Lencois

This past weekend we endured the six to seven hour overnight bus ride to a small diamond mining town in the interior of Bahia called Lencois. It is located in the Chapada Diamantina National Park. We left late Thursday night and arrived early Friday morning, dropped our stuff off at our pousada and then left on one of the tours at 8:30. The tour took us hiking to waterfalls, swimming, mountain climbing with amazing 360' spectacularly breathtaking views of the green grasslands-esque landscape, and spelunking through caves containing massive stalagtites and stalagmites - all over rocky, bumpy, awful roads in a van packed full of people.
It was beautiful and the views were spectacular and our bodies felt great (once you get over the soreness).

The next day we skipped out on the tour and walked around the town, then hiked to rock slides and swam around. Most water there is brownish red. The locals call it Coca Cola water because the water filters through the decomposing debris in the mountains. The decomposition process releases the tannins in the plants (tannins are what make coffee and tea brown and what stains the teeth of those who drink it a lot, but it is known to be good for your hair and skin). The water runs through and picks up the dyes so it ends up looking like diluted Coke. They say you can drink it because it is pullutant-free, but I was thinking there can still be "natural" bacteria and other discomfort causing organisms (Thanks microbiology).

Anyway, the third day we opted out of a tour involving any more off roading to spare our backs the torturous trek. We took a walking tour to more waterfalls, more swimming, and I tried Rock Climbing for the first time and I love it. It's like a dance against gravity with constant battles to maintain balance and distribution of weight strategically over just a few square inches of available ledge. I went up the beginner rock twice. The second time I scaled it much quicker than the first. Scott had tried it a few times before at OSU so he went pretty quick the first time and then took a different route the second time. I was pleased with myself for the two well done tries I had completed, so I decided to end my first rock climbing experience on a good note and be done. Our guide found an intermediate level route for Scott to try with one spot that was a little more advanced (negative, meaning you are actually climbing upside down or against gravity. There is positive, where your front faces the earth more than it does the sky; vertical, which is just straight up; and negative where your front faces the sky more than the earth). Scott was excited and enthusiastic and did amazingly until he got to the negative part which was more than halfway up. This was also where the holds in the rock got remarkably sharper so not only was the angle harder but the holds were more painful if you didn't distribute your limbs and weight appropriately. This spot took a lot more time to get past and exhausted him. He barely had the strength to finish it, but he did complete it, although with a little cheating in the process. He managed to get past the hardest couple parts by just climbing the rope and walking up the rock with his legs. After rock climbing, we hiked to a couple water falls that you can stand underneath to get a "hydromassage". We ended the hike around sunset up on this hill that overlooked the city and the surrounding landscape with little pools in the rocks that Scott swam in to cool his bulging, achy, rock climbing muscles :) and I sat and read. The tour ended with the quick, five minute hike back to town, where we changed and relaxed before another six hour bus ride back to Salvador. We took a taxi back to the house and showered and got ready for our double shift day of volunteering in the morning and in the afternoon. We were tired...

Cachoeira

Saturday we went to Cachoeira (which is about 60 miles inland of Salvador) with Ashia and Danny. We left around 8:45 am and took a taxi to the bus station and bought our tickets on the second level of the station. The bus was at 10:10 so we looked around the shops that they had on the ground floor. There was a havianas store and a bookstore that we went in as well as a lingerie store which we thought was odd.

It was a two hour ride there. We were dropped off in their saturday market thing, which was interesting, but we left because we were hungry for lunch. We walked around for a while aimlessly, but just before it got annoying we stumbled across one of the museums that was recommended to us. Then across the street was another church/museum thing for the Sisterhood of the Good Death, which apparently is a cross between Candomble and Catholicism.

Next, we walked around a bit more and found the river, took some pictures, admired the many beautiful churches, then got serious about finding a place to eat again.
A local man asked us if we wanted a tour and Scott replied by asking where we should eat lunch. He immediately said to go to the convent, then took us there. There is an old convent that has been converted into a pousada and restaurant. We looked around for a few minutes, admiring the innate peacefulness of the place, then finally sat down to lunch around 2 pm. We each ordered something, but apparently each order serves two people so it was a lot of food. We ate as much as we could and left the rest. I contemplated dessert but there was no way.

We then walked back to the river and across the bridge to the cigar factory - the final place on our list of things to see. It began to pour as we made it to the factory, so we dried off a little and began to explore. The most interesting part was the showroom where about 20 women were making the cigars. A guide there explained each step to us in pretty good english, but with a very strong accent.
We watched them choose the tobacco leaves and stack them evenly, then place them in the foot-pedal-powered rolling machine. She would roll them a few times then pluck off anything sticking out the ends, they were then given to a woman who would roll them into the outer leaf to contain it. The entire cigar is made inside and out out of tobacco leaves, even the piece to seal the end. The glue they use to hold it all together is actually a natural glue from the root of some other plant, but still all natural tobacco that I guess the company now grows in green houses to keep the crop more uniform and less susceptible to insects and the elements. Apparently Brazil has some of the best tobacco in the world right here in the state of Bahia. When we finished at the cigar factory we went back to the bus station and made the two hour and 30 minute trek back to Salvador. We ate a little for dinner, went and got acai, then came back to the house to relax for the rest of the night.

Itaparica and Real Futbol

We went to the Island of Itaparica located in the bay and stayed in a pousada called Zimbo Tropical. When you first get to the island, you catch a taxi for probably 20-30 minutes along the south side of the island, where you get to an area where businesses are sparce and slow. Where it feels like only the locals would go. We then turned onto a dirt road with dense foliage on either side then we arrived at a tall concrete wall with a single black door embedded in it. The taxi stoped and we got out and hopped over muddy puddles to the door where we pulled a chain to ring the bell. The owner came to the door and opened it to reveal greenery and foliage you expect from the Amazon. The pathway is made of wooden planks and each room is a small cabin with a hammock in the front patio area. There is a "bar" which is the area where she served dinner that she cooked for us and where we ate breakfast in the morning. There is a parrot who lives just outside the owner's house, and a turtle in a little pond thing by the entry. In the morning we mentioned that we had read in a travel book that there were monkeys there, but we hadn't seen any. She lit up and said "Oh, you have to see them, come to the bar and I'll call them." She put a little plate out with some yogurt on it and whistled. They leapt down from the roof and out of the banana trees to the plate. They were the size of small cats, with long, striped tails and tufts of white hair coming out each side of their head. SOOOO Cute! The beach was a short walk away and we spent Saturday after lunch at the beach, which was virtually deserted. It was warm, but not too hot and we had a nice, relaxing time. We could see the cityscape of Salvador along the water on the horizon and yet we were hundreds of feet at least from the nearest person, what a difference!

We came back and then went to a soccer game here in Salvador. It was crazy and a little more unsanitary than in the states, but exciting whenever a goal was scored.

Ice cream, CAASAH, Drums and Hot Chocolate

We haven't updated in a while because we didn't go anywhere to exciting this past weekend. However I would like to take this opportunity to talk about what seems mundane to us.

Pretty much everyday I have gone to get ice cream, usually at McDonalds. It recently got a little out of hand, with as many as three trips in one day. It was at this low point that I realized the extent of my addiction and an intervention was convened. I now allow myself only one per day and try to do less than that. Just across the street is a place called Frio Gostoso which is a kind of fancy ice cream place, and then McDonalds is three or four blocks away and have ice cream cones for R$1.50($0.75) or two for R$2.00($1.00). I am such a sucker for bargains that at first I'd just get ice cream cones, but then my friend Kelsi here got me to try the Top Sundaes. They are a little more (R$4.10 or about $2.25) but soooo good. There's also a cake place with fancy desserts around the corner from the McDonalds, as well as an Acai place a couple blocks away. Acai is a berry from the amazon that is very dark purple and they blend it up into an icy frozen smoothie thing with other flavors added to it. We usually get banana because it's been on special since we got here. And it tastes really good. It counters the tartness of the berry with the sweet banana-ness.

I thought that only three hours at placement everyday wasn't very long, but when all the kids are kicking and screaming and spitting on each other and us, it doesn't go by fast enough. CAASAH has gotten much more challenging and exhausting and less rewarding. There are really only two kids there that are really good, the rest are street kids that steal everything we bring and will try and beat us up if we don't let them have their way. I'm having a hard time remembering why I wanted to go there. I believe I'll stay there because I'll feel guilty if I leave the good kids there with the punks.

Tuesday we went to watch the drum group Olodum, which is apparently famous worldwide. It was fun and our friend Rachel danced with the big group around them. That's what one of the videos is of. After that we went to this place we call "the chocolate bar" but that's not what it's really called. Anyway, they have hot chocolate there that is really good and is the consistency and appearance of like homemade hot chocolate pudding. REALLY GOOD.

Praia do Forte

We went to Praia do Forte just for the day. We took a 2 hour bus ride there. They had a bunch of little touristy shops we looked through those and then went to the turtle sanctuary called "Projecto Tamar." There were all kinds of turtles there. From little newborn ones to large Leatherback turtles. They also had some sharks and lots of fish. It was pretty interesting. They even had a video that told us what to do if you find a turtle passed out on the beach.

After the turtle thing, we ate lunch and shopped a little more. Megan got a swimming suit and then we went to the beach to try it out. The beach had a lot of tide pools and the water was very warm. We started just looking at the tide pools and walking down the beach. We saw lots of brightly colored fish, crabs, and even an eel. I wanted to go swimming so Megan laid on a towel on the beach while I tried to find a place to swim.

Since there were so many rocks, I didn't really find a good place to swim right there so i walked in the tide pools and all of the sudden, everyone on the beach got up and started yelling "Balea!" Which means "Whale." Megan didn't see anything out in the direction they were all looking at except me so she though everyone was being mean or something. Then she saw the whales. There were two maybe 100 ft from where I was out in the ocean. It must have gotten deep fast.

After the Whales left, I walked down the beach farther to find a good place to swim. I found a nice place where there were no breaking waves and the water got up to my shoulders. I swam around a little and then looked down in the water. I was surrounded by a school of brightly colored fish. They were inches from me. It felt so much like paradise. I didn't even need snorkeling gear, they were all around me. We took a van back that was a little cheaper and actually cut the trip down to just over an hour. We even made it back for dinner.

Visiting Old Friends

Today we went to Church in Amaralina. I saw a bunch of people that I knew when I was here 5 years ago. The stake president talked to me about having the ward do a service project at one of the places we are volunteering at. I told him that at CAASAH (the place that Megan works at with Children with HIV/AIDS) there were a lot of broken beds and dressers. He said that they could organize a service project to go over there and fix them. I'm supposed to check with them and then come to a meeting at the Church on Wednesday.

After Church we came home for lunch and then went out to visit a few people. We visited Dea at her house. Her brother showed up who is a musician. I suggested that he should play a show for us and he said he would once he gets back from a short tour. He is going to come here to our house and play for all the volunteers. Dea just finished a nursing program. She borrowed money for school from the Church's Prepetual Education Fund. She gets her Nursing card this week.

Then we visited Ariana. Her and her sister were home. We talked for a while. She is working for the cable company. She helps setup new accounts and stuff over the phone.

It was a busy day. Megan got to see one of the poorer areas of Salvador. We stuck out like a sore thumb. The bus on the ride back had some cockroaches inside and a few stops before we got off, this really drunk guy got on and was yelling and getting up and down. It was a little crazy.

Salvador

My placement at CAASAH consists of babysitting children with HIV/AIDS. There was a strike at the schools for two months before we got here so all the kids were at the facility, but it ended right before we started so since I started there have only been like three kids everyday that are too young to go to school. They are way cute and we enjoy being with them but it gets slow and boring a lot. I asked to be able to work on other projects such as cleaning and repairs of things that looked simple, but still needed to be done. They said yes so on Friday we fixed some stools for them. It was fun because the kids really enjoyed helping by holding things tight for us.

Scott and I were also a part of a parade where we walked from Campo Grande square to the Pelourinho, Scott said he heard that there were 12,000 people there, mostly kids. It was fun, there was a truck that is used as a stage for Carnival that was blasting music that all the kids were singing along to. We got T-shirts from it too.

Morro de São Paulo

This weekend we decided to go to Morro de São Paulo. It's a town on an island that is a 2 hour boat ride from here. We found a cheep motel (About $35 a night) and spent most of the time on the beach. It was paradise. We walked along the beach and found a shady spot to lie down and it was almost deserted. It reminded us of a Corona commercial. We also went to the main beach and swam in the warm ocean water. We woke up each morning looking out off our balcony to the atlantic ocean. During high tide, the water came right up to the steps of our motel.

The resturants there were good. A lot of them had singers out front. Lastnight we ate at an italian resturant that had tables on the sand of the beach lit by candle light. They had a good singer and I had fresh fish they had caught that day. It was so nice that we contemplated not coming back.

We are thinking about someday buying a Pousada (Motel) and living there. Megan has to finish school first so she can be the island doctor.

Rio Cont'd.

We met up with Scott's friend André who lives in Rio and he took us around on the bus and then to Sugarloaf Mountain (or Pão de Açucar) and took the cable car up to the top of the first mountain and then another cable car to the top of the second mountain which was REALLY high, so that's what most of our pictures of the city of Rio are from (although I think I took a couple pictures of São Paulo from the plane).

We also walked along Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. The Live Earth concert was held on Copacabana beach. The stage for it was under the white tent in the pictures that said Live Earth. When we were there, they had a rapper doing a soundcheck rehearsal or something so we were there for a mini-pre-concert, which was nice. We then walked over to another tent that sold official merchandise for the 2007 PanAmerican Games which will be held there starting this Friday, the 13th, I believe. We both bought a T-shirt for it because we got sucked into the hype.

I tried Açai for the first time in Rio and as of now have also tried coconut water from an actual coconut and Acarajé also, in Salvador.

CEIFAR

Today was my first day at CEIFAR. It's kind of a community center/school founded by some people from Belgium. They work with women who are pregnant and then kids have classes there. They also have programs where the kids get help with homework, have English classes and learn activities like Capoeira, Karate, Ceramics and Music. We toured the school and we each got to do an activity in a classroom. I got the 6 year olds. I was going to be with the 3 year olds at first but the school's director thought it would be better if I was with the 6 year olds because I speak Portuguese. The teacher turned the class over to me for the whole time. I had planned to have them draw their family, where they are from, and what they like to do. I made an example with my family and where I am from and what I like to do. They did okay. Some were good at drawing and some just bugged the other kids. Most of them just drew their houses and their families. They got a little out of hand when the teacher left me there alone with them. Later she asked me if I worked with kids that age at home and I said "no I'm an accountant not a teacher." It was fun but hard to keep them in line. They ate lunch and then went off to public school. Tomorrow we teach an English class and I am going to help translate their website into English from what I understand. It was very organized and looks like a great thing for the community.

Planes, Trains, Taxis & TULSA

We are here! We got to the house at 3:00 this morning, then slept until 9:00, ate breakfast and met the other volunteers. It was pouring earlier, but I think it's stopped now. But here's our trip up to that point...

We left Portland on time, but everything after that had some element of delay or surprise to it. When we approached Dallas, TX the pilot first said that we were making good time and would be about twenty minutes early. A few minutes later he came back on and said there was rain and lightening in Dallas so they closed the airport for a couple hours. We were going to circle and wait it out. We circled and circled and circled for awhile, then he announced that we would need to land and refuel in Tulsa, OK. So we landed, refueled, and sat there in Tulsa to wait out the storm, then flew into Dallas. We were supposed to get to Dallas at 5:25 or 5:35pm and ended up getting there at 8:00. We were worried we would miss our flight to Sao Paulo which was scheduled for 7:45, so we basically ran to the Gate. They were still boarding a Miami flight before us so we waited, and waited... and waited. We finally left at Midnight and flew for 10 hours. When we got into Sao Paulo we had already missed our connection to Rio. They put us in a taxi to another airport in Sao Paulo, where we caught our flight to Rio. We took a taxi to our hotel.

***Check the pictures page for photos of each portion***

Now the interesting part...
As we took the taxi through Sao Paulo streets, I noticed they were crazy with cars, bicycles, motorcycles, honking, sirens, and car alarms. There's graffiti covering the entire side of tall apartment buildings. I wondered how people got up there to tag it all. But through all the craziness, it all flowed in a rhythm of purpose. It felt as though that's how it had always been and that's how it will always be, and there wasn't anything anyone could do to change it. There were murals between good old fashioned graffiti and advertisements along the highway. The visual landscape was as diverse as the people there. It reminded me of America, but with a slightly larger proportion of gorgeous women. Even the murals were diverse, depicting the soul of Sao Paulo - the culture, music and their history.

My impression of Rio was similar, but without the enchanting rhythm, just craziness. Our first night in Rio we took a brief walk along ipanema beach and watched kids flying kites in the dark. (It gets dark here at like 5:30pm because it's winter) What made the biggest impression on me in Rio was the caution with which one must breathe. There are so many smells that you never know when an awful one will hit you. The mix of smells included fresh, cologne, sewer, hamburger being grilled, plastic, etc.

I got my placement

I just found out where I will be helping at all summer. I will be teaching English and assisting teachers at:
CEIFAR was founded in 1994 as part of the initiative of a nurse, Simone Alice Debounck. It is a Non-Governmental Organization located in the neighborhood Tancredo Neves in the city of Salvador.
The main objective is to improve the quality of life by focusing on education and family health at a community level. CEIFAR takes 326 children aged from 3 to 16 years old.
The program prioritizes families in the neighborhood and works with the community in a holistic and integrated way. The group evaluates the needs of the families and plans meetings and orientation session on sexuality, education, and leisure activities. These programs help to promote a positive perspective within the community and raise the standard of living.
The group promotes the nuclear family and education for young people of the community.
In the last 10 years the organization has trained educators and community leaders with the goal of preserving family life.

You can Still Donate!

Some people have asked me so I will post this on here. I talked to the people at Cross Cultural Solutions about the donations. We had to pay off our trip already or it would get canceled. We used some of the money we were saving to buy a house. Since then, we received another donation even though our site says that we have raised 100%. CCS said that anyone can still donate until July 7th (the day we start) and the extra money that is paid will be refunded to us. That could help us pay for the plane tickets or put money back into saving for a house. Thank you so much to all of those that have made this trip possible and thanks for your continued support!

By the way, we received our visas this week so we are now ready to go! We went through an expeditor called abriggs and they were great!

Car Wash!

We had a car wash to raise money for our volunteer trips. Some of Megan's class mates are going to Nicaragua with Natural Doctors International. We had a good time and did pretty well. Then the rain came and we called it quits.

19 DAYS

We turned in our Visa applications to an expeditor recently and are awaiting those. We paid off the rest of our balance, and must thank all of you who contributed. This trip would not be possible without you! From the bottom of our hearts we thank you sooooo much! In a week we will start packing up our stuff and moving it for storage while we are gone. We also put in our notice at our apartment complex and will be having a CAR WASH this weekend (Saturday 10-3 at SE 11th & Hawthorne Burgerville) to raise money for the trip.

Less than 50 days

We're getting really excited and it's hard to just continue our daily routines when we think about Brazil. Scott got in touch with a couple of old friends in Salvador and they are anxiously awaiting our arrival. For Mother's Day we got to see Scott's grandfather who he hadn't seen in seven or eight years, and I had never met. He delivered a donation from Scott's "Uncle Cal" and Scott's parents graciously contributed. Then we went to my parent's, and we got to hang out and talk to my brother in the Phillipines when he called. My grandmother also donated some more.
We are almost to our goal, which is good because we have to finish paying it off in two weeks. Thank you again to everyone who has helped us out! It means so much to us that you are all going to be a part of this trip with us because we couldn't have done it without you!
My Portuguese is coming along, I can now generally form my own thoughts into sentences, but understanding other people is still somewhat of a challenge. If they speak slowly it's much easier. I guess the same applies to my understanding English sometimes, too. :)

Countdown

Our trip is now officially less than 90 days away. We have one month to gather the funds to pay off the rest of it. Thank you so much to those of you who have donated! Even small amounts help tremendously. We're crossing things off our To Do list like crazy. We are completely vaccinated and Megan is taking a Portuguese class through PCC to help with her language skills. Soon we will apply for a Visa and receive our official work placement information as well as a list of other volunteers that will be there with us and their contact information.

Sold Rhonda the Honda

We sold our Honda Accord to my little brother to help pay for our volunteer trip. Before we leave he will donate the money for that. We are getting closer to our goal! I'm going to do the wedding photography at his wedding comming up as well and the money we get from that will go to our trip.

New Tickets

We found a class through Portland Community College that I can take this spring to learn Portuguese. It is Wednesday nights April 6th - June 6th I think. Then the last month before we leave I can practice. Hopefully that way I will get the most out of being there and by the end of the program I may be at least proficient in the language.

We finally bought our plane tickets for the last leg of our journey. This completes our flight reservations and now we just need the hotel in Rio de Janeiro to email us back. Here's how our itinerary looks so far:
July 3rd - Fly out of Portland at 11:40 am to Dallas, TX (5:25 pm)
Fly out of Dallas, TX at 7:45 pm, to Sao Paulo at 7:50 am (July 4th!)
July 4th - Fly out of Sao Paulo at 10:10 am to Rio de Janeiro at 11:10 am
*Stay in Rio for 2 nights - see famous beaches and the Christ statue*
July 6th - 11:10 pm leave Rio and fly to Salvador, arriving at 1:10 am on the 7th.
July 7th - CCS representative picks us up at the airport at 1:10 am and takes us back to the home base where we hopefully can sleep all day. Then our journey truly begins...
On the weekends we will travel to nearby, and maybe some not so nearby, cities for fun and so Scott can see mission friends again in other areas.
...
Our program ends on September 1st at which point we will travel by bus the 8 or so hours overnight to Porto Seguro and Eunopolis for a few days then take the bus back and fly out of Salvador on the 5th around 3:20 pm, and get to RIo at 5:20 pm.
September 5th - Fly out of Rio at 8:45 pm and get to Miami at 4:20 am (6th).
September 6th - Fly out of Miami at 7:15 am and get to Dallas, TX at 9:15 am.
Fly out of Dallas, TX at 11:40 am and get to Portland at 1:35 pm.
Then it's Thursday and we are home! Then we rest and do laundry that weekend and I get ready for school to start that Monday. So sorry if you wanted to spend any time with us this summer. We still love you! And you're welcome to come along! Thanks!
-Megan Taylor

Plane Tickets

We recently purchased our plane tickets to Brazil. We are one step closer! We are flying to Rio de Janeiro and then we'll see from there. We may fly to Porto Seguro and then take a bus to Salvador.