World cup and São João! Festa, Festa, Festa!!!

Well folks, my time is sadly nearing the end. Although I can't wait to see my friends and family back home, I am obviously quite attached to the people here, and I don't want to think about the reality that I will soon be leaving them for who knows how long. I have become deeply attached to so many wonderful folks here, and I am sure I will return to see them, as well as stay in contact through email and letters.
This month is kind of a good one to be wrapping up in, because it is full of festas! This is a nice distraction from thinking about goodbyes, and instead, just spending quality time with the people I love and experiencing the best of the culture here. June is the month of São João, a traditional music and dance and corn festival in the interior of NE Brasil. There are quadrilias every night for a couple weeks, which is essentially a type of dance very similar to square dancing. All the girls get decked out in frilly dresses with fake freckles and pigtail braids, and the men wear jeans, plaid shirts, and straw hats. It is all kinds of fun to watch. It is also time for tons of music festivals, including pretty big bands in NE Brasil. Monteiro is the city of forró, which is a certain style of music and dance, and so the music festivals here are a pretty big deal, and people come from far and wide to fill up the city's lowly hostels and hotels and frequent the local restaurants. Needless to say, the city is taking this festival business very seriously, and is getting super decked out for the upcoming events. The town plaza has an awesome canopy made of little tiny flags. It's kinda like a big mosaic, and the little flags make an awesome rustling sound in the breeze. Yesterday, I was able to go to the square to watch my little sister's quadrilia along with zillions of other school kids. It was quite something to be apart of.
And on top of the festivals, of course, there is the world cup going on. I am hoping they will show the games later on in the town square so everybody can watch together, but as of now, people watch in their houses, and everything in town is completely dead. Then as soon as the game was over on Tuesday, everyone burst from their houses to celebrate together in the streets. I imagine things will get quite more animated as the games progress...
Oh, and as for my work, I am currently finishing up banheiro seco (dry latrine) number 5. I hope to complete a total of 8 before my time is up. People are lining up for dry latrines in the communities where I have already started. It seems to be catching on quickly which will be great for the next SALTer.

Two of my favorite houesmates

Some of my new friends from church watching the first Brasil game of the world cup

Karol in her São João clothes before her quadrilia dance

Hello friends.

I am embarrassed at how long it has been. That has been part of my delay in writing... the shame of facing you all after such delinquency. My most profound apologizes to you all. I can safely say I will not again go two months without blogging my adventures, because my Brazilian adventures will end in just about 2 short months. Hard to believe, but it is true.

So, where am I currently? Physically, I am in Recife taking a mental vacation. Or, if you've seen "What About Bob?" I am taking a "vacation from my problems". Really, I don't have many problems, but my life was getting a little complicated and worn out, and while I was here for a goodbye party for John and Julie and their girls (the other MCC volunteers in Monteiro), a few close friends and co-workers suggested I spend some time here to relax and get all geared up for the final stretch. I concurred. And it has been a lovely little vacation.

Where am I mentally? In a good spot, I'd say. I am pleased with my work over the past year, although most of my "work" has come in the form of building relationships, learning, sharing, and growing. I think by the time I leave, I will have completed 6 banheiro secos (or dry latrines), and a simple hand washing station to go with each of those units. I have made zillions of new acquaintances, yes zillions, and several families that have adopted me as their own. I even recently made a group of people my own age at the local Catholic church. I attend mass when I can on Sunday nights, as all the other church options in Monteiro don't quite fit. The evangelical churches are known for being loud and yelling about the power of God and prosperity and those kinds of things. They are also all about rules and who's in and who's not. The Catholic church is much more open to anyone, and generally less concerned with rules and more concerned with praising God altogether. So these new Catholic young folks have been such a blessing in my life. I have only had the privilege of hanging out with them on a few occasions, but it is nice to know I have people to go to outside of my host family(s) and work colleagues. It is so good to genuinely laugh and smile and sing and be jolly.

While I have been here in Recife for the past week, I have reorganized the MCC unit house library, a job that has apparently been done by countless volunteers in the past. Every country representative has a new idea of what should go where, and so every 5 years or so, stuff gets swapped around within the unit house. The majority of books are in English, so a couple months ago we Americans from Monteiro came to organize the books into save and keep piles, and the books have since been waiting for an English speaker to put them all on the shelves in the new air conditioned library. So I happened to be that lucky English speaker who spent the past week organizing dusty books in the comfort of climate control. :-)

It has been great to get to know the MCC Recife folks in a more friendly way. Usually during our team meetings, the time passes too quickly, and with little time for relaxation and conversation. So this time here has been quite a blessing.

Well.. that's all I've got for now. I will try to post pictures soon... I don't have the ability at the moment to do so..
Thank you all for your support, and again sorry for my delinquency in writing these blogs on a regular basis. I will try to be more faithful in my last couple months.
Peace,
Annie

Cashew Face... and other adventures.

Hello Dear Friends,

Time passes quickly.. I can hardly believe I only have 5 months left! Kind of scary because I have a lot to get done, and I don't exactly know what is next, but kind of exciting too. I do miss all the lovely folks at home. :-)

Oh man, I have learned some interesting things here. One of the most interesting is the beliefs the rural folks have about mixing foods and health. They think, for example, that eating mangoes and drinking milk in the same day is a sure way to a quick death. Same with coffee and fruit. Or taking a bath after eating beans or drinking coffee. I don't quite get this, how it started, or why people still believe it. But maybe by now, because so many generations have passed on this information, people really aren't able to digest these mixtures of food. They are too afraid to try, so nobody really knows. They think my stomach is amazing though. My dad was bragging about me to some guy at the market, telling him I am able to eat mangoes, yogurt, milk, and cereal all in the same meal without showing the slightest decline in health. Who knew. I have a stomach of great strength.

I have also had an interesting time learning about their perceptions of water and what is good water and what is bad water to drink. It has been interesting to live first hand with a family who does not have access to a completely safe water supply. They drink water from a nearby dam, which they claim is very clean and safe, but my belly still had problems with it. When I had problems with the dam water, they suggested I drink 'mineral water' which I assumed they would buy it from the store. But I soon saw my mom filling up a 20 L mineral water bottle with water out of an uncovered metal barrel from the backyard. This was apparently my 'mineral water'. My parents claimed that this water was completely safe because it was rainwater, and did not have fish or other things living in it. So I tried it for a bit to give them the benefit of the doubt, but still, belly problems. And then I saw some little swimmers in it. So now I'm on to the boiling phase of my drinking water. But through all of this progression, I have been able to teach what I know about pathogens and parasites and bacteria and how they travel and cause problems to human health. It has been educational for me to learn their perceptions about what makes water safe, and educational for them to learn a bit more about the unseen dangers of water. Even though it looks clear, it can still be very harmful. I am planning on making a slow sand filter for my family (and me) to try out and see if that improves the family's health.

I've had some funny things happen as always. Like a frog landing on my face after my sister startled it by moving some dishes around in the sink. I threw the fruit I had into the air, grabbed my face to try to figure out what wet, cold thing had decided to stick itself to my cheek, and screamed and danced around the kitchen. After I succeeded on batting it to the floor, I looked over to see my family in the other room all wondering what had caused my strange behavior. (They hadn't seen the frog) Once I explained, they all had a good laugh. I also had an embarrassing language blunder where I tried to use a new word I thought I heard. It is a word meaning to snack on something liquidy like mangoes or a popsicle. But instead of saying this new word I learned, I mixed it up with another word and said "Hey girls! Let's go rape some mangoes!" oops...

And now, I shall leave you with some pics of the past month or so. Enjoy.

Ice cream with my co-worker and friend Libéria on my birthday!

Early in the morning on my birthday with my folks at the organic market.

My family threw a huge surprise birthday party for me. I had no idea! They even got me to help make the food without me knowing it was for my own party. Sneaky family I have...

AHH!!! WHATS THAT?? This is the result of me processing cashews. Apparently the smoke is very dangerous to inhale, the oil of the cashew shells is very strong, and then I ate a ton of cashews, something I'd never done in the states because I never liked nuts and never tried cashews. So the combination of those things left me looking like this for about 4 or 5 days. I'm still waiting on blood work to see if I am allergic to eating cashews, or just the rest of the horrible combination. It was a challenging couple of days..

Finally, my first dry composting latrine is underway after months of research and planning. It takes a while to get stuff done around here if you're not used to the pace of work and where to buy materials and such. It is not yet finished, but will hopefully be soon!

The lovely women who will be the first recipients of the dry latrine project. They are old spinster sisters and I have enjoyed getting to know them while waiting for various parts of the project to fall in place.

Well friends, that's all for now. Hope you're all well. Thank you for the continued support, emails, notes, letters, prayers, and thoughts. Every little bit helps close the gap between here and home.

Peace,
AnaMaria

New Year = New Family

It has been just over a week that I have spent in my new house, with my new family in the situ called Tinguí. I have experienced and learned a great many things, which i will now summarize in a list:

Family consists of:
Mãe (Cida), Pãe (long name but everyone calls him Bee), Rayanne (13 years), Ruan (14), and Rayati (17, married, and pregnant- doesn't live at home)
Also, numerous uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends, some of which I have yet to figure out how they belong..

Living conditions:
Simple house, large organic farm, dusty dirt roads, lovely sunsets, heat lightning in the distance at night, lizards, frogs in shower, occasional rats in the rafters, vicious cat

Food:
Fish, couscous, eggs, bread, fresh juice for breakfast
Beans, rice, couscous, milk, juice, cheese, goat meat, beef for lunch
Soup, couscous, rice, beans spaghetti, juice for supper

Family work:
Organic farming. Leaving the house at 4:30 for the wed. market, and 3 for the Saturday market. Coming home around 2 on wed, and 6 on Sat. Rest Sunday with family all day long.

Favorite activities:
Working on the farm until dark, packin bags of produce in the house after dark, watching novellas (cross between sitcoms and soap operas) every night, playing Quirkle (an awesome game my real mother sent me for Christmas. Quite the hit here), tossing a frisbee (until my 10 year old uncle threw it on the roof), settin on the porch at the grandparent's house across the street with the rest of the family.

Things to be careful of:
The cat attempting to eat your limbs, large beetles or moths flying in your ears, not stepping on frogs in the shower, riding motorcycle in the mud, not getting hit by cows on the loose in the street, not missing the 6:30 motorcycle ride with your mom into town, wheels falling off ancient trucks that should probably not be driven anymore...

Conclusion:
I am living the simple life I always wanted, and although I am not grateful for the situation how this all came about, I am glad that I landed where I did. I am loving waking up to goat bells in the street and coming home to my little cousin jumping around asking if I will play with him. I love talking with my wise old, leathery skinned grandparents, and making my uncles and aunts chuckle with my funny Portuguese.

The truck all loaded up for the Wednesday Farmer's market. And Rayanne, my sister.

Some of the fam playing Quirkle at the kitchen table. clockwise: cousin Wagner, Brother Ruan, Mãe Cida, cousin of cousin (I think...) Lucas, Friend called pequeno(very small, because he is short for his age), cousin Everton(called Shrek because he is grumpy and ogre-ish), and aunt Verinha.

Thank you all for continuing support, especially through this whole family transition business. And please continue to pray for Tiana and the girls. They are still doing fine, but now talking seriously with a lawyer about how to protect themselves in this situation.

Peace
anamaria

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Hey all,
So, much has changed since I last talked to you. First off, it is a new year. Second, the rainy season is starting to pick up. Christmas has passed. Work is back in session. And I hope you are all well.

I have some news that was initially sad, and still is, but I am seeing some big positives in the near future as a result of all this. I won't go into too much detail out of respect for the privacy of my family, but it involves highly dysfunctional family members outside of my house making death threats against my host mother, Tiana. These threats came from a very traditional, macho father who does not like his daughter's independence, or her freedom to live where she wants and date who she wants. I have been learning lots of sad details about the macho culture in Northeast Brasil, and how many women have dealt with physical, verbal, and emotional abuse because of it. I want to make it clear that this is not necessarily the norm, and there are lots of happy marriages and families, but that these cases are unfortunately common.

So, after calling my various coordinators and bosses over Christmas break because of a particularly strong threat, I was told to move out of my house as quickly as I could and stay at the house of my American colleagues, who were at the time on vacation, until a more permanent situation could be found.

After lots of support from my co-workers and bosses, they found me a new family to live with (as long as my host mom's father is alive, that situation is deemed dangerous) and I will be moving there tomorrow. This situation will be completely different. They live out in the rural farmlands (called the "situ" here) and they have a good sized farm that I think they make most of their income off of. They sell produce at the farmers market two days a week, and my host mom has a hair salon. They sound like great folks, and I will get to share my room with my new 12 year old host sister, who I have already had the privilege of meeting. Living out there will mean I have to get home before 6ish to avoid the dangerous dark roads, so that will change my ability to communicate and visit others in town. But hopefully I will develop my own new community out in the situ. I am quite hopeful :-).

Through all of this craziness, God has been good. Tiana and her girls are doing better. It seems the crazy father has settled down a bit, leaving them in peace. And they were just able to move back into their house after it was remodeled. It was flooded before I got there, and so I lived with them in a rented house on the same street as their old place. But now, they have a fresh start with a new house, and they are really being positive about the whole situation. They are trusting God and leaning on the good people he has placed in their lives. They are an inspiration to me. Especially Tiana. After a really really difficult life from being left by husbands twice, having to sell home made cakes and pastries on the streets and the beach to make ends meet, raising two daughters single-handedly, dealing with an abusive father. She is leaning on the Lord and as a result is full of strength to face every day.

Through all this transition, I have been doing pretty alright. I was able to go to Recife for New Years, which was good to get away and process everything that was going on. I had a good time dancing the night (and early morning) away on the beach in Boa Viagem. And on the way back, at 5:30 in the morning when we were walking home as the sun was rising on the first day of a beautiful new year, we encountered a school of dolphins swimming close to shore. That was an incredibly beautiful moment I will never forget. God appears in so many diverse ways. During one of my really sad days, I went out to work with Anya on a motorcycle, and all of the sudden, we came across this brilliantly colored, lime green chameleon in the road. All of the sudden i was in awe of its beauty and the beauty of its Creator, and the sun in my mind began to once again shine. He shows up in the details when you need proof of his presence.

So, good friends. Thank you for your support and prayers as always, and please pray for Tiana and her two daughters (my family). For their physical safety and mental well-being. I think they are not in any immediate danger, but it is so emotionally difficult to be in such an unloving family. And pray for the transition to my new family. I move there tomorrow, which will change so much about my daily living. I am excited, but need to make sure I keep my old host family in my life as well.

Love, hugs, peace, and smiles to you all
Annie

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

I'm incredibly sorry it's already been more than a month since my last post. Fortunately, I now have a new computer (thanks Andy!) that will make my job of posting and emailing much easier. Even with my absence of blog presence, I've thought of all of you back home and in other places of the world, and during this holiday season, I wish you all peace and joy for the holidays. I wish I could be home in person to deliver hugs and smiles, but my typed messages will have to do for now. :-)

Life here has become normal (but not without surprises!), in that I am understanding and speaking Portuguese very well, finding my way around town, figuring out how to do work trips solo to the various communities, and all around enjoying life here. I have been learning a bit more about the cistern program here with MCC, because John, one of my American colleagues and the person in charge of the cistern projects, recently had hernia surgery and now cannot drive or lift things for a few months. So I have begun to make contracts and do other odds and ends with the cistern process to help him out a bit. I just visited a dry composting latrine this past week in Olinda, near Recife (I was there for a team meeting and Christmas celebration), and I was able to take measurements and brainstorm with the owner of the toilet. She is actually Californian and her husband is Brazilian, and they have an organic farm with all kinds of interesting experiments and demonstrations, and I had visited this composting toilet once before I spoke Portuguese, so I wanted to return now that I have a better understanding of the concept and am able to ask my questions. Now I have a pretty good idea of what's going on and what changes could be made to improve the idea, so I'm hoping to build the first unit in January. I'm very excited about this.

Right now, Eva, the SALT program coordinator in the U.S. is here for a visit. Every year she is able to visit a few SALT sites to evaluate the program and the teams that take in SALTers, the host family situations, the daily work situations, etc. It has been great to show someone around, especially someone as animated and funny as Eva, in any language. She has a great way of making people smile and feel comfortable despite the language barrier. So we've had a good time showing her around our work projects and the people we get to work with daily. It's also been a good time to emotionally and mentally process some of my experiences here. I have missed that a bit.

My December days are filled with Christmas parties in the communities, coming home each day to have my sisters excitedly demonstrating some new Christmas decoration they've invented during their time not in school (its summer vacation now), and reflecting on how this year's holidays will be different, but that Christmas is Christmas everywhere, people just celebrate a bit differently. I am still overwhelmed by hospitality and generosity. At one of the Christmas parties, there was a whole table display of fresh fruit, kind of a cornucopia number, to demonstrate the blessings of the harvest. I was kind of wondering if anyone was going to eat it but it remained there until the end of the party when I was leaving. I asked if I could have a piece, and I wound up taking everything on that table home in a giant box. Mangoes, cashew fruit, goiabas, bananas, wonderful tropical bounty.

And now, for some photos. A random assortment that have occurred since the last post. Enjoy!

I helped my friends Flavinho and Socorro move by driving this Bandeirante truck full of their earthly belongings (and them, their baby, and Anya) about an hour from Tigre to Monteiro. It will be wonderful to have them living closer

I arrived home on my mom's birthday to find the girls and a bunch of their little friends scrambling around to put together a last minute surprise party. Very cute. So much love in my family.

The gang in Mao Beijada at our Christmas party. This is where I went home with an abundance of fruit.

John, Anya and I in the bandeirante. Good times guaranteed.

One of my frog friends in the bathroom. I caught this one as he was trying to hide behind my shampoo! Sneaky little guy...


On my walk to work every day. Very lovely. Blue sky, brown earth, green grass, cool water. Lovely.

We stumbled upon this huge nativity in front of an old church in Olinda. Eva really liked this camel because it was a little decrepit lookin. Some of the carvings looked a little awkward, but very charming. And very grand.

Well friends, that's all I've got for now. Happy holidays to all and to all a good night!
Love, Peace, Happiness,
AnaMaria

Everyday Life in Monteiro

Hello faithful blog followers,
Sorry it has been a littler longer than normal since my last post, but to be fair, I warned you this would happen with my lack of computer!

My work is taking off, I'm settling just nicely with my family, and I have developed an overall sense of contentment in this place.

It turns out my initial work will include researching and implementing a project of dry composting latrines. The idea behind this concept is basically to use a barrel as the pit of a free standing latrine, and when the barrel is full, it is closed and set aside for a certain length of time until all (or most) of the harmfull pathogens die off. At this point, the material is safe (or safer than fresh faeces) to use as fertilizer. This is a technology specifically for communities around here that don't have any sort of bathrooms. These people only use the great outdoors, posing large risks of spreading disease, especially in the rainy season when everything becomes a big mess of mud. With the dry composting latrines, everything is contained in a barrel until it is safe to use, eliminating risks during floods and/or high water tables. Yeah! I've been traveling to various communities presenting this idea, and for the most part, after smirks and giggles watching an American try to talk in Portuguese about faeces and urine, the people have been surprisingly receptive to the idea. At one particular session, I think I didn't quite explain it well enough, because an elderly woman rose her hand, and asked, "but what if I fall in the barrel?" She was quite concerned and we all got a good laugh out of it. But I then assured her that each latrine has a normal toilet seat built above the barrel so this would not be an issue. Good laughs. I so far have 8 households for sure signed up to try one out, which means I have my work cut out for me. I'm currently researching best methods of building/maintaining these latrines, and then I will start to design and construct these lovely little units. It is all very exciting especially when I have specific people in mind to build these units for. It makes it so much more personal and meaningful. I'm excited to begin work in these people's homes because it means lots of shared lunches and teatimes and conversations. This is what it's all about.
As for the rest of my life aside from work, Monteiro is lovely. Very picturesque. I have about a 30 minute walk to work, although MCC recently decided to buy me a bicycle as most of the other workers live within a 5 minute walk. So I am the proud new owner of a shiney blue set of wheels :-). As I travel to work, I pass butcher shops with meat hanging from the ceiling, blacksmiths pounding away at their metal work, fruit stands, motorcycle repair shops, you name it. I often sing in my head (and sometimes aloud as I bike down the stone streets) the opening song from Beauty and the Beast where Belle is walking through town, watching the world wake up. "There goes the baker with his tray like always.. The same and bread and rolls to sell..." you know the song? It's a good one. And I totally know how Belle feels when I ride with the cool morning (early early morning sometimes 6:30) breeze in my hair, roosters still crowing, goat bells sounding, church bells ringing. I also relate when the townspeople sing the line "She's different from the rest of us, she's nothing like the rest of us.... That Belle!" Or rather "That blue eyed Anamaria!". Although there are plenty of lighter skin folks in Brazil, my blue eyes are a dead giveaway that something's different about me. And that's ok. There is something different about me here. There's something different about all of us. :-)
Hope you're all well.
I'll try to post pictures soon.
Peace,
Anamaria