Back in Sampa

Here is a picture of my host brother Felipe. He is holding the sticker book I wrote about in the last blog post where he collects stickers of each player that will be playing on the different teams in the World Cup this summer. He has been doing this sticker book business since he was 7! After buying 500 stickers and filling the book in, he decided to give me a sticker to put in my journal as a token to remember him. What a cutie. On the right is a picture of me doing Brazilian martial arts, Capuera. I went to a lesson the other night to learn the movements and music. It was amazing and I really want to take lessons when I get back to the states!

Ituverava - Rodeo and more!

Last week, the group headed 6 hours out of Sao Paulo for our 'rural' visit in the country side, a town called Ituverava. All i knew prior to our arrival was that this town has many sugar cane fields and that the five days we were going to be there happened to be the five days of their annual Rodeo festival. Although in the country side, Ituverava much more developed than I had expected and like most of the country, has a small number of extremely wealthy families and many poor families living in favela-like conditions. We were placed with host families among the wealthy crowd, which my host mom refered to as the Brazilian Southern California (and indeed it was just that!) I roomed with my friend Jasmine at the Conti house hold with: Dad Gustavo, Mom Rosangela, Brother Gustavinho (20), Sister Laura (16), and Little sister Alice (12). The family was absolutely wonderful and I immediately felt like one of the Contis. While in Ituverava, we visited the towns hospital, clinics, went on excursions with local health agents, visited sugar cane fields and processing factory, and a school. We also heard from speakers about rural health care and lifestyle and how it has improved drastically in recent years. The city was so excited to have us (as their first American visitors) and made our stay more than amazing. Every night we went to party at the Rodeo festival VIP style. We had passes to watch the bull riding in the mayor's booth and had fun walking around the rest of the carnival (kind of like a giant state fair). I have never seen anything like this before so it was really exciting! Of course I wanted to fit in, so I borrowed cow boy boots and a matching belt to wear every night. After the bull riding would end (around midnight), a different famous performer would play a concert, both Brazilian country and samba music. And after the concert ended (around 2:30) the disco would begin in a venue across the street until the wee hours of the morning! The festival and my new host family were amazing and really made my stay in Ituverava so special! Luckily, the Conti's will be in NY this fall so I will have the opportunity to show them around in my neighborhood!

Continent #3: Sao Paulo, Brazil!!

Greetings from Sao Paulo, one of the biggest cities I've ever seen, filled with sunshine and romance! I am absolutely loving the life here! For the third time, I moved in with my Brazilian host family. I am living with a mom, Sueli, her 18-year old son, Filipe, and the maid, Maria. Sueli is so sweet and has been helping me learn Portugese and Filipe is also really nice. My new room mates (Eliza and Allison) and I are working really hard at bonding with him (he showed us his world cup sticker book yesterday so we are definitely making progress!). Sueli is a dentist and is also studying the laws of the universe, and Felipe just started dental school. Our apartment is right off of one of the main streets in Sao Paulo, Avenida Paulista. The location is amazing and I love walking around the area. There are two awesome parks with in a 15 minute run from the apartment so I am having a lot of fun exploring them. It is crazy to think how green this city feels compared to polluted Hanoi!


I am taking classes at the Santa Casa medical school which is about a 20ish minute bus ride from my home, but with the crazy traffic and the gorgeous weather, I prefer to walk to school. We have had a lot of great guest lecturers and site visits during our stay so far. We visited the Butantan Institute that makes vaccines from snake venom, obstetric hospitals, pro-choice NGOs (abortion is illegal here), an AIDS clinic, and have heard from speakers about Brazilian history, maternal and child health, the universal AIDS treatment program, and the universal health care system. All of this has been really interesting. All of our lectures have highlighted much of the inequalities that exist in Brazil between races and socioeconomic classes. Although there is an extremely large Black (Afro-Brazilian) population here, for the most part these people remain in extreme poverty and live in favelas, slums. I had the opportunity to visit a favela on the outskirts of the city last week which was really eye opening. Until 2 years ago, there was no infrastructure (running water or electricity), and the public elementary school was only built five years ago. This 1 school must cater to the needs of the 47,000 people that live in the favela, which leaves long lines on the waiting list. It was definitely something to see.

I also went with some people in my group to a ritual ceremony for the Afro-Brazilian religion called Candombe. The religion is based on a lot of African rituals that came to Brazil during slave trade. It was really cool to see the traditions and made me miss my life dancing around at church in South Africa.


Ive had so much fun exploring the city and all of the streets and shops. The city is covered in artistic graffiti which adds a lot of fun and excitement to the city buildings. There is horrible traffic 24 hours of the day, which makes sense in a city of 10 million! I have visited a lot of markets and quite a few museums, but still have so many more to see. Over the weekend, I went to the beach with some friends and my host brother which was absolutely gorgeous.
The water was a perfect temperature to swim in and I enjoyed laying out and drinking from a coconut in one hand and a caipirinha (the classic Brazilian cocktail) in the other. I also had my first real sea food experience - with shrimp, crab, and calamari. The city is filled with amazing tropical fruits and every restaurants sells delicious fruit juices! Ive been getting them almost every day. Yum!

Also, I have been making up for having no night life in South Africa and Vietnam here - which has been extremely fun! There are endless options for things to do at night, so I have been exploring different bars and clubs. Nothing even really starts until midnight and goes until all hours in the morning, basically just in time for breakfast the next morning. The city is also filled with so much PDA! People are kissing every where, on streets, in restaurants, even in the supermarket! This is definitely such a change from Vietnam!


All in all, I am loving this city!

Mai Chao Valley!

I spent this past week in the gorgeous Mai Chao Valley, about 4 hours outside of Hanoi. In this village, one of the 53 Vietnamese ethnic minorities live - the White Thai people. In efforts to both preserve their culture and tradition and integrate minority groups into the new Vietnamese market economy, the government has made many ethnic minority villages into tourist attraction. Our group questioned the 'commodification' of the minority as a form of increased tourism, and although this is true, I also feel that tourism is a major way these ethnic minorities can still thrive as a people who preserving their culture. There are no official "hotels" here. All visitors stay in the villagers stilted homes. All 34 members of my group slept on the floor of one families home - it was one crazy 5 day sleepover! The first night we arrive to Mai Chao was the first night of Passover, and of course, I seized this opportunity to host one crazy alternative seder in the middle of rice patties. I managed to get hold of three pieces of matzah - which was an adventure with in itself! I called Chabad in Saigon, who told me there is no matzah in Hanoi, but said to call the Israeli embassy, who told me to call a man Gaby, who told me to call a lady, Suzanne - who was leading the Hanoi seder and told me she would give me three pieces of matzah from the box she got from London! These pieces made it with me to Mai Chao, and with some fun songs and the 4 Questions in Vietnamese, I lead an awesome seder for about 20 people in my group. It was really special for me to share this with so many people in my group for their first time, and reflect on why Passover is still relevant to discuss and celebrate today. During the week, we explored the livelihood of the villagers. We learned about the rice seasons and how to manage the patties and saw where the silk products sold to tourists are made. I also went on a beautiful hike into caves and on a bike ride with my room mate Marian to another village. At night, we saw a great traditional dance show, competed in a volley ball game against the locals, and had a bond fire. Being in such a peaceful and beautiful place for the week provided me with the space to reflect and really rejuvenated me to return to Hanoi for one last weekend before leaving for my last stop, Sao Paulo BRAZIL!