By BBC | Thursday, May 30 2013 at 10:59
At Brazil's Escola Naval in Rio de Janeiro, 23 young men are training to become navy officers.
But they are not about to join the Brazilian navy.
These foreign cadets are receiving training before rejoining their own
forces at home.
And home is nowhere near Brazil. Out of the 23 foreign students, 17 come from Africa.
The high percentage of African cadets reflects Brazil's growing ties with the continent.
In his eight years in office (2003-2011), former
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva visited 27 African
countries, more than any of his predecessors in the job.
That growing diplomatic presence is also reflected
in closer military co-operation, with the Brazilian navy not just
selling weapons to African nations, but also training its military
personnel.
Their main aim is to be more effective in their joint fight against piracy and drug trafficking in the South Atlantic.
In the decade between 2001 and 2011, more than
1,200 African naval personnel attended courses in Brazil, most of them
from Namibia.
Michael Kasita, 30, and Tangeni Haimbala, 26, are
two of them. They are in their third year of studies to become
machinists in the Namibian navy.
Upon their return, they will be expected to work as specialists in ship propulsion.
As a surprise
They say their deployment to Brazil came as a
surprise. "I was sent by the Namibian navy, they know what they need,"
explains Mr Kasita.
He says he had little input into what he would
learn during his time in Rio. "It was the navy which decided what I was
going to study here."
At the Escola Naval, the two Namibians have mainly
taken technical courses, such as applied electronics, strength of
materials and fluid mechanics.
Via the internet, they keep in touch with colleagues at home who have already finished the course in Brazil.
Courses at the Escola Naval are conducted in
Portuguese, a language the Namibians are unlikely to use once they
return to their Anglophone home.
So the main advice from those who have already
graduated is to make sure the cadets learn the right technical words in
English in their spare time.
That is one problem Americo Fortuna da Silva, 23, does not have to contend with.
He is from the former Portuguese colony of Angola.
But even though there was no language barrier for him, he says military
academies in the two countries differ markedly.
"The Angolan Naval Academy is more geared towards
the military aspects, while here they concentrate more on the
academics," he explains.
New recruits, especially those without any previous military training, get sent on a one-year acclimatisation course.
The hardest thing
Twenty-year-old Cherif Ismaila Babou, from Senegal
says that course was key. "Before coming here, I only knew Brazil for
its carnival and football."
"When the Senegalese navy said that I was going to be trained in Brazil, I was a little confused," he admits.
"Apart from anything else, I didn't know how to speak Portuguese," he recalls of his early days in the academy.
He now speaks it with only the slightest hint of an accent.
He says the hardest thing was to be so far away from his family, especially in the first year.
Like their Brazilian colleagues, the foreign
cadets live at the academy during the week. At the weekend, most of the
Brazilians go to visit their families.
But that is a trip the Africans cannot take. They have to wait until the summer holidays to make the long journey home.
Mr Babou, who has just started the officer's
course, has almost four more years of technical and practical training
in Rio ahead of him, as well as six months on a training ship.
He says he will never get used to being separated from his family.
"I am more adapted now, but it is still hard to deal with the feeling of home sickness."
