Happy Two Months!

Highlights:

-Riding in my first ambulance (in the back, on the stretcher... Vilma, the sick one, was riding in the front)
-Learned how to ride a motorcycle
-Learned (and still learning) how to samba
-Been baptized in Capoeira
-Hitchhiked for the first time
-Learned how to be a teacher
-Attended the biggest street party in the world

The Two Faces of Food

I would like to elaborate a little more on my diet here. I fondly refer to it as my Two-Faced diet.

Face One: ´Sickeningly Healthy.´ This is how Charles describes our diet. Every day for lunch (this is not an exaggeration), we eat some form of beans, rice, and Soja, loaded with fresh veggies or fruits from feira. On the menu for breakfast is generally fresh bread and tomatoes (essentially, sandwiches. why do people eat sandwiches here for breakfast? this does not make sense to me). Dinner is whatever you can scrounge together from leftovers.

Face Two: Artery Clogging Fatty Fat. Everything here is either REALLY salty or REALLY sweet - other flavors are hard pressed to be found. My coffee preference has slowly shifted from black with some soy milk to half milk, half coffee, and a generous amount of 100% cane sugar. When eating out, staples are large servings of mayonnaise and ketchup, on everything. Beer works with every meal (because its so light it tastes like water). And there is always fried street food.

And there was that one time we ate chicken hearts for dinner...

Carnaval

Foi. LOUCO.

I had no idea what to expect going in except the bits and pieces seasoned veterans had told me. Words like "war," "absolutely insane," and "a marathon" had come up in conversations prior to the event. Turns out, Carnaval in Salvador is actually just a huge street party with copious amounts of light beer and really good music. I will recount what I remember.

Day 1 : The Intro

We took the 12:45 am bus to Salvador, arrived in Salvador at 5:00 am. Passed the day napping, reading, rejuvenating (I WENT TO THE BEACH WITH NOAH!) for our first night in Pelourinho and Campo Grande. Our pousada was located on the perfect street in Pelourinho, so we got to see parades pass by our window. The night began slow, with a few parades and small blocos here and there.... and then. The samba bloco happened. IT WAS SO CRAZY. I got the first kiss of the night when someone asked, "are you married?" Shocked (do I look married??! I thought), I said "OF COURSE NOT!" and got a whiskery, slobbery kiss from a 50+ year old. Lesson learned: the answer is always, ALWAYS, married.

Vilma and I got seperated from the group in a very, very black samba bloco. We spent 45 minutes basically fighting our way down the street, and because Vilma sticks out SO MUCH with her PLATINUM BLONDE EFFING HAIR, we were admired (read: touched, kissed, tugged, pulled) all the way. It was a fight, but we got out, watched some samba dancing, made some friends, got a free t-shirt, and called it a night.

Day 2 : The Solitude

Spent the day recuperating and eating Acai. Went to Noah's 5 star apartment with a view of the ocean and commenced the night with his roomates. Any sense of time during Carnaval has eluded me, but we went out, us two and his friend from last semester, and we lost Noah literally within the first fifteen minutes. We danced our way into Barra, Ondina, made friends with the most kind, fun, phenomenal Brazillian couple and spent a good part of the night with them.

AND THEN I WAS SEPERATED FROM MY NEW FRIENDS!!! Totally alone, in the middle of a street party of 2 million, and it was the best part of my Carnaval. Dancing, singing, jumping, being alone but actually surrounded by hundreds of friends, it was perfect, and as the sun was rising I took a moto taxi back to the hostel... I have no idea where in the city I was, but judging by the moto taxi ride, I was reeeealll far.

Day 3 : The Marathon

Since it was our last night, we had a goal: 6 pm to 6 am. Met up with Noah again, ventured into Barra, and repeated the previous nights with different happenings here and there.

We ventured onto the streets at around five o clock. The walk to Noah's was 45 minutes, but it took us two hours. Why, you ask? BECAUSE WE HAD TO FIGHT OUR WAY THROUGH A PARADE OF A THOUSAND MEN IN EGYPTIAN DRAG OUTFITS WITH WATER GUNS. What?! Why is this happening?? And unfortunately we were going the opposite direction of the parade. And it was just madness. We exited Campo Grande crying and laughing and soaking wet and confused and excited and exhausted and maddened. All because Vilmas stupid hair catches so much attention.

And, I am happy to say, we made the marathon. 6 til 6, boom, accomplished. Made more and more new friends and danced our little hearts out.

It was perfect, in all seriousness. I sincerely regret not staying four, five, six nights, but I have a funny feeling this won't be my last Carnaval in Salvador.

(As far as pictures go, it is highly advised to not take a camera out due to massive amounts of theft, so the few pictures and videos I got were from the hostel). The beach photos are from our days in Imbassai, post Carnaval.

shoes, pre-Carnaval

shoes post-Carnaval (may they rest in peace)

Happy One-Month, Brasil!

Things I love:
-The line of busy ants that pass in front of me as I do yoga
-Mango tree in our backyard
-Hammocks.... how have I ever lived without one?
-The rare (rare!!!) treat when we eat MEAT!
-My students
-Playing Capoeira
-The fact that I have 7 different names here, because a) alex is reserved for males here and b) people can’t pronounce words ending with a consonant – hence, vowels must be added or taken away. Examples: Alexi, Alexa, Alexia, Alex-ya, Alessandra, Ale, etc.
-The small victories of conversing in a new language
-And how humbling it is to hear conversations where I don't understand anything
-Monday morning feira
-Street food
-Carnaval
-Breezy fresquinha nights after brutally hot days
-Sunday pool and Acai

Things I less than love:
-Doing laundry by hand. because I am domestically challenged, nothing is ever really clean.
-Living next to the associacao... heavy traffic = very little privacy
-Being so meat deprived I dream about eating dead birds
-The dogs here. I AM A DOG PERSON I SWEAR. But after being almost attacked (twice) with some seriously aggressive dogs, I am sworn off dogs until I am back in the US.

When I arrived here and people asked how long I was staying in Brasil, the answer was four and a half months. As time passed, the answer became longer and longer.. "maybe five," "a little over five", etc. I have decided to stay as long as my visa allows, 180 days, coming in at just around six months! And so happy the decision is made!!!

Thaaaat's it. Here's to a perfect second month!

Feira!

Every Monday morning, Feira-livre happens. We buy our food for the week (in seriously large quantities: 5 kilos of tomatoes, 3 kilos potatoes, four bunches of bananas, 3 watermelon, the list goes on...). It feels like the whole city packs itself into the praça to load up on food - the crowd, combined with the smells, the colors, the shouting, the music, what-have-you, is one of the best parts of my week.

Loooove the feira!

Classes, CAPS-I, and CHAOS

English classes at AEC-TEA began this week! The pace of life has picked up, and it's been an experience for me to teach my native language. People have told me English is a hard language to teach, and I never realized it until I was forced to explain why a verb is irregular ("It just is?") or how to describe the concept of leadership with limited portuguese and, on their side, limited English.

I have a crazy range of classes. Level 1 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting from scratch, easy because everyone is starting from the same place, but not easy because everyone is starting from the same place. Level 4 on Mondays and Wednesdays is with one middle-aged man who has a solid level of English, and he just desires conversation. Level 3's energy level is through the roof, 14 20-somethings who are all great friends and need LOTS of hands-on, engaging activity.

And, in the process of learning to teach English, I am also learning to teach English in Brasil, which means everything operates on Brasil time, which means I can (and should) start teaching at 7 pm, but people continue rolling in until 8. Which means not a lot can be accomplished in the first hour because we always have to review for people who just walked in.

Despite the ups and downs of teaching classes, I am a huge fan of the students - who, for the most part, are present and eager to learn. I am excited at the possibility of becoming friends with them, especially those in my level 3 class.

Along with beginning classes, I've started my community projects. CAPS-I, a center for adults with physical and mental disabilities, has been a serious source of joy for me. I worked with people with special needs during Capernaum week at Lost Canyon (and loved it!) but since then have been busy with other things; special needs was never a priority for me. At CAPS-I, I play capoeira, futebol, maculele, art projects, whatever, with special needs adults and walk away elated every time. It is also awesome to be away from AEC-TEA more, and I think of my time at CAPS-I as my own personal "portuguese class".

In other news, in the beginning of February the police went on strike in Salvador, with other cities in Bahia following (Capim Grosso's police went on strike as well). Some have described Salvador as a "warzone," saying things like "THIS IS HELL" and "I don't leave my house." Others have said, "I go on with my life as normal but I'm pissed because I have to leave my job early." Over a hundred people have died in the chaos of the strike. We have been talking about it a LOT here, and some people firmly believe it is completely sensationalized, others are a little more wary.

Which, of course, has us a little wary. Carnaval alone has the reputation of having a wild, crazy, and at times violent atmosphere. When you take a huge disparity between the rich and the poor in a big city, throw a party in the big city, and pack the party with 2 million people (locals and tourists from around the world), shit usually hits the fan in one way or another. Now, even though the strike has ended, one of our friends has predicted even more violence than usual, because "the police are going to be super, super pissed off and beating the shit out of people."

Bring it on, Salvador!

Being a gringa, and other things

In some (most?) places, being called a gringo is derogatory. In fact, I don´t think it is ever a good thing. Here, however, even if being a gringa isn´t necessarily a good thing, I have realized that it gets you invited to some pretty neat places.

In the a city of 30,000 people, I would estimate that about 16 are foreigners, and probably 9 of those foreigners are associated with AEC-TEA. Not too many whities in Capim Grosso. When I walk down the street, I might as well be wearing a sandwich-board-sign that says PLEASE, STARE AT ME AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES LOOK AWAY (and obviously this is exacerbated when I am with the Finns - we must look CRAZY when we walk anywhere together!).

As one of the token gringas at a recent party, I was invited to spend some of the weekend at the family farm of neighbor/friend/frequenter-of-aec-tea. I rejected the offer? Because I didn´t really want to go alone with this man and his family? To a farm in God knows where? Question mark? But then the rest of the gang was invited, and we were told there was a POOL, and my new years resolution is to say yes after all, so we went!

The bus dropped us off in a completely random spot off the highway and followed Fernando to a small brick house with a small concrete hole in the ground with some water (uhh.... is that the pool?). Vilma quietly voiced what we were all thinking: ´Where are we?´ It was clearly a family gathering, some might even call it a family reunion... what?? Why were we invited to a family reunion???!! We walked in looking like, well, a pack of gringos who are super out of place. I think one of us probably was actually wearing said sandwich board sign.

However, I feel that all my stories thus far weave the common thread of Bahian hospitality, and this weekend was no exception. Before we could even blink, we all had beers in our hands, invitations to swim, dance, play cards, etc. Merriment ensued as we played games water balloons and pitu (a rank, rank Brasilian rum comparable to Skol in the US), ate some meat whose origin they would not divulge until I tried it first (tripe! cow stomach! liver! ALL OF THOSE!), went on walks, played with a kitten, dominoes, whatever. The party went until late in the evening, we slept on humble little mattresses outside, and when we woke up, one of the first questions was (seriously) ´anybody want a beer?´

The moral of the story is, while I would rather not be called a gringa, I really do appreciate the places it takes me and the people it allows me to meet! And now, after a seriously great weekend, on the agenda is setting up a lesson plan for english classes, which commence tomorrow (ah! tomorrow!!!). Stay tuned!