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!