Salvador, Brasil

Me, my host Caique, and two of Caique´s friends

So I´ve been one week in Salvador, Brasil now, and I love it. The new/awesome experiences per day ratio is out of this world and as such this blog post will not be able to fit half of what I would like to share. I´ll try, however, to fill you in on the essentials (whoever you are).
                                * * *
A week ago, when I was en route to Brasil, I had no idea what to expect. A tiny amount of information about the project "Driblando" that I was going to be working on and a series of Facebook messages written in Spanigueseish (that´s a combo of eng, span, and port) were all I had to go by. So you can imagine my alarm in the following situation... The two weeks between college and Brasil were filled with work, family, and friends -- and I had little time or energy for thinking about what awaited me in Brasil. Then, I´m dropped off at Charlotte-Douglas International and I realize how unprepared I am. I´ve traveled before on my own but never to a place where I don´t know the language, my living situation, or anything, really. Then at the gate for my flight to Sao Paolo i stumble across a BBC article warning World Cup visitors about breakouts of the sometimes fatal Dengue disease in (you guessed it) Sao Paolo and Salvador. The disease is carried by mosquitoes which breed proliferously in the blue water buckets kept on top of nearly every house in non-uber-wealthy Brazilian locales. So of course that freaks me out,|I send off a few panicky texts (veiled with humor) about this recent discovery, and zone 5 is called for boarding...

Those blue buckets are scary, man. And they´re everywhere.

* * * 

By now I´ve forgotten about the Dengue because to fear it would be to perpetually live in fear. In my host´s house we leave the windows open so much that it´s practically an open air house. There is a small living room when you enter with an always-on TV. Then a small table where we eat rice and beans and meat. The tiny kitchen adjoins, and then there are two bedrooms: one for Caique´s grandparents, one for me and Caique. In the bathroom the light is dim and the water has one temperature: cold. Caique is my host by the way. He is 17 and his English is better than my Portuguese, so we speak English with me occasionally venturing into Spanish. Caique lives in a part of Salvador (Brasil´s 3rd largest city and its original capital) called Pernambues. It´s a poor and dangerous area, but I´ve come to be very fond of it -- more fond than I am of the touristy places like Pelhourinho. He has stories of being mugged and just last night we broke out into a run along the sidewalk because we saw a motorcycle circle back by us twice. All of this might sound rather grim but I don´t mean it to. On the contrary it has been exhilirating to force to the back of my mind the risks that are omnipresent in the world (just more pronounced, perhaps, in Pernambues) and to "get on with it!" to quote Monty Python.

FUTEBOL!

Real street soccer (teams of 2; winner stays)

To the right is my favorite picture ever. I love soccer, I´ve played all my life, but never ever have I had as satisfying a soccer fix as over the last week. Futebol, is literally everywhere in Brasil. On the streets, on the beaches, on the TV, on lips -- everywhere. Some nights, we play street soccer for hours with just the kids from our small street. That is what the picture below is from. Indeed, I have found that my love of the beautiful game has been my best bet for bonding with Brasilians. Seeing as I don´t speak the language, I´m glad I have something in common with them. And, of course, Brasil is gearing up for the World Cup which starts in just four days. Salvador will host 8 games and the new stadium where they will be played is majestic. The first game we host (this Friday) will be a repeat of the 2010 final: Espanha v Holande. I haven´t heard a lot of FIFA bashing, surprisingly, from Brazilians who, from what I´d heard, were incensed with the money spent on (and pocketed through) the World Cup. Regardless of the politics, I´m ready to enjoy a month of the finest futebolers futebol has to offer.


Next time I´ll talk about what I´m actually doing here with AIESEC and maybe, if you´re lucky, I´ll treat you to a rant about the loco bus system!

Some Pics and Stuff

Sleeping arrangements in Sao Paulo airport 

Breaking nuts

Making Caipirinhas

Some Meat

Caipirinha

Ribs

This little piggy 

Selfie

Brasil

Oi from Maringá!

Maringá is a very small city in Southern Brazil, but it has already brought me so many new experiences in only a week and a half.

What has happened so far:

1. The plane from Miami to São Paulo was delayed and I didn't make my connection to Maringá - forcing me to try and communicate with airport staff who knew very little English to get my next flight. With a mixture of poor Spanish and a lot of hand signals, I finally had my ticket for the next flight to Maringá - at 6:00 am the next day. So I spent the night trying to sleep in the airport on top of my luggage next to some homeless men with an advertisement for Turkish Airlines blasting every hour on the hour. But, I actually loved that night. Never have I been so far out of my comfort zone and the feeling was amazing. I doubt I will be flustered from a missed connection or having to sleep in odd places or having to communicate with someone who does not share the same language due to this experience, and I got to do this all while watching an incredible Game 6 between the Heat and Pacers!
2. I met a wonderful host family and their friends who are extremely nice and have taken me all over Maringá. I've had a drink in countless bars, parties, barbecues, and even a pet shop. I've made a caipriniha, the best drink in the world and national drink of Brazil. I've seen meat being cooked over an open fire in a variety of different ways and tried many different fruits and other foods. It has been a great time so far and I hope it gets even better with the World Cup approaching and my first travel plans coming up this weekend to a waterfall (Cataratas do Iguaçu). 
3. I started working for the NGO this week and their projects are actually very interesting. It is called Instituto Lixo e Cidadania and they work with cooperatives around Maringá to help improve the recycling and trash collecting industry here. The current project we are working on involves cutting out the middle man to help the cooperatives earn more money. The big companies that buy the recycled goods will only buy it in large quantities, so a middle man buys the goods from every cooperative at a low price and then sells it to the companies. So my NGO is working with the government and the cooperatives to help them create a union of sorts so they can work together and get more money by selling it straight to the big company. This NGO is also a branch from a larger corporation in a different city and they want separate and become independent so they can get more funding from the government. I'm not sure how that works but that is what they said and I believe them!
4. I went out to a bar and played "Eu Nunca" which is like Never Have I Ever but with alcohol (their special rum cachaça). I did not make it to the party later that night
5. Worked out in a gym where everything was in kilograms and got very confused.
6. Learned that everyone here drives manual cars because they are so much cheaper. On that note, the majority of people here are crazy drivers.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things but there are many weeks and many blog posts to come. I'll put up pictures and video later.

Tchau!

Colin

Buenos Aires - Week 1 (and a half)

June 5, 2014

Holi!

I have been in Buenos Aires now for almost 2 weeks. As soon as I got here, my computer broke - hence the delay on starting this blog. I have been trying to fix it but for now I am using a borrowed computer.

It is really amazing here. The city reminds me of the European cities I have visited (particularly France. I understand the nickname "Paris of the South."), but also with many similarities to New York City. I think Buenos Aires has a lot of the architecture of Europe but with the sometimes kind of grimy attitude of New York. Maybe. I can't really explain.

I have seen some of the sights here, but I want to go on more tours. I have been to the Casa Rosada several times, for instance, but I haven't gone on a tour of the inside, which I would love to do. My second day here was the 25th of May which is Argentina's independence day. There was a parade and a concert at Plaza de Mayo, outside of Casa Rosada. I went with other AISECers and it was really cool to see all the locals pretty much going crazy celebrating.

My favorite place I have been is Puerto Madero, which is a realy nice area near a river. There is a beautiful park in which I have gone running and really great choripan.

I still need to get a better sense of direction here. I can't get to work on my own.

Karibu

My first week in Kenya has been quite the adventure! After nearly 48 hours of travel and an unexpected overnight stay in Doha, Qatar, I arrived in Nairobi and was met by my AIESEC buddy Diana, a psychology student at Kenyatta University. With Diana's help, I settled into the intern house and met the other interns -- hailing from Germany, Colombia, Canada, and China. The house holds 12 interns but we currently only have 6, so I have my own room! Breakfast and dinner are provided in the house each day, with dinner always a hot cooked traditional Kenyan meal.

I spent the next few days adjusting to my new time zone and exploring Nairobi. Armed with a Kenyan SIM card and phone, I am now able to connect with my LC contacts and fellow interns. I also learned how to get from my neighborhood to the city center of Nairobi in a matatu, a van that seats 8-10 people and serves as the preferred public transportation in Kenya.

On Saturday, I went with Diana to a foreign film festival at the French Institute of Nairobi. We stopped on the way to eat fish and chips (one of the many remnants of colonial influence apparent in Kenya) at a favorite restaurant of hers. After, we saw a Czech film about Czechoslovakian pilots fighting with British RAF in WWII.

Sunday was Madaraka Day, celebrated the first day of June to mark the day Kenya attained internal self-rule in 1963. Because of Madaraka Day, Monday was a public holiday. Three of the other interns and I decided to travel to Lake Naivasha and climb Mount Longonot, a beautiful mountainous crater with views stretching for miles. The hike was a challenging ninety minute ascent up a steep and sandy path. Though this is the cooler season in Kenya, the equatorial nation is invariably sunny and hot in the middle of the day -- we worked up quite the sweat!

The view into the crater from Mt Logonot

Yesterday was an exciting day as well, for it marked my first day at my internship. I went with two other interns to St. Catherine's school, a Catholic school serving children from nursery until age 14. After learning of my ability in Kiswahili, the school administration suggested I try helping with the nursery children (aged 3-6) who are taught primarily in Kiswahili. I spent the day meeting the children, having countless small hands curiously examine my hands and hair, and helping to teach a simple addition lesson. In the coming days I'm interested in working with older classes as well. 

Overall, I've had an excellent introduction to Kenya, and can't wait to get more involved with my project and the bustling city around me.