DAY 13
MANAUS, BRAZIL
I have to say, I was a bit surprised when I woke up the morning we arrived in Manaus and I looked out my window at the port. I was told that Manaus was a very built up city complete with sky scrapers. While my view was mostly of the industrial part of the dock, there were no sky scrapers to be seen. And it certainly wasn’t as pretty/charming as I expected the “Paris of Latin America” to be. The view was certainly underwhelming after what we had experienced in Dominica.
The day started for me with my first FDP (Faculty Directed Practicum) experience. It was called “A Conversation with Writer Dare Clubb” and featured 3 other professors onboard. On one side of me sat Grace, my ruby-playing-charming-comedian-goof ball of a friend. To the other side was Academic Dean Luftig who casually informed me of the exploits of the accomplished intellectuals in front of us. (One of whom was his wife and my World Theatre Professor.) While the FDP technically just involved the on-ship conversation, we all were invited to go with a group on a tour of the Teatro Amazonas about an hour later. Grace and I were certainly not about to miss out on that opportunity. We ate lunch with one other student, my World Theatre professor, the Dean, their son, his tutor/teacher for the semester, and Dare Clubb. I have to say, we were quite honored and bragged to our friends about why we couldn’t sit with them. Being able to so casually eat with your Dean, your professor, or a professional playwright, is one of the many unique attributes of this shipboard community that I love so much. After finishing lunch, we headed over to the opera house.
The walk there was my first experience in Manaus. It was outrageously humid and hot. It was uncomfortably crowded. And quite a bit smelly. The sidewalks were barely passable. Storefronts were without walls/windows and encroached onto the sidewalks which were lined on the other side by endless street vendors. In the tiny space between, crowds of people walked at varying speeds in all different directions. From the crack between the store overhangs and vendor tents often came drips of drainage which were tricky to avoid particularly while avoiding the cracked sidewalks. Needless to say, it was much easier to walk once we reached the open square in which the french-style opera house was situated.
While what I have described so far sounds vastly unpleasant, I did enjoy (in some aspects) my walk to the theatre. Since it was my first exposure to the city and the Brazilian people, I was bombarded with a thousands sights to look at and observe. Relaying it to you would be impossible. I’ll try to get some of the biggest observations across. Well, first of all, it wasn’t very touristy at all. You might expect that with my description of the endless street vendors, but these carts sold everyday commodities. Fruit, cell phones, underwear, remotes, hot food, notebooks, you name it. But nothing was sold with “Manaus” or “Brasil” (as they spell it) printed across it.
Something else that left a strong impression on me was how much the Brazilians stared at us. I have never experienced anything like it before! We were so clearly out of place. My friends and I noticed that I particularly was getting a lot of attention because of my red hair. The rest of the trip I did not see one redhead and realized how exotic I must have looked to them with my pale skin and bright hair. It was bizarre the amount of blatant stares I received.
The Teatro Amazonas was astonishing. Walking into the house of the theatre for the first time surged within me strong reminiscent feelings of the period of my life in which I was obsessed with “The Phantom of the Opera.” It honestly looked like it could have been pulled straight from that era in France, and it almost was. Interestingly enough, it was designed by a French architect to look just like the French opera house. If you looked up at the painted ceiling of the Teatro, it even was painted to appear as if you were standing beneath the Eiffel Tower! The tour was cheap, informative, and chock full of interesting tidbits like learning about strategically placed mirrors so that men could look at women’s ankles in the ballroom, how the coloring of the floorboards symbolized the “Meeting of Rivers”, and that there was a staircase in the men’s lobby area so that they could sneak out to the cabaret during performances.
The tour of the Teatro was followed by a visit to a church across the way, and ice cream with the Dean. After that (and some wandering with Grace) it was back to the ship where I brought my laptop to the dock terminal for some free wifi. The free wifi enabled me to video chat my parents and sister for the first time since I’ve been away. While I was only able to chat for a few minutes, it was really nice to see their faces.
My friends and I then met up on the ship to head out for dinner in the city. Brynn had heard great things about a Brazilian steakhouse called “Buffalo” and we set out for the restaurant with eager appetites. We had some difficulty finding the restaurant with the map we had, and when we finally arrived, we were discouraged to see that it was fechado- closed. This caused much uneasiness as we were in the middle of the city at night, practically everything had closed down with cage gates, we clearly looked out of place, and were with out a clue of where to go. We attempted to talk to a woman inside at a hotel desk, but she did not speak Ingles and the language barrier didn’t get us anywhere.
Thank goodness we had more luck with a old, female taxi driver who we managed to communicate the words eat, restaurant, and meat. Squeezing into two cabs, she delivered us to what seemed like the only lit up establishment in Manaus at the time. The restaurant, while large, brightly lit, and modern looking, was practically empty. After being seated we were greeted by a waiter who I suppose had been sent to us because he had the best english skills of the staff. Unable to read the menu, he instructed us on the best dishes and translated to another waiter who queued the order into a hand-held electronic device. Before we had even finished ordering, food began to arrive at our table. We had a bountiful feast of garlic bread, sausage, fried cheese, rice with 3 traditional sauce-like toppings, and fantastic steak which we ordered per ounce per person. The steak was brought before us and sliced on the table and was seasoned with a delicious array of spices. We were also brought passion fruit juice in glass pitchers that had a thick, smooth texture like that of a yogurt smoothie. To finish off the meal, we ordered roasted pineapple which was also brought on a skewer and sliced before us.
It would be an understatement if I said that we were treated very well at this restaurant. We were treated like royalty. We were given a lot of attention by the english-speaking waiter who waited on our every desire and gave out orders to many different co-workers. We began to get nervous that the check would be expensive, but it came to no more that about 20 US dollars per person including tip. This was a fantastic price considering the quality of service we received, the exorbitant amounts of food we consumed, the taste of the food, and given that some other SAS found a “Buffalo” steakhouse and paid about 70 US dollars per person. The good fortune didn’t end there. The group of us had hoped we could find a place to go dancing after because dance, like the samba, is a prevalent part of the Brazilian culture. We had no idea where to go though and were apprehensive about the cost we might rack up in a taxi trying to find one. Not to mention that our large group hardly fit into two taxis. We thought our waiter called a cab for us, but when we left the restaurant we were informed that the restaurant’s shuttle service was complementary to the meal! What restaurants have shuttle service around the surrounding city?? And for free?? The shuttle, being a newer vehicle than the cabs of Manaus, fit us comfortably and keep us cool with its well-functioning air conditioning.
The good luck ended there though. It seemed to never cross our minds that it was a Tuesday night at about 8pm. All the local joints that usually hosted live music or Brazilian dance were practically dead if not for a handful of locals. After the shuttle driver patiently drove us around the city for an hour, trying to help us find somewhere to go, we finally made the decision to head back to the ship. By that time we made it back, we were all beat tired and happily crawled into bed.
Oh! Something else interesting from this night was when I told the waiter my name, he asked if it was like Meg White from the White Stripes! Shocked me completely that this Portuguese-speaking guy from Brazil had any knowledge of a band like the White Stripes. It was a cool inter-cultural connection.
DAY 14
MANAUS/AMAZON
The next morning had its up’s and down’s, quite literally. I lazily got ready in the morning, and then finally headed out for some exploring with my roommate, Eleni. We stumbled upon a market area that sold more touristy merchandise which appealed to our souvenir shopping inclinations. We also got to try the sweet brasilian coffee and attempted to order a type of breakfast cheesy bread that was recommended by Brazilian students on SAS, but were given grilled cheese instead. It was still delicious! While Eleni bought a fantastic hammock, I was heading back to the ship empty-handed.
As I was looking around to get my bearings and find out our location in relation to the ship, I suddenly found myself falling, and my right leg almost wholly submerged in a square foot hole of garbage/sewage/sludge that I hadn’t noticed. This was in the middle of the crowded, dirty, city of Manaus. I don’t really remember it very much… just the feeling of the sludge,the embarrassment, and the pain. My right foot was fine, but the top of my thigh got scraped up and I have this monstrosity of a bruise right above it. My left foot got cut up a bit and a bit bruised. I have no idea how my left foot got injured. It was quite embarrassing when all the Brazilians looked at me, not knowing what to do with this clumsy, white American, but I got out of the situation quickly and headed back to the ship (which was thankfully close by).
Again, I have to comment on having such handy friends. Coincidentally, some of them had been at the terminal on their laptops and went back to the ship with me and Eleni. Taking on a very serious tone, they told me to go back to my cabin, shower off, and when I got out of the bathroom, they’d be there. Sure enough, I emerged from washing off my legs to find my friends equipped with first-aid supplies. Both are first-aid certified and took time disinfecting the scrapes and bandaging them up with neosporin. Luckily all injuries were minor and I was ready to head out for my next adventure in Brazil!
Not long after, a group of 6 of us met up to head out into the Amazon jungle! My friend Mike’s mom is a travel agent and was able to get us a deal on an eco lodge called “The Amazon Eco Jungle Park Lodge.” First we were picked up by a van (after some confusion on where exactly it was picking us up. It’s tough not having cell phones.) The van drove us out of the city to a dock. We were starting to become a little apprehensive about the water portion of the travel to the lodge because we kept hearing the term “canoe” and wondered how exactly it was that we were being transferred to the hotel (or were transferring ourselves!). Shortly after we arrived at the dock, a long, shallow “canoe” came to pick us up. This was not a canoe in our sense of the word. It had a motor and driver situated in the back who drove not with a steering wheel, but a long paddle that was attached to the motor. There was a canopy/roof and benches runninf width-wise. It probably could have easily fit 15 people.
The journey took us about 30 minutes down the Amazon and across to the other side of the river where the eco lodge sat amidst the jungle. Upon first arriving, we saw other SAS students lounging around (they were there for a SAS planned trip) and were given passionfruit juice welcome drinks. The lodge was interesting in that there were hardly any walls anywhere, particularly exterior walls. Everything was made of wood and had a distinct jungle feel. Winding paths took guests through the forest to the different social rooms (meal room, hammocks, “event” room), the natural pools, and the cabins.
Forgive me for not giving more descriptive details. It has now been 4 days since leaving Brazil and I’m trying to finally type everything out! I can’t be too descriptive or I’ll never get this done.
Luckily, all of our cabins had air-conditioning and could be completely closed off to bugs. After setting down our things, we changed into swim suits and headed to the natural pools to get some relief from the intense heat and humidity. There were 3 round pools contained by rock that cascaded down into the next one. They sat right in the jungle and trees had hardly been cleared out. It looked like we were swimming in tea, which was really bizarre. Mosquitos started to get at us after a short while so we headed back to our cabins to change and hang out/explore before dinner.
I spent a good amount of time before dinner swinging in a hammock with Eleni, Grace, and Sarah while Brynn and Mike slept while waiting for Evan and Brynn (number 2) to show up. I never realized how comfortable hammocks could be. Again, the hammocks were strung in a wall-less hut and it was incredible swinging under the roof while rain began to fall around us.
Not long after Evan and Brynn arrived did dinner start. It was a fantastic feast of fruits, vegetables, meats, everything! Because it was buffet style, the huge tables were surrounded by hungry guests. I guess the seats were assigned because there was a little confusion about there being a table for us, but once that was settled, we all enjoyed overeating the deliciously fresh food. (I think we each went up for fifth servings of the desserts and fruits.)
When dinner was over we headed to the “event room” which was a huge hut strung with lit lanterns and full of bean bag chairs. We stayed there chatting and playing games until almost 4 in the morning while bats swooped no more than a foot over our heads at moments to eat up all the bugs that had flocked to the light. It was so enjoyable to sit carefree in the middle of jungle laughing all night with close friends. Definitely one of the most memorable nights so far!
Walking back to our cabins we spotted many frogs along the paths and on our doors. In the night the jungle absolutely came alive and was full of exotic sounds. The depth of sound was incredible. I know this is cheesy, but it truly was musical. 100 times better than a sound machine or even Disney ;)
DAY 15
AMAZON/MANAUS
Unfortunately we had to wake up early and breakfast wasn’t quite as enjoyable as dinner. The food spread was still delicious. I ate an interesting “pancake” of sorts which the Brazilians make by grilling tapioca. Tasted yummy with butter! The meal was hard to enjoy though because flies were unrelentingly pursuing our food. Some guests had to give up their meals completely when brilliantly colored, large parrots flew in to claim their plates of food. That was certainly something I’ve never seen before.
After breakfast we were boated across the river to a conservation park where we had reservations for a canopy walk. This was quite the challenge to my fear of falling. Around particularly large trees, were platforms that wrapped around the trunk and were strapped on with ingenious (German? Canadian?) engineering so that the tree would not be damaged or compromised at all. Suspended by rope and netting to connect each platform were extensive, narrow, and wobbly “bridges” which necessitated single line formation. Peering down to the jungle floor from our position in the canopy as we teetered across the path was exhilarating. Don’t let me fool you, thoug. This was completely safe and brilliantly engineered, but I’m typically more comfortable being in sturdy positions at significant heights.
Nonetheless, the experience was breathtaking. The depth and intricacies of the rainforest continued to awe me. Our tour guide could not speak English (though he could speak French) and communicated to us through another English speaking guide (who didn’t have as much knowledge of the jungle). The tour was full of captivating tidbits about our surroundings, but unfortunately did not result in any animal sightings. We all had kind of hoped to snag a picture of a monkey and thought that perhaps going early in the morning and in a small group would provide us with a better opportunity.
On the last platform were stairs leading up to another platform which stood above the roof of the rainforest. In climbing up to the top, we took in a gorgeous view of the park, the river, and the eco lodge across the way. The group of us was mesmerized and spent a while up there. Sitting on the platform, the English speaking guide told us to listen to the music. I caught him say the word “nirvana.” Sitting there, feeling the light breeze and the heavy humidity, listening to the music of the Amazon, I swear I got a taste of what nirvana must feel like.
We also made a bit of our own music when the guide tried to teach us some Portuguese songs at Eleni’s request. We really had a great time with the two of them to guide us and when we arrived back at the eco lodge, gave them a modest tip even though it’s not expected in Brazil. To our surprise, he gratefully told us it was the first time he had ever received a tip.
The trip back to Manaus was long and tiresome. The group of us planned to attend a free symphony concert at the Teatro Amazonas and I knew I needed rest before a night out in the city. Before collapsing into bed, I decided to venture back to the terminal from the ship to browse the souvenir shop with a friend for potential purchases and take advantage of the free wifi. Some how during the time I spent on the computer, I lost track of my wallet and when I got up to leave, I could not locate it. I know I had it when I entered that room of the terminal so I can only assume that my fatigue and ability to only focus on one thing had allowed someone to swipe it. It was incredibly frustrating because I had been going through so much extra effort to secure my personal belongings through out the trip, especially while in port. Fortunately, I had planned accordingly and had left backups of the contents of my wallet onboard. Thoroughly disgruntled, I took care of what I needed to before taking a much needed nap, knowing I would awake with a fresh perspective.
Waking up from my nap, I did indeed feel much better. I got dressed up and met up with my friends to head over to the square around the Teatro. We wandered around for a little bit, keeping our eyes peels for a line to form. We spent a little bit of time in an EcoShop were I bought postcards, water, and banana chips (which I expected to taste like banana chips from Trader Joe’s, but instead were very much like a potato). And then we decided to spend the remainder of the time sitting at an outdoor restaurant in the square, watching for a line to form.
Because I’m getting extremely lazy with my blog entries, (it’s now been a week since leaving Brazil) I’m going to insert a paragraph from a site report I had to write for one my classes.
“ It [the Teatro Amazonas] clearly distinguishes itself from the surrounding area of Manaus, making it truly a spectacle. After trudging through the packed, claustrophobic, dirty, busy street up to the Teatro, I could not help but gasp in viewing it. Immediately wide space opened up, and in the center sat a pristine and elegant structure. I feel as if its presence not only held some effect over me when I first beheld the opera house, but particularly on the city the night of the symphony. Before that Thursday night, I could draw only meek connections between Manaus, the “Paris of Latin America,” and the actual Paris of France. However, the night of the performance, the atmosphere around the Teatro transformed completely. While most of the city seemed caught up in a half-hearted hustle and bustle, the square around the Teatro was relaxed and romantic. People were strolling around the fountain and sitting down at outdoor cafes for drinks. I felt as if we all had space to breathe and kick-back, contrary to the way I had felt since being in the city.”
Unfortunately, the cafe was on “Brazil time” and took forever to deliver the food that was ordered. Sara and Grace strolled up to the theatre and saw that a line had been forming in an area that wasn’t visible to our position. Some of us headed over to reserve a spot. The theatre only holds about 700 people so we were nervous about beating out the locals and the hordes of SAS students expected to flock to the free concert. Luckily we were well within the limits. I took a seat in one of the boxes and imagined what it would have been like to be one of the social elite attending a performance in the heyday of the opera.
The first act consisted of solos, duets, trios, and quartets of like instruments while the second act was the full symphony which covered the whole stage. The blast of sound when the whole symphony played was powerful and traveled right to your core The music was hauntingly and discordantly beautiful (if that makes any sense) and painted vivid images in my head. It was interesting that the performance could communicate so much through non-verbal sound that it transcended cultural and linguistic boundaries. The symphony, I found out later, played strictly Brazilian composers and picked pieces that captured the spirit of the Amazon. This was effectively communicated in the storytelling of the music.
From the performance I also gained a funny anecdote related to the transcendence of forms of communication beyond cultures. During the first act, musicians entered from between dividers (that blocked the back of the stage) to take their positions in the front. One of the brass performers was too wide to pass through and after a moment of struggling and awkwardness, walked around. The tension and formality broke when the audience laughed and the musician jovially bowed. To the audience’s amusement and for his own sake, the musician went around the dividers after his song. Even though there were so many Americans and other foreigners in the audience, the power of physical comedy permeates all boundaries.
I’m getting incredibly lazy now. Here is another excerpt from a report I wrote:
“In addition, the prevalence of Semester at Sea students in the crowd compared to local Brazilians surprised me. Although others observed a different percentage, I saw that at least one-third of the audience were SAS participants. The atmosphere of the audience throughout the performance was then baffling to me. There was relentless Portuguese chatter and twice a cell phone went off, rightly infuriating the conductor. This bad behavior seemed not to be coming from the Americans who had flocked to the theatre in great anticipation. Instead, it was the local Brazilians who took the performance for granted perhaps because its typically an event of status and sophistication, but that night was free.” Despite this bad behavior, it was a fantastic night out and my friends and I had a blast.
DAY 16
MANAUS
On the final day in Brazil, I only had the morning before an FDP in the afternoon and the ship’s departure. With some friends, I returned to the more touristy “market place” to get some last minute shopping done. We also were able to find the what was seemingly the only cafe in the nearby area to finally taste quality Brazilian coffee! Because I had heard so much about the quality of Brazilian coffee and its prevalence in the economy, I had expected cafes to be everywhere. I was shocked when this wasn’t the case and I had to go looking for coffee. Anyways, I was thrilled to have found a coffee shop and ordered a cappuccino. We learned in a pre-port meeting that Brazilians always load their coffee with sugar (partly because of sugar’s significance in its economy) and you have to tell them if you don’t want any. The first time I ordered coffee, I tried it with sugar and it was surprisingly good. (I usually take my coffee/espresso with out sugar.) At the cafe though, I opted for my normal choice and asked for it with out sugar (in Portuguese and mostly likely saying it almost incomprehensibly). The cappuccino was spectacular. In that moment I realized just how much I missed my local coffee shops and regularly buying espresso drinks. The drink also came with a small package of chocolate! That’s a trend America should adopt! Two of my friends ordered these incredible cappuccino “shakes” and I had to order one to go when we left. It wasn’t a shake in our typical sense of the word, but rather a thick, frothy coffee drink. It was quite the treat.
Before heading back to the ship, we stopped in a grocery store and I picked up some ground coffee to take home. The line was impossibly long and like nothing I’ve ever seen in a market before. It was quite interesting to spend a lot of time there and observe the people around me.
The afternoon of the last day I signed up for an FDP to Monte Salem Orphanage. Again, in my laziness, I will just insert here an account of the rest of my day that I wrote for my service learning class.
“Upon boarding the coach bus for my first service visit, I had no idea what to expect. I purposefully thought little of what I was about to do so that I could have as much of a raw experience as possible with as little preconceived notions as possible. From class I was aware that we’re already plagued with biases and assumptions and I wanted to limit that as much as possible.
Arriving at the orphanage, I saw the same grunge that had been present through out the majority of the Brazil I had been exposed to in our time there. At this time we were informed that it had taken us about an hour to get there and since it would also take us about an hour to get back, we only had 60 minutes at the orphanage. This was discouraging, but I still hoped to make the best of the situation. I had no idea what we would be expected to do, or what the organization would be, but I was willing to go with the flow. First, the owner’s son, Marcos, told us a little bit about the orphanage. I was surprised that the children are only supposed to stay there for about a year. In my mind, children lived at an orphanage throughout their youth until they turned eighteen. In that moment I realized that I had no exposure to real orphanages previous to this moment. My only knowledge was from fictional representations like Annie or Anastasia. This is something I’m not very proud of.
When we were told that there were only sixteen children to the forty of us, I was definitely discouraged. I knew there were a lot of people here set on “making a difference” and getting some pictures of themselves with foreign orphans. I was not going to aggressively seek out a child so that I could feel like a better person and I had really hoped there would be a bit more organization. Slowly, while Marcos was talking, kids started to emerge, evidently just having woken up from nap. When he was done speaking, I wanted to avoid intimidating the kids with the full force of forty of us, so I opted to look around the orphanage first. While I didn’t see the bathrooms, the rest of the rooms looked well-kept, incongruous to the dingy yard.
After walking around, I decided to venture back outside to where the children were to see what was going on. The next forty-five minutes were sufficiently awkward. I didn’t know what to do with myself. The kids seemed more concerned with the toys and gifts rather than the visitors. One boy spread open a map and with the help of a guide I managed to communicate with him a little bit, pointing places out around the globe before he packed up and went back to the toy table. I decided to stay seated and just see what would happen. Another student from our class, Jackie, was using one of the guides to communicate with a girl who was about thirteen, I believe. I also communicated a bit with here, talking about what she wanted to do when she grew up, driving, interests, and the first SAS visit. It was interesting, but did not feel very meaningful. A lot of other SAS students were sitting around like me, fiddling our thumbs. Many others were eagerly snapping pictures and playing with gifts they had brought. When time was up, we took a group picture and left.
The whole experience was very superficial. I would not classify it as a service learning experience, making it hard to write an academic reflection. I don’t feel that much of it, or any of it, relates to the course content thus far. I could not place any clear academic or learning goals. Perhaps, I should have made my own beforehand. I was hoping that through these service projects I would gain some career direction and that definitely was not achieved in this visit. I did learn what a service learning experience does not feel like. I’m really hoping that the rest of the service visits are better planned and there will be some reciprocal exchange. I supposed that if this were to happen again, I would use the opportunity to observe the other SAS students, particularly the ones not in service learning to make claims about the nature of service.”
I was going to write about my final thoughts and impressions of Brazil but it has now been over a week since we left and I need to start writing about what’s been happening while at sea for the past 7 days. Didn’t do a thorough read-through so I hope there too many grammatical mistakes and you enjoy finally hearing about my time in Brazil!
