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!

Beiju

Beiju, as Emily and I found out on arrival at our new home stay, is very delicious snack that was then fed to us at every meal. It is made out of a corn flour, flavoring is added, such as coconut, or juice and then it is baked. It has a funky but good taste and is kind of like a cracker. We got to go to the house of fehrinha, which is basically the house of flour, where they make the beiju. It was a very cool experience, we got to see and talk to the woman that make it, and they even let us participate in the experience. I got to cut the beiju into little pieces on the oven. First they flavor the flour, and mix it, after they sift through all of it and then bake it. It was a fun process to watch and then of course they had tons of beiju for us to eat! And they made us this hot drink that contained coconut and cloves and some other spices, it was like rice pudding, yum it was so good!

PSF's

So in Brazil there is a different type of health system which we are learning all about. So SUS, which is the official name of the health system here is run by the government and put in place PSF, which stands for porto saude de Familia (Family health clinic). The government in Brazil wrote in their constitution that it is a human right to be healthy, and have health care. So citizens of Brazil, and even non-citizens who attend public health centers don't have to pay a thing, not even for medicine or prescriptions. It is funded by the government, local, municipalities and federal. There are PSFs which are made of teams of a doctor, dentist, dentist assistant and nurses as well as a local agents, divided by areas. so depending on where you live, you attend a different PSF. The main goal of these PSFs are too prevent disease and only send people to secondary health care (specialized), or the hospital if they need it, to keep less people in the hospital if they don't need to go.

We got to visit many PSF's on my trip this weekend. I got to see one in a rural area, of Sacko, where me and three other students in my program got to talk to a nurse there all morning. We talked to her about what medication she had available, what type of programs they ran, what tests they were able to do, it was all very interesting. They run multiple programs to prevent and educate people such as family planning, aids and condom use, and making sure that kids are vaccinated. She showed us the forms that people fill out, and where they keep the medication. One major problem in Brazil is hypertension and high blood pressure, so they were actually preparing for an event to educate people about what that is, how it impacts them and nutrition. One major problem that they still have despite all this though is that even though people are aware, they just don't want to take their medication, so they don't.

The next day I got to travel to igaupe, and travel in a group of students with a community agent. Agents are from the community they work in and go to each person's house to see how they are doing, bring them medication, and talk to them about their health. The agent we went with was so nice and helpful and you could tell he just loved his job. He took us to four different house so we got to experience how the PSF has helped the community there in different ways. The first was a lady who was very old and practiced traditional healing, she talked about the people she served, and that she worked with the PSF. The second was a woman with high blood pressure. The third was a family where a grandmother had two daughters that had had their babies three days apart! They were so cute, only about 40 days old, and I got to hold one of them! They said that this is an area where the PSFs have made a huge impact, because before the PSF the women would have had to travel 2 hours to get to the nearest hospital. The last man we visited was an elderly gentleman, who had a wounded leg and he kept telling us that he loved the nurses and everyone was always so kind to him, he was very sweet.

So in Rural areas PSFs have really made an impact, because they do not have man private hospitals or institutions around. The community all know each other and it is easy for the agents to reach out to individuals and for individuals to see the impact that the PSF has made. It was very cool to see something that I have learned about in action.

Excursion to Cachoeira

Ola!

I am sorry it has been awhile since I have updated, but I just spent the last four days away from the internet in a rural area of Brazil called Cachoeira. It was so much fun, very tiring and quite the experience. As soon as we arrived we were broken up between families that we got to stay with while there and all bused away. I got to live with Emily, which was so much fun, with an adorable family. A mom and husband, which a daughter who was 10 and then multiple, sisters, cousins, Goddaughters and friends always coming in and out. It was fun because it was way more busy and exciting then my house in Salvador, and with Emily to help me with my Portuguese I learned a lot and was able to have more of a conversation.

Even though we only spent four days with them, four very busy days, I may add so we didn't see them much they were so welcoming and loving. I have never eaten so much food in my life, our host mom made us three cakes while we were there, and we always had snacks, so we became quick favorites of everyone else. We had bolo (cake), beiju, and fruit enough to go around for awhile.

They were also very patient with both of us, since we do not have excellent Portuguese, but we were able to communicate and they took the time to have conversations with us. It was an amazing experience and I hope that I am able to go back some day and see them again.

Musical Weekend

So I had another wonderful weeknd. I got to spend the whole weekend mostly with my host family. On Friday I went to a club with friends that is a car garage during the day and a club at night. I cannot remember the name of it but it is in Rio Vermehlo which is quite the place to be. We danced there for three hours, and they played all American Music so it was kind of fun to know all the songs. It was a pretty interesting place, there was cool art and lights and smoke everywhere, but it was a good time.
Saturday I finished my paper and was able to send it in, and then went out with my host uncle that night. he took me to see this like blues/jazz group called jamnomam. It was right on the water and the music was great, it was all open so the sky was beautiful. It was really nice and was nice to hear some Brazilian music and just chill.Here is a link to them on youtube, so you can check em out if you want.
Jamnomam

On Sunday I went to a market in Campo Grande with my host mom and sister, as well as my host grandma. They were buyign plants, and there were tons everywhere as well as a bunch of local artists selling stuff which was pretty cool. And then we came home and my host grandma cooked the biggest lunches ever and complained that I didn´t eat enough as always. She made some really good desset aftwerwards as well that helped with all my sugar cravings. Every day on the walk home from school there is this really good cake place that I stop and buy a peiece of cake, (bolo) from. They guy knows me which is kind of sad, but hey I need my sugar.

After dessert my host uncle pulled out guitars and we all sang music, especially my little host sister who loves to belt out all kinds of songs. She loves shakira and beyonce as well as many brazilian artists. I sang Imagine by John lenin, which they all knew, and my host grandpa even recorded it! haha it was all good fun. They were very official, Isabelle even had a microphone and introduced each of us before we sang. It was nice to hang out and embrace that part of the culture. 

And now it is back to school. I didn´t have afternoon class today because I went to the federal police and reigestered in Brazil, so I am now legally in the country and can stay. I Know have a brazilian ID that I can take with me eveywhere.

Hope you all as nice of a relaxing weekend! 
 

Candomble

Candomble is an ancient African religious tradition, that is still practiced by some here in Brazil because of the deep African roots. Candomble is not exactly practiced however, it is something that the people live, and you do not decide to join, each person is chosen. They believe that each person is born with an orisha (which is like a spirit or natural element) that comes out during the ceremony. The tradition honors nature, with orishas of earth and wind and fire, and focuses on living life at a slower pace in time with the world.
Since this trip is an educational one we were allowed to go visit and participate in one of these ceremonies. It is not something that they allow tourists to do. We were all brought into the temple, or church that they have of sorts, and allowed to ask questions. They all wear white during the ceremony, so to be able to participate we all had to take showers and change into white clothing. they then showed us all the different shrines that serve the different Orishas that they had there were they lived, and then the ceremony began. There were drums, clapping and singing. and then the main woman, who is charge of the ceremony hugged us all. We also went through a process where she blew cigar smoke on us, and patted us down with tree branches. I am probably not doing it justice, but it was a very interesting experience. It was nice that they had taken the time to put on the ceremony for us, and allowed us into their home and see their traditions. It was an invaluable experience.

Adventure to nowhere. . .

So this weekend besides getting down on Friday night with the whole gang, Ariel, Emily and I decided that we were going to find this one market. It is supposed to be really nice, have some really cool handcrafted stuff, and lots of good food. Well we knew the name of the place it was in, and the general direction, according to a map of Salvador. We met up in Mercado Medelo which is a nice place but very touristy. We found some good souvenir type things, tons of brazil things, and lots of hammocks. They were awesome, I want to get one before I leave! Anyways from there we started walking in what was determined to be the right direction.
  Well, about an hour later and in the middle of nowhere we decided that next time we do this we should definitely take a bus. haha We ended up just walking all the way back, and well I guess we got to walk around and see a different part of the city, although we went nowhere in particular. We ended seeing a gorgeous sunset as well over the water. There is a lower city here and an upper city, and mercado medelo is in the lower city, so we took an elevator up to the upper city and walked around there for awhile. It was a nice time to walk and see new things, and bought some delicious popcorn :) Which is one of my new favorite Portuguese words, pipoca. So a long day of some good company and some good excercise, and definitely an adventure, although we just ended up right back where we started.