Fortaleza, Brazil

I woke up this morning and realized that it was December 16 and that I have only 4 days left in Brazil. I’ve been traveling since December 5, which has helped the time to pass quickly. I went with Meggie, Brianne, and Erin to Fortaleza, a city in the North of Brazil in the state of Ceará from December 5-10. We left late on the 5^th after Meggie got out of class, but the flight was delayed and we arrived at 12:15AM, nearly 2 hours later than anticipated. We weren’t sure what we were going to do when we got there or where we were going to stay because we were all semi-counting on a contact that Erin made through her host mom. (The lady’s name is Carine and is a Mary Kay saleswoman who lives in Fortaleza and promised to set us up with a place to stay.) Carine called while we were waiting out the delays in the Salvador airport and offered to pick us up and take us to the hotel. We thanked her and told her to expect us at midnight, but when we got there she wasn’t there and didn’t answer her house or cell phone. After waiting half an hour we decided to find a place ourselves and called around a few hostels until we found room for 4 at a decent price. We got our first glimpse of Fortaleza through the taxi windows and we commented first on its over-the-top Christmas decorations (in one plaza they made a giant Christmas tree out of white hammocks), and then on the prostitutes lined up on the street, where coincidentally, the taxi stopped to let us out at the hotel. (We read in the tour book that it was located in the prime night-life spot but we weren’t exactly expecting the womanly display.) We got two rooms for $20 a piece, including breakfast (which is much more expensive than we had hoped).

In the morning Carine called and apologized for having missed our calls the night before and came to pick us up and take us to the other hotel. Meggie and Bri were on a tight budget so although Carine secured reservations at a 4 star hotel for the same price as the first place, we decided to keep looking and ended up at an apartment with a kitchen and two bathrooms for $6.75/day. We went to the grocery store and bought bread, eggs, turkey, wheat bread, water, and fruit, which was to be our sustenance for the next four days. That afternoon we went to the beach (Praia do Futuro) for a few hours until it started to get dark. The beach was pretty, but the waves were really too strong to swim in. On the bus ride we passed by a favela which I wish I had been able to get a picture of because the snow of trash on the hillside by it was striking. When we got back we made a reservation for an excursion on Friday morning and went to the artesian fair near our apartment where everyone found some great buys and ended up spending the money we saved on the cheap, smelly apartment.

We left for the excursion Friday at 7 AM and went to Morro Branco, Praia das Fontes, Centro das Rendeiras and Canoa Quebrada. At Moro Branco we walked through a labyrinth of sand dunes and then took a sand boogie ride to a fountain of youth (Praia das Fontes) and a sweet water lagoon where we swam to cool down. In the sand dunes we saw 12 different tones of natural sand which the natives use to make artwork. A little after mid-day we left for Canoa Quebrada where we spent the next 3 hours on the beach and I tried a acerola smoothie (acerola is a fruit similar to a cherry). We got back to the apartment around 6:30 PM and stayed in for the night talking and doing crossword puzzles. (The girls have awakened a new passion for crossword puzzles in me. Maybe after some practice I’ll be able to compete with Grandma and Grandpa Hoza.)

Saturday we went to the central market where we found some great deals on Christmas gifts and souvenirs. Erin picked out two paintings but didn’t have enough cash to buy them on the spot so we went back to the apartment to get more money and grab a bit to eat, then returned to the market briefly to get the paintings. We walked over to the cultural center near by and went through the modern art museum and watched a film (The Waitress) at the theater to help pass the time before dinner. (Carine had offered to pick us up at 6 and take us to dinner and we were eagerly anticipating a solid meal because boiled eggs and fruit doesn’t hold you very long.) She ended up picking us up around 7 and taking us to a mall where her father owns a shop. (I failed to mention earlier that she is the PERFECT Mary Kaye representative. She is fair skinned with strawberry blond hair and dresses in pink and heels.) We met her son, niece, and empregada and toured the entire mall before she led us to the food court and, at long last, we ate. Carine is 35 and clearly infatuated with the States. She is going to the Mary Kaye convention in Dallas next month and I told her to get in touch with me if she wants to travel to Houston or New Orleans.

Sunday we went to the beach with Carine and her son. Erin and I left around 12:30 because the sun was too strong and Erin hurt her shoulder when one of the waves knocked into her. Meggie and Bri stayed a few more hours and met up with us around 3. We decided to wander around the city a bit and find some ice cream. We ended up buying a carton of ice cream and splitting it (I opted out for yogurt), then we walked along the beach until nightfall.

Early Monday morning, Carine picked us up and took us to the airport and after more delays we reached home around 3. It was a brief stop home for me because Erin and I left for Belo Horizonte the next day. I had just enough time to unpack, repack, answer a few e-mails, and say goodbye to a few friends heading home.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I thought I'd share this video to give you an idea of the unconventionality of my Thanksgiving experience. It was bizarre to say the least. (Imagine night club music, an assortment of traditional American and Brazilian dishes, and cheesy decorations.)

I was supposed to have a presentation during my 7:OO AM Health seminar, but protesters barricaded the entrance to the university so class was canceled.

My Spanish professor decided that it would be the last day of class and between winks told us that we could come because technically there is still class, but that the students have collectively decided not to... She also canceled the final exam.

In the afternoon I had to give my final Portuguese presentation in front of all 4 classes. We sat through 4.5 hours of presentations before we were liberated to go have our Thanksgiving dinner. I made my Grandma's cornbread stuffing and it was a huge hit. Everyone complemented it so props to Mom for getting me the recipe. Tell Grandma that it was a success!

Updates from the last time I posted are coming, but I want to write about a few recent events now why they are still fresh in my head.

CAASAH-SHOT AND BITTEN

Monday got off to a bit of a rough start because I had been up late working on a paper the night before and I was so occupied finishing it that morning, that I didn’t remember about my 8:50 class until 8:40. (opps!) Somehow I cut the 40 minute walk in half and got there at 9:05 without much damage. (It was my Spanish class which generally starts 10-15 minutes late anyway.) Then after lunch I went to CAASAH, where I do my volunteer work with kids with HIV. The past few weeks I’ve seen a lot of improvements in the conditions there, but Monday was less than a positive experience. I was playing Frisbee with some kids in the playground when two of the boys got into a fight. Erique threw a rock at Mateos who responded by grabbing a huge chunk of concrete. It was easy to see where that was going so I intervened. Somewhere in the process of prying the concrete chunk from his hand and restraining him I got bit first timidly on the wrist, then forcefully on my thigh. I was alarmed at first because my thigh throbbed a good bit and I knew that if he broke the skin and had any sort of infection in his mouth, there was a chance that the virus could be transferred. I shrugged it off, thinking that there wasn’t much chance that he would have broken the skin through my jeans. After giving him a good talking to about the inappropriateness of his behavior, I moved to the baby room to cool down a bit. While I was holding one of the babies João, who I normally consider to be well-behaved, came in and started spraying water from the hose in the diaper changing room. He turns and shoots me point blank in the crotch and side. When I got home Conchita just stared at me standing in the doorway with the front of pants still soaked. It turned out to be an amusing story in retrospect, but at the time it was a bit defeating. I took a look at the bite and sprayed it with an antiseptic when I got home. Though it was swollen and red, the spray didn’t even sting so that assured me that the skin wasn’t broken. What little squirts…

(P.S. I'm not trying to show-off my leg in this picture, but I couldn't get the bite to get into focus any other way.)

PEDRA GRANDE- BLOOD AND FECES COLLECTIONS

Yesterday I went back with my class to the community, Pedra Grande, where I am doing the project from my honor’s thesis. It was a national holiday so all classes were cancelled and we took advantage of the free day… ALL of the free day in fact. (I left at 6:00AM and didn’t get back home until 10:00PM.) We learned that there is a back road that we can take to reach the community, which was great news because otherwise we would have had to carry across all our supplies across that log bridge. We had requested the health department to bring 4 chairs and 2 tables for us to use, but it turned out that the health department only brought one school desk and we had to scrounge up another table and some chairs from the community. It was a challenging request because many of the houses don’t have any furniture, but one lady offered her new kitchen table and several of the kids ran home and brought us a stool or a lawn chair. We set up a tent for the blood collections and used the big table to organize our supplies. We had 1 person recording the persons name and age and assigning an identification number (we labeled all the tubes and slides by an identification number and initials), 2 people preparing the supplies, 3 people drawing blood, 1-2 people attending to the patient after the collection (applying the bandaid, giving candy to the kids), 2 people making and labeling the slides (after the collection we put a drop of blood on each slide and extended it by running another slide at 45 degree angle along its entire length), 1-2 people organizing the people waiting, and 2 people collecting the feces. It took us about 4-4.5 hours to finish the collections and at the end of the day we had samples from 137 of 156 members of the community.

I did a bit of everything. One minute I was collecting blood, then distracting all the kids hovering around a screaming baby by taking their pictures with my digital camera, then making a slide or homogenizing the blood sample. We had to work fluidly because we were in a wide open environment where there isn’t the physical infrastructure to be able to separate those waiting their turn, those in the collection, and those who have already collected. Kids hovered around their friend during the collection, nervous little ones watched the process in horror, and kids climbed trees and ran around with the collection tube in hand. All and all, we came out well. When we got back to the lab in Salvador around 5:30PM, we organized all the samples and started running tests. Luckily only one mislabeled sample turned up. We first organized all the samples sequentially, then started running the tubes through an automated machine that screens for basic indicators of malnutrition and disease. After analyzing the results we identified the individuals whose slides we needed to examine, and tinted those slides. We finished around 9:30 PM and refrigerated all the samples neatly organized and labeled. Next week we are going to come in to look at the slides and exam the feces samples.

Look at the past 3 posts because I've added new photos!

On October 20 I went with my Anemia class to a small community called Pedra Grande in the Interior. The driver picked us up at 6AM and we spent three hours in route, plus a half hour break to eat breakfast. To reach the community we had to literally pull off the road in the middle of nowhere, walk about 20 minutes through the brush, and cross a river by way of a narrow tree trunk. We never would have found the place if we hadn’t first picked up a representative of the health department from a town nearby.

The community is a quilobolo, or a hide-away community founded by runaway slaves. It was immediately obvious upon arrival that we were dealing with an extremely impoverished and isolated population. The houses were made of mud bricks and sticks, the children ran around barefoot with dirty, bloated bodies and chickens roamed freely from the brush to the kitchen.

In teams of two we did house visits and administered our questionnaires that inquired about basic sanitation, dietary habits, and if anyone in the household showed symptoms of anemia.

After we finished the house visits we gathered everyone together and explained the project that we wanted to do. We are returning next Friday to take blood and feces samples, in subsequent visits we will do educational activities/games that address what we deem to be the principal health problems of the community, and in the final visit we will have a health fair with 2 doctors and representatives from the health department.

I’ve officially decided to abandon my research attempts with the Institute of Collective Health and instead use the data from this project. I spoke with my professor here and she is very supportive, but I’m still waiting for the okay from the home base at Tulane. I want to study the link between intestinal worms and anemia in Pedra Grande and discuss the social-historic conditions of the community that makes it susceptible to this type of anemia.

I’ve also learned how to draw blood. Within class we’ve practiced on each other and I was the first to try. Since then, I worked one morning in the lab and got 2 hours of practice!

I have Internet again! Updates coming soon.... This photo is from last weekend in Porto Seguro.

I am well overdue for an update. Sorry for the negligence. My dad mailed my charger about three weeks ago, but there was a strike in the postal services and it still hasn't arrived. Since I last wrote:

-I met with Barreto (on September 19th) and talked to him about my hopes to collaborate on a research project or collect my own data independently (but with his guidance) over either HIV or TB Salvador. He didn't make the conversation easy for me, but in the end he put me in contact with the director of a TB research project and gave me a copy of the proposal to read over. (I suppose that I was expecting him to be dazzled by my persistence and shower me with provocative ideas and encouragement. Instead he indirectly pointed out my lack of experience and direction, which was fair, but a girl's got to start somewhere. I'm in Brazil now and trained or not, I want to try to do and see what I can. ) The following Monday I met Susan, the project director, and we decided that it would be most beneficial for me to work on the questionnaires and interviews. She e-mailed me a copy of the questionnaires (but I never received them) and put me on the mailing list for Public Health seminars and announcements for the institute. On October 5 I went to a seminar on child consumption of medication and talked to Barreto afterward. I let him know that I never received the questionnaires and he explained to me that Susan hurt her ankle and has been out of the office. He introduced me to some other members of the team and had them re-send the questionnaires. Wednesday of last week I went to a meeting where the questionnaires were edited and finalized. I don't know when we will actually begin to administer them, but I think I've finally made myself inside the loop.

-Capoeira is going well. I've started going 3-4 times a week and I'm actually enjoying it now. When I go on Mondays or Wednesdays I see other students from my program and that helps me feel less incompetent. A huge group of students from California started about 3 weeks ago and they make me look like a pro, but I'm trying not to let it get to my head. ;o)

-Everything with CAASAH (the home I go to for carriers of HIV) is fine. I've bought 3 pairs of tennis shoes over the past month, which was probably a bad idea but when I see a little kid running around with gashes on their feet or NOT running around BECAUSE they have gashes on their feet, I tend to forget that if you give one child a pair of shoes there will be 27 others in line behind him with their precious little hands outstretched and pouty lips. I am bothered by the lack of sanitation and discipline, so I'm going to sit down with the director next Monday. I've already spoken to Flavia, an advisor at CIEE, because I want to know if the children don't have soap, shoes, or bathrooms accessible due to lack or resources or because of negligence. If it is resources, Brianne and I have been discussing some ways to raise money. Brianne is from Kansas City and as part of her study abroad scholarship is required to do a community project when she gets back incorporating elements of Brazilian culture. She is planning on putting on a Brazilian cultural fair for children in April (possibly annually) and she said she would be willing to set aside some of the funding for an institution like CAASAH. I'm not convinced that that sort of sponsorship is necessarily the best course of action, but it's at least one idea. I'd like to learn more about how exactly CAASAH is funded and managed, and perhaps some of the concepts from the social service class will help me to identify what the issue actually is and if there is a self-sustainable solution. Other CAASAH observations:
*Two weeks ago while I was there one of the nurses was literally throwing the children around and hitting them with a tree branch.
*My soccer ball was lost, but I've been bringing the Frisbee and it's been a huge hit.
*CIEE put on an event at CAASAH on September 21 with about 12 stations with different activities and prizes. At the end we hand out snacks and it really shook me to see 5-9 year old kids carefully wrapping up the packages of cookies and crackers and hiding them in their respective hiding places (behind a bush, on top of a cabinet, in a crack in the wall) so that they could have something to bring with them to school the next week.

-On September 23rd I went to Praia do Flamengo to have lunch and go to the beach with my art teacher's daughter, Julia. Julia is studying law at Catolica and speaks English impressively well for never having been to the US. I went with Kristina and Bethany by bus, which took about 1.5 hours. When I got with the gates of their condominium I felt like I had stepped into suburban America. The houses had little yards and gardens and everyone had a car parked out front. (My teacher is clearly well off.) We walked to the beach behind the condo and laid out/talked until lunch time. Julia's mom made feijão (a bean dish) and fresh salad. After lunch we watched some of the soccer game and caught a ride back to Garcia with Julia's aunt and uncle. It's a good thing that we didn't take a bus because traffic was terrible and the buses were all jammed with people coming back from the beaches after a long day of sun and beer. Bethany and her boyfriend are staying at a condo owned by Julia's uncle right now and I'm planning on meeting up with them there tomorrow morning with Michelle.

-On September 26 I went to a theater performance with CIEE called A Geladeira (the refrigerator) at Teatro Vila Velha. We walked into the theater to find the audience seats lining the perimeter of the stage. Clothing was hanging from hangers on the ceiling and thrown about on the floor. A bald man, barefoot and wearing a purple cotton dress, walked around the stage carrying a stereo playing music. It was a bit of an absurd performance and I had trouble identifying what the message of the writer was, so I won't spend anymore time writing about it. We went to dinner afterwards, which made up for the theater.

-On September 29th I went with Brianne, Maggie, and Bethany to Jacuípe. It took us 3 hours to get there, but it is my favorite beach so far (except for Rio of course). We were right where the Jacuípe River meets the ocean. We entertained ourselves by swimming upstream, then floating down the current and watching the jet skis. It was fairly unpopulated, had few vendors, and was clean- all welcome changes. For safety reasons we stayed near a bar, because Bri and Maggie are both blonde and got robbed the weekend before.

-On October 4 I saw Seu Jorge in concert! It was amazing. I was front row, precisely in the center and I only paid $20 for the tickets. Seu Jorge is one of my favorite artists from Brazil and I almost peed my pants when I found out he was coming. The concert surprised me a bit because I had him pegged as the stoic- classy type, but oh no, this was a show. His 5-6 year old daughter came on stage to introduce him and all his instrumentalists and backup singers came on dressed up as different kinds of workers (i.e. a street cleaner, a security guard, a doctor, a butcher, a farmer, etc.) Seu Jorge came on as a police officer and danced without reservation. He sang a lot of songs from his new album (which I bought after the concert for $5) and about 4 from the album that I have. At the end of the concert the audience went crazy and demanded an encore. We pushed up against the stage and I could have literally reached out and touched him. My favorite part was when we picked up one of the apples used as a prop and ate in the middle of one of the songs during the encore. A man after my own heart...

-Last Friday was a national holiday and also Dia das Crianças (children's day). I went out with Isa, Luciana, and Conchita to Parque Pituaçu to see a concert in the park but it turned out we went to the wrong park, so after walking around a bit we went over to Parque da Cidade just in time to see the Bahian orquestra play. It was a beautiful day and children were EVERYWHERE. Children's day is like a mini Christmas and all the kids get presents/candy/etc. We went to lunch at a Bahian restaurant where I ate too much, but enjoyed myself thoroughly. It was the first time that I had been out with all 3 of them at the same time.

Okay, I will stop there because I know I've already tested your endurance and patience writing this much. Please drop me a line and let me know how things are. I've been so disconnected the last month and half since my computer went out.

Hello my lovelys...

The story with my laptop is that my charger is burned out and my Dad is having a new one mailed to me. I think it will be another 2-3 weeks before I'm back in business. To buy one here would cost R$420...

So much has happened in the past few weeks. I had a wonderful weekend in Morro de São Paulo the weekend before last. I went with Baird, Nora, and Bethany (all three of which puked on the boat ride... at one point I was sitting between Bethany and Baird, rubbing their backs while they both heaved... somehow I held it down... I think the only other people on the boat not vomiting were the drunk men and the crew.)

We stayed at a beautiful hostel with a hammock and tons of beautiful birds and plants. On Friday we visited the beaches and Saturday we took a clay-mud bath and washed it off in the ocean. I went back with Bethany Saturday night because I wanted to attend the Health Conference that started Sunday. (We drugged Bethany up for the ride back and it went fine.)

Saturday night I stayed up until about 3 AM writing my paper for Raça e Classe, then went to the conference Sunday afternoon and skipped classes to attend Monday as well. It was an incredible experience and gave me an overview of the current controversial issues in public health in Bahia.

Last weekend I went to Lençóis with Bethany, Breanne, Kristina, and Maggie. We took an overnight bus ride Thursday night and I came back Sunday night with Kristina. Lençóis is a community in the interior with tons of natural waterfalls, caves, rivers, mountains, etc. Friday we hiked a 9 mile trail up and down a mountain with the 2nd biggest waterfall in South America. Saturday we snorkled in a cave and visited several caves and waterfalls. Sunday we hiked several trails and slid down a rock slide into a lake. It was amazing! I'll post pictures when I get my laptop running.

I'm meeting with Barreto this afternoon. I went by his office again last week with no luck, but I talked to his secretary and she told me to e-mail him again. I did so and marked the e-mail as HIGH PRIORITY... and he responded. :o) At last! Wish me luck...

My charger doesn't work.....

Hello everyone. Just to let you know, the charger for my laptop is not working. Therefore, I cannot get online at Conchita's house to talk on Skype or answer e-mails. I apologize if you were waiting to hear back from me but I will have to postpone things for a little while until I get my computer running. Talk to you soon.

Gilberto Gill

Example of forro music. It's great for dancing!

02 Track 2.wma

Well, well… happy September my loves. We are approaching spring here and spring in Salvador is essentially summer, so that means lots of sun and HEAT. We’ve had some toasty days in the past week, but thankfully there is almost always a nice breeze.

I read an article on Thursday about functional illiteracy in Brazil and it said that only 26% of the population can read and write without difficulty. I found that to be completely incredible. It is partially because many children drop out of school to work with only enough knowledge of letters to be able to decode street signs, but Luciana also told me that even those who stay in school can pass up to 8^th grade without being able to read or write because there is no standardized test until then and teachers “advance” the students despite their incompetence. I asked if it is mandatory for children to go to school here and I learned that though it is officially mandatory, the law is enforced by only specific (generally middle-upper class) employers who require their employees to show proof of school attendance and immunizations for their children before they can be hired. This is of little consequence for the mom who sells bananas on the street and sends her children to sell candy on the buses instead of going to school.

I also learned that it is mandatory to vote in Brazil and that this is strictly enforced. If you don’t vote in elections you can’t get your driver’s license, passport, or other official documents. I personally think that mandatory voting is a terrible idea. What ends up happening is that politicians come in and do something nice for the poor, who then feel indebted and out of gratitude vote for him. Granting favors does not make you a good politician. My Portuguese teacher told us that she thinks that after a politician has been caught committing a crime he should be forbidden to run for any public position. That way they will think twice before jeopardizing their career by scamming the public.

Friday CIEE had a post-orientation activity in which we all went to a yoga house for a relaxation session and small group talks about how we are doing dealing with culture shock, our family situations, and starting classes. We waited outside in the rain for half an hour before the van came to pick us up in Garcia, so that ticked a few people off who had woken up early after late Thursday night in Rio Vermelho. One of the group talks was led by an American psychologist living here in Salvador. He was a strange little character. He advised us as an anthropological experiment to try kissing Brazilians here, even if we have significant others at home. (Don’t worry Chase, I’m not convinced.)

When I got back home Bethany and I decided to go to Barra to talk to a travel agent about plane prices to travel around a bit during our holidays. We browsed around for a while and then went to a hotel to book a reservation for her boyfriend who is coming in October. When I got home I sat to chat with Conchita and we watched the end of a telenovela and the news at 8. One of the stories was about the drought in the Sertão. I saw pictures of the water that they have to drink there because of lack of another option and I was completely blown away. It started my little brain ticking about all the work that could be done here in Brazil. I think it would be a fabulous place to work because there is plenty of fundamental work to be done and Brazil also has wonderful places to escape to during the holidays.

Saturday morning I went for a run in Campo Grande and in the afternoon I went over to Bethany’s for a study date. I didn’t end up leaving until 12 hours later. We ended up talking much more than studying, watched 2 episodes of The Office, listened to half of the Wicked sound track, met up with Michelle, got some food, watched Tropical Paradise, visited with Erin and Kate (a girl from the summer program studying in São Paulo), and chatted with her host mom, Ana Rita, until 1:30 AM. Opps…

This morning I’ve done a mild amount of studying, but for the most part I’ve been visiting with Consuelo and her baby Diogo. He is 1-year old, but he knows that he’s the baby and he can get away with almost anything. The cute little rascal! Watching him walk around made me realize how behind the babies at CAASAH are in their development.

Tá gente, I’d better get to studying because I’ve got plenty of readings to do. Beijos! Don’t forget to send me an e-mail and let me know what you are up to!

Tuesday night capoeira wasn’t so great. It was taught by the master whose style I don’t particularly care for because he uses lots of maneuvering on the ground and adores moves that involve supporting your weight with your head (which I don’t feel properly trained to do and I’m mildly-severely concerned that I’ll snap my neck and become a vegetable). He also made us all take turns playing an instrument and since I have no instrumental training I played a little percussion instrument that basically looks like a small and a big coconut on a stick with circle openings on the top that you strike with a stick to create a dung-DUNG-dung sound. Then to top off the class he pulled me out and made me fight with him, whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiich… didn’t go that well. Uff! Right when I thought I was catching on! Some days I genuinely love going to capoeira, then others I feel so incompetent… but I figure that I can afford to humiliate myself in front of people who live on the other side of the world. I can only get better, right?

Yesterday I officially registered for classes which means that I can’t switch around anymore. We still haven’t heard about whether my anemia class will be funded, but we are going to start preparing anyway. Yesterday we started discussing different types of nematodes and amoebas that can cause anemia. Our teacher told us that last semester at a birthday party the class saw a boy get sick and throw up some worms- a few even came out his nose. Infection normally occurs from contact with infected human feces or water/vegetables/fruits that have been infected. Good times, eh?

I gave a presentation today in my Spanish class and I think that I mostly spoke in Spanish. My main issue is pronouncing words like ‘de’ correctly, that is, with a soft ‘d’ like they do in Spanish and not the ‘g’ sound that is used in Portuguese. When I got home I read through a few articles in Spanish and my pronunciation is coming back. Just hearing Spanish spoken does wonders to help me differentiate the two in my mind. I also bought a Portuguese- Spanish dictionary that I think will force me to go from English to Portuguese to Spanish when I want to look up a word so that I am reminded of the Portuguese word as well.

Yesterday morning I tried out a Spanish class at 9:00AM. The most advanced class I could find was level VI for secretaries. In Brazil once you pick your discipline you are divided into turmas or groups of students in your major. For the most part all the students in your turma follow the same schedule and you don’t have the option of taking random classes in other disciplines. Thus, since Spanish in and of itself isn’t a very functional major, they have applied Spanish only for secretary work (i.e. ordering office supplies from an Argentinean company). It will serve my purpose because all I really want is to hear Spanish spoken so that I can work to differentiate it with Portuguese in my mind.

I went straight to CAASAH after Class and Race. Katie and I invited Ana to go with us because she doesn’t speak much Portuguese and wants to find a place where she can work with babies. We brought colored string with us to make bracelets, though it turned out that the kids mostly just wrapped themselves in string and few bracelets got made. I’ve got some more of the kids names down now:

-Michael is a plump, lethargic little baby. He’ll give me a smile when I coo over him and pretend that his bear is giving him kisses, but he doesn’t beg to be picked up or cry for attention. I went home with mementos of his spit-up down the front of my shirt.

-Lariça is the little girl I mentioned last week that is about 1.5ish and is learning to stand up/walk. She’ll shamelessly compete for attention if I’m holding another baby but she’s the prettiest little thing. You just can’t hold it against her.

-Clara is 6 months old and reminds me of a little smurf. Her ears kind of stick out and she has a wide forehead and a tiny little nose and mouth. She likes to be held and I’m pretty sure that her diaper leaked on me because I smelled pee on me for the rest of the afternoon.

-Juliete is 12 years old and likes to hang out with the babies. When she saw my bag of thread she took me by the hand to one of the tables so that she could make her bracelet. At which point an even older girl named Michelle took over and started to distribute the spools to her friends which meant that no one wanted to share colors or cooperate to actually make the bracelets. Michelle referred to me as “Americana” and insisted that I played cat’s cradle with her over and over and over again.

I also befriended a group of boys that asked me to bring my soccer ball with me next week and gave me a new hairdo. When they finished climbing on me I had snot and spit to add to the assortment of bodily fluids pasted to my skin and clothes and all my curls had been combed to frizz by their little fingers.

When I got home, I took a nice long shower and spent the rest of the evening studying/chatting with Conchita. Today she has a few medical exams to check on her breast cancer and osteoporosis, so keep your fingers crossed for good results.

Speaking of breast cancer, this morning in my Social Services and Health class I accidentally asked a question about papayan cancer (câncer da mamão), instead of breast cancer (cancer da mama). Good times…

Well I’m pleased to report that the second half of my week went much smoother. Thursday was routine, except that my Portuguese class went to see a documentary on Mestre Bimba and capoeira. Mestre Bimba was the man responsible for modifying Angolan capoeira into what it is today. He turned it into a discipline and helped pull many poor youths out of the life of crime. I went to capoeira that night and I was encouraged that the exercises that we did are becoming easier for me. When I got back from capoeira Conchita told me that my art/sculpture teacher had called and that scheduled out lesson for 7AM. Droga! That meant that for the third time this week I woke up at 5:15 so that I could get ready and walk to class. After class I stopped by a few shops to look at beads because I want to make bracelets with the children at CAASAH and bought some more glue sticks (I tend to go through glue sticks like fiend).

When I got back I studied a bit until lunch, then Bethany and I went to CIEE to look over classes again. I want to try a Spanish class because the other day I tried to write an e-mail to Dina (my contact for the Mission Honduras) and I wrote it without many problems, but I struggled with pronunciation when I tried reading it out-loud. I found Spanish VI that meets Mondays and Thursdays and Bethany showed me where the campus is where it meets. She decided to try a ceramics class and I showed her where that campus was, then we walked to Dulces Sonho and sat and chatted while Bethany ate a slice of chocolate cake.

I decided to go out and samba Friday night. There is a tiny bar in Rio Vermelho that everyone in the program loves to go to and I met up with a small group around 10:00PM. When I say tiny, I mean tiny. I was literally dancing against the wall and we stayed until 1 at which point the bar was intolerably hot and crowded. We spent a good portion of the time outside the bar on the sidewalk so that we could catch the breeze.

Saturday I slept in until 9:30 then meet Bethany to go to the beach at 10:30. I went for a run for about an hour and found a great stretch of beach with a running path, a skate board park, pull-up bars, etc. When I got back I went swimming a bit then ate some açaí at the shop across the street. By 2 I decided to walk back and stop by the grocery store. I studied a bit last night, but by 9:30 I was falling asleep with my book open and decided to call it an early night.

Today has been pretty calm. I studied and worked on letters this morning. Bethany came over and we sat and talked for a few hours and I went to mass at 6:30. I got a reply back from my e-mail to one of professors from the Institute of Collective Health and we are going to try to meet later this week.

Mom, in response to your question about the shortage of funding for my Health and Education Class: Prevention of Anemia, basically we need funding because we will be traveling to a poor community in the Interior to take blood samples and do surveys. We need money primarily for transportation and for food because we will spend one full Saturday a month there. The department grants the money but low on funds because of the strike.

YAAAAAAWN! O, gente! It’s been a bit of an off-week so far, but that also means that I’ve had my fair share of mistakes to learn from. I woke up Monday feeling stuffy with a sore throat so I just went for a short run and studied a bit before my 11:00 class. After lunch I went to meet with Katie to go to CAASAH (the home for children and adults with HIV/AIDS). Katie was about 15 minutes late because she was coming from a class beforehand, but while I waited for her I watched the buses going by to see which stop we needed to wait at. The name of the bus we needed was Ribeira, but the trick is that there are 4 different lines. (We needed Ribeira/Luis Tarquinio). When in doubt, I always ask the guy who sells coconut water and he told us to wait in front of the theater. After about 10 minutes we see a Ribeira go by but it doesn’t stop when we flag it down. We moved to the stop at the corner because the buses all stop there because it’s an intersection. We wait another 15-20 minutes, so by the time the next Ribeira passes it is already 4:10 and we were supposed to arrive at CAASAH by 4:00. We saw on the side of the bus that it passes through Luis Tarquinio though the name of the route was something else that I can’t remember now (maybe Ribeira Liberdade). Katie got on the bus and asked the money changer if the bus passed the street that CAASAH is on but the lady seemed to put a mental block as soon as she saw that Katie was a blond with pale skin and furrowed her eyebrows before she even asked the question. We didn’t get any clues from her but we stayed on the bus and kept our eyes peeled for landmarks that we recognized…

…and an HOUR later we concluded that we are definitely NOT in the right place and we should probably figure out how to get back. It’s funny how traveling with other people changes your behavior. If it had been me alone I would have been asking questions the second that I suspected something was amiss, but since we were together we both assumed that the other person had everything under control and we reacted alot slower than I think we ordinarily would have. We asked the money changer again and she advised us where to get off and which bus to take back home. (It was already dark and too late to try to go to CAASAH.) When I got home I asked Conchita where we should have caught the bus and it turns out that for the first time the Coconut man led me astray. I was utterly distraught by this realization because I had put so much faith in the Coconut guys.

Tuesday morning started at 5:15AM and I caught the bus at 6:30AM without a problem. My stop is the last one so normally everyone gets off the bus at the end of the line and you can’t miss it. Unfortunately I caught the bus at a different stop and my stop was not the last one and I sat reading an article and missed my stop, returned all the way to Campo Grande, and had to catch another bus. (The buses change routes so I couldn’t stay on the one I was on.) I ended up being 20 minutes late to class but I befriended the money changer on the bus and talked to him while we sat in traffic.

After class I went to talk to Isabel, the professor who can supposedly help me get into contact with Dr. Barreto for my research. I went to the Social Services office and talked to the secretary but it turns out that she only comes in on Mondays now. Until next week…

I went to CIEE to talk to Flavia and apologize for not showing up to volunteer at CAASAH. We rescheduled for today at 3:00PM and I ran a few more errands before my Portuguese class. I decided to go to UFBA early to see if I could catch Dr. Barreto before his class in the Pharmacy school. When I was there last week I saw that he teaches an Epidemiology class on Tuesdays from 3-4 and I thought that at last I might tag him down. Great idea but it turns out the class isn’t at 3:00PM its at 13:00 AND it isn’t at the Ondina UFBA campus its at the Institute for Collective Health. Fabulous. I spent the extra hour before my Portuguese class trying to read in the library but its already turning so hot here that with the heat and my exhaustion it took me the entire hour to get through the 6 page article for my Social Services class.

I had a long debate with myself on the way home about whether or not I wanted to go to capoeira and in the end I opted out because of my cold and my bruised heel from falling Saturday. I took some time to unwind and listen to music, then finished up my paper for Class and Race that was due today.

This morning I scoped out the bus stop we should have waited at for Ribeira and went to class. Afterwards Katie and I ate a quick lunch with a big group of students from the program and went straight to CAASAH. We caught the bus next to CIEE and we were able to see exactly where the stop is by Campo Grande when it passed by. When we got to CAASAH we met with Sandra and filled out some forms. Afterwards she introduced us to one of the coordinators and set us loose to play with the children. Oh goodness! During the interview/form signing with Sandra two of the girls came up to us and asked in English “My is your name?” One of the girls, Michelle, gave us each a kiss and told us “ben-vindo” or welcome. There was hardly a minute that I was there without someone in my arms or on my back. I got to see the babies today and they were infinitely precious. Two are itsy bitsy infants, two are a between 6-9 months old, and one is about 1-1.5. The 4 youngest ones were sleeping but I spend about half an hour with the 1-1.5 year old letting her craw around and practice standing. I spent quite a bit of time with another girl who wouldn’t tell me her age (I’d guess 5ish) whose name I couldn’t understand. She spoke very little but she clung to me from the moment she saw me. (It amazed me how I went in there nervous that I had nothing to offer and it turned out that all I needed were two arms to hold them, enough energy for a few piggy back rides, and kisses.) Her skin was covered in scars and she still wears diapers. Her belly-button is abnormally large, though I don’t know why that would be. We stayed for about an hour and half then headed back because I had at 5:30 class. We had no trouble on the return trip and arrived at Campo Grande at 4:00. I used the spare time to try to find the Institute of Collective Health which took be about an hour of running in circles. It’s hard to ask people on the streets because the locations move so often and there are several departments with similar names. I found Dr. Barreto’s office and talked to his secretary who told me that he would be traveling until August 31^st. Perhaps that is why he hasn’t responded to my e-mail. Let’s hope that I hear something soon.

I went straight from my quest to find Dr. Barreto to my Anemia class. When I got there I found out that there are some issues because of the strike at UFBA and we may not get the funding that we need to go to the community where we will be working. We discussed our options and ended class early today. They are trying to recruit students from other departments so that they can pool funds. Keep your fingers crossed.

I was short 40 cents for the bus ride home so I had to find a bank to get some cash from the ATM. That was a little bit sketchy because it was already dark outside and the campus was deserted, but mission successful!

Beijos!

Hello! Can you believe that the semester is already 1/3 of the way gone? Only 4 more months to go to the date and I’ll be on my way back home!

Saturday morning I went with Bethany to Pelourinho to help her look for a gift for her boyfriend’s birthday. We went to the top floor in one of the stores to look at artwork and even though I heeded the owner’s warning to hold on to the rail, I slipped and fell down a few steps. No permanent damage done, although my heel is bruised and I pulled a muscle in my left arm where I was holding onto the rail. (I swear I’m not that big of klutz. The conditions were extremely adverse b/c I was swearing slick, loose sandals and the stairs were super slippery and steep.)

I studied a bit in the afternoon then I went over to Bethany’s to watch a Brazilian film (Meu tio matou um cara- My Uncle Killed a Guy) and the soap opera Paraíso tropical- Tropical paradise. The film was cute and Sonia if you’re reading this I thought about you in the scene where the boy eats the banana with cinnamon. Watching the soap opera was amusing as well because the producers are so blatantly promoting their pet social cause. In the episode we watched one of the characters calls in to donate to Criança Esperança and in another idyllic scene a white, rich couple adopts a black boy.

Sunday morning I went to mass at 7 then spent the rest of the morning trying to write an essay for Classe e Raça, my culture class. This Sunday it was Conchita’s turn to host the family gathering so by 1 the entire house was buzzing and I was lured out of studying by Conchita’s adorable baby nephew and her niece’s new puppy. Although the TV was on, conversation was much more the center of attention this time and I’ve never seen a group of people so enjoy each others’ company.

Luciana, puppy, and cousin (left) and Conchita with her nephew and her niece's puppy (below). Update coming soon!

Before my class on Race and Class Monday morning I went for a run in Campo Grande. After the run I found myself watching the shadows on the sidewalk stretch, then fad as the clouds passed in front of the sun. I’ve made of ritual of finding a different place to sit in the park after each run and I usually pass half an hour there just observing and thinking. It usually drizzles on me in the morning but it’s worth it to see the vibrant limbs of green shimmering against a backdrop of grey. I think that I could easily pass the whole day there just watching the people pass by and listening. There is a homeless lady that usually sits on the bench outside the fence of the park facing the theater on my street. If it rains hard she wraps herself in a tarp and some days she takes a smoke. She smiles subtly when she looks at me but I’m not convinced that she actually sees me. I can’t explain why, but she looks like what I’d imagine a young teenage boy to look like after he’s had sex for the first time. Perhaps it is the inherent innocence confused with a profound loss of innocence that provokes me to feel that way.

There are two police officers, a man and a woman, that secure the area. They spend the majority of their time outside the gate on the side facing Barra. If I run at 8AM there are a group of shirtless guys in green shorts that are usually there too. Vendors selling shots of coffee pass through with their carts that are made to look like miniature cars or trains and play music when they turn the crank. By 9AM the popcorn and coco water vendors set up across from the monument of July 2^nd, Bahian independence day. There are lots of elderly men and women walking in the park or on the outside perimeter. I wished that I had a camera because there was an elderly woman with a neon green shirt a few paces behind a middle aged woman with a green top and bright green sneakers. The vividness of those colors surrounded by the melancholy was almost comical and reminded me of an energy drink commercial.

At 11:00 I went to the class on Race and Class in Brazilian society offered by CIEE. It seems like it going to be more intense than the Contemporary Brazilian Culture class though it taught by the same professor that I took during the intensive summer session. While I was at the CIEE office I took another look through the class schedule and picked 2 classes to try out for Tuesday morning.

I went home for lunch, mailed a couple letters, then walked back to CIEE to meet with Flavia, Alexia, and Katie to visit the HIV home, CAASAH, at 3:30 PM. (Flavia and Alexia are both coordinators of the program with CIEE and Katie is a student in my Portuguese class.) We flagged a taxi and the whole ride the driver joked back and forth with us about Bahian stereotypes because he was from Minas Gerais When we got to CAASAH I must confess that I had a few butterflies in my stomach. Flavia told me that in the past when she took students they walked in, looked around, and never went back. Conchita said she had the same experience when she went, because some of the things that you see are very emotionally difficult to digest. I was braced to expect the worst.

We told the security guard at the gate that we were there to see Sandra and he escorted us through the dirt parking lot to the reception area of the house/clinic. While we waited I read the mission statement on the wall and looked at the collages of pictures. (My heart strings were already pulled and I hadn’t even met any of the children.) Sandra greeted us all warmly and took us to the park area to talk because the rest of the house was buzzing with activity. She asked us what type of work we’d like to do and when we were available to come. Katie wants to work with the children during their recreation time in the afternoons and while I’d love to do that, I’d also like to see more of the clinical side and shadow a nurse in the adult unit. For now we decided that I would work with Katie on Monday afternoons and after I feel more comfortable with the clinic, I can come a second day a week or work separately from Katie. Sandra then gave us a brief tour of the facility and we saw a few volunteers teaching dance to the children. (I then felt suddenly inadequate because the children can already dance better than I can.) I’m thinking about maybe busting out the soccer ball that I brought and starting a mini-soccer team and teaching the kids how to play Frisbee. I’m also envisioning some craft sessions because Katie and I both love card making.

I got back home around 6:00 and invited Bethany over because we have to write a paper for next Wednesday (8/22) on the city of Cachoeira and the Irmandade de Boa Morte (The Sisterhood of Good Death). I borrowed a documentary from CIEE to orient us for the field trip to Cachoeira to see the procession of Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte (Our Lady of the Good Death) on Wednesday (8/15). What I gathered from the film is that during slavery in Brazil the Africans were obligated to “convert” and so they found ways to continue to practice their native religion under the cloak of Catholicism. As my host mom explained, the assigned a saint to each of their Orixás so that while they prayed St. Barbara, for example, they were really worshipping Iansã. The feast of the Assumption of Mary became particularly important to the slaves. According to the church though Mary died she was assumed into heaven and never knew decay. I suspect that the slaves identified with this holiday as a symbol of their dream of freedom and passing on to the glory and justice that they deserved. The female Afro-Brazilians older than 40 years formed the Irmandade de Boa Morte as a group dedicated to celebrating the feast every year with a procession, religious ceremonies, and parties. Though you might think that the death of Mary would be a solemn occasion, it is anything but. There are parties and music in the streets of Cachoeira during the 3 day celebration. After the film Bethany and I started to read one of the articles for class but at 9 PM when Tropical Paradise, Bethany’s favorite soap opera, came on we stopped and gathered around the TV.

Tuesday was a long, rough day. I got up at 5:30 AM, ate, and got dressed. By 6:10 I was ready to head out the door but for some reason I couldn’t get the lock open. After trying for 10 minutes I sheepishly had to wake up Conchita to help me. It turns out that there is a second lock that I didn’t know about and I’m not quite as incompetent as I feared. I was told that I could catch the bus for Federação were I had my 7AM class in Garcia, so I went to the bus stop in front of my house and waited for about 10 minutes. I decided that it might be a better idea to try the stop down the street with more traffic, so I walked over there and asked a guy standing there if the bus I needed passed by that stop. He told me that it did, then after thinking for a minute asked one of his friends who said that it didn’t and that I needed to go to Campo Grande. Ok, fabulous. So I walk to Campo Grande and ask a woman there who refers me to yet another bus stop. I asked someone at that bus stop and they told me no and that I needed to walk down another block. At this point it was 6:45 and I ask a woman on the corner if she knows where I can catch the bus that I need. She walked with me a bit and pointed out the stop. When I rounded the corner the bus was just about to leave so I had to run to catch it and I squeezed in the jam packed bus. I couldn’t even pass through the turn wheel where you pay fare and I rode on the steps for about 15 minutes until another wave of passengers tried to squeeze in. I ended up in the middle of the bus completely closed in so that I couldn’t see out the windows, meaning that I couldn’t see my stop. Most everyone there were students and I heard several people talking about Federação so I figured that I’d be safe getting off when I saw all the students get out. It was 7:10 when I got off the bus with a mass of students only to realize that we were at part of UFBA, not Católica. I saw the bus turn off to the left, so I started walking in that direction on the side of the road. After walking for 20 minutes following signs and verbal directions from people I asked on the street, I finally made it to Federação at 7:30. I wandered a bit longer finding my classroom then walked in flustered, but relieved to finally have made it. My first class was a senior seminar on Social Service and Health. I had to introduced myself to the class and everyone was very welcoming and reassured me that if I needed any extra help, just to ask. The class sounds perfect for me. Some of themes of the class are:

o Concepts in sickness/health and their social dimension (i.e. how the same sickness looks different in different sectors of society)

o Levels of health attention (i.e. primary prevention, secondary prevention, treatment, etc.)

o Basic concepts of epidemiology

o The health situation in Brazil and Bahia

o Social movements in health

o SUS (the Brazilian healthcare system)

o Models of healthcare

o Social Service and health

I noticed on the syllabus that one of the texts in written by Mauricio Barreto, the professor I have been trying to reach for research. Victoria, one of the students in the class, told me that her daughter studied abroad in Dallas and that I can count on her if I need help with anything.

The second class I tried was a Social Work class called Work and Sociability but it was large with mostly freshmen and seemed off the mark for what I’m interested in. I sat through the first 50 minutes of class, and then walked out as politely as possible.

I walked around and looked on the bulletin boards to see if there was another class that I wanted to try. CIEE didn’t have the schedule for the law classes and there were a few that I was interested in looking up. I saw that the class in Agricultural and Agrarian Rights was next so I decided to try it out. It’s a class for 5^th year law students and the professor reminded me of my highschool US history teacher. He wore a suit and tie, was plump, old and balding, and spoke slowly but eruditely, inserting witty and sarcastic remarks intermediately. The class filed slowly in so it took him half an hour just to take role. He then proceed to explain the complexity of the course and the unfathomablity of covering it all in the course of the semester. We received no syllabus, no text assignments, and no guidelines on grading. I introduced myself to him after class to see if I could glean any more information and we talked for half an hour. He asked me what I was interested in, why I came to Brazil, etc. I told him that I wanted to take his class because I was interested in public health and social justice, and land rights is a huge issue in many of the countries that I’d like to work. He then laughed and said that he doesn’t know what justice I was referring to. Everyone raises there hands and says they want justice but no one can agree on what justice is. I confessed my own naivety with out reserve and told him that was why I needed to take his class. He asked me what religion I was and was surprised when I answered Catholic b/c he was under the impression that there are few Catholics in the US. He also asked why I wore an African necklace and not a crucifix around my neck. I suspect that he was just trying to convey his own naivety and we bantered on like that. I left the campus around 12:30, completely famished and exhausted. I ate lunch at home, and then went to buy some chocolate for Bethany’s birthday which was Wednesday. I left extra early for my Portuguese class so that I wouldn’t be late again and I got there early enough to sit and relax a bit.

After class I got a quick bite to eat and went to capoeira at 7:30. We started out the class running and doing sets of push-ups and sit ups. The instructor maintained the same intensity throughout the entire class and by 9:30 when the class was over I was beat.

Wednesday I went on a field trip to Cachoeira. Baird and Owen made Bethany a cake which was eaten before 9:00AM. The drive was an hour and half and the landscape slowly became more and more rural. Cachoeira is a quaint little town that looks like it hasn’t seen development in 50 years or more. We visited a cigar factory there that was once a vastly lucrative business, but now half of the factory functions as a museum and the other half continues its limited production. Afterwards we joined the procession of Mary through the streets. It tickled me to see the little white marry floating above a sea of black women in huge white dresses that made them all look like fat marshmallows. The procession wound through the streets to the church of the Irmandade de Boa Morte. They have been forbidden to celebrate mass in the Catholic church because they are considered cultish for their hybridization of African and Catholic practices. We visited several churches and museums and took some time to watch street dancing and other festivities. You can read about the holiday on wikipedia if you are interested. Jeferson Bacelar, one of the experts referenced on wiki is the director of my program and one of my professors. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Good_Death)

After the field trip we went to eat sushi to celebrate Bethany’s birthday but I didn’t stay out late because yesterday was another early day. Luckily I made it to Federação without the drama from Tuesday. I decided not to take the law class after all because my schedule seems demanding enough and I want time to volunteer and get involved in the community. I asked my Social Service’s and Health professor if she knew Bacelar and she told me that she has a friend who works closely with him that could help put me in contact. I waited in the Social Services office for almost 2 hours but the other professor never showed up. I’m going to try to meet her on Tuesday and if nothing else, I’ll ask if I can do research directly with her. I’ve e-mailed another lady in the department but she works more with dengue than HIV and she referred me to another professor. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

In my afternoon Portuguese class we had to host a radio show and I was assigned to do a segment as a music critic. It went fine and after class Bethany and I finished up our reading assignment on the Irmandade de Boa Morte. This afternoon I’m going to a service learning class on Health and Education and capoeira tonight since I skipped out yesterday to study with Bethany.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Beijos!

Oi gente! Saturday after I posted my blog I spent the afternoon studying. Bethany called around 7 and asked me to go with her to meet some others from the program at Shopping Barra. We ended up going to a Tex Mex restaurant nearby, which ended up being a dissatisfying experience both because of the food and the price (shocking I know, who knew a Mexican food in Brazil was a bad idea?). We sat and talked at a bar afterwards but by 11PM the majority of the group was tired from the night before and we split a cab back to Garcia. The crazy pigeon by our table that chased its tail and contorted its neck into unnatural positions and the 80’s music videos are in a toss up to be named the most absurd, but entertaining feature of the night.

Sunday was a family day. It’s fascinating to me how empty the streets get on Sundays. I honestly did not see anyone on the street today except Conchita because I was walking with her. I spent the entire afternoon and evening at Conchita’s sister, Guta’s, house. Conchita, Isa and Luciana go there almost every Sunday for lunch and visiting with the extended family. I showed up after they had just finished eating because I had a skype date with Chase beforehand, but they saved plenty for me. (There was baked fish, rice w/ ham/veggies/cheese, a shrimp dish, a salad, fried potatoes, etc.) Conchita made a dessert out of condensed milk, sugar, and other goodness that she insisted that I try in addition to a truffle with maracujá (passion fruit) filling. After lunch we gathered around the TV and watched Pride and Prejudice, then 2 hours of a special event going on this weekend to raise money for a children’s charity, Criança Esperança. It’s amazing how much TV is watched in this society and how captivating and influential Brazilians find it. The actors from the soap operas show up everywhere: on magazine covers, on advertisements on store fronts, on commercials, on talk shows, and of course, on Criança Esperança. Although the quantity of TV was mind-numbing, it was great to see Conchita cracking jokes and socializing with her sisters and cousin. When we walked back to our apartment (which is just across the street) she told me that she used to live in the same building as Guta as did many other relatives (stacked one on top of the other) until she moved about a year ago, followed by a few others. She lived on the first floor of the apartment and solicitors and visitors would knock on the window trying to sell something or get information about other people living in the building. One of her sisters was also robbed by a man who later broke into another apartment building on the street and raped a woman living alone there with her daughter and robbed her DVD player and other small appliances. In the apartment where she lives now she feels much more secure because it is gated in with 24 hour surveillance.

I have to run but I'll write more soon. Until then check out the website for the HIV home where I went today: www.caasah.com.br.

I don’t have too much to report about the last few days. Thursday I studied in the morning (i.e. I reviewed the Portuguese novel that I’ve been reading aloud to Conchita and my MCAT study book) and went to Portuguese class in the afternoon. The bus I take to campus was late so I got there about a minute for class started. On my way to the Letras building, I ran into 3 other of the students in my class. On the one hand that was a good thing because with the majority of the class with me it didn't look so bad being late, but unfortunately, they stopped to talk to people coming out of the session before us, so we were a good 10 minutes late before we actually made it to the classroom. The door to the room was locked which I assumed meant that the room must have changed, but the others were feeling comfortable b/c the 4 of us were together and we were joined a minute later by another classmate. After another 5-10 minutes of waiting I went down to the office and asked if there was a room change, which there was. By the time I went back up to the three flights of stairs to tell the others and came back down, we were 20-25 minutes late to class. Opps!

I went to capoeira Thursday night, though I was still sore from Tuesday. It went okay until it was time for roda de capoeira where everyone forms a circle and takes turns fighting one-on-one while everyone else WATCHES. I didn’t realize that sitting next to the musicians meant that your turn was next and I sat down second in line. Bad idea… My first turn was very humbling (to say the least) but I think that I was a slightly more dignified the second time around. Little by little is what I keep telling myself.

Friday Bethany and I went to the beach in the morning. I packed a peanut butter and banana sandwich and an apple which we split and we passed the time talking about our usual themes of life, faith, and relationships. We tried sitting on the right hand side, which has fewer tourists and more natives, and settled down near a game of foot-volley.Unfortunately we were seated too close to the tide and had to move several times. By 12:45 it was drizzling steadily and we decided to retreat and buy some açaí at a shop across from the beach. Bethany was feeling crafty and needed to start on a birthday card for her boyfriend, Jere’s birthday, so she came over to my place and we spent the afternoon making cards and listening to music.

This morning I finished my Portuguese assignment for Tuesday, went for a run in Campo Grande, showered, went to the grocery store, and here I am! Things will be getting more routine with classes starting and Monday I am going to an AIDS clinic were I hope to begin volunteering. Beijos!

Hello my dear ones. Well yesterday Portuguese class started again. I passed Intermediate I and I advanced to Intermediate II with the same professor. There are 7 students total: 5 from my last class, plus an Italian and another student from the CIEE program who skipped a level. My Portuguese class time was moved from 2-4 to 4-6, so that means that I can’t take the social work class I wanted. There’s a chance that the time could be moved back, but if not I’ll have to go back to the CIEE office to look over the schedule again and pick a different class.

I went to capoeira last night and paid for the month so I’m officially committed! The class is definitely too advanced for me, but I’m trying. Algodão, one of the instructors that Sonia and Bethany befriended, helped me with some of the basics. He’s a bit of a flirt, but he’s a patient instructor. (Sonia, if you’re reading this, he wants to know why you didn’t say goodbye before you left.)

Today Bethany and I went to an island a 40 minute ferry-ride from Salvador. We took a bus to Pelourinho, paid 5 centavos to take the Elevador Lacerda down by the port, and rode the ferry. The ride was a bit rough, but I only saw one little boy get sea-sick. When we got to the island we were a bit disappointed because the beaches were dirty and it certainly didn’t seem like the paradise that we had imagined. After walking around for a bit, we stopped for lunch and the man who attended us suggested that we take a taxi to the historic part of the island, then to the Ponto da Areia where the best beach is.

The “historic” region consisted of a port where it is prohibited to fish, swim, or even touch the water. Our taxi driver escorted us to the dock and explained that it was a nature preserve and pointed out a few exotic fish that swam by. We also visited Fonte de Bica, which is a source of mineral water that is clean enough to drink from the tap.

When we got to Ponto da Areia it was overcast and we feared rain. Our taxi driver agreed to pick us up at 4:00, so we had three hours to burn on the beach. When we saw a man renting out his horses for those who wanted to take a ride along the beach and Bethany’s eyes lit up. I haven’t been on a horse since I was a little girl, so the man agreed to lead and let me go alone if I was comfortable. We trotted along the shore and a little ways into a forest trail. On the way back Bethany and I switched horses and I rode solo. It went okay until the strap to my backpack came undone and I had to toss my bag to the man. I regretted having done that when I thought about my camera and wallet, but I didn’t have any trouble and he didn’t even mind waiting a few hours to be paid since we didn’t have any bills smaller than R$50.

We had about 2 hours of sunshine before the rains came back and we headed home. On the way to the island we sat on the top deck, but for the way back we decided to try the bottom level. It was hilarious because everyone riding down there laid down on the benches. I’m not sure if it is because they were motion sick or because they were so accustomed to the ride that they didn’t care for the view above and passed the time napping. Whatever the case, Bethany and I decided that when in Rome, do as the Romans and laid down like pros until water sloshed in through the windows. So that’s why everyone laid down in the middle benches…

Farewell Sonia!

Sonia left this afternoon for her flight back to California and I already miss her! Yesterday Bethany and I went shopping to pick up some gifts for her family and she showed us a store nearby where they sell nature/organic stuff. (I bought some wheat germ for my yogurt and oatmeal.) We parted ways for the rest of the afternoon, but they came over to my place after mass to paint nails and chat. They surveyed some of the music on my computer and we talked about first impressions and continued our usual discussion on relationships. This morning we were all going to go running at 7:00 in Campo Grande, but everyone ended up canceling b/c it was drizzling. I went running anyway and I had one of the best runs that I’ve had since I’ve gotten here. We spent about an hour together before lunch and then Bethany and I saw her off on the bus to the airport.

I’ve been here over a month and starting today, I’ve resolved to actually start doing all those things that I came here for. Bethany and I have agreed to make our best effort to talk to each other only in Portuguese and I have asked Conchita if she will let me read to her out loud everyday from a book that I have so that she can correct my pronunciation. (I read to her for about 30-40 minutes this afternoon and it reminded me of reading bedtime stories with my parents. We’re reading Agosto by Rubem Fonseca which is a historical fiction about the murder of a politician. It’s great that I’m reading it with her b/c she explains to me parts of the history that I wouldn’t otherwise have understood.) I’m going to capoeira tomorrow and my goal is to make it to 2-3 classes a week. I know that will be hard once classes and volunteering gets going, but I’m going to try. Bethany and I went by the CIEE office this afternoon and asked about volunteer opportunities and we were told that they would take us in small groups to the different projects, but that they wanted to wait until we had our class schedule set first. I asked specifically about working with children with AIDS and I was told that I could, though that type of work can be very emotionally challenging and few stick with it. I insisted and they agreed to take me once classes start.

This evening I’m going to an opera with Bethany at the theater near Campo Grande. The opera is Tosca by Puccini. Tomorrow Portuguese class starts.