Victor Bamigboye from Hackney in London discovers a whole new
world (and side to himself) in Brazil
On the initial application form for the Prime
Minister’s Global Fellowship, one of the reasons I said I wanted to
participate was that “There is no doubt it would be a fantastic and
life changing opportunity” and I was absolutely right! Being
on this scheme has been the most real life educational, eye opening
and action packed experience of my life and applying for it has
been and will be one of the best decisions I am ever likely to
make. I applied because I wanted to prove that regardless of where
you were born and raised, me being from Hackney, if you have drive
and ability anything is achievable. The Prime Minister’s Global
Fellowship gave me the opportunity to compete with young adults
around the country in intensive assessments and interviews, and the
sheer fact I was selected as one of the hundred fellows gives me
great confidence going into the competitive world.
The first two weeks in Brazil we spent in Rio de Janeiro. We had
over 35 hours of Portuguese lessons in Cultura
Inglesa who are a leading institution in the teaching of English
and Portuguese language. I personally thought this was a great part
of the whole experience as it was fantastic to communicate with the
Brazilians in their own language. We visited several places of
cultural significance, such as the Corcovado, BOPE, MAC museum, NGO
“Gente Brasil” which was a favela and the world famous Copacabana
beach. I would have to say that the trip that surprised me
most during this phase was the trip to the favela. These
people were living in complete poverty with no help from the
government yet they had this brilliant aura that gleamed of
enthusiasm and optimism. They were laughing, joking and playing
football with us! They knew things weren’t great for them yet they
refused to sit down and feel sorry for themselves, which I felt was
a contrast to the attitudes back home in the UK. What challenged me
a great deal were the attitudes of others when we moved to the
Lemon spirit hostel during the second week in Rio. People were
complaining about the state of a fairly decent hostel when just the
day before we were in the favela were they had very little. These
fellows seemed to forget the fact that we were not on holiday, we
were there to experience the culture and real life aspect of
Brazil, not stay in a five star hotel from start to finish. Apart
from that, the first phase was extremely exciting for me as it was
my first taste of the country I had chosen as my first choice and I
had fallen in love with it. It was also seen as a time for bonding
between the fellows as we were still relatively new to each other,
although we all had the same goal and objectives and this was
evident from the start.
***
The second two weeks were spent in Fortaleza,
Ceará which is in the north east of Brazil and the weather was
boiling hot compared to that of Rio! This is where we were guests
in a private school and we assisted with teaching in English
language lessons. I met some fantastic children at this school and
they treated us like celebrities! Everywhere I
went I had people asking me to sign things for them and asking me
if they could take a picture with me. It really was a surprising
experience that they were so happy to see us considering we were
exactly the same as them, but older and foreign!
As always I played football with the kids and had a great
time communicating with them and celebrating when they scored with
me and against me. Also during this phase we stayed with the host
families and I was extremely privileged to have stayed with
the Guilherme family. The father was called Luis and he
was the only English speaker in the household so that forced me to
speak as much Portuguese as I could to the rest of the family. For
some reason, because I was English they expected me to have poor
hygiene! And they were surprised when I sometimes showered twice to
three times a day because of the intense heat. Also, they
constantly made jokes about the English culture which made me feel
right at home! I learnt from my Brazilian family that humour and
dinner time were important aspects of family life as dinner time
was when they all sat down and bonded as a family. I think they
learnt from me that the English are friendly and always willing to
try new things, which I did! From eating everything that was put in
front of me to waking up and going jogging at five o’clock in the
morning with my Brazilian father!
***
The final two weeks of our stay were spent in
Sao Paulo, which is in the south east of Brazil. This was the
job placement phase and I found myself working
with Cambridge University Press, we were put up in
a very good hotel to cap the executive experience. CUP done a
fantastic job in showing us the ins and outs of their business
which was essentially printing and publishing worldwide. The office
was on the famous Avenida Paulista, which is the economic capital
of the whole of Brazil as 70% of Brazil’s wealth runs through this
one avenue. Another interesting fact is that there are more
helicopters in the city of Sao Paulo then in any of city in the
world! This is because the road traffic in Sao Paulo is so bad that
the only way to get somewhere on time is to use the sky. With CUP
we visited several locations relevant to the business’s operations,
such as several warehouses, the world book fair, the JP radio
station that we shared the building with, a port and dock where the
books were shipped to from countries all over the world. This phase
was a great introduction to the life of international business and
it has taught me that communication is the key to
international business. In order to communicate with clients across
the globe it is extremely beneficial to speak the language, as it
will lead to more trust and better relations. What surprised me was
the relaxed attitude of all the employees at CUP. I’m not saying
they weren’t working because they were, but they laughed and joked
and it looked like they were genuinely happy to work for such a
corporate socially aware company such as CUP. I also noticed no
clocks in the office, which indicated to me the relaxed attitude
towards work.
Because of this whole experience I can say I have grown as a
human being and I’ve become more aware of what is needed to succeed
in this competitive world we live in. My view of the global economy
has changed drastically as I’ve learnt just how powerful Brazil
will become with time and effort. The nation of Brazil is a very
strong and patriotic one with a wealth of resources. It really is
only a matter of time before they are seen as a real powerhouse in
world economics. I would not have experienced this if it were not
for the Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship scheme, So the three
words I would use to describe this whole experience would be;
remarkable, beautiful and
life-changing. I’m going to cheat and add one
more, it was the most FUN I’ve ever had!!