Cuarta-feira em Rio Branco!

This is my first chance to blog from Brazil, and there is so much to say!

MONDAY: We visited a newly revitalized city park called Portal principal do Horto Florestal. Lots of examples of local trees and flowers, all of which seemed completely exotic to us North Americans. The park includes a new education center with computer lab and library for school groups-- also a recycling center where they make old paper into craft items. Very clever. In the afternoon, we saw the Palace of the Governor of the State of Acre, the council chambers for the state assembly with enormous wooden inlay murals, and other downtown sights-- then the Museu da Borracha, the Rubber Museum, where you can see the remnants of old manufacturing techniques (cutting diagonally into the bark of the trees, draining and boiling the sap, and rolling the rubber into balls that are floated up the rivers).

TUESDAY: The vocational day! We each shadowed a local professional and learned about our careers from a Brazilian point of view. I had a wonderful talk with an artist who specializes in wedding and news photography. Later I joined Jenny and Everett for a tour of a local slum clinging to the banks of a filthy, flooding river. The place was an incredible study in contrasts: houses falling into sewage, but the people living there had satellite TV´s and cell phones and spotless clothing-- and they were gracious and tolerant of us strangers walking through their neighborhood. Very humbling. And of course fascinating for photography. The state is building new neighborhoods for these people and giving them their own homes almost for free, but some economic and sociological challenges still stand in the way of change... More on that later.

WEDNESDAY: A hike through private land/preservation area a few miles outside the city. MUITA LAMA! (translation: lots of mud) We sampled various fruits straight out of the jungle, learned about the restrictions on tree-cutting, and marveled at the trees over a hundred feet high. Then we saw the Arena da Floresta, the big soccer arena that´s getting a make-over in the hopes that it will be chosen to be the northern Brazil host for the 2014 Copa do Mundo (world cup soccer). Some of us went to our hosts´ homes for lunch, and others went to Big Lunche restaurant for a buffet. Now we have a few spare moments to blog and regroup, and hopefully there will be more chances to get on a computer during the next few days. Our apologies to those who were hoping for multiple blogs each day! We will do our best to keep in touch... And photos will follow soon. Atelogo!