My mother wants to meet you

So the title is in reference to the fact that alot of people here say this to us. I am told it is because we are from the United States and they are very proud of their children for learning english well enough to show us around and invite us over.

So life in the country has proven much nicer than in the historical center. Mostly because we are not in a hotel and we get fresh air. It is nice to have a kitchen to cook meals in. We have been cooking them alot of meals and they for us as well. So far we have cooked them tacos (they don't exist here) for which we had to make our own tortillas, crepes with cheese and tomatoes, bean burgers, macoroni and cheese. They have cooked us things like awesome chicken soup w/ rice, beef (yeah I gave upon being vegetarian in Sao Luis, I will try again in the Amazon, but I am def. still vegetarian in the US), tapioca rolls, fresh maracuja juice from the orchard, fresh coconut from the orchard, etc.

We went to the slaughter house but it was on sunday and it was empty of both cows and employees. We have planned to go back another day and see it while it is in operation, but I did get a chance to take pictures of the empty lot and factory portion so you can see the tools. I will try to upload some photos, but the internet is not great where I am.

I have been having nightmares at night and havent been sleeping too well.

we went on a graffiti hunt today so Kate could get some good photos of the graffiti here (which is awesome). We also went to the cemetery which is quite different than most of the cemeteries I have been to in the states, but rather common here. Mom I took a picture of a headstone here that is dated at 1874.

I took some time today to think about why I do things and about what I would do if there was no one else in the world but me. I don't think I would do much of anything if there were no other people in the world. I do things to interact with people and go places to meet people or spend time with people. My life revolves around people and even my time spent alone is often about relationships with people and self reflection on those relationships. My entire being is depended on the existence of others even if that relationship is only a lack of interactions with a person. I do things because people exist anything outside of that is just survival. And perhaps some of these relationships are another sort of survival.

It is getting close to time for the amazon and I am excited and nervous. It is gonna fuckin rock!

Now... to try to upload a shit ton of photos...

... ok so I tried and photos arent going to upload so... sorry and good night!

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Part of trip: Brasil!

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