I woke up this morning to a neighbor singing at the top of his lungs. And while he didn't always hit all the notes, he sang with a joy typical of many Brazilians. Even though I was slightly annoyed by the early wake-up call, I realized that it is exactly these types of experiences that I'm going to miss when I return to the U.S. shortly.

I arrived in Recife last night after saying goodbye to everyone in Monteiro. Goodbyes are hard enough in English, but in Portuguese they were even more difficult to me. I don't think I've realized what leaving means to me. I feel like I'm just going on a weekend trip and that soon I'll return to Monteiro and the friendships will continue as they had been. But I have no idea when I'll ever return to Brazil.

I know it's the little things that I'll miss, the things that may annoy me now: the neighbor waking me up with his joyful song, the blaring heat, the muddy roads, the difficulties in conversation. These things made life an adventure. I feel like I will be returning to a boring life in the U.S., where I know what to expect, where I can be understood, where each day is predictable.

I'll also miss the people. My host family has become a part of my life now, and I know that I'll miss playing with my host brothers or chatting with my host parents. I'll also miss the MCCers in Monteiro. They were technical supports in my work, and spiritual supports in my life.

People ask me if I'm ready to go home, and I don't know what to say. Sure, I want to go home, but I also have a home here now.

So on July 17 I'll be leaving Brazil to head to reorientation (or is it disorientation?) in Akron, and then I'll be heading to my home in Kansas on July 24. But I'll be leaving another home here.

In the moments of frustration and despair this year I daydreamed about being able to spend time with friends and family back in the U.S. And talking with my parents for a while, we realized that it might be possible for them to come visit me during this year. So two weeks ago my parents, my sister, and my brother-in-law came to Brazil and we traveled around this great country.

We first went to São Paulo, the biggest metropolitan area in South America. We chose São Paulo not because we love sprawling urban areas, but because one of the 20 million inhabitants of this city had lived with our family 22 years ago. When I was three, we hosted MCC trainee Veronika, who now lives in São Paulo with her husband Alfred and two teenage children, Heidi and Cristopher.

The whole time in São Paulo was magnificent, if rather surreal. The air was cool, the city was large, and Veronika's family all spoke German, as well as Portuguese. I could have sworn I was in Europe at some points. My sister was able to communicate quite well with everyone in German, and I could do okay in Portuguese, so conversations slipped between German, Portuguese, and the occasional English. Another oddity of the time there was that we never ate out during our three days there. Veronika says that it is too expensive to eat out, but I believe she just liked to cook for us. And I can't complain about her cooking. We had marvelous pies, cinnamon rolls, jellies, pizza, steak, etc. What's more is that most of the ingredients came from Veronika's farm, about an hour from São Paulo. The milk came from her cows and the cheese was hand made.

We passed the time with a variety of activities. One day we went to visit their magnificent farm, where they had a wider variety of animals and plants than seen at any other single farm I'd been to. Cocoa plants, coffee beans, poinsettas, wild impatiens, and bamboo. Sheep, cattle, horses, pigs, and chickens. Old McDonald was outdone by this family farm. The next day we visited their church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation in São Paulo. Finally I heard some four-part singing. We attempted to go to the Indpendence Musuem, but the workers were (ironically) on strike. Instead we went to the aquarium.

We had a great time in São Paulo, even if we didn't see a single thing on Frommer's Must See List. We saw the people we wanted to, and were hosted very graciously.

Our hosts: Heidi, Cristopher, Veronika, and Alfred Bender.

A night-time view of the city from the family's house.

Krehbiel Family in Veronika's house: Perry, June, Melanie, and Joel Krehbiel, and Jason Miller.

After returning from Recife to São Paulo, we spent a day in Olinda visiting churches and doing other touristy things. We had a wonderful guide who showed us all the important Dutch and Portuguese churches in the area. There were some wonderful tiles inside these 300-year old sanctuaries. We ate at a nice place with a view of the ocean and Jason and I split a dish that consisted of lobster and crab rice with a shrimp/cashew/pistachio sauce. I wouldn't have ordered that at any other restaurant, but this place had a splendid menu, and I had to try something odd. It was spectacular. Perhaps the best restaurant food of the trip.

We then headed to Monteiro, with stops to change a flat tire, and to visit an area that is known for it's ceramic figures. Lunch here was barbequed goat on a skewer. Also very tasty.

I think Monteiro may have been the highlight for Mel, just because she loved my host family so much. Jason also bonded with my host-brothers, and he chased them all around the house as they screamed in delight. It was really strange seeing my family and my host-family interact. It was as if two of my worlds collided together, and I was stuck in the midst of the collision. I translated a lot, but my host dad Ricardo speaks English quite well, so he could communicate with everyone just fine. I knew he spoke English, but it was rather strange hearing him speak so much. He never spoke English with me at home, only Portuguese.

In Monteiro we visited two farms with biodigesters, one that also included a large organic farm. At this last farm we were given a great tour by Luzaneti, the owner of the farm. She encouraged us to pick acerolas, a small cherry-like fruit. That sounded like fun to us, and we started to pull the fruits from the tree. Soon, the ants began biting, the thorns began attacking, and the sun began sucking our energy away. What's more is that Luzaneti had an enormous bucket that she was determined to fill before we left. In the end, she filled about three-fourths of it, while we combined to fill the remaining fourth.

Luzaneti showing us the many plants in her garden.

Another day we went to climb Monte Peru, which I had climbed with Ricardo and Cristina's family a few months before. Fortunately they went with us again, as the roads were pretty bad. I was driving the Fiat Dolbó, a boxy-looking thing with low clearance. There were mudholes to drive through, rocks to drive over, and large crevaces to avoid falling into. If there was any doubt that I could drive a stick shift before heading up that mountain, they were vanquished as we arrived at the starting point of the hike.

The hike itself was another adventure. I knew that it would stretch Mom and Dad to the limit, and they were exhausted by the hike, but made it to the top. Mel and Jason really enjoyed themselves, and Ricardo, Cristina, and the boys also had fun. Continuing my streak of seeing poisonous animals on hikes, I saw a corral snake on this hike. Ricardo told me that this was the most poisonous snake in Brazil. Okay, we'll try to avoid getting bit by that then.

Mel and Jason on top of Monte Peru.

Also in Monteiro, the school where my host brothers go had a festival to celebrate São João (Saint John). This festival was kind of like the state fair, with lots of mysterious fried foods that sit really low in your stomach. But the highlight was the dancing. Each class gave a small presentation/dance and then other people or parents were asked to join in.

My host family and I prepare to go to the São João festival.

After Monteiro, we headed to João Pessoa. We stayed at a very ritzy hotel right on the beach. And since it is the off-season here, we felt like we were the only ones on the beach or in the hotel. We walked along the beach the first night before eating at a nice Italian restauant for supper. The next day we spend entirely on the beach. We rented an umbrella and chairs and swam in the ocean for a while. We mainly just relaxed the entire day, which was great. Jason and I made a sandcastle that eventually got swept away into the sea. Most of us returned with some small sunburnt area, enough to make us remember to use more sunscreen next time. João Pessoa was a very relaxing place and we weren't too eager to leave.

Joel and Jason making a sandcastle.

Fortunately for us, as we were leaving João Pessoa, I shifted the car into first making a U-turn, and heard a clunking noise. I was unable to shift into any gear, and was blocking two lanes of oncoming traffic. We quickly moved the vehicle to the side of the road and celebrated the fact that we were still in João Pessoa. Actually, we were just stuck on the side of the road, with nothing terribly interesting around. I called the MCC Country Representative and asked what to do. He arranged a tow truck to come take the vehicle back to Recife and taxis to take us there. After an hour the tow truck arrived, and loaded the Dolbó. We took our essential items from the vehicle, and waited for at least another hour for two taxis to take us to Recife. They arrived and we were on our way. However, Jason has problems with motion sickness, and he began reading in the car. His motion sickness quickly kicked in, and he had to explain to the driver that he needed to vomit. The car pulled over, and he vomited out the side of the vehicle. Mel was also feeling a little ill at this point, and by the time we arrived in Recife, they were both drugged up on Dramamine and took a long nap. They recovered fine, and were eating Chinese later in the evening.

The last two days we spent in Recife doing shopping, getting souvenirs and the sort. But my highlight of the time in Recife was going to see Brazil's national soccer team play Paraguay in the World Cup Qualifier.

I've never been to a more important sporting event in my life. Brazil and Paraguay are the two top teams in South America's qualifying tournament. These players are the best in the world. Most of them play for top teams in elite European leagues. Brazil's midfielder Kaká was voted the best soccer player in the world last year, and now is number three in the world.

We filed into the stadium two hours before game time, all wearing our newly purchased Brazil shirts. A slight rain wetted the fans before the game, but nothing dampened the Brazil soccer spirit. The game began around 10 pm, and Brazil controlled the ball most of the first half. But Paraguay got a free kick outside the penalty box that got deflected by a defender and went past the goalie. Being down 0-1, Brazil continued the attack, and got a beautiful goal by Robinho after the 40th minute of the first half to tie the score. Early in the second half Niemar scored the deciding goal on a slow dribbler past the goalie. Brazil had numerous other chances, but at the end of the game, the score remained 2-1 for Brazil. The win nearly guarantees them a spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Brazil and Paraguay begin the game.

It was a fantastic vacation with my family, and I'm so glad I got to spend time with them. It was the most unique vacation ever. Yes, I realize that unique is unqualifiable, but this vacation was singularly unique. Spectacular.

I realize it's been a while since I posted my last blog. Perhaps that is because I haven't done anything nearly as exciting or unusual as I did on my trip to Chapada Diamantina National Park. Or perhaps it's because I'm just lazy. That being said, there have been a couple of highlights from my last few weeks.

I will say that my work is going very well. We have limited my project from doing 10 biodigesters this year to just 9, and that lessens my stress significantly. I'm able to spend more time on the biodigesters that I have been doing, and make sure that they are going well. Currently we have 5 functioning biodigesters, and I'm hoping we can get another one going next week. The other three biodigesters might be working before I leave Brazil in July, but the only question there is whether the manure will begin producing gas in time, not whether they get constructed correctly. This project has progressed quite nicely and AMAS is going to attempt to do 20 biodigesters next year with the help of a new SALTer.

The major news around Monteiro is the amount of rain that we've received since the middle of March. We hardly received any rain in February and people were wondering if this was going to be the year when the drought came to the Sertão again. But since Carnaval we've had nearly 500 mm (20 inches) of rain. The average yearly rainfall here is 500 mm, so to have that in two months has caused some signficant problems. Reservoirs have flooded, dams have broken, and bridges have fallen. Some of the communities where MCC works were unreachable by vehicle last week. I went to one community last week and I had to cross three rivers that had been caused by recent rains. In some cases the water was 2 feet deep and rushing up on the floorboards of my trusty 4 by 4 Bandeirante truck. At one point the truck even stalled in the middle of such a river, and I thought I was stranded. Somehow it started up again and I was able to get out of the river, but I was sufficiently nervous about my prospects for a while.

My evenings recently have been spent being enternained by my brothers or by a number of movies that my host parents have rented. My host brothers are entranced by Pokemon right now. I can't go more than two minutes without hearing about which Pokemon cards they have. They've even given me Pokemon cards, and I currently have close to 50 of these things. Perhaps I should explain what Pokemon is to all of you who don't have a 6-year-old friend. Pokemon is an animated show wherein Pokemon characters with unique powers are trained and then fight other Pokemons. Who wins the battles seems pretty arbitrary to me. Why doesn't Pikachu just strike with a lightning bolt against everyone of his enemies? Okay, maybe I know too much, but it's pretty much impossible to not absorb this stuff by osmosis.

My brothers have also taken to collecting Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Yu-Gi-Oh is another show where the characters play a card game with "magic" cards that have dragons, special powers, and specific points. Here the victories are more clearly defined, but the premise of the show is rather hilarious. It's kinda like adults watching Poker on TV. My host brother David has challenged me to several games with our own "not-so-magical" cards. Unfortunately his cards are much better than mine, and I hardly ever win. But I do enjoy card games, so I'll probably continue playing.

The other thing the has filled some of my evenings is watching films that my host parents rent. Unfortunately the selection of movies at the local stores is less than ideal. Most of the movies are from Hollywood, so I don't get to experience Brazilian cinema, even if the films are dubbed in Portuguese. But the movies aren't even the good movies from Hollywood, or even movies I've heard of. Some of them seem to be knock offs of B-rated movies. You may have heard of "The Return to Oz" or "10000 BC," but in the last two days I've watched "Tin Man" and "100 Million BC." It's these types of movies that make me appreciate anything with a good special effects, a well-used budget, or at least a thoughtful plotline. I'll say that I've watched a lot more movies here in Brazil than at any other time in my life. And in between the poor Hollywood films, I have seen some sparkling Brazilian films.

So that's the update on my life right now. Perhaps it's not what you'd expect from an MCC assignment, but it's been an adventure nonetheless. I hope to have more to share after my family comes to visit me at the end of May and beginning of June.

This past Tuesday was a national holiday in Brazil, celebrating the life of the revolutionary Tiradentes. And since we were able to take Tuesday (and Monday) off, Mike and I decided to look for locations to visit in northeastern Brazil. Sure, Brazil has its beautiful beaches, but as I've noted before, my midwestern upbringing did little to prepare to spend days at the edge of massive amounts of water. Rather we were advised to look a place called Chapada Diamantina National Park.

The area is named Chapada Diamantina because of the fantastic hills with diamonds. A diamond rush brought prospectors to the area in the 1840s. Many years after the boom went bust, people realized the beauty of the land they were scavanging for its material wealth. After several battles with the Brazilian government, ecologists eventually had the land set away as a national park.

The beauty of Chapada Diamantina is deep and diverse. It is home to some of the largest caves in South America and the largest waterfall in Brazil. The rivers wind through spectacular rock formations, and the area is ideally suited for outdoor enthusiasts of any type.

Mike and I decided that we were outdoor enthusiasts of a certain type, so last Thursday we headed to the park in central Bahia state. Twenty-four hours of bus riding later, we finally arrived in Lençois, the city at the entrance to the park.

We spent four days in Lençois exploring different sites each day. The first day we attempted to find a guide that could take us to the places we wanted to go. Even before we got to a guide agency office, people on the street were offering to take us to this waterfall, or that one. We eventually found a guide agency that we thought looked promising for the next day and booked that trip. We also decided we'd do one of the few hikes that we could do near Lençois without a guide. The guidebook didn't speak particularly highly of these options, but we thought we could at least kill some time.

We headed up Lençois River and were soon impressed. The river was cutting its way over sharp rocks, creating small waterfalls everywhere you looked. We then found a path going up away from the river and eventually found Cachoeirinha (Small Waterfall) where several people were swimming. We kept following the path, never quite knowing where we were going, or if we were getting there. The views from the trail were magnificent, overlooking the valley created by the river. Finally we got to Cachoeira da Primavera (Spring Waterfall), which was our original destination. It was probably 5 meters tall, and provided a magnificent stopping point for us. The first day was spectacular as we were able to explore on our own.

Waterfall in Lençois River. The water is dark not because it is dirty, but because it has been filtered through the earth and has a high quantity of organic matter (or so I'm told).

Cachoeira da Primavera.

The second day we went with our guide Daniel and three other previously-unknown people to three locations: Gruta da Lapa Doce, Morro do Pai Inácio, and Poço do Diabo. Gruta da Lapa Doce is one of the the largest caves in Brazil, with more than 20 miles of passage undergound. Inside there were several magnificent stalagtites and stalagmites formed over thousands of years. The cave itself was an old river, and the space to walk in was quite spacious. But the most impressive thing occured when our guide and others turned off their laterns, and we were told to be completely still. At first the silence is deafening. Nothing, absolutely nothing made a sound. And even though I felt like my eyes were perceiving light, I was unable to see my hand even five inches in front of my face.

After leaving the cave, we headed toward the top of Morro do Pai Inácio. We drove most of the way up, and then hiked the last thirty minutes. This morro (or hill) was just one of many spectacular formations in the large valley surrounding Pai Inácio. It was cloudy and cool, and recent rain filled small pools between the rocks on the top of the hill. The weather, along with the barren landscape, gave a type of end-of-the-world feel to being on top of the hill. The view was magnificent from here.

We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on top of Morro do Pai Inácio, then headed for Poço do Diabo. The hike to this waterfall was only about 30 minutes as well, but we had to wade through ankle-deep water to get there. The main attraction at the Poço was a zipline that took you from the top of the waterfall into the water 30 m below. I was a little nervous about doing it, but after seeing a couple people do it, I joined in. Falling 30 m into water, being supported by only a rope and straps will definitely get your adrenaline going.

Mike and I prepare to go spelunking.

Mike on the top of Morro do Pai Inácio.

Poço do Diabo. Notice the man going down on the zipline.

Our third day we went with Lucio, who was the son of the owners of our hotel, to try to reach another waterfall within hiking distance of Lençois. Lucio led us and several of his friends from college in the Bahian state capital of Salvador on the trail towards Cachoeira do Sossego. He was going at a pretty good pace, and we were getting tired quickly. But around lunch time we noticed some people coming back on the path. Their guide said that they were unable to reach the waterfall since the path crossed the river, and recent rains had swelled the river. We pressed on for a bit, but as it began to rain, we realized that it was unwise to continue. We waited out the rain under a small shelter and ate lunch. We then returned to a small swimming hole and relaxed there for a while. Eventually we hiked to a large series of rock waterfalls that culminated in a large pool at the bottom. If you wanted to, you could use the rocks as a waterslide and slide down the waterfall into the pool. By this time I was sufficiently tired, so I was content to watch people enjoy the waterslide. And even though we didn't reach our intended destination, it was another nice day of hiking, and well worth it.

A view of the area as we attempted to hike to Cachoeira do Sossego.

Our final day we returned to our guide Daniel to take us to Cachoeira da Fumaça, the largest waterfall in Brazil. This day was to be our most tiring on paper, with a required elevation change of 1000 ft, and more than 9 miles of hiking. But fortunately we took the trail slow. It also was foggy and rainy during our ascent, which limited our ability to see. At one point we were required to remove our boots and walk through nearly 2 feet of water. And while the hiking was not too difficult as we reached the waterfall, it wasn't exactly exciting either. But as the clouds cleared, we came to the waterfall. We first saw it from above. There was a small ledge that protruded over the canyon and allowed for a view if your stuck your head over the edge. At first I readily peered over the edge to see this volume of water pouring over the rock. But as I retreated from the ledge, I realized that I had just been over 400 m above the canyon floor. I soon got a sense of vertigo even watching other people look over the edge. Fortunately, our guide took us to another vista that allowed a less precarious view of the waterfall.

A view of the waterfall from the ledge. It is called Cachoeira da Fumaça (Smoke Waterfall) because the water reaches the bottom in small drops, instead of a steady stream.

A view of Cachoeira da Fumaça from the side.

The spectacular scenery was just a part of the journey. We stayed at a great little place called Casa da Geleia since its owner specialized in making jellies and jams. Thus, our wonderful breakfasts always included a variety of jellies not common in the U.S. Pitanga jam, anyone?

It was also wonderful to get to know some of the other travelers. There were the two German girls who are working in Salvador at an orphanage. There was the Brazilian studying psychology. There were Lucio and his friends from Salvador. And then our final day in Lençois, we ran into the Americans. A father and son from California and Colorado provided conversation for us on our hike up to Cachoeira da Fumaça. We chatted with a vacationing couple from Colorado in the restaurant that night. And then on the bus we met two girls from University of Oregon doing a study abroad in Salvador.

Chapada Diamantina was one the best places I've been in Brazil. I got to relax, while not getting bored, and experienced some wonderful scenery. I would return there in a heartbeat.

So I realize that after my last blog post, it sounded like life was pretty bad for me here. And will concur that I had some pretty crappy days a few weeks ago. But after we determined what the problem with the biodigesters was, I got back on track and began enjoying life more.

In fact one of those resurrecting moments was going to a passion play held in Fazenda Novo, about 15 minutes from where the other SALTer, Mike works in Brejo da Madre de Deus. The passion play was held at a theater that is billed as the largest open-air theater in the world. It is actually an enormous area that is built to a scale of the old city of Jerasulem. And instead of presenting the play at a single stage, the actors moved from stage to stage around the area after each scence. Thus, the sets were permanent, the trees were real, and real horses brought Pilate into the city on a chariot. It was truly spectacular.

This manner of presenting the play was the most realistic I had ever seen. While I thought it would be odd to move from place to place during the play, I found it quite nice. If your view was obstructed in one place, you could either stand a little bit to the side, or just wait until the scene ended and try to get a better spot when you moved to watch the next scene. There also was something quite engaging about walking from one side of this miniature Jerasulem to the other while Jesus carried his cross the entire way.

The voices of the actors were recorded, but they had timed their lines so well that it was hard to tell from a distance. In the background of each scene, some music played, so it felt more like a movie than a play at times. But then, I was reminded that it was an actual outdoor theater when I could see actual lightning striking in the distance. Soon it began to rain, and people opened their umbrellas, but the story went on.

All in all it was a great night, and it gave me a good break from my work, while giving a very realistic interpretation of the death of Jesus.

Here is one set where you can see the detail involved. Here Pilate is arriving at his palace on a chariot.

Jesus hanging on the cross.