Fellow Stories

Comparisons

Karyn Miller

2010-12-24

It’s been interesting living with the MST this past month or so: regional and state meetings (which were full-on weekend events), occupation of the town hall of Santo Amaro (one of the guys working there and living in an assentamento was not promoting the interests MST, apparently), occupation of new land (essentially seizing new land...

O Alemão aprende Manguerissa

Adam Horowitz

2010-12-24

Strangers used to point and call me “Alemão” as I passed by their gates in Massaranduba. I was unknown, and so I was “The German”. But not just me—it had nothing to do with skin color. Because, blame it on poverty or fear or failure of public transportation, there are large areas of Massaranduba that...

Adjustments

Karyn Miller

2010-12-09

A few things I’m realizing will be a normal part of my life for the next 5 months: Every rooster in the settlement having a cockadoodldooing competition at all hours of the night Every dog in the settlement simultaneously breaking out in a chorus of shrieking and barking—also at all hours of the night The...

The Horse and the Cow

Thomas Linford

2010-12-09

My family loves talking fast. They also love playfully shouting at each other at the top of their lungs. And then there’s me, frantically trying to figure out what my family says as they rapidly yell at me while smiling and laughing. Fortunately, I was able to put these troublesome problems to the side one...

Finding My Footing

Meg Healy

2010-12-07

Living in the city of Salvador has presented the greatest challenge for me thus far.  As an enthusiastic hiker and camper, I’ve been having nature withdrawals in this crowded, polluted, and relentlessly noisy city of three million people. I have yet to spend a night in Brazil in which I do not fall asleep to...

Teach for Brazil…or Wherever You May Find Yourself

Michael Stivers

2010-12-06

I don’t have a word for what my body and mind were doing the night before I started my apprenticeship. I suppose you could call it a healthy tremor. A couple days previous two other Fellows, Meg Healy, Laura Rohrer and I were told we would have the task of starting an English Language Program...

Forever Tired

Cooper Wright

2010-12-01

It´s been about a week since I arrived at my homestay in Eldorado, an MST community. For those Dwighties that are reading this, no, this is not the dreaded Math/Science/Technology program, but rather a program that sets up rural workers with land that is no longer used. This has caused problems in Brazil, as the...

Two Week Old Portuguese Brain Put to Work

Thomas Linford

2010-11-29

Three weeks ago at night, my host mom came rushing into my room, cell phone in hand, talking the fastest Portuguese she’s ever spoken to me. “Eu tou conversando com um homem quem não fala Português, mas ele fala inglês. Eu não falo inglês. Você pode falar com ele?” “Uhh…” I had been chatting on...

A little taste of teamwork

Michael Stivers

2010-11-22

As the details of our and homestays had yet to be finalized, I and theother six remaining Fellows moved into a hostel-style apartment just outside the Pelourinho area of Salvador. As harsh as it sounds the main point of this was really just to give time. We were still having trouble wrapping our American minds...

Inha

2010-11-21

Celenilda is my family’s housekeeper. She is 18 years old and sleeps in a tiny room off of the kitchen that doubles as a food pantry. There is a bunk bed and she sleeps on the bottom because the top is stacked high with boxes of natural granola cupuacu and cacao products. Until very recently...

Trip to the Mall

Meg Healy

2010-11-21

I was recently invited to go to the mall with Laura’s host-sister and several of her 15-year old friends. I eagerly accepted their invitation because I had not yet had the opportunity to spend time with Brazilians close to my age and learn about Brazilian pop culture. I’ve never been a mall person, but disregarded...

Baixo Petroleo (Below The Oil), Salvador

Adam Horowitz

2010-11-16

Exactly one week ago, I was the first of the Brazil fellows to be placed. I´ve been living in Baixo Petroleo, in this vast aggregation of slanted houses with walls of cloth or wood or concrete that look like the tottering results of unsupervised Lego use. Home is a community built on a meter-thick concrete...