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.