Blogs from Maranhão, Brazil, South America - page 4

I have found that the hardest part of studying a culture first hand is the language barrier. You can witness something first hand and make judgements and analysis, but his is useless in large part without an understanding of the background. And aquiring backgrounds is difficult if you do not speak the language. This trip is extremely overwhelming, absolutely incredible and very frustrating. I have never been out of the United States before. I have tried but something has always gotten in the way. I sometimes question whether or not I should have ever come here, but in large part I think this was necessary.Sometimes I feel like I can't breathe and my chest will explode, like my brain is swelling and liquifying and oozing out of my ears, but this is what I needed. It ... read more

I have been trying to upload videos to my blog for the last couple of days, but it is not working. I did not go to school again today, because I still do not feel very good. No more fever or body aches, but I still have a bad cough and last night I lost my voice because my throat was so raw. overall nothing really new going on because I have been sick and resting. the internet here is not very good. so uploading things is difficult and this is the reason I do not add more photos and videos than I do. I do not seem to get any better. I feel better and then I get worse again. I think it is the air in this hotel, it is a historic building and ... read more

translation of the title is "The book is on the table." apparently this is what people here say when they want to pretend like they speak English. They will just say this phrase over and over again to try to impress their friends that don't speak English. We have been having a good time harassing our Portuguese teacher by saying it in Portuguese it seems that during those rare occasions when I have the time and the energy to write in my blog, the internet does not want to work. Things are going well. Today we visited the favellas (sp?) or slums. One of the girls here is doing research on the relocation project the govt is doing in the slums to move them into something more like the projects. She met a gentlemen at one ... read more

It is a little strange how comfortable I am in my surroundings here. If I were in a city like this in the states I would be alot more nervous than I am here. Everyone is so friendly though. I was thinking about it last night and the hostel we are in has only one thin mattress no air conditioning, a fan and a light bulb. This is pretty luxury around here, perhaps like a middle class lifestyle. Where I live back home, we don't use electricity and live preft thrifty and people often ask, "How can you do that? That would kill me!" Down here though we are staying in a hostel with much less than that and it is above the common lifestyle. People are happy. People walk the streets in large crowds. People ... read more

As previously mentioned, I am now in São Luis, State of Maranhão. The city, founded by the French in the early 17th Century in honour of medieval king Saint Louis, was taken over a few years later by the Portuguese. It now has a run-down colonial look which is quite pleasant, when combined with the laid-back atmosphere of the historical center which can be admired with a reggae background (São Luis is now the Brazilian capital of reggae music). A couple of days ago, I went to a beach north of São Luis with Nana, an Argentinian primary school teacher I met in my hostel. It wasn't an exceptional beach, but was deserted and thus very pleasant. We also met a group of three Brazilian kids who were extremely friendly. As tourists, you're often used to ... read more