First off, let me say sorry for being rather negligent on the blog front for the last several months. I’ve been busy at times, but more than that I think it was just that I was settled into more of a routine and didn’t have too many new and exciting things to report. I think it really is true what I’ve heard from other service workers, that it really takes almost a year to get situated in a new culture to the point where you feel you can really start to contribute. Not that I didn’t accomplish anything this year, but it was often a struggle and near the end I was finally feeling more comfortable and useful. But alas, my time is up!

I’m writing this Monday night, and I’ll be flying out with Joel on Friday, layover in Atlanta before getting back to Pennsylvania for the SALT program re-entry retreat. We’ve been here in Recife where MCC-Brazil has their main office since Thursday, making use of this time to finish up some final reports, wrap up loose ends, and say goodbyes. But let me back up a little first.

A couple weeks ago I loaded up my beloved motorcycle and headed out from Brejo on the 3+ hour trip via back roads to Monteiro, where several fellow MCCers are based. I stopped at one community on the way to check in and say goodbye to the folks there, and also was able to bring some things to Monteiro and I wanted to say my goodbyes there, but the real reason I went was to bring my motorcycle. There won’t be another MCC worker in Brejo this coming year, whereas the Monteiro team has been growing, so the motorcycle will be needed there. Let’s just say I had a difficult time parting with my baby and I will miss her terribly…

But anyway, I spent about 4 days there, and it was really a wonderful time. The team there threw a going-away party for Joel and me, which was a lot of fun, and it was great to see them all one more time. I also got to help Joel with some of the work he had left to do, primarily working on biodigesters, so that was cool. We also completed the sawdust toilet I’d been working on and even set it up and gave it a test run in the MCC office there! Not sure if any of the others will use it, but… they’ll hopefully be finding a family to put it to use, and the next SALTer will continue that work with composting toilets and latrines, so I look forward to hearing about that.

Back in Brejo I had pretty much wrapped up all of my work, so wasn’t sure what my final days would look like. Betty, my colleague there, left a couple of days before I did to head back to Canada for a month to visit friends and family. But then Emily, a former SALTer who is back here visiting/working on her master’s, decided to come out to Brejo for a couple days. So we spent a couple days visiting various communities in the Brejo region, Emily accompanying me as I checked in on projects and said goodbyes, and it was fun to have some company and get to talk about the things I’d worked on this year.

Then, Thursday morning at 2 in the morning the Toyota pulled up to my house to pick us up. Yes. I said 2 in the morning. Allow me to explain. Normally when I come to Recife I catch a Toyota (the big jeep-like taxis of the region) to Caruaru, the major city in that part of the interior, where I catch a bus to the bus station in Recife, where I have to get on another bus to come to the MCC office. That wasn’t going to cut it with all of my baggage. So, there is one Toyota driver in Brejo that has special permission to enter Recife. See, Toyotas were banned in Recife (and no, not all cars of the Toyota brand, just these big modified jeeps) because they clog up bus stops and whatnot. But so there’s this one that can come, and he makes trips twice a week, picking up people in Brejo and bringing them to wherever they need to go in Recife. So, like I said, around 2AM we loaded all our stuff onto the Toyota and, after picking up the rest of the passengers, headed for Recife. 4 hours later and sore as all get out from an EXTREMELY crowded car, Emily and I arrived at the MCC office in Recife.

Since then I’ve been taking it easy, seeing friends and hanging out, while neglecting the final reports I have to do, haha. Today I went to Lagoa Encantada, the neighborhood I lived in during my language training when I first arrived, to see my host family there one more time. Joel and I have plans to get some last gifts, see more friends and colleagues, and get in some last hours in the sun before heading out, so should be a good couple days.

What an experience this has been. A year full of all sorts of ups and downs, frustrations and joys, and a truly incredible learning experience. I look forward to talking with many of you more about my time here, but it’s really hard to communicate just what this year has been like. I feel like I have grown a lot, and, while it was very difficult at times, I feel very well prepared to continue in this type of development work. I had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of people and a lot of different projects, which has helped me a lot in seeing what works, what doesn’t, etc. I have been very blessed and thank God for this incredible opportunity.

What awaits next is a bit of a mystery, but I look forward to seeing many of you during my travels in the weeks after getting back to the states and hearing what everyone has been up to! Thank you again for all of your prayers and wonderful support, I could not have done this without all of you! Thank you and see you soon!

me with Dona Biu and her granddaughter in Lagoa de Pedra, where I helped with the construction of rock thanks for water storage

me with my host family in Brejo (Sérgio & Elô and their two boys Iago and Pedro)

visiting one last time my host family from Lagoa Encantada

Joel, Erika, and I, the 3 1-year members of MCC-Brazil - I'm gonna miss them!

I’ve been to my share of soccer games in the past several years, but nothing compared to this: World Cup qualifying!

Last Wednesday I had the privilege to attend the match between Brazil and Paraguay, who, entering the game, were tied on points at the top of the standings for South American qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. My boss, Keith, and several other colleagues from Recife had waited in line the week before for nearly 5 hours to get the tickets, so a hearty thanks goes out to them! Attending the game along with me and Keith was John, another colleague of ours from North Carolina, Joel, my fellow SALTer, and his family, who was visiting, as well as Ana Laura and Felipe, relatives of Keith’s wife Cristina. So it was quite the group, all of us decked out in our Brazil gear, as we headed out for the stadium. Dinner along the way was of course at Habib’s, the popular Middle Eastern fast food chain. Yes, you read that right.

We got to the stadium about 2 hours ahead of time, to make sure that we got some decent seats. Our tickets were for the upper deck, but there are really only two levels in the stadium. We made it through the crowds and the security and into the stadium, and I was shocked at how huge the field seemed. We found some seats without problem, and settled in to wait for the start of the game. As the crowd grew, the competing chants from different Recife teams started up, but those soon died down as the rain started up. Some of us had come prepared, with raincoats and umbrellas. Not me. Ah well. It didn’t last too long, but nevertheless I was nicely soaked by the time it stopped, and there was still well over an hour til game time. But I wasn’t about to let a little thing like that dampen the evening (pun intended)!

The excitement was certainly palpable (I love that word) as the start of the game approached, and you could tell that people were more than ready for the first Brazilian national team game in Recife in 14 years. The chants and cheers continued to grow, and anytime the sparse Paraguay fans tried to start up a cheer they were immediately drowned out by the boos of the Brazil fans!

Finally the team took the field and the place went crazy! Before too long, the game was under way. Brazil controlled the early going, but was unable to make anything of some early chances. Robinho seemed to be struggling to get his game going, but Paraguay couldn’t muster much of anything either. Then, after 20-some minutes, Paraguay was awarded a free kick just outside the area, and their star player stepped up to take it. He took the kick, and it was headed for the leaning Julio César, Brazil’s goalie, but it then deflected off the foot of a Brazilian defender and buried itself in the back of the net! 1-0 for Paraguay! Noooooo!

The Brazil fans were stunned. But by no means done. Brazil continued to control the match, but still couldn’t capitalize on any of their chances, and their attack just didn’t seem to be quite in synch. But then, just minutes before half-time, a cross came from the right side into the area. It went over the head of the lunging Kaká and I figured that was it. But then Robinho came from nowhere to connect off the short-hop and send the ball over the head of the Paraguay goalie! All tied up! The stadium absolutely erupted, oh my goodness, it was wild! I’d never been part of any celebration of that magnitude, haha, it was awesome!

So, the half soon ended, which meant we could finally sit down for a little bit. But before long it was back on our feet as the teams took the field for the second half. Not too long in a ball came to Nilmar at the top of the area. He went to chest it down to Robinho, who was coming up the right side. But the Paraguay defender got in the way, but wasn’t able to control it, sending it back towards Nilmar. By this point they were close to the goal, and the goalie came out, as Nilmar managed to get a foot on the ball and send it the other direction. What resulted was a slow dribbler heading for goal! Robinho nearly pounced on it to finish it off, but instead wisely just watched it roll in as the Paraguay goalie and defenders could only watch from a distance! Gooooooaaaallll!!! And a good thing that Robinho didn’t touch it: he was in the offsides position, and had he touched it the goal wouldn’t have counted! So, need I say that the place went crazy? Well, it did! And I had been trying to get some pictures of the attack, not expecting a goal, so I actually got this picture just as the ball is going into the net with Robinho watching and applauding!

Robinho clapping as Nilmar watches his goal dribble in!

In the rest of the game Paraguay had a couple chances, but nothing too threatening, and Brazil should’ve scored at least 2 more goals, if not more, but failed to convert several incredibly good chances. Robinho had a one-on-on coming up the left side but couldn’t do anything with it, and then Pato, shortly after coming in as a substitute for Nilmar, missed an absolutely point blank volley off a cross from Lúcio. So the game ended up finishing 2-1, and, though it could have been more convincing, it was still a win against a top team, leaving Brazil all alone at the top of the qualifying standings! A good result!

All in all, it was an awesome experience, wow, I’m so glad we got to go! I’ve been to my share of sporting events in the states, baseball games and the like, plus some incredible soccer games in Germany, cheering for my boys Werder Bremen (woo!), but the atmosphere at this game was something new. I’ve never felt such a buzzing excitement watching a game, and I absolutely loved it! My goal now? Make it back here for the 2014 World Cup! Who’s with me?!

Enormous banner that was unfurled, bearing the crests of the Brazilian and Paraguay national teams

Another near goal, missed opportunity late in the second half.

Go Brazil!!

Several weeks ago I was talking with a couple colleagues, and they mentioned that they were wanting to build an addition to the school they worked at. I’d visited the project a couple times before, it’s located in Janga, just north of Recife. The recently got a lot more kids, and so the current facilities are pretty packed. They’d been thinking about this for a while, but wanted someone to help draw up some plans. I pointed out that this was not really my area of expertise, i.e. I know basically zilch about structural engineering, but I said I’d love to help however I could.

So this past week we arranged for me to head out there and stay with my colleague Hildjane and her family while creating these plans. I was a bit nervous, hoping that they wouldn’t expect too much of me… I got there, and shortly after Hildjane took me on a little tour of the place, explaining what all it was that they were hoping to add. It was quite a bit. Four new classrooms, a teacher’s room, new bathrooms, and a larger, more open, but still enclosed all-purpose room with a stage for gatherings of the whole school for presentations and things like that. They had some other requests as well, but they were even less in my area of knowledge, so I focused on the addition. They also wanted to make use of natural ventilation and lighting as much as possible, so I set to work researching that as well.

First of all I took some measurements and got a basic idea for the existing structure, then set about playing around with options for the addition. The next 2 days I worked quite a bit, trying to draw from my knowledge of this type of structure and pull out any creative architectural ideas I could. At first I was still kind of nervous that I wouldn’t really be able to give them what they were hoping for, but as it when on I got more into, and got more excited about how it was developing.

I ended up having a lot of fun with this project, getting a chance to do something completely different from my normal work, and I think it turned out pretty well. Obviously this didn’t change the fact that I’m not a structural engineer, so I stressed that these plans would just be a sort of jumping off place for someone who knows what they’re doing to finish up, but they were still very excited. I think they were just glad to see a visualization of the dreams they’d been having about expanding the school. All in all it was very satisfying.

Another great part of the experience was staying with Hildjane’s family. She and her husband, Leka, have a daughter, Rayanne, and a son, Ragner, who are in high school and middle school, respectively, and it was so fun hanging out with them. We played dominoes a couple nights with other folks from their apartment building, and, get this: we played Settlers of Catan! I couldn’t believe they had it! Apparently some of the former MCC country representatives had brought it with them and taught people here how to play. The moment they pulled it out I knew we had to play. And boy, was I in my element; I won both games we played the first night! First I had to clear up a few rules that they had forgotten, since all the directions are in English, but it was so much fun, I’d forgotten what a great game that is. Then, we played again the next night, with everyone gunning for me. When it became clear I was close to winning, things turned wild, with the other four trying desperately to not let me win, haha. It certainly dragged it out a while, that’s for sure, and they had me worried for a bit, but I still managed to pull it out. Calvin prepared me well!

So, all in all it was quite the week, and I enjoyed very much the change of pace. Since coming back to Brejo I’ve been learning to use Google SketchUp to create a 3D model of the planned addition; man, that’s a sweet program. I’ll leave you with a picture of the existing school project and a rendering from SketchUp of the addition I designed! Fun stuff!

the existing structure - the open space to the right is where the addition would be built

a rendering of the addition from Google SketchUp - the part on the left is existing (you can see the two windows in the first picture)

This past week Joel, my fellow SALTer, and I headed out on our first real vacation during our time here in Brazil. As part of our program we get 10 days of vacation to spend over the course of our year, so we knew we better spend them wisely. We weren’t sure at first where we would want to go. Before arriving in Brazil I had dreams of a trip to the Amazon, but once getting here realized that that would be quite the trip and I would end up spending more money than I wanted (or had, haha)! Various colleagues suggested we check out Chapada Diamantina National Park in central Bahia, the state south of Pernambuco, where I’m living. Betty, my colleague here in Brejo, has been there 5 times! After a little research, we decided to make that our destination and started making our plans. All the pictures of impressive rock formations, huge caves, and a multitude of waterfalls were very enticing, and we set off with high expectations.

After crunching the numbers a bit, we decided it would be most economical to head there by bus, so on Thursday, April 16 we both made our way to the bus station in Recife, where we met up to catch our bus to Salvador, the major city on the coast of Bahia. What was billed as an 11-hour bus ride turned into just over 13 hours, which meant that we missed the morning bus from Salvador to Lençóis, the city where we were going to be staying just outside the park. That left us with a roughly 7-hour layover til the next bus to Lençóis. That would’ve been ok, but then we found out that that bus was full. So instead we booked passage to the city of Seabra, a ways past the turnoff to Lençóis, and we would have to get off the bus in some little town and catch some sort of transport to Lençóis. Fun times.

We spent the day wandering the massive shopping center across from the bus station, even taking some time to go see a movie (my first trip a movie theater since arriving here in Brazil!). Then it was time to catch our bus. On the bus we met a couple German girls who were also headed to Lençóis but couldn’t get tickets on that bus, so it was nice to know we weren’t the only ones! In the end everything worked out fine; we got off in the little town of Tanquinho and shortly thereafter caught another bus to Lençóis, arriving there quite late at night. From the bus station we made our way to our pousada, basically a bed-and-breakfast type place, called Casa da Geléia (The House of Jelly). More on the name later…

[Ok, I realize this is going to be a rather long post, since I’m still not even writing about what we did during our time there… bear with me!]

The first day we decided to just take things kind of easy, get to know the city of Lençóis a bit, do some research and make plans for the next day, and explore the areas surrounding the city. After some price-checking with guide services, we made plans for the following day to visit some caves and other well-known attractions in the park. That afternoon we headed out on a short hike up the River Lençóis to check out some waterfalls that our guide book mentioned. We weren’t expecting anything too impressive, but boy were we wrong! We were greeted by an incredible series of rapids and waterfalls and well marked trails, which was a big plus for us after previous hiking experiences here in Brazil!

After just that first day we knew we had made the right choice in coming here and were really excited to see what else the park had in store for us! The next day our guide picked us up at our place at about 8:30, and, after picking up a few other people, we headed for Gruta da Lapa Doce, one of the largest caves in Brazil. We ended up walking about a mile inside the cave, checking out the various stalactites and stalagmites, thanks to the lantern light of our guide. At one point we all sat down and he turned off the lantern, and we sank into complete nothingness, utter darkness and silence, it was really cool. After the cave we headed out to hike to the top of Morro do Pai Inácio, one of the more famous peaks in the area, which yielded stunning views of the surrounding area. Finally we visited another cool river, finishing up at a waterfall and swimming hole known as Poço do Diabo, where we couldn’t resist taking a zip line down from the top of the waterfall! All in all a pretty spectacular day!

Now a little more about our pousada. The House of Jelly certainly didn’t disappoint! Every morning at breakfast we got to choose from a veritable armada of jams and jellies of just about every flavor you could imagine (and lots that you probably can’t imagine, since we don’t have those fruits back in the states!). On top of that, the rest of the breakfast was spectacular, and Joel and I made sure to stuff ourselves each morning to save money on lunch! Our room was enormous and very nice, and the hosts were very friendly and even spoke some English, though in general we stuck to our Portuguese as much as possible. We stayed here at the suggestion of Betty and were very pleased with our decision!

On Monday we decided to tag along with Lúcio, the son of the owners of our pousada, and a group of his friends from college in Salvador. We set out on the trail, aiming to making to Cachoeira do Sossego, a waterfall we had heard lots of good things about, but not sure if we would be able to make it due to the recent rains. We ended up being stopped short due to the level of the river, but we had a great time nonetheless! The group was a lot of fun, I always enjoy hanging out with people my own age when I get the chance, which isn’t too often here in Brejo. We hit up some great little swimming holes along the river and the trail made for a good hike. We finished up at a great natural waterslide, which was a little bumpy, but a good time to be sure!

Tuesday, our last day in Lençóis, we made plans to visit Cachoeira da Fumaça, the largest free falling waterfall in Brazil; 380 meters high! We started hiking in a mist, which turned into a light drizzle, which actually made for pretty good hiking conditions, better than the blasting sun. Our group for this trip included some folks from Colorado, so that was fun to talk with them a bit. After a good hike we reached the top of the waterfall, at which point the clouds obliged and opened up to let a little sun through and give us a magnificent view of the waterfall and the surrounding peaks; it was truly stunning! To get a good view of the waterfall required lying down and crawling to the edge of a rock overhanging a sheer rock face stretching all the way to the bottom of the waterfall. I guess you could say it was mildly scary. I crawled far enough to stretch my arm out and get some decent pictures of the waterfall, but that was good enough for me! We hung out there at the top for a while, checking out some different views of the falls and eating some lunch. Following the hike we took a stop at another little waterfall and natural swimming hole called Riachinho to take a dip and cool down before heading home.

The night we decided to splurge a bit and hit up a nice Italian restaurant there in Lençóis, which was absolutely delicious! The city of Lençóis is a wonderful little place, lots of fun shops and friendly people, a very cool atmosphere.

Sadly, the next morning it was back to the bus for the long trip home, including another long layover in Salvador and another movie to pass the time (Monsters vs. Aliens this time!). Eventually we arrived back in Recife, and Joel headed back to Monteiro, where he’s living, while I staying in Recife for a bit. I got to the MCC office there where I was able to check my email for the first time in several days… when I found out I’m an uncle! Hooray!! A perfect end to a phenomenal vacation, I must say. I can’t wait to go back to Chapada Diamantina some day, there’s still so much more I want to explore!

[The blog site was not cooperating for me, so I couldn’t upload any pictures, but check out my Google Picasa Photos site for a bunch from our trip – there’s a link to it on the side bar of this blog!]

A while back in my blog I wrote about a concert I went to in a massive open-air theater here near Brejo, and I think I mentioned that it is the site of the annual Paixão de Cristo (Passion of the Christ) play, which draws people from all over Brazil and the world. Well, a couple weeks ago, I got the chance to see this renowned event, and it was incredible!

Joel arrived in Brejo a little past 5 on Friday, April 3, opening day for the Paixão, and we headed out soon after for Nova Jerusalem, where the world’s largest open-air theater awaited us. We had purchased our tickets several weeks before, so we were all set. Arriving in Nova Jerusalem I was blow away; what was the parking lot the last time I came was now filled with tons of shops, bars and restaurants, with a huge stage put up in the middle of it all! There wasn’t too much going on yet, seeing as it was still pretty early, but it was clear that things would pick up as the night moved on... more on that later!

So, we made our way to the entrance to the theater since it was just about 6:00, when the play was set to start. I had been in the complex before, but for the concert I went to we stayed only at one of the stages and didn’t get a chance to see the rest of the grounds, so I was excited to see what the rest of the complex was like. We got inside and joined the crowds gathering around the first stage just as the lights went down and things got underway.

Joel and I weren’t exactly sure what to expect, though we knew we were in for a cool experience. After some opening videos, the play got underway. The first scene was the temptation of Jesus in the desert, and I was immediately impressed. The “stage” was essentially all naturally constructed, with land built up and full of actual trees and rocks and the like. I had heard before, but it hadn’t really registered, but the entire theater complex was designed for the Passion play, so there are a series of 10 or so different stages, each built with a certain scene in mind. What that means is that there is a mix of natural settings for such scenes as teaching in the wilderness and the Garden of Gethsemane and very impressive structures for such locations as Herod’s palace and Pilate’s court. We realized as the play went on and we moved from scene to scene just how well the complex was designed; we were there with probably 3 or 4 thousand people and we never felt like we had a bad view. We didn’t run from place to place either, like some folks, and while we weren’t right up front we always had a good view, it was really nice.

During the first scene we were too far away to know whether the actors had microphones or how the sound was working, but by the second scene we figured out that it was all a pre-recorded soundtrack. This was made obvious by some of the lesser actors attempting to follow along with lines, haha, but all the major actors knew their lines well and spoke along with the recording, so it wasn’t distracting.

So, about the actors. As you can imagine, you need quite a few people to put on a production like this; I saw a report on the national news about the performance, and they said there were roughly 500 extras! And I believe it! The sheer volume of people accompanying various scenes such as Jesus’ teaching in the wilderness and when Jesus is brought before Pilate was astounding! Then, the major actors are not just anybody; starting a number of years back, as the event gained prominence, they started bringing in big-name actors for the principal roles of Jesus, Pilate, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Herod. That meant that I got to see several current and former novela stars! Mary Magdalene was actually in A Favorita, the novela that I blogged all about, haha – talk about an added bonus!

Overall it was an incredible experience, I’m really glad I got a chance to witness this. The sheer magnitude of the production was stunning, and it was really quite well done. While Joel and I didn’t always catch all of the dialogue due to our still-somewhat-lacking Portuguese, we did alright. Camera flashes were constantly going off, haha, but unfortunately my batteries were practically dead, so I only managed to eek out about 10 pictures, but ah well. Here are a few that I managed to take:

The Last Supper

Pilate's court

Pilate with Jesus

The crucifixion

So, once again, an experience I won’t soon forget! But, the end of the show was by no means the end of the fun!

We exited the theater into the little arena that they’d set up with a stage, surrounded by snack bars and shops and whatnot, only to find out that Dominguinhos would be giving a concert that night! That’s who I had seen the other time at this same theater! So Joel and I found a place to sit (after standing to accompany the entire 3 hour play, we were in need of a place to sit!) and waited for the show to begin. Dominguinhos didn’t disappoint, taking the stage soon after and putting on a very fun show full of some great forró! Another added bonus: Dr. Edson, the mayor of Brejo, was there and making his way among the crowd and spotted me and came over to say hi, so I got to feel nice and important and introduce Joel to the mayor. You know, no big deal. (Side note: yesterday I had my first official meeting with the mayor and several others in his administration about a bee-keeping project that Betty and I are helping with! Fun stuff!)

So, needless to say, it was quite the night! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!