Bringing You Up to Speed

So before I sally forth, I'll give a quick recap of the highlights of my time here so far:

- Right off the bat, Andrea and I went to a Chiclete/Timbalada concert. It was Carnaval style, which meant that the bands were on giant trucks that drove around the concert area in circles. I learned that "crowd management" means only preventing large fights here. Also, that Brazilians like to get cloooose.

- I went to my first professional tennis tournament! It was thrilling. Ricardo Mello was the champion, which qualified him for the US Open (which Nadal won, making him the youngest man to win a career grand slam!!!!!!! had to fit that in there).

- My dad turned 50 :) We had a lovely party for him - Jihad did all the cooking (for 60 people!) which was incredibly delicious. Gayle made a tennis ball pinata, which one small girl demolished. She even attacked the men who tried to stop her from going too crazy. I guess she needed an outlet for her aggression. Good thing this one ended with candy.

- I started painting. I go to a woman's house every Monday morning. I copy everything I do so far, but it's still a fun, creative outlet.

- A group of us went whale watching at Praia do Forte. It was breathtaking. We went out about 4 miles off the coast and found a group of 7 humpback whales. They were quite active for us - one breached, one swam under the boat (they were soooo close!). It was truly an awe-inspiring experience.

- Each month, The American Society of Internationals goes on a field trip somewhere interesting in Salvador called Serendipity. This month's trip was to a church and library in the city - buildings much grander and more historic than I'm used to when going into the city.

- I started volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity. It's love :)

I Caved

I wasn't sure I would blog about my time here, but I feel I have enough to say, and it will probably be more efficient information-sharing for my friends. 

That said, I will quickly bring this blog up to speed. I graduated with my undergrad degrees from IU in May. I moved to Lauro de Freitas Brazil on July 31. My family has been living here for two years as ex-patriots because of a job transfer for my dad (he works for Ford Motor Company, whose South American headquarters are in Salvador). They live fabulously wealthy lives in this country, because most things are so much cheaper. I don't speak Portuguese, but I'm learning and taking classes. My sisters are now fluent, so anytime I'm with them, they translate for me.


I wanted to find some sort of volunteer opportunity down here in order to make my time productive and worthwhile (but I didn't want to teach English). I recently found exactly what I was looking for. I volunteer three mornings a week with the Missionaries of Charity, a catholic order founded by Mother Theresa. They have a house in a favela in Salvador that functions as a permanent home for abandoned women and a daycare of sorts for children. The women have been abandoned primarily because of physical or mental handicaps and are able to live the rest of their lives in the home. The children are 1-3 year-olds from the favela whose families cannot afford to take care of them or feed them during the day. They come to the home during the day on weekdays for food, supervision, and hygienic care. They have to stay with their families during the weekend, so at the beginning of the week, they are usually rowdier and often sick. I mostly work with the children or doing random cleaning chores for the home. It's hard, exhausting work - most of the time it's just me, one Brazilian woman, and one sister taking care of around 20 children, all 3 and under. Sometimes it is just me watching all of those kids while the others are cooking or cleaning something or taking care of one child's problems. But I love it. I  already love these kids so much (even though I usually get bit at least once). 


My time here is a juxtaposition of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. It's an interesting place to live, and I'm excited to see what the rest of the year has in store.