My First Day in Brazil!

Today was amazing.  I woke up early and was able to watch as we pulled into the port at Manaus before breakfast.  I had an FDP on ship at 10am, which was a conversation with a playwright named Dare Clubb.  It was really interesting to get to hear his perspective on writing and types of theater around the world.  At one point he (or one of our teachers) mentioned “not knowing what you are doing is key to being a good writer.”  So it turns out I am on the right track!  Yes!

After that I met Liz and Matt for lunch.  We ended up picking up a few more people before going to INPA.  I don’t remember what INPA stands for, but it was a wildlife reserve.  There were seven of us by the time we left so we had to take separate taxis.  Josh, Liz and I made it to the wildlife reserve first, which was strange sine we didn’t leave first.  Eventually the others showed up and told us that their taxi had broken down.  I had to get back to the ship at 5pm for another FDP, so Liz, Josh and I (since the others were broken down on the side of the road somewhere) had a few hours to look around.  There were lots of monkeys (I couldn’t get a good picture since they were up in the trees), manatees, turtles, and a ton of weird looking bugs.  It would have been for fun if we were not preoccupied with trying to figure out what happened to the rest of our group.  It was still a really cool place to see!

I (along with Josh and Liz) had to leave early so I could make it back to the ship in time.  Since none of us knew Portuguese, it was a little difficult getting around.  Eventually someone pointed us towards where there were some buses parked.  We walked over to them, but the drivers were not there.  A guy who had been across the street came to talk to us (though there was no common language), we showed him on a map where we needed to go and he told us to wait for 5 minutes.  We sat on a bus and waited, after a little while a driver came over and started up the bus.  We were on the bus for an hour and a half.  I am not sure why, I think the driver though we wanted a tour of the city, which would have been fine if I had not been running really late for an FDP.  We made it back to the ship at 4:57 and there was a big line to get back onto the ship.  There was no way I could make it to the Union in time to meet up with the group.  I talked to the field director, who was standing near the gangplank and she let me join the group when they boarded the bus.  I few minutes later and I would not have been able to make it at all.

The FDP was called “Eating the Amazon.”  I think spectacular might be the right word to describe it.  We visited a cooking school in Manaus, where we got to spend time with the chefs, watching and helping them cook us an amazing dinner.  The place was called Senac, I highly recommend it for people visiting Manaus!  We had two different kinds of fish cooked in different ways along with several other delicious dishes.  They gave us recipes to try (I will try to post one when I am not so tired) and certificates saying that we studied at the school.  At least, I am assuming that’s what they said since I can’t read Portuguese.

                Now I am back in my cabin for the night.  I locked my key in my cabin for the first time today, (figures I would do that when my roommate is away) so I had to pay a dollar to get a temporary key…  Anyway, tomorrow I am going on a riverboat overnight tour!  I am really excited, but I have no idea what I should pack…

Sunsets on the Amazon

Today was Brazil Day on the MV Explorer.  Tomorrow we reach Manaus, but today we spent preparing.  We didn’t have classes, but we had meetings and seminars about Brazil, and what to expect.  There were talks with the people from the Brazilian Embassy who came on board a few days ago, cultural classes, and a music and dance presentation.

                We have two students on board who are from Brazil, so they were able to help to teach us some Portuguese as well as show us demonstrate some of the dances and play some music.  The main dances they showed us were the samba and the capoeira.  I thought the capoeira looked really fun, it looked a lot like fighting and they said it was practiced by slaves that needed to learn how to fight, but had to be very discreet, so they learned to fight through their dancing.

                After all of the Brazilian programs were finished we had our preport meeting for before we arrive in Manaus.  This is the second preport meeting we have had.  Both times one of the deans has come up to the podium to speak, pulled out a blow up globe and small toy boat and proceeded to describe to us where we came from, where we are, and where we are going.  He also mentioned hearing someone earlier say that we were on vacation in Manaus and informed us that we are not on vacation; we are on an epic voyage.  I like the sound of ‘epic voyage’ much better. 

During the safety lecture at the preport meeting some students were called up to reenact some bad decisions that people could make while at port.  This was not necessarily very interesting, except that whenever one of the actors made a bad decision the guy leading them would ring and bell and say into the microphone in a very serious voice “BAD IDEA.”

               

The other important thing I should mention about today is this incredible sunset over the Amazon River.  I am truly amazed each and every day as I am able to see more of God’s creation!

 

I Currently Live On The Amazon River, So That's Cool...

I woke up today and we were sailing down the Amazon River!  All of today we have been able to see the Amazon Jungle on both sides of the ship.  Most of the day we spent anchored in the middle of the River so that some people from the Brazilian Embassy could come onto the ship and speak with us.  I am not sure if that was really the reason we were docked for so long, but that is my guess.  I was able to go outside and get some great pictures from the sides of the ship!  In Travel Writing class, a couple of the guests came in to talk to us about their writing, what they do and how they got into it, which was very interesting to listen to.

For dinner tonight a bunch of us got dressed up and went to the dining hall.  I have no idea why.  I was just told to wear a dress…  I actually brought one with me (other than my dress for the Ambassador’s Ball) so I wore that.  I’m still not sure what was going on, but it was fun anyway.  Of course, then I went straight back to my room and changed back into my usually jeans and t-shirt look.

                The day before yesterday I volunteered to play guitar for the worship service on board.  Yesterday I found a guitar I could rent to use to lead.  Today I worked out all of the songs I would play and now I just got back from our first worship service!  I think it went pretty well.  I had a lot of people come up to me afterwards saying that I did really well, asking if they could help with music in anyway, or asking if we could get together and play some.  They either didn’t notice all of my mistakes and nervousness or were nice enough to pretend it wasn’t there.  So our first night of worship was a success!  Praise the Lord!

                I am not sure what else I need to mention about today…  Shrek was on TV!  I didn’t watch it, but it was there, so that was exciting.  Anyway…  Here is a picture of the Amazon River at sunset!

 

PEEP HOLES!!!

Today was another long day of sailing and school.  As the ship drew closer to the Amazon the water became green, then brownish and now looks about the shade of mud.  The air is really humid outside, making it difficult to sit outside.

                Aside from reaching the mouth of the mouth of the Amazon River, the most exciting thing for me was getting a peep hole in my door!!!  They just finished drilling them in all of the Deck 2 doors, so now I can look out and spy on random people!  It’s pretty exciting.  That’s it for me today.  I finished all of my homework early so I have just been sitting around without much to do.