As crianças...

Working with children is a challenge in a person’s professional life, especially when you are not fluent in the language you are teaching! Children are honest and very expressive when it comes to show their thoughts and actions. This group of children from Tavares Bastos, which ages range from 10 to 15, have stolen my heart with the ways they are with us. On our arrival every Monday and Thursday, most of them are already waiting at the kombi stop to welcome us with hugs and kisses. Even though the cool temperature and the early afternoon invites them to take a good nap, the majority is there at 2pm. It is gratifying to go to this community and teach these kids how to do their own short film on themselves and their community.

In the process we are all learning from each other. Sometimes when we get stuck with a word they help us out. Priceless!

Every week we introduce a theme to put together for this short film. The first week the theme was “I”. The angle they chose for this assignment was: what they like to do. Most of them say they like to play football, to paint and/or to read. For the second week the theme was: families and friends close to you. Their responses once again showed how important is the care of the parents for their children. All of them said in class how much they appreciate the care of their mother at home. As you can see in the video on week three, two of the kids filmed their respective mothers making dinner for them. It is very interesting to see how both of these kids, who are the youngest in the class, filmed their mothers from the back and from a distance while they were cooking. We asked them to show us the world through their eyes and this is how they see it.

Dulce Mateo
The New School University, New York