Portraits - João Gonçalves dos Santos
Lived at the CHPB/FHEMIG hospital for 30 years. He completely lost touch with his family members, and no longer remembers any relative’s names.
The experience of neglect and ill-treatment while at the hospital for all this time has neither been able to erase the spark of curiosity from João’s eyes nor wipe the little boy’s smile from his face, as he shows off his bow tie to the waiter.
He has been living in the Therapeutic residence since January 2004. João has always been interested in learning the duties of being a waiter, serving people in every party that he attended. João’s wish was to assemble all his fellow residents and the professionals that accompanied them. This was how he searched for partnership and got to the training course for waiters held by the Senac/Grogotó Hotel in Barbacena.
Getting to know the hotel, the classroom, and the practical activities only intensified his necessity to be a professional. A need that was disrupted by the difficulties of the lack of basic instruction.
How is this problem solved if he doesn’t even know how to sign his name? João attended a literacy course, but he only learnt very little. He however, carried on insisting on asking when he would do the course, paying no attention to the explanations. Due to this, something had to be done.
During one of the meetings of the technical teams, the idea of setting up a course where an instructor would be paid and the necessary equipment would be bought. The team leaves in search of partners able to make the idea materialize.
During this process, the 2006 Brotherhood Campaign on Insertion comes into play. The team is able to get funds with the archdioceses of the county for the long awaited dream. And because of João’s eagerness and the instructors willingness, The Senac/ Grogotó hotel reevaluates the possibilities and sets up the “First Waiter Training Course”, a pilot project for people with mental disorders.
During five months, João and his fellow housemates learnt etiquette, technique, posture, among many other things. There was immense happiness, and it could be seen in their everyday tasks. The waiters’ uniform, the bow tie, and the badge were proudly taken care of, until the day of receiving the diploma, graduation.
As if this weren’t enough, it was necessary to work. So again João comes along persistent and aware of what he wants. He does odd jobs serving at parties he attended and hits a high point as he begins to share with two other mates the responsibility of being the official waiter of the round tables at the II Festival da Loucura, held at Barbacena in April, 2007.
