Seriously, I have a lot :)

Yesterday I went to my first brazilian wedding! It started at 8 (but the procession began at 9), and we left the reception at 3. It was so awesome! The church was gorgeous with statues of saints everywhere and lots of roses for the occasion. My friend Jennifer was there too, so we had a great time dancing and singing and talking at the party. And seriously-I didn´t know there existed so many types of chocolates! There were literally at least 5 huge tables filled with different kinds of sweets, elaborately decorated and irresistably delicious. Anyways, it was great. I didn´t get pics, but trust me; it was amazing :) Well, here are some more pics of Serra da Capivara!

1) A host sister in São Raimundo Nonato, Jesús, me, Omar
2) Paty, and me after the blue bubble gum (it had lots of sugar--can you tell?)
3) Omar, Paty, me, Jesús, and Bruce in the bus station
4) Heda, me, Paty, and 2 of the host families in São Raimundo Nonato out to lunch
5) Rodrigo, Paty Jesus, Omar, me, Heda, and Bruce in the town square

Even More!

1) The dessert outside of the Museum of the American Man
2) Me, the discoverer of the 25,000 year old cave paintings, and Heda
3) Me, Bruce, and a sliver of Paty on the busride to the national park
4) Heda, Jesus, some random guy we talked to, Omar, me, Bruce

More Serra da Capivara Pics

1) Paty, Rodrigo (the actor), me
2) Me, Rodrigo (the doctor)
3) Bruce, Jesus, Heda, me, Omar, Paty
4) Our group with the Congo Group

Fortaleza

Pictures:
1) Bruce, Heda, and me in the back of a truck on our way back to the city from Serra da Capivara
2) Jesus, me, Omar, Paty, Heda, Bruce in front of an awesome rock formation. I swear this place came straight out of a cowboy western, hahaha. I couldn´t get really good pictures of the others because we only went there at night.
3) Heda, Paty, Omar, and me after some tasty blue bubble gum
4) Our gorgeous hotel in Fortaleza





My weekend was great--I went to Fortaleza, an awesome-huge-city here! Friday night we went to Ceará Music which is basically Warped Tour at night with Brasilian rock bands. There were sooo many people, and the music was great. Saturday we went to Beach Park (English-another example of how americanized it is here) which is a huge water park right on the beach. After we went down all of the slides and rides and such we swam in the Atlantic Ocean which was amazing!!! The water was clear, the sand was perfect, and the waves were huge. At night we went to the market with all sorts of arts and jewelry and all sorts of odds an ends. I even haggled with a guy and brought the price of one of my presents down :)

Serra da Capivara Intro

So I just got back from an AWESOME trip to the dessert. Do you know the difference between the temperatures here and there are? At night, it gets cool there. And people still say that Teresina (my city) is hotter. -->In a play that I saw, God and the devil were talking in one scene. The devil said "Screw that! You sent me to hell--the heat is unbearable!" and God replied "Shut up or I´ll send you to Teresina." Yeah.

Anyways, the 2 mexicans-Jesús and Omar, 2 americans-me and Heda, and 2 brazilians-Paty and Bruce went 8 hours by bus to go to an arts festival. It was so amazing--there were 3 shows every night in the middle of a national park. The actual stage was in the middle of these gigantic rock formations that I swear came out of a cowboy western, and they were always lit up. In any case, there were dancers, bands, acrobats/circus, and my favorite-theatre. Granted, I didn´t understand most of the stuff that was going on, but still!

During one show, there were about 15 guys in hoop skirts singing and dancing traditional songs, and I definitely wanted a pic with one of the guys in his costume. So I went backstage and asked one of them if I could take a picture. He turned around and yelled "Hey guys! The lady wants a photo!" And everyone rushed into formation for me and they gave me a business card. That´s when I learned the advantage of being a white american in Piauí. I went back after another show-theatre this time, and it was sooooo great. We talked with the group, told them who we were and all, and it was cool. --These weren´t amateurs either. All of the groups were professional. But that´s not all!

Every day there was also an after party with a concert in a different place in the park, and the day that I met the actors, one of them came up and asked me to dance :). We talked and became friends, and we´ve talked since the trip. Ah, great GREAT times.

Another awesome thing was going to the museum of the american man. In 1978 a french woman found cave paintings and began an archaelogical dig, and that was the beginning of the park and basically the city of São Raimundo Nanato. It was a treasure of ancient artifacts-pots, tools, burial sites, and more. The museum had all of the actual stuff right there, free of barriers, and there was only 1 woman staffing the whole place. It rocked.

I´m going to Fortaleza tomorrow, so I´ll try to get pictures up on Sunday.

Programa Saude de Família

The thing I miss the most here right now? Autumn-the leaves, the colors, the apples, the cider, the smell. Enjoy it all if you have it!

Anyways, today I went to a favela to experience the Programa Saude de Família (Health program of the family). Favela=the poorest people in Brasil find a big area of land and build houses in masses, tresspassing but no one can stop them. There were so many houses made of clay, sticks, and a brick here or there. What struck me the most was the amount of children running around, most of them naked. The woman I went with was my aunt, and she works as a nurse for the prefeitura--a government funded hospital post. Each day of the week her team (a doctor, a nurse, a dentist, and 2 people who live in the favela to accompany us for directions to houses/protection) does something different. 2 days a week they walk throughout the favela to administer care to those who can´t get to the post. Today was one of these days, but just for pregnant women. We visited 8 women, and I think that only 1 was older than me. The youngest was 16, and some of them already had 2 children and were on their third. It´s a completely different world there.
It was a good experience--I helped out and got to see what life was like for many people here. I also want to be a doctor one day, and it was interesting to see how different medicine can be.

Remember-Be thankful for what you have!!!

More Birthday Pics

1-Me, Jennifer, Aubrey
2-My family here-Lilinha, Cledson, Me, Julia, Luiza
3-Paty and I making brigadeiros---lots and lots of brigadeiros
4-Us on the roof right before we set up
5-Lilinha and I at one of my parties

My Birthday!!!

My birthday=perfection. Seriously, I couldn´t be more happy! I had 4 birthday parties-3 complete surprises and 1 official. My official party was on the roof of a 12 story building and lasted until 6am, and wow. Yeah. Anyways, when I woke up I went into the dining room and there was a note on my place setting, a yogurt called Bliss, and I turned around and my family entered singing Parabéms (happy birthday-literally, congratulations). I didn´t even see breakfast--a miniature cake topped with M&Ms, fresh juice, and cookies. My present was the white shirt I´m wearing at the official party. For the next surprise party everyone in the class chipped in and bought cake, salgados (awesome fried finger food), cokes, and balloons and threw me a surprise bday party during recess in the laboratory. 32 people crammed into a little room with preserved animals everywhere, and I didn´t have a clue! The last surprise party was with my big family-aunts, uncles, cousins. I went to the bathroom and came back, and the lights were off and another singing of Parabéms and cake. I had 4 cakes in total!!! Anyways, back to my official party-there were sooo many people there! I´m loved, lol. It was also international-exchangers from Mexico, the US, and of course all of the Brazilians. There was loud music, dancing, lots of food, lots of talking, and sing-along to guitar playing. Ahhh, great times. I LOVE BRAZIL!!! Well, it´s late now, and I´m exhausted, so here´s the start of the photos! (It´ll take me a few days to post them all as I can only post a few at a time. 1 is at INEC (school), but I didn´t get pics of the party (surprise, hahaha). 1 is at my big family party, and the other 2 are at the official one. Enjoy!