03/08/2012 - The Last Day

Today is the last day of the program.  We left the hotel Tiwa and returned to the hotel in the center of Manaus.  We told everyone goodbye and left everyone to their own path.  Sara and I are continuing in Manaus for a few more days.  She wants to visit the people she knew and then we go to Brasilia.

02/08/2012 - The Amazon Rainforest

Today in the morning we went to a restaurant that floats on one of the tributaries of the rivers.  There we walked on a pier and fed some wild monkeys.  Then it was time for us to eat and there was a lot to try.  Then we went to a house that had an anaconda and a sloth that we were able to hold and take pictures with.  In the afternoon we went on a walk in the middle of the rainforest.  It was pretty cool the guide showed us how the Indians set their traps and caught their prey.

01/08/2012 - Pink Dolphins and Indians

Today was awesome!  In the morning we went to swim with the dolphins in the Black River and we were able to touch them and it was amazing!  We spent a good long while there swiming and then we left to see the Indians of the Amazon Rainforest.  There we went and saw them showing the dances that they used to do all the time.  They danced about five or six different dances and then they invited us to dance with them.  Then we went to the Rubber Museum in the forest and they explained how the workers were exploited and basically slaves.

31/07/2012 - Tiwa and Piranas

Today we made it to a new hotel here in Manaus.  It is a hotel on the edge of the Black River that is part of the Amazon River.  We got there and got assigned rooms the went piraña fishing.  I was able to catch only one, which is pretty sad.  We had a great time, but there is no Internet here at the hotel, so I will post these later.

30/07/2012 - Manaus

Today we made it to Manaus from Fortaleza.  Our plane actually made a stop in Belém hitch is in another state, Pará.  Then when we got to our hotel we had to wait for the rooms to be cleaned and prepared, so we went out and saw the Teatro Amazona and then we ate at a burger joint that Sara knew about.  After that we went back to the hotel until a little later.  Then we went to an opera show at the theater that was put on by Koreans.  It was actually the first time that I enjoyed an opera song, but I thought that the Koreans were amazing.

28/07/2012 - Fortaleza

Yesterday we left Salvador and came to Fortaleza.  Here we just made it to our apartment and went to eat.  While we were eating we watched the openings of the olympics in London.  That were truly amazing.  At night we went to the movies and watched The Dark Night Rises.  It was amazing.

26/07/2012 - Islands in Bahia

Today we went to the bay in Bahia called the Bay of All of Saints.  There we took a boat ride to some of the islands that are near Salvador.  We went to a beach on Ítaparica and swam with some jellyfish and then played volleyball on the beach.  The water was crystal clear and you could see the bottom even when you couldn't touch it without diving under the water.  After that we went to another part of the island for lunch and then took a tour of the town.  We weren't able to go inside of practically anything.  But we saw the outside of a fort that was built in 1711 on the ruins of the first fort that was built in the 1640s.

25/07/2012 - Turtles!

Today we went to a tiny lake with a pretty cool myth behind it and we just looked at the lake, but we didn't swim in it.  After the quick stop at the lake went to a place called Projeto Tamar where they take sea turtles to help them recover from being an endangered species. They also have some sharks and sting rays as well as a lot of information about turtles.  It was really awesome what they do for the endangered species.

24/07/2012 - Salvador

Today we went exploring Salvador first we went to the lighthouse here that is also a fort and then we went to another fort that is close to the lighthouse, but it was closed.  Later we went to the center of Salvador, but I walked there with only a few people from our group.  We stopped at an art museum, and took pictures on the staircase because they wouldn't allow cameras in the museum.  Later we went inside the Bascillica São Sebastião which is a more neo-classical church instead of a baroque church like most of them have been.  Later we went in the palace of the governor, and then went down the elevator on the hill.  Later we went to a souvenir shop with a lot of little stores in it.  At night we went to a catholic mass that was mixed with an African religion.

23/07/2012 - Bye Recife

Yesterday was the last Sunday that we had in Recife with our families.  So Brady and I just hung out with our family and started packing for our trips.
Today we made it to Salvador.  All we did today was get set up in our hotel and look for somewhere to eat.  We found a little snack area and buy something small.  Sara has been sick for a while now, so I bought her coconut water, which seemed to help.

21/07/2012 - nothing much

Yesterday Sara gave her presentation about the rubber industry.  We also had a party at night where we danced the Howdown Throwdown by Miley Cyrus.
I wasn't feeling very well today and so I decided that I would just stay at our families house.  So all I did was some homework, and then I played video games while the others went to a museum.  After that some of them went to a soccer game, which I really wanted to, but wasn't able to.

19/07/2012 - Porto de Galinhas

Today we went to Porto de Galinhas and went to another wonderful beach.  Right when we got there we went on a boat ride to a reef  and saw the fish that live in the reef and swam in the natural pools with the fish, which was amazing even though it was very similar to what we did in Maceió it was still an awesome experience.
After that we just hung out at the beach bodysurfing and playing soccer on the beach.  For lunch we ate tapiocas which were pretty good, but not the best I've had.

18/07/2012 - Lampião

Yesterday we went to a fort in Natal, the fort of the wise men, that is on the beach near a river in the  city.  They said that it was used in World War II to signal the planes that were coming from the USA to get over to Europe and Africa.
Today I gave my presentation for classand it was on Padre Cicero, a catholic priest that was kicked out of the priesthood because of some miracle that the church didn't approve of.  The other person that I talked about was Lampião, who was a RobinHood type person who would steal from the rich and then use the money so that it made its way to the poor.
After class we went to Marco Zero, where all of the roads in Recife start, and also we went to the oldest synagogue in Brazil.

16/07/2012 - Genipabu

This morning Joe, Josh, Brady, and I went to the beach at our hotel and went bodysurfing and after that we played soccer on the beach with some Brazilians.  At ten we went to a beach here in Natal called Genipabu and it was awesome.  At Genipabu we rode on some sand dunes in buggies, the was an amazing ctivity for us to do in Natal.  Later Sara, Brady and I went sand boarding, but I like snowboarding a lot better.  When we returned to the hotel we played another game of soccer on the beach and then for dinner we went to a pizza buffet.

15/07/2012 - Natal

So yesterday on Sunday we went to church in João Pessoa and then we went to some catholic churches.  They were really cool, and had an amazing amount of history behind each one of them.  We actually took a tour of one of the churches there and the guide took us to all of the places inside the church where we had not been able to see in any of the others.  We saw the area for the choir on the second floor and how they had a revolving music stand, so that the piece pointed at the director was the one everyone was supposed to sing.  The people who where taking care of the building were extremely nice and very helpful at answering questions that we had for them.
Later we drove for another two hours and a little bit so that we could make it to Natal, which is the capital of another state, Rio Grand do Norte.  We made it to our hotel and Dr. Fitzgibbon decides to play a practical joke on us.  She says that there is no more room at the hotel and that they messed up the reservation that we had made. She tricked all of us into believing her, but it was all correct.

14/07/2012 - Traveling to João Pessoa

So today we basically just travelled to João Pessoa.  It is in a different state, Paraíba, so it was quite a drive. This time it was only two hours to get there and we were in a big bus, so it was nice.  We got to João Pessoa and found a little hotel that would accommodate us.  Then we went to the beach to eat and have fun. While at the beach we built a sand castle, burried Mitch and made him into a mermaid, and then we played football on the beach, and that was super fun.  After that we were all very tired so we just went to bed.

13/07/2012 - Spiderman

Yesterday was a day off so that we could get some things organized before having to go to class.  So I did some homework that I needed to and talked with Joe and Josh at the bishop's house.
Today we had class in the morning and a lot of presentations were done.  Michele Rivera gave a great presentation on Pedro Américo the artist.  Doug Porter gave a good one about Ariano Suassuna, the amazing writer of O Auto da Compadecida, a hilarious play or movie.  Shawndeen Stahly presented on Nelson Rodrigues a playwriter.  Glauber Rocha was the last presentation that we saw, and it was given by Tawnya Howard.  Glauber Rocha was a movie director that made movies extremely realistic, so much so that no one really enjoyed them.
At night I went to see the new Spiderman movie with my friends and the family that I am staying with.  It was super fun.

11/07/2012 - Cave Paintings

Today we went to see a school where the youths made hand made craft items such as necklaces and bracelets.  They were really nice and many people from our group bought things from them, because they were very pretty and made from seeds that they gathered.  After that we went to a place nearby that has some ancient, prehistoric cave painting that are super awesome.  so we had to hike up a little bit before seeing the paintings, but they were awesome.  Then we had another extremely long ride back home to Recife.

10/07/2012 - The Sertão

Today we visited some of the people that DIACONIA helps in the sertão.  They are mostly farmers who try to grow things organically, but not charge for the organic procedure, which is very nice of them.  The first family we visited they gave us a tour of their farm and showed us what they did with the fruit they get from their orchard.  They make fruit juice concentrate from all the fruit they collect and sell it to many different people and companies.
The second family has a farm where they make raw sugar from the sugarcane they grow.  They also showed us how they plant the different vegetables so that the insects that enjoy one crop do not find all of the same vegetable at once.  He also planted trees so that the birds will be around to eat some of the bugs, even though they do eat some of the plants as well.
After that we went back to the hotel and rested.

09/07/2012 - Afogados da Ingazeira

On Saturday I was in Maceió and I went to one of the most amazing places in the morning.  We went to the Natural Pools of Pajuçara where we swam with the fishes and saw the reefs that are over a mile out from shore.  It is a truly amazing place to visit.  Later that night I went to visit one of the places I was in during my mission.  It was nice to visit some of the people I knew and it was cool to have some of them still remember me.
On Sunday I went to church in the place I visited on Saturday and saw one of my recent converts give a talk in church as he prepares to serve a mission.  It was a wonderful experience.  Then we travelled back to Recife and got ready for the trip on Monday.
Today we did traveled to a small town in the interior of the state of Pernambuco.  It is roughly a six hour drive from here to there so we had to wake up extremely early just to get out there.  After a long and uneventful drive, we made it to the pousada (hotel) we would be staying at for the duration of the trip.  It was a nice, sunny day and a leader from the non-governmental organization called DIACONIA.  He explained how the organization is helping out the people in the area to learn about how to survive and flourish in the arid terrain of the sertão.  They help the people to collect the rainwater and store it for use throughout the dry season.  They also help out a youth group to create and sell necklaces, bracelets and earrings to make some money to help out their families.  Later that night we went swimming in the pool and tried to play waterpolo, but none of us were really that good.

06/07/2012 - Maceió

Today Sara, Berkeley, Tawnya, Natalia and I went to Maceió.  We lest on the bus at 5:30 am.  It was not a wonderful bus ride, because I was super tired, but unable to sleep for longer than about 10 minutes at a time.  But when I made it to Maceió, my old mission, it was totally worth it.  I stayed at a family that I had met on my mission and went and visited with some others.  I walked on some of the beaches a little, and made sure to eat a tapióca with apple cinnimon filling.  Delicious!
Well aside from that I just made sure to have a great rest of the day.

05/07/2012 - School

This morning we actually went to school to learn more about the history of the people here in Brazil.  We had a wonderful day listening to the presentations about 4 influential Brazilians that have helped change Brazil and the world.
The first was a presentation by Joe Burwasser on Celso Furtado who was a Brazilian economist and helped form the ideas that came up with the Plano Real, which brought about the new currency the Real, and helped form the economy for Brazil into the 5th best in the world.
The next presentation was done by Michael Andraszczyk on Joaquim Nambocu who was a lot of different things, but most importantly he was an abolitionist for Brazilian slaves.
Then Josh Barton talked about Gilberto Freyre who among other things was a historian of the Brazilian people.  Aparently not all of his historical conclusions were correct, but Gilberto Freyre may just have been writing to offset the general beliefs of his foreign contemperaries.
Last was Michelle McMurray's presentation on Paulo Freire who updated the way that people think of education, especially education of the underpriviledged.
Afterwards we had a free day.  Huzzah!

04/07/2012 - 4th of July

Today is Wednesday the 4th of July, and since it is Independance Day in the US our school had a little patriotic party with the kids from yesterday at the American School.  We had a blast and sang the national anthem with them as well as talked about what our families usually do for the 4th of July.  Then we ate hamburgers and hotdogs and played games and talked.  At the insistance of Mitch, from our study abroad group, we danced the Chacha slide.  I had a lot of fun and the kids from the program looked like they did as well.
After the party we went to a really big bookstore and looked around.  I was looking for the movie o Auto da  Compadecida, but I was unable to find it.  It is a hilarious movie about the Northeast of Brazil, and the way that they try to do things here.
After the bookstore we took a ride on a boat around the central island here in Recife.  We found out a lot about the city and the older buildings here, and I always enjoy learning about history when there is no pressure to write anything about it.  The entire class had a blast and we are extremely glad that we decided to come and learn here in Brazil.

03/07/2012 - American School and Sports

This morning we went out to an American school here that teaches all of its classes in English.  While there we met a group of Brazilian students that speak English very well and helped them understand a little about American culture and specifically sports.  We taught them about Football, Baseball, Basketball, Cheerleading and Soccer.  After the brief explanations of how the sports worked we had a demonstration of Football, Baseball, and Basketball.  I was on the team that helped demonstrate Football.  I do not have very good hand eye coordination, but I was able to catch the ball and throw it with varying degrees of accuracy. It was a lot of fun teaching and watching the Brazilians play Football.
In the afternoon we went to CCJ to continue painting the school while it was on break.  Only a few of us went, but we were able to work continually and got a big piece of the school painted.  I went to mix some paint for the last little bit, but I added too much coloring so it turned out darker than the rest of the paint, but we were able to save face by just painting the Entrance to the school the darker color, and the inside was lighter green.  The school is looking very nice and I hope that the people at CCJ like the way their school was painted.
Well i cant find my pictures now, but I'll add them later.

02/07/2012 - Painting

Saturday was a special day, it was the day that we went out and painted/graffitied some of the houses in a poorer neighborhood.  It was a lot of fun, but I am not an artist, so I mostly painted the background color onto the walls.  The people were very greatful for their houses to be painted and they were really nice to allow us to cover their walls with our artwork.  Sara had the idea of making the front wall an undersea picture and it turned out really well, but you can judge for yourself as it is in this picture to the right.  Sunday was just normal church.

Today was a good day, it was a little difficult, but good.  Instead of going to class in the morning to ABA, we went straight to peixinhos to work with them by painting the inside of the school where CCJ is centered at.  I usually stayed on the ladder painting up high, until Doug, who is a lot taller than I am, took it to do up near the ceiling.  The school looks very nice with a light green paint color.  Today we painted two rooms and two hallways.  The truth is that I thought that what the school really needed was a new roof.  The reason that the paint on the walls seemed so bad was the fact that the water had seeped into the walls and caused them to peel off.  I believed that those problems should have been taken care of first before we repainted because it didn't actually fix the problem.  I know that for the internship we didn't have the money to fix the roof for them, but i feel as though it would have been better that way.



Today was also Vanessa's birthday so we had cake to celebrate.

29/06/2012 - Caruaru

Today we had nothing to do in the morning so we just stayed with our families, and got a call from our teacher that we would be going to a smaller town in the interior called Caruaru.  This town is a famous center for São João.  It has all of the biggest parties in the state and has the best forro bands from the country play for a day.  While we were there we also saw a big quadrilha presentation.  A quadrilha is similar to a line dance with a partner and so you follow what the man with the mic tells you to do.  It was a good quadrilha and the people had practiced a lot to put it on.  We then went to the forro show and listened to the music.  We got home very late and have to get up very early in the morning.

28/06/2012 - Party at the Internship

This morning, Thursday, in class we finished the movie I talked about yesterday.  Today we had a party at the Internship, it was a festa junina that the CCJ put on for the kids of the surrounding neighborhood and for us.  It was a lot of fun, because of all of the little kids form the neighborhood.  The class also brought some American food to share with the kids and Berkeley sang some songs in English, and some in Portuguese for them.
After that we just went home with nothing else to do.

27/06/2012 - Bus Strike

Today, Wednesday, Recife bus drivers decided that they weren't being paid enough money to do their job so they showed what would happen if the buses stopped working so they had a 24 hour strike.  For class we talked more about the sertão and the sertanejos, who are the people who live in the sertão.  After a brief talk we started watching a movie called Behind the Sun.  The movie talks about the circular nature of foolish traditions and how people should modernize their beliefs instead of following blindly until you are destroyed.
We didn't go to our Internship today because of the bus strike, and it would have taken us a long time to get there and back, so we had a half-day.  After class I went to watch the Spain-Portugal soccer game for the Eurocup.  It was not a very eventful game, but I had fun because I was with my sister, who also likes to watch soccer.

26/06/2012 - Graffiti!

Today is Tuesday, and in the morning in class we talked about the Sertão, which is a desert area in the Brazilian Northeast.  It is a harsh place to live and is one of the most difficult terrains to flourish in.  The Brazilian were able to create a life there raising cattle and growing sugarcane.

When we went to the internship we painted the picture we drew yesterday and then practiced creating graffiti  on command.  We split up into 3 groups of roughly seven, and painted a piece of the wall.  My goup painted a hammock between two palm trees.  It was not a very meaningful graffiti, but i thought it looked nice.

25/06/2012- The Internship

Well for a quick recap of Saturday I was finally able to go to the beach and have some fun.  In the morning Brady and I ran from where we live to where Sara lives, which is like 7 or 8 kilometers.  Then we went to the beach and played in the ocean and I built a better sand castle than the one I had done last week.
On Sunday, I went to church and then to Sara's family's house and ate a fejoada, which is a typical Brazilian meal with black beans and pork meat on rice.

On Monday the Internship started for reals this time.  In class we talked about our readings about the Jews in Brazil and then for the internship we planned to give an English course to the people of CCJ who wanted it, but when we got there, they said that we could do something that would help than more English courses, which was to help them paint, and graffiti the walls of a poor neighborhood nearby the school, on Saturday, and paint the school on Monday.  So to practice we all had to draw a picture on a white piece of paper.  I was never very good at art so my picture is nothing to brag about, but it was a good day.

22 June 2012 - Temple

Today was kind of supposed to be a day of rest.  We do not have class of Friday so no lessons on the culture, but in the morning we went to the temple here in Recife, it was a great activity, and i believe there is no greater lesson than those you learn in the temple.  We were able to go as a group and have a great time.

In the afternoon we went to the center of Recife and saw another old cathedral, and we were able to se some of the daily life of the people of Recife.  Later the family that I'm living with made some food that is typical during the St John Holiday's here and they were very delicious.  

Then I went to a Festa de São João that one of the stakes was having and was able to dance forro and try to dance a quadrilha.  It was pretty fun trying to dance the typical dances of Recife.

21 June 2012 - Instituto Brennand

Today we had a presentation about Ricardo and Flavio Brennand is class.  Ricardo Brennandwas a rich man from the state of Pernambuco (where Recife is located)  who had become rich from owning a sugar cane plantation.  After he became rich he started buying many works of art and weapons and filling a castle that is located here in Recife.  His cousin Flavio was a painter and a sculptor who helped make Recife a beautiful place.

In the afternoon we went and visited the Instituto Brennand.  That is the castle that Ricardo filled with the many paintings and sculptures and weapons that he collected.  It was a truly wonderful place to visit.  It was filled with many different things and you could spend hours or even days looking at all of the different things there.

20 June 2012 - Olde Town Olinda

Today was a great day of learning about the culture and history of Brazil.  In class in the morning we learned about José Mauricio de Nassau, who was the Dutch governor of Recife and the surrounding areas for most of the Dutch occupation of Brazil.  He was a good governor and helped the area develop into a very cultured part of Brazil.

In the afternoon we traveled to see the historic area in Olinda which is the city directly north of Recife.  It is in fact older than Recife is, but not by much.  We visited many old catholic cathedrals in the area and took a scenic elevator to the top of a building that was on the highest hill so that we could see all of the surrounding areas and take pictures from the top.  Most of the cathedrals had been originally built in the late 1500s.  It was an amazing trip and a great cultural experience.

19 June 2012-The Internship

Today in class we talked about the "jeitinho brasileiro," or the way that brasilians do things.  The "jeitinho brasileiro" is the methods they use to generally get around a certain rule or shorten the time needed to complete an objective.  We analyzed the cultural impact that the "jeitinho brasileiro" has on the mindset of the people of Brazil.
Afterward we went to Olinda to see about the internship that we are going to do.  The man in charge was very helpful, and after we met the people that we will be working with, he took us to a building called Nascedouro de Peixinhos, which is a Center of Technology and Digital Culture.  There was also an old slaughterhouse that was in disrepair nearby and we took a look inside.  It was a creepy place, but one filled with history.

At night Brady and I went to a cultural dance about the African-Brazilian descendants and learned some of it.  It was a lot of fun and we had a good time there.  The African culture was very prominent there with the different drums and food.  We ate acarajé wich is a typical food of the northeast with lots of spices and shrimp or crab.

18 June 2012- The Beginning

On Friday I arrived in Recife. I got here on a plane with my sister and many others from my group. The family that I'm staying here with went to pick me up from the airport. The mother's name is Vanda and her husband's name is Lucimario. they have a son and two daughters. The son's name is Lucimario Jr. (from here on referred to as Junior)and the older daughter's name is Laurileide, she lives next door with her husband, Severino, and her daughter Laura. Vanda's other daughter, Lucimar, is also married, but is staying with the family because she is pregnant and says that all the smells at her house make her stomache churn. They are a great family and are always willing to help and show me parts of Recife and talk about the culture. They took me to a small square in town and I ate a tapioca, with chocolate and condensed milk. On Saturday Sara, my sister, came to the house I'm living in and met the family I'm staying with. After lunch we went to pick up the other member of the study abroad that will be staying with me at Donna Vanda's home. His name is Brady Squires. After we brought him to the house, we took a shower and went out to a party that the ward here was having. It was a lot of fun, and we met my sister, and Tawnya (another member of the study abroad) there. On Sunday I went to church here in the ward Jardim Piedade. There were six from the study abroad there. We then went to the beach and I made a castle in the sand. While I was building it, Laura ran through it after some light goading from Junior. After the castle was destroyed I decided that it would be a lot easier to build a pyramid, so we made one really quickly, and when we finished we had Laura run through it as well and so it also was destroyed. Today was the first day of class here in Recife. Just like every other first day of class, today was a day to get to know people and places, as well as a time to understand what we are supposed to do. After class we went to the mall in Recife there we ate lunch (I ate a calzone) and tried to get all the phones tested to see if they would work. After a a short time Brady and I grabbed the bus and went back to the family that we are living with. There I tried to get the papers we need for class copied, so that I could get the reading completed for class. During the wait Junior, Brady and I all played the kinect dance game. We all enjoyed ourselves and had lots of fun. After a few hours the copies were ready and we were able to go pick them up. So everything has turned out well so far.