Brazil Round 2, Part 2 and everything since then

Well, I think 1 whole person saw the last entry that I posted, so I’m going to write another entry. Perhaps if I update more frequently, more people will tune in to my so-called life!

Let’s see Rio Branco went pretty much like this: eat, meeting, eat, meeting, eat, meeting, sleep, wake up, repeat. For 3 solid days. Not too much fun, and we didn’t actually accomplish much, but whatever.

The flights back were not fun at all because it was just after the plane en route to France “disappeared” off of the Brazilian coast, so I was a little bit more on edge than I have grown accustomed to be on planes.  I also did a lot of thinking about how the “safety” features on planes are not likely to save anyone’s life…seriously, under what conditions is a seat that helps you float going to be useful?  If, and only if, all of these conditions are met: 1) the plane is above water to start with, 2) the plane lands softly in the water, 3) you are able to get out of the plane before it sinks and 4) you are close enough to an empty cruise ship or land so that someone can come rescue you before your arms wear out or you die from hunger/exhaustion/hypothermia.  How often are all of those conditions met?  The Hudson River crash is the only time that I can think of….oh well.  Flying is still safer than driving.

Since coming back, we hosted a party (8 people plus Elvis and I) in the basement to watch the World Cup eliminations which was pretty cool (this, by the way on our new television – it’s like 4.5′ x 3′ or something crazy and cost $70 from the second hand store), we’ve been back to Sandy Point, went to a bridal shower and we went on a 10 mile-ish (maybe a little longer) bike ride.    We’ve also seen a few soccer games and been soaked by the torrential downpours which have been soaking the DC metro area every afternoon for a few hours (just at the right time so that you can’t enjoy the evening!).  We were hoping to go camping this weekend, but we’re going to put that on hold for another week – I’m kind of worried about the campsite being soaked and the bike trails being pure mud and ruining the weekend!  Well, that’s all for now folks, stay tuned for another edition!

Brazil Round 2

So I went back to Brazil, leaveing May 28 and returning June 5 – just one week.  I had three options for arrival:

1) Fly down early and spend a day in Sao Paulo with Continental (think 12000 airline miles)
2) Fly down on Saturday with a different airline and spend 12 hours in the airport (no airline miles)
3) Fly with Continental on Saturday (tickets cost $800 more), and spend 12 hours in the airport

Granted, with option #3, I wasn’t paying for the plane ticket, the company did, but I still try to do my best and keep an eye on my costs for them.  So that left 12,000 airline miles or no airline miles.  Of course, I chose the airline miles.  I landed in Sao Paulo the morning of 5/29 and took a bus and the metro to get to my hostel.  They were going to charge me 100 reais ($67) to go in a taxi and the bus/metro system only cost $5 or so – was there really an option here?  It did take almost 2 hours to get to the hostel, but traffic is anything but fast in that city, so I’m not sure how much faster a car would have been.  The one girl who is working with us called me brave for travelling this way, but really there wasn’t a question in my mind.  I also found that the subway was in no way more complicated that the one in DC, it was cleaner and possibly safer.  Also, it only cost 2.55 reais ($1.53) to go anywhere – no matter the distance.  If this were true in DC, I would save well over $100/month for transportation to and from work!

After resting a bit, I decided to head out and see some sites.  Nearby the hostel, there was a marketplace, so of course I went to check that out.  I was slightly disappointed by the wares – mostly antiques, some paintings, and old records and sunglasses – but I did get a pastel de bacalao (codd with some different seasonings that was then breaded and fried) which was delicious.

From there, I hopped on the metro to go to the Metropolitan Art Museum (MASP), but decided not to go in (it cost something like $8 and there was a huge line that wrapped around the block).  Right across from MASP, however, was a really cool park.  Called Trianon Park, it is a block of original Mata Atlantica rainforest that wasn’t cut down when they built the rest of the city.  It felt about 10* cooler inside of the park, and it was a great respite from the noise of the street.  There was also a cool drum band playing outside of the entrance which was pretty neat.  I walked up and down Avenida Paulista – the business center of Brazil, eventually found a place to eat (though I was forced to eat in a food court in a mall – something I refused to do in Philadelphia – but there wasn’t any other choice here!  At least it was Brazilian food, complete with farrofa).  From there, I headed back to the hostel (I was exhausted after travelling, though I must say I had an empty seat next to me on the flight from Houston to Sao Paulo so I was able to lie down and get a good night’s rest!).

On the way, however, I stopped at a cemetery which was a different experience.   Unlike the US where most people are buried underground, in Latin America it seems to be the opposite – most people are buried above ground and all family members will be in the same area – I guess this helps with space issues, too, since people can’t really be buried underground on top of each other, but they can be if they’re above ground.  Anyway, some of the tombs were quite elaborate with carvings and statues.  Others had a space that had a door, inside of which was almost always a small table filled with candles, crosses, and pictures.  Sometimes there was a chair that someone could go in and sit on while they prayed or what have you.  It was an interesting experience, though.

I slept pretty well that night and headed back out early the next morning.

After breakfast at the hostel, I got back on the metro and went downtown.  I had a list of places that I wanted to visit after doing some research on the internet, so I started at one metro station (called Luz – the name of the neighborhood where I lived in Ecuador!) and started walking.  My first real stop was the Mercado Central.  This was possibly the cleanest and most well-organized market I have ever been in in Latin America.  It was all food – prepared and unprepared – (and maybe some cooking supplies), but it was really neat.  There are two foods the market is famous for – pastel de bacalao and its sanduiche de mortadella (some sort of pork product – like bologna with more fat and cut thinner, maybe).  Since I had the pastel de bacalao the day before, I decided to try the sandwich.  My eyes popped out of my head when I saw it!  It was huge!  Two small pieces of bread enveloped a stack of meat that was at least 4″ high!  I felt slightly embarrassed, but not too much because there were Brazilians there who, also having ordered the sandwich, had the same reaction I did!  I couldn’t even eat half of the sandwich, it was so huge!  It tasted okay, but once was enough.  Even thinking about it now makes me kind of queasy!

I also saw the place were Sao Paulo was founded, some cool churches, walked up some massive hills (Sao Paulo might be able to rival Bellefonte for average incline per square mile!), and took my time exploring the city.  In front of the main church (next to the Supreme Court of Justice) there was a huge plaza (at least one block of solid concrete) with a really huge fountain that goes through the center of the plaza.  The most shocking part of it, though, was the sheer number of homeless people who were laying in the plaza.  Mostly men, they were sleeping on and under every available bench, stretched out in the corners and sitting on the edges of the fountain.  They were washing their clothes and faces in the fountain.  It was shocking.  Living in DC, I pass people begging for money every day, but never so many in one place!  Also, during my last visit to Brazil, we didn’t see many homeless people at all, so I was taken aback.

From there, I headed back to the hostel, prepared my things and headed off to the airport and Rio Branco, which I’ll have to tell you more about at another time because it’s time for me to go home and celebrate the weekend!

You can see pictures here.

Oops!

It has been exactly a month since I last updated…oops. Life has been busy. Let’s see, an update for the month of May…

I went home the first weekend in May and we got some wedding stuff done. I had ordered my dress online and it was waiting for me when I got to the house, so one of the first things I did was try it on, of course! It fits pretty well, but as soon as I have my shoes, we’ll take it to get some alterations done.

We went to see Heather’s last play. It was interesting. Yay for Heather and her graduation and all that! Also saw Margaret play some baseball which she was pretty excited about!

Sunday we went to talk to the florists and the cake baker – pretty excited to see how both of those turn out because I gave them a lot of free range within some basic guidelines…

The next weekend, Mom and Dad came down to celebrate Mother’s Day. We went to Arlington National Cemetery which was pretty interesting, came into DC to go to the American History Museum, went to a pretty good seafood restaurant for dinner, and watched the Pens beat the Caps (on TV) all in one day. On Sunday, we went for a short hike at a park near Matthew and had a cookout for dinner – it was pretty nice. That evening was the first Latino music festival for the season, so we went to that. One of the groups (the group Elvis really wanted to see – they’re from Guatemala) didn’t show up, so we went to see them at a club (for free) later that night.

The past two weekends we’ve stayed in College Park, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been relaxing. I don’t actually remember what we did 2 weekends ago, so it might have been relaxing?

Last weekend, we went shopping at the second hand store and Elvis bought a GINORMOUS television for $70. It’s like 5′ x 3′. So that meant we had to rearrange the whole living room area in order to fit the TV in. That took all day. That night we went to hang out with his friends, saw Heather’s new baby and were there until 1am or so. Sunday, we went to see 2 soccer games, had a cookout in the backyard in between, Elvis got his haircut and then we both passed out. Pretty exhausting.

Monday we got up and went for a 12-ish mile bike ride which was pretty neat, but my butt’s still sore. In the afternoon, we went to relax at Sandy Point (first trip this summer!), which was pretty amazing. The water was still a bit chilly, but nowhere near as cold as it was when we were in Ocean City!!! Elvis tried to fish for a bit, but didn’t have any luck and then it started to rain so we came home. It was a good day off, though!

Somewhere in there, Jenna and I went looking for bridesmaids dresses, found some and decided to let the girls pick their favorite of 3, so not all of the girls will have the same dress, but they’ll be the same color. I think it’ll look fine! Who knows, they may even all end up picking the same one, haha!

I’m headed back to Brazil tomorrow! For only 1 week this time, but all is well. This has been another massive update from beckaanne. Until next time!

did you ever

visit someone’s blog EVERY day just to see that they hadn’t updated??? And then you get frustrated because they haven’t updated??? I do that pretty often, yet I am guilty of it myself! Oops!

So the rest of my time in Brazil went really well. Rio Branco was probably my favorite town that we visited the whole time in Brazil which is good because I have to go back 2 more times this year!

The day before I came home, I went on a tour of Chapada dos Guimaraes, a small town near Cuiaba with some BEAUTIFUL cliffs and water. It was just me and the guide which was cool because we went at our pace – didn’t have to wait for anyone to catch up or be worried about staying with the group. We went hiking to the top of this mountain which was AMAZING (though my thighs were sore for the next 4 days!) and also went snorkeling in a river which was really cool, too. The current was so strong that you didn’t really have to swim and there were a bunch of fish (not tropical or anything, but still it was really cool), so that was a fun adventure.

Since then, I have been to New Jersey/Philadelphia for Eastern Regional Youth Conference where I won 2 prizes – for sign a song and speech – and I now go to the National conference in November in Grand Rapids…who wants to go to Michigan in November??? Crazy people. Anyway, my friend Jenica lives in Grand Rapids and I haven’t seen her since December 2006 (though she’s coming for the wedding), so it’ll be good to see her again!

Last weekend Elvis and I went to Ocean City, MD to celebrate 1 year of living together. It was a lot of fun. The water was SOOO cold, but we did a lot of mini golfing which Elvis loved and we found a good bar/seafood place that was really cool and basically just relaxed and enjoyed each others’ company!

This weekend we’re going home to my parents’ place to do some wedding planning stuff, the following weekend my parents are coming down here to celebrate Mother’s day, the next weekend I’m here and the next week I might be in Brazil again! Crazy!!!! C’est la vie! Guess I better start studying my Portuguese again!

Brasil Part 1

Wow. What a strange, crazy trip it has been. I left for Brazil on March 27. The weeks leading up to departure where absolutely insane with the preparation of the Katoomba conference in Cuiaba, Mato Grosso. There were agendas to be made and changed, flights to arrange, hotel rooms to reserve, speakers to prepare, and so many more things that I can’t even remember now, but at the time, they seemed like the most important things in the world. There were many late nights at work, and early mornings that I woke up early thinking about the preparations that needed to be made. I arrived in Cuiaba almost 24 hours after I had departed DC with Fiona, my partner in all of this nonsense.
We were met at the airport by Colonel Maia, the second in command in Mato Grosso, his assistant Karim, and a policewoman, Fernanda. Karim and Fernanda took us to Sesc Pantanal – a hotel about 2.5 hours away that was the site of the private meeting. We were there to meet with Marco, the general manager of the hotel and discuss details about the private meeting. It was great to finally sit down and talk concretely about logistics with someone.
The Sesc Pantanal is on the Pantanal – the world’s largest wetland. While we were unable to see the sites during this short trip, we were able to do so during the private meeting. There are more than 500 species of birds (there are only 350 in the US), caimans, capybaras, jaguars, anacondas, small deer-like animals, and who knows what else! We didn’t get to see jaguars or anacondas, but we did see a lot of birds, one caiman, a few capybaras, and some other animals.
Monday and Tuesday were spent back in Cuiaba making the final preparations for the meeting. Cuiaba is the capital city of Mato Grosso. The governor of Mato Grosso is Blairo Maggi. Blairo Maggi is the President/CEO of Amaggi corporation. Amaggi Corporation produces about 5% of the world’s soy. Most of that soy is produced on land that was deforested. Avoiding deforestation was the theme for the meeting. That’s the logic behind having the meeting in Mato Grosso. Also, National Geographic did an article on Maggi one or two years ago, and he didn’t exactly come out smelling like roses because of these facts I just presented. Because of the article, he decided he needed to start to clean up his image. Last year, he came to the Katoomba meeting in DC and gave a keynote speech and he decided to partner with us to hold this meeting in Brazil this year.
The meeting was HUGE – three times the size we expected. Over 1500 people came as speakers, organizers and attendees. If I thought the weeks leading up to the meeting were intense, these two days were even more intense because everything needed to be done immediately. People needing plane tickets (still), changes in the agenda (again), have you seen so and so, they need the list of private meeting attendees, can xyz share a room with uts, what time is the bus coming, where can we find the documents…wow! I’m not going to say that there weren’t problems, because there were more than I needed, but everyone seemed pleased with the event. Several people came up to me to thank me and congratulate us, so that was great. 6 governors, the Minister of the Environment, and a lot of other really big names showed up, so we were in all of the local newspapers, on the television, radio, everything. Pretty darn cool, if you ask me.
Thursday evening we left Cuiaba to return to Sesc for the private event. The private event was supposed to be much smaller, but since we were working with the government, it ended up being over 125 people. It was still okay, but it would have been nice to work with a smaller, more initimate group. Of course, upon arrival, the agenda that we had just printed that afternoon needed to be retyped and printed (always make sure you save copies of everything on your flash drive when using other people’s computers), someone didn’t have his plane ticket yet, and I didn’t get a chance to relax (unless you count a 2 hour bus ride “relaxing”).
The private meeting was only slightly less crazy than the public meeting – had to sign people up for field trips and make sure that everyone paid for what they needed to paid for, people needed to make return travel plans, *sigh*.
All of a sudden, it was Saturday afternoon and the meeting was over! Fiona and I spent the next 7 hours vegging in our room watching tv, talking with family and relaxing – finally! I had almost forgotten what it felt like!
Sunday began another journey. After a 2 hour flight and a 9 hour bus ride, we arrived in Cacoal, a city in the state of Rondonia which borders Bolivia. A small group of 12 of us came here to meet with the Surui tribe. They live about 2 hours from Cacoal and we are working on a carbon project with them. Monday we visited the site for the first time. The Surui tribe was first contacted by white men in 1969. At that time, there were 5000 people. Like the history of the native Americans, contact with white men brought new diseases and many other problems. Only 1 out of every 20 people survived. The population plummeted to 250 people. Now, they number about 1500 (their population doubles every 15 years).
When we were arrived, we couldn’t just start discussing the project, but there was a ceremonial procedure of meeting all of their leaders and introducing ourselves which took 3 times longer than normal because it had to be translated from Tupi-Monde to Portuguese to English for everyone present to understand what was being said. We moved from the ceremonial house to the school to talk more about the project. First, however, we were told about their first contact with white men and Beto, my boss, talked about the first time me had visited the Surui 15 years ago. Finally we were able to talk about the project. I’m not sure that they really understand the concept of carbon, but they understand the importance of the forest. Their understanding, however, I think is more related to their cosmovision – their history, beliefs and traditions – than the world and carbon, but they understand something. After a lunch of the most delicious fish I have ever eaten (catfish cooked over a fire), we visited the part where they are reforesting. They have already begun this part of their project (though not for carbon reasons) in several of their villages. The Surui are composed of 4 clans which are also divided into smaller groupings of houses (they call them villages). I’m not sure that their reforestation is really working, however. One of the trees they planted is mahogany. There’s a moth that comes at night and eats the tops of the trees, killing them. This is why it is impossible to plant plantations of mahogany. This reforestation was only a track about 10 feet wide in the forest, but they had planted the mahogany trees too close together, and the moths were already destroying the trees. So we have a lot of work ahead of us.
Yesterday, the village leaders came to a meeting in town, and we discussed with them everything from the concept of what carbon is, to what international law will and will not permit them to do. (Indian reservations in Brazil have a very long list of restrictions for the use of their land.)
The meetings were very productive, however, and we are now in full swing working on the next steps to bring this project to market. As I am writing this, I am on a bus to the airport, to go on the next stage of this expedition. In ways, it feels as though I have been in Brazil for 3 months and in others, 3 days. It has been a crazy journey, but also an unforgettable one.

It’s a crazy life, but someone’s gotta do it.

Things here are cRaZy busy right now.  But I’m going to take a break to update my blog.

We’re working on planning a workshop in Brazil right now.  Here is what makes it crazy:
-  We’re partnering with the Government of Mato Grosso. 
- Neither our role nor the role of the government has been well-defined.
- I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing.
- I don’t speak Portuguese very well…yet.  (Mas posso escrever um pouco. – that means “But I can write a little bit.”)
- It’s in a little over 3 weeks and the registration page was just finished last week.  And we expect more than 400 people to show up.
- We expect more than 400 people to show up.
- I need a visa.  (Luckily living/working in DC makes that slightly easier.)
- We don’t know what’s happening after the meeting – I might be going to stay with an indigenous tribe for a few days which would be cool.  Or I could be traveling Brazil on my own (a little scary).  Or I might go to Rio Branco where we’re having the meeting in June.  Really, I don’t know.

So I think that planning a wedding for 150 people in PV will be no problem after planning an event for 400+ people in Brazil.  Right?

So far for the wedding we have:
- a website.
- an idea for dresses and tuxes.
- the rings.
- an idea for invitations.
- the list of people who will be invited.
- bubbles
- floating candles (but nothing for them to float in)
- leaf garland
- and I have my jewelry.  

We still have 7 months (from tomorrow!) for everything else, though, so I think we’re in good shape.  Right?

Innocent Voices

On Sunday night, Elvis and I watched the movie Innocent Voices. The movie tells the story, based in truth, of a young boy, Chava, who is afraid to turn 12. You see, in El Salvador during their civil war (1980 -1992), as soon as a boy turned 12, the military would come to the schools and recruit the boys to fight the guerillas. It was a really good movie, despite some inaccuracies (for example the actors used a Mexican accent, not a Salvadorian accent – this part was good for me because I can’t understand the Salvadorian accent). The movie has some powerful scenes, including one in which Chava meets up with a friend of his from school who was recruited by the military. You can see how much the military changed him.

Also, towards the end, Chava and his friends escape to join the guerillas (Chava’s uncle had joined the guerilla forces long before). A few military men follow the boys to the guerilla camp and kill all of the adults. They take the four young boys down by the river, where there are dozens of bodies strewn about, and make them kneel. The first two boys are executed before other guerilla forces arrive. Chava manages to escape, but before he does, he picks up a gun. He has it aimed at one of the military members who, just seconds before, was about to kill him. Then Chava realizes that the “man” is a kid – just like him. He puts down the gun and escapes to safety.

Watching the movie began a conversation between Elvis and me about the civil war in Guatemala. The war in Guatemala was much longer (1960-1996) and occurred during Elvis’s history. This war was also between government forces and the guerillas. The United States had staged a coup d’ etat in 1954 to oust the Communist – leaning government of Jacobo Arbenz, a former military colonel because they didn’t think his politics meshed well with those of the US. In response to the increasingly autocratic rule of Gen. Ydigoras Fuentes, who took power in 1958 following the murder of Colonel Castillo Armas, a group of junior military officers revolted in 1960. When they failed, several went into hiding and established close ties with Cuba. This group became the nucleus of the forces that were in armed insurrection against the government for the next 36 years.

The war amounted to an ethnic cleansing, and tens of thousands of indigenous people were murdered, their homes and villages burnt, and families who did survive were separated. Most of these crimes were committed by the Guatemalan military. (You can read more about the Guatemalan civil war here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/guatemala.htm.)

I had previously been told that the effects of the civil war didn’t reach the department (similar to a county) of El Quiché, where Elvis was raised. I mentioned this to Elvis, and he looked at me as though I didn’t know anything. And I didn’t.

Elvis told me that he can remember his father running to hide from the military when they came to Canillá to recruit new members. (Who is going to join the military when they are being killed by the guerilla?) Elvis wasn’t even allowed to play outdoors most time – if the military saw a boy of decent size in the streets, they would kidnap them and make them join the army. He told me that once he was coming down from the mountain with some friends, just about to enter the town. The military was in the streets, yelling at everyone to get down. A young girl who had just left school didn’t listen to them, and they shot her at point blank range, killing her. Elvis was pretty far away and was pretty young, but he still remembers all of the details.

I can’t even imagine living through something like this. Living with fear and without hope for so many years. Elvis and his family were lucky – no one Elvis knew personally was killed during the war, but the effects of the war still devastate Guatemala (and El Salvador). Everything was destroyed; many infrastructure projects that could have been completed during those 36 years were not – such as paved roads in the countryside or perhaps water purification plants.
“Thanks to God, it’s over,” said Elvis. Yes, that’s true for Guatemala. Yet I wonder what is happening and what the future will be like in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, and all of the other places around the world where there is a war. And what can we do to prevent this from happening again?

Pictures from the zoo

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025311&l=f9422&id=75900409

Lions and tigers and babies, oh my!

So I haven’t posted a real post in awhile, I’m sorry.  So since the 21st, lots of things have happened.  First, Tati (Elvis’s sister) had her baby (a little girl) on the 29th.  Her name is Keyla Alejandra.  She was born 25 days early, but both mom and baby are doing well.

Tina also gave birth to a baby girl (Sarah Anna named after her maternal great-grandmothers) on February 5.  Both mom and baby are doing well.

The Steelers won the Super Bowl on Feb 1 in case you missed it.  I was a nervous wreck in those last couple of minutes, but the boys pulled through in the end!

This weekend was an exciting one.  On Saturday we went to the zoo since it was such a nice day.  Mom says we went there before.  I don’t remember it at all.  We took Elvis’s cousin, Marlon, who lives with us one day every weekend.  All of us really enjoyed it once we figured out how to get in the parking lot (it’s not well marked, at all!).  We also watched a soccer game and played some basketball before the sun went down.   

Sunday we did all of our household stuff like laundry and cleaning before we headed to Goucher College to watch the Juniata basketball teams play the Gophers in a double-header.  The girls game wasn’t too exciting, and we won fairly easily.  The boy’s game was much more competitive.  Both teams have poor records (4-10 Juniata and 5-13 Goucher), so it was a really good game.  It came down to the last minute, but the Eagles won by 6 points in the end.  Then we went out to dinner with Christy and Cait (both graduated with me – I haven’t seen Cait since graduation day – wow!).

Now it’s a full week of work, perhaps a trip to NJ this weekend to see the new baby and some of Elvis’s relatives, and then a day off to recover!

Haha Too funny not to share!

 

 

(Here’s the reply the teacher received the following day)
Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn’t show me dancing around a pole. It’s supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith