AECTEA Association - Free Volunteer Opportunities in Brazil

The final weeks of December were busy at AEC-TEA as students of all types, including language, dance, theater, photography, and more, joined together to celebrate and demonstrate their accomplishments over the second semester as well as to bid farewell to international volunteers.  2009 was marked by a more diversified course offer, with photography, computation, ballet and theater classes being added along with AEC-TEA’s traditional strength in languages, yoga, and art workshops.

At the ending ceremony, or encerramento, students and observers alike who braved the rain to come out took advantage of the gathering to remark on a number of aspects of their experience.  One photography student commented on how she started with the opinion that Capim Grosso offered little worth photographing, but participation in the course convinced her that every place has potential if the photographer looks hard enough.  Members of the audience during AEC-TEA’s theatrical performances explained how impressed they were by the quality of the shows, highlighting how strong the results were given the limited resources available.  Most, however, came to see their children perform the ballet moves they learned during the one-month ballet workshop.

A successful year of courses, continued volunteer work in the community, cultural events such as Brazilian music concerts, and successful applications for new grants and projects, have helped to make 2009 an example to be followed in 2010.