Rural Visit

Barro do Turvo

This past week, we went on a rural visit to Barro do Turvo, a town of about 8,000 inhabitants, including a an Agroforestry Coop and a Quilombo (explain). It was about a five-hour bus drive Sao Paulo, and the scenery of the countryside we drove through was gorgeous. We started out with two nights at the Agroflorestal, an Agroforestry Co-op where, in order to actually get there, we had to take a small wooden boat connected to a pulley across the river that may or may not have had alligators in it. We went across, eight at a time, while our luggage was in a basket being zip-lines across above us. There was also a zip-line for people to get across, but for liability issues, we weren’t allowed to use them. After everyone got across, we walked up a small path before being so kindly greeted with fresh mango juice and an abundance of bananas. We slept in rooms lined with bunk beds, were woken up at 5 am daily by the rooster, got bitten by far too many mosquitos, and had the privilege of being surrounded by the most beautiful scenery. On the first day, Pedro, the owner of the Co-op, took us on a small hike to one of the hills. Barro do Turvo is known as being one of the poorest areas in the state, but Pedro said, “How can you be poor when you have a view like this?” It was such an interesting concept to think that the labeling of society was what was making them all think they were poor, but in reality, they had everything they needed and more.

All of the food we ate was as fresh as could be. Not only was there a table constantly full of bananas, oranges, pineapple, and guava, but we also got fresh goat milk to eat with our cereal and coffee each morning. It’s odd I should mention coffee, because I’ve never been a coffee drinker. However, the coffee here is so sweet, that I actually enjoyed having a cup or two in the morning! Several of the workers there were also yoga instructors, so I was overjoyed when I was also able to start out my day with some yoga.

Also while at the Agroflorestal we hiked to w nearby waterfall and got to spend a few hours bathing in the fresh water and enjoying the beauty. The day was topped off with one of my favorite activities, Capoeira. Capoeira is a form of dance and martial art that was created by the slaves in Brazil as a way to prepare them to fight while hiding the fact that they were learning to defend themselves from their owners. If you look it up on YouTube, I’m sure you’ll find some pretty cool videos. So a Capoeira group from the region came by to teach about the history of Capoeira, show us the instruments used for the music, and teach us some basic moves. They then demonstrated the practice for us, and invited us to join in. It was amazing to me how graceful they made it look, and how easily two people were able to move the way they did without touching each other or interfering. They stayed until dark, and the next day we headed out for the actual town where we remained for the next few days. But before arriving, we spent the afternoon at the local Quilombo, which is a free settlement founded by people of African origin, usually escaped slaves. Since Brazil was the last country to eradicate slavery, there are numerous Quilombos in the country. They made us a delicious lunch of all home grown foods, and so kindly showed us around their land and the banana plantation they had. We learned the history of their Quilombo, got to plant a heart of palm tree, played soccer with a few of the kids, got to meet the “medicine man” of the Quilombo, and had a wonderful time in their beautiful area.

Our last few days in Barro do Turvo consisted of site visits to the hospital, orphanage, and elderly home, class time, meeting with the Mayor of the city and the health board, and enjoying Valentine’s Day with this adorable little community. It was a town of about 3,000 inhabitants and had the most gorgeous view of the mountains. It was a wonderful little escape week from the crowded streets of Sao Paulo.



Photos below!







-Heidi

Carnaval, what a show!

So I’m a little behind on blogging, but two weekends ago (the 8th) was Carnaval weekend in Brazil. Carnaval is a huge week long (sometimes two weeks) celebration where people dress up with masks and bright colors, street parties (blocos) go on every night with music and dancing, and there is huge parade on the weekend displaying all of the hard work that people have put into this event. People stop working for this holiday event, which is right before Lent each year. Some people spend almost the entire year preparing for Carnaval with the costumes they make, the giant floats they create, and the dancing routines they perform. It’s an enormous set up, and the results are beautiful. So Friday night, the entire group went to the parade. We got there at midnight. We weren’t late, that’s just when the parade started. Midnight. And it went on until 6 am. Gotta love the late night Brazilians. So the way it’s set up is that there is bleachers set up on a street specifically located for the Carnaval parade. You have to buy tickets in order to get into the parade area, and then there are different levels of bleachers where you can sit, depending on how much you paid for your ticket. Our location was quite ideal! We were high enough up that we could see all parts of the floats, but not so far that it was difficult to see the details in the costumes that they were wearing. Plus, with my 20x zoom camera, I could see anything and everything if I wanted. There were 6 different samba schools that were “performing” Friday night, and then on Saturday a new group of 6 schools would be performing. Vai-Vai, the samba school that we got to see rehearse a few nights before, was performing on Friday, so it was fun to see them and sing along with their song (we had learned it earlier as well).

This isn’t just a big fun parade,, though. This is a competition. Each of the samba schools in the parade are being judged on their costumes, their floats, their music, and they’re being timed. They have one hour to make it from one side of the bleachers to the other, and one minute plus or minus can cause point reductions. The prize for the winner is money. A lot of money. Which, they put towards next years floats and costumes. Apparently most people in Sao Paulo aren’t a big fan of Carnaval, and they’ll usually travel to other cities (mainly Rio, where Carnaval is HUGE) for the weekend, but even so, there were a ton of people at the parade and at all of the blocos, and the atmosphere of being there was awesome. Some day, I’ll make it to Rio Carnaval.

Until then, I am very satisfied with what Sao Paulo had to offer ☺

Fatima, Bianca, me and Niki getting ready for Carnaval



One of the Vai-Vai floats

My host mom all dressed up to go dancing!



-Heidi

Sabor Brasil

Two weeks into Brazil and I'm loving it more each day!

Last weekend, I was so lucky to be able to meet up with my friend Gustavo and stay with him for the weekend with 3 other IHP-ers. Gustavo and I were both exchange students in Denmark together and hadn't seen each other in almost 2 years. He lives about 6 hours north of where I am in Sao Paulo, so I invited Barby, Mike, and Nick to come along for the weekend so I wouldn't have to travel so far alone, and because Gustavo and his family live a 5 minute walk from one of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil, so it was bound to be a good time. We took an overnight bus and slept most of the way, and Gustavo met us at the bus stop in his city with his girlfriend, Natalia, and we drove to his house. And oh my goodness is it a beautiful house!

His family was so nice to let us all stay there for the weekend, and we had an amazing time! We spent all of Saturday at the beach; wave jumping, playing beach volleyball, exploring and taking tons of photos. I couldn't believe how beautiful the scenery was there! And not to mention it was almost 100 degrees and sunny the whole day. We stayed at the beach until sunset and then went back to Gustavo's for "hot dogs," which are a little different from what we consider hot dogs. The actual hot dog was cut up and in a little bit of sauce, and then you put that on the bun, and add corn, eggs, peas, and little potato chip sticks. It was good! Another delicious new thing I've found in Brazil is the Acaí. It comes in fruit smoothie form and you can get it with bananas, granola, and sweetened condensed milk. I'm in love with it. On Sunday we went on this amazing hike up the mountail/hill/rock on the side of the beach and we climbed all the way to the top. And when I say "climbed," I mean more like spiderman-scaling the side of the steep rock

The view from the top was unbelievable. No camera could correctly capture the beauty. You could see the ocean, the beach, the town, and if you looked reeeally close you could the Cristo Redentor statue in the distance. I wish I could have sat up there all day, but we had to go back down eventually.

To make the day even better, we were walking around the city and ran into a group of Rotary Exchange students! There were a few from Denmark so I got to use my Danish again, which is always nice :) They were on their Northeast Tour (similar to the EuroTour that I went on for my exchange). Gotta love Rotary!

This past week went by pretty fast! We have class from 8:30 until about 4 or 5 each day at the Santa Casa Medical School. Since me and my two housemates live right next door to two other host families, we all try and meet up in the morning to walk to school. It's about a 50 minute walk, but it's a nice way to save money and get in some exercise. Our class day also includes guest lectures, site visits to hospitals, neighborhoods, and NGOs, and group community building. This week our focus has been on women's health and maternity, and HIV/AIDS in Brazil. Our professors are nice to give us 15 minute breaks often and an hour lunch break each day. This week we also went to a Samba rehearsal for one of the Carnaval groups that was performing at the big parade this weekend. They're called Vai-Vai, and are one of the best in Sao Paulo. We got to see some of the costumes and listen to the drums as they danced around. Our large group of Americans were easy to pick out of the crowd from the clothes we were wearing and the way we were dancing, and they must of liked it because we ended up on national Brazilian TV the next morning! A man had interviewed me and another IHP-er, Nick, about the whole experience, and lucky me got a quote in on TV. You can watch it here: http://globotv.globo.com/rede-globo/jornal-da-globo/v/estrangeiros-participam-do-carnaval-de-sao-paulo/2391214/

My Portuguese is getting better! I'm lucky for knowing Spanish so well, because it's easier to understand Portuguese. The speaking part is coming along a bit slower, but I'm definitely learning new words each day! We have a translator here (several, actually) who come with us on site visits and translate for some of the guest lectures, but they also hold a "Survival Portuguese" class for us every morning from 8:30-9, so that has been pretty helpful as well!

This weekend we celebrated Carnaval, but I'm going to save that for it's own post! We leave Monday (tomorrow) for our rural visit where we'll be staying for the week. After that we just have one more week here in Brazil! It's crazy how fast time is flying.

Here's a few more photos from the past week!

The view from the rooftop

Fruit!!

Gustavo and me

The beach! The rock behind us is the one we climbed

On top of the rock

-Heidi

My homeland

Oi Brasil! Eu te amo muito e nunca quero sair.

Ever since I met my first Brazilian, it's been a goal of mine to travel to this beautiful land full of beautiful people. And guess what? The time has finally arrived!

After two wonderful weeks in DC, we finished up our site visits, our guest lectures, our lobbying visits to the Senate (picture of Al Franken's office below, and many hours bonding in the William Penn House hostel, we packed up and hopped on a plane to Sao Paulo, Brazil. We spent one night in a hotel before we were greeted by our host families whom we would be living with for the next 5 weeks. Each of us were paired up with one other student to live with, except there was one group of 3 girls, and one group of 3 boys. I'm staying with Barby (Harvard student studying Molecular Biology Stem Cell Research) and Chelsea (Brown student studying Public Health). Everyone was waiting in the hotel lobby room with our suitcases, anxiously awaiting the arrival of our Brazilian families. Glenda, our country facilitator, was calling out our names as our families would come in. After watching several of the students leave with their host families, our names were called. And I still can't believe how lucky we got!

Chelsea, Barby and I are staying with the Faria Bacchi Family. Our mother, Maria de Graça, is sooo sweet! She loves to laugh, loves to make jokes, loves to have people around, and she loves to cook! Then we have two host sisters, Lara (20) and Lisa (28), and one host brother Luigi (23). Lara and Lisa both live at home; Lara goes to University in Sao Paulo, and Lisa works in the city. Luigi we haven't met yet because he doesn't live at home. He goes to university a bit farther away so he lives in another city. Both Lara and Lisa speak pretty good English, but all three of us are trying to learn Portuguese as fast as we can! It helps knowing Spanish, and knowing a little bit of Portuguese from my Brazilian friends :) Lara painted all of our nails the first day (it's one of her passions) and she is absolutely hilarious. We've shared some great laughs with her already and she loves talking with us. We live in a nice neighborhood in Sao Paulo on the 18th floor of the apartment. And let me tell you, the view from up here is stunning! (picture below) Sao Paulo is home to nearly 11 million people. Let me say that again, eleven MILLION people. That's huge! It's not only the largest city in Brazil, but the largest city in the southern hemisphere! I look out my bedroom window here and I see buildings on building on buildings. As far as you can see, is the city. It just keeps going!! I can't stop staring at it, though! It's so amazing to me. Coming from a town of 20,000 people, Sao Paulo is gigantic. Even for someone coming from a large city, Sao Paulo is gigantic. I have several friends who live in Sao Paulo that I want to visit, but for me to say "Hey I'm in Sao Paulo!" is like someone saying, "Hey, I'm in the US!" Okay maybe not that big.. but hopefully you're getting the point that this city is huge and I'm simply amazed.

We live about a 40 minute walk from the medical university where we have class each day. The 3 boys from our group live literally right next door to the apartment building, so we've been walking with them to class. This way we 1) get some exercise in, and 2) we save money on bus/metro tickets. The food is delicious (beef, beans, rice and fruit), the people are so friendly, and the language is beautiful!

A typical day here: Wake up at 7. Eat breakfast consisting of bread, cheese, jam, fruit, and sometimes chocolate cake. Leave around 7:50 for school. From 8:30-9 we have Portuguese lessons. Then we have class, guest lectures, and/or site visit from 9 until 5:30. Then we walk back home, eat dinner, do our readings for class, and sleep! It's a long day. But we're getting to do some pretty exciting things! Today, we split into 5 groups and each one went to a different neighborhood in Sao Paulo. My group went to a favela (slum) called Vila Prudente (photos below). We were observing the health care access they had in the region and learning about the recycling program that they had started. This favela has just in the past 3 years gotten runnign water and electricity in all of the houses (they still have to pay for it though, so not all of them have it all the time). In Brazil, health care is a right for all Brazilians, so they have a free health care system. Although, those who can afford it, buy private insurance because waiting to see a doctor in a public center could take months. It's so interesting looking into their health care system and seeing the major changes they've made over the past 30 years. It's quite amazing.

I still can't believe I'm actually here, but already, it feels like home. I'm excited for the next 4 1/2 weeks. It's going to fly by!

Chillin outside of Al Franken's office. He has St.Olaf & Carleton flags hung up!

The IHP group at the airport on our way to Brazil!

My Brazilian host family! L-R: Barby, Chelsea, Graça, Lara, and me (Lisa is not pictured)

The view from my bedroom window :)

Inside the favela

-Heidi

Barrack and Roll: Inauguration

On Monday, we had the amazing opportunity to attend the Inauguration. You may have seen me on TV! I was the one waving the flag, standing next to that other girl waving the flag :) We didn't have tickets so we could see the Capitol from where we were standing but not much else. However, there were megatron screens set up so we actually had a really nice view of the whole thing! We left the hostel around 8 am, and even though we live only 4 blocks from the Capitol, it took us about an hour to get to the standing area because they so many roads blocked off around the Capitol. When we arrived at the "no ticket" area, we were greeted with high fives and cheers, TV news crews and cameras, and tons of American pride. The whole atmosphere was just amazing. People young and old, men and women, black and white, rich and poor, were all gathered here to celebrate and to show support for our president (or maybe they were just there to see Beyonce..) Either way, it was crazy to think that so many incredible, powerful people were standing in front of me.

While we were waiting or the program to start, a man with a huge box of American flags came by and started passing the flags out. People were taking handfuls and passing them back through the crowd, spreading them out so that everyone could have the joy of waving that flag. We were all anxiously staring at the screen, waiting for Obama to show up and being disappointed every time it was just another old, white male. But once he finally entered the Capitol and was making his way to the stage, there were so many good vibes that were going around and so much cheering and joy! The same thing happened when Kelly Clarkson took the stage to sing (she was amazing!) and of course, for Beyonce as well! Even though Obama forget to give me a shout-out during his speech (I'm sure he was under a lot of stress so it could have easily slipped his mind), I still really enjoyed listening to him speak.

The second Beyonce was done singing the word "brave," people started rushing to get out because oh-my-goodness was it crowded! It took even longer to get back to the hostel. Half a million people all trying to get to the metro and out of the blocked off streets? Yeah, it was a little crazy. But surprisingly, people remained pretty calm about it. There was a part where we walked into this huge crowd that wasn't moving. It was a complete stand-still mob taking up and entire street! My friend Anna and I stood up on a cement block and we saw that an ambulance was actually trying to make its way through the crowd. It managed to make it through, but the crowd of people didn't move. We ended up taking an even longer route back to the hostel to avoid the biggest crowds, but on one of the residential streets, a man was outside in his front yard with a grill, making hot dogs and selling them to the people walking by. Genius idea! unfortunately he ran out by the time I got there.

A few members of the group tried taking the metro back to the hostel, but the lines for the metro were up on the streets and it took them almost two hours to get back.

This will definitely be an experience that I will never forget! Even though we could have easily watched the Inauguration from the warmth of our hostel, being outside with the crowds in that crazy atmosphere was 100% worth it.



Here's a few photos from the day :)

Isabelle, Meghan, me, Anna, Genevieve, and Bethany

Obama!

Beyonce!

The ambulance trying to get through the mob

-Heidi

And it's begun!

On Friday, January 11th, I left my little yellow house on the hill with my suitcase and backpack and headed to Washington DC where I will be spending the first 2 weeks of my semester abroad. The program I'm on is an International Honors Program (IHP) called Health and Community: Globalization, Culture and Care. We will be looking at the different facets of public health in Brazil, Vietnam, and South Africa, spending about 5 weeks in each country. There are 30 students, 2 professors, and one "fellow" or advisor who will be traveling with us to all three countries, and then one country coordinator in each country. Most of the time we will be in home stays, but there are a few days in hostels when arriving and leaving each country. Our wonderful faculty will be teaching 4 courses over the whole semester, and focusing on each country in that topic when we come to it.

I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous about being a part of an honors program, especially once I saw that there were students from Harvard, Yale, and Brown that were also coming on the program. However, all of my fears disappeared as soon as I met them all. Everyone on the program has such interesting stories and backgrounds to share, and the chemistry (so far) is amazing! Students majors' range from Public Health to Neuroscience, from Anthropology to Computer Science. Some of them have been traveling their entire lives and have lived in some of the countries that we're going to, and others have never left the United States. One of our professors is even from South Africa! There are a few other students that took gap years, one who is in the Air Force, and ne of the students even speaks Danish! So I realize now that there was no need to worry :)

We've completed our first 3 days of classes, after we had orientation and did some of community building activities. Although we still have a few lectures and lots of reading, most of the educational part of the program is experiential learning. We will be going into these communities and learning hands-on through interviews, tours, guest lecturers, and personal experience about the health care systems. That's my kind of learning! Some of the students aren't bringing any sort of laptop or tablet with for the semester, and our faculty said it's not required that we do so because we will not need the internet for doing any research, and it's not guaranteed that we'll have internet access everywhere we go. However, I will be bringing my laptop because it will be easier to write papers this way, and as a way to charge my iPod and camera (I tend to take a lot of photos...)

We are currently staying in a hostel just south of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. We walked past the Library of Congress and the Capitol each day on our way to the World Learning Center where we previously had our classes. From here on out, we will no longer be using the WLC because we will be doing NGO visits, guest lecturers, attending the Inauguration, and visiting different sites in DC. I'm very excited to see what this semester will bring.



-Heidi