First day at the circus: Bem-vinda ao caos (Welcome to chaos)

Tuesday, after a morning of lazing around the guesthouse, I headed down to the Praça Floriano, a nice square near the center of town that is surrounded by the majestic National Library, National Theater and City Hall of Rio de Janeiro. I stopped for lunch in a "buffet a quilo"—a type of cafeteria where you serve yourself a plate of food, buffet-style, and then pay by the kilo. I've certainly added that to my list of things I love about Rio. Along with the guava paste I had at lunch.

After enjoying my lunch in the square I hopped on the metro, and rode a couple stops to my program site—a circus tent in the middle of Rio. The tent is relatively large and oval, and contained some rough-looking mats, a trampoline, and aerial equipment surrounded by bleachers. A few kids were running and tumbling on the mats, but most of the kids hadn't arrived yet.

I met the coaches—there are three coaches for around thirty children (seems like an ok number, right? Wrong.), who range in age from about 5 to 20. One of them toured with Ringling in the states for 6 years, so it's quite possible that I saw him in one of their shows.

Anyway, the kids arrived, and chaos began. They are all quite cute, but full of energy and very loud. We formed a semblance of a circle, and then I was introduced, though my introduction was often cut off by the kids' chatter.

For the rest of the afternoon I wandered around, trying to help the coaches keep the kids in control as they worked on acrobatics, trapeze, fabric, stiltwalking and unicycle. Most of the time, I was just trying to prevent them from landing on their heads or each other.

Despite the fact that I was trying to herd cats, I did enjoy it. Many of the kids are quite talented, and it's fun to watch them having fun. They called me "tia" (aunt—which is what they call all the volunteers) and asked me about where I was from, what my t-shirt meant (it said Macalester) and tried out their knowledge of a few english phrases (that was certainly fun to try to decipher).

Near the end, when the kids had abandoned their stations and were running around the tent (this culminated in some giant fluorescent lights falling from the ceiling...) one of the coaches turned to me and said "Bem-vinda ao caos" (welcome to chaos). It's true, but that's why I'm here to help. Hopefully over time I'll get to know the coaches better, and can become part of the team.

Yesterday I had a day off, so I wandered around the center a bit, and went grocery shopping. I went into the national library hoping to sit there and write in my journal, but it's only open for guided tours and people who need to check out books. I'd better think of a book to check out... my nerdy side was absolutely heartbroken.

Last night we had a pizza dinner with all the other volunteers (I made polenta, since I don't eat wheat), and then headed to Glória for a night out. We ended up in a square that was full of people surrounding a jazz band. The music was fine but the band was hidden from view by the hoards of people. I ended up trying a caipirinha—Brazil's national drink, made out of cachaça (sugar-cane alcohol), sugar, and lime. After drinking about a third of a cupfull, I had had enough—it was quite tasty, but it's pure alcohol that goes straight to your head! I handed my drink off to another one of the volunteers who had joined us; one third of a caipirinha was definitely enough for me.

In half an hour I will head out to my second day under the big top. Looking forward to it!