On Saturday I went canyoning, which is a popular sport here in Merida. I didn´t really know what I was getting into as I thought going in that it was an extreme version of rafting down a mountain river. Not exactly.
We started out by driving up to the top of a mountain overlooking Merida, we got a beautiful view of the city from there. The city is built in a valley with mountains all around it but a cliff on one side, and then another village in a lower valley below it, so theres lots of mountains that you can get beautiful views of it from. We put on wet suits and helmets and started hiking down the mountain for about half an hour when we got to the stream/river. We climbed into the water and just started walking downhill, after about half an hour of this I decided I was totally wrong and would sound stupid if I asked where the boat was.
Anyway, after walking/swimming for probably around an hour we got to the first waterfall that we had to repel over. I´d never done any repelling before so it was pretty intense doing it for the first time over a huge waterfall, but our guide was helpful. Basically all there is to repelling is having confidence in your equipment, once you believe that you can lean back and it will hold you you`ll be fine. The waterfall definitely makes it harder because if you look up you get blinded and the water burns into your face.
We went over 2 more waterfalls. The last one was about 100 feet straight down, which was extremely intense, the water was coming down so hard by the bottom. It was definetely fun though and at the bottom was amazing to look up and imagine that you had climbed down it.
The waterfalls weren´t even the most intense part of the whole day. We had to jump off a lot of little cliffs into the water. One of them was basically jumping about 20 feet down into an extremely narrow pool with rock walls on all sides. We all hit the walls on the way down but didnt get bruised too much. The whole thing definitely helped me get over a fear, although Im not totally sure which one, I guess it was my fear of doing really stupid things that arent a good idea at all. I have videos and pictures of the day that Ill send to everyone when I get home. The waterfalls and river were beautiful when I wasnt in too much fear to enjoy them, and we kept seeing huge blue butterflies that were beautiful.
My Spanish class in Merida is going well, I have a very good teacher. The problem is that Im living with people who also dont speak too much Spanish, so Im not forced to try and speak Spanish all the time. In my room Ive been living with people from Germany and Holland, so Spanish is really the 4th most spoken language behind English, German, and Dutch.
Theres things I really like about this city and things I really dont like. Theres great coffee and a lot of nice restaurants, and the nightclubs are pretty fun, theres one club we go to that plays the greatest mix of music ever...theyll be playing salsa or samba and randomly play a couple heavy metal songs or Rolling Stones songs, its completely random.
On the negative note, it has to be the loudest place on the planet. People blare music outside our window until late at night so loud that our door literally vibrates from the bass. Its not like its just one piece of music either, usually it will be 4 or 5 different cars all competing to play their music the loudest and all of them making the door vibrate. On top of that theres always car alarms, sirens and dogs barking, it literally makes it hard to talk to each other in our room lots of times.
I also saw a dead body the other day. There was a huge group of people gathered around and lots of cops, I thought it was a political rally at first because theres political things going on everywhere right now. Everyone was looking in the same direction and I saw a sheet with feet sticking out of it and blood all around. Apparently the guys store had been robbed and he had tried to follow the robbers and got shot for following them. It makes me glad I didnt try and resist when I got mugged. The crime rate here apparently really wasnt high until the last couple years, and its becoming a big issue. People say that its really the biggest issue in the election and people will vote based on who can fight crime best...whether a candidate is with or against Chavez is really irrelevant in comparison. Most of the political graffiti that isnt for or against Chavez is about which candidate will make the city more safe. Its interesting because the poverty here doesnt really effect you like it does in Brazil. In Brazil youre bothered everywhere by beggars, street children, and people trying to sell you God knows what. Despite this you dont ever really feel unsafe there, just like people are trying to get your money. Here there are a lot few beggars but you get the feeling that they could all pull a knife on you or mug you. I really have no idea why its like this, you would think the place with the more desperately poor people begging would also have more desperately poor people willing to use violence.
I apologize for the lack of punctuation in this entry by the way, for some reason I cant figure out how to use most of it on this keyboard. American keyboards next week will be nice.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The safest city in Venezuela...
Apparently doesn´t make a place that safe.
I´ve been really lazy about updating this for awhile even when I´ve had internet. I think for now I´m going to skip the Amazon and come back to it later. I know I won´t forget the stuff I saw there, and I want to write about getting mugged since everyones going to be curious when they hear about it.
Anyway, last Thursday night I left Manaus for Venezuela. The first bus ride was to Boa Vista in northern Brazil and was supposed to take 8 hours but ended up being around 13. I got there just around when the next bus was leaving for Puerto Ordaz. About 2 hours into that we got to the Venezuelan border which we actually got through pretty quick. The bus went really slow the rest of the day because it was going up and down mountains, although its a beautiful area because its kind of a mix of the rainforest and mountains. We saw a lot of cool things on the ride including a couple indian villages that were right by the road.
Looking back I don`t know how I didn`t get mugged in Puerto Ordaz. I got a taxi late at night when I got in and asked for the closest hotel. I got taken to one that the taxi driver said was in a very dangerous area, where I couldn`t go out at night. The hotel ended up being full so I was stuck looking around the neighboorhood for another one, competely broke so I couldn`t get another taxi. I finally found one and had to beg them to take me without money until the next day. I could tell you to imagine the shittiest hotel possible and you probably wouldn´t imagine one as bad as that Although I was very impressed with their cockroaches, they were the biggest I`ve ever seen.
The next day in Puerto Ordaz it took me about 10 atms before I found one that worked, so I was kind of freaking out since I needed to get money for the hotel...they were keeping my passport until I paid. By the time I finally got money I was already charged for another night so I just stayed at that hotel. Taking money out of an ATM in Venezuela is terrible because you have to use the governent exchange rate of 1.9 Bolivarese when the real exchange rate you can get everywhere else is around 3.5 (and its really better than that since the exchangers take some off the top)...at a rate of 1.9 the country is really expensive.
I was feeling pretty alone in Puerto Ordaz and went to a McDonalds. Its funny because I never eat there at home but when you`re alone in a foreign country going to a McDonalds is the most comforting experience you can have. After this I found a baseball field where games were going on all day and hung out there...Mcdonalds and baseball got me pretty comfortable. Nowhere else was really safe to go besides the baseball field, the area I was in was so dangerous that stores all kept their doors locked. You had to ring the doorbell if you wanted to buy anything and they would look to see if you looked safe.
Anyway, I survived Puerto Ordaz and went to the airport the next day. My flight to Caracas was late and I missed my connection to Merida which is not like missing a connection in the states. Basically I would go up to the counter and explain in broken spanish that I needed a new flight because I had missed mine. They would look at my ticket and say ¨this flight already left¨ and then ignore me.
I managed to get on a late flight to a town an hour away from Merida, only because I was at the counter when people cancelled and immediately jumped in to grab their tickets. I met a nice guy on the plane who was also going to Merida and we split a cab there from the airport. I got to Merida at about 11 and got a room at one of the Posadas close to the school I was going to.
I think Merida is a very pretty city and very clean by South American standards (on the surface it seems like it would be very safe by South American standards too). Its surrounded by mountains in every direction. Its frustrating though because it costs a lot of money to do all the activities in the mountains and its hard to really see any of the nature just from walking from the town, although I figured out that I can rent a bike for about 20 dollars a day and I´m going to tomorrow to just explore on my own.
Anyway I`ll write more later about Merida and the Spanish class later but I´ll just wrap up now with how I got mugged. I was walking with one other kid in our class last night close to the posada at around 9. There was a big group of kids we passed asking if we wanted cocaine or marijuana and we said no and walked past, I could tell they looked more dangerous then most of the kids you see selling drugs though.
The power was out in the section of the city we were going through and 5 of the guys we had walked past came up behind us and yelled ¨gringos¨. I looked at the kid I was with and said ¨we`re about to get robbed¨ and he said yea I know...it was that obvious. We should have ran towards any store that was open right when they yelled but didn't. They came up and got us up against the wall. They had broken bottles and were waving them in our faces. They took my shitty watch that cost around 10 bucks and I handed them 10 BFs which was all I had. They left me alone at that point and all gathered around Felix. I didn`t know whether to run or not because I couldn`t help him anyway and thought they`d come back to me after they were done with him. I stayed even though I couldn`t help beccause I figured you can`t abandon someone like that whether or not you can help. I tried to flag down a couple cars but they didn`t stop. After they took his jacket, money and key (the posada is changing all the locks, thats the only real expense involved in all of it) they just ran away. It was a pretty shitty robbery since they didn`t even get my cell phone.
We think it was only because the power was out that they did it. That area is usually well lit and there are people around pretty much all night. They also didn`t seem like they were used to robbing people, I wasn`t impressed at all with their skills...I think they just decided to because the power being out made it an easy situation and decided to try a robbery. Regardless, I`m going to be more careful since apparently walking with one other guy isn`t enough.
I´ve been really lazy about updating this for awhile even when I´ve had internet. I think for now I´m going to skip the Amazon and come back to it later. I know I won´t forget the stuff I saw there, and I want to write about getting mugged since everyones going to be curious when they hear about it.
Anyway, last Thursday night I left Manaus for Venezuela. The first bus ride was to Boa Vista in northern Brazil and was supposed to take 8 hours but ended up being around 13. I got there just around when the next bus was leaving for Puerto Ordaz. About 2 hours into that we got to the Venezuelan border which we actually got through pretty quick. The bus went really slow the rest of the day because it was going up and down mountains, although its a beautiful area because its kind of a mix of the rainforest and mountains. We saw a lot of cool things on the ride including a couple indian villages that were right by the road.
Looking back I don`t know how I didn`t get mugged in Puerto Ordaz. I got a taxi late at night when I got in and asked for the closest hotel. I got taken to one that the taxi driver said was in a very dangerous area, where I couldn`t go out at night. The hotel ended up being full so I was stuck looking around the neighboorhood for another one, competely broke so I couldn`t get another taxi. I finally found one and had to beg them to take me without money until the next day. I could tell you to imagine the shittiest hotel possible and you probably wouldn´t imagine one as bad as that Although I was very impressed with their cockroaches, they were the biggest I`ve ever seen.
The next day in Puerto Ordaz it took me about 10 atms before I found one that worked, so I was kind of freaking out since I needed to get money for the hotel...they were keeping my passport until I paid. By the time I finally got money I was already charged for another night so I just stayed at that hotel. Taking money out of an ATM in Venezuela is terrible because you have to use the governent exchange rate of 1.9 Bolivarese when the real exchange rate you can get everywhere else is around 3.5 (and its really better than that since the exchangers take some off the top)...at a rate of 1.9 the country is really expensive.
I was feeling pretty alone in Puerto Ordaz and went to a McDonalds. Its funny because I never eat there at home but when you`re alone in a foreign country going to a McDonalds is the most comforting experience you can have. After this I found a baseball field where games were going on all day and hung out there...Mcdonalds and baseball got me pretty comfortable. Nowhere else was really safe to go besides the baseball field, the area I was in was so dangerous that stores all kept their doors locked. You had to ring the doorbell if you wanted to buy anything and they would look to see if you looked safe.
Anyway, I survived Puerto Ordaz and went to the airport the next day. My flight to Caracas was late and I missed my connection to Merida which is not like missing a connection in the states. Basically I would go up to the counter and explain in broken spanish that I needed a new flight because I had missed mine. They would look at my ticket and say ¨this flight already left¨ and then ignore me.
I managed to get on a late flight to a town an hour away from Merida, only because I was at the counter when people cancelled and immediately jumped in to grab their tickets. I met a nice guy on the plane who was also going to Merida and we split a cab there from the airport. I got to Merida at about 11 and got a room at one of the Posadas close to the school I was going to.
I think Merida is a very pretty city and very clean by South American standards (on the surface it seems like it would be very safe by South American standards too). Its surrounded by mountains in every direction. Its frustrating though because it costs a lot of money to do all the activities in the mountains and its hard to really see any of the nature just from walking from the town, although I figured out that I can rent a bike for about 20 dollars a day and I´m going to tomorrow to just explore on my own.
Anyway I`ll write more later about Merida and the Spanish class later but I´ll just wrap up now with how I got mugged. I was walking with one other kid in our class last night close to the posada at around 9. There was a big group of kids we passed asking if we wanted cocaine or marijuana and we said no and walked past, I could tell they looked more dangerous then most of the kids you see selling drugs though.
The power was out in the section of the city we were going through and 5 of the guys we had walked past came up behind us and yelled ¨gringos¨. I looked at the kid I was with and said ¨we`re about to get robbed¨ and he said yea I know...it was that obvious. We should have ran towards any store that was open right when they yelled but didn't. They came up and got us up against the wall. They had broken bottles and were waving them in our faces. They took my shitty watch that cost around 10 bucks and I handed them 10 BFs which was all I had. They left me alone at that point and all gathered around Felix. I didn`t know whether to run or not because I couldn`t help him anyway and thought they`d come back to me after they were done with him. I stayed even though I couldn`t help beccause I figured you can`t abandon someone like that whether or not you can help. I tried to flag down a couple cars but they didn`t stop. After they took his jacket, money and key (the posada is changing all the locks, thats the only real expense involved in all of it) they just ran away. It was a pretty shitty robbery since they didn`t even get my cell phone.
We think it was only because the power was out that they did it. That area is usually well lit and there are people around pretty much all night. They also didn`t seem like they were used to robbing people, I wasn`t impressed at all with their skills...I think they just decided to because the power being out made it an easy situation and decided to try a robbery. Regardless, I`m going to be more careful since apparently walking with one other guy isn`t enough.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Favela tour and football game
The best two experiences we´ve had so far on this trip are the tour of the Saramandia favela and the Vittoria football match.
Saramandia is one of the biggest favelas in Salvador and about 30,000 people get there. I initially was really turned off by the idea of touring the favela...I felt like we would take vans in, look at the people´s poverty, and then leave, but it turned out to really be nothing like that. The people were so excited to show us their way of life and all the projects they were working on. They explained that they had accepted that the government won´t ever do anything for them and they have to do everything themselves, and how everyone in the community volunteers labor to build schools and teach students.
We played football with the kids and then they had a capoiera and drum demonstration for us that were really good, in addition to cooking us a great meal. It really didn´t feel like looking at poverty because the people were so proud and welcoming, not at all what you would expect.
Its pretty much impossible to put the favela into words, its so beyond our understanding of the world in America. You can literally sit on a hill and be surrounded by thousands of cramped, tiny houses that look like they´re from 300 years ago while you have a beautiful view of the modern financial buildings downtown just a few miles away. It really drives home to you how overhwelming the inequality in this country is.
Going to Saramandia was really not a depressing experience though, it was inspiring in a lot of ways. These people basically have nothing but they all work together as a community to improve their lives, in a way that is completely foreign to Americans. Everyone in the favela looks out for each other, and the people police themselves and take care of each other since they know the government won´t.
On Wednesday me and Eli (my roommate) went to a Vitoria football game with our friend Augusto. The stadium was literally in the middle of nowhere in a favela far out of the city and driving there was a nightmare.
The stadium fits around 40,000 people and is built into the side of a hill. They have a barbed wire fence and military guards to divide the fans of the other team. I thought this was amusing but its a little unsettling that they need it. Vitoria was losing 1-0 at the half and then scored quickly in the second half. It looked like the game was going to end in a tie and everyone was getting really angry because Vitoria had played better all game but couldn´t score. Then Vitoria scored again with 2 minutes left and the crowd went CRAZY. I´ve never got so many man-hugs in my life (women don´t really go to football games in Brazil, women being into sports is one of the things they´re not quite at yet).
The crowd at the football game was so amazing to watch and be a part of. There´s no jumbotron or any kind of announcing and you can really feel the energy and tension in the crowd, its incredibly intense. They pretty much did different elaborate chants the whole game and dances that went with them, its amazing how organized it was. There´s also drummers who play the whole game (there´s drumming everywhere here) and tons of people lighting fires to celebrate when they score). I definitely recommend that anyone who goes to Brazil gets to a game because its really fun and an amazing cultural experience.
Saramandia is one of the biggest favelas in Salvador and about 30,000 people get there. I initially was really turned off by the idea of touring the favela...I felt like we would take vans in, look at the people´s poverty, and then leave, but it turned out to really be nothing like that. The people were so excited to show us their way of life and all the projects they were working on. They explained that they had accepted that the government won´t ever do anything for them and they have to do everything themselves, and how everyone in the community volunteers labor to build schools and teach students.
We played football with the kids and then they had a capoiera and drum demonstration for us that were really good, in addition to cooking us a great meal. It really didn´t feel like looking at poverty because the people were so proud and welcoming, not at all what you would expect.
Its pretty much impossible to put the favela into words, its so beyond our understanding of the world in America. You can literally sit on a hill and be surrounded by thousands of cramped, tiny houses that look like they´re from 300 years ago while you have a beautiful view of the modern financial buildings downtown just a few miles away. It really drives home to you how overhwelming the inequality in this country is.
Going to Saramandia was really not a depressing experience though, it was inspiring in a lot of ways. These people basically have nothing but they all work together as a community to improve their lives, in a way that is completely foreign to Americans. Everyone in the favela looks out for each other, and the people police themselves and take care of each other since they know the government won´t.
On Wednesday me and Eli (my roommate) went to a Vitoria football game with our friend Augusto. The stadium was literally in the middle of nowhere in a favela far out of the city and driving there was a nightmare.
The stadium fits around 40,000 people and is built into the side of a hill. They have a barbed wire fence and military guards to divide the fans of the other team. I thought this was amusing but its a little unsettling that they need it. Vitoria was losing 1-0 at the half and then scored quickly in the second half. It looked like the game was going to end in a tie and everyone was getting really angry because Vitoria had played better all game but couldn´t score. Then Vitoria scored again with 2 minutes left and the crowd went CRAZY. I´ve never got so many man-hugs in my life (women don´t really go to football games in Brazil, women being into sports is one of the things they´re not quite at yet).
The crowd at the football game was so amazing to watch and be a part of. There´s no jumbotron or any kind of announcing and you can really feel the energy and tension in the crowd, its incredibly intense. They pretty much did different elaborate chants the whole game and dances that went with them, its amazing how organized it was. There´s also drummers who play the whole game (there´s drumming everywhere here) and tons of people lighting fires to celebrate when they score). I definitely recommend that anyone who goes to Brazil gets to a game because its really fun and an amazing cultural experience.
Monday, July 28, 2008
No time to catch up on this blog...
Things are happening quicker than I can actually write about them in detail. Here´s just a few quick things. I´ll try to write about other things later that I want to spend more time on like visiting the favela which was amazing.
I saw a penguin yesterday and a failed penguin rescue attempt. It was really cool to see until I realized how sad it is that they need to come to Brazil and how bad they´re doing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/endangeredhabitats.brazil
We played Brazilians vs Americans in soccer and then in basketball. Some things have very predictable results...
On Brazilian beaches you can get cooked cheese on a stick with spices on it. I think the moment I discovered this was the best moment of my life.
We went to a yacht club that Gabby (one of the Brazilian girls) is a member of yesterday. I can officially confirm that when people say the rich in Brazil are really rich they are describing things accurately.
Professor Genaulto (no clue on spelling) is the Professor hosting as at UFBA and he put together a little show for us on Friday. It started with an amazing capoeira performance by one of the best groups in Salvador (go to youtube if you don´t know what capoeira is, its hard to explain without seeing it. We all got to try and play with them to mixed results, my roommate Eli said me trying to do capoeira was the highlight of his trip.
After the capoeira there was a dance troupe that was actually just these guys who play dominoes in front of our school. It ended up basically being the most sexual dance of all time for half an hour and no one knew what to do. We´re pretty sure Genaulto was playing a joke on everyone by getting them there but no ones quite sure what to make of it.
Anyone I´ll try and update more soon. Email me!
I saw a penguin yesterday and a failed penguin rescue attempt. It was really cool to see until I realized how sad it is that they need to come to Brazil and how bad they´re doing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/endangeredhabitats.brazil
We played Brazilians vs Americans in soccer and then in basketball. Some things have very predictable results...
On Brazilian beaches you can get cooked cheese on a stick with spices on it. I think the moment I discovered this was the best moment of my life.
We went to a yacht club that Gabby (one of the Brazilian girls) is a member of yesterday. I can officially confirm that when people say the rich in Brazil are really rich they are describing things accurately.
Professor Genaulto (no clue on spelling) is the Professor hosting as at UFBA and he put together a little show for us on Friday. It started with an amazing capoeira performance by one of the best groups in Salvador (go to youtube if you don´t know what capoeira is, its hard to explain without seeing it. We all got to try and play with them to mixed results, my roommate Eli said me trying to do capoeira was the highlight of his trip.
After the capoeira there was a dance troupe that was actually just these guys who play dominoes in front of our school. It ended up basically being the most sexual dance of all time for half an hour and no one knew what to do. We´re pretty sure Genaulto was playing a joke on everyone by getting them there but no ones quite sure what to make of it.
Anyone I´ll try and update more soon. Email me!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Too much to write about...
I haven't written all week and there's way more to talk about than I'll get a chance to.
Everyone is basically running out of time to do our projects and getting frustrated about it. The problem is that all the issues we're dealing with are so complicated that 3 weeks isn't even enough time to understand them, let alone work towards fixing them. It would be easy if we were in a small community where we could say, "ok, these people need a bridge or a well or a school, let's build it" and work towards completing that in 3 weeks. But when you say "public schools in Brazil are a joke because the government doesn't care, people are so poor that their kids need to work, and its accepted that anyone who has any money goes to private school" its hard to really come up with any kind of solution in 3 weeks.
We visited a public school the other day which was an interesting experience. We met with the principal first and there were kids in the hallway everywhere. She said that the teachers don't show up often so the kids just hang out in the hallway. Then we went to meet with the kids and they basically went crazy telling us everything that was wrong with the school, it felt like it was the first time anyone had asked them their opinion. The classroom was packed and there were more kids outside yelling in at us, and then when we tried to leave they gathered around us and kept yelling.
Our project now is to try and start a civic education program for these kids where they can learn about government and how they can use democracy to fight for better education. The problem is we only have a week now to write the program and get it implemented, and we were planning to use the principal at this school but it seems like the school is about to start a mutiny against her and she even admitted to us that she's getting fired soon. The problem is she is the only contact we have there, and we need to partner with someone for the program.
Everyone is basically running out of time to do our projects and getting frustrated about it. The problem is that all the issues we're dealing with are so complicated that 3 weeks isn't even enough time to understand them, let alone work towards fixing them. It would be easy if we were in a small community where we could say, "ok, these people need a bridge or a well or a school, let's build it" and work towards completing that in 3 weeks. But when you say "public schools in Brazil are a joke because the government doesn't care, people are so poor that their kids need to work, and its accepted that anyone who has any money goes to private school" its hard to really come up with any kind of solution in 3 weeks.
We visited a public school the other day which was an interesting experience. We met with the principal first and there were kids in the hallway everywhere. She said that the teachers don't show up often so the kids just hang out in the hallway. Then we went to meet with the kids and they basically went crazy telling us everything that was wrong with the school, it felt like it was the first time anyone had asked them their opinion. The classroom was packed and there were more kids outside yelling in at us, and then when we tried to leave they gathered around us and kept yelling.
Our project now is to try and start a civic education program for these kids where they can learn about government and how they can use democracy to fight for better education. The problem is we only have a week now to write the program and get it implemented, and we were planning to use the principal at this school but it seems like the school is about to start a mutiny against her and she even admitted to us that she's getting fired soon. The problem is she is the only contact we have there, and we need to partner with someone for the program.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Weekend
Haven´t really had a chance to update in a few days, everything has been great here though.
On Saturday we went to the Tomarro Project which is on a beach around an hour outside of Salvador. The drive out was interesting because in the direction we were going we went through around 20 favelas, it was amazing to see how many there are. The houses are all packed on the hill so close that you can only get up through tiny staircases. Its been interesting to see how they compare to what we thought they would be like...all Americans really know about favelas is from City of God so we assume that they´re all violent and controlled by drug lords. That movie is about one specific favela in Rio which is one specific city in Brazil, so when you see how many people live in favelas you realize how ridiculous it is to assume they´re all the same. Most of them are also not really violent, just really really poor, and its kind of stupid how much we focus on the violence compared to the poverty which is so much more overwhelming of a problem.
Anyway the Tomarro Project was nice and we got to hang out on the beaches around there all day with a lot of the Brazilian students. I like the beaches here so much better than on the islands I´ve been to because they basically go on forever...in the Dominican and Jamaica its like small resorts with a small beach and then the next resort with their beach. The beaches in Brazil you can basically walk on forever, even the city beaches feel untouched compared to the other places I´ve been to. The town that was by Tomarro was really nice too and everyone did a lot of shopping there.
On Sunday we went back to Pelourinho which is the area that has most of the cool touristy things in Salvador. The neighboorhood has tons of cool architecture and all the buildings are crazy colors, its the first place where the Portuguese first settled in Brazil so they went pretty crazy with everything. When you walk through Pelourinho you eventually get to a point where you´re about 8 stories up looking out over the bay with water all around you, and there´s an elevator that goes down to the lower city that has a lot of shopping and more cool things to see like capoirera. I got a really nice painting there on Sunday for 25 Reais, which is about 15 dollars.
On Sunday night Gabrielle and Pedro, who are 2 of the Brazilian students, took a few of us to a concert. It was Motumba...there´s tons of videos on Youtube if you want to check out what its like. It was really fun, it was in a huge open air place and I couldn´t believe how many people were there and how crazy everyone went. The band had drummers, horn players, tons of girls dancing, and constant crazy lighting and cofetti. Between that watching all the Brazilians dance there was way too much going on to keep track of it all, it went by really quick.
Anyway that´s about it for now. My eyes are exhausted from looking at the computer screen, I guess I´ve stopped staring at it as often so they aren´t as used to it.
On Saturday we went to the Tomarro Project which is on a beach around an hour outside of Salvador. The drive out was interesting because in the direction we were going we went through around 20 favelas, it was amazing to see how many there are. The houses are all packed on the hill so close that you can only get up through tiny staircases. Its been interesting to see how they compare to what we thought they would be like...all Americans really know about favelas is from City of God so we assume that they´re all violent and controlled by drug lords. That movie is about one specific favela in Rio which is one specific city in Brazil, so when you see how many people live in favelas you realize how ridiculous it is to assume they´re all the same. Most of them are also not really violent, just really really poor, and its kind of stupid how much we focus on the violence compared to the poverty which is so much more overwhelming of a problem.
Anyway the Tomarro Project was nice and we got to hang out on the beaches around there all day with a lot of the Brazilian students. I like the beaches here so much better than on the islands I´ve been to because they basically go on forever...in the Dominican and Jamaica its like small resorts with a small beach and then the next resort with their beach. The beaches in Brazil you can basically walk on forever, even the city beaches feel untouched compared to the other places I´ve been to. The town that was by Tomarro was really nice too and everyone did a lot of shopping there.
On Sunday we went back to Pelourinho which is the area that has most of the cool touristy things in Salvador. The neighboorhood has tons of cool architecture and all the buildings are crazy colors, its the first place where the Portuguese first settled in Brazil so they went pretty crazy with everything. When you walk through Pelourinho you eventually get to a point where you´re about 8 stories up looking out over the bay with water all around you, and there´s an elevator that goes down to the lower city that has a lot of shopping and more cool things to see like capoirera. I got a really nice painting there on Sunday for 25 Reais, which is about 15 dollars.
On Sunday night Gabrielle and Pedro, who are 2 of the Brazilian students, took a few of us to a concert. It was Motumba...there´s tons of videos on Youtube if you want to check out what its like. It was really fun, it was in a huge open air place and I couldn´t believe how many people were there and how crazy everyone went. The band had drummers, horn players, tons of girls dancing, and constant crazy lighting and cofetti. Between that watching all the Brazilians dance there was way too much going on to keep track of it all, it went by really quick.
Anyway that´s about it for now. My eyes are exhausted from looking at the computer screen, I guess I´ve stopped staring at it as often so they aren´t as used to it.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
GPACT program
I have a little bit of time so I figured I would explain a little about what we´re doing in the GPACT program.
The program is around 30 students, pretty much half Brazilian and half American. We´re split into groups, ours has 2 Brazilians and 3 Americans. One of the Brazilians speaks English fluently to translate (the other doesn´t at all) and one of the Americans speaks almost fluent Portuguese so can translate too.
We had to pick a problem in Salvador to work towards solving, and look at what the causes of it are to try and figure out how to fix it. We´re focusing on why so many students drop out of Brazilian public schools and don´t graduate and are going to a school in the favela (Brazilian slums that are built into hills) tomorrow to interview a principal, students, and teachers. Talking to the Brazilian students about this has been really interesting, they can´t believe that in America its illegal for parents to not let their children go to school...they said in Brazil if that was a law they would have to arrest half the country.
Hope this gives you a general idea of what we´re doing....I´ll definitely update more soon
The program is around 30 students, pretty much half Brazilian and half American. We´re split into groups, ours has 2 Brazilians and 3 Americans. One of the Brazilians speaks English fluently to translate (the other doesn´t at all) and one of the Americans speaks almost fluent Portuguese so can translate too.
We had to pick a problem in Salvador to work towards solving, and look at what the causes of it are to try and figure out how to fix it. We´re focusing on why so many students drop out of Brazilian public schools and don´t graduate and are going to a school in the favela (Brazilian slums that are built into hills) tomorrow to interview a principal, students, and teachers. Talking to the Brazilian students about this has been really interesting, they can´t believe that in America its illegal for parents to not let their children go to school...they said in Brazil if that was a law they would have to arrest half the country.
Hope this gives you a general idea of what we´re doing....I´ll definitely update more soon
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Finally online (and out of Sao Paulo)
I haven´t really had any time to get online since I got too Salvador, everythings been extremely busy and you have to either catch one of the 3 people who have laptops when no one else is using them or go to a cafe to get online (at the university half the computers don´t go online and the Brazilians take all the ones that work while we walk around like idiots trying to find them).
Getting to Salvador was an absolute nightmare, we missed our connection from Sao Paulo after a 3 hour to Kennedy (on no sleep) and had to fly out at 5 in the morning, meaning we couldn´t sleep a second night in a row...i´m just starting to recover now.
The hotel in Bahia is pretty good by 3rd world standards..........with the emphasis on the second part of that statement. It has a pool on the roof which is really nice and we have a nice little balcony that you can see a tiny chunk of ocean from, and a parrot feeder that never has any parrots on it yet.
The school is really nice, and all the Brazilian students are very helpful and nice. 90% of all the Brazilians we meet are really nice, most are impressed with my Portuguese and can´t believe I´ve never been to Brazil before. The most important phrase for an American in Brazil to know is
eu no gosto bush.........eu gosto obama.
I dont have much time, ill talk more about everything in salvador soon but ill leave with one story of the 10% of Brazilians who arent very nice.
We went to Pelurhino (no clue how to spell) which is a huge party spot with bars outside and live music. Its really fun and everyone just dances in the streets, theres also a huge drum troupe that you can march around with and everyone dances...then they start playing so fast that you can´t even dance to it (although when I said this I was told that I mean Americans can´t dance to it). But anyway, a group of the American students were drinking Capharinas (Brazilian drink with rum and sugar) and a guy came up to me and asked if one of the girls was my girl. I said yes because he looked really scary and he nodded and took my drink out of my hand. He threw the straw at me and then chugged the whole drink, and crumpled up the plastic cup and threw it at me and then walked away yelling in Portuguese. No one knew what to do, and he came up later and tried to be our friend, to which I responded that he´s not my friend if he took my drink without asking.
Anyway, gotta run, Í´ll update more soon.
Getting to Salvador was an absolute nightmare, we missed our connection from Sao Paulo after a 3 hour to Kennedy (on no sleep) and had to fly out at 5 in the morning, meaning we couldn´t sleep a second night in a row...i´m just starting to recover now.
The hotel in Bahia is pretty good by 3rd world standards..........with the emphasis on the second part of that statement. It has a pool on the roof which is really nice and we have a nice little balcony that you can see a tiny chunk of ocean from, and a parrot feeder that never has any parrots on it yet.
The school is really nice, and all the Brazilian students are very helpful and nice. 90% of all the Brazilians we meet are really nice, most are impressed with my Portuguese and can´t believe I´ve never been to Brazil before. The most important phrase for an American in Brazil to know is
eu no gosto bush.........eu gosto obama.
I dont have much time, ill talk more about everything in salvador soon but ill leave with one story of the 10% of Brazilians who arent very nice.
We went to Pelurhino (no clue how to spell) which is a huge party spot with bars outside and live music. Its really fun and everyone just dances in the streets, theres also a huge drum troupe that you can march around with and everyone dances...then they start playing so fast that you can´t even dance to it (although when I said this I was told that I mean Americans can´t dance to it). But anyway, a group of the American students were drinking Capharinas (Brazilian drink with rum and sugar) and a guy came up to me and asked if one of the girls was my girl. I said yes because he looked really scary and he nodded and took my drink out of my hand. He threw the straw at me and then chugged the whole drink, and crumpled up the plastic cup and threw it at me and then walked away yelling in Portuguese. No one knew what to do, and he came up later and tried to be our friend, to which I responded that he´s not my friend if he took my drink without asking.
Anyway, gotta run, Í´ll update more soon.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
This is my blog for when I'm in Brazil. I just decided I'm not going to bring my laptop with me, so I don't know how often I'll be able to update it, but I will be able to check email so send mail to Lavender.A@neu.edu if you need to talk to me.
I'm mainly writing this for my own memories, so that in 20 years I can look back and say "wow I was really immature/a really bad writer when I went to Brazil". So if you want to read it feel free, but don't feel obligated to because you're my friend...I won't hold it against you if you find more interesting ways to kill time online
I'm mainly writing this for my own memories, so that in 20 years I can look back and say "wow I was really immature/a really bad writer when I went to Brazil". So if you want to read it feel free, but don't feel obligated to because you're my friend...I won't hold it against you if you find more interesting ways to kill time online
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