The Last Few Weeks

Well, another week has passed here in Fortaleza, and I’m shocked at how quickly the time is going. I attribute time flying to always being busy at the moment. I am continually doing something or thinking about all the other things that I could/probably should be doing. My life at the moment is spent with interesting people, observing a fascinating city, and contemplating ideas that will change our future. My days are filled with classes to facilitate my learning and engage my thinking, a family to help me understand the world around me, and amazing people on my program to enjoy this adventure we’re all on together.

I knew coming into this program that SIT stressed experiential learning to understand the who, what, where, when, and why we, the group, are in Fortaleza, Brazil. I have been living this practice for the last two and half weeks, but it has been in the last ten days that this has been realized. The program schedule has been jam packed with tours, field trips, and lectures from some really cool and gifted individuals.

Last Saturday, an internationally recognized photographer, Jose Albano, led our group on a tour around the city of Fortaleza. Our tour began in the oldest cemetery in the city so we could see the origins of the city and legacies of colonial rule. We continued to a central market that was once a jail to observe the people and the marketplace—a central feature of life in Latin America. From the jail/market we ventured to the art and culture center, the Dragão do Mar. The architecture of this building is fascinating because it had to be constructed in such as way to preserve colonial houses in one of the oldest parts of the city. There were staircases and balconies oddly situated creating a sprawling building over an entire city block.

Our next stop was a boardwalk that our group had coincidentally ended up at the night before for a couple drinks. The view from Ponte de Merelles is incredible, the horizon is the sole obstruction of the view of Atlantic Ocean. We continued along the beach to a place called Mucuripe. Mucuripe was once the most the prominent fishing village on the beach in Fortaleza; however, due to the influx of tourism these village were removed and the people were forced to favelas or the periphery of the city. Across the street from Murcuripe is an extremely touristy destination, 50 Sabores (Flavors). This is an ice cream shop, and as the name implies there are 50 flavors to choose from. They include: Carmel Banana, Beer, Guava, Papaya, Passion Fruit, Pineapple, Avocado, Chocolate, and well, 42 more.

Our day continued to get more exciting when we arrived to our tour guide’s home. Zé, as he is referred to, lives in the outer part of the city in a poorer neighborhood, but he is in a secluded ‘hippie commune’ as he calls it. There are four houses on his property that friends and friends of friends live in periodically. Our group was tasked with making lunch, and we made a large green salad and many different kinds of juices. The salad was great because since arriving here I haven’t had the opportunity to eat many vegetables. (I guess that means I’m growing up since I crave green, leafy things…) Lunch, well ‘linner’ really since we didn’t eat until 4pm, was fantastic. Zé’s house was really great; there were hammocks, coffee table books full of picture of Northeast Brazil, his own photo albums, and Samba dance lessons.

At around 5pm we left for sand dunes close to Zé’s house to watch the sunset. These were no ordinary sand dunes; they were HUGE! We were able to run and jump off these dunes/cliffs and fall about 10-15 below. For close to two hours we were all five years old again. It was truly a thrilling experience to let go and jump without the fear of pain when you landed. Not to mention the sunset was incredible at this point overlooking the city. (Interesting quick fact, the longest and shortest day of the year here are only eight minutes apart. And, there’s no day light savings time here because it’s not needed. What did the world do before Einstein told us that time is relative…? Think about that for a minute.) We returned to Zé’s house and he shared with a photo lecture of Northeast Brazil. The diversity of the region is amazing from the landscape to the people to the food.

My days since then have been filled with Portuguese in the morning, which have included a variety of experiences. We learned vocab to bargain with vendors, and the next day we were sent to the huge Mercado Central to test out our new skills. I was wildly successfully! I bought a pair of sandals for 5 dollars off and a beach cover-up for 10 dollars off. We have also been sent out in the city to figure our way around by talking to people. It is slightly overwhelming to not know your way around someplace, but everyone is really helpful here and it’s a continual learning experience.

The traditional academic component of the program has been quazi traditional. We have had traditional lectures along with fieldtrips to the different organizations we will be working with this semester in the Social Synergy project. On Friday we went to the State Legislative Assembly to present the Social Synergy project to the representatives and the people (it was on TV!). The whole thing was really quite long and boring, I mean it is a bureaucracy…and a Brazilian bureaucracy at that. On that note, everything here takes forever to do. As a person that really like time and things to start on times, I’m having to let the idea of things starting on time go. Nothing starts on time or ends when it’s supposed. So the legislature meeting was supposed to start at 2 and end at 4. The reality was it started at 2:30 and went to 6. There was actually quite a funny moment when one of the Senators said, “Hmmm, of course all the Americans are here on time, actually early, and all the Brazilians are late.”

Alright, well I’m off to an organization that helps prep underprivileged kids in underfunded schools for the entrance exam into Brazilian universities. Beijos and love to all!

I made it!

Well, I made it to Brazil! I've been here for 5 days and everything is different. To begin, it's VERY hot and humid here. I was anticipating this, but it still comes as a shock to step into 95 degrees with 90% humid after living through a Midwest winter. There's no hot water anywhere in this country. With this climate you don't really need/want hot water, but still at 7am it's hard to step into a freezing shower. On the shower note, people here take a lot of showers. There's a huge shower culture here. You take a shower after everything you do: take the bus, go to the store, go to school, etc. Also, you don't put toilet paper in the toilet. This sounds easier to do and remember than it really is. Putting TP in the toilet is just what we as Americans are used to doing.

For the first few days we lived in what the group called the "Compound." It was this hotel/convention center outside the cit with an open courtyard, rooms with two beds, an outdoor eating area, a meeting room where we did our orientation, and a lagoon on the outskirts. It was freakin' beautiful! There were palm trees, flowers everywhere, beautiful tile mosaics, oh and a lot of pictures of Jesus and then the word 'hello' in Hebrew above where we ate (kinda funny). The orientation was really fun, and the people in my group are super awesome and chill. During the orientation we talked about cultural differences (there are a lot!) and things about being safe around town. Families are very unida (united/close) and people like to eat a lot! Also, during the orientation we had a few cultural experiences. One was on MPB (musica popular brasileira) and a band came and sang us some brazilian song. It was really fun. One of the girls on the program is a music major in college and plays the sax, and she played with the band at one point. They made us sing and learn how to dance 'forro.' I am really bad at dancing forro. It involved coordination, and I don't have that.

The food here is really good. People it a lot of rice, beans, and meat. Oh, the fruit is amazing too! For breakfast I eat papya, apples, bananas, mango, cake (kinda weird), and bread. Mostly the country runs on carbs. Also, it is really hard to not accept food. The parents here take it personally if we don't eat what they make us. Our Brazilian mommies think we're all too skinny and I'm pretty sure they've talked and are in an alliance to fatten all of us up. For dinner we eat rice, beans, and meat. I don't know what else people eat because I haven't eaten anything else!

I haven't been to the beach yet (yes, I also think this is a sin!), but we're going on a tour of the city on Saturday and the beach is on the schedule. On Monday we had what is known as a 'drop off.' Essentially, our program assistant took us to the largest bus terminal in the city and sent us in groups of three to different social justice organizations throughout the city. My group and I were sent to the outskirts of Fortaleza to a very poor neighborhood. We had to take 2 buses to get there and it took about an hour and a half.

There we learned about this organization Banco Palma which is a micro financing institutions for that community. In Conjunto Palmeira (the community) they use their own money called palmas. Banco Palma has a store where local things are bought and sold, an area where they make clothes to sell, classrooms for teaching responsible financing and to increase awareness about women's and children's rights, and offices to coordinate networking with other micro lending institutions throughout the world. It was a really cool place to go and learn about. Our tour was at times difficult because it was only in Portuguese, and it's exhausting to think in a different language all the time. Also, part of the experience was eating where our organization was located. We ate at this little shack, a lachonete, and I was only slightly scared with what I was eating. During lunch we looked like true Americans, gringas, But, we were successful, we didn't get lost, and we made it back only 2 hours late.

Moving on, I moved in with my family on Sunday. I live with my mom and my sister and my nephew. My mom, Cira, is an older woman (around 65), my sister, Monica, is almost 40, and my nephew, Erasmo, is 15. Across the street lives my other sister and she is 40 and she has a 18 year old daughter, I have a brother who lives near by and he has a 4 year old daughter. I have 2 other sisters and they come over every Sunday for Church and lunch. The family is very close and we eat dinner together (well, the ones that live close to us) almost every nights. They are very nice and hospitable. A bit more religious and conservative than I'm used to, but that's expected with the culture. To go to school we take 2 buses to get to school and that takes about 40 minutes. The buses here are crazy! They're extremely crowded and drivers don't really stop if you're not all the way on. You enter the bus from the back and get on in the front, and to get to the front you have to really push.

I started Portuguese class yesterday and that is going great. There are five of us in the advanced class and our professor is really smart and funny. We have port class for 3 hours each day, and it goes by surprisingly fast.

We haven't started out social justice seminar because the whole semester is getting changed. The community has requested the SIT participate in a social synergy project. This is actually a very big deal. The legislature is under the impression that we are students from the best colleges in the US, and they want our help negotiating social justice and development issues. The idea of social synergy is that organizations of all kind, multi-national corporations, NGOs, small businesses, social justice orgs, the gvernment, etc., are getting together to try to create new policies that will actually benefit the local community. The idea is that the government has failed, which the legislature realizes, and the community needs to take a more involved approach in creating policy. We will be working in groups of four, 2 students from SIT with 2 professionals from different orgs, and we will discuss our issue and then write an article for the legislature. For me this is really exciting because I have the opportunity to make an actual difference in a community instead of just theorize about change. (!!!!)

Alright, I have to go immerse myself in the city! I love and miss everyone!