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!