May 30th or: the end

Yeah, this was it. The last day of training. It started off with the sun shining right into my face, and I figured it would be a good time to make use of the running shoes I've carried with me all this time. Spoiler: best decision ever. One of the biggest parks in Sao Paulo is 5 minutes away from the place I'm staying at, and it really is great. You could compare it to the "english garden" in Munich, only that there is more to do in this one called "Parque de Ibirapuera". First, I came across a cohort of soldiers/policemen doing their morning workout. It sounded like this: (drill instructor) "Bom día, bom día" .. "BOM DIA BOM DIA". Even better though, I finally discovered what I had been looking for since I've arrived in Brazil -- an outdoor gym! Just some old stuff to do dips, pullups, core exercises and basically everything you need for a true crossfit workout. That felt great. 

futuristic bus stop in Sao Paulo

big city jungle

Delighted by that, I quickly showered and then went straight to the shelter, this time by bus. Arrived to some rice and gnocchi with meat (my first thought: no beans?!?! what happened?), then we taught the trainees the basics of optics. We now have a good group of very well trained trainees, who will hopefully bring lots of glasses to lots of people who need them. You could tell they were really happy to have the job -- after all, they put in three weeks of their time without certainly knowing the outcome. Well, parabéns, vocês sao parte da familia "OneDollarGlasses" agora! I'm very much looking forward to future results. 

not the average lunch (no beans!)

At night, we celebrated together with our trainees at a nearby pizza place with brazilian pizza and some beer. Touching story here: one of our trainees has not gone out a single night since her first son was born. Today, her son is five and she has two other kids. So she hasn't been out for five years! I have never seen anybody so happy with just a couple slices of pizza and beer. These are the small delights that make this work really wonderful. All the problems we have are really just luxury problems. 

Because we were finally done with our work, we wanted to celebrate a little more, so we tried to go to a party. Tickets were ridiculously expensive (R$180 = 90 USD = 60€), so we just stayed in front and talked to lots of people there. I have never done this before, but it was actually really nice. This way, you get in touch with people you probably wouldn't get in touch with if you were at the party. Very interesting. 

Germany is also present on the shelter's wall

And that's it. Now, another weekend in Sao Paulo lies ahead of us. And after that, we will travel to Rio and Iguazu. That will be a great finish for a great time here in Brazil.