Hi.
The past week has been pretty busy. My 13 classmates and I stayed on our director's sitio, which is pretty much a country house with maybe a few animals. His backyard is the Amazon.
One of the past week's activities was a drop-off exercise. We drove about two hours north of Belém to some small neighborhoods. Each on of us was dropped off by ourselves in a community and we had three hours to complete a task. Some of us speak more Portuguese than others, so it was interesting to see how people communicated.
We spent that night in hammocks at my director's (Gustavo) friend's house. We got up the next day at 5:45AM to head out in a boat which then took us to mangrove forests. We all sank in the mud, but it was pretty rockin'. The economy of the area is based on fishing and crab-farming. At the moment, there are plans for a super-port that would destroy the local ecosystem and put a lot of people out of jobs.
After the mangroves, we spent the day at a secluded beach that's used by the local fisherman as a resting point. We swam, ate fresh fish, and talked to local fishermen and NGO coordinators. Really awesome. I got my first sunburn and it was baaaaaad.
I met my host family this past Monday. I mostly just have my host mom, Dona Clara. She's a lawyer and a wonderful person. Her 28 year old daughter, Amanda, is in and out of the house with her husband, Eduardo. I have my own bedroom and bathroom, which is more than I can say for my house back home.
Mmk, I gotta go. Hope all is well with you.
Today's mission: Discover new fruits.
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