We went around the city of São Paulo

Hi All on the Mountain!

We left only few days for our trip. Our traverling is so nice. I miss all of you people in the mountain. :)

14-17 Araras
We were staying in Marcela´s house. (It was so nice !! Her mother was really good at cooking. I miss her family :) )
We went with Marcela´s aunt and to visit a project that gives out vaccination for free to the poor people who live in an area near the Araras.
They usually settle in that area illegally (actually they invaded the area.), and after a few years, the goverment promised to give the area to them, if they started producing. So they made woden house, and now they are changing their houses to stone houses.
We also visted an NGO called ´Anheda´. This NGO was doing job education for poor youngsters. The most interesting of this was the nature project they had.
They were doing not only education for getting jobs but also enviromental education and teacing in agricultural technology.

17-20 São paulo
The most interesting thing was visiting the ´Portuguese museum´. Portuguese in Brasil was originated from several countries;
Europe-especially Portugal, Asia-Macao in China was a colony of Portugal, Africa- They came as slaves.
We went around the city of São Paulo. 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.

20-23 Rio de janeiro
We were staying in Julio´s and Ana´s house. (Their family were so nice and kind!!). The first day, we went to Barra Beach. That was so nice and had a really strong wave. (I drank a lot of water. :[) Second day, we visited ´Arte Conjunto´ an NGO Ana and Julio were participating in. They´re doing a cultural education for people who are living in downtown Rio. In their area, there were big drug organization so it was really dangerous (we could see the gun´s holes in the buildings).

Ana´s brother started this project, and it was improving step by step. So, the drug people are still in the area but it´s not as dangerous as before. The funny thing, actually is that Ana´s brother started the project to take care of Ana. Ana´s mom asked him to paint the wall and make a light in front of their house for Ana's safety. After he did that, it accelerated into more and more art in the area and it eventually became "Arte conjunto".
We also met a politician who is working for the rights of black people and other colored people in Brazil. It was really interesting, because I never thought about rasism in Brazil. He usually works in the area, ´Kuilobola´. In that area, there are many black people and their ancestors were usually slaves.

23-25 Ouro preto, Belo Horizonte
Ouro preto is a historical place. We saw very beautiful churces, originally, the ornaments were made of gold but they were stolen years ago.
And we went to a mine that was used for goldndigging but not anymore. The mine was huge and we rode the trail to get down there. It was so exciting!! Slaves did the hard work digging them out to be this big. It was cruel.
We went to Belo Horizonte for Big street Market. We saw lots of brazilian food and products. I bought some brazilian handmade handbag. :)

26-28 Vale do Jequitinhonha
We visited another project called ´Barraginha´. Barraghinha is a big hole made for saving water. The leader of this project is called Luciano, He made this hole in the area near the river, but very dry. So, when the rainy season, the rain will be absorbed into the whole and it will be go to underground of dry area near the whole. It will be repeated, absobed and go to underground....
Finally, the dry area near that hole will be humid and people can cultivate vegetables. Sometimes, they use the Barraginha to make a lake and feed fish. They simply put plastic on the bottom so that the water will not be absorbed.

Our trip was very educational and I got a lot experience. But if i should give some advice to next Brazil team, I want to say take a day off from your travelling to check the budget.

Anyway, I´m so excited to go to my project area. I really want to arrive in Bahia soon. :)

Jennifer, Korea