This is going to be a long one. About 3 hours ago the ship left port in Brazil, and I have had the most amazing 4 days of my life. Ill start with Sunday, our first day in Manaus. Basically, it was Sunday and everything was closed so we walked around, went into a few stores, had some street food, and then did some sight seeing. There is an old opera house in downtown Manaus, left over from the glory days of the rubber boom of the early 1930s. Every piece of material used in construction was imported from Europe, and it is beautiful. We explored the first floor then went up to one of the boxes and sat for a while. Then we headed back to the ship to get our computers and head to the Manuara Shopping Center, a very western mall where we spent the afternoon. One of the employees at a travel agent gave us the password to the free internet and we fell on it like starving children tasting cake for the first time. Molly took a picture of us all on our computers and its actually pretty sad how intense we look. That night we went out to dinner, and ended up at a restaurant where no one spoke English and it was really difficult to communicate but it ended up being okay. The next morning we woke up at 7 am to get ready and left for the most amazing trip. We started out on a riverboat, which we rode for about 2 hours. On the ride, we saw the merging of the Rio Negro and the Amazon River. It is so cool, both rivers are so powerful that the dark black water and the light brown water dont mix for miles and there is a very clear distinction between the two. After we got off the boat we got on a bus for a 2-hour ride into the Amazon jungle. Then we got on a ferry, then back on the bus, and finally arrived in the village we were going to be working in after about 6 hours of travel. The village is so remote that we were the first group of westerners that had ever been there. We ate lunch with the locals and immediately got to work. We found out that we would be painting the entire school inside and out and also building a new bridge out front. It seemed ambitious but we knew we could finish it, until we found out that there were only about 4 paintbrushes. That was a problem, but we got to work on random tasks to keep up busy and ended up just switching off with the brushes. We tried to interact with the children but there was such a huge language barrier and they were quite shy, so it wasnt very successful that day. At about 5 we left the school and walked down the road a bit, where we learned that we would be boarding another riverboat for a 20-minute ride to our hotel. We stayed at a place called Tupana Ecolodge, which was actually a nice bungalow with rooms, a dock, kayaks and lots of outdoor activities. We quickly found out, though, that since we werent paying the going rate we would be living in the covered tree house that didnt yet have a roof on in. It was about 65 feet off the ground with very little railing, and all 22 of our group slept in hammocks that were all strung from the same central pole. It was actually awesome- when else would I EVER get to sleep in a hammock with 22 other awesome people in the middle of the Amazon Rain Forest? It was pretty buggy, but once I was bundled up and tucked in with my little blanket I slept pretty well. We had a communal bathroom that was basically a non-working toilet and some river water pumped through to a showerhead. Pretty interesting. There was another group of SAS kids staying there, and they had paid a lot more for a luxury vacation, so we joked the whole time that we were the working class peasants. We had the earlier breakfast and the latest dinner, and we werent allowed into the dining room area while they were eating. It was funny though; everyone was really excited to be there so it didnt matter anyway. That night our guides, Simom and Nigel, went into the jungle and found a HUGE grasshopper. When I say huge I mean the size of a huge crawfish. Everyone was freaking out and someone asked what else was out there. Nigel was like hold on a second and came back 10 minutes later with a huge monkey spider and an owl. The next night Simom said something about a bird, someone asked what it looked like, he said hold on and came back pretty soon with it in his hand. Amazing. One of the best and worst parts about the lodge was the domesticated monkey that roamed the property. She was adorable but a complete menace, seeing that we had no doors to shut or drawers to hide anything in, but more about that later. The next 2 days were the hardest, sweatiest, most awesome days I have ever had. Once we all had paintbrushes we were so productive, and we were playing music and laughing and having a great time. The children opened up to us and we played duck duck goose, red rover, and soccer with them. Every night we left work and took canoes to the lodge, which meant that our commute to work was amazing. One night one of our 2 awesome guides, Simom, took us out on a canoe to try to see the fresh water pink dolphins that live in the river. We didnt see any but the ride and the sunset were beautiful. The second day we took a break from working and walked down the road a bit. We climbed up the unfinished side of the halfway complete bridge and walked to the other side, where some of the guys swam in the river. When we got back to the lodge we decided to swim because watching them had made up jealous and some of us splashed around for a while. Wednesday morning I woke up at 5:30 am to the sound of a pill bottle being opened next to my head. I opened my eyes and was immediately panicked. The monkey had my Ambien. As soon as I realized this I immediately shouted THE MONKEY HAS MY AMBIEN and shot out of my hammock to chase after it. Everyone started cracking up at such sight to wake up to and one girl, Tatiana, got up to help me get it back. The monkey ended up eating or spilling about half of my entire semesters supply of Ambien, so well have to see what happens with that. On our last full day at work we tore down and rebuilt the entire bridge and finished painting most of the school. We were all feeling so awesome when we left, even after such a long hard day of work that we all jumped off the top of a riverboat into the river a few times. It was amazing and we got some great pictures. That night it rained so we panicked a bit about our sleeping arrangements, but it stopped so everything was fine. We started the long trek back to the ship this morning at about 8 am, but we had to turn around promptly after we realized we left 3 people at the lodge. Uh oh. But we got them and it was fine and we made it back. On the way home we stopped in at the school for a quick good bye, and we presented the village leader with the 600 Brazilian Reals that we collected to buy shoes and school supplies for the children. It costs about 10 Reals for one students supplies for one year, so we left knowing we definitely did some good. It was an amazing trip. All of the people who were there had signed up because they wanted to be there, so everyone worked really hard and had a great attitude. The people I met were awesome and they completely made the trip. One of the best parts were the guides. I fell in love with Simom, he had the most beautiful smile, but he was 18 and had a girlfriend (damn- my dreams of life in a Brazilian bungalow are shot). Nigel was AWESOME and knew so much and was so nice (and were already Facebook friends). When I got home I already missed the atmosphere of the trip, and it occurred to me that this past week has completely reaffirmed to me what I want to do with my life. I felt so fulfilled and happy even when I was getting sweaty and dirty painting the school or playing with the children. I KNOW that this is what I want to do with my life, I KNOW that I was meant for service work. I feel so lucky that I have these opportunities and I dont even have words to convey how much the past week has meant to me. When Im older I know that I will look back at this as one of the defining moments of my life. Now we’re headed to Ghana (!!!!!) but we have 9 long days at sea before then. Time to get back to real life, with ACTUAL classes and homework. Damn.
