Mark Twain

I have never really spent any time on the Mississippi or any other great river, so this is a new experience. However, as a child I adored Mark Twain's writing about the Great Mississippi, Huck, and Tom. I believe I have read most if not all of Mark Twain or Samuel Clemens work so I have a very defined mind's eye of Huck Finn's town. Santarem is what I always imagined Huck Finn's town to be like. Like Tom Sawyer, I made the Great Mississippi into a wild, lazy, gigantic river full of possibilities when I was a child. Now that I am older and have seen the Mississippi, it doesn't exactly live up to all of my expectations. The Amazon does.

Santarem is half-way between Manaus and Belem (roughly). Thus is is sort of an outpost with scruffy river men and the pungent smell of fresh (and old) catch from the Amazon. There are boats lined up and down the wharf which are the type that I always pictured in Antebellum Mississippi (minus the sternwheel). These are the major vehicles of transportation since no man-made structure crosses the Amazon at any point (fun fact). I really wish I had a little more time here because I think I would love taking a 3 day and 3 night boat ride to Manaus or down to Belem. The only requirement is that you bring a hammock to sleep at night.





Fishermen and the Tapajos River

Cruise boat with hammocks in the gallery to sleep at night
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Saw a guy walking
Nicole and I took mototaxis home.. really cheap but slightly scary

Caipoeira is a form of martial arts/dance. It was a workout.

One of the main roads, goes all the way to Sao Paulo and then to Porto Alegre which is a most southern large city in Brazil.
I saw this in Zanzibar too, used to make make-up
Looks scary but its actually a vegetarian
Dolphin head and dolphin penis bone. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun making some jokes
Dont mess with this tree
The real guarana tree (what's found in our energy drinks)
The timbo tree. I like to call it the lazy fisherman's tree because natives chop it down and throw it in the water to cause fish paralysis.

Brazil nuts in Brazil. And no, they are not just called nuts.
Deer skulls


Too similar for me not to take a picture with it.
Not sure, a big tree.Our guide and another amazing fruit


Scary spider

Scarier spider

Termites

The crew
Fish Market
Every imaginable part of a cow
Medicinal plants and juices from the Amazon
The real acai.
Fruit market


Some type of fruit that we ate like pez

I thought this was hilarious, look what the dog has on his mind. If you can see, its dog food

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So very much has happened since last time I wrote in my blog, but I will try to remember.

At CADEC, I was very busy towards the end of my time with painting and other projects. I ended up painting 3 rooms with donated paint from Amizade.

Me, Nicole, Sirley (director) and the monkeys.

I went with my sister's English professor to some local schools to speak to the English classes. At first, I turned the teacher down because... I was intimidated when she said that I would speak in front of 80 high school students. Then, after much persistence she talked me into going and told me that I would only have to speak English. I finally got to go after Rio and I ended up talking in Portuguese the whole time. It was definitely a stretch in a new direction for me but it ended up not being that hard. Most of the kids understood me and some were so excited that they could stop asking questions or sit still. No lie, I kinda felt like a celebrity.

Amanda's school and part of the 70 kids I talked to. Since I couldn't stay there all day, they crammed four classes into two classes. Glad I didn't start off with this.

We gave a copy of this photo to Sirley as our going away present. Again, monkeys.This is at Guarapari which is south of Vila Velha and one of the best beaches in Brazil. This is where my uncle's sitio is located.
Learned how to throw a net here and even caught a fish.
Junior doing his thing and I am in the background snorkeling. Not that great of water, but still saw a lot of fish.
This is the black sand beach of Guarapari. The sand is black because of radiation from the nuclear active silica. This is the most naturally radiative place in the world. The sand is apparently good for your skin, but pregnant women and people with heart problems aren't supposed to go....doesn't make that much sense to me either.
My fam walking to the mangroves. The sunset was especially awesome that day.
Like I said.
Everyone in front of a boat factory. Pretty cool to see how they plane down the boats by hand.
Fishermen kids jumping in the water as the sun burns up the horizon.
My dad playing some guitar back at the sitio. Really glad I got to go back one last time. A lot of the fruit trees were producing or in bloom and I got a little sick from starfruit and


My cousin's b day party. Shes the one with Junior.Look carefully. I didn't get a good picture, but this is a common site at CADEC in Terra Velmelha. I call it the horse with no name. A lot of "wild" horses roam the streets in Terra Velmelha and eat the grass and garbage, but this one is special. I call it the Horse with No Name. I goes up and down the streets with a cart attached to it, but no driver.
My last day at CADEC. They threw us a party and we stayed there all day from 8 to 3. After that I had my Portuguese final at 4 to 6 and then we took our families out for a last dinner at a rodizio of pizza (all you can eat).


I'll miss the trouble-makers
Anderson, the kid gripping my leg, would not let Nicole and I leave. He always needed extra attention and ended up being one of my favorite. I think about him now and know that I made a positive influence in his like if just as a masculine figure. However, a scary thought for me is if I actually made him and others worse off by entering their lives and then leaving. A lot of these kids already have people leaving their houses, this is supposed to be a safe haven for them. I hope that they remember our good times together and that I left them in a better condition than the first day I arrived.
My fake Raybans which I let the kids wear. I learned something in child psych that day. Just because you trust a kid with something after you deny then repeatedly, does not mean that they will follow your guidelines. I kept on telling the kids they couldn't wear the glasses and then when I repeatedly told them that they had to stay with me while wearing the glasses. As soon as I gave them the glasses.... ran away. Disheartening, but if there is one thing that I learned from CADEC is that kids need love even when you don't want to give it to them. Even the punkest kids here were just looking for a little attention that they were probably lacking in another area of their life.
Party. Sign says" Our gratitude to nicole and calebe" I'm gonna miss my Brazilian name.
After my Portuguese final we stayed for the second class to say bye to our relatively new friends. It would have been a lot harder to live in Brazil if not for these few friends and especially the English speaking ones.
Sheila and I at the rodizio of pizza. The dinner could have been awkward because Nicole's family and my family are in a fight over "child custody" of the study abroad kids. Sheila thought we should be doing one thing and Rosanna thought something else. Anyways, all turned out well in the end.
Junior and I at the rodizio. I'm gonna miss the feller.

Sheila and Junior waving bye from the house as Amanda, Grant, and I go to Vitoria shopping to make a photo album for her. By the way, at one point in my trip I was discouraged because I didn't fell like I had much utility or that I wasn't making my mark on Brazil. I solved this problem. I wrote my name in the wet concrete outside my house.
Grant and Amanda at the bus-stop outside my house.
The faded Coca-Cola sign outside of my house. Kinda like Mail Pouch Tobacco in the states, but without the barn.
In Vitoria under the third bridge. By the way, have you noticed that I only wear five different outfits or so? I really packed horribly for this trip. I packed khakis and and a suit to Brazil! Actually I guess the suit came in handy for Order of Augusta.
Rock, Bridge, Hill, Ocean, Water, and Me
The boys at my last full day in Vila Velha. My aunt, uncle and cousins came in and had a churrasco. I had to go to another going away party half way through though.
My other going away party from the people at the clinic. This day was so much fun but I felt like I didn't stop all day.
When I gave Sheila my gift of the photo album. She didn't stop crying for awhile. This is the other place, besides the wet concrete, that I had an effect in Brazil.
Nice hair, I know. Last time on the beach.
At the airport with everyone except Amanda is taking the photo. I still don't understand why this was such a hard experience, but I have my theories. This parting was actually a lot harder than with my family and I think I know the reasons.
First, it was so much harder because it was so much harder for the rest of the people that were present. Brazilian show a lot of emotion, and they don't care how that emotion will affect you. When I left my family in the states, it was really hard, but there was not the out pouring of emotion (my third theory explains this). When I left my Brazilian family, I couldn't look my mom, sis, or aunt in the eyes because I started tearing up. I felt very bad then and I have continued to feel bad about this because I feel like my presence is what put them through this. I know that I added a lot of joy to their lives, but I just hope it wasn't outweighed by how much they were hurting and still are.
Second, my family structure here is very different than in the states. In the states I am rewarded by being a independent, self-sufficient "man." Here, I took a few development steps backwards. It was very hard for me at first because I am used to fixing my own food, cleaning my whole apartment, driving, etc; but here all that was stripped away. In essence my independence was stripped away and I learned to rely on my family and friends much more. Here, I was prompted to show emotion where with my real family I feel like I sometimes hide my emotions to cover my weaknesses and up my pride. I hope this is something that I take away from Brazil. There is nothing wrong with showing my weaknesses, expressing emotion, and relying on my family and friends. If you don't rely on them, who will you rely on besides God?
Third, I know that if nothing goes wrong on this trip, I will see my family and girlfriend again. I already have a return ticket booked. It' for certain. It's not for certain that I will return to see my family or return to see them anytime soon. I told everyone that I would return with my girlfriend and friends next summer, but that a long time from now and that could just be talk. I really want to come back, but its not defined yet.

Last picture I took as a walked through security. The look on my family's faces (except for Junior, I think he was playing with his truck by now) was horrible. It made my heart melt.

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