Salvador, Brazil

02/19

We’re in Salvador, Brazil! It’s a really cool city, I didn’t really know what to expect other than a favelas like in the movie City of God. Our Global Studies class teaches us about each country we’re about to visit during the days that we’re on our way there so it’s interesting to see the course work in person. Salvador has the highest African population in all of Brazil. There is also this elevator that takes us from the lower city to the upper city. We were told not to ride it in small groups so I haven’t been on it yet. Unfortunately, I won’t have many pictures because we were also warned that it will be likely that we will be pick pocketed or robbed if we have much on us so we’ve been leaving our cameras at home :(. Three girls were actually robbed at knife-point the first day we got here. They took everything! I’ll make sure to post this AFTER we leave so you guys won’t be too worried. Those chicas were doing everything we were told not to do (flaunting) and we’re very cautious of our surrounding and, believe it or not, we blend in a little bit better than the other SAS students. At least our hair is brown…Greg has been blending in everywhere we go! Everyone thought he was Puerto Rican and now he can pass as Brazilian.

We went to the Mercado and got some good deals and ate at a restaurant right out side. There was a capoiera group there so we were able to watch them while we ate. Capoiera is a type of martial arts that slaves used to disguise as dance and uses mainly legs. They do kicks and flips and cartwheels, it kind of looks like break dancing. Even the boys about 7 years old were doing it. We couldn’t understand the menu so Celina and I just pointed at something and hoped for the best. We ended up getting some sort of fish with beans and rice. It was pretty good.

We went to Carnaval last night. It was amazing. It kind of reminded me of the taste of Colorado but much much much crazier! There were street vendors lining the streets selling all sorts of food and drinks. The currency here is the Rael and the exchange rate is about 2:1 so conversion isn’t too difficult yet. There are these huge floats that blare music, some have bands on the top but all of them are surrounded by and entourage of people dancing and in costume. There are all sorts of people of all ages. Carnaval is like Mardi Gras in that everyone is getting all of their sinning out before lent. It ends on Tuesday, the day before we leave. We’re planning on going to church for Ash Wednesday. We have tickets to Afro Bloco tonight so we’ll actually be in the Carnaval as part of the entourage following the floats.

02/20

OH MY GOOOOODNESSS!!!! We went to Carnaval again tonight and it was soooo much fun! We were in the parade with the Trio Electrico - Areketu float. It was a Samba/Reggae band and the crowd was a lot more intense than Afro Bloco - Cortejo (the one we were in two nights ago).

The Afro Bloco seemed more cultural, we had entire outfits instead of the plain T-shirts that the others had. The colors were light blue and white and the girls wore wrap skirts and white and blue tops and a hat with a red feather. The men’s were similar but with pants. This was the only Afro Bloco that allowed non-Africans to participate (the Afro groups celebrate African heritage and roots). Needless to say, we stood out like…well like Americans in an African parade. It was strange though, I didn’t feel uncomfortable or unwelcome once. I feel more uncomfortable at the Cherry Creek mall. There was a marching band that followed behind our float, it was like Drumline x 1,000! This parade started at 9 pm and we wussed out at 3 but it lasted till 6 in the morning. We had the best burger in the entire world!!! They warned us about the street food and said we shouldn’t eat it but rest assured that all the intestinal wrath that I may feel within the next few days will be all worth this burger that probably surpassed my entire caloric intake for the rest of the time in Brazil. It was fried egg, ham, cheese, sausage, a hamburger patty, lettuce, potatoe shoe strings, cucumber, tomato, and corn on a hamburger bun. It may not sound too appetizing but it was heaven on earth and clogs in my arteries. I’ve been hearing horror stories about the portal potties but luckily I haven’t had to use them (which is a great benefit of not drinking alcohol – aren’t you proud dad?). The taxi ride home is half the fun. The lanes on the roads don’t mean much and the speed limit is merely a suggestion. We’ve had a lot of interesting taxi drivers that are more than willing to talk, or at least try to communicate and tell us about Brazil. We’ve been getting by with Spanish.

Tonight was much more hectic and crazy than last night. If you like personal space and cleanliness I would suggest staying as far away from carnaval as possible as there is none of either! I didn’t even have my own air to breathe, it was madness! We tried selling our tickets because we were kind of tired from the night before but thankfully nobody bought them because we would have really missed out. It’s basically like a moving concert and club. Everyone was dancing and jumping, I loved it! I met a guy at the beginning who asked me to dance, I’m not sure what kind of dance it was but I picked it up pretty quick. He became our friend and made sure I was bumped too hard and our group was always close together. He didn’t speak a lick of English nor I of Portuguese but we had an interesting conversation. He tried to teach me how to dance Samba to no avail :( but nonetheless had a great time looking foolish trying to do it! His name was Andre, he asked for my email address so I guess I’ll have to learn Portuguese if I ever want to respond (Jazmin, Mando…lessons?).

There are a lot of poor children here, it’s really sad. It makes me even more sad to be apprehensive to wear flip flops because the streets are dirty and wet (people are peeing everywhere) then later in the day see kids as young as 5 walking bare foot and people sleeping in the same street I wouldn’t even want to touch. I also get sad when I see all the students on the boat being so wasteful at dinner time and throwing away platefuls of food while people right out side our ship are starving and would do anything for those leftovers. Guilt. It’s been a struggle and I’m sure it will only get worse with each port but it helps to talk about it with my group of friends on the ship.

I feel like all the adjectives and exclamation points in the world don’t really express what I feel…neither remorse nor excitement. I’m having a lot of fun and learning a lot outside of the classroom. Still missin you guys! Ari’s birthday is in 2 days and I’m sad I have to miss it :( Tell her I said happy birthday and give her a kiss! Jake, Happy Belated!!!!! I suck…I missed it :( Sorry. You are an old man!

p.s. I’m not proof reading these so I probably have many mistakes – deal with it :) haha