Casa de Moises Orphanage

As for today, Marshall and I left early this morning to meet up with the volunteer group from EAB that was headed to an orphanage ("Moses' House") in Aguas Lindas, a satellite city of Brasilia about 30-40min away. Apparently the students at EAB have to complete a service project, and can come up with any idea they'd like. Volunteering and donating to this orphanage is one of these ideas. Everyone in the group (five students, two computer tech friends, and us) donated some money so we could buy cleaning supplies and candy for the kids at the orphanage. On our way we also found the Wal-Mart lurking in Brasilia that I did not know about. It was next to the store we shopped at for cleaning supplies.

Upon arriving the kids were just about to eat lunch, so we got a tour around the place and learned something about its history. Basically it started with one lady that took in a few kids, which expanded until she had to find a new location to build an orphanage. We met her cooking in the kitchen and she really seemed like a mother figure for all these kids. The orphanage has expanded with donations to include a smaller library, a computer lab, and more recently the bank donated enough money to build a second dormitory to separate the boys and girls. Right now someone is donating money to rebuild/renovate the storage area.


But our job was just to hang out with the kids! For Marshall this was a little interesting considering his lack of Portuguese, along with the two EAB students who didn't speak much Portuguese either. It was still really a great time. The kids always called us 'uncle' or 'aunt' whenever they wanted attention, too. The students painted the kids faces with face paint, but we didn't get a group picture afterward. . .sadness! I did get one of the kids playing some games (the three taller girls in front are students from EAB), as well as the adorable little girl who just walked up to Marshall, tugged on his pants and threw her arms out at him. It was sooo precious.


She was too young to be talking, but the body language said it all! And when Marshall would put her down she'd just throw her arms out again. But even more amusing, after a little bit of holding her, the founding 'mother' called over from the nearby bench to Marshall saying she needed to be changed. . . It was really hilarious.




I also got some of the older students to play SET, the 'family game of visual perception.' It's one of my absolutely favorite card games that I learned in Math Club in middle school (it has its own set of strange cards). Some of the kids were really quick learners too! I hope we get a chance to go back because we would both love to do it again, especially now that we know what to expect. Also, I must say I was really impressed by the leadership capabilities the students showed during the whole day. Things were well organized, and no teachers were directly involved!

Photo Updates!

Here's a photo summary of some of the more exciting things that have happened in the last two weeks!

I went out again for the night field collection of toads and we actually found two toads of the species we needed this time. A ROUS (rodent of unusual size), better known as a capybara, also found us, too. Just as we found the first toad alongside the lake I heard some shuffling sounds in the dark near us, which turned out to be the capybara. No shyness at all, just munching on plants along the way, coming closer and closer. It was hard to pay attention to the little toad with the capybara distracting me. But it was really difficult to get a picture, as seen below in black and white, simply because of the absolute darkness surrounding us. And my little Canon's flash just wasn't enough!































I've also finally realized that these shiny 'lizards' (in the photo) are skinks. I didn't see too many lizards in the field on Tuesday with Jorge of this week, but on Friday I made an unexpected trip with Bernardo to the burned field at the reserve. It was really great because I of course didn't have any appropriate clothes to go outside with, so Bernardo took me to his place to try some of his sister's pants, and I got to meet his dad and brother, and I ate a yummy lunch with them too. Two other students also rode with us to collect scorpions hiding in termite mounds, and they found two poisonous vipers (unfortunately we were at another site so I didn't see them), along with some invertebrates like a gigantic spider (which I did see--shudder. . .) and, of course, scorpions. They also said something about a huge crab, which I was very curious about, but haven't learned more.




And, going even further back in time, a week ago Friday (Sept. 5) Marshall's school had a "Parade of Patriotic Feelings" (their translation!) to celebrate Brazil's independence day on the Sunday after. The kids were able to take a break from their typical school uniforms and wear Brazilian-colored shirts and jeans. Here are a few shots of the 'parade' where the students carried signs with different words like respect, peace, etc. But apparently they had a little difficulty with the final sign configuration to make the Brazilian flag. . .






















On Saturday, the day after EAB's parade, I spent most of the day making some amazing chocolate chip cookies for the graduation BBQ on Sunday. Unfortunately, we didn't end up being able to attend the BBQ because of some issues with having a ride. But at least the cookies were good!











And finally the 'spectacular' independence day, September 7th, parade that the Brazilian government put on in the center of Brasilia. We did have some expectations of greatness considering we were in the capital of the country, but it didn't quite live up. Perhaps the ridiculously hot sun, superb dryness, and packed-like-sardines stands combined with Brazilians' nonexistent space bubble, contributed to the disappointment. Check out the video clip to find out!




However, the parade did eventually start (45 minutes late, what's new. . .) and we saw lots of military people, the women's soccer team that lost in the Olympics to the U.S., as well as some other strange groups (seen below; I have not much of a clue what they were). There was a group carrying all the flags from the Brazilian states, and Tae Kwon Do and Capoeira groups.














































About an hour into the parade we had to leave the bleacher area to cool down and grab some food. And by then it was just military things--huge tanks, etc. BUT at the very end of the parade was the coolest part! All of a sudden rows and rows of 'knights' came down the road. The pictures were hard to take considering our distance from the edge of the road by that point, but at least when enlarged it is easier to see. They also had a cool air show afterwords with stunt planes, so I guess it was worth sticking around! At the end of the air show clip that is Marshall's face that I accidentally filmed, and it is also possible to hear the announcer saying the plane numbers 5, meia, 7. . . I recently discovered that when people are saying 'half' (meia in Portuguese) for numbers they mean '6' because it refers to a half dozen. No idea where that came from!

Hiatus. . .

Things really aren't slowing down much here, especially when Marshall and I look at all the deadlines that are rapidly approaching. I'm still taking trips to the field to collect herps, and I took my first test on Monday for the Biology of Reptiles class. Can't say it went too well, but I know I did learn a lot of reptile families!! But I did find out in class that our 10-day field trip will be on the beach in Joao Pessoa, on the furthest tip of eastern Brazil. However, this would include a 40-some hour bus ride, too. . .

Marshall began teaching his own lessons last week in Mr. Meklin's geometry classes, after four weeks of observations, and is also earning 'brownie points' with his second teacher, Mr. Woolverton, by substitute teaching for him a lot recently. Hopefully this means he'll be able to take a week off and head to the largest wetland in the world, the Pantanal! We're also trying to plan our December travels, probably starting in Rio and heading all the way up the coast, then taking a boat down the Amazon River, before flying back to Rio for Revellion, the big New Year's Eve party reminiscent of Carnival.

I still have a lot of pictures to post (such as our 'fun' Brazilian Independence Day parade and my encounter with a ROUS--think Princess Bride, fireswamp. . .) but will head to bed tonight and put it off for another day!