Last weekend and this past week have been a bit of a blur.  Sean arrived on Friday and on that same day I moved out of my home stay family and into an international student/professor house in the middle of down town.  I loved living with a family for my first month here, but in terms of space, privacy and location the move into the city has turned out to be the right one for us so far.  Sean spent the weekend sweating profusely while acclimating to the intense heat and humidity and so far it seems that the mosquitoes prefer him over me.

To say that Sean arrived and hit the ground running is a bit of an understatement.  Friday afternoon was spent in a long work meeting with Sean's future boss at a local, private English school.  Saturday we had a big group dance class arranged a head of time with dinner afterward and on Sunday my host family had a big churrasco barbecue lunch for us.  And on Monday Sean started teaching.  I showed him how to get to work and then headed off to spend the day at UFPA.


Sean is working for a company called Global English.  It's a unique setup in that the owners, a young husband and wife missionary team from South Carolina, run the business as a way to generate profits for their social justice projects in some of the poorer areas on the outskirts of Belém.  They said that they did the fundraising thing for awhile but that they were never able to raise what they needed and that the amount of time the fundraising required took away from the work they wanted to be doing.  They have been here for four years and so far the business model and projects are going well and they hope to be able to spread this idea to other parts of Brazil in the future.

Sean teaches classes Monday-Thursday and has currently been biking to and from work.  He says it's been a little overwhelming and a bit of an adjustment to have to get back into teaching but that so far it's been going all right.  I think he's more excited about the fact that we are in walking distance from the Amazon brewing company with nightly all you can drink happy hours.  Now that's something about the jungle that I can get excited about.

Can't wait to see you, Sean! Get ready for: hot and humid temperatures, falling mangoes, mosquitoes, Amazon beer and lots and lots of Portuguese.

Belém has one of the largest group of Fulbrighters in Brazil and since I'll be referring to my colleagues a lot in this blog I thought a short introduction to everybody would be appropriate.

Top row from left to right: Chad, Anna, Sarah, Dylan, Bottom row from left to right: Me, Louise, Gaby, Stevie, Alex

Anna - An "English Without Borders" ETA who works with me at UFPA.  She's from Memphis and just graduated from Hendrix College.  Anna's very interested in yoga and writing and just got back from a four month retreat/research project on yoga in India.  It's her first time in Brazil.

Stevie - Also and "English Without Borders" ETA who works with me at UFPA.  She's from Spokane and just graduated from Willamette University where she studied Spanish and Environmental Science.  She's really into competitive running and it's also her first time in Brazil.

Alex - A traditional Fulbrighter who works at the nearby State University of Pará (UEPA).  She's a recent graduate from Wesleyan University where she studied Political Science and is from Kansas City.  Alex just got back from spending a few months in Indonesia and is hoping to do a side project dealing with public health or conservation.  This is her first time in Brazil.

Sarah - A traditional Fulbrighter from Jacksonville who will be working in the English department at UFPA.  She just graduated from Boston College where she studied history and Spanish.  She's interested in a side project dealing with economic and agricultural development.  It's her first time in Brazil. (Her last name also starts with "S" which causes considerable confusion on campus).

Chad - A traditional Fulbrighter from Southern California and a recent graduate of Azusa Pacific.  He'll be working in the English department at UFPA with Sarah. Chad studied English literature and Global Studies and is interested in music and human rights.  He's been to Brazil in the past for a study abroad experience and is excited to be back in a different part of the country.

Dylan - A Fulbright Research Fellow from Maryland and studied at William and Mary.  He's worked in D.C. in several environmental NGOs such as the Environmental Defense Fund along with a stint at the World Bank.  He hopes to study certain environmental aspects and concerns of the Amazon and how it effects economic development.  Dylan has been to Belém before on a previous study abroad experience and is thrilled to be back (and act as tour guide for the rest of us). 

Gaby - A traditional Fulbrighter from Brooklyn who recently graduated from Occidental College.  Gaby is placed in the nearby city of Bragança but we see her a lot as she comes down to visit Belém a couple of times a month.

Louise - A returning Fulbrighter and mentor from Chicago who earned her M.A. in literature theory from the University of Georgia.  Louise was placed in Bragança last year and is back there again as returning ETA and mentor.  It has been awesome having Louise around and I wish that I could see her even more than I already do.

So that's the crew in its entirety; it has been really cool to get to know everybody and very motivating and encouraging to be around other students with so many varied experiences, personal motivation and ambition and very creative ideas.  Pretty soon we'll round out the group at ten people as Sean flies in on Friday afternoon - three more days to go!

American Breakfast - English practice at UFPA

There's a lot of acronyms in Brazil.  I am an ETA (English Teaching Assistant) with the program Ingles Sem Fronteiras (English Without Borders) at UFPA (Universidade Federal do Pará).  This is a new program so things have been more than a little chaotic to start out with.  Stevie, Anna (the other 2 American ETAs in the same project as me) and I have been trying to figure out how best to use our time to help the eight Brazilian English teachers that we work with.  Each English teacher (who are really senior students or graduate students themselves) teaches three courses (each course is two hours) twice a week.  That's 48 total English classes every week which is very, very busy.  The English classes are aimed at students who will study abroad using the grant money from the Science Without Borders program.  The classes focus on cultural exchange, how to pass the TOEFL exam and English conversation.

Meeting new students under the gazebo on campus

So far we have been visiting all the classes and introducing ourselves.  We hope to offer workshops on language and culture for the students in the future along with teaching workshops for the instructors.  It's been especially fun to work with the ISF students because many of them are learning English for the first time.  For most of them, it's also the first time that they have had the chance to speak with a native English speaker.  One morning we had an "American Breakfast" out by the river with English conversation, music and lots of good food.  It was a big hit and there were requests for more activities like this.

Stevie (left) and Anna (middle), the other two ETAs in this project, posing with a student

The ISF instructors are the best of the best at UFPA made even more impressive by the fact that they are students themselves.  They are all very intrested in teaching methodology and pedagogy as well as having their students reflect on the language learning process.  Let me share a couple of these reflections with you after one of their first classes with a native English speaker (me):

Visiting an ISF English class for some conversation practice

Example of one of the many covered walkways on campus

Life at the largest university in the Amazon is unique in many ways.  The most obvious and useful difference is the covered paths and sidewalks on campus because of the daily torrential rains and scalding heat from the sun.  The second, more interesting difference, is the amount of stray dogs of every shape, size and color hanging out on the college grounds.  They can be seen sleeping, attending class and trotting along on the paths between buildings as if they were students themselves on the way to their next exam.

Some of the "old souls" hanging out

I asked my students about these dogs and have now heard the same story told over and over.  "Don't bother the dogs," they tell me.  "We care for them and care about them because they have a history here.  To us, they are the souls of former students who never graduated."  And they do, indeed, care for the dogs.  I see people feeding them dog food, pouring water into bowls and giving them plenty of attention. 

Dogs cruising along on the walkways to who knows where

Brazil doesn't have a strong student volunteer culture so when I asked my students what kinds of things they do to help their college or community (we were talking about how to fill out U.S. college applications) they stared blankly at me.  Finally, one girl ventured an answer.  "Well," she said.  "Sometimes a lot of students bring soap to school and we wash the dogs."  I asked her if they liked the washing and she said that she guessed so but didn't really know. 

"What about at the neighboring university (State University of Pará)?" I asked.  "Do you wash their dogs too?"  "No," she replied with authority.  "They have cats there."

There could be some rather interesting reading in the form of application essays coming soon to a college admission's office near you.

Scattered sleeping dogs in between classes

Beach on the river

What açai berries look like

Our five days in Cametá during Carnival were pretty much what one would expect: swimming and sunning on the banks of the Tocantins river, exploring the small town, trying new foods and staying up late to watch the dancing, the parades and the drunken shenanigans.  One night we actually joined the party and got to be part of the parade but it just about did me in and reminded me once again that I am, in fact, not 22 anymore (the average age of everyone else in the gringo group).









The nightly parades were fairly impressive with elaborate costumes and massive amounts of people.  With each group was a large truck that held either a live band or giant speakers that blasted out regional music such as Carimbó or Techno Brega.  It was quite the spectacle.  Carnival was fun, but it wore me out.  I'm much happier being home and writing about it than actually sweating in a crowd of people with ear drums throbbing and flip flips sludging around in god-knows-what.  Now, that really makes me sound 32.

Sights along the Tocantins on the way to Cametá - photo cred Chad Richards, fellow ETA in Belém

One of the fun perks of being able to return to Brazil this year is not only the opportunity to witness the World Cup but also to experience Carnival.  Going into this experience I already had a feeling that a 5-day long nonstop party wasn't really going to be my thing, but I at least wanted a taste since it's such a big part of the culture here.  The other ETAs and I decided to tone Carnival down a notch and head to a smaller town which is known to have a more traditional and "family friendly" type of celebration. 

River towns on the Tocantins by Chad Richards

On Saturday morning we (and what felt like every other resident of Belém) set off for the riverside haven of Cametá.  The normal journey involves one bus and one boat and takes around 4 hours.  Because of the traffic and the unusual transportation infrastructure along the way our trip took a little over nine hours.  Traveling in the Amazon can be frustrating because where there should be bridges there are rickety private-run (and homemade) ferries.  It takes longer to load and unload your car on the ferry than it actually does to cross the small amount of water.  Turns out bridges aren't built because politicians get a cut of the profits from the ferries and the small communities around the ferries thrive because of the waiting passengers' spending.  Most of our time on the way to Cametá was spent waiting for various small ferries.

River sunset on the final boat ride

Our trip ended with a boat ride at sunset as we cruised along the Tocantins river checking out the small town or two on the banks.  One of the positives about long trips in big groups is that everyone gets to know each other very well.  I think it's safe to say that after 10 hours of travel together we had officially bonded.

Amazonian sunset

One of the central themes of orientation was "Embrace the Suck" which certainly came to mind last week during the days before Carnival.  Lest anyone think that life in Brazil is all 24/7 bacchanalia, açai smoothies and tanning on the beach let this blog post (and probably quite a few others) assure that it's not.  Living abroad anywhere is in and of itself difficult and frustrating because of cultural differences, language barriers, homesickness, the occasional visit from Montezuma etc. . . But Brazil adds some extra, unique challenges to the game including famously incredibly long lines, an absurd amount of required documentation and circles of bureaucracy, strikes and constant malfunctioning systems (ATMs, internet, cellular phone networks etc.)  If you start your day expecting these things to happen, always carry a book or something to do and accept that this is a normal part of Brazilian life, then it's not so bad.  But some days I'm just over it and declare defeat.

The Thursday before Carnival was a big day.  After spending our first week in Belém gathering paperwork, getting special pictures taken, having things notarized, paying fees and getting certificates that showed we paid those fees etc. . . I was finally ready to take my mentees to the Federal Police to be "registered" as a foreigner living in Brazil.  This has to happen within 30 days of arrival or there are heavy fines to pay.  The Federal Police in Brazil are known to be maddeningly picky and I had several rough experiences last year.  This year, thankfully, all my mentees got through with little or no problems and received their stamped card to proceed to the next step - a visit to another police station the following week for a full finger-printing work-up.  My process, on the other hand, did not go so well. 

Since I had been here last year, I had to show them my previous registration card.  They looked me up in the system and because of a "glitch" or some miss-entered information at the Federal Police last year, the clerk needed proof that my mom with her married name is the same person as my mom with her maiden name.  I thought I was prepared for these shenanigans (when going to the Federal Police here you should bring any notarized copy of every document you can think of).  I showed them my notarized birth certificate which has both of her names on it but she wouldn't accept it saying that the notary has to be from a U.S. consulate or embassy.  After significant discussion (my coordinator was there with me too and was equally flummoxed but significantly less surprised than I was) my very unappealing options were to get my mom's birth certificate and marriage license officially translated into Portuguese and notarized at an embassy or consulate or go to the nearest embassy in Brazil for an interview and purchase of an official translated document that states who I am and how I am related to my mom (with both names). 

It looks like I'm probably going to have to fly to Brasilia, make an appointment with the embassy, pay for an official interview and notarized certificate and then try again at the Federal Police.  Keep in mind that after March 13 (my 30-day deadline) I'll be paying a daily fine for being late.  Fulbright is trying to help me out as they have many contacts but when I called the embassy they told me that it was pretty much my only option.  Awesomeness.

Since our excursion to the Federal Police took the entire morning, I dropped my mentees off at Portuguese class and then took off to the bus station to buy bus and boat tickets for our group excursion to Cametá for Carnival.  I was met with complete chaos at the terminal.  As this was the day before the holiday officially began, it seemed that everyone else had the same idea.  After standing in line for about two hours, I finally reached the agent and explained what I wanted.  Because of the extreme noise and my mediocre Portuguese, this task felt, at times, impossible and was made even more unpleasant by the surging, pushing and jeering line behind me.  Purchasing the tickets for a bus and two boats each way for 10 people took quite a long time and my ears picked up many not-so-nice things said about me from those behind me who had also waited over two hours.  After stamping and making hand-written notations on each of the 60 tickets I was told that I could only pay for the bus tickets with my card and that I needed to pay the rest in cash - which I didn't have enough of. 

I had to leave the bus station and head next door to a bank to wait in another hour line for the one working ATM to take out enough cash to go back to the bus station to wait in line to buy my pile of tickets.  Buying multiple kinds of transportation tickets for a group of ten gringos on the day before the biggest holiday of the Brazilian calendar year is definitely not recommended and I hope I never have to do it again.

It was about 6pm when I got on my bus, sat in traffic for another hour and finally made it back to my home stay where I collapsed in bed.  Some days the adventure of being in a new place is really fun and other days one simply has to admit defeat and "embrace the suck."  Well, "Suck" - consider yourself embraced.

Last year at our mid-year seminar we divided into groups to make an inspirational and motivational video for next year's ETAs.  The video is called "The Four Stages of Being an ETA in Brazil" (i.e. the four stages of Culture Shock) and was a lot of fun to make.  I was part of the group in charge of "Acceptance" and we each wrote and explained Haikus about our experiences.  My co-ETA, Loni, is the first actress in the "Frustration" group if you are curious.  As I watch the new ETAs start this process and also go through it again myself, watching the video is entertaining but also dead-on accurate.  See for yourself: