It was very different from our project area in the way that it was really organized and clean. I felt the big gap between the rich and poor in Brazil.

A Thought into the Future of a Young Generation in Quijingue Area - During the last month of my life in Lagoa da Barra, I often noticed that most of the young men in the community neither went to school nor worked.

The experiences that I have had have been many, varied, and always interesting. We are in Quijingue in the state of Bahia.

"Todos familias, vamos tirar barro no tanque por favor!!". This was the call to bring them to prepare their water tank (they call it " tanqui" – it`s like a dry swamp) for the forthcoming rains.

John, Jennifer and I with IICD joined the Child Aid Project as members of Humana People to People in Quijingue about 1 month ago.

Many children have repeated their grades and generally they stop going to school when they are 18 years old, even though they haven’t finish their study.

I couldn’t have gone through a better experience… so far. The people are great, the work we are doing is excellent, and the place I am living is something else.

in Praça de Sé, Salvador, Brazil. We met the girl who was selling the acarajé, one of the traditional foods in Salvador, on the road.

We trecked through the jungle, talked to Indians, Saw a lot of animals, chickens, ducks, cows and monkey.

on the side of a mountain learning a new language, farming skills, construction skills, and how societies are built from the ground up

and our house is located right in the center. We see everything that goes on and everyone is able to come and visit us.

so I thought that I should contribute to the development in deprived areas to help find solutions. That's why I decided to become a Poverty Fighter!

five Poverty Fighters from IICD Massachusets. The first two weeks they made interviews with the families and created family portraits together with two Area Leaders.

by Daniel and Kabriele. It was amazing. They drew the town where we were staying. Many people stood around the wall watching their drawing

That there is terrible violence all the time. It's partly true, but I fell in love with Rio because it has lots of attractions.

It is pretty famous for the exellent example of successful environmental policy and public transportation system.

We have so far traveled through three separate cities exploring them to the best of our abilities within the short period of time we have

where we saw the largest fort in Brazil, erected by the Portuguese, Indians and Africans to defend the Amazon River against the French and the Dutch

The Amazon River is spectacular, impenetrable and wild and enormous. For all those who like statistics, it is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top ten largest rivers flowing into the ocean combined.

I befriended a bunch of Cariocas – this is what people are called from Rio de Janeiro. They make a living out of collecting mussels and deliver them to the nearby restaurants

of beans, corn and “sorgo” from Bahia State’s Government, through SUAF (Family’s Agriculture Superintendence).

Audia from Germany and Thijs from The Netherlands writes from the HPP Child Aid project HPP in Cancancao.

The state of Bahia is one of the poorest in the country, with 2/3 of its territory in the semiarid region. The most profound poverty is in the rural areas and among those who had little education and in homes of parents with young children.

The last few weeks a majority of my time has been divided between time with the kids on the farm and working along side the "at risk" sector of kids involved in dance theater.

I had a good opportunity in Brazil to see, live and learn from different people and social situations. It was a very mixed experience.

Is a combination of art, dance, music, rituals, acrobatics and fighting

As we barely move into our 3rd week here in Brazil..I thought about what I might be "missing" back home. What's funny is that even though you know you're missed... everyone's life still precedes without you. There are no drastic changes and one learns the small role they play in accordance to the rest of the world.

I decided to put these two weeks in combination. Weeks of fundraising in all the manifestations it can take on.

Now i´m coming to the closing period of my time here in olinda/recife. hard to know where to start.