Iuna

Even though I only got to spend one day with the people in the village of Iuna, it was a wonderful day full of so many things. They were so welcoming and forthcoming, even though they do not have a lot themselves, they cooked us a huge delicious lunch and gave us a snack before we got on the bus to head to Remanso.

They played music for us, and we danced throughout the village to the school. We met the kids that go there, and as typical of Brazil danced samba for an hour to celebrate our arrival. It was so much fun, and even more fun to dance with the kids.

Then we separated and went to different houses for lunch. I was in a group of five and went to the a ladies house who was so sweet. She made us so much wonderful, and so many veggies!! I was so excited to see so many wonderful vegetable things :) haha I am struggling with all the meat intake, but all of the food has been so delicious.

Then we got to learn certain things that the community does, or makes for a living. Our family makes these special coconut candies. They were a type of coconut that is really small, and is orange. we went out to a field to pick them, and see how you pick the ripe ones. We brought back a really small bucket, I guess the lady who showed us how to do everything, usually carries a lot more everyday, and it is a long walk from her house.

They the coconuts are soaked in water, they had soaked some for us already, which was really nice. They you peel the skin off, since it cannot be used. And then all the fat, which is orange, and completely died our hands, is used to make the actually candy. The pits are what is left afterwards. The dough made from the fruit, is used to make popsicles and sweet doces (which are just candy). It was so good, and the ladies were laughing at us because we were so bad at making them, and worked so slow. granted they have been making these for a long time, but still we were struggling quite a bit.

Then we got to go to another house, and learned how to make mats (mattresses) that are made with string and leaves. The leaves are long branches, that are weaved together to make these mats. I cannot imagine they would be too comfortable,  but I guess if you put them on the cold concrete on a really hot day, they are wonderful and help soak up the cold. It was a pretty cool skill to learn regardless.

At the end of the day they made us delicious juice, and cake! So good! and talked about our experience and all the things we learned before heading out. It was a wonderful day, and made me want to learn all I could about how they live and what they do, and really excited to go live in Remanso.

Excursions

So the end of the semester has come, I cannot even believe it. I have taken my Portuguese final, and turned in my last assignments, and now we are off to our excursions for the end of the year before I enter the research part of my semester. We are going to Remanso, Iuna for a day, Lencois, and Ihlius. Remanso and Iuna are very rural villages, that live in poverty so that we can experience a home stay in that type of environment and compare and contrast.

We stayed in a hotel in Lencois, all together, I have two lovely roomies :) And we got to have two free days, which was really nice. We took full advantage of the nature and went on hikes both days. The first day we went on a guided hike, where we got to go up mountains, snorkling and exploring through caves, as well as visiting and jumping off of waterfalls. We it wasn't quite jumping off of the waterfall, but I got to jump around 30ft off of a cliff into water, it was so much fun.

I am a little scared of caves, since I am claustrophobic, but it was a pretty cool experience. I got to snorkel for the first time which was fun. And half way through the cave, we stop swimming turn off our lights, and have a minute of silence, it was so freaky. I did not know that happened when I got myself into this. but I got to see some cool fish and caves as well, so it made up for it.

It was so nice to see so much nature since we have been just living and experiencing the city lately, and I was getting a little tired of all the noise, and sounds and people. It is a nice time to relax and chill out before I head out to do research on my own.

I will try and post pics soon! they are gorgeous. Brazil has more to offer than just beautiful beaches :)

Futbol!!

Hey guys,

sorry it has been so long, it seems like life has just gotten crazy lately, and unfortunately I am in a place where I do not have enough internet to load photos. But from when I got to speak to you last, I have gotten the amazing Brazilian experience of going to a futbol game. I have never seen so many people so crazy. It was insane, insane is a little bit of an understatement. It was a huge crazy stadium, and there was just black and red everywhere.

The team we were rooting for is Vitoria, which stands for Victoria, all of Bahia is split between rooting for the Bahian team and Vitoria. Vitoria's colors are red and black and I thought I was prepared by wearing a black and red outfit. Only to find out that even though I was wearing the right colors, me and my friends all stood out, because we were not wearing jerseys, but it all worked out.

We cheered till we had no voices, for me literally, I lost my voice for the rest of the night. And we made some Brazilian friends that told us what was going on, since there are no announcements, or timer to show how long they have been playing. And we got to share some popcorn and water, which was pretty exciting at half time. There are not really enough seats, so we just all stood, and then sat in a mosh pit of one another, a sea of red and black. It was so much fun and I am so glad that I got to have that experience, futbol is such a huge part of life here.

E Tempo de viver o sonho

Time to live your dreams, this weekend was so much fun, and truly seemed dreamlike. I went to Arembepe with some of my friends all day friday and we went to a hippie village that is located there. It is apparently pretty famous because it is where some big celebrities used to go all the time to get away, like janis Joplin. Anyhow it was gorgeous and all the people were so nice and welcoming and wonderful. It didn't seem like reality. There was lots of really cool art, the beach was close, and my friends who stayed the night even ended up camping one night.

On the beach there there is also a project to save the turtles and educate the community on what harms them and what doesn't. It was a lot of fun to walk through and see all the different kinds of turtles. It reminded me of being home schooled again and going on family adventures to different places always learning along the way.

Next I made it home to my family and we headed out the the island, Ihlia and spent the weekend with my whole brazilian family. It was so much fun, because I understand way more portuguese than I did before and my whole family was so excited to have conversations with me and tell me all sorts of things. They are all so cute, although I almost exploded from all the food I had to eat! haha I also have been getting along really well with my host sister and she was telling me all about the rocks in the sea, and the different types of seaweed, we played for about two hours in the water. And she did my hair the next day, she combed out all the tangles from my very sea salty hair and gave me a nice braid, haha. She is such a sweet heart. Now it is monday however and the holiday is gone and it is back to school. I hope you all had as wonderful of a weekend!

Com Leite?

So yesterday for Portuguese class me and my classmates went to Campo Grande and interviewed a Cafezihno He was a guy in his 30's who had been selling coffee for the past 25 years, he has been friends with our Portuguese professor for 20 years. It was fun because everyone here in Brazil is willing to open up about their whole life story and loves just talking and telling stories.  I couldn't understand everything, but what I got was still really interesting.

He has a wife and two kids, 17 and 9, who he supports through selling coffee. He carries around all the coffee that he makes in advance, and walks around Campo grande. He works about 12 hours a day, and returns home for lunch. He told us he sells around 150 cups per day, and by the time we saw him, at 11:00 that morning, he had already sold 90 cups. He gave us all some and I had my first whole cup of coffee, with milk (Com leite). Brazilians also really love their sweets, so there was a lot of sugar in it, and it wasn't too bad, I ended up having two cups. Here though they do not have big cups like they do in the US, so it was two little tiny cups.

He told us that he came to Salvador when he was 11 years old alone. He has 10 siblings, I believe that all live around here. he had the opportunity to go to university but he wanted to work instead. He loves all his regular customers and meeting and talking to people. It was also fun because we had time for him to ask us questions as well. He asked us all if we had boyfriends (we are all girls) and whether we wanted to work or start a family. He also wanted to know if we missed home and what we liked most about Brazil. It was a very cool experience and I am sure it was the first of many conversations and interviews to come.

Passada semana

Ola!

So I hope you all had as wonderful a weekend as I did. I got to do some different things and see more of the city, as well as get some good practice in of Portuguese. Friday night me and couple of girls from my program had a girls night, and had wine and watched "snow white and the huntsman" It was a good movie and fun to have and American type night. It was at Leah's house and her dad was so funny, he set up the movie for us and brought us so many snacks, and kept saying "Americana Noite!"

Saturday I got to go to the concert place again, Jamonman, where I had heard brazillian Jazz before. It was really nice to go again because it is different music each time. I also went with my friend Bri, and her host sister and two of her host sister's friends. so we were mostly only speaking Portuguese, which was cool, because I am getting more confident each day and realizing that I can actually converse with people. Afterwards Bri, Ariel and I headed to Rio Vermihlo for a friends birthday and just had a nice chill night.

Sunday Bri and I went bike riding in a different part of the city that I had never seen before. It was so much fun, we rented bikes for 10 dollars and got to ride a path for two hours. It was a park or preservation of some sort and it was like riding through the jungle, and there was water everywhere, it was gorgeous. Afterwards Bri's sister made us lunch and Bri and I did a little shopping. All in all, a pretty good weekend. now it is back to the school week and studying for Portuguese midterms. . .

Casa de Samba

Ola!

So I have still not finished posting about my amazing experience in Cachioera, it was just so much in such a short time span. My last thing though that was a lot of fun, was the day we spent in Cachioera. We walked along the really cool old city, where all the buildings are different colors and listened to a lecture on an old female group that bought and freed slaves in the city. They are a huge part of black empowerment here and there is a huge carnival where black power is celebrated, it was a really cool experience.

But one of the favorites was when we went to the house of samba and danced! We learned to samba, we were allowed to play the instruments and they were all just so welcoming. When you do Samba as well you dance your way out as you leave, so we danced while saying goodbye. It was so much fun to do with the whole group, and even though I am terrible, it was a great connection with everyone and everyone just let themselves be free!