Blogs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America

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South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro December 16th 2023

Our last big meeting of the week was a gradation for the women entrepreneurs who have completed their program. The organization will continue to interact with them such as the savings challenge that will start in January. But, their formal workshops are complete. Several of the women shared that their mentor offered to stay in contact so they can work through problems the women might face in their business together. The morning was filled with sharing how they have grown and how they hope to continue to evolve. We then moved the festivities to a restaurant in the favela where we eat, laughed and ended with handing out their certificates of completion. I was able to sit in on some meetings put together by the government to engage with local non profits with the purpose of ... read more
Graduation
Graduation
Graduation

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Ilha Grande December 15th 2023

After conversations we had the pervious week it was decided the focus of our Monday workshop with the entrepreneurs would be creating a habit of saving. The teacher, who is a volunteer, created her own savings challenge for the women with a year-end prize. She set a goal for the women to increase their savings each week by 5 reals ($1USD). The first half of the year is quite achievable, but the second half will be a challenge for most of the women. I shared my concern that women might stop the habit of saving if they fall out of the running for the prize. We plan to expand this challenge to encourage all the women to create the weekly habit of saving. This week we also had the end of the year gathering for Instituto ... read more
Volunteer Party
Savings Workshop
Savings Workshop

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Teresópolis December 4th 2023

We started the week with a visit to one of the more dangerous favelas that the organization works in. Each favela is either controlled by the city, cartel or militia. This favela, Cidade de Deus, is controlled by cartel so we can only enter when a community liaison accompanies us. While drugs are displayed and sold on the street like vegetables, the cartel does not allow the use of the drugs in the street. You actually have to leave the community to see groups of drug users in plain sight. I met with a group of the women to select a new class of entrepreneurs to start the business training courses and eventually apply for a micro loan. On Tuesday we attended a ceremony with the city to celebrate the end of a collaboration between the ... read more
Meeting with the Women of Cidade de Deus
Tour of Cidade de Deus
Tour of Cidade de Deus

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro November 27th 2023

After a wonderful month in Nicaragua, I have moved down to Brazil. I am here to meet with a non profit Instituto Dom, that works with women in the slums, or Favelas as they are called here of Rio de Janeiro. They have been providing business coaching, business skills, and financial literacy for several years. They have a desire to provide microloans, but have not been able to find an opportunity that was non predatory. I’m here to meet with them to see if I can be a solution to that problem. Favelas stated in Rio in the late 1800s after the Canudos War. The soldiers came to Rio and settled into makeshift accommodations to wait for a payment from the government for their service. The money was never received and they never left. In the ... read more
Greetings Brasil!
Presentation by the Psychologist
Presentation by the Psychologist

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Copacabana August 28th 2023

The Frugal Expat names ten of the most dangerous cities in the world. I have been to four of them: Rio, Cape Town, Acapulco, and our own St. Louis, Missouri. The remaining six are in the Middle East, or Venezuela and Honduras. Though it has been over ten years since I have been to these cities, I will tell you that I (we) had very good experiences in these cities. Rio was one of our first trips to South America. We stayed on Copacabana Beach, and strayed only on a bus tour, along with famous Ipanema Beach, the Hippie Faire, and Christ the Redeemer. I do not recall feeling unsafe anywhere, though our drivers took us through some sketchy areas and favelas. I would love to go back, perhaps to the famous Carnaval celebration. The food ... read more
Cape Town
Rio de Janeiro
St Louis

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Centro August 23rd 2023

Getting my ducks in a row. Testing the blog site. Filling the gas tank. Stitching Betsy, the backpack. ... and more ... let's see how this goes.... bon boyage!! and more ...... read more
pappa love

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro March 13th 2023

Welcome to Brahzeeeall!! Listen, if you haven’t seen Fast and Furious 5, you can’t appreciate Brazil. Okay, that’s not true but go watch that movie because it’s good! Today was our first day off the boat exploring and we were READY! As per usual, I was awake before sunrise and enjoyed watching the sun come out on the balcony. I took a shower early, spent a good hour putting on my makeup and curling my hair, and then headed to breakfast at 7:30am with Kamie. We stayed on our balcony watching our ship float into Rio and by the time we left our cabin, all the curls had fell from my hair and we were almost sweating. Most of my makeup was gone within an hour of being outside this morning. It was not hot today ... read more
Leaving Rio
Sunset
My hair would stay curled about 15 minutes - about as long as ice would take to melt (max)

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro February 19th 2023

Carnival is an annual six-day Brazilian festival held, technically, only the Tuesday afternoon before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. During Lent, that forty-day period before Easter, many Christians, especially Roman Catholics, abstain from the consumption of meat and poultry. Those perishables would not survive through the end of Lent, so Carnival in Brazil or Mardi Gras in Louisiana or Fat Tuesday to many, began as a means of consuming perishables to prevent such wasteful spoilage, hence the term "carnival" evolved from carnelevare, "to remove meat." The Brazilian version of the festival is a celebration of music, dance and song whose rhythm, participation, and costumes vary from one region of Brazil to another. These rhythms were mainly developed by Afro-Brazlians and Pardos, incorporating and adapting many cultural influences, from the percussion beats of Africa to the ... read more
Misc. Photos Around Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Misc. Photos Around Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Misc. Photos Around Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Copacabana January 22nd 2023

Arrived in Rio after an overnight flight courtesy of Delta. Obtained a few winks, but the comfort level of Delta, which I consider the best U.S. airline, did not compare to the Virgin Atlantic flight we took last summer, at least not on their Boeing 767. Nonetheless, we spent much of the day with Marcio, our tour guide, being ferried about the city. And this is a very large town with some thirteen million calling it home. Not infrequently, we find the traffic in Atlanta atrocious. Well, it cannot hold a candle to this place. Driving is a hazardous sport. Motorbikes move about the lanes much as they do in Italy, except more cavalierly, producing curses from Marcio. He labels these folks "organ donors" as an average of two are killed in the city each day. ... read more
Chinese Viewpoint
Chinese Viewpoint
Hilton Copacabana Beach

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Copacabana January 18th 2023

Most of you folks are aware Sheila suffered a stroke at the Falcon's game on 20 November. Yes, this has not been a pleasant experience, but this stout Bird continues to make progress through her hard work. She now walks with the aid of Bella (her name for the purple cane) in secure places or with a rollator (and, of course, Bird demands we supply the rollators name, which is Rosie) in locations with many people. About a year ago we made plans for a trip down south. After the stroke we anticipated cancellation would be required. However, every neurologist (four of them) indicate she is perfectly capable of taking the trip and, in fact, should go. Yes, of course, we are making significant modifications. We will not independently access the various sights. Rather, we are ... read more




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