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. 

Beach

So…. In the last ten days I went to the beach!!! It’s not the coast, but it was beautiful. See, Tocantins has natural non-touristic beauty and the Rio Araguaia (Araguaia River) is one of those beauties.  The river provides a border between my state and Pará to the north.  Our trip was to Conceção de Araguaia, Pará.

We stayed with a girl named Andréia.  She’s from Conceção and is living in Araguaína while she attends law school here.  She is one of the most fashionable people I’ve ever met. In fact, everybody here is.  Going out is like going to a real-life shopping mall where people are mannequins.  We met Andréia through Camilia, another one of my good friends here.  Camilia is one of our students at UFT. Her mom makes some of the best feijoada I’ve ever tasted. Feijoada is a typical Brazilian dish. It’s made of beans (Feijão) and sausage and other goodness.  Camilia is studying abroad in Argentina this semester and won’t be back until December, i.e. after we leave for the states. Sadness. So, I decided to go spend a week to make a new friend, say bye to an old one, and see a beach all at the same time. Camila’s married to Daniel. She met him during a semester abroad in Portugal (where he’s from). Daniel lives in Brazil now and works at CNA (the school that hosted the American Camp). 

The restaurants, tables, chairs, and everything was in the water

The tents and stuff from far away

Michol, Andreia, Camila, Daniel

me

My first day in the water I was psyched cuz was the first time I had seen sand since I got here.  As I’m running into the water Andreia is like, “Woah, don’t do that”. She then told me that the Araguaia River has stingrays. They typically don’t come to the area where we are because they’re scared of the people and usually only come out at night, but we try to be careful anyway. That simply meant walking slowly and dragging your feet. Not sure what that does, but if you say so I believe you.  We actually met a guy who had been stung.  We went to the beach every day. We also went to a beach luao one night.  It’s not the Hawaiian luau you may be thinking of. In Portuguese, moon is lua so luao is a party under the moon.  The party goers were hard core Brazilian rockers who love lots of old-school American rock bands. None of which I knew much about,lol.  Still a great time. With a great view. The beach had the biggest moon you ever did see and clear nights so you could actually watch the moon rise and set if you sat outside long enough.

We went to the farm. Two of them actually. I had a circle of farm-fresh cheese in my fridge before the trip courtesy of Rosy’s mom but this trip I got to see it made.  You just milk the cows put coagulator in it, after an hour you put the curdled milk in those circle presses and let it sit out to dry. Yum. I also saw chicken’s killed, defeathered, cut up and put into bags. I left those pictures off for your sake.  Got on a horse for the first time since Chile. It was funny to say the least. They were 20 year old cattle horses. They like us were also hot so they just weren’t feeling the joy ride or ride giving in their case. Every time we passed the gate my horse tried to veer back.  After about 10 or 15 minutes I just let him go and he walked himself (us) back to the gate and waited for me to get down and open it,lol. I laughed uncontrollably.

They had pet monkeys at the first farm. Like they were in the trees and dude was like come eat and they came.

These are pineapples that grow on the ground. Lots and lots of pineapple plants.

 The beautiful Brazilian countryside

Lastly, we were asked if we wanted to see a Sertanejo show.  It was pretty costly in Brazilian terms, but it was vacation and would be an experience.  We said sure expecting a random dupla to sing at a bar.  What we got was a concert. Like a real one. With special effects and everything. It didn’t start till 1:30am and went till 3:30. It actually started at 1:40 but 10 minutes late is 15 mins early on Brazil time.  I slept before the show so I was alert. During the pre-show waiting music. The lazy song played, cool. The next song was PIMP by 50 Cent. I was thoroughly amused. 

Sertanejo is danced in couples. People generally get lost here when you ask them to dance by themselves. They think I'm the best dancer ever. I'm not,lol. 

So that’s more or less my beach experience. Till next time.

4 months down, 5 months to go

Well, we’ve reached the mid-way point.  Five months to take advantage of this beautiful experience I’ve been blessed with.  It’s a mid-way point for you, too. Today is July 1^st.  Time take all those New Year’s resolutions you broke and try them again,lol.  But seriously, I love this time off year. It allows me to reflect on the ways I’ve grown in the first half of the year and to think about where I’d like to see myself at the year’s end.  Do my best to stop trying to control everything and let God guide my will to align with His. I also read this great phrase which I’d enjoy sharing. “Never worry about what may happen in the future because if it doesn’t happen you’ve worried for nothing. And if it does, you have to worry twice”

As for events Michol and I got to go to an indigenous reservation.  The Xerente there were having a naming ceremony where they registered babies into the community. It was a unique experience to say the least.  I’m not posting pictures because I don’t know if I have their permission and I just wouldn’t do that anyway.  We went with the indigenous group on campus.  I was nervous because not only are we not indigenous but we’re not even Brazilian (obviously,lol) They were so welcoming though and seemed genuinely excited to share their culture with us.  They told us we could move about/take pictures freely. The only restriction they had was that everyone had to be painted. So I watched them make henna-like paint and was covered in it for a while.  I also met the resident pastor (a really cute intelligent old guy) who spoke really good English although he didn’t believe me.  He said the men who trained him were English-speaking missionaries. I said I hope my Portuguese is as good as his English when I get to be his age.

We took part in Flit (International Literary Fair of Tocantins).  We along with Elisa and another woman named Geane gave a four-hour workshop about sustainability.  Aplitins is the Association of English Language Professors of Tocantins and Elisa is the president.  The workshop was for public school English teachers.  Sustainability is a practice that doesn’t really exist here.  People throw their trash on the ground and the only recycling is at the university.  And even there people don’t do it.  But it was a good experience. The next day we went to another workshop Alessandra was presenting about phonetics.  It was really helpful in understanding why my students have a hard time pronouncing certain sounds and gave me ideas on how to teach them better J

You’re getting your post today because I’m going to the beach tomorrow. One of our friends is going abroad for the semester and won’t be home until after we leave so I’d like to spend some time with her before she goes.  One of the great things about this program over previous abroad experiences that I’ve had is that I have friends here. I have an incredible bond with my host family in Chile, for example, but I never made any lasting friendships with other Chileans.  I’m glad for having done so this time around.

So, I got on my professional game this week. Got a legit e-mail address, updated my resume, etc. A big decision this week is that I decided to apply to Vanderbilt. The deadline to take the GRE for them to get the scores on time is Oct. 22^nd so I’m excited to have a “concrete” study goal in mind.  And my mom is sending me a care-package.  Complete with study book and other goodies I’ve been missing here.

So… that’s it. Below are the pics I promised of the Aloha Party. See you next week.

This last picture is a bonus. It's a moto taxi. You can tell who they are because they where blue long sleeve shirts and orange vests which must be a killer this time of year.  Moto taxis are half the price of regular taxis and my transport of choice whenever Michol's not around.  (I'm talking casually now, but my first day on one I literally had a hand ache from holding on so tightly,lol) When I first got here I used to be amazed at the women who wore dresses and heels and rode side saddle. I'm not so amazed anymore but I definitely still think it's a talent or a skill.