Three Schools

Pilar County is located by a very large lagoon. (In fact, the name of the state, Alagoas, means lagoons; in the capital alone there are two huge ones that meet at the channel that connects them to the bright turquoise waters of the ocean.) To reach the town of Pilar, one takes a road that winds down into town from the top of a mountain. The view is magnificent with lots of coconut trees swaying in the wind. (The lagoon has been polluted and there is trash along the margins.)

Pilar has money from natural gas. This money has not reached the population yet. Most people are poor. Unemployment is high. One can guess from the number of people on the streets during the day who seem like they have nothing to do. There is a contingent of fishermen. People also sell food and trinkets on the streets. And there are simple stores, restaurants, and other service places.

During my first day in Pilar I was “given to” an officer of the Secretary of Education, a young woman named Simone. She was tall, fleshy and very curvaceous, with a beautiful tanned skin. She wore tights, a shirt, and high heels. Something! She was quiet and spoke a lot on the phone. She was very busy and left me to mind my own business until after lunch. She was in charge of ordering lunch for all teachers and for us, the presenters. When she came searching for me, we still sat doing nothing while we waited for the driver. It was an unusual situation but I did my best to be in good spirits. The driver came and we hopped on for a two block ride. We visited a K-1 school.

The ugliest Disney and other children’s characters were painted on the walls. All of the first graders were rehearsing for graduation the next day. There were about 50 of them, each one clean, dressed neatly, hair combed, and front baby teeth missing, a complete cutie pie of a group. A patio with dirt floor, dusty, separated the two buildings. The building on the left had classrooms, all with a few desks and chairs in terrible shape. Dirty walls. The building on the right had the principal’s office, a couple of classrooms, the kitchen and a storage room. The principal was proud of the food stored, ready for when classes start again.

The teachers were preparing paper baskets with goodies to give to the graduates. The principal, a woman in her forties, said to me that she absolutely loved her work.

After the visit, Simone and I walked to the church right in front of the school. She kneeled and prayed. I was respectful to Our Lady of Pilar. It is a very large church, 150 years old, painted bright sky blue, the color associated with Mary.

Back to the car and to school number two, a 5-8 school housed in a very old building, with tall ceilings and doors. The coordinator accompanied us. We looked into the also run down classrooms. The yard, also dirt, had lots of holes and left over construction material strewn about. I thought that kids could be hurt or hurt each other in such a place. Simone made sure to take me to the kitchen because she said it also has a good storage place. The cooks were serving chicken and rice soup to a group of kids.

Beside this school there was a covered gym. There were kids from another school rehearsing for a presentation that was going to take place. There were lots of posters about reading on the walls. I took pictures of a group of girls who were going to present about a very serious book of Brazilian literature, O Cortiço.

Back to the car, all the way up the mountain again into a part of town where the population at risk lives. The school had a huge entrance way with trees and patios. The doors were iron gates. There were three sectors of the school all separated by iron gates. There were iron gates outside the classrooms that opened to smaller inside patios closing the children in. There were also long, dark corridors. I really felt like I was in prison.

There are 3,200 children in this school from hell. Yes, I double checked the figures. They come in turns, morning, mid-day, afternoon. Three hundred in K-1, three hundred in 2-4, three hundred in 5-9 in each turn. With this level of usage you can imagine the state of the desks and chairs. (I started imagining a different kind of school desk for kids made from indestructible material such as the new materials made from recycled plastic and coconut fibers. Something that kids could not break and that would be truly comfortable.)

The principal was a very nice man with a beautiful brown skin color. He explained that his main problem was teachers missing work on a regular basis. There is no substitute teacher system. Children are distributed among other teachers or sent home when a teacher misses work. Public employees are allowed to miss up to 30 days with not consequence. After that, they can be fired. Of course some teachers miss 28 days, for example. There is no accountability. Nothing the principal can do except beg.

Yes, we went to the kitchen; Simone made sure that we visited the industrial grade kitchen. In fact the school was spacious and had many rooms, even a library (complete with iron gates) and cafeteria. It just had that drab feel to it, and the prison like atmosphere. At the very end of the compound there was also a covered gym.

The principal showed me the walls surrounding the school to separate it from the community. “People from the community would come and go through the school. We had to build the wall. It was very expensive.”

I talked to a girl who was playing with a friend in one of the rooms. I asked her what does she want to be when she grows up. She said, “A model.” I said, “Good. Do you have other options if it does not work?” (I was not very fortunate in this exchange…) She said no. Then I went on to say that models like the Brazilian Victoria Secret supermodel Giselle Bundchen studied a lot to be model, nutrition to know what to eat, clothes design to know how to choose what to wear, foreign languages, and that I hoped that she too would study a lot. I don’t think she believed me.

My heart was heavy after visiting these schools. When my co-presenters dropped me at the B&B, I left my bag and went for a walk along the beach. Had tapioca crepe with coconut for dinner and drank fresh coconut water while pondering about school desk material and design, and how important physical space is for young people who are learning to enjoy and believe they deserve beauty. Someday!