Sunday, August 24, 2008

Photo Album

...when it crashes again, I know I'm gonna get a bunch of "well, what did you think was gonna happen" or "dude, you're a slow learner" but such is life when you are too busy to find alternatives.

Yep, I'm going to continue posting my pictures to Atpic. For those people that do not care to read my jargon but would still like to see pictures, you can click on the Photo Album link to the right. Alternatively, if you click on a pic in the blog it'll take you to the Album containing it.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Weekend Bike Trip

Our bus arrived (10 hours after leaving BH) in the town of Guaratinguetá, Sau Paulo @ 5:30am on Friday morning. Ted and I had breakfast and hit the road. Friday was a good day, we biked on paved road, over mostly flat ground and some small foothills as we approached the mountain range we were to cross:


After 95km including what, at the time, I thought was a super-tough 8km climb, we called it a day.

It's different travelling here. In Asia, everyone looking at me sees a foreigner. Here, friendly people will just come up and start speaking to me thinking I'm just another Brasilian travelling through...until I open my mouth of course.

One thing that was really tough for my super-paranoid self to accept: In these tiny little towns, Ted will just leave his unlocked bike against the wall of a cafe and go inside for lunch. All I can think of while we're eating is about someone swiping the bikes. Ted, whose bike is worth 4 times mine, is totally relaxed saying that this type of thing doesn't happen in these types of towns (he is just as paranoid as I am as soon as we get to a city).
One more: Ted drinks spring water when he's in the mountains -unfiltered, untreated. He's been living and travelling in Brasil for 5 years and has never been sick. To me this seemed totally insane: I would never have considered drink untreated water in the past, and I carried enough of a supply to always make it to the next town.

Saturday started out really well. We biked only 55km because it was so tough. We were on dirt roads and nearly all of the first 30km were uphill. The last 20 km, though downhill, were not so easy as it was super-bumpy and if I moved too quick my chain would fall off or if I wasn't moving slowly enough I may have flown off the cliff as the road sharply curved hugging the mountainside.

The scenery was really fantastic. Green everywhere, hills and mountains surrounding us, very few people, little towns, ranches...brilliant. It felt great to be out there enjoying nature.

On our 30km uphill, Ted continued to stop at these springs (where the local townfolk get their water) and would have his fill. In a not-too-bright moment, I was looking at my warm water-bottles and at him drinking this nice, "clean", cold water, and I thought what-the-hell...

As you may guess, I chose the wrong spring to drink from. Ted and I both were sick as dogs that evening and spent a restless night emptying the contents of our stomachs in various ways. Speaking to some people in the town (called Alagoa) we found that some of them too had gotten sick recently. They told us that it'll be a three-day recovery time. The women at the Pousada (guesthouse) where we stayed were super-nice and very motherly. They took Ted's temperature because he thought he was feverish (we would go from super-chilly spells to being really warm), and they mixed up this horrible, bitter concoction and told us to steadily drink it throughout the day.

To make it to the town where we were to catch a bus back home, we still had to bike 120km on Sunday. We made it about 100m before the nausea was too much and we pulled over heaving. Agreeing that there was no way we could bike in our condition we, 2 dudes with bicycles, tried to hitchhike on a Sunday (the day of rest) in a small town in the middle of nowhere. After three hours with no luck we decided to take the only bus out of town for the day...in the direction opposite of home. 4 buses later and at 6:30am on Monday morning we arrived in Belo Horizonte. I showered and went to work. Ted called in sick, stayed home and took care of himself. He came to work the next day feeling mostly better. One week later, I can say that I am finally over most of it.

All things considered, I still chalk this one up as a good trip.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Safe and Sound, if not quite settled

So, I’ve been in Brasil for nearly three weeks. I have been super-busy; mostly with work. I haven’t had much time to get out there and see/do anything, but one of our colleagues took us new teachers into town the day after I arrived and showed us around; Also, I did go on a little bike ride last Sunday with Ted, an American teacher here. I found out that “little” for him means 50km. Ted and I have a lot of similar interests and I’ve been hanging with him a fair bit.

I live in the state of Minas Gerais in a city of 4 million people, Belo Horizonte (BH). The hilliest place I have ever seen, this city is built up and down the rolling hills. The “little” suburb where I live:


It will be difficult to survive here without knowing Portuguese. This is not at all a touristed area and very near to nobody speaks English. While I have started learning, it will be a good while before I can utter anything resembling a coherent phrase (particularly because I’m spending all my time with work and I am not spending enough time studying language...or getting into shape!).

Another part of the city:


Rated by the UN the safest city in Brasil, I’ve discovered that the important part here is “in Brasil”. Of course it’s all relative. Everyone here has a story of being robbed or having a relative or close friend that has been robbed or mugged. Even my roommate Peter (an American teacher at the school) was mugged a few years ago on a visit to Brasil. Ted was on a city bus that was boarded by 3 armed dudes who cleaned it out. I’ve been warned even about riding my bike in certain parts of town; Ted himself has seen a cyclist going up a hill lose his bike to an armed bandit.
Having said all that, almost all of the banditry happens in certain areas of the city, and the particular suburb where I’m living is super-safe.
A favela (poor area):


Last Sunday I went with Ted to visit an orphanage that he visits a few times a year –sometimes on his own and sometimes with his class (he is a 5th grade teacher). Ted really spoils these children. We took a group of 7 out to the mall, had hamburgers, saw a movie, got ice cream and then went back and hung out with them and the others at the orphanage for a few hours. It was tough to do because of my inability to communicate. For most of the day, I would just stare at them and them at me while Ted was chatting to others. The last two hours there I made a breakthrough –I thought of a game that I could play with them. I asked Ted to explain the game to them, and after they understood it, I played with them for a solid hour and a half (as all I needed was to know how to count to 20 in Portuguese –and this I can do!!) We had a ton of fun as all the children wanted a turn to play me and they could not understand why/how I would win the game every single time. Below is a description of the game:

In this game, to be played with a partner, you must count consecutive numbers. The first player begins with the number 1. You are allowed to count one number, two numbers, or three numbers, and the two players take turns counting. For example, if player A said 1, 2. Then player B could say 3; or 3, 4; or say 3, 4, 5. Then player A would take a turn and again can say 1 or 2 or 3 of the next consecutive numbers. The first player to get to 20 wins

Upcoming is 3-day weekend, and while it would be a perfect opportunity to get caught up on work, I’m going to get out of town. Ted has biked and documented probably around 4000km in Brasil and he asked me if I’d like to go for a little ride with him through the Atlantic rainforest. So after work tomorrow we will hop on a 10 hour overnight bus with our bikes, head into Sao Paulo State, and proceed to bike our way back towards home. While I do feel some stress with the amount of school work I have to do, I am really looking forward to this trip!