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.

Paul Comes Home Tomorrow

We've had a good week, just the three of us. We had dinner with friends last night and a quiet night at home Tuesday and tonight. It is certainly easier having them on my own than it was just a year ago! Both kids are desperate for Paul to come home though. Noah's taken to sleeping-no joke-like this all week.



In other exciting news...Noah has his first loose tooth! He's been *thinking* there's been a wiggle for quite some time, but tonight I felt it actually move a bit. Noah predicted it will be out by October 10th. I better load up on some apples, carrots, and other crunchy foods-Noah's a pretty determined little guy. I wonder if the tooth fairy pays American families living in Brazil in dollars or reais?

Sunday Football

It looks a little different...but Paul loves it just the same.

Big Decisions

When we started this international teaching journey two years ago we had visions of taking a little break from the monotony of our life and returning shortly there after. In some ways it seemed like such a short period of time, but in other ways I remember thinking Oh my goodness! I will have a four year old and a six year old when I come home! For some reason the jump from a 2 and 4 year old to a four and six year old seemed huge-much larger than just two years. And suddenly we're almost there. Now, we're approaching the time when we'll have to decide whether to pack up and head home, stay in Brazil, or explore another teaching opportunity. It's a hard choice. Our school forces us to make this decision very early-usually between late October and early November. Definitely before we've had a chance to secure another job. The year flew by-just now, after selling our house and settling in here-are we starting to see the bigger benefits of being overseas. We still have lots of South American traveling we'd like to squeeze in. I love, love, love going to school with the kids (and Paul too!). However, we miss family and the pure ease of being in the United States. Truthfully, I miss Target too. I've always been horribly indecisive which does not bode well for large, looming decisions like the ones in front of us. Paul's super logical and I'm more of a "gut instinct" type girl. I feel like so many other decisions ride on this one...I hope we feel the same when the time comes to commit.

Saturdays

This is the second Saturday in a row that Paul's had to spend the entire day coaching. I think that's hard on both of us. He has a long day on top of an already long week and I have my hands full with the kiddos. The good news is when the weather is good (like it was last week) we can spend the day like this:

The bad news? That was last Saturday. Today is gray and cool and we're trapped in a small apartment waiting for Paul to return this afternoon.

Adventure Recap

We enjoyed a three day weekend in honor of Brazil's independence this week. We weren't sure we were going to travel-traffic is horrible when the whole city is off- and the weather isn't certain enough to risk a beach trip just yet, but Leca and Peter invited us to Campinas for the weekend and that seemed to be the perfect short and sweet trip we needed. So Saturday, after a relaxing breakfast during which Sophie requested broccoli with her french toast rather than any type of fruit I had prepared, we headed out to Campinas. Leca is from Campinas and her entire family (think many, many cousins, aunts, uncles, etc...) pretty much still lives there. Paul traveled there in December, but I was in out of town, so this was my first trip. Campinas is about 90 minutes from Sao Paulo and we arrived mid afternoon Saturday. From the moment we arrived I knew I liked Campinas better than Sao Paulo-it is smaller, cleaner, greener, and people seem to drive normally-not like the maniacs around here! The streets are a bit wider and many are paved with cobblestones, adding to the charm of the city. Saturday night we arranged for a woman to watch Noah and Sophie at the hotel while Peter, Leca, Paul and I headed out to a nice dinner and then to a chopperia (bar) to watch Brazil play Argentina in a big, much anticipated soccer match. The weather was pleasant and it was really relaxing to hang out! Leca's cousin, Caca, joined us later in the night. It is really fun to have everyone together and I find it fascinating to figure out how we all move from English to Portuguese back English without too much thought. Well, Leca and Peter do that. I listen intently to the Portuguese (and understand a fair amount) but nearly always speak in English. Paul's pretty good at going between the two and he gets the award for the best effort of the evening.Hippie fair Sunday morning

Sunday we headed out to the Leca's family sitou (farm) for a chuhasca. Leca's family lives in this little Swiss colony outside of Campanis. It was really beautiful even though the weather was pretty damp and gray. The day was fun, but tiring. Trying to keep up and be personnable in a second language takes a lot of work-I have a renewed respect for what my students do each day! The kids were amazing. The way they interact with new people is so refreshing-they switch from English to Portuguese and back again without a problem. By the afternoon they were playing Brazilian children's games with all the other little cousins running around. Sophie especially feels at ease in these situations, but even Noah was comfortable and making friends. Late in the afternoon we went for a walk-oh, how I wish I had the camera! At one point the kids were walking ahead to look at some roosters (LOTS of roosters) on another piece of property. Suddenly, out of nowhere, these black dogs come charging towards us barking loudly. Leca quickly closed the gate to keep them inside the property and away from us. Just as we were catching our breath we turned to see many cows coming down the road and a bull! There was no gate separating us this time. I started to get really nervous at this point-but over the hill came the man in charge of the animals. I don't know what he would have done had the bull charged-but seeing him made me feel better and they passed by without any further excitement.
Monday Leca's mom invited us over for lunch. We had a fun time and Noah and Sophie had fun playing with Julia. We left midafternoon and made it back without hitting too much traffic.
It was lots of fun-I'm sure we'll head back another time.

Good buddies

For now we have our sights set on our four day weekend in November-we're traveling to Buenos Aires-and our trip back to the U.S. in December-we've built in a short side trip to Bogota, Columbia. Lots of travel to look forward to!

Papaya Boy

Picky Eater Girl

Worn Out