Latin America Project

WELCOME TO BRAZIL!!!		Atlantic College AC Internal Brazil Latin America
Luise, tom, Erian, Ella, Mayely, Nika, Lucy visiting the church in San Pedro.	Over the summer 12 students from Atlantic College visited a village in Brazil. The students who went of this project were: Luis Enriquez Eirian Henry Peck Max Avis Mayely Imhoff Ella Flaye Nika Tom Tomsky Nancy Sara Daniel By mid June 2006 people of the project started to arrive to Bogotá (the capital city of Colombia), this was the beginning of a great experience. With its 7.5 million habitants living at 2600 meters over sea level, Bogotá gave a warm welcome to the people of the of the project. The first days were spent sight seeing and having lots of fun, and later living a little bit of the night life of Bogotá. We spent a few days shopping: not just any shopping but, buying things that we needed for the project like mosquito repellent, good shoes and of course things needed for the local community.

Lucy, Henry and Ella playing with kids from San Pedro	After 1 hour 45 minutes by plane (the only possible way) we arrived to Leticia, the Colombian harbour in the Amazon. Then after 20 minutes in taxi we cross the border and entered Brazil. After travelling four hours on a boat, we left the Amazon River and entered the Yabari River; the river that divides Brazil from Peru. Then in the middle of the jungle, we arrived to our destination. Surrounded by jungle and the river as the only way of communication we arrived to San Pedro; A small community of about 60 habitants, 10 houses and one church. The work began almost immediately, after a meeting where we presented ourselves and gave all the things we brought officially (notebooks, pencils, erasers, books … etc), we found ourselves playing with kids and teaching them games. We stayed at the school which had only one room with hammocks. By the third day we had started following a routine: During the morning we went to help the community in any of the works needed to be done , most of the time working in the chacras (i.e. crops), we helped with the fishing, and also helped making farinha (food taken out of a root call Yuca).
Kids having fun in the village	Every day we establish an English class from 10 to 12. Every person in the community was invited to join the class. We aimed to build some basic basis, to familiarise them from the very beginning with the language. We spent our afternoons playing with kids until sun set. Although the activities were over, the kids and even the grown ups were around the school; Most of the time just speaking with us or playing cards. In some of the English classes apart from English we taught environmental awareness, a topic that in the beginning was not considered as important for the community. But as we saw the wealth of the place, and how these people were losing their traditional respect for the nature, the environmental awareness became a major topic of discussion. It would be impossible to describe every single thing that we did. The 12 of us had amazing and unforgettable experiences; from the stories that we were told beneath the fire, to the time where our boat sank in the river, were memories that we will never forget. After a really sad goodbye, we took the boat and then the plane going back to Bogotá. We were happy to come back to the world of run water and electricity, and we were glad to come back to a weather which was normal for us. But far more important than anything else we came back with a feeling of happiness at having made a difference.