At the Center of the Circle

It's nights like these when laying around in a hammock outside on the patio listening to the sounds of the band at the bar down the street that everything seems quite alright, even if there are problems. I'm realizing that coming to Brazil I had a lot of expectations, not necessarily about the program in particular, but that it would be this completely life-changing experience-every moment of it. Now that I am actually here in reality, it seems much more realistic that, of course, things are going to go astray, go wrong, because that is how things are. And that it is up to the individual to pick out the small things that do go right, the small things that are good, and concentrate on them. I have faith that I will walk away from this time in Brazil with good thoughts and knowing that I have become a different person, at least, perhaps the person I would rather be at times. Those moments where I feel at peace and can honestly tell myself that things feel good are the ones I will remember.

If this excursion is anything like the past two we have had, it will prove me right. And seeing as this one looks even better than the last two, that is quite good. This program has already given me so much to think about in only 3 weeks that in that regard it is already worth it. I keep thinking back to some of the critiques I received at my moderation board, how I was swimming in too much high theory, paying too much attention to method, and not enough to just, well, what happens with people. The way most anthropology articles/books for that matter seem to be written nowadays is a structure like this:

• general broad theory used to frame the author's point of view/frame of the subject
• talk about methods/motivations
• use small snippets of quotes from informants, but in a way that supports the theory/objective of the author (like in any science for that matter)
  
• concludes with how the experience down at the ground level challenges/reshapes the above theory

Being in Brazil, actually talking to people down here who do struggle to make ends meet, who are getting their lives together to keep communities intact, gives me a lot to think about. Those few excursions, which I see as the best parts of this whole experience for this/that exact reason, have already, I think, helped to break me out of the whole above mindset. Even talking with a few people from my group about some of these things has helped too. Theory is fine for framing the world, but you can't rely on it as a model for reality all of the time, obviously. When the going gets tough, people learn to sink or swim. When you lack money and resources, and you wish to keep your family together, no amount of environmental conservationist jargon on the inherent value of the rain forest, on the deep intimacy with nature, on how only looking at human issues is anthropomorphic, etc, is going to stop that said family from, lets say, burning down the rainforest to survive. It isn't totally deterministic, but Darwin had a point when he said that life is a fight. Because if you don't fight, you don't get to live, and you can't protect the people you love. And when it comes down to it all, that is what the whole thing is about, isn't it? Community based development, environmental justice, public health? It's all about community and the people who mean something to you. Of course, there's an interesting twist in there for those communities/cultures/groups of people in the world with various cosmologies and world views that would permit them to view those same trees as indeed "the people that matter to them". Of course, maybe us here are not that different either. Because I know that my dog meant just as much to me as any other important person in my life.

That all said and done, I feel that is the most important thing right now. And even if this semester in Brazil has it's ups and downs, like anything else in life, I can pull away that I am learning that. I am learning what does indeed matter most. If I had to go back to the US right now, for some strange reason, I would be ok with that, because I feel like experiencing what I have already, and coming to those conclusions, has been worth the trip in and of itself. I've always been pretty good at learning to make the most of things that are in front of me. I feel like now, it is my job to go back home, and apply what I now feel, not know, to life at home, at Bard, and at those communities around me. I left the US feeling something along the lines of something anthropologist Nancy Scheper Hughes said in an interview, when the interviewer commented that it must take an enormous amount of courage to go off into a different land and interact with its people, etc. She replied, me roughly paraphrasing, "Well, I think what you call bravery is in fact a sort of struggle to belong. A lot of us instead have always somewhat felt that they don't quite belong in their own culture, or that it is missing something, so what you call courage I would call a search to find something that fits with you". A month ago, Brazil was my "escape" from life back in the US, from home, from academic life at Bard, from the general everyday grind. Brazil was the place, from what I had read and heard, that I could imagine myself belonging in, coming back to to work later in life, etc. I imagined it to be the place where I would find something that had been missing. Now I find myself realizing that what I've found in Brazil isn't any calling to Brazil or Amazonia in particular, but instead just the simple realization that in the end it is the people you care about that matter the most, and you don't need to work in Brazil, or Belem, or Amazonia, in order to help protect the communities you know are important to yourself, but maybe more importantly, to the people around you. And to me, that holds more meaning than any academic published paper or high level theorized conclusion. And that feels good to be at that place.

I realize maybe that half of that might not have made sense. Thats ok. I've been flipping through the Tao Te Ching once in a while at night while I listen to the music coming from outside, so I'd like to just share a quick little passage (everything in the book is short and cool), which maybe sums up my thoughts much easier than I have done:

"Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it can be done.
The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.
The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle."

I think the whole journey in Manaus and Santarem, between the rural home stay experience where we will all be isolated and the 10 day boat trip, will very much force me, like this excerpt, to stop trying to control anything, and just let things take their course. As we flow along the river, maybe I'll also just learn to let things flow. I suppose rivers are the best place to do just that. Saude e alegria, here I come.

Yesterday I managed to barter in Ver-o-Peso market. I successfully lowered the price of a pair of shorts from 15 reais to 13 reais. Does it make me a typical Bard kid to see a connection between the anarchistic Joker persona in Dark Knight and the Tau Te Ching telling me to stop trying to control everything? Tonight, it's literally into o coração do Amazonia, the heart of the Amazon, so says my host family.

Ready to Mix it Up

Tomorrow we leave for Manaus to begin our first long excursion into the interior, including our rural homestay with a ribeirinho family along the river. This is basically the part of the trip that I have been looking forward to the whole time/the reason I decided to do it in the first place. 10 days boating along the river, stops in Manaus, lectures about the impact of large development project, living with a family with a social structure completely different from my own, and getting to interact with the Health and Happiness Project...I am so excited.

Until then. For the last 3 days we were in Sao Francisco do Para studying the basics of tropical ecosystems and talking with a local agriculture/community empowerment project to fight the vicious cycle of slash and burn agriculture. We also did a Mini-ISP on biological research methods, which of course is far from my comfort area. In fact, I'm kind of waiting until we start dealing with more social science oriented information...

So while tropical ecology was interesting, it was the chance to actually just interact with the group in a normal setting again that I looked forward to. In Belem I live somewhat isolated from a bunch of the other students in the group, so it was a relief to be in close quarters again. I even got to practice some capoeira, which was great. The chance to talk to the agriculturalists was also really fascinating. Slash and burn agriculture on its own isn't a bad thing; it's been happening in Amazonia for a long time now. What slash and burn does is simple: you cut down a patch of forest, where typically the soil is somewhat poor in nutrients, and burn everything. This releases all of the nutrients of the biomass into the soil, enriching it my about 20%. You can then directly plan your crops and have a successful harvest. In previous times, agriculturalists in the Amazon practiced slash and burn in a manner that worked with the ecosystem, seeing as you need to wait about 7-10 years for the soil to restore itself before you can initiate another slash and burn cycle. The harm comes when, due to land pressure, poverty, and basic hunger/desire to feed and provide for a family, farmers do not have the luxury to wait 10 years, and instead slash and burn the forest in about 2 years. That said, the project we visited is working with the region of Igarape Acu in Sao Francisco do Para to help farmers transition into farming methods that avoid fire. To do this, they use certain legumes and trees that add nitrogen into the soil naturally, and aid farmers with agroforestry and other technical skills to start the process up. Big crops: manioc, rice, passion fruit, and beans. Sometimes corn. In the end though, it allows these farmers to restore the nutrients that would normally build up in 10 years in much shorter time frame, between 2-5 depending on what kinds of crops are used. Interestingly enough, the project is funded by the German Government as a way for Germany to give carbon credit...so Germany supports sustainable agricultural practices in the South, and thus is allowed to pollute more, or something. I don't quite understand it, but it sounds a little fishy. The German money goes to the Brazilian government which then gives the money to the project, usually in the form of crops and machinery. Also, most of the seeds given by IBAMA (the Brazilian Environmental Monitoring Organization) are GMO seeds, so, that complicates things.

As a whole, a very interesting trip. And I got to see an igarape, so, very cool. Hugh Raffles would be proud. People here also seem to think that me studying anthropology is cool...so different from the reaction in the US. In Brazil, anthropology is actually relevant! Crazy huh? There are a whole cohort of anthropologists who work for government ministries, such as FUNAI (the indigenous rights branch of the government) and the environmental branch. There isn't any applied/academic distinction here either, so you have anthropologists going directly into aiding development projects, working for the government, or even just writing in newspapers. "Fun" fact: for quiolombolas communities (descendants of runaway slaves from the sugarcane plantation era) to have government aid and recognition of their land ownership, they need an anthropologist to come in and write up a report to the government to say that they are "legit" quiolombolas. Kinda messed up. Anyway.

We also had our first quiz. Can you name the three main river systems of the Amazon? I can: clear water, black water, and white water, with nutrient content in that order. Clear water has the least, black has some, and white is very nutrient rich, what you think of when people say "The Amazon". The clear water of the Rio Solimoes and the black water of the Rio Negro come together (quite near Manaus actually) to form the Rio Amazonas at the famous and beautiful (I will take so many pictures...) "Meeting of the Waters". Also, we had our first Portuguese test as well, and I think I did well, especially on my oral part. It's funny how you actually do well in language once you...you know, have a motivation to speak it. Plus, Portuguese is beautiful. Especially the Paranese accent (which apparently in the rest of Brazil is known as a hick accent...OH WELL), lots of "shhh" noises.

This next series of trips should be really great. With the exception of my host family experience, I actually find being here in Belem my least favorite part of the semester. My classes are fine and the lectures are interesting. But I feel like while we are all settled here in the city everyone seems to click off a bit, which is a little annoying. Or maybe I'm just envious because the closest people I live near requires a 25-30 minute walk from Tv.Lomas to Pedro Miranda to some other street I forget. I love being on the move here, staying in hotels, being dirty and gross and sweaty. It means we are all in the same boat (what a terrible pun) and the cliches and such seem to break down, at least somewhat. And anyone who knows me knows that I hate cliching off. Luckily, there will be lots to do. And honestly, my best experiences with people here so far have been sitting around at a hotel trying to talk to Brazilian kids, or trucking through the muddy mangroves, or gorging ourselves on fish that a fisherman keeps force feeding us, or walking into Sao Fransco from the one hotel in town to buy cookies, or doing capoeira with a few peeps, or just chatting with a friend while we fail at preparing a presentation. Being in Belem in the SIT office, following some routine everyday, gets very boring, to me. I chose SIT because I wanted exactly that: liberation from the depressing daily grind of class, break, lunch, class, etc, at Bard. On the excursions, I feel I have a great time. In Belem, being settled, I feel my energy drop somewhat.

On a better note, I am really enjoying my ISP topic a lot. I found a book today in SIT's library all about health related to development in the Northeast of Brazil, in a few cities not toooooo far from Belem (maybe a 1 hr plane ride). The whole concept of ecological public health, and diseases from inappropriate technology use, seems to be somewhat falling into place. I can't wait to meet with the Health and Happiness people during this excursion. They are really amazing. Besides just health projects, they have a whole host of actives devoted to improving communication in the region and community empowerment, which ranges from the certification of environmental agents to youth newspapers/radio shows/video projects. As we heard in a lecture on Amazonian populations yesterday, it is the cabolco/ribeirinhos populations that not only lack access to communication and health infrastructure, but lack any sort of governmental monetary support as is given to indigenous groups/quilombolas. They instead are somewhat invisible in Brazil, viewed as more of the failure to modernize, or some hybrid of the development era and a more "primitive" age, than groups that deserve the same basic rights as the other populations of the interior. Hopefully the rural homestay with a family/community will be one of those experiences that you never forget. Of course, I feel awkward about it as well, but I suppose it is an experience for them too, hosting a white American student.

Well, I (probably) wont be able to update this again until I get back to Belem on October 7th. I will have a lot to say...for sure. That which doesn't kill me, will certainly make me stronger, I keep telling myself. I have faith things will improve from the stasis of being in Belem.

Boa noite

Good Things

Before anything else: this is outside of my window yesterday when the bar down the street was playing this great ukulele music. Usually all the music at night pisses me off, but tonight, very relaxing.



Today's been good. I woke up and grabbed the bus to meet some friends at the Praca da Republica again. As usual, because I can't really speak much portuguese/understand the bus system here, I keep taking the wrong buses despite my family's best efforts. Needless to say I ended up on the other side of down, several reais down the drain. I went back to the Bosque area, and decided to just walk to Susan and Will's general area, a "quick" 25 minutes in the sun. I rocked the bandana and glasses, and rolled up my sleeves, basically trying to look as intimidating as possible as to avoid any potential muggings. Like I said, we all stick out. Hardcore. We got the right bus and headed out to the market. I love the market. I love the whole atmosphere. I ended up buying a cool, very spartan necklace with this frog symbol that I see everywhere. Apparently, says Karina, it's a good luck symbol from an Amazonian legend. Unfortunately, it is only good luck if you receive it as a gift. Oh well.

Afterwards I went over and had lunch with Susan's family and then, since Will lives literally right next door, stopped by there and met his family as well. People in Brazil are so nice, all of the time. I can't get over it. The contrast seems so high from meeting new people in the US. Maybe it's just been Bard being awkward, but it is so refreshing here. People just...open up so quickly. It seems like a lot of Americans, myself included very much so, are slow to warm people. I know personally it takes me some time to feel comfortable enough to just be myself around someone, unless something just clicks right away, which is on the not-as-frequent part of the spectrum. But all the families I keep meeting, it's like 0 to 60. Very cool. Lunch was great, as usual. Nothing beats maracuja juice, which I think is passion fruit, but I'm not sure.

I walked back home, and headed off to Church round 3 with my family, and it was definitely not as intense as last time, which is a good thing, I think. I enjoyed myself, and afterwards we went out to grab hamburgers. In Belem at least, a cheeseburger is pronounced sheeshie-burgar, which I found hilarious. Just as hilarious as they find it when I have difficulty with Portuguese words. So we had a long exchange of me messing up in Portuguese and them messing up in English. Fun. Apparently though, whenever I meet people they tell me I speak Portuguese well. Not that I can say a lot, but I think that I speak it well, as in I don't have a terrible accent. Brazilians tend to be pretty blunt from my experience thus far, so i take it as a compliment, I don't think they are messing with me. But then again, maybe they are. Oh well! That's half the fun. Speaking of Portuguese, I fear for my test on Thursday. But, at least Sao Fransico should be interesting. Packing kind of sucks, but besides that its exciting. I still have a little more biology to read before our trip though. The cool thing about SIT is that you read articles and such, but it's not like a typical semester at a university where you sit around and discuss the article etc. You read it because you need to, in order to understand the individuals we meet with, the families we stay with, and the places we visit. So, if for the next three days I will be listening to lectures in the forest ecosystems, it necessitates that I read Introduction to Tropical Rainforests as well as the articles on biogeochemical cycles and nutrient cycles. I can skip it if I so desire, and it probably will not affect my final grade, but, which I think is better, I will be worse off. It's all about what you put into it. I like learning this way. I read two articles today for a talk at the end of the week on caboclo society. It also will help seeing as we will be in a rural homestay with caboclo families for 4 days. Thus, it makes plenty of sense for me to not only do the reading, but really get it as well. After a lecture on mangroves in a mangrove forest...I actually understand the general concepts of the particular ecosystem. Because I was there, and had to. Very cool

Well, I need to finish packing (or trying to figure out what clothes I can cut out, to be exact) and finish some reading. Maybe. So, boa noite. They're be plenty to update on come Wednesday/Thursday (quarta-feira e quinta-feira, respectively), including my Portuguese test....blah oral exams.

Perhaps He Has a Point...

Today, as Susan, Will, Gina, Susan's host bro, and I were walking through a market from a friend's host grandmother's birthday party, we stopped to buy an avocado. The seller stopped and began to ask the brother , from what I could make out in Portuguese, what we were doing here. Not why Susan was buying an avocado, but what a bunch of American kids are doing in Belem.

It's a good question. Today I read the article "To Hell With Good Intentions", I forget who the author is, and it's been very stuck in my head since. I'm actually surprised I haven't had to read it at Bard, especially with so many anthropology classes, you'd think it might have come up at some point. But it begs me to ask myself the question, what the hell am I doing here? The author outlines a number of great points, written in the 60's on American volunteers going down to Mexico to help the poor. Besides the excellent comments on how it is imposing another lifestyle and obtrusive, the one that got me was, me paraphrasing, "in the US would you go to a ghetto and tell the community that you were there to help the poor people there?" No. They would tell you to get lost, to fuck off, to use the phrase that would most likely be used. Isn't there something inherently pretentious about the whole idea? Leading me to another of his points: most people, I guess including myself, justify going to do things, such as a semester abroad or volunteering trips, on the grounds that it is also a chance to have a transformative experience. But while doing so, the very presence and idea of this volunteer "saving" the poor helpless people can be harmful in a variety of ways. So, is it worth it?

Lastly...so, why go somewhere else to help people, when there is so much to do right back at home? I don't need to do Peace Corps or do work in Brazil or do volunteer work for a few years after I graduate to help people who have not been born with the same nice life circumstances as I. I could drive 20 minutes from home to do that. I could actually do something at Bard besides study and hang with friends. Or maybe it's the whole idea that I have to do something that is blatantly "helping" people. Cause, in a way, isn't mostly whatever you do helping people, in some way? Or isn't it just enough to support a family and be happy, in the end?

Ah. And of course there is the thing that has been bugging most of us since coming to Belem: we stick out. Obviously. We are, for the most part, a bunch of middle/upper class white kids from America. And everybody sees it. It definitely fits a "matter out of place" model. Luckily, I'm not one of the girls, so I don't really have to deal with constant cat-calls and car honks and other comments. But, it still is strange when everyone either stares at you and, like the man today, wonders what I am doing here, or they just don't acknowledge you at all. And despite how much time, if I were, to do "fieldwork" or "participant observation", I doubt I would really every know the place, people, and culture to at all the same degree as the people here, just as the same would be true if they came to Westtown, PA. Or maybe it's that we never know what's going on in general...

I apologize for the melancholy. Actually, it's not pessimistic at all, it just happens to be the reality of the situation here. While I'm really looking forward to our rural homestays near Manaus, reflecting on this article made me basically confront a lot of mixed feelings I've had about anthropology and doing things outside the US in general. There's so much talk about dependency and cultural imperialism, and do we really justify those claims by saying, "oh, well, I'm passionate about it, my intentions are pure". Well, I guess to hell with it, because it can cause damage regardless. Oh, and nobody's intentions are ever pure. Nothing is ever pure.

On the optimism side, though, it gives me more perspective and drive to think about more I can do back at home, if anything at all. Or ways I can organize my time and energy to things close by. Because in the end, that's all being sustainable is mostly about, yes? Keeping things close and repeatable? And oh, doesn't it take away from empowerment if everything is handed to you by some First-World led NGO? I guess I'll find out over the course of the semester, something to keep an eye out for.

On a more positive note, I'm not just volunteering and being imposing. I am studying, and learning, and learning skills and tools that I can use for the rest of my life. And the way the program is set up, the whole gift relationship is built into the ISP; they want us from the start to do research that can be utilized by people here in Amazonia to better...something. Also, Belem is cool. Last night we went out, meeting up at the Basilica, and walked to a bar/club called the Liverpool. Three cover bands were there singing Audioslave, Pearl Jam, and Foo Fighters. Very cool, might I add. I had a good time. Today a bunch of us met up at Jackie's family's house, as I said earlier, for her grandmother's 77th birthday. Brazilian families here are HUGE. Mind you, these aren't big houses, at all. It was packed. And a very cool experience...maybe we aren't so obtrusive after all, I don't know, its all very confusing and blah. We spent a long time chilling on the porch drinking Guarana soda and Skol beer talking to some of the brothers and cousins while listening to MTV's rap picks blast from the TV in the background. Hippi-Hoppi, its called here. It felt so strange, like being between Brazil and the US. Tonight: who knows. Family is out the church. Phone is charging. Might go meet up with people back at the house or something, who knows? Tomorrow I'm hoping to cruise around the Praca da Republica again and barter for some cool things.

Crap Everything Is Wet Here!

So, we all know it rains a lot in the Amazon. No you don't! We got out of class today at 6, and the sky was literally BLACK. Like...night time black. And then the heavens basically opened up. So...the walk home, not so much fun. In fact, more like...Dan's bag and various parts of it's insides are quite soaked around the edges. As in, notebooks/books are still usable (hopefully), but need to dry A LOT. I feel pretty awful, seeing as one of the books belongs to SIT's library. Oh, and also the fact that this morning, not thinking about the potential chance of a cosmic rainstorm, left my window cracked open.

Big mistake.

I walked into my room and my bed was pretty wet, along with parts of the floor. Luckily, thank god, my computer and the family's computer are fine, the only thing is now to just hope tomorrow the sun works its magic. But I must have said desculpe (I'm sorry) a million times to my host family. I feel terrible about it. Luckily today was laundry day...

Although, I have to say, being stuck in the rain trying to wait underneath things for cover was a pretty good exercise in patience. All for now, I need to read and maybe just watch some TV with Judah or something.

Oh, and went to the Bosque today. Saw a manatee. Very excited. I'm going to go back for pictures...

Getting Lost is Getting Fun

People here love Obama. I went home for lunch today, and Diego’s mother’s husband was there to eat with us, and I think I was actually able to more or less understand what he was talking to me about. He was asking me where I’m from, how I like Belém, what Philadelphia is known for, and so on. Then, suddenly, he just whips out this Obama pin and smiles. I thought it was hilarious. Plus, Brazilian TV likes to take pot-shots at McCain, it seems. Of course, it isn’t at all fun trying to explain how elections work in the United States to my Brazilian family either…

Last night we were actually able to 1) buy cell phones and 2) GO OUT. I’ve been looking forward to actually getting around Belém at night since the moment we got here. I was going to meet up with a friend at the Bosque and then hitch a bus (the friend speaks Portuguese, eu preciso de entender mais bom…), and we worked it out so that if we had trouble finding each other, we’d at least have cell phones. No dice, they didn’t work. After wandering around the meeting spot for 15 minutes, I decided to just take a leap of faith, and went onto the first bus that stopped nearby. I asked the driver if it was going to Nazaré Ave, seeing as people were going to get a ride from the Basilica, but he rambled something off in Portuguese so of course I had no idea what was going on. I figured it meant “Not now, on the way back”, so I had nothing else to lose and went for the ride. Lucky for me, it went up to the Ver-o-Peso Market, which is right along the entry to Cidade Velha, the old part of town, where the jazz club we were going to is located. So, using my grand Portuguese skills, I randomly asked people who didn’t look too sketchy where the Casa da Onze Janelas was, or, “Onde fica…” Needless to say I felt pretty lost, but eventually found the club. After that is was all good, about 10 of us or so showed up, and ended up having a few choppes and listening to some awesome music, and then went out to walk around near the river. Muita bonita.

In the end, my friends and I struggled with why our cell phones weren’t working for a copious amount of time. Eventually though, we embarrassingly discovered that we had been reading our numbers wrong on the package and mistook the 3 for an 8…wonderful. So, now, everything is in working order.

Today we all met with Gustavo to talk about initial ideas for our ISPs, and I actually feel pretty good about mine. Basically, a quick glance at my notebook from our meeting:

• Look into the Health and Happiness Project some more
• Works with about 140 communities along the river with linked health, forest economy, and community empowerment issues
• Communication infrastructure programs to improve access and delivery of healthcare
• Hospital boat (!sweet)
• Look into the FEA, small NGO dealing with modes of sustainable/appropriate technologies as a mode of community empowerment
• Do some research on health side of large industrial/technological projects and displacement/health/culture loss or gain
• Turuci (spelled wrong) Dam
• Large number of mining projects forcing caboclos off land
• Belemonte Dam in process of being developed (will be third largest dam in the world)

I also picked up Health Ecology: Health, culture, and human-environment interaction from our library to browse through over the next few nights, just to get a general overview of the subject. Right now, all we are supposed to be doing for the next 2 weeks is researching and zoning in on our ISP. I first need to understand the based of ecology-human health interaction before I can get into the specifics. But it’s all very interesting, and I also found an article called The Political Ecology of Famine in the Third World in the Liberation Ecologies book. Lots to do, so for tonight I’m just laying in the hammock reading. But its nice. And I’m sure there will be plenty to keep me busy this weekend.

Today is officially week 3 (maybe 4, I can’t quite remember) of my malaria pills. They’re illegal here in Brazil, only given out by the government in extreme outbreaks. The Brazilian doctor we met with basically told me that under his medical advice they are very dangerous and aren’t even that effective. Fantastic. Luckily I haven’t been cursed with any terrifying hallucinations, just one or two very surreal and sporadic dreams.

The funny think about living in another country is that not matter where you are, the sky always looks the same.

A Little Tour of Belem

Not much going on today. Last night I decided to sleep in a hammock instead of the bed, and it worked out pretty nicely, besides the whole me waking up at 3 am thing. But it was comfy, and I look forward to doing it on the boat from Manaus to Belem for 4 days. I couldn't figure out how to open the milk carton at breakfast today and was too embarrassed to ask for help, so I just quietly put it back in the fridge and drank some of the avocado smoothie Lea made the other day (abacate, but in Brazil, at least in the North, the avocados are quite different, very sweet) and snagged an apple for the road. Got to the office early...as usual, but didn't have to wait too long before it opened up and I could escape the heat. Portuguese went well, tonight our licao da casa, homework, was to write up a schedule of what an normal day is like here so far. We also got to try and bunch of Amazonian fruits in class today, and learned the basic words for describing food. Some of the fruits were really good, others....very interesting. It'll be neat to see what we get to eat later on, especially in Manaus.

Today I went to the mall again to try and buy a prepaid cell phone with a friend who has a Brazilian passport, but turns out that you need a Brazilain ID card to buy one, so, no dice today. It turned out to be an ok experience in the end, because we decided to walk back to the SIT office, which is a 2 hour walk, a little less once you factor in the times we got a little lost. Felt good to get some exercise in, although I kind of blew that by giving in to a Guarana craving, this awesome Brazilian soda.

Right now everyone is our group is basically trying to get cell phones and figure out means of transportation so that we can go out an explore the city a little at night, which I would love. It was good walking from the mall today, because it basically gave me a little look at the main route from mall to office, which are mais ou menos the polar ends of the city. Might go to a jazz club tomorrow night, should be fun, especially figuring out the taxis here in Belem...although today in the cell phone store I had to try to convey that I needed a cheap prepaid cell phone, and I think I did fine, so, a little confidence boost in the Portuguese department:

...Eu preciso de dois telefones celulares preparados mais baratos, por favor

Yeah. Time to finish my Portuguese homework, read up on the Health and Happiness Project for ISP a little, maybe watch some more TV with the host family, and rock out in the hammock.

Boa noite