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 :)
No comments:
Post a Comment