BRASIL....

I know once I got back little was said about Brasil. MAdddd people wanted to give intricate details about everything I did but I just wasn't feeling it. Honestly i just didn't feel like talking about it because I was completely drained. LeT me start of by saying it was my first time out of the country and I traveled alone. It was very interesting and I opening. Sooooooooooo when I finally made it there because talking about my experience in the airport would make me mad all over again....Prisicila a 19 year old black Brazilian girl and her aunt Mieza picked me up from the airport. It took about 2 hours to make it back to the community they lived in. They were poor black Brazilians and they lived in a favela (slums). It was quite depressing walking through the community i saw naked children, incomplete homes, just horrible conditions that I felt no one should have to endure. So it was utter culture shock needless to say. So when I finally made it to my room I was happy but still sad because I didn't have my suitcases. So I finally got my bags the next day. My day to day was getting up in the morning and attending a Portuguese class across town. We walked the bus station every morning (they didn't own a car) and we got off at the nearest stop to our school. The reason I say our is because I met another student from Howard there. Her name was Lorin and boy was she my saving grace...OMG...someone else that spoke English..even thought she was from the Caribbean and at times it was hard to understand...SHE STILL SPOKE ENGLISH. No one in the home spoke English..Priscila spoke broken English. After class we came back home and took showers because it was extremely hot. For fun we went to clubs, they had a lot of outside and neighborhood concerts, we went to the mall, souvenir shopping, and of course capoeira. Lorin and I taught an English class twice a week to students from ages 12 to 54. It was very interesting the class was in the evening time...they were very eager to learn English. We watched Television sometimes Brazilian people love soccer and novelas (soap operas). Whoever said that music was the universal language wasn't lying because although they could not speak English they knew every American song ever. In the household i lived in they loved to listen to Toni Braxton. They played her all day every day. The food was okay but i'm a very picky eater and we really didn't eat out...the grandmother cooked everyday. My teacher is "old school" and took it upon herself to tell the family that all American students like cheeseburgers...lol..I just laughed when they told them that and told them politely that I didn't. We went to different museums and saw the sights. The beach was really nice but i didn't go alot. The experience in Brazil was very eye opening it made me appreciate the life I live. Although I have had a lot of bad experiences my situation at it's present state could be a lot more wrost. I disagree with a lot of things my government does and just down right don't like it but I love my country. The liberties and freedoms that we have we should definitely be a little more appreciative because I know that a lot of my friends and family wouldn't be able to live on a daily basis. Some of you don't even like to wash clothes by throwing them in the washer and dryer I had to hand wash mine and put it on a liner. I practically walked everywhere i went to. Life was just totally different. The state of our people what i mean is black people over there is horrible and we as African American should take more initiative to help me them. We all came from the same descendants those are our brothers and sisters...Tell me your thoughts or if you have any questions on what it is we can do to help the blacks of Salvador, Bahia. The community where I lived in is called Ondina in case you wanted to Google it or something...