Dia Seis em el Barco

Saturday is our first free day (no class) and after an earlier bedtime than usual we (classmates and professor) woke up for an extra early morning (6am) to get breakfast by 6:30am and leave by 6:40 with Lucas, his, girlfriend Vivian, Isabella, and the rest of the Cesupa crew for a boat ride to an island in need of help learning to manage the business and financial matters of their community.
Unfortunately breakfast didn't open until 7am so we were leaving on empty tummies and no coffee for Raul! We drove to the area where a church boat is harbored (they were kind enough to let the SIFE Cesupa group borrow it for the trip) and we set off into the water towards our island destination. (1hr and a half travel time)


On the boat ride over we shared snacks and admired the beautiful weather and were suspicious of the brown river water...

Despite the muddied water we saw beautiful restaurants on the water and gorgeous greens throughout the travel over.

We were on a boat trip to a an island, Bom Jardim, a 500 person community. Our class was visiting the area with SIFE and observing their efforts to unite the community in a better and smarter process in encouraging and learning stronger tactics in their business and living ways (not burning their trash and selling the acai berries for a better profit.)



First on our agenda once arriving to the village was to meet the families who lived there. One man walked us through the jungle and showed us the plants and construction important to to their environment.














One of the houses had two parrots in the front yard's tree and one of them latched onto my arm and hand!

During our trek we saw how the cacao fruit (very popular here, and also delicious) was fetched and cut open. Cacao has the strangest fruit texture which is very gooey, but also very sweet. It contains pods of the fruit which you dig out of the center and suck on for the juice, then spit it out without biting into the pits, which I didn't do the first time. The pits/seeds inside each capsule are like a teaspoon of dirt, haha, but the fruit AMAZING and the most delicious and interesting I have ever had. They use cacao in almost anything they can juices, cakes, salads, etc.


When the people of the community go to gather branches of the acai berries they wrap a type of cloth around there ankles and shimmy up to the tall tops of the trees to cut of the branches and slide down the trunk from the cloth around their feet!
Our classmate Patrick found it the most fascinating when he volunteered himself to try it! His efforts were valiant...

On the walk back to the conference area of their community we unwrapped our packed snacks and sandwiches, which we shared with some of the members, especially the young children.

Mateo, Lucas, and Wellington were the most curious and adventuresome of the little boys. They asked for more and more paper from Marisol, creating oragami paper folds that make a loud "pop" noise when you whip them in the air a certin way. They were wild, but sweet boys imitating karate moves and slapping each other with our empty chip bags. They were constantly testing boundaries with each other and with us.

All of the children had a huge fascination in our cameras the "maquina" (machine) they called it. They light up about every chance they got to hold one and show us what great photographers they were. Which they really were, taking beautiful pictures of their friends and flowers. One of them couldn't understand where the lens was, but still captured some great shots!

They were also so interested in English, they wanted to hear and say every word they could think of and point at. Absorbing everything and showing and teaching us so much through their charisma and sweetness.

Oh yes, I failed to mention that today is Valentines Day here in Brazil ("Dia de los Enamorados") and Patrick was all of our Valentines this summer! He bought each of us delicious sweets: nerds, chocolate mints, candy bars, etc. Oh Patricio!
On the way back from our boating adventure we all seemed to nod off a little in the boat. The heat was exhausting and the early venture out there was enough to send us sailing in zZzzZz's at three in the afternoon!

For our class Valentine's dinner we all showered when we got back to the hotel and went to a very classy restaurant Raul recommended. He ordered these awesome appetizers and translated the meanings of everything on the menu we didn't understand.
Marisol and I shared a pasta dish with a filet mignon and gorgonzola cheese, YUM!

And the restaurant gave us Valentine treats after our meal, little brownies shaped in hearts!
 

So between TV and movies we were talking up a storm and learned a lot about each other. It was a great bonding evening and really a great time.



After dinner and our brownie desserts Raul took us back to the hotel. Then Marisol, Patrick, and I decided to explore the night scene of Belem a little more and contacted a few of our Brazilian friends to see what they were doing.

When we got up to our floor Gabih, John-Christian, and Vanessa surprised us with a knock on the door. We discussed what our weekend night options were and decided to maybe check out the Roxy which our professor recommended. Then we considered Favela, a club a student from last year, Joanne, highly recommended from her visit.

I called Lucas from Vanessa’s phone and asked for his opinion. He was too exhausted from our long boat ride and SIFE meeting, but he was very sweet and thoughtful to offer to take us and make sure we got there safely. So Patrick, John Christian, Marisol, Gabih, and I hopped in the car with Lucas and headed to Favella for a fabulous night of drinking and dancing.

There was a small cover charge to get in but it was worth it with the wild decorations and furniture, the live band, and great deals.

At Favela we got a bucket of beer bottles for twenty reais ($10) and danced the night away!

Gabih and Christian taught us some carimbo and samba!