to learn some Portuguese. On Thursday we went to an area about a half an hour from the flat that had a large open pitch with plenty of kids eager to train and play. The first hour on the pitch consists of doing drills and technique exercises and the other half consists of play an actual match. While my soccer skills are little I gave it a try as well and had a blast playing with kids. Most of them are good with the ball and fast making my job defending challenging, but a lot of fun. Once the morning session ended we went to a restaurant nearby and feasted on a hot dog buffet with freshly baked bread and the hot dogs seasoned with onion, pepper, and some other spices that I didn't no what they were, but it was delicious. After lunch we had an afternoon session and did the same drills and match as before ending around 4:30. That night I along with the other volunteers visited a mall that had the equivalent of a Brazilian Chipotle in it so that was my first choice for dinner. After dinner we were all exhausted from the soccer project and went to bed fairly early in order to go to the beach the next day. The beach was about a 2 hour drive east of Curitiba and it was on a beautiful island called Ilha Do Mel. The area isn't very touristy and the beaches are crystal clear with lots of hills for hiking as well. I went their with the two Welsh volunteers and we managed to not get lost the way there or the way back; which was surprising since our GPS liked to change it's route every so often. Getting back late from the beach we relaxed the rest of the day as the soccer project has a full day on Saturday.

The first part of Saturday we went to a school and helped teach English to kids from the nearby neighborhood. A lot of the kids there in their early teens, but spoke English relatively well. The English teaching lasted about and hour and a half, next we had lunch and went to an indoor field for the rest of the soccer project. Playing indoor was challenging as it was extremely hot and the turf makes it somewhat slippery to play on. The kids playing indoor were in their late teens to early twenties and were very good. Whenever I had the ball a swarm of the opposite team were around me in seconds. Winning two of the four matches the matches were a lot of fun and tiring.

Sunday and Monday are our day's off from the soccer project, so on Sunday morning I went to a Baptist mass that was followed by a community lunch. The lunch was really cool because the Church organizes the lunch the first Sunday of each month and all the proceeds go to a local orphanage that houses orphans as well as children and adults with cognitive disabilities. It was really nice seeing such a large gathering for a good cause, there were just about two thousand people at the cookout on Sunday. After getting back to the flat later on in the day I went to one of Curitiba's multiple malls and examined the large streets that have separate bus lanes in the middle of the roads to reduce traffic. This simple method reduced traffic significantly and I assume it also makes bus times accurate as well.

Thats about all I have to report so far in my few days within Curitiba. I hope to explore more of the city over the week and learn more about the cities sustainability methods, while also improving my form on the pitch.

Tchau.