As the semester is winding down to an extremely bittersweet close, I think I would like to reflect on some of the randoms of life in Brazil that I had forgotten to include in previous entries and a look back at some of the challenges I thought I was going to have but that turned out to be exceedingly simple…
Deus `e fiel bumperstickers:
This means, “God is faith” by the way for those of you who didn’t pick it up. We all know for the most part that Brazil is an EXTREMELY religious country, mostly catholic but this is rapidly being replaced by evangelisists, which usually would make me run far far far far away, but then I realized the tackiness of it all. I mean those bumper stickers are EVERYWHERE, on the backs of public busses, every car, house, restaurant, kombi, moto, stop sign…seriously. Everywhere. And it’s not just bumper stickers, people paint the saying on sidewalks in front of their houses, on the top of their guarana stands, and they tattoo it on the small of their back to show off when they go clubbing until 5am. These people aren’t really all that conservative, they love to show off how much they love God and they’ll even show up at church at 8am on a Sunday after being out until 7 but they don’t personally push their religion on you. At first I was little apprehensive when I found out my family was Catholic and went to church every Saturday evening. I mean I know I said I would go to church with them out of respect, but in my mind I knew there was only so much I could take. Turns out my sister and oldest brother aren’t all that keen on church either; the first Saturday my host mom took my little brother and host father to church she gave me the option of going but said that the rest of the family wasn’t going so it was up to me. I politely passed on the option of going and she never asked me again. However, she has a little shrine to Jesus in the corner of the living room and every morning there is a pastor…minister…priest? someone on TV singing about God and Jesus and all their glory. I tune it out. She tells me how beautiful her church is when we pass it, and it is. I respect her and her religion and am SO thankful she doesn’t force me to participate. Occasionally I run into the extremely devout and have accidentally laughed at the question of me being an evangelisist…and by occasionally I mean once…and then realized the person asking was actually a priest. OPA.
Out and About
This does not refer to a little Saturday afternoon shopping or a quick pop in to the pub for a beer, no this refers to Brazilians NEED to show as much skin as possible at pretty much all times of the day. Now I know you’re thinking, well but it’s super QUENTE e UMIDO all the time and I will give you that, being outside for more than 10 minutes and I look like a table from one of those Pledge commercials but sometimes it’s just unnecessary and very difficult to take people seriously when (especially men) are standing there talking to you with their giant bellies out for the world to see. Okay, yes I know I’m clearly an awful person and sometimes it does work to my advantage and I get a beautiful man with a 9-pack passing by but usually that’s not the case. This goes for women too, I’ve seen them on busses in bikinis. And let me clarify, while I do think it’s an oddity of society here I’m trying not to hate too much. I just think it’s hilarious because most people in the U.S. would react exactly as I am, possibly more so. Just as a semi-related side note, they call some of their bikinis here dental floss…I’m not kidding.
Speakers on cars
It is socially acceptable here to take gigantic speakers, put them on top of your car, turn the volume up to 100, and play the most OBNOXIOUS music you will ever have the great pleasure of hearing. There are two types of this particularly delightful music: techno brega → think the chipmunks’ meets all those really annoying pop songs you hate to listen to and then translate it into Portuguese and BOOM you have brega. For some reason, people like it here; after hearing it played every Sunday from 8am to 11pm at the bar by my house, I have a slightly different opinion. But even brega can be tolerable in small doses compared to this really awful music (that doesn’t have a name) where men think it’s necessary to explain what the music is about in really loud voices that makes it impossible to hear the actual music. When I asked someone what the point of this music was it was explained to me sarcastically as: “well they obviously have to explain what the girl is singing about…claro.”
Every woman here wears heels 24/7
I thought it was the weirdest thing when I got off the plane in Brazil for the first time and all the women were dressed up and wearing heels…for travel. I still don’t understand why they do this, but it’s definitely a common cultural thing. So I foolishly thought that maybe this was just a travel and special occasion thing but no everyday, all day the majority of Brazilians wear heels. Meanwhile, my birks were starting to wear down after literally wearing them everyday of this program because they looked better with all my outfits than my flip-flops, sneakers, wet water hiking shoe type things, or hiking boots; while in the field these were fine and no one cared but it was difficult going out and avoiding being stared at for not having shoes that I couldn’t walk in if I tried. But once people found out I was American/a bunch of us found this awesome reggae bar where everyone there might as well be American it was totally fine. For awhile there though, I was struggling a little.
Being a vegetarian in Brazil…
Was surprisingly easy. I mean people thought I was strange but there are so many fruits and vegetables here and they’re CHEAP. I probably ate way more bread, rice, and doces than I should have but whatever that’s why they invented exercise. I did get sick a few times here but I don’t think it’s from accidentally eating meat, just bad water, which by the end my stomach could kind of take…kind of. I learned to live off agua de coco and guarana smoothies (which I really don’t know how I’m going to survive without them now, let me explain: it’s basically like a pb and banana shake only 10X better. Instead of peanut butter they use brazil nuts, condor eggs [yes real condor eggs shells and all], avocado, guarana extract [the stuff they put in red bull…which I know is gross but they don’t add any extra caffeine like they do in red bull], sugar, leche em po [powdered milk], bananas, and probably some other stuff that just makes it taste AMAZING [I’m realizing that this probably all sounds disgusting to Americans but I promise it’s good…really.]) Even going to the rural homestays wasn’t too bad, the first one I ate a lot of pasta and beans and rice and the second one my host mom made me the most delicious eggs com veduras (green leafy veggies) EVER. I probably didn’t always have the most balanced diet but I’m headed home now (will probably be home by the time this is posted) and therefore can fix it easily (I will definitely be adding more avocado to my diet though).
Getting robbed
Now I’m gonna knock on wood here because I’m technically still in Brazil as I’m typing this…but I’m in the Sao Paulo airport with a bunch of rich Brazilians going to New York on holiday so I’m not THAT worried, but so far as I know I survived my entire trip in Brazil without getting robbed. Part of this is because I kinda do look hella Brazilian but really it’s just because everyone here put the fear of God in me. I was not to walk alone anywhere at night past 6pm (which I kind of did once…opa, but it was fine), taking busses past 8pm was out of the question (okay kinda broke this one too), walking around ver-o-peso (think HUGE farmers market everyday) after dark was also highly discouraged (oops) but I only ran once with my ipod….okay maybe it is because I look hella Brazilian. But ANYWAY I think I was one of maybe 3 or 4 people out of 23 students who didn’t get something stolen…however I managed to lose 7 pairs of good underwear due to a huge storm, on a boat; left an umbrella at a bar; donated my smelly but still functional towel to the MST (the landless peoples movement); lost/broke 3 pairs of sunglasses; had some andiroba seeds confiscated from her check bag at the airport…and I mean there are probably things I can’t even remember right now that I’ve lost. The point is, I might be good at avoiding having things getting stolen but I can’t keep track of all my material possessions if my life depended on it (that’s a problem).
The serious stuff
Now all kidding aside, this trip to Brazil has definitely changed me a lot, something I have realized especially during the 10 hour flight from Sao Paulo to NYC where I was sitting next to an extremely wealthy woman in her mid to late 30s from the South of Brazil (essentially where the majority of wealth in the country is concentrated). And she was nice enough, extremely glamorous and on her way to nyc for 5 days just because. She knew 5 different languages and had essentially travelled everywhere on the planet minus Asia, she had a PhD and worked as a clinical nutritionist, definitely someone who had her life together. However, when I told her about how I had just spent 4 months in Amazonia, her first comment was how crazy I was because everyone there is poor and there aren’t any modern conveniences (WRONG) but her second comment was about how she guessed it was good because I was the future, she then went on to talk about how difficult her life was because she didn’t know where to find all the things in nyc that she wanted to buy before she got back… I couldn’t handle it. I smiled and made polite conversation for as long as I could but she kept sneaking in things about how un-modern Amazonia was and I seriously wanted to scream. How can you not know about what’s going on in your OWN COUNTRY?! But then I thought…wow there are so many things I have no idea about in the US. I’m so concerned with international problems that I get completely blindsided by all the issues going on in my home turf. I complain when the internet is being slow, when my phone isn’t working, when my computer is broken for some reason, I have way more clothes than I can keep track of (read previous paragraph) and there are people in West VA who are dying of cancer because of mountain-top removal mining. I hear about these things and I do care but I’ve never taken the opportunity to actually fully check them out. I worry about the little things that don’t actually really matter because it’s easy and I worry about the issues of worldly importance because it seems like the right thing to do and it’s so incredibly publicized that it’s hard not to, but I don’t see the things in-between. This blog entry is probably going to be continued later because A: I board soonish and B and I still haven’t processed all that I want to say
Sooo
TCHAU
Ate logo ☺
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Posso andar um bufalo?...podeeee
okay, here´s the deal, Posting while in the city sucks, because seriously my life there is like my life in providence: fun, but pretty much the same schedule. And if I wrote about that over and over again, you guys would get really really bored.
But now I´m not in Belem and actually have something exciting to write about :)
So, backing up a couple of weeks...days..whatever I started doing some serious research for my ISP (independent study project), which led me to an organization called POEMA (program poverty and the environment). After several frustrating and serious p-timed (polychronic time aka brazilians never get anything done on time, time)meetings with a couple of professors I was finally allowed a meeting with a graduate student who is working on a project in this place called Salvaterra on this BEAUTIFUL island called Marajo. It is the largest river island in the WORLD and I really don´t see how you could go back to the city after living here...but anyway...
The project:
this grad student (Linda) works with POEMA, a couple of other NGOs and Beraca (a popular brazilian cosmetics company) training women in riberinho (river people) communities to extract oil from andiroba seeds (a type of tree), which the women then sell to Beraca for various uses in cosmetics. The women also make candles and other crafts for sale on the island. The money generated from this project goes towards sustainable development for the communities, such as being able to send their children to school, which they weren´t able to do before.
I want to research whether or not the objectives of the project from the companies involved mirror those of the communities´outlooks on sustainable development, and if not what changes could potentially be made to the project?
I´m biking (because bikes outnumber cars here..so legal) to the communities tomorrow with Linda to talk with them, which is pretty exciting.I have no doubt in my mind that these are the types of projects I want to work on when I get a real job :)
Other things:
I´m staying with Linda on the island because she seriously is one of the nicest women you will ever meet, and I realized how much I could get used to this life...I went to Bariga class last night, which is a type of dance and then I woke up this morning at 6am (yes I wrote that correctly) and went running by the beach. Then for breakfast I had an avacado e queijo sandwich, with papaya and suco de maracuja (passion fruit)and cherry. Then I decided to wander and take some pictures, and now I´m here. PERFECTION.
I definitely needed to get out of the city because as much as I have made my peace with Belem and as much as I like my host family, there are times when I can´t deal with the same schedule all the time so I start to miss home (which is acceptable but kind of ridiculous at the same time because I mean I am in Brazil). After these 2 weeks, I have a little over a week left (10 days) and then it´s back to the states...crazycrazycrazy.
okay then I should go
Tchau gente!
But now I´m not in Belem and actually have something exciting to write about :)
So, backing up a couple of weeks...days..whatever I started doing some serious research for my ISP (independent study project), which led me to an organization called POEMA (program poverty and the environment). After several frustrating and serious p-timed (polychronic time aka brazilians never get anything done on time, time)meetings with a couple of professors I was finally allowed a meeting with a graduate student who is working on a project in this place called Salvaterra on this BEAUTIFUL island called Marajo. It is the largest river island in the WORLD and I really don´t see how you could go back to the city after living here...but anyway...
The project:
this grad student (Linda) works with POEMA, a couple of other NGOs and Beraca (a popular brazilian cosmetics company) training women in riberinho (river people) communities to extract oil from andiroba seeds (a type of tree), which the women then sell to Beraca for various uses in cosmetics. The women also make candles and other crafts for sale on the island. The money generated from this project goes towards sustainable development for the communities, such as being able to send their children to school, which they weren´t able to do before.
I want to research whether or not the objectives of the project from the companies involved mirror those of the communities´outlooks on sustainable development, and if not what changes could potentially be made to the project?
I´m biking (because bikes outnumber cars here..so legal) to the communities tomorrow with Linda to talk with them, which is pretty exciting.I have no doubt in my mind that these are the types of projects I want to work on when I get a real job :)
Other things:
I´m staying with Linda on the island because she seriously is one of the nicest women you will ever meet, and I realized how much I could get used to this life...I went to Bariga class last night, which is a type of dance and then I woke up this morning at 6am (yes I wrote that correctly) and went running by the beach. Then for breakfast I had an avacado e queijo sandwich, with papaya and suco de maracuja (passion fruit)and cherry. Then I decided to wander and take some pictures, and now I´m here. PERFECTION.
I definitely needed to get out of the city because as much as I have made my peace with Belem and as much as I like my host family, there are times when I can´t deal with the same schedule all the time so I start to miss home (which is acceptable but kind of ridiculous at the same time because I mean I am in Brazil). After these 2 weeks, I have a little over a week left (10 days) and then it´s back to the states...crazycrazycrazy.
okay then I should go
Tchau gente!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
and welcome to reality.
Hey guys, it’s been awhile I know but there’s been so much going on that I decided to give it all to you in one big burst of extreme amazingness…
I believe we left off right after the 2.5-week boat trip:
After this I had 2 weeks back in Belem, which included the very important (at least for Brazilians) 4-day holiday of Easter where there wasn’t a church that didn’t have at least 20 people in it and nothing was open and I didn’t have school (the actual important part). I spent the holiday with a few of my friends from the program, wandering around the deserted streets, avoiding eating fish (another very important thing for Brazilians during this holiday, EVERYTHING had fish in it)…and then accidentally taking a huge bite of fish cake (yes this exists), getting lost on busses (twice in the same day), getting soaked when the streets flooded during a torrential downpour, discovering really delicious ice cream, traipsing through some urban forest with birks on and no repellente (not the best idea by the way) and most of all telling some good hilarious stories. It was a weekend well spent.
But of course all good weekends have to come to an end and then it was back to school where the reality check of Portuguese tests and research papers hit me in the face really hard. Eu tive estado praticando meu portugues muito mas Eu fui ainda mas melhor as escrevendo entao fui falando (I had been practicing my Portuguese a lot but I was still much better at writing than speaking) so when I was told that the midterm was an oral prova (test) I was a little nervous especially since we weren’t allowed to write anything, we kinda just had to wing it. We had to tell the professor what our favorite part of the boat trip was…so of course I thought in English and then tried to translate it on the spot, which turned out to be this combination of Spanish and Portuguese…opa. But I think I managed to pull it together regardless and everyone understood me. That day, my Portuguese class discovered that our Portuguese professor also taught another class for two American students studying at UFPA (universidade federal do para) and we got to meet them on a class field trip to the zoo, which was pretty cool because up until then we had—egocentrically—thought that our full group of 23 were the only Americans in the city. The two boys we met are studying engineering until the end of June and have all their classes in Portuguese…which almost makes me never want to complain about school here again because 75% of my classes are in English. I couldn’t even imagine taking engineering in another language, I would probably cry.
I was extremely excited when I was told we were going to the zoo until we actually got there and all of the animals (with the exception of a few birds, a lizard, some mouse deer, and a couple sloths) were in straight up cages…. which looked surprisingly similar to jail cells. There was not much of an attempt to make the animals comfortable and they were all just pacing about their cages looking miserable. I’ve desensitized myself from many things while here (you have to in order to deal with everything) but for some reason that just got to me. The only thing that really managed to cheer me up was the prospect of going to Cairu (one of the most amazing food places on earth), where they have not only sorvete (ice cream) but also sandwiches and freshly squeezed juice; the best part? They are completely vegetarian friendly, I got an avacado, tomato, lettuce, egg, and cheese sandwich (AMAZING), oh and you can try as many sorvete flavors as you want before you actually buy anything. After Cairu, I hopped on a bus and went to UFPA to start worrying about my ISP…
The gleaming gem of all SIT study abroad programs is their independent study project, or ISP, which is a month long process in which the student (me) gets to do their own research and present it in paper and presentation format the last week of the program. The topic can be anything as long as it’s related to the program theme (natural resource management and human ecology) and the research can be thoroughly done in the amount of time given. I have decided to focus on sustainable community development and what it means for the Amazon region. There are many communities living in and around the forest using traditional methods to survive (as I described a little bit in my last entry). There are many organizations from corporate to NGOs that work with these communities doing some sort of development projects; often the word “sustainable” is tacked on to it and the organizations win all sorts of awards for environmental excellence and they take a lot of pretty pictures and all is well with the world…except not really. Many projects fail because the organizations neglected to take into account what the communities actually want and think that they need. They don’t work with the communities; instead they throw a bunch of money in their face and think that they know best about how to develop the place. I want to research what exactly “sustainable” means to all these different development actors and hopefully start to learn how exactly sustainable development can be better integrated into this region.
At UFPA there is one such development organization called POEMA (poverty and the environment in Amazonia), and I’m hoping to work with them as a starting point for my project. A couple weeks ago I went there hoping to speak with one of the professors working at the organization; the first time I went he had decided to leave early…because he could and the second day I waited nearly 3 hours to see him (because he decided to take a 3 hour lunch break)…and talk for 5 minutes. If this were America I would have called and made an appointment and not wasted that time; but Brazil doesn’t really do appointments or phones or email. I mean they do but nothing is ever kept, people are always late and it’s just extremely frustrating. They base whether they’ll work with you on whether or not they like you enough, so persistence is key. In those 5 minutes I managed to make a good enough impression that the professor said he could work with me, I just had to get an official document from SIT explaining who I was and what the hell I was doing in Brazil (even though I had explained this all to him); so basically Brazilians do whatever they feel like AND they get involved with bureaucratic red tape. It’s really…awesome. But anyway, hopefully that will work out.
On a better note, I’ve started making more Brazilian friends, which is helping me with my Portuguese a ton and I’m getting to discover the city more. I went to a couple reggae concerts, to see Thor (thank goodness not dubbed but with subtitles), discovered that the river is gorgeous at night and that walking around doesn’t actually have to be all that scary (despite the fact that my host mom loves to put the fear of God in me any time I go anywhere, no matter the time of day). I’m starting to get super attached to the city I was once kind of weary about.
After the 2 weeks were over, it was on to a 10-day excursion to the South of Para (the state I’m living in). There is so much that I could say about this trip but I will try and condense it. Our first stop was the third largest hydroelectric dam in the world…it was insane, we received a presentation where of course the company bragged on and on about how awesome they were and it’s totally fine that they flooded a ton of communities around the dam because electricity is development and development is good. Fun fact: before 2002, the only people that were receiving this electricity were the two big iron smelting operations in the area…which destroyed some more communities and deforested a ton more land. Now, some towns and communities receive electricity from the dam but a lot of it also goes to Sao Paulo and Rio where they also receive the tax money that the citizens of Para pay for that electricity. Screwed up? Oh there’s more…since the dam was built in the late 70’s during the military government when environmental licensing didn’t exist; any new additions they make to the dam still don’t have to go through an environmental licensing process even though all other dam projects built after the end of the military government do. That was just the beginning.
Also on this trip, we learned a lot about the MST (the landless peoples movement). This organization was formed to deal with the HUGE problem of agrarian reform in Brazil. They started during the 70s in the south of Brazil, where it was discovered that there is this really old law on the books that says if someone has a title to a piece of land but never actually use that land for a certain amount of time, the title is void. Of course this law…like most laws in Brazil… was never followed and really rich people just kept buying tons of land and passing it on to family members who never even knew that it existed and the land just sat there while small family farmers were getting kicked off land they couldn’t pay for because the government purposely made the prices insanely high. The founders of MST were really fed up with this so they started occupying abandoned land and slowly but surely the movement grew (eventually into the Amazon) and became extremely politically active until people started to notice and try to kick them off the land by simply killing them. In 1994 the police shot 18 people dead in the streets in front of some of that abandoned land (in the south of Para) because they were blocking the street and the police wanted them to move. Today still, that surrounding area is one of the most dangerous areas in Brazil because of the continuous struggle for land rights. For 4 days I stayed in an MST settlement where not only MST people lived but also colonos (farmers that moved to the Amazon because of the government push for development of the area by making the land absurdly cheap). I ended up living with a fairly wealthy colono family, who didn’t particularly like MST because they were of the opinion that they steal land while the colonos have to pay for their land. It was interesting seeing both sides of the issue. Plus I got to milk some cows, eat too much food, and play with animals for 4 days. It was pretty cool.
On the last day of the excursion, we visited the 2nd largest iron mine in the world, owned by Vale (in my opinion an evil, evil company); which was an obnoxiously huge open pit mine. It was kind of like getting a really hard reality slap in the face, the mine was just there, there was not too much growing around it and it was just so BIG. I couldn’t even process thoughts in that moment because I refused to believe that the mine even existed. It was a definite mental block.
But anyway, here I am now back in Belem for assumingly about the next 6 weeks, then maybe another week in the South of Brazil and then back to America! Life moves fast.
Ate Logo ☺
I believe we left off right after the 2.5-week boat trip:
After this I had 2 weeks back in Belem, which included the very important (at least for Brazilians) 4-day holiday of Easter where there wasn’t a church that didn’t have at least 20 people in it and nothing was open and I didn’t have school (the actual important part). I spent the holiday with a few of my friends from the program, wandering around the deserted streets, avoiding eating fish (another very important thing for Brazilians during this holiday, EVERYTHING had fish in it)…and then accidentally taking a huge bite of fish cake (yes this exists), getting lost on busses (twice in the same day), getting soaked when the streets flooded during a torrential downpour, discovering really delicious ice cream, traipsing through some urban forest with birks on and no repellente (not the best idea by the way) and most of all telling some good hilarious stories. It was a weekend well spent.
But of course all good weekends have to come to an end and then it was back to school where the reality check of Portuguese tests and research papers hit me in the face really hard. Eu tive estado praticando meu portugues muito mas Eu fui ainda mas melhor as escrevendo entao fui falando (I had been practicing my Portuguese a lot but I was still much better at writing than speaking) so when I was told that the midterm was an oral prova (test) I was a little nervous especially since we weren’t allowed to write anything, we kinda just had to wing it. We had to tell the professor what our favorite part of the boat trip was…so of course I thought in English and then tried to translate it on the spot, which turned out to be this combination of Spanish and Portuguese…opa. But I think I managed to pull it together regardless and everyone understood me. That day, my Portuguese class discovered that our Portuguese professor also taught another class for two American students studying at UFPA (universidade federal do para) and we got to meet them on a class field trip to the zoo, which was pretty cool because up until then we had—egocentrically—thought that our full group of 23 were the only Americans in the city. The two boys we met are studying engineering until the end of June and have all their classes in Portuguese…which almost makes me never want to complain about school here again because 75% of my classes are in English. I couldn’t even imagine taking engineering in another language, I would probably cry.
I was extremely excited when I was told we were going to the zoo until we actually got there and all of the animals (with the exception of a few birds, a lizard, some mouse deer, and a couple sloths) were in straight up cages…. which looked surprisingly similar to jail cells. There was not much of an attempt to make the animals comfortable and they were all just pacing about their cages looking miserable. I’ve desensitized myself from many things while here (you have to in order to deal with everything) but for some reason that just got to me. The only thing that really managed to cheer me up was the prospect of going to Cairu (one of the most amazing food places on earth), where they have not only sorvete (ice cream) but also sandwiches and freshly squeezed juice; the best part? They are completely vegetarian friendly, I got an avacado, tomato, lettuce, egg, and cheese sandwich (AMAZING), oh and you can try as many sorvete flavors as you want before you actually buy anything. After Cairu, I hopped on a bus and went to UFPA to start worrying about my ISP…
The gleaming gem of all SIT study abroad programs is their independent study project, or ISP, which is a month long process in which the student (me) gets to do their own research and present it in paper and presentation format the last week of the program. The topic can be anything as long as it’s related to the program theme (natural resource management and human ecology) and the research can be thoroughly done in the amount of time given. I have decided to focus on sustainable community development and what it means for the Amazon region. There are many communities living in and around the forest using traditional methods to survive (as I described a little bit in my last entry). There are many organizations from corporate to NGOs that work with these communities doing some sort of development projects; often the word “sustainable” is tacked on to it and the organizations win all sorts of awards for environmental excellence and they take a lot of pretty pictures and all is well with the world…except not really. Many projects fail because the organizations neglected to take into account what the communities actually want and think that they need. They don’t work with the communities; instead they throw a bunch of money in their face and think that they know best about how to develop the place. I want to research what exactly “sustainable” means to all these different development actors and hopefully start to learn how exactly sustainable development can be better integrated into this region.
At UFPA there is one such development organization called POEMA (poverty and the environment in Amazonia), and I’m hoping to work with them as a starting point for my project. A couple weeks ago I went there hoping to speak with one of the professors working at the organization; the first time I went he had decided to leave early…because he could and the second day I waited nearly 3 hours to see him (because he decided to take a 3 hour lunch break)…and talk for 5 minutes. If this were America I would have called and made an appointment and not wasted that time; but Brazil doesn’t really do appointments or phones or email. I mean they do but nothing is ever kept, people are always late and it’s just extremely frustrating. They base whether they’ll work with you on whether or not they like you enough, so persistence is key. In those 5 minutes I managed to make a good enough impression that the professor said he could work with me, I just had to get an official document from SIT explaining who I was and what the hell I was doing in Brazil (even though I had explained this all to him); so basically Brazilians do whatever they feel like AND they get involved with bureaucratic red tape. It’s really…awesome. But anyway, hopefully that will work out.
On a better note, I’ve started making more Brazilian friends, which is helping me with my Portuguese a ton and I’m getting to discover the city more. I went to a couple reggae concerts, to see Thor (thank goodness not dubbed but with subtitles), discovered that the river is gorgeous at night and that walking around doesn’t actually have to be all that scary (despite the fact that my host mom loves to put the fear of God in me any time I go anywhere, no matter the time of day). I’m starting to get super attached to the city I was once kind of weary about.
After the 2 weeks were over, it was on to a 10-day excursion to the South of Para (the state I’m living in). There is so much that I could say about this trip but I will try and condense it. Our first stop was the third largest hydroelectric dam in the world…it was insane, we received a presentation where of course the company bragged on and on about how awesome they were and it’s totally fine that they flooded a ton of communities around the dam because electricity is development and development is good. Fun fact: before 2002, the only people that were receiving this electricity were the two big iron smelting operations in the area…which destroyed some more communities and deforested a ton more land. Now, some towns and communities receive electricity from the dam but a lot of it also goes to Sao Paulo and Rio where they also receive the tax money that the citizens of Para pay for that electricity. Screwed up? Oh there’s more…since the dam was built in the late 70’s during the military government when environmental licensing didn’t exist; any new additions they make to the dam still don’t have to go through an environmental licensing process even though all other dam projects built after the end of the military government do. That was just the beginning.
Also on this trip, we learned a lot about the MST (the landless peoples movement). This organization was formed to deal with the HUGE problem of agrarian reform in Brazil. They started during the 70s in the south of Brazil, where it was discovered that there is this really old law on the books that says if someone has a title to a piece of land but never actually use that land for a certain amount of time, the title is void. Of course this law…like most laws in Brazil… was never followed and really rich people just kept buying tons of land and passing it on to family members who never even knew that it existed and the land just sat there while small family farmers were getting kicked off land they couldn’t pay for because the government purposely made the prices insanely high. The founders of MST were really fed up with this so they started occupying abandoned land and slowly but surely the movement grew (eventually into the Amazon) and became extremely politically active until people started to notice and try to kick them off the land by simply killing them. In 1994 the police shot 18 people dead in the streets in front of some of that abandoned land (in the south of Para) because they were blocking the street and the police wanted them to move. Today still, that surrounding area is one of the most dangerous areas in Brazil because of the continuous struggle for land rights. For 4 days I stayed in an MST settlement where not only MST people lived but also colonos (farmers that moved to the Amazon because of the government push for development of the area by making the land absurdly cheap). I ended up living with a fairly wealthy colono family, who didn’t particularly like MST because they were of the opinion that they steal land while the colonos have to pay for their land. It was interesting seeing both sides of the issue. Plus I got to milk some cows, eat too much food, and play with animals for 4 days. It was pretty cool.
On the last day of the excursion, we visited the 2nd largest iron mine in the world, owned by Vale (in my opinion an evil, evil company); which was an obnoxiously huge open pit mine. It was kind of like getting a really hard reality slap in the face, the mine was just there, there was not too much growing around it and it was just so BIG. I couldn’t even process thoughts in that moment because I refused to believe that the mine even existed. It was a definite mental block.
But anyway, here I am now back in Belem for assumingly about the next 6 weeks, then maybe another week in the South of Brazil and then back to America! Life moves fast.
Ate Logo ☺
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Olha as todo botos e peixe!
I know I know it has been awhile but Ive been living on a boat, sleeping in a hede, sailing down some rivers...you know typical days in brazil. This is bound to be a long one (like basically all of my blog entries but possibly longer) so get ready!
Depois(after) Manaus (super super super touristy city in the amazon, where it is extremely easy to find a good amount of people that speak english), the group motored down the rio negro until we came to the encontrado as aguas (meeting of the waters, which is an incredibly famous spot in the amazon where agua branco (white water) meets agua preto (black water). It was pretty cool and we got to swim, which was actually the awesome part. The white water was pretty cold because it flows down from the tops of the andes into the amazon river and then continues to flow to all the rivers that stem off the amazon, the current is also REALLY strong. The black water kind of feels like a luke warm hot tub (and by that I mean the pool at the Y in providence) and the current is less strong...I used to know why and I wrote it down somewhere but I have forgotten now. After swimming there for awhile we continued motoring in our barco (boat)down the rio branco agora (now) for the entire day. There was so much pretty scenary that I STILL havent had time to process it. Just imagine endless miles of white water (which is sediment filled so I cant exactly say clear but it is still cool) surrounded by pure primary forest...pretty right...and then you hit some farms and some intense deforestation and your vision is a little ruined but dont worry because 2 miles down is more pure primary forest...
This brings me to my first lesson learned about the rainforest. As a comparatively wealthy american conservationalist, it is extremely easy to think of the rainforest as just that...forest. Throw in some pretty animals that are on all those WWF banners and maybe some cool insects and spiders and it gets to you. Why would anyone ever even THINK of ruining this...it is perfect. And it is, but who are we as a developed country with a fairly stable economy and nearly depleted natural resources to march in and say we need to preserve and conserve the rainforest...to make us feel better (insert question mark) Everything I have learned about the rainforest in the US is just about the forest itself. I have never learned about the riberneros (people of the river) or the kilombolos (descendents of escaped slaves) that live there. I wasnt surprised nor ignorant, I was aware that people obviously had to live in and around the forest and sometimes a textbook would lend a sentence or 2 to the indiginous folks but only because they represent a fantasy.
The riberneros and the kilombolos have been living off the forest for hundreds of years. They are subsistance people and until recently, money was of no value to them. They fished and hunted and used slash and burn agriculture as they so pleased, mortality rates were fairly low compared to todays levels so there wasnt much need for modern medicine, the river was clean so drinking wasnt a problem. Then came the big mining companies, soy producers, and palm tree planters. They had money and thus they had power. They had to comply with governmental regulations nonetheless and so they created biological and sustainable development reserves to offset the damage they were doing to the land and the water (through intensive fertilizers), these reserves went right through the land of the riberneros and the kilombolos and thus because there is only permited extraction allowed on these reserves, these people were in violation of the law, when they were never given a say as to whether these companies were allowed to come here in the first place.
Everyone in the program had a chance to live with a ribernero community for 4 days and despite getting really sick, it was one of the best experiences of my life. There were 3 other SIT students in my village so I wasnt completely alone which was nice. My mom was on the community board and worked in the manioc fields (manioc is a very heavily cultivated plant that is used to make flour and many other food products...it is starting to grown on me) she also helped lead a multi-community church called frateridade para a vida da planetea (fraternity for the life of the planet)(which was really cool but more on that in a minute) she seriously had her stuff together. She had no children living with her but she did have a 7 year old daughter living with her sister in another community (having a child out of wedlock is extremely frowned upon and thus she only gets to visit her child sometimes)she had only been to one big city in her life (santarem)and knew absolutely nothing about the united states except that we have a black president. If I hadnt had culture shock before, I definitely experienced it here.
On the first night I went to the church mentioned earlier, traveling a few km up the river to another community where I sat for 2 hours listening to 15 or soo community memebers discussing and listening about the environmental problems surrounding a floresta tropical and how we need not only look to God but also look to the rest of the world to help conserve the forest, not only for the plants and animals but for the people too. It was probably one of the coolest church services I have ever been to. It would naive to think that these people arent educated, there is SO much we have to learn from them.
The second day I got sick. Im not sure what I ingested but at some point after lunch I had the WORST stomach pain I literally have ever had in my life, complete with throwing up everything I ate (gross I know) but it was awful. I suddenly felt completely helpless. The people in the community werent sure what to do because they didnt know what I ate (or drank)and the other SIT memebers were also at a loss. I had no medicine that would help me and while sleeping lessened the pain, I couldnt drink or eat anything. Finally, at some point in the evening a community memeber put me in a canoe and motored me over to the main boat that was anchored (thankfully) close to my community. I took some medicine and was finally able to eat some food and the next day I returned to the community.
The third day despite medicine I was still slightly sick and slept for about 10 hours. I ate nothing and felt significantly better sometime around 5pm but I missed out on working in the manioc fields, fishing, and (watching) people hunt, which kind of sucked but I seriously needed rest. By the last day I was completely better and had no desire to leave. I spent the morning with almost the entrire community and the other students painting nails and learning about the community history and how everyone felt about the bauxite mining company that was nearby. It was such an incredible experience and completely solidified that these are the types of communities I want to work with after I finish school.
After the rural homestay it was one NGO after another (with some GOs sprinkled in, I learned about sustainable community development, anti-mining activism, government sanctioned conservation projects,sustainable logging, governmental amazonian research projects and soy. We visited 2 kilombolo communities and learned some local remidies for the common cold among other things. Before I knew it it was the last night on the boat and time to go to Santarem where I spent my last day and a half and then flew back to Belem, which I found I missed a lot. I will never forget the completely clear nights where the only thing you could see for miles was the milky way, the heavy boat roaking storms (where I managed to lose 7 pairs of underwear at once...opa), or the incredible sunsets.
Thats all I have time for, for now. Hopefully I will update again soon
Tchau!
Depois(after) Manaus (super super super touristy city in the amazon, where it is extremely easy to find a good amount of people that speak english), the group motored down the rio negro until we came to the encontrado as aguas (meeting of the waters, which is an incredibly famous spot in the amazon where agua branco (white water) meets agua preto (black water). It was pretty cool and we got to swim, which was actually the awesome part. The white water was pretty cold because it flows down from the tops of the andes into the amazon river and then continues to flow to all the rivers that stem off the amazon, the current is also REALLY strong. The black water kind of feels like a luke warm hot tub (and by that I mean the pool at the Y in providence) and the current is less strong...I used to know why and I wrote it down somewhere but I have forgotten now. After swimming there for awhile we continued motoring in our barco (boat)down the rio branco agora (now) for the entire day. There was so much pretty scenary that I STILL havent had time to process it. Just imagine endless miles of white water (which is sediment filled so I cant exactly say clear but it is still cool) surrounded by pure primary forest...pretty right...and then you hit some farms and some intense deforestation and your vision is a little ruined but dont worry because 2 miles down is more pure primary forest...
This brings me to my first lesson learned about the rainforest. As a comparatively wealthy american conservationalist, it is extremely easy to think of the rainforest as just that...forest. Throw in some pretty animals that are on all those WWF banners and maybe some cool insects and spiders and it gets to you. Why would anyone ever even THINK of ruining this...it is perfect. And it is, but who are we as a developed country with a fairly stable economy and nearly depleted natural resources to march in and say we need to preserve and conserve the rainforest...to make us feel better (insert question mark) Everything I have learned about the rainforest in the US is just about the forest itself. I have never learned about the riberneros (people of the river) or the kilombolos (descendents of escaped slaves) that live there. I wasnt surprised nor ignorant, I was aware that people obviously had to live in and around the forest and sometimes a textbook would lend a sentence or 2 to the indiginous folks but only because they represent a fantasy.
The riberneros and the kilombolos have been living off the forest for hundreds of years. They are subsistance people and until recently, money was of no value to them. They fished and hunted and used slash and burn agriculture as they so pleased, mortality rates were fairly low compared to todays levels so there wasnt much need for modern medicine, the river was clean so drinking wasnt a problem. Then came the big mining companies, soy producers, and palm tree planters. They had money and thus they had power. They had to comply with governmental regulations nonetheless and so they created biological and sustainable development reserves to offset the damage they were doing to the land and the water (through intensive fertilizers), these reserves went right through the land of the riberneros and the kilombolos and thus because there is only permited extraction allowed on these reserves, these people were in violation of the law, when they were never given a say as to whether these companies were allowed to come here in the first place.
Everyone in the program had a chance to live with a ribernero community for 4 days and despite getting really sick, it was one of the best experiences of my life. There were 3 other SIT students in my village so I wasnt completely alone which was nice. My mom was on the community board and worked in the manioc fields (manioc is a very heavily cultivated plant that is used to make flour and many other food products...it is starting to grown on me) she also helped lead a multi-community church called frateridade para a vida da planetea (fraternity for the life of the planet)(which was really cool but more on that in a minute) she seriously had her stuff together. She had no children living with her but she did have a 7 year old daughter living with her sister in another community (having a child out of wedlock is extremely frowned upon and thus she only gets to visit her child sometimes)she had only been to one big city in her life (santarem)and knew absolutely nothing about the united states except that we have a black president. If I hadnt had culture shock before, I definitely experienced it here.
On the first night I went to the church mentioned earlier, traveling a few km up the river to another community where I sat for 2 hours listening to 15 or soo community memebers discussing and listening about the environmental problems surrounding a floresta tropical and how we need not only look to God but also look to the rest of the world to help conserve the forest, not only for the plants and animals but for the people too. It was probably one of the coolest church services I have ever been to. It would naive to think that these people arent educated, there is SO much we have to learn from them.
The second day I got sick. Im not sure what I ingested but at some point after lunch I had the WORST stomach pain I literally have ever had in my life, complete with throwing up everything I ate (gross I know) but it was awful. I suddenly felt completely helpless. The people in the community werent sure what to do because they didnt know what I ate (or drank)and the other SIT memebers were also at a loss. I had no medicine that would help me and while sleeping lessened the pain, I couldnt drink or eat anything. Finally, at some point in the evening a community memeber put me in a canoe and motored me over to the main boat that was anchored (thankfully) close to my community. I took some medicine and was finally able to eat some food and the next day I returned to the community.
The third day despite medicine I was still slightly sick and slept for about 10 hours. I ate nothing and felt significantly better sometime around 5pm but I missed out on working in the manioc fields, fishing, and (watching) people hunt, which kind of sucked but I seriously needed rest. By the last day I was completely better and had no desire to leave. I spent the morning with almost the entrire community and the other students painting nails and learning about the community history and how everyone felt about the bauxite mining company that was nearby. It was such an incredible experience and completely solidified that these are the types of communities I want to work with after I finish school.
After the rural homestay it was one NGO after another (with some GOs sprinkled in, I learned about sustainable community development, anti-mining activism, government sanctioned conservation projects,sustainable logging, governmental amazonian research projects and soy. We visited 2 kilombolo communities and learned some local remidies for the common cold among other things. Before I knew it it was the last night on the boat and time to go to Santarem where I spent my last day and a half and then flew back to Belem, which I found I missed a lot. I will never forget the completely clear nights where the only thing you could see for miles was the milky way, the heavy boat roaking storms (where I managed to lose 7 pairs of underwear at once...opa), or the incredible sunsets.
Thats all I have time for, for now. Hopefully I will update again soon
Tchau!
Friday, April 1, 2011
quick update
There are so many things and so little time, but this may be the last time I have internet until April 17th so I suppose I should satisfy all your needs for Brazilian life...
This past week has gone by so fast I can't even remember all that went on but I'll certainly try.
This past weekend:
I'd been feeling pretty gross all saturday and sunday that most of it was spent sleeping and skyping, which was much needed. I got to hang with my host family and eat some delicious food,cupuacu is officially my favorite fruit here, just saying.
Monday:
the usual Portuguese, followed by two lectures. One on fish of the amazon...I wish I could tell you what it was all about but the only highlight I can remember was holding a huge sawfish bone (someone got pics so I'll get to show you what I'm talking about soon) The second lecture was about the different kinds of rainforest and qualitative and quantitative analyses. So standard stuff, but still interesting. It was a very long day.
Tuesday through today:
I had my first portuguese test, wasn't actually as bad as I thought. Then it was home for lunch and packing for our first excursion to Manaus! which is another city deeper into the amazon, with better infrastructure and more tourism. I'm in love, but I also realize that's because I feel more comfortable here...I mean today I found a vegetarian restaurant. Seriously made my day. There have been a variety of lectures at various ngos while here (which I can get into more detail later) it's been very interesting so far, tomorrow we're going on a boat for a week traveling down the rio negro and visting different communities. This trip includes a rural homestay for 3 days, in which they don't believe in vegetarianism. Well...wish me luck
love and miss you all!
boa noite :)
This past week has gone by so fast I can't even remember all that went on but I'll certainly try.
This past weekend:
I'd been feeling pretty gross all saturday and sunday that most of it was spent sleeping and skyping, which was much needed. I got to hang with my host family and eat some delicious food,cupuacu is officially my favorite fruit here, just saying.
Monday:
the usual Portuguese, followed by two lectures. One on fish of the amazon...I wish I could tell you what it was all about but the only highlight I can remember was holding a huge sawfish bone (someone got pics so I'll get to show you what I'm talking about soon) The second lecture was about the different kinds of rainforest and qualitative and quantitative analyses. So standard stuff, but still interesting. It was a very long day.
Tuesday through today:
I had my first portuguese test, wasn't actually as bad as I thought. Then it was home for lunch and packing for our first excursion to Manaus! which is another city deeper into the amazon, with better infrastructure and more tourism. I'm in love, but I also realize that's because I feel more comfortable here...I mean today I found a vegetarian restaurant. Seriously made my day. There have been a variety of lectures at various ngos while here (which I can get into more detail later) it's been very interesting so far, tomorrow we're going on a boat for a week traveling down the rio negro and visting different communities. This trip includes a rural homestay for 3 days, in which they don't believe in vegetarianism. Well...wish me luck
love and miss you all!
boa noite :)
Saturday, March 26, 2011
"crossing streets here is like playing frogger with your life"
True story. And it's not only crossing the streets but I don't think I would ever risk driving here EVER. In fact, apparently most women don't drive here because it's so dangerous. The other day I was on the bus to school (I live about 30 min away on a good day) and about 15 min into my route a bus slammed into the back of my bus and then just kept going...everyone on the bus was a little shaken up and annoyed but otherwise seemingly unfazed as we all got off and waited for the next bus to come around. Even cab drivers ignore the stoplights when there's not heavy traffic and no cameras; crosswalks? well those are just suggestions that no one really follows, and since sidewalks are basically an afterthought in many parts of town most people walk in the streets, scampering to the sides as people yell CARRO! or MOTO! Luckily, since I tend to run across streets at home anyway for no reason I was well prepared for the dangers of traffic in Belem.
Let's see, what have I been up to since my last post?
I'll spare you the boring details of my 3 hour a day portuguese class, which is actually going pretty well and skip to the good stuff.
March 18th (aka my birthday)
I just want to say again, best birthday EVER. I turned the golden age (at least in the US) of 21 and the day was amazing. Everyone in the program went to this small island across the river called Acre (not to be confused with a more southern state in brasil by the same name) for field portuguese, where we learned about the sustainable cosmetics industry in brasil and how many products from the forest are cultivated to be used in cosmetics. We then went for a swim and had a traditional bath given to us by the locals...so cool. Then we had an amazing lunch where my professor's wife presented me with this delicious chocolate cake and everyone sang happy birthday to me in portuguese. After, I went home where I was presented with another cake by my host mom, which was also chocolate and even more delicious. After that, later that night a bunch of us went out and then a few of us went to a popular club...I was up for 21 hours and completely crashed the next day.
March 20th
I went with my host sister to the praca de republica (square of the republic), which is basically like a huge farmer's market on crack. I bought some cool jewelry and some sunglasses...which I totally broke like 3 days later, oh well.
March 22nd -25th
The entire group (minus one who had bronchitis :( ) went to this small town called sao francisco where we spent 2 days in the jungle doing some research and just learning about what goes on in the forest. We went to a primary, secondary and a slash and burned forest. It was interesting to see the differences between the 3 and it brought everything I had learned about in school to a very harsh reality. The northern region where I am is very poor because most of the money is in the forest. There are sustainable development projects that are trying to change this but because of lack of education (among many many other factors) they aren't taking hold as much as conversationalists in developed countries would like them too. Case and point, the community owned primary forest where we went is under threat of deforestation because the people there simply need more farmland, because farming means money.
On friday, we went to another town called igarapacu where we learned about this agroforestry project near there. The german government teamed up with some brazilians to form this organization called embrapa in the early 90s. Embrapa is now solely run by brazilians and they have projects all over the amazon region. They promote the use of chop and mulch as opposed to slash and burn, where they have a special machine that cuts down the forest without using fire and then allows the land to fallow (regrow) with plants that are nutrient rich to replenish the soil (rainforest soils are among the worst in the world because the nutrients are in the plants not the soil), then create polycultures of plants in cycles to sell and eat. It's a pretty cool concept and seems to be working so far.
I felt pretty sick all day, which thankfully was just my cold being escalated from the extreme heat (something around 97 degrees) and then freezing rain immediately after. My body wasn't too happy but I feel much better today.
Some other things...
I just wanna say, I LOVE my host family. They are seriously some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. When I first met them a little over a week ago I was so nervous and couldn’t seem to utter more than a few words of Portuguese and now I’m having full conversations with them about why I think sustainable development within the rainforest region is important. It’s so cool. I’m thinking in Portuguese now, even as I write this. My host mom who usually cooks everything with meat has completely altered her cooking style to fit my vegetarianess, which is so sweet of her (and ah dues meu it tastes good). Everyone speaks fairly slowly now (even my 15 year old brother Neto, who at first would speak so fast I couldn’t understand a word he was saying) and I can pick up about 80% of what they’re saying. I finally met my host dad last weekend and he is so cool and works for agropalma (a [sort-of] sustainable palm oil company) so he knows a ton about the amazon. My little brother is by far the cutest 9 year old I have ever met and I play futebol with him a ton and I have actually gotten a little better. My sister is my age and is learning english so we kind of play off each other and speak in this portuglish, she goes to university in the area and is studying communications. My 15 year old brother, is also pretty cool, even if I can only understand 50% of what HE is saying sometimes.
The neighborhood I live in is adorable. It is this small little village by a river where everyone takes care of each other and the kids pretty much rule the streets. I love it here. Family is so important that every day is family day and it's kind of nice. Okay well I should probably shower and eat some food. I'm going to Manaus (another city) for 2 weeks and am probably not going to bring my computer so I'll blog when I get back. Miss you all!
Boa tarde :)
Let's see, what have I been up to since my last post?
I'll spare you the boring details of my 3 hour a day portuguese class, which is actually going pretty well and skip to the good stuff.
March 18th (aka my birthday)
I just want to say again, best birthday EVER. I turned the golden age (at least in the US) of 21 and the day was amazing. Everyone in the program went to this small island across the river called Acre (not to be confused with a more southern state in brasil by the same name) for field portuguese, where we learned about the sustainable cosmetics industry in brasil and how many products from the forest are cultivated to be used in cosmetics. We then went for a swim and had a traditional bath given to us by the locals...so cool. Then we had an amazing lunch where my professor's wife presented me with this delicious chocolate cake and everyone sang happy birthday to me in portuguese. After, I went home where I was presented with another cake by my host mom, which was also chocolate and even more delicious. After that, later that night a bunch of us went out and then a few of us went to a popular club...I was up for 21 hours and completely crashed the next day.
March 20th
I went with my host sister to the praca de republica (square of the republic), which is basically like a huge farmer's market on crack. I bought some cool jewelry and some sunglasses...which I totally broke like 3 days later, oh well.
March 22nd -25th
The entire group (minus one who had bronchitis :( ) went to this small town called sao francisco where we spent 2 days in the jungle doing some research and just learning about what goes on in the forest. We went to a primary, secondary and a slash and burned forest. It was interesting to see the differences between the 3 and it brought everything I had learned about in school to a very harsh reality. The northern region where I am is very poor because most of the money is in the forest. There are sustainable development projects that are trying to change this but because of lack of education (among many many other factors) they aren't taking hold as much as conversationalists in developed countries would like them too. Case and point, the community owned primary forest where we went is under threat of deforestation because the people there simply need more farmland, because farming means money.
On friday, we went to another town called igarapacu where we learned about this agroforestry project near there. The german government teamed up with some brazilians to form this organization called embrapa in the early 90s. Embrapa is now solely run by brazilians and they have projects all over the amazon region. They promote the use of chop and mulch as opposed to slash and burn, where they have a special machine that cuts down the forest without using fire and then allows the land to fallow (regrow) with plants that are nutrient rich to replenish the soil (rainforest soils are among the worst in the world because the nutrients are in the plants not the soil), then create polycultures of plants in cycles to sell and eat. It's a pretty cool concept and seems to be working so far.
I felt pretty sick all day, which thankfully was just my cold being escalated from the extreme heat (something around 97 degrees) and then freezing rain immediately after. My body wasn't too happy but I feel much better today.
Some other things...
I just wanna say, I LOVE my host family. They are seriously some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. When I first met them a little over a week ago I was so nervous and couldn’t seem to utter more than a few words of Portuguese and now I’m having full conversations with them about why I think sustainable development within the rainforest region is important. It’s so cool. I’m thinking in Portuguese now, even as I write this. My host mom who usually cooks everything with meat has completely altered her cooking style to fit my vegetarianess, which is so sweet of her (and ah dues meu it tastes good). Everyone speaks fairly slowly now (even my 15 year old brother Neto, who at first would speak so fast I couldn’t understand a word he was saying) and I can pick up about 80% of what they’re saying. I finally met my host dad last weekend and he is so cool and works for agropalma (a [sort-of] sustainable palm oil company) so he knows a ton about the amazon. My little brother is by far the cutest 9 year old I have ever met and I play futebol with him a ton and I have actually gotten a little better. My sister is my age and is learning english so we kind of play off each other and speak in this portuglish, she goes to university in the area and is studying communications. My 15 year old brother, is also pretty cool, even if I can only understand 50% of what HE is saying sometimes.
The neighborhood I live in is adorable. It is this small little village by a river where everyone takes care of each other and the kids pretty much rule the streets. I love it here. Family is so important that every day is family day and it's kind of nice. Okay well I should probably shower and eat some food. I'm going to Manaus (another city) for 2 weeks and am probably not going to bring my computer so I'll blog when I get back. Miss you all!
Boa tarde :)
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Bemvindo a Brasil!
So I've decided that I could definitely live here. I know it's only been a little over a week and --with those of you familiar with the cultural adjustment curve -- I'm still in the honeymoon stage but seriously I love Brasil. There aren't enough words to explain how beautiful and interesting and rich the culture and the people are here. Since I obviously don't have time to write down every detail of the past week I'll give you the highlights and when I have more time go into detail later.
Here we go...
The flight to Brasil was interesting in its own way but also pretty uneventful in terms of difficulties. I flew from JFK to Sao Paulo to Manaus to Belem and had to wake up super early to make my first flight and by the time I got to Belem I hadn't slept consistently for 8 hours in 24 hours. But I made it and I had a girl from the program on my flight so that made it easier.
Once I got to Belem, my new friend Jess and I had to wait in the airport with all our stuff for 6 hours until we met our group, which actually went by pretty fast. Once everyone was together (24 people!>, our professor Gustavo told us that we were going to this place about an hour outside Belem called the sito, or ranch in english where we would have no internet or cell phone service for a week...thus the lack of updating. I apologize.
Some highlights from that/this week...
Tuesday| The sito was this beautiful place com muitos cavellos e cachoes e bacas [with many horses and dogs and cows) there were pineapples and mangoes and limes along with some local fruits growing there also, I was instantly in love. I slept in a room with 10 other people from the program and we had a great time. Most of the day was spent resting and getting to know everyone.
Wednesday. There was some unpacking but this day was spent mostly with orientation lectures about SIT and how the program was going to work.
Thursday. We had our first class, the environmental field study seminar. It was okay, mostly logistical stuff. We were also assigned homestay families based our our interests, and put into a portuguese class. I tested into intermediate!
Friday. We had our first portugues class with the whole group to orient us with some basic phrases we would need around town. I actually already knew a lot of it which made me pretty happy. We packed our bags for a weekend mini excurscion.
Saturday. the group was split up into 3 smaller groups and driven to random locations where the program coordinators dropped us off one by one and we were each given a task to complete in 3 hours without a cell phone or anyone to help us speak portuguese...this was called the drop off excercise. Here was my experience: ustavo dropped me off in a small town with this huge church that I cant for the life of me remember the name of where my task was to find out what people thought of the church...I walked around for a bit, asked a few people what they thought...they all loved the church. Then, it started pouring and this is where my experience became a lot better. I ran into a small bar where this elderly woman offered me a place to sit . She was super nice and I ended up holding a halfway decent conversation with her, it turns out I was just nervous. Being forced to speak portuguese and make tons of mistakes made me a better speaker.
After 3 hours we were picked up and taken to this gorgeous hotel that was right on the beach where we talked about our experiences and then went to a local restaurant. I would like to note here that during this trip so far Ive only almost eaten meat twice but caught it in time so, so far so good. Everyone gets beer with their meals and it is so weird being able to actually order alcohol without being carded, oh and I actually like beer here..go figure. After the restaurant, we wandered back to the beach and watched some futebol for a little over an hour until we started hearing loud music by our hotel. A bunch of us went to explore and found a car with a huge speaker playing american songs...in portuguese, SO AWESOME btw. We danced the night away with the local kids...yes kids (parents here are not nearly as strict as they are in the US)...it was tons of fun and a great bonding experience.
Sunday: of course no one went to bed until like 1 and we had to be up at 6...not the best decision. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and set out for the mangroves, which are all around where I am. We had an hour drive from our hotel to the boat that was going to take us to the mangroves. The boat ride was then another hour and a half, however the day was gorgeous and warm so no one minded. The group that was taking us was an ecotourism group that is trying to promote tourism in the mangroves so that people can see how important they are.
The mangroves were beautiful...and muddy, which also happens to be very good for the skin so of course I slathered some on. The mud also meant that my shoes were instantly sucked in and one of the group leaders had to dig them out for me...I spent most of the rest of the time crawling through the mud where I was attacked by miniature crabs (dont worry it is not nearly as bad as it sounds, although a larger crab did pinch my foot super hard...that was not fun.) A few people ate some worms that live in the mangroves...I stayed out of this ritual. After the mangroves we went to the beach to wash off all the mud, the water is SO WARM here it is insane. Soon after we went to a local fishermans shack where we learned about the fishing industry in the area (like all other things, being taken over by large cooporations :( )...and then it started to rain HARD the worst storm I had experienced since being here, we waited until it had abated some and then set off on a mile long walk to the other side of the beach where we were meeting the boats...it started to rain again.
Once we were on the boat and out of the rain it was a little better, but we were still soaking wet and there was mud and dirt everywhere. It continued to rain incredibly hard and soon we were all freezing. By the time we got back to the vans, not many people were happy. Also my change of clothes...SOAKED so I got to sit in a van for 3 hours super wet...it was umm...awesome yeah that is it. We didnt get back to the sito until 9pm and by that time I didñt even want food, just warm clothes and a warm bed. Everything outside was flooded but it was okay because at least we were somewhere (sort of) dry.
Monday: our last day at the sito. We broke up into our portuguese groups and got the materials we would need for the rest of the semester. After, it was packing and chill time. we learned more about our home stay families and got pictures and a letter from them, it was pretty exciting. Oh and this day I woke up sick...obviously. But I promise not that bad.
Tuesday: We left the sito a little after 8 to go the mall and get our pictures taken so that we can register our visas with the federal police later. Then, after exploring the mall for a bit and eating lunch...theres this amazing vegan place not too far from the mall...so good, the only one that exists in the entire city...we went to the SIT office to finally go online and get a health lecture. After the lecture we went to meet our host family. I was SO nervous at first but then I became a lot more comfortable . I have a sister, 2 brothers. a mom, a cousin, and a dad that is only in Belem on the weekends because he works in another city during the week. They are so nice, and live in a small village in the heart of the city (I know that doesnt make much sense but here there arent just streets, but entire small towns that exist within the city.)
Wednesday: My host mom speaks no english whatsoever, my brothers and cousin speak so little it is almost non existant and my sister speaks a little so it was definitely very difficult the first day but wednesday it got a little better. The sister can understand almost everything I say but the mom and brothers and cousin have trouble sometimes. I had portuguese class, where we learned some more verbs in the present tense and then learned the months, and days...for 3 hours, which actually goes by pretty fast. After class I went home for the day where I had a delicious lunch. For never cooking vegetarian food, my host mom knows how to cook it really well.
Today: besides spending a ton of time updating this blog, I have had portuguese class for 3 hours and managed to find my way home on the bus by myself SUCCESS. Hopefully my host sister and I will go shopping for a dress for my birthday tomorrow soon and thats all I have planned so far. My portuguese is getting so much better, I love it I also understand people a lot more so thats good.
Some observations about Brasil:
The cars are always super shiny and new because not many people like to buy used cars here and they clean them all the time.
Everyone is religious here...and when I say everyone I literally mean everyone. The promiscuity of their clothes is pretty much all show, in reality brazilians are very conservative.
There arent many truly nice neighborhoods as we would consider them in the US, there are more nice buildings followed by run down buildings and houses. People dont consider the upkeep of a house or building as important as spending money on new cars or clothes or other things.
Apparently public education sucks here so most kids are put in private schools, which are very expensive.
Breakfast and dinner are super small, people only eat toast and tapioca with coffee and milk for both meals, while lunch is very big. In a way it makes more sense because after breakfast you will be incredibly hungry so you eat a big lunch that will keep you full until dinner. Oh and people dont really snack much here either.
It rains pretty much everyday here. Ive gotten used to it.
Myth: everything is cheap in brasil because it is still considered a developing country. In fact it is pretty much the opposite. There are high tarrifs on imported goods to promote local industry so while brazilian goods are fairly inexpensive, many electronics cost at least 3x as much as they do in the US.
I have never been more glad to be biracial, because everyone is some sort of mix here and thus I can blend in when I need to.
being a vegetarian is not nearly as hard in the city as I thought it would be. Most people understand that I dont eat meat even if they dont practice vegetarianism themselves..Im pretty nervous about my rural homestay though.
Okay I think you guys have been significantly updated...
ate logo
tchau!
Here we go...
The flight to Brasil was interesting in its own way but also pretty uneventful in terms of difficulties. I flew from JFK to Sao Paulo to Manaus to Belem and had to wake up super early to make my first flight and by the time I got to Belem I hadn't slept consistently for 8 hours in 24 hours. But I made it and I had a girl from the program on my flight so that made it easier.
Once I got to Belem, my new friend Jess and I had to wait in the airport with all our stuff for 6 hours until we met our group, which actually went by pretty fast. Once everyone was together (24 people!>, our professor Gustavo told us that we were going to this place about an hour outside Belem called the sito, or ranch in english where we would have no internet or cell phone service for a week...thus the lack of updating. I apologize.
Some highlights from that/this week...
Tuesday| The sito was this beautiful place com muitos cavellos e cachoes e bacas [with many horses and dogs and cows) there were pineapples and mangoes and limes along with some local fruits growing there also, I was instantly in love. I slept in a room with 10 other people from the program and we had a great time. Most of the day was spent resting and getting to know everyone.
Wednesday. There was some unpacking but this day was spent mostly with orientation lectures about SIT and how the program was going to work.
Thursday. We had our first class, the environmental field study seminar. It was okay, mostly logistical stuff. We were also assigned homestay families based our our interests, and put into a portuguese class. I tested into intermediate!
Friday. We had our first portugues class with the whole group to orient us with some basic phrases we would need around town. I actually already knew a lot of it which made me pretty happy. We packed our bags for a weekend mini excurscion.
Saturday. the group was split up into 3 smaller groups and driven to random locations where the program coordinators dropped us off one by one and we were each given a task to complete in 3 hours without a cell phone or anyone to help us speak portuguese...this was called the drop off excercise. Here was my experience: ustavo dropped me off in a small town with this huge church that I cant for the life of me remember the name of where my task was to find out what people thought of the church...I walked around for a bit, asked a few people what they thought...they all loved the church. Then, it started pouring and this is where my experience became a lot better. I ran into a small bar where this elderly woman offered me a place to sit . She was super nice and I ended up holding a halfway decent conversation with her, it turns out I was just nervous. Being forced to speak portuguese and make tons of mistakes made me a better speaker.
After 3 hours we were picked up and taken to this gorgeous hotel that was right on the beach where we talked about our experiences and then went to a local restaurant. I would like to note here that during this trip so far Ive only almost eaten meat twice but caught it in time so, so far so good. Everyone gets beer with their meals and it is so weird being able to actually order alcohol without being carded, oh and I actually like beer here..go figure. After the restaurant, we wandered back to the beach and watched some futebol for a little over an hour until we started hearing loud music by our hotel. A bunch of us went to explore and found a car with a huge speaker playing american songs...in portuguese, SO AWESOME btw. We danced the night away with the local kids...yes kids (parents here are not nearly as strict as they are in the US)...it was tons of fun and a great bonding experience.
Sunday: of course no one went to bed until like 1 and we had to be up at 6...not the best decision. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and set out for the mangroves, which are all around where I am. We had an hour drive from our hotel to the boat that was going to take us to the mangroves. The boat ride was then another hour and a half, however the day was gorgeous and warm so no one minded. The group that was taking us was an ecotourism group that is trying to promote tourism in the mangroves so that people can see how important they are.
The mangroves were beautiful...and muddy, which also happens to be very good for the skin so of course I slathered some on. The mud also meant that my shoes were instantly sucked in and one of the group leaders had to dig them out for me...I spent most of the rest of the time crawling through the mud where I was attacked by miniature crabs (dont worry it is not nearly as bad as it sounds, although a larger crab did pinch my foot super hard...that was not fun.) A few people ate some worms that live in the mangroves...I stayed out of this ritual. After the mangroves we went to the beach to wash off all the mud, the water is SO WARM here it is insane. Soon after we went to a local fishermans shack where we learned about the fishing industry in the area (like all other things, being taken over by large cooporations :( )...and then it started to rain HARD the worst storm I had experienced since being here, we waited until it had abated some and then set off on a mile long walk to the other side of the beach where we were meeting the boats...it started to rain again.
Once we were on the boat and out of the rain it was a little better, but we were still soaking wet and there was mud and dirt everywhere. It continued to rain incredibly hard and soon we were all freezing. By the time we got back to the vans, not many people were happy. Also my change of clothes...SOAKED so I got to sit in a van for 3 hours super wet...it was umm...awesome yeah that is it. We didnt get back to the sito until 9pm and by that time I didñt even want food, just warm clothes and a warm bed. Everything outside was flooded but it was okay because at least we were somewhere (sort of) dry.
Monday: our last day at the sito. We broke up into our portuguese groups and got the materials we would need for the rest of the semester. After, it was packing and chill time. we learned more about our home stay families and got pictures and a letter from them, it was pretty exciting. Oh and this day I woke up sick...obviously. But I promise not that bad.
Tuesday: We left the sito a little after 8 to go the mall and get our pictures taken so that we can register our visas with the federal police later. Then, after exploring the mall for a bit and eating lunch...theres this amazing vegan place not too far from the mall...so good, the only one that exists in the entire city...we went to the SIT office to finally go online and get a health lecture. After the lecture we went to meet our host family. I was SO nervous at first but then I became a lot more comfortable . I have a sister, 2 brothers. a mom, a cousin, and a dad that is only in Belem on the weekends because he works in another city during the week. They are so nice, and live in a small village in the heart of the city (I know that doesnt make much sense but here there arent just streets, but entire small towns that exist within the city.)
Wednesday: My host mom speaks no english whatsoever, my brothers and cousin speak so little it is almost non existant and my sister speaks a little so it was definitely very difficult the first day but wednesday it got a little better. The sister can understand almost everything I say but the mom and brothers and cousin have trouble sometimes. I had portuguese class, where we learned some more verbs in the present tense and then learned the months, and days...for 3 hours, which actually goes by pretty fast. After class I went home for the day where I had a delicious lunch. For never cooking vegetarian food, my host mom knows how to cook it really well.
Today: besides spending a ton of time updating this blog, I have had portuguese class for 3 hours and managed to find my way home on the bus by myself SUCCESS. Hopefully my host sister and I will go shopping for a dress for my birthday tomorrow soon and thats all I have planned so far. My portuguese is getting so much better, I love it I also understand people a lot more so thats good.
Some observations about Brasil:
The cars are always super shiny and new because not many people like to buy used cars here and they clean them all the time.
Everyone is religious here...and when I say everyone I literally mean everyone. The promiscuity of their clothes is pretty much all show, in reality brazilians are very conservative.
There arent many truly nice neighborhoods as we would consider them in the US, there are more nice buildings followed by run down buildings and houses. People dont consider the upkeep of a house or building as important as spending money on new cars or clothes or other things.
Apparently public education sucks here so most kids are put in private schools, which are very expensive.
Breakfast and dinner are super small, people only eat toast and tapioca with coffee and milk for both meals, while lunch is very big. In a way it makes more sense because after breakfast you will be incredibly hungry so you eat a big lunch that will keep you full until dinner. Oh and people dont really snack much here either.
It rains pretty much everyday here. Ive gotten used to it.
Myth: everything is cheap in brasil because it is still considered a developing country. In fact it is pretty much the opposite. There are high tarrifs on imported goods to promote local industry so while brazilian goods are fairly inexpensive, many electronics cost at least 3x as much as they do in the US.
I have never been more glad to be biracial, because everyone is some sort of mix here and thus I can blend in when I need to.
being a vegetarian is not nearly as hard in the city as I thought it would be. Most people understand that I dont eat meat even if they dont practice vegetarianism themselves..Im pretty nervous about my rural homestay though.
Okay I think you guys have been significantly updated...
ate logo
tchau!
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