An aerial view of the tiroleza in Morro de Sao Paolo. The man in the video isn’t in our group, but I thought it would be fun to see regardless. Watch him splash into the water at the end!

7:50 pm  •  2 August 2011

Morro de Sao Paolo is an isolated island off the Northeast tip of Brazil. In order to get there, we first took a bus to the Salvador ferry dock, took a ferry to Itaparica, hopped aboard a 1 1/2 hour bus ride across the island, and finally boarded a speedboat to arrive in Morro. Because this remains the best way to get to Morro, I was thinking the island must be deserted. This wasn’t the case. Not to be discouraged by a 3-4 hour trip from Salvador, Morro’s beaches were full of people not wanting to miss out on the beauty there.

Our bed and breakfast hotel was extremely close to the ferry dock and we settled in quickly. Tall coconut trees were everywhere and if we walked up a set of mossy, winding, cobblestone steps, they led to a small pool where you could just see the ocean over the tops of the trees.

Not wanting to waste any time, we hurried down to the beach. There was a cute restaurant called the Banana Bar right next to where we settled and I walked there with Elena to grab a bite. The man who owned the bar had lived all over the world and was living his dream: owning a beach shack on the most beautiful beach in the most beautiful place he claims to have seen. His wife also worked with him - she had enough plastic surgery to make Michael Jackson blush and her skin was a deep brown from spending years in the sun.

After our quick lunch, some Northeastern students began to brave the tiroleza, a zipline that started at the top of a semi-distance cliff and went straight down into the ocean where the rest of us were sitting on the sand. I observed for a while because I’m slightly afraid of heights but after everyone came down with huge smiles on their face, I knew I would regret it if I didn’t go. I began the walk through town and eventually reached some steps that cut through a dense patch of trees. With every step up I took, I was reminded that I was walking farther up the cliff, which meant farther down the other side. I suited up and inched slowly to the edge of a rickety wooden platform that jutted off the edge of the cliff. I looked up to the guide with fear in my eyes and before I got a chance to catch my breath, he pushed me off! It was exhilarating! I had a beautiful view of Morro and the ocean and in less than a minute, crashed into the cool water. I couldn’t wait to go again (which I did the next day)!

When the sun set, we ate dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant recommended by Clara. I ate gorgonzola pasta with vodka sauce and realized the street below the restaurant was becoming more lively as dinner wore on. We walked downstairs after the meal, where music was playing and food carts lined the streets. There were gelato carts, dessert carts, and a liquor cart: where the customer could choose any kind of liquor and fresh Brazilian fruit to mix together into a cocktail.

At some point during the night, one of the people on our dialogue became friends with a guitar-playing Brazilian with an impressive repertoire of American songs. We made our way down to the beach with him, and sang along to songs by the Beatles and the Cranberries. It was a highlight of the trip so far. We danced to authentic Brazilian music later on and went to bed tired and happy to be in such an amazing place.

On the 24th (our last day in Morro), we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the hotel complete with fried bananas, pao de queijo (a delicious, cheesy bread in the form of a small sphere), yogurt, granola, and a tapioca cake. We took some last trips on the zipline, enjoyed pureed acai beach side, explored shallow tide pools, and took the trip back home.

Sleep wasn’t hard to come by after this busy weekend!

7:49 pm  •  2 August 2011

Throughout the course of this dialogue, our group has been introduced to tons of new information about the city of Salvador and the country of Brazil. I’ve found a lot of these facts interesting and wanted to share some of the highlights with all of you. Here goes!

• Brazil was discovered by Portugal in 1500 by Pedro Alvares Cabral. For the next 30 years, Portugal was interested solely in the brazilwood found there to build furniture.
• In the early to mid 1500s, prisons in Catholic Portugal were overflowing with Jewish prisoners. Portugal gave the imprisoned Jews an option to be free providing they traveled to Brazil to colonize it. These populations were instructed by the king of Portugal to mate with the indigenous peoples in Brazil.
• In 1550/1551, Brazil began importing enslaved Africans. All Africans were sent to the Northeast region (where Salvador is located) and most worked in sugarcane production.
• Sugarcane was the first Brazilian economic boom, followed by gold in 1695 (where 600,000 people migrated from Portugal to Brazil and many native Brazilians moved south to Rio de Janeiro where the gold was. Rio was proclaimed the capital of Brazil during this time), and later coffee.
• Brazil declared its independence in 1822, and was officially recognized as independent in 1824.

• Today, Salvador has the largest mixed and black population in Brazil. 80% of the population is Afro-Brazilian, and the remaining 20% is white (primarily from Spain).
• Salvador is located in the Northeast region of Brazil in the state of Bahia. The Northeast is the poorest region in Brazil and also has the lowest literacy rate.
• The capital of Brazil today is Brasilia, an artificially created city in the center of Brazil built there in an attempt to increase national integration. The city (which was finished in 1960) is designed in the shape of an airplane with commercial areas in the center and residential areas along the wings. There are no town squares to gather in.
• Brasilia was built by poor individuals from the Northeast. The government assumed these people would build Brasilia and then return home but they stayed, creating a large number of slums directly outside the walls of the city.

• Regarding future economic problems, which we have focused a lot on here: As Brazil’s economy booms, it’s creaking infastructure is struggling to keep up. In Sao Paolo, there are 70-120km traffic jams. Airports are not expanded. Stadiums for the World Cup are not built. Funds are needed to increase integration (to get goods from one side of Brazil to another is nearly impossible and still very expensive) but this creates a long-term financial bottleneck.

Thanks for reading, I’ll post more about my experiences here next!

2:01 pm  •  2 August 2011

After a full week of Portuguese language classes and interesting lectures about economic development in Brazil, we were led by Professor Fred to Praia do Forte, a small town to Salvador’s northeast.

Praia do Forte seemed as though it was constructed solely for the purpose of tourism. Although there was some old fashioned charm (mainly a few original churches), the main street looked very artificial. If Disney World made a Brazilian addition to EPCOT, it may look exactly like Praia do Forte.

Outside the main street of Praia do Forte is an old castle called Castelo Garcia d’Avilia, dating back to 1552. This was the group’s first stop. The castle was the first Portugese edifice in Brazil and today it is an impressive ruin with great views to the ocean and trees below. When Portugal was desperate to colonize as a way to control its new Brazilian territory, the king of Portugal began granting this land around Praia do Forte to merchants, soldiers, and aristocrats. In 1552, when a poor farmer (Garcia d’Avilia) was endowed with land here, he expanded his 12-cow farm inland all the way to state of Marinhao, which made him the largest landholder in all of the Northeast. To this day, many claimed that the castle ruins are haunted by the slaves who worked on the grounds of the castle and are now buried there. Many individuals were buried near a chapel that still stands today; the closer they were, the more money they donated, and the closer to heaven they were. The myth is that the slaves, still upset about their burial placement (which was as far as possible from the grounds of the church) come back at all hours to scare visitors.

After the ruin we went to see the Tamar project, an non profit organization in the Northeast dedicated to preserving the five species of sea turtles in Brazil. There were small exhibition pools everywhere where urchins, eels, and sharks were kept. The highlight of the exhibit is the large sea turtle tanks.

We ate lunch at a buffet with traditional Brazilian food called Casa da Nati and spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the beach while reading and swimming.

We hopped on the bus to go back to Salvador and as we were approaching the city, got caught in a major traffic jam. It took us nearly twice as long to get home as we anticipated. A street that should have taken us 10 minutes to drive through (with no traffic) took over an hour. I didn’t mind because we were all talking and laughing with each other, but it further reinforced what we have been learning about in our economic development classes. Salvador, home to 2.7 million people, has some seriously shaky infrastructure. In the upcoming years, Salvador will serve as a major hub for both the World Cup and the Olympics and there are still no finite plans to expand highways or develop any kind of rail system. The airport of Salvador (the third largest city in Brazil) has one runway. In addition, the stadium is not even close to being finished and there are some serious questions if it will be done in time for the World Cup at all. As these large events approach, it will be interesting to see how Salvador deals with the looming pressures.

1:19 pm  •  30 July 2011

Two weekends ago, a group of us took a ferry to the beautiful island of Itaparica.

We really lucked out, as the home stay mom of another Northeastern student has a vacation home on the island and offered free beds for 10 of us for a night. The house was right near a beach and tucked away in a lushly green area. There was an outdoor patio that served as a place to watch a soccer game or eat outside if the weather was nice, and indoors was filled with cute decorations. Pictures depicting Brazilian dancers and Brazilians doing capoeira (a Brazilian martial art) adorned the walls.

After settling in, we found the beach closest to the vacation home and enjoyed the weather. We were right next to a few beach shack restaurants and some took the opportunity to order beers and fish stew with farofa. Some guys on our trip began talking to a Brazilian who looked exactly like the man in the Dos Equis commercials (the most interesting man in the world, anyone?) He talked about his life with the guys, who later reported that the Brazilian knew 4 different languages, had been a doctor in Salvador for his entire life, and was most definitely an alcoholic.

When the sun went down, we walked back and were greeted with absolutely delicious smells. The host mom showed such hospitality to us and had made a huge homemade dinner, including from-scratch passion fruit juice, chicken, rice, and fezuada (a bean stew with tender pieces of meat throughout). Fezuada takes an entire day to make. We ate outside while watching a soccer game. There were other Brazilian family members there and after dinner, they began dancing. All the Northeastern students joined in and we learned many new dance moves. Many of them looked so easy for the family we were staying with, but were incredibly intricate and required you to shake your hips furiously while keeping your shoulders completely straight. It’s not easy, but we had fun attempting to try.

Later on, we walked down to the beach, drank capirinhas (the go-to drink in Salvador, made by mixing cachaca rum, fresh limes, and cane sugar) and homemade lemon liquor under a full moon with the skyline of Salvador in the distance.

It wasn’t until the next morning until we realized just how many mosquitoes and other bugs we had encountered at the beach and in our beds. I woke up with around 20 large, red welts from gnats, and Julie made friends with a spider while she was sleeping. The spider had bitten her lip, which proceeded to swell to 3 times its normal size. Because it looked like Julie had just gotten lip plumping injections, we joked that many women would pay lots of money to have their lips look as big.

That Sunday involved another trip to a beach, and a rocky ferry ride back in the mid-afternoon. The trip is flying by!

9:31 pm  •  27 July 2011

1. The food. Every meal, Katie and I are served enough food to feed approximately 20 people. We had chicken for lunch today and there must have been 3 full chickens in the overflowing pot. Beans are served in a massive, never-ending pan (I’d imagine industrial kitchens use something of the same size), and there is always plenty of bread, rice, and salad to go around. Usually Katie and I are the only two eating at the table and even after second helpings, the mountain of food looks exactly the same as when we started. After meals Sania insists that Katie and I must have not liked anything because it looks untouched. In fact, she believed we didn’t like the food so strongly that she cooked an American meal for us: completely with spaghetti and a chocolate pudding for dessert. After numerous google translate sessions with Sania, Katie and I have attempted to convince her that we love the Brazilian food she makes and that we are always full and happy. We are still not sure if she believes us.

2. The role of the household maid. In some households in Brazil, the maid is treated as part of the family. She eats with them, watches the weekly telenovelas (soap operas) with them, goes shopping with them… In the home stay where I am, this is not the case. Cilene is clearly separate from all major household activities. Although she lives in the house (she has a small bedroom next to the laundry room), Sania has a clearly set code of conduct for Cilene, and this doesn’t include being close with her or her daughter Lorraine. When we arrived in Brazil, Katie and I were excited upon finding that Cilene was also 21. We asked her about her life in Brazil and she was equally curious to hear about our lives in the United States. She helped us with Portugese and was always patient with us. After a week or so of this very open communication Sania sat Katie and me down. In google translate, she typed that it was not necessary that we talk to Cilene as much as we do (or at all). She went as far to say that Cilene is the maid, not our friend, and that it is important we make this distinction. It was incredibly awkward and Katie and I were at a loss for words (not just because we can’t speak Portugese). Sania is a very nice person and did not realize that what she was saying could be construed as offensive, and google translate may have made her words sound harsher than she intended, but it was shocking nonetheless. It’s amazing that in Brazil, a country whose economy is advancing so quickly, that social disparities are so large. Katie and I are far from the only kids on our dialogue to have had this sort of experience in their home stay.

3. The placement of favelas. In Brazil, the favelas (or slums) are freely mixed in between new buildings, high rises, and fancy yacht clubs. For example, the concept of defining one set area as a “bad neighborhood” is a foreign concept here because everything is so intermingled. Katie, Elena, and I learned this first hand after taking the ferry back from Itaparica two weekends ago (I will write about Itaparica soon). The three of us decided to stay later than the rest of the group to finish exploring the island. We took a very rocky boat ride back to Salvador and hopped on a bus that read “To: Campo Grande”, the neighborhood where the three of us reside. Although the bus read this, it was not the case and we discovered we were heading in the wrong direction, away from the buzzing, semi-wealthy neighborhood where the ferry docks are. We hopped off at the next stop (at the bus driver’s instructions) and found ourselves in the middle of a slum. It wasn’t scary or particularly dangerous (it was still light at this time), but it certainly wasn’t a place I would have elected to go on my own. The three of us were amazed by how different two neighborhoods could be after less than a one minute bus ride. Had we walked a little farther, the neighborhood would have again turned into a wealthy area with high rise apartments and fancy restaurants. Immediately after hopping off the bus, we grabbed a taxi and headed back to our home stay neighborhoods for the night.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more posts!

12:03 am  •  26 July 2011

12:43 pm  •  20 July 2011

Life has been busy here in Brazil! It seems like there is always so much to see and to do that I have fallen behind with blogging recently.

But I’m back and ready to share more, this time about the group’s visit to a local NGO called BAGUNCACO. I don’t think there is a direct translation of this word to English, but I would imagine it is something like “loud chaos all the time”. BAGUNCACO’S aim is to provide a positive and enriching environment for children who live in favelas. The founders of the NGO has collected garbage that accrues on the streets of the slums to construct a variety of drums and mallets. Kids from the favelas run around the grounds of BAGUNCACO’s headquarters and all were laughing and seemed genuinely happy. The kids spend the day playing music, dancing, creating skits, painting, etc.

Our group spent two days at BAGUNCACO. The first day was focused more on learning about how the organization ran and what it’s aims were and the second day was focused on hands-on activities. We danced, played drums, and learned some Brazilian martial arts along the way. During both days, I bonded with an adorable little boy who lived in a favela (pictures coming soon). He crawled up into my lap the first day and fell asleep and followed me around the entire second day, wanting to play the drums and dance with me. The Northeastern group talked about how hard it must be for these little kids. Many of them didn’t seem to have positive parental influences around and it seems there is always a constant stream of new college students coming through BAGUNCACO’s doors (Ohio State visited the day before we came, and UCLA was visiting the day after). Boys like the little one I bonded with are constantly becoming close with these college students, only to have them leave the next day.

During the night between the first and second day at BAGUNCACO, the group of us went out in downtown Salvador. We stumbled upon an outdoor dance party of sorts. The dancing took place right in the streets of Pelhorino and up stairs onto a plaza covered with a white tent. There was a band playing and tons of Brazilians were there dancing. I am constantly amazed by how well people can dance here. After the initial dancing, we proceeded to a Reggae club. It was a really confined space, especially so when the group of 15 of us barged through the doors but it was a great time. We left at 3:00am and the night was still young for the Brazilians there. As you can imagine, waking up at 9am the next day to make loud music at BAGUNCACO was a struggle for some!

Thanks for reading, I’ll post about our weekend in the beautiful Brazilian island of Itaparica next!

12:41 pm  •  20 July 2011

12:35 pm  •  18 July 2011

The afternoon today was filled with a tour of the old city in Salvador named Pelhorino. Unlike the area where our home stays are located, Pelhorino is full of old charm. The buildings are all painted in bright colors from periwinkle blues to bright lemon yellows, and each is one different than the next. The streets are all cobblestone and life seems more relaxed than in the industrial areas of the city.

Our tour included visits to many of Pelhornio’s famous museums where we learned about Brazilian costumes, art, woodwork, film, and sculptures. My favorite museum was designed to teach visitors about candomble, a religion in Brazil that focuses on the purging of evil spirits through elaborate ceremonies. I was fascinated because it is unlike anything I have ever learned about before. Professor Fred, the one leading our tour around Pelhorino, said that there may be an opportunity to observe a candombleritual later in the trip but did warn us that we needed to be mentally prepared for it. He warned that the rituals can be intense and frightening, which our group got the feel for after looking at the pictures displayed in the museum.

We also visited a local church in the city that was absolutely amazing. It’s difficult to describe so I will post pictures right after this post, but the entire cathedral was coated in gold. When I first entered, my mouth hung open in awe because of how spectacular it was. Fred told us that the cathedral had been built by African slaves who were brought to Brazil. Even after the work they put into the structure, the slaves were still not allowed entrance to the main cathedral during mass. Instead, there were designated areas outside the view of the pulpit where these slaves could stand. These areas were relatively bare by comparison and had cement floors instead of the luxurious marble that coated the rest of the chapel. From the cement, it was possible to see only one saint who was black and, as Fred told us, placed there very deliberately. The longer we are here, the more social disparities we are starting to notice.

We ended our tour with an acaraje snack. These are a popular street food in Brazil, usually made by older women dressed in typical Brazilian outfits. The acaraje itself is shelled black eyed peas pressed together into a cake and deep fried in palm oil. After the cake cools, it is cut in half and filled with shrimp (tails and all!), red and green tomatoes (like a pico de gallo), a thick paste made from cashew nuts, and hot sauce upon request. It’s absolutely delicious although I have always opted for the non-spicy version. I had a bite of a classmate’s spicy acaraje and immediately had to gulp down quite a bit of water.

At night, some of us went out to watch the Brazilian soccer game at a local bar. The street we were on seemed to be buzzing- people were dressed in jerseys everywhere. I have never been a fan of Brazilian soccer, but being here makes me want to cheer hard for them just to join in the excitement.

Thanks for reading!

12:15 pm  •  18 July 2011