Work and play

We came back from the village of Remanso, and had one day to spend in Chapada, the place where I went ziplining/snorkeling/caving. There were a couple options presented as to what to do, and I decided to go on the hike to one of the tallest waterfalls in Brazil, the Cachoeira da Fumaca, a waterfall that registers in at 353 meters high. Of course, the thing about a 353 meter high waterfall is that you must first climb to the top to see the waterfall from the top. 

Our guide led us to a firefighter station first. I grabbed a handy cane and was ready to set out. I was definitely that annoying person on the first 2 km straight up hill, charging ahead, issuing encouraging statements to people who were working pretty hard to get up the hill. I enjoyed the climb, but I could definitely acknowledge that it wasn't easy, and I took a few water breaks on the way. There were some beautiful views though, kind of like the grand canyon but a bit more verdant.

This was from the top of the hike, before we went inland.

The terrain was mostly chapparal. 

We had about 5 km of flat ground next. It was beautiful, rugged, and we followed a windy path with some puddles and we had some fun jumping from rock to rock, trying to arrive on the other side dry and unscathed. Our group inevitably separated on the way, as we all had different paces. They eventually found their way back, and rejoined us with a tale of how they got lost, not sure which path to take. 

We finally arrived to the waterfall, and it was basically a huge canyon culminating in a waterfall

We had one of those lunches that theoretically should not have been nearly as delicious as it was. But after hiking, food just tastes so much better. We washed some veggies in the creek, had sandwiches with questionable meat and some heavily processed cookies, but again we relished every bite.

The waterfall was unlike any I have ever seen. It didn't reach all the way to the bottom, instead, the water stream dissipated on the way down, going whichever way the wind blew. 

The mist even blew over to form a rainbow

Another view of the falls You can see that my camera got a bit wet in the interim

Here the mist is super dispersed

And here it is going straight up, crazy right?

We got to climb out to the edge and look off, and while you really didn't want to fall off, strangely enough I didn't feel too much fear. It was kind of exhilarating actually.

Did I mention you didn't want to fall off?

There was only some mist, so sometimes you would just see a patch of rainbow.

Walking back I think all of us were tired, but I amused myself doing some sword practice on the bushes-- Have I ever mentioned that I am a kid at heart?

The graffiti in this town is awesome.

I made french toast for my birthday, treating my host parents to food american style.

yum

Research Period

So the research period passed without too much event, so I will skip a lot of unnecessary details.

We had an apartment between 6 people and me, and it was actually surprisingly spacious with surprisingly good wifi and a kitchen and everything. The biggest perk was probably that we were about 100 steps from a major supermarket, and each of us went there either every day or every other day. 

I also started up some jiujitsu here in Barra too, and went about 5 or 6 times a week, so we had established a very regular rhythm. Before I had fully moved, I got promoted to a blue belt, with a rather unconventional promotion in multiple respects. A week before, my sensei had said that he was promoting me when I left. I had not really expected this, as I had only done jiujitsu in total for about 4 months, and the average time for promoting to blue belt is between 1 and 4 years, and one is generally considered fast. So it really surprised and gratified me to hear this. I spent hours on youtube trying to learn all the moves that I thought would be on this "test" when really the "test" consisted of just facing a lot of people in a row, which is can I say exhausting. I probably went 30 or 40 minutes straight and by the end (actually by the middle, but they didn't seem to care) I was gasping for water.

To fully transition, I also had to submit to the "Corridor" again, which is a gauntlet of sorts where you run along a line of people and back, hunched with your kimono slightly protecting you and them hitting you with their belts. It was an incentive to run fast to say the least. The worst part about it psychologically was that you never knew when you were done. At first they said 3 times back and forth, but then when I had finished, the Sensei set me on a fourth time, with me slightly accusatory, saying he had said only 3 times, but run it I did.

I really felt happy to earn a blue belt. These are my teachers. The one on the right is a MMA fighter and had recently won a professional bout. The one on the left was the leader of the gym, Grimauldo Oliveira, and had said that he had recently gotten like 3rd in the world championship. 3rd! That is crazy good.

My back immediately after. If it is not readily apparent, I have large purple welts on my back, welts that only expanded and deepened in colour for the next two days.

Here is the living room to the apartment, with a hammock out back.

We even had an extra mattress for visitors, as well as a long and creepy hallway

I will do a highlight reel of my research now.

• I did my project on  the social exclusion and stigma of physically handicapped people in Salvador and did ethnographies to determine if these problems occurred and if so how. Then I went and interviewed 5 people in long in depth interviews to find out their attitudes on the problems.
• I found there was some interpersonal discrimination, teasing etc
• the bus system was a major site of said discrimination
• Salvador is not an accessible city
• Physically handicapped often fear leaving the house
• not very many opportunities for those with physical handicaps, both socially and in the workmarket
• the situation is getting better and efforts are made to start to include those with physical handicaps but the city of salvador was still a long way off
• And something that I found rather crazy, two of the five people I did my research on had been shot and one of them had been shot 6 times.
• I learned a lot in the course of my research about both those with physical handicaps as well as myself and I learned how to conduct social research on my own, which was pretty exciting for me

I actually finished my research project a full week early, so got some time to go to the beach and hang out. I traded editing skills for acai, a Brazillian dessert.

And one last experience for the end of this entry. It was torrentially pouring outside, and I was warm, watching a tv show. A friend of mine named Dylan suggested running outside in the rain, and I responded you know, yeah I'll do it. We ran in the rain, our ankle deep in water and made it to the beach where the waves were crashing. It was fun to just look up at the sky, and see the water coming down (the droplets were that big, really easy to see). We clambered over some rocks to watch the bay, and eventually we were just running along the beach before we decided to head back, soaked but exhilarated.