Another field trip

So I get to go on a few field trips this year. A couple of them are sports trips of 3-4 days each for the big Brazil international school tourneys. Another potential trip this year is a repeat of the trip to Petropolis that I went on last year. Then there's the big one coming up in January that I've planned. Nine days in Greece. I'm really looking forward to that one.

But I just got back from my first trip of the year. A 4-day trip to the Mata Atlantica Rainforest on the northern coast of Brazil with our 8th graders. For most of these kids, this trip would constitute "roughing it", although it really was a comfortable trip for the most part. Here's a recap:

Day 1:
We arrived at a the Quilombo Campinho near Ubatuba, a local beach resort area. Quilombos are runaway slave communities that are, in many ways, frozen in time. They tend to be very, very poor communities that existed for years without even being recognized or identified by the government here. Finally in the late 1980's the lands on which Quilombos existed were legally turned over to those communities. Of course, that hasn't gotten them electricity, roads or government assistance of any sort. But it does get them visits from 8th graders in the private schools in Sao Paulo! What a consolation.
At the Quilombo, we ate a traditional Brazilian feijoada lunch. Then we had a chance to learn from the locals: basket weaving, drumming and dancing were the main activities in which we got to take part. Then, it was off to the pousada for a good night's rest.

Day 2:
My group, which was about 1/2 of our 8th graders, headed to a local creche (daycare center). It was a full day of community service; we planted a new vegetable garden to help them to be more self-sustainable, we contributed to a massive cleaning effort to make the daycare more vibrant and attractive for the kids, we helped to make toys out of donated and recycled materials, and we generally had a chance to make life a little better for the young children in the local community. It was a rewarding opportunity for me, but more importantly for our students who don't often have opportunities to give something back to the less privileged in Brazilian society.
When we got back to the pousada, I played some barefoot basketball with a bunch of my kids (NOT recommended) while the rest of them played mud futbol. Nice.

Day 3:
We on a trek up to Saco do Mamangua, a fishing community near Parati that you have to boat into since there are no roads (or any other sign of civilzation) as you approach. In fact, the roads leading to our boat launch were so rough and unmaintained that our charter bus couldn't (or wouldn't) take us. We had to take a rickety old bus down the road to deliverance. Along the way, we passed a man raking his "lawn" with no pants (or anything else) on, which was a bit of a shocker to the right side of the bus.

Anyway, we got a science lesson about the mangroves, canoed around the bay, ate lunch, got a hands-on lesson on net fishing and generally had a chance to find out how this fishing community exists without electricity or any other convenience most of us can imagine. Pretty powerful stuff.

Day 4:
The last day started with a hike through the rainforest. We stopped to swim in the river near waterfalls and learned (in Portuguese, meaning I was educationally challenged) about the ecosystem. Good stuff.
Then it was off on our 4.5 hour drive home that took nearly 8 hours thanks to Sao Paulo rush hour.

Did I mention the food (or water?) poisoning? Six of the eight teachers ended up with some nasty stomach problems starting late on day 2. I was one of the six. Not cool. But the drug stores do sell some pretty hefty meds for that. We stocked up on our way to Saco do Mamangua on the morning of the third day, and started popping pills. We labeled them "big blocker", "slow blocker", "vomit meds", and the like. Big blocker is a miracle pill, although I'm still trying to get back to normal now, 4 days later.

So that's the story. As Abby's pointed out before, traveling with the school is such a nice, peaceful event. The contracted educational tour agency we hire does everything..... EVERY. THING. We teachers just follow along like kids, which is great for rapport with them. It's a chance to interact with them on a different level, and I found it to be very rewarding.

Next stop: Greece.