Recife

Things worked out perfectly for this trip. I had to go the US Embassy in Recife, which though only4 hours away from Natal, was not to easy for me to go. I would have to think about taking the bus there, then I would have to think about finding somewhere to stay because my appointment was early in the morning.

Fortunately prior to making my appointment I met a lady in church who worked in Recife and traveled back to Natal each weekend. I told her that I was planning to go to Recife and she offered to take me with her and allow to stay with her while I was there. The only problem was that I would have to make sure that my appointment was scheduled for before she would go on vacation. We exchanged numbers and I went about booking my appointment.

I was fortunate because I got the only available appoint in the same week the lady was going on vacation. My appointment was on a Wednesday and she would go on vacation the weekend after my appointment. I went with her on the Sunday before the appointment so I could get acquainted with Recife and see some of the sights. My plan was to return on the Wednesday night on my own since she would be staying until the Friday.

To cut a long story short I ended up staying the entire week, well from Monday to Friday because I just fell in love with Recife. This city was totally different from the other two cities in the northeast that I visited thus far. Recife is very historic. There are many brightly colored old colonial buildings and also many colonial churches and plazas. I loved exploring the city and seeing the history of the city as reflected in the buildings and museums. Most of the historic buildings were found in downtown Recife or Recife Antigo.

~downtown Recife also known as Marco Zero or Ground Zero, where the city got started~

~ a cool church I found while exploring, located in the area of one of the commercial center~

~cool colonial buildings, look at the colors~

~ Capela Dourada or the Golden Church, one of the oldest churches in the Old Recife~

~Justice Building~

On my first day I spent the day finding the bus route to the Embassy and exploring the city. Recife is huge and very dangerous city (it has the highest murder rate in all of Brazil) so I had to be extra careful. The Embassy was located in the heart of city so most buses pass by there. My appointed at the embassy was only for a couple of hours so I had a lot of time to explore Recife. One of the must see places in Recife is actually outside of the city in the city of Olinda.

Olinda was originally the capital of Pernambuco and had some of the most beautiful churches in northeast. It is also on a hill so the city has the natural backdrop of the sea and beautiful blue skies.

~View of the ocean from one of the highest points in Olinda~

I explored Olinda on foot, which was the best way, because the streets were extremely narrow and that way I could get to see the flavor of the small city. Olinda was the exact picture of what I had in my head of colonial Latin America. The city was filled with small colorful houses, large colonial/Victorian houses with large gardens and many very old churches. I really felt like I had stepped back in time.

~one of the many churches in Olinda, this one is cool because there is like a courtyard in front of the church with a fountain, which was dry, and a cross~

~Another church which has a beautiful view at the back of the lower parts of Olinda and of Recife~

~View of Recife from Olinda~

I must say unlike the other northeast cities I had visited up to that point Recife was my favorite northeast city because it had much more to offer the visitor.

~Boa Viagem, the best beach in Recife~

Natal

So I left Fortaleza and got on a bus for the 8 hr trip down south the city of Natal, the capital of the state of Rio Grande de Norte. I heard a lot of good things about this city. People said it was more beautiful then Fortaleza and much smaller. So, I was somewhat looking forward to this new adventure. I hoped that my teaching experience would be better. Deep down however, I was beginning to feel homesick. Being in the Northeast by the beach reminded me a lot of Jamaica. I am really beginning to miss my family.

~ View of Natal from the beach~

I arrived in Natal 8pm and immediately went to my new home . I found out I would be sharing an apartment or better yet a studio with one of the female workers at the Missão Nordeste. This experience was a little different for me. I was used to having my own space and here in this apartment, I obviously would not have my own space. I guess I was now going to have the real missionary experience. Even though I spent most of the bus ride sleeping, I was tried so I just took a shower and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up early to go for a walk and to see the area around the apartment. The apartment was located in one of the most commercial areas of the city. As a result, besides being very noisy during the day, it was also very dirty. Let just say I was not really liking the city too much when I first got there. As much as I am a city girl, I prefer the country.

So, Natal is much smaller than Fortaleza but it is similar to Fortaleza in the sense that it is a beach city. Many tourists visit there primarily to go to the beach. However, unlike Fortaleza and many other cities in the Northeast, Natal lack other forms of attraction. I was not too happy with that because I am not really a beach person so I didn´t have any other thing to do as a form of entertainment.

~Ponta Negra Beach in Natal~

One cool thing about Natal is it´s name. Natal is Christmas in Portuguese so it's funny to have a city named Christmas. The story behind the name is that the city was founded on Christmas Day. The first fort of the city is called the Three Wise Men Fort because of the story of Christmas too. I visited the fort and it is pretty cool. It has a little church for statues of the three wise men. It also has a lot of history about Natal, it was a pretty cool expedition.

~The Three Wise men Fort (it's actually the shape of a star) ~


~old time canon within the fort walls~


~courtyard window within the fort~


~Small church within the fort for the wise men"

A couple of day before leaving Natal several of my co-workers and I went to a famous Northeast restaurant for lunch. This restaurant served typical Northeastern Brazilian cuisine. Since I lived on my own, I didn't have much exposure to Northeast Brazilian food so this was actually a good little treat. It was even better than I didn't have to pay because the restaurant is really expensive. The restaurant also have old time northeast Brazilian clothes which I had the opportunity to try them on.

~ female war apparel... I think~



~leather jacket and hat~

Bye to Fortaleza

So the Evangelistic Campaign has come to an end and it is time to move on. I truly enjoyed working with the ShareHim group. Even though ShareHim is based in the US the participants were from all over the world. The majority of the group was from the US but we had two Europeans both Portugal, a Canadian, two Brazilians and a Jamaican (me). The participants were also had occupations and were of different age groups. It was a very diverse group but we got along very well.

~A group of us at the beach~

All the participants except for one came on the campaign to be a presenter but since only two persons out of the group spoke Portuguese, our first assignment was to find interpreters for the non-Portuguese speakers. This was easier said than done. Very few people speak English and have the ability to interpret on the spot. We had trials for interpreters and at the end we fell short so I had to be an interpreter for the first few nights. Eventually, we had enough interpreters and I became basically a fill-in interpreter along with my other duties as an assistant to the person in-charge.

~ Last night I interpreted in Fortaleza~

My "fill-in interpreter" role also extended to a fill-in presenter also. One of presenter lost her voice and I had to fill-in for her. That day was probably one of my most stressful days because I found out that I had to fill in for her on the same day and I had to go to the airport to pick up several persons so I was not very prepared. The night went well thanks to God.

Other highlights of my time in Fortaleza included visiting the beach, doing a day tour to Morro Branco, a famous tourist location in Ceara. Morro Branco is popular for a variety of reasons including the beach, the colorful sand area, high sand dunes and buddy rides. I really enjoyed the day trip and enjoyed the adrenaline pumping buggy ride over the sand dunes.

~ All ready for buggy ride~

~ Views along the way~

The northeast region of Brazil has a lot of sand areas especially close by the beach and many of these dunes are very high so locals gain extra income making buggy rides of the area tourist attractions. These buggy rides over the dunes are not for the faint of heart because the drivers go really fast.

~ Colorful sand of Morro Branco~

Ok, I was happy to be by the beach but was a little disappointed with the beaches I visited in Ceara. Before going to the Northeast, everyone described there as the Caribbean of Brazil so I was expecting the beaches to be like the Caribbean. I guess this mindset somehow fueled my disappointment. The water was different. It wasn't the blue-green color or the warm calm waters that I was used to. As result, even though I was close to the beach I went into the water probably 2/3 times.

~ Beach of Ceara, beautiful but not as beautiful as Jamaica~

~Another beautiful view of the beach~

One thing I liked about visiting the beach was the unlimited supply of coconut water. I was in heaven drinking coconut water. I must give Brazil kudos because the country has master the art of selling coconut water every and anywhere. The abundance of coconuts and the demand for the product has also led to wide price range for the product.

~Doing what I love to do: Drinking coconut water~

Well it's time to move on to my next place. Stay tune!

First Impressions of Fortaleza

The place I was staying in Fortaleza was only five minutes away from the beach. I am not much of a beach person, but I was excited to see the ocean. It had been too long. I don't really bgetting into the water but I love to sit at the beach and look at the water and read. The ocean is so powerful but at the same time calming. I was therefore extremely excited about being so close to the ocean.

After getting settled, meaning getting to my room taking a shower and changing, I made my way to the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. The beach itself was nothing compared to the beaches in Jamaica but just being near the water and having the ocean breeze was great. The breeze from the ocean was so strong, I am sure it could knock a small child down. Even though I was excited to be by the beach, I was also sort of homesick. I began to start thinking about Jamaica and how I had not been there in over 3 years and had not seen my parents for that long also.

To push the homesick feeling to back of my mind I decided to do what I do best. Explore! By the beach there was walking strip, called Beira Mar, parallel to the beach. There were also many restaurants and coconut water vendors. At the end of the walking path was a large fish market. Fish is one of the main foods here in Fortaleza. Most restaurants in Fortaleza will have several fish dishes. That is definitely a treat for me because I love eating fish.

Another treat along the way was a nightly craft market and vendors selling a lot different foods I love! They were selling: milho verde or corn not sweet corn regular salty corn which I prefer; popcorn, both sweet and salty; ice-cream; popsicles; tapioca (local bread-like thing made from cassava flour); nuts especially cashews, because Ceara is one of the main producers of cashew in the world; and a whole lot other foods.

Beside the obvious difference of being by the ocean, I noticed several difference between Fortaleza and many of the places I have been in Brazil. Even though Fortaleza is a tourist city and I was in the tourist area I could see that Fortaleza and possible the state of Ceara is poorer than the states in Central and South Brazil. There were much more people begging and more people and children living on the streets than in other cities. What I found interesting was the fact that these people didn´t really sleep on the pavement they had mattresses and sheets, which would appear at night. In the morning when I would do my exercise along the beach I would see several people sleeping on mattresses along Beira Mar.

The infrastructures were also poorer. Outside of the touristy places there were many dilapidated houses and buildings. The roads were also very poor condition. The drivers have to play hop-scotch to avoid falling into the many potholes. Another thing was the garbage, several city roads had a lot of trash on the sidewalks.

Even though Ceara´s infrastructure is not as good as that of the states in the south, I am glad I had the opportunity to visit the state. I am getting a better picture of Brazil. I am getting to see ethnic the diversity in people and the disparity between the north and south of the country, which is so often spoken about.

New Project-ShareHim

My interpreting experience in Mimosa and the opportunity I had to work in an evangelistic series have given birth to a desire to work on more evangelistic campaigns. So after Mimosa, I started search for other campaigns. The evangelist series in Mimosa followed a program from aministry called ShareHim program. ShareHim is an organization affiliated with the SDA church which help laymen of the church hold evangelistic campaigns around the world. So I decided to first search the ShareHim website for other projects they were having. Just imagine how surprised I was to learn that they would be having a project in Fortaleza in the Northeast right after my contract with UCOB would expire.

I immediately made contact with ShareHim coordinator hoping to find out more information and to know if I could be part of the team. I received a prompt respond but it was not really positive. To participate in the evangelist series I was required to raise a lot of money, which I did not have. It seemed like a roadblock. Anyways, I decided to participate from the Brazilian side. The Brazilian SDA Church obviously had to have some input because it was here in Brazil in their churches. I again encountered difficulty. Nobody I spoke to knew who in Brazil was organizing the series.

I made some headway, three or so months later, after watching the ASI Convention on the Internet and learning about MissionServ which was the Brazilian/American organization working alongside ShareHim to organize the series in Fortaleza. I emailed the President of the organization and she was ecstatic to have me help her organize the series. Problem resolved!

So after finishing with UCOB, I packed my bags and said bye to the West Central Brazil my home for almost a year and made my way to the Northeast. The tropical part of Brazil. I flew from Brazil to Fortaleza and as the plane was descending to land in the airport. I was able to get a bird's eye view of the place I would be staying for a next month or so. The city is right on the coast. So, I would able to see the ocean for the first time since I came to Brazil. As I landed, I was excited, because many people said the Northeast was like the Caribbean.

I will tell you how it turns out.

Time of Re-evaluation and Comtemplation

So my world-wind tour of West Central Brazil is winding down and I am back in the capital, Brasilia. This month, I will work in the Union which is in charge of all the different conferences where I had previously worked. While I enjoyed my time visiting other states, I must say I am glad that the whole traveling thing is coming to an end. I was really getting tried of packing andtraveling every month. Now as I come to the end of this project, I guess, it is time for contemplation and evaluation of the past 11 months.

Let's see 11 months, 8 work related cities, 4 states, 1 Federal District and whole lot of pictures, memories and experiences. The objective of my time in UCOB unfortunately in my eyes was not fulfilled. I came here to teach English, but I don't think anyone actually learned much English at all. There were a variety of reasons contributing to this, most of which stem from the fact that the whole program was not well organized and the students were not committed enough to learn. I have come to realize that many people have the desire to do stuff but most don't have the dedication and patience to go through with it.

Rather than being a teacher, my intended role, I have became more of a student in many senses of the word. I became a student physically because I have been learning Portuguese andBrazilian culture, not in the conventional way, but by way of living with Brazilians. I also became a spiritual student because God has been teaching me a lot things about myself and helping me to change.

Some days, I feel like my time in Brazil has been a waste. I think that maybe I could have been using that time actually moving ahead professionally because I basically I spent a lot of time not doing anything. There were also a lot of times when I have felt the very alone because I was physically alone. I love Brazil and could see myself living here but it has been only place in all my travels where I have felt the most homesick. I guess because Brazil is similar to Jamaica so I feel like I am in Jamaica but without my family and friends. Also I have not been very busy doing a lot of things.

I am grateful though for this time alone. I have had a lot of time to think about my future and work on my relationship with God. I see that even though things have not worked out as I planned, they worked out as God planned. I see God´s hands moving in the whole situations. I have done many things and changed in ways I could not have if I were not here in Brazil.

So now, I have two options of what to do next. I can remain in Brazil for a little longer and try teaching English in another region and hopefully I will have dedicated students. The other option is to go home as was my intended goal prior to coming here.

So after thinking thing about the two choices, I decided on the former option and I decided to go to another region of Brazil. I decided to theNortheast , which is supposed be the tropical Brazil. My first destination however will be Fortaleza for a mini-project.I´ll let you know how things work out!

Trip to the Pantanal

Mato Grosso is known for the area called the Pantanal. No one should visit the state and not pay a visit to this area. I, therefore, had to make a visit to this area, since I was in Mato Grosso. Fortunately for me I was in Mato Grosso, at the right time the dry season to visit the Pantanal. During the rainy season, the only road, the Tranpantaniera, that goes into the Pantanal is impassable.

So, the Panatanl is basically a swamp area. It reminded me a lot of the Florida Everglades. There are a lot of animal mainly birds and alligators or as they are called here jacares. The Tranpantaniera runs right in the middle of the area. So as you drive you have parts of the Pantanal on either sides. That allows for a greater possibility of seeing the animals of the region. As we drove along the most common animal was the jacare of different sizes. I think in the Panatanal there are like 10 jacares for each person that enter. There were that many. As were droving further into the regions we saw several types of birds for example the Tiuiuiu. Another animal which was common is the capybaras. There were usually in a family.

~Tuiuiu~

~jacares sunbathing~

~tuiuiu with many other birds, very common scene~

~ capybaras, also jacare food ~

We drove further in the Pantanal and stopped at a Hotel in the heart of the Pantanal to do a boat tour further into the area. While we waited for the boat tour, I did something I had never done before. I went fishing. I caught several fish These were not fish people usually eat. They were small fish that the animals of the Pantanal eat.

~I just caught my first fish ever. I was proud even though it was tiny.~

After fishing, we went on a boat ride further into the Pantanal. We each had to wear an orange life vest in case the boat capsized. In my mind I was thinking that being eaten by jacares should be of greater concern than drowning. Rather than just having a life vest we also would need to have jacare repellent. Thankfully, the trip was without incident. We got to see more animals, mainly birds and jacares. The person conducting the tour used the fish guests caught to lure the animals out of hiding so we could see them. The whole boat trip was more of a show with the tour guide trying to impress us with his ability to call the animals and have them come to him. It was very entertaining. At one point he put his hand in the water waving a fish to get a jacare which he name dragon to come to the boat.

~a falcon (I think) catching a fish the guide threw~

Another thing about the region that caught my attention was the trees. There were three types of trees that seemed out of place with the other trees. Most of the trees were just green and normal but these three types of trees gave color to the region. They had a brown trunk and the rest of the tree was just colorful flowers. The flowers were either white, pink or yellow. It was so beautiful to see the contrast with the other trees. They literally brought color to the green landscape.

~trees along the riverbanks contrasting with the green~

~colorful trees brightening up the Pantanal landscape~

As I said, the jacares practically own the Pantanal because they out-number human beings and they are everywhere. So, I guess no trip to the Pantanal would be complete without a close-up jacare encounter. As we were driving back to Cuiaba we had our jacare close encounter. They were on the Tranpataniera, in the middle of the main road, the only road out if I might add. It was what I would call a jacare roadblock. I guess they were protesting human intrusion in their territory. No, actually it was just several jacares crossing the road very slowly to get to the other side and others just sitting in the middle of the road getting some sun. I therefore decided to do a quasi crocodile hunter attempt to clear the road. Just kidding! I just wanted a close up with the jacare. There were no mishaps, I got pretty close and tail ended it back to the car without being harmed. That was definitely, one of the highlight of the trip for me!

~jacare/crocodile encounter~

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for other adventures.