The Beginning of a New Beginning, Part 2

Okay where did I leave off… stories, yeah. So, Friday we go to Hillbilly (a country western bar cuz well I live in the country,lol) Let me explain the going out system here. You don’t have like 6 packs where everyone has their own. It’s a communal culture so everything is shared. You also don’t pay for stuff before they bring it to you. Kinda like a tab but it’s just on paper. I went to a bar Saturday where I had to pay for my drinks upfront for the first time since being here. It was rather strange, but I understood cuz the bar is outside with no door so that’s how they prevent people from just walking off. Anyways, at places with doors, you’re handed a ticket when you pay and you have to show that to leave.

So we leave Hillbilly and within the hour a friend’s mom calls like are yall ok?? I heard shots.  So we find out the table next to ours has a fight, then somebody pulls out a gun and starts firing in the air and everybody starts throwing chairs, breaking bottles, and hopping the fence. Shortly after someone else pulls out a gun and starts shooting across the street. The police took 10 mins to get their despite the bar literally being on the same street within eyesight.  Though injured, no one was killed. Apparently no one was questioned either. I can only imagine how much money the bar lost.

So we get home and go to sleep. A little while later I wake up to this crash and subsequent yelling. Now it seems like Dona Esmeralda’s apartment (directly below us) literally breaks something every day. That being said I assumed a grandkid broke an important dish or something looking for a midnight snack. The next morning Michol informs me that two men tried to rob the house across from ours. The crash I heard was them landing on the air conditioner holder (we’re still using wall units) after jumping the wall. Every week is a holiday and people generally clear out of town.  The family was home and came out with knife and shotgun. Spiderthief #1 steals a dish towel from Dona Esmeralda and ties the electric fence (never woulda thought to do that)

Spiderthief #2 then scales our wall (houses have walls built around them here so you never actually see anybody’s house unless you’re invited over) and hides on our balcony.  He then shuffles his way (leaving shoeprints) to our laundry room bars because then he will be inside Dona Esmeraldas gate with access to the much shorter wall they came over. They got away unscathed and I was left wondering how dude survived the fall.

Also, a man who apparently was involved in the killing of a police officer was hospitalized last week. Somebody then walked in the hospital and shot him. Yep.  In lighter news, Elisa’s daughters Nina and Nanda were winners in a state wide authorship competition.  The prize was getting their manuscripts published. They both had very different but equally awesome book release parties. Below are a couple of pictures from Nanda’s release.  

These salgados get a picture of their own because they are the best salgados I’ve ever tasted and that’s saying a lot since you eat salgados here regularly.

This is a picture of ingá. The accent is important because without it the word means bait. It has a peel like a banana and it has really large black seeds inside so you suck the white part off. Very tasty.

Since being here I've eaten a lot of farm raised animals that were killed and then taken to the kitchen.  As sad as it sounds, I actually prefer our hormone injected, processed meats. Like a healthy chicken really has no meat on it and the meat that is there is tougher. I will say that farm raised chickens make the best eggs I've ever eaten.

For those who don't know, this is what a cashew looks like 

Finally this is an açai (ah-sigh-ee) store. Açai is a berry that is used to make this paste. People eat it with fish or they add sugar and ice and eat it as a dessert.

The Beginning of a New Beginning, Part 1

(Cuz the beginning of the end sounds so final,lol)

Hello readership,

When we last tuned in the strike was set to end for Araguaína on September 10^th.  Classes actually resumed one week later on September 17^th.  Nine weeks later I am writing my penultimate blog post from Brazil. It has been a pleasure and I thought I’d break this down into two parts so the goodbye next week isn’t so long.

The semester officially ended on Friday and we had 8 successful weeks of courses.  Michol gave a writing workshop and together we gave an hour long conversation class 4 times a week.  We also began separate weekly reading classes for some natural science students.  We discovered that our students though struggling with prose actually write beautiful poetry so Michol suggested an open mic night. That happened Friday accompanied by the like 120 pancakes that she made and was really successful.  We felt really fulfilled at UFT this second half of the semester.  Things were challenging this year to say the least but it has been an incredible experience.  

One of the things I’m also pleased about is that I was able to start a Bible Study.  It taught me a lot about the process and it’s something that I think I’d like to look into at home.  I pray that the students received God’s word and were blessed by it.  I thank them for bearing with me while I prayed for God to speak through me every day but especially on those days when no amount of planning in the world could move the Spirit if it wasn’t willing,lol. 

What else? I took the GRE. I didn’t get the scores I was hoping for but when I finished the test I felt good about it. I’m learning a lot about “failure” here. Case in point, week before last I played in a guitar recital. It was nice for me because I saw the bi-annual recital in May and decided that I’d be in the next one and I was J Anyway, I practiced all day and got up there and got LOST, which I thought would be the end of the world beforehand but it wasn’t. I still had a great time and was proud of myself.  I say that to say that sometimes my best won’t be good enough. And that’s ok. Cuz God is more than whatever "enough" ever will be.

As for stories, Michol and I went with Rosy to the farm to go fishing.  It looked straight up like the land before time. 

 Anyways, as I’ve said in an earlier post I pee like 7 or 8 times a day cuz I have to drink that much water to feel like I won’t die. So we’re on a boat and I’m like I gota go to which they offer two suggestions. Or I pee in the boat (on myself) and throw some water on it (me) or I get in the water.  It would seem that I could’ve just done one of those without the announcement.  Here was my dilemma: the first didn’t sit well with me. Not that I didn’t have practice. “Just throw some water on it” seems to be the common response to urination related experiences. The second was that we went fishing for piranha and cachorras so them telling me those fish live 30 feet deep wasn’t really comforting. In any case I chose the latter and survived.lol. Although one of the cachorras flopped up and bit a chunck outa Rosy’s finger…

a cachorra

piranha's are actually smaller than I thought they were

I forgot sunscreen :/

Uhh… and Michol and I went to Palmas (the capital of Tocantins) with Tenikey. Some friends have a band that was playing in the International Rock Festival of Tocantins there. They were cute,lol. 

(centavos)

Saw my second favorite waterfall and went to their Mercado Municipal. Way bigger than the one here.

After the 25 min hike from the waterfall

 We ate almost every meal at the shopping (mall). My ma was like buy a big mac and see if it tastes the same.  The sandwich alone was $6 and was smaller but same taste.  All in all an enjoyable weekend.  I’m glad I went.

Life

It’s blog time. Yeah, so this week was filled with danger. Like real danger. Luckily, it didn’t happen to me. Danger #1- Someone at the corner bar got robbed. Ironically the man doing the robbing was standing in the middle of the street and got hit by a car. Yep. Lots of robbing happens here. I think I mentioned in a past post the nail salon we go to got held up and everybody in their lost their purses. Someone also broke into the grocery store we go to by Valeria’s house and busted open the cash machine.  Anyways, this week the bakery we go to got robbed and last Monday someone robbed the apartment on the closest to the door on the 1^st floor of my complex. Broke the window which is crazy to me cuz apparently it happened at 11am.  We weren’t here tho.

The trippiest of all these events happened Tuesday. I left the house around a quarter to 9 to go to the gym.  I usually turn left down my street, but when I got to the sidewalk I saw like 4 people run past me from that direction. Two of these were old men in business suits and two were old ladies. I assumed that it was another armed robbery, though I thought it weird that one businessman would be chasing another as I assumed they both had jobs to be at.  In any case, due to my back-hand-sided upbringing, I decided to turn right and ask questions later. Turns out, I had witnessed the aftermath of a European bee attack. A swarm of bees entered a house with an elderly couple, 84 and 82, along with their two grandchildren and I guess a handyman. Apparently they swarmed the wife and the husband dumped a bucket of water on her and then they swarmed him. Everyone was sent to the hospital. The wife is still there; the husband didn’t make it.

Our landlord says that this type of bee lives in out in the fields but he’s never heard of them coming to the city. As it’s so dry nowadays though, they probably came looking for something to eat. If that’s true that might have something to do with why that particular house was swarmed (it’s next door to an ice cream store).  Unfortunately, everyone that was walking by became a target. I pray for those people and thank God for his favor and grace. Had I left the house 5 maybe ten mins earlier that woulda been me. My neighbor was nervous cause the windows here don’t have glass in them so if they decided to take a field trip further down the street it’da been a wrap. I insisted that Michol and I put screens on all the windows. All of the have them except the front because you can close it. Not gonna lie I still thought twice about eating an orange with the window open.

As far as the strike goes, the letras professors decided to teach strike or no strike starting September 3^rd. That week the Araguaína campus voted to end the strike and return to teaching on September 10th. Unfortunately the state syndicate did not feel the same way. In fact, it forbade Araguaína from teaching because it said that all 7 UFT campi need to be unified. In other words, they all need to pick a date to go back together. Where that leaves the students, I’m not sure. There was a meeting today to talk about it. Regardless, Michol and I start teaching classes for the natural science students (chemistry , math, biology, physics) next week. Should be informative for all of us.

Last but not least I met a really nice guy named Bernie. Michol met him when she went to the Amazon. He’s a recent doctoral grad spending 2 ½ months traveling Brazil. From Austria, he speaks German and English. No Portuguese. But he’s gotten by just fine. He says he can do all the things anyone else can just takes a little longer. He’s making his way through the Fulbright community crashing with many of us since we speak English and we’re free I guess. But he’s a great cook and super smart. He and Valeria hit it off well  talking about politics, culture, her time in Germany.

Anyways, that’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week hopefully with a less eventful post and maybe some pictures,lol. (Actually last week I hoped for more action and that is what I got so... I think I'ma leave the planning life thing up to God where it's supposed to be anyway and be thankful for the time that we get to be a part of it)

The Third Trimester

Well, we are officially in the final third of our grant. Exactly 90 days from today I will be boarding a plane for the good ole' U.S. of A. Not sure how I feel about that. I've thought about the journey home but now it's actually semi-relevant. At the end of third 1, I wrote about what I'd learned (and posted pics of my head). I think I'll do that again, because even though things are not physically as noticeable, a lot of learning happened over the summer (most specifically in the last month).

• Michol learned what the drawer at the top of our fridge is for. It's "extra-cold" for things like drinks you'd like really cold but not frozen.
• I learned what tapioca is. Deliciousness. I thought they were selling pudding,lol. I'd had it before and just not known the name. Now I'm on a quest to learn to cook it for myself.

(you can put stuff in it and eat it like a gyro)

• We found a costureira (seamstress). She altered 6 pieces of clothing for like $8.50. I now realize the joy of having clothes that are literally made for you and will be finding a seamstress when I get home).
• We found out where CASAI (House of Indigenous Health) is. I've spoken to the boss and may be able to volunteer there. It's the first time a foreigner has asked to volunteer so like with my cash advance at the bank, he's got to see what actually needs to be done.
• I took the van to Palmas so I got to see the city which is super spread out. Saw the old rodoviaria (bus station) and the new one and now I know how to get home when I travel from Brasilia in Oct.
• I made a new friend. Her name is Tenikey. She has a cutie daughter, Cecilia. It's been great befriending her. Michol and I have different friends now and it's nice to have that time apart sometimes.

(The night we met. I could name all these people but you won't know who they are anyway so I'll just say they're cool peoples)

On a more personal note...

• I lost my battle to kitty. They say you have to pick your battles and this one just wasn't worth it.  I realized most of why I'm so angry at her is not because of the stuff she does, but more specifically because I'm not getting what I want (i.e. her to stop doing it) and though her crying is annoying trying to reason with a cat only takes my sunshine away.
• I've decided to rededicate myself to God. I thought about a year again because concrete goals have always been my thing, but I think this time I'm gonna try day by day. I failed today so I think this one is a little more my speed,lol. But seriously, I'd like my readers to hold me accountable for my thoughts and my actions. So please don't be afraid to ask me what I did that day when you talk to me. Knowing I could be forced to speak my unfortunate thoughts/desires might help me stay on the straight and narrow. Well that's all for this week. Next week will be more action-filled.

Toodles

Brasília

I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last post. I really thought it was like a few weeks. Oops.lol. Anyways, I’m here to tell you all about the wonderful Brazilian capital city of Brasília!  

We arrived Sunday afternoon after over 12 hours of travel. Our van came to pick us up at 4am. Michol and I went to a friend’s birthday party the night before and got back around 2. Needless to say I was exhausted. It really didn’t matter though because I was TOO geeked. And rightfully so. The 2012 Fulbright Brazil ETAs are a paragon of awesomeness.  We all met up at the mall as our flights got in at different times. It was SO refreshing to hear about other people’s experiences both in and out of their host cities. I’d even venture to say I made a new friend.  Maria if you’re reading this I’m talking about you! ;)

Monday we went to this fancy restaurant where the food was served a course at a time. When we got to Araguaína, I kept passing this shop with this gorgeous one-piece in the window. One day I didn’t see it anymore and decided to go ask about it. They hadn’t sold it so I bought it. It was more expensive than my usual taste, but I decided to treat myself.  I’m still pleased with that decision J

Tuesday was Chapada Imperial. We were told “nature walk.” I was like cool, I got this one in the bag. If you remember from my http://ambernicolej.blogspot.com.br/2012/07/waterfalls.html post last month, “nature walk” meant chest-high natural pools. So naturally I brought my slide in sandals to slide off when we came to water. Silly me. “Nature walk” in Brasília means 5 hour, 400m vertical hike. I didn’t feel well at all that morning, but my trusty cohorts made the day a blast.

(What I thought we were doing, II)

(What we were actually doing, II)

Wednesday. Sit-chee-too. I said “Excuse me?” at which point Valeria Englishified her Brazilianized version of the words “City Tour.” We got a good laugh out of that one. Anyway, it was an enjoyable day. Long, but we were able to get out and take pictures like these ones and stretch. We were also able to see that 36 different groups of people are on strike.

 (From where the picture is taken the acoustics are as such that you can hear clearly someone standing on the other end. The world is such a skeptical place cuz I immediately wondered if it was rigged with a microphone.)

(The cool kids in front of Congress)

 Fourth and Final Day.  Epicness took place Thursday night. We saw DJ Chocolatey at a club of “Musica Black” (yeah, that’s what it sounds like,lol) After a while, everybody else just left and the DJ started takin our requests.  He was pretty on point for a while even without our help.

(End of the night)

So that was Brasília. More to come next week!

More time down than to go...

My blog post for this week is a short one. This past week hasn’t been adventurous in the sense that I went somewhere cool and took great photos. This week has been one of those learning weeks. Michol took off for the Amazon a week ago. With her gone I was literally the only person in my entire apartment complex.  I had a fear of living alone. I honestly think this was God’s way of pushing me out of that fear. Now I feel like if I can live in a complex in a foreign country alone, I can live just about anywhere. 

I think it also has to do with this new spiritually conscious mindset I have. I keep reciting verses in my head, like Psalms 56:3 and “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”  It helps too when I’m walking alone (and I secretly think I might be attacked by a street dog cuz I smell like kitty,lol)  But  In the wake of the deaths of two young people associated with me and the Batman movie shooting, I was instilled with this hope.  Our lives really are just a vapor and God didn’t intend for us to walk through this life afraid.  I believe that while we have free choice, God already knows what we’re gonna choose and it’s all part of his master plan.  When I think on that, it’s hard not to be at peace. 

Like I can really feel God’s presence in my every day.   When Michol took off the cat started crying. Really crying all night and much of the day because she’s used to sleeping in Michol’s bed. She wasn’t sleeping in my bed so we were just at war this week. She kept me up all night and in an effort to make her diurnal, I kept her up all day.  I almost took her to Valeria’s house, but I really thought God was trying to teach me patience so I kept at it. Sure enough as the days went by I was less and less bothered until one morning I realized that her crying didn’t bother me at all. And last night, for the first time in a week she was relatively quiet all night. I’m letting her sleep more today so I don’t know if it will last but the point is that the process will be a calm one. 

I’m hoping to use the patience, forgiveness, and mercy I’m learning with kitty on the other people in my life. And, And, And Kitty kills cockroaches!!!!! Yep cockroaches! She used to just play with them but now she’s old enough to hunt. I think she ate the first one and it probably didn’t taste good so now she just leaves them dead. Pride. Um… I thought class at the farm by myself yesterday that was fun. I think they understood me, lol. No it went fine, I’m gonna go every class.  I love the farm, especially the drive. Living in the dust you forget how much beautiful green space is literally 10 mins away.

Last but not least, my box came!! Been eatin apples and peanut butter, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches.  Yum. And learned how to tune my guitar. And it’s week 17 of my 17 week fitness journey. Tomorrow is an hour on the treadmill. Praise God cuz He really gets me through. I realized I run about 4 ½ miles an hour now so after I take some time to acknowledge this feat, I’ll up my speed until I can run 5 miles in an hour. Then I’m gonna stop,lol. I think 5 miles three times a week for the rest of life if God sees it that way is a good plan.  

I sat in the house all weekend cuz everybody’s gone. As much as I tried to tell myself I wasn’t I was kinda lonely.  Then I thought, “What are you doing, you’re wasting the time God entrusted to you. Go move.” And as soon as I started doin stuff, more opportunities appeared! So, like I said this week was one of those emotion-filled learning weeks.  I have a little more initiative, patience, and courage than I did the day before.  All in all it’s been a good week.  And it’s not over yet. I’m excited. I’m happy.

Waterfalls

As you can probably guess from the title, we saw more waterfalls.  You can never really get tired of waterfalls, especially not one of the ones I saw this past Sunday. Elisa and family invited Michol and me to go to Pedra Caida a park just outside of Carolina, Maranhão.  In order to leave Tocantins, it appears as though you have to cross a river.  Last week, we crossed the Araguaia River west into Pará.  This week it was the Tocantins River to the east.  Both Carolina and Conceção de Araguaia border Tocantins the way St. Louis borders Illinois.

On the drive the boys got hungry so we stopped in a random little town in front of a random little store.  But it turns out the town and the store weren’t random at all. While we’re stretching our legs, Rosy’s sister and brother-in-law drive up. It’s their store. Crazy, right? 

(This picture is mostly here because I'd never seen the back of this shirt on me and was excited. I'm a dork, it's okay. lol)

(Us on our second ferry out of Tocantins. I didn't pose for this picture as you can see from the hand movement, but I find it rather interesting that the rest of me is so still)

Once in the park, you pay for a tour to see the waterfall Santuario (Santuary).  Michol, Elisa, and I took our backpacks.  They told us we had to go and come back with the group. That we’d leave at one and get back at three.  I thought we were going to walk past it, take pictures, and maybe sit at some touristy rest stop and admire the view.  Apparently, everybody else knew something that we didn’t.  After hiking down into the hillside we see water coming off a wall and stop to take pictures. I thought that was it until the guide told us we had to keep going.  Eventually everyone starts taking off their flip-flops. So, we do too,lol. Turns out you have to wade through a canyon filled with waist to chest high water. So we carry our backpacks over our heads and thankfully find a dry spot to nestle them in the mossy wall.

(What I thought we were doing)

(What we were actually doing,lol)

When you get over the rocks and turn the corner you see it. It was literally one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my entire life and I immediately understood the name. Like when you first got in there the shock of the cold took your breath away and you couldn’t even look up at it because water was falling in your face. But once you braced yourself, the view/experience was spectacular.

(To give you an idea of how massive this thing is its just over 150 ft high and about 40 ft wide)

On a God treats your life in simple situations moment, I spent the whole walk down wondering why they had these bars sticking out of the ramp. They were uncomfortable and to me it seemed like it’d be easier to make it down (or up) without having to dodge their attempt at steps.  What I did not know it that I’d be soaked on the walk back and thus in thankful desire of the same preconceived painful annoyance.  Moral of the story. God knows more about your life than you do. 

Then we packed up and went to our second waterfall which was actually two. The twin waterfalls of Itapecuru to be exact. (They must be fraternal,lol) This place was a lot more swim friendly as it had shallow water for kids and deep water near the falls.

The drive home was obviously pitch black but the stars were incredible. I don't know much about astronomy, but I'm pretty sure I saw the big/little dippers. At about 9 pm we pulled into a fish restaurant and at about 10:30 I rolled into bed. Tiring but awesome. Till next week.