“¿Dónde jugarán los niños?”

"Dónde diablos jugaráran los pobres ninos?  ...Se esta partiendo el mundo, ya no hay lugar" translation-"Where will those poor children play?  The world is breaking, there's no more room"

-Maná

What happened to the wide open spaces and rolling hills? 

It seems like there used to be so much more room to move around in an children were constantly outdoors doing chores, running through fields and just enjoying themselves.

 Nowdays they don't have as many opportunities to do that.  A lot of kids live in cities or urban areas where there isn't much opportunity to go and rn through a field

Children are quite good at adapting to circumstances though and are able to find things to do pretty much anywhere, but I really connected with the words of this song because it is sad.

Even kids that have the space to go out and play in often keep themselves indoors and play video games and check facebook.

So not only do we have to worry about the environmental damage that is talked about this song, but kids themselves are finding ways to avoid going out into nature.

This also, for some reason, makes me think of the song "Where have all the flowers gone" which talks about war and how that affects our lives.  All the flowers have gone to girls, the girls have all gone the men,the men have gone off to be soldiers in the war, the soldiers have all gone to graves and the graveyards have turned into flowers.

I think, the reason it brought this song to mind is that, not only are we faced with the question of where children are going to play, but also what is going to happen to them when they grow up.  War is a very real threat in many countries, a lot of young people are enlisting in the army.  That is where they end up going to "play" since often they have no other choice. 

What can we do to clean this world up?

Kaleidoscope

"In the movies there is always one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away.  her power is her own.  She will not give it away.

 I have begun my own quiet war.  Simple. sure.  I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate."

The House on Mango Street

-Sandra Cisneros

 

I love how this girl wants to be so independent.  It is heartbreaking throughout the book to read of how limited the women are, how dependent they are of their spouses.  You have Rafaela who is not allowed to leave her house because she is too pretty, you have Sally who is beaten by her father and can't even talk to boys, Minerva whose husband beats her but she can never completely kick him out, Mamacita who moved there because of the man and hates every minute of it....  It almost makes me happy that she is fighting against 'the system' and that she doesn't want to conform.

I know that machismo has been a huge part of most cultures in the past. The man is in charge, he provides and the women bears children and cooks and cleans. I know there have been a lot of changes in many societies, but this is still pretty normal in many places and it makes me sad. There is so much potential that never gets discovered, so many dreams that are squashed.

 

While I am not a hardcore feminist, I love cooking and want to be a stay at home mom if at all possible, this is too much for me.  Everyone deserves some independence, space to realize their dreams and have a chance at doing what they want.  Everyone should be allowed friends and should be able to voice their opinion and know that it is taken into consideration.

In what ways does our society limit people?  We have many women in the workforce, stay at home fathers, opportunities to do what we want.  Are there ways that we are being limited and stifled?




 

Solitude

I would have to say that one of my favorite readings to this day was "The Labyrinth of Solitude" by Octavio Paz.

 He presented some really cool ideas that, while I am sure that I have thought of them before, I didn't know how to put into words.  He is really good about defining things, spelling things out. 

To me he started to answer the question of why we can feel so alone when we are actually surrounded by people who love us.  I say only that he 'started to answer' because while he has some really good ideas I still think that there is more that goes into it.  However, I just loved the points of view that he presented in his book.  His writing style was easy for me to follow and not all flowery and poetical, and while it wasn't exactly a story with characters and a plotline (I usually tend to enjoy those a whole lot more) he did a really good job at keeping the reader interested and wanting to contine reading. 
I didn't necessarily agree with his views on love and marriage, but that is what is great about reading and learning, you can take the things that you really like and put them into your personal book of beliefs and values, while at the same time discarding things you don't agree with. 
     This class has taught me a lot about being able to do that, with the books that we read, the music we listen to and the pictures that we look at.  They can be interpreted many ways and represent different things to different people.  We need to find the things that we like in this life and pull them out and apply them, but we also need to realized that someone else might see it differently than us.  In our discussions I have seen many times where peoples opinions differ, some see a picture as an artists way of denouncing the encroachment of civilization whereas someone else sees it as accpetance of it.  It is to our best advantage to listen to the point of view of others because we might be missing out on something really cool

Loved Ones

"I will go with one understanding," Ultima cautioned.  She raised her finger and pointed at both of them.  The gaze of her clear eyes held them transfixed.  "You must understand that when anybody, bruja or curandera, priest or sinner, tampers with the fate of a man that sometimes a chain of events is set into motion over which no one will have ultimate control.  You must be willing to accept this responsibility."
My uncle looked at my mother.  Their immediate concern was to save Lucas from the jaws of death, for that they would accept any responsibility.

"Bless Me, Ultima"

In this song, at the end when the boy actually loves the girl he offers his wallet, his Grandfather's pocket watch, anything he can to get her away from the thief.  Eventually he offers the breath from his body and even himself in he place of his wife when she is struggling after childbirth...

We are so willing to do whatever it takes to protect those that we love.  We accept any consequence, we make deals with other people and we even try to make deals with God at times.  Ultima warns them here that no one knows what will happen if she saves Lucas, but it could come at great price.  I think that often, when people are so desperate they would sell anything, do anything in order to help our friends or family.  There are many movies out there with parents who would go to the ends of the earth, hold up an entire hospital, make deals with dangerous people or even sell themselves to the devil for the protection of their children.

Why do we get so irrational in these circumstances?  I know that we love them, we want what is best for them, but to go to te extent of breaking the law, doing what we know is wrong and accepting whatever consequences come with it...why?

 This song is about a parent praying so hard over their child, also offering to take his place if the Lord will just save the life of the child.

I don't know where we start believing that we can bargain that way with God.  Do you think that it works?  Do you think that showing that kind of desire makes a difference?  I know that it maks us feel better, like it is the only thing that we can do to help, but why do we do it?

What if...

"My father nodded.  I saw him stand beside Chávez and put his arm around his shoulders. Now he too was armed.  I had only seen him shoot the rifle when we slaughtered pigs in the fall.  Now they were going armed for a man."

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya pg. 17

What happens when the common man has to take up the sword, or rather the gun in this case?  Latin and South America are full of civil wars, revolts and times when one had to take up arms or suffer.  As in this story, many of them were not traind for war, they were common people just living their lives, but when the situation became dire they would pick up whatever they had and fight for their rights. 

This idea of people having to pick up and leave their normal, everyday lives and go to war is a recurring one throughout history.  In the Triple Alliance War the army that Brazil formed was made out of 'volunteers' from the poor and the slaves.  They were taken from their everyday life, given a gun and sent out to use it.  In the war for independence and freedom from Great Brittain here in the United States, not everyone in the U.S. was trained in the military, yet people were needed to fight against the Brittish troops so anyone who could and wanted to joined in.  And what about being drafted during the war....

I thought it was really interesting how he chose to include this line into the book, that the dad was taking something that the children had often seen used.  Something that was used to bring them food and proffit by killing the pigs; something that was now being prepared to possibly take the life of another human being.

Would you be able to do that?  If asked to go to war could you pick up a gun and go?  How about if you were in the place of Antonio's father, could you just pick up a gun and go?

I do appreciate though on the next page when they find the man responsible, that Narciso tries to reason with the men reminding them that this is a man, not an animal.  So although he is prepared and ready to do whatever is necessary, he is not blind to others and does not enjoy bloodshed.

So one last question, would we be in the angry mob, clamoring for justice and ready to shoot the man on the spot, or would we be like Narciso and try and reason with him and avoid the bloodshed?  Or will we even have the choice if it comes to this kind of situation?  

And Life Goes On

"Now that death had resumed its normal rhythm, it's tempo accelerated only by certain raw winds, the planters have themselves over t drinking and card-playing, demoralized by their forced association with the soldiery..."

The Kingdom of this World a Novel

-Alejo Carpentier

This excerpt makes me think about death in our own lives and how it is extremely tragic at the time, but life continues to move forward.  Often we feel as though life should stop altogether because of the tragedy that happens in our life-the unexpected death of a parent, the grief at the loss of a sibling or even a child that is taken from this life far too soon for our liking. 

The world seems to pause for a moment, everyone giving out condolences and offering you time to come to terms, but all too soon life picks up again and one is expected to get back into the swing of things. 

Other people seem to forget what is forever branded upon our hearts and don't understand why we are continuing to live in the past.  Why is it that we cannot understand each other's pain beyond a certain point?

I love how Kenny Chesney expresses it in his song "Who You'd be Today".  He talks about how it isn't fair that this person died too young, how he can't forget the memories and the pain and is always thinking about what that person would be like today if they were still alive.

Why is the pain so bitter?  Esecially as members when we know that we will see them again, that they are free from the pains and afflications of this world?

I don't think that there is an easy answer to these questions.  While death is something that will eventually happen to all of us, it seems that it is something we are rarely prepared for.  It's like we all know that we are going to die, but we don't really believe it.  Why do you think think it is such a hard concept to grasp?  Is it because our minds naturally shy away from unpleasant thoughts or things that we cannot control?  Or does it go along with the mindset that most people have, that they are an exception to the rule?  That mindset tells a person that: I can text while I drive because nothing will happen, I can ride a motorcycle without a helmet because I won't crash, I can go hiking or spelunking by myselve because I won't get lost, or I can go running alone at night because there is no way I would ever get raped...right???  

What are your thoughts on this?  Do you agree with my theory or do you have a different one?  Have you noticed these things in other people?  Have you experienced it yourself? 

The Foreigness of Time

"I know that of all problems, none disquieted him more, and none concerned him more than the profound one of time."

"The Garden of Forking Paths"-Jorge Luis Borges

What is it about time that makes it seem so strange and foreign to us?  When we are kids it seems to have little meaning, we don't count the day out in hours and minutes but rather in seasons and daylight-time when we can play.  For a bullrider 8 seconds may very well seem to last for an eternity, to an employee on a lunch break 30 minutes can seem like 5 because it goes so quickly.  I know whey I was on my mission some days felt like they would never end; whereas at other times it felt like I merely blinked and two months flew past!

Yet, with all of this we use time for everyhing, we base our lives around being on time, workin, going to meetings-everything is based around a time schedule.

We have been studying a lot of different movements in class and how time can change many things.  We've been watching the way that art changes over time, how relationships can change over time and just the effect that time can have on a culture and civilization and it is crazy what can happen in a relatively short amount of time.  In my Port 355 class on Brazilian history and culture we are currently studying the 1800's and everything that happened there.  They went from a monarchy to political back to monarchy, freedom of the African slaves on to get indentured servants out of immigrants, all sorts of wars and revolts, changes in the economy...!  It is amazing how much can change with time.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we could go back in time and change things, what that would affect.

How can time be so elusive to us and why does it seem

to move faster the older we get?  I don't know if it is ever something that we will be able to grasp in this life, but what do you think?

"Mira, como lloran sus ojos"  

-O Padre 'Maria Candelaria'

We've talked quite a bit in this class about religion coming in, the Virgin Guadelupe and how the people accept it, with a little variation of their own.  The people are obviously religions in this movie as it is mentioned what the priest talked about on Sunday, or how they all go to the church to get a blessing on their animals.  When the priest says the above quote to Maria Candelaria she immediately regrets what she said and talks about how she is sorry and didn't mean to make the Virgin cry.

Even with all of this religion is not enough to make the people move past their traditions and accept Maria Candelaria, no matter how much the priest preaches at them, condemns them, scolds them. 

This would be a really good time to go off on how we need to heed the council of our church leaders because if they keep talking about the same things it means we are obviously still doing them...but instead I want to focus on the first part of this, the part where Maria Candelaria realizes what she is saying and asks for forgiveness.

I love BYU classes because we can always tie our material back into the Savior, like we talked about how Maria Candelaria is a representation in ways in the film of the Virgin Mary and her fiancé represents Christ,

But anyway, forgiveness is always an option, we are never too far off track to come back and repent.  Wether we are behaving like Maria Candelaria and blaming them for never helping us, or if we find ourselves acting like Cortez and his men and using our religion as a way to control and have dominion over another people (or rather in our time it might be abusing our callings), we can repent and move forward with a clean slate.

Someone in class mentioned the fact that this made them think of the saying, "No good deed goes unpunished", what do you think about that?  And if this is true, is it even worth our time to try and repent and lead good lives, especially since we saw how it ended for Maria Candelaria?

Nationalism

"After about 1950, musical nationalism in Mexico declined rapidly when new aesthetics and their corresponding styles emerged"

-Leslie Bethell, A Cultural History of Latin American Music

It is interesting how this kind of trend transcends cultures and subjects and can be applied to many things.  Life has a way of just carrying us along and taking us to new and exciting places that cause us to forget some of the emotions that went along with the old stuff.  This made me think of the paintings that we have been looking at in class by various artists. Art, as a whole, has kind of evolved together.  You have the painters in Latin America immitating what is happening in Europe, then they kind of go off on their own nationalistic, cultural kind of paintings, and then we see it coming back to what is happening in the art world around them with impressionism and the more modern looking, make-you-think kind of painting.

There is nothing wrong with this, it is just an interesting observation.

A tie that I was able to come up with as far as people being super into the whole nationalism scene and getting way involved is what was happening right here in the United States after 9/11 happened.  I still can remember the surge of country music that was all geared towards nationalism, what it means to be an American, and how great America is.  I remember all of the American flags that I saw flying, some even attached to the windows in cars, and how everyone just seemed to pull together and find pride and courage in their nation and their country.  

Toby Keith demonstrates this in his song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" which was just one of the many songs that came out at this time.

Well, times are changing.  And while I am not saying that we do not have nationalism or that people do not care about their country, it has just moved in a different direction.  Song writers went back to writing about love and being cheated on, the American flags on the cars were replaced with BYU ones or other things, and we as a people have gone back to worry about ourselves and those closest to us and not focussing on the nation as a whole anymore.

I don't know if that came out right and I wasn't trying to offend anyone so I apologize if I did.  To me it seems like nationalism is mainly important when the country is faced with extreme difficulties, or when competing against another country in sports or the olympics!

What is your take on nationalism?  Has it declined like it did after the 1950's in Mexico's music, or like I am claiming it has here in the US in the last few years, or do people just show it differently? 

Boomerang

"This man had a serious defect: he could not stick to a job or trade.  He lacked stability; called it 'hard luck'"

-Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Father loves Mother

I find it fascinating in this story that a man who spends his entire life running away from situations that are unpleasant to him decides to make a living catching runaway slaves.  The story goes on to describe many of the jobs he tried and all the excuses he came up with to leave perfectly good jobs be it because they were too time consuming, too back breaking or too hard to learn. 

The story seems to come full circle in a couple of ways for me.  First off just this idea of the runaway turning on others who would runaway.  The second thing is that he finally gets something worth fighting for, a family.  He is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his wife and his child.  What he ends up doing in order to protect his own assets, is to catch and turn in a women who was doing the exact same thing that he was, she was running away and she was doing whatever she could to protect her child.

It is interesting to me that because of his own circumstances he was willing to turn a deaf ear on the women.  Even as he watched her miscarry her own child because of his treatment of her, he did not care at all. 

"You're the one to blame.  Who told you to go having babies and then go running away?" Is what he asks the pregnant, runaway slave when she tells him her master will whip her.

In a way this reminds me of "The Emperor's New Groove" when Eezma reprimands the peasant about his state of affairs and blames it on him.

I recently watched the film "The Official Story" which is about Argentina during the Dirty War.  The movie is about a family, the parents and their adopted little girl.  Throughout the movie the mom becomes suspicious that their daughter was stolen from one of the people who "dissappeared" during the war and that her husband is not the man she thought he was.  The husband does not care at all what happened to the mother of the child or how it happened, he knows exactly where their daughter came from but he turns a blind eye on it much like Candido Neves. 

At the very end of the movie he comes home from work and his wife is there but his daughter isn't.  He goes a little crazy and asks her where their daughter is.  She coolly responds by asking him how it feels to be the one that is missing a child, trying to drive home to him the emotion that these other people are feeling.

There is so much violence and hatred in the world and it is easy to put up our blinders to others pain, as long as we get what we want we are fine.  We need to take down those blinders and be aware of what is going on around us.  It is time for us to dust off the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you".

Be it ever so humble

-Não estou eu junto de ti?

-Aren't I here with you?

-Teu corpo está aqui; mas tua alma voa à terra de teus pais...

-Your body is here, but your sould flies to the land of your fathers...

Iracema chapter 28

Like I mentioned last week, this week's quote is about how we can be so attached to a place that we yearn for it.  Even when we have a lot of good things and are surrounded by good people our dreams long to sail us back there and our thoughts sometimes stray to fond memories.

We talked in class about what those who live outside of Utah think of this state.  There were many differing answers but the common theme throughout the enitre class period was an attachment to our homeland, a love for what we grew up with.  We also talked about a certain, almost tangible feeling that we get in certain places and I would definitely say that most everyone has such a feeling when they go home. 

Though Martin has a beautiful wife and a child, he still longs to go home, he longs for his birthplace, for his family and friends there. 

I love this song about Hawaii, I lived there for 8 months and this really brings back some good memories, but for the singers, this is their home, when they leave they get the same nostalgic feelings, the same desire to go back that we have been talking about. 

I have travelled to many different countries and seen some amazing things.  I can honestly say that the world has some amazing things to offer, ancient pyramids and lands full of history, volcanoes to climb, and jungles to explore.  You can go swim with the pink dolphins in the amazon, take an adventursome zipline through the jungles in Guatemala, feed the kangaroos and koalas in Australia or take a train ride through the beautiful countryside in Romania.  All of these adventures are breathtaking, exciting and really cool to talk about, yet I am just as excited if not more so, everytime I come home from one of those trips.  As I get closer to Salt Lake City and my family the excitement grows!  Knowing that they are so close and that I am almost home, wow, it makes me excited just thinking about it.  Another fun example to drive this home, just think of Christmas time and how excited almost all of your roomates and fellow students are to go home for the holidays.  There is something wonderful and magical about home.  While we are there we might take it for granted and even be excited to get away, but most everyone gets a little bit giddy when it is time to go home again.

I love the way that Lonestar says it,

 "I've traveled here and everywhere
Following my job
I've seen the paintings from the air
Brushed by the hand of God
The mountains and the canyons reach from sea to shining sea
But I can't wait to get back home
To the one he made for me
It's anywhere I'll ever go and everywhere I've been
Nothing takes my breath away
Like my front porch looking in"

Like the old saying goes "Home is where the heart is" and in this case it does not simply mean that home can be anywhere we make it, but it means that we leave a piece of our heart behind when we leave home and there is a part of us that will always long for the home that we remember. 

"Iracema" and Saudade

"The young warrior, leaning against the mast, raises his eyes, which are fixed upon the fleeting outline of the shadowy shore.  From time to time his sight becomes dim, and a tear fall upon the Giráo bnech, where frolic the two innocents, the companions of his misfortune.

But whilst thou sailest thus at the mercy of the winds, graceful barque, waft back to that white beach some of the yearning (saudade) that accompanies thee, but which may not leave the land to which it returns" (Iracema pg 7-8)

This part of the story, though at the very beginning, really spoke to me of some very strong emotions.  Not knowing exactly what the story was about when I read this I put my own experiences to it and translated those emotions as being: regret, a yearning to go back to happier days, a terrible longing, and admitted defeat-that going back is not possible and all that is left is for one to move on with the next stage in life.

This first took my mind to a poem that we recently read and discussed in my Portuguese literature class by Gonçalves Dia called, "Canção do Exílio".  He wrote it through the eyes of Dom Pedro II.  I am not going to include all of it (mainly because I don't think that most of you speak Portuguese, and it goes kind of long...) but here goes:

Minha terra tem palmeiras,

Onde canta o Sabiá;

As aves, que aqui gorjeiam,

Não gorjeiam como lá.

Não permita Deus que eu morra,

Sem que eu volte para lá;

Sem que desfrute of primores

Que não encontro por cá;

Sem qu'inda aviste as palmeiras,

Onde canta o Sabiá.

So this is the first and last of the poem, and basically it is just him comparing where he is now to where he used to be-which in this case is comparing the beautiful and wonderful Brazil, to Portugal.  The poem goes on to describe how the birds don't sing in Portugal like they do in Brazil, and that Brazil has more stars, more trees, more flowers and more love than Portugal.  In the end he is saying that God will not let him die without returning to his land, he land that has palm trees and where the Sabiá (the bird to the right) sings.

This is a video that records the sound that the Sabiá makes as it sings if you are interested in hearing what it sounds like.

The last thing that this quote makes me thing of is how we need to press forward and keep going in life.  Like I mentioned earlier, there is a sort of defeat admitted, the acknowledgement that you can't go back and so you need to press forward.  This reminded me the the song by Andy Grammar "Keep your Head up" because he mentions that no matter what life throws your way you need to keep going.  One line of his song says, "Only rainbows after rain, the sun will always come again," and that applies to life. 

 We will always have good times to look back on and to hold, but they are in the past and it does us no good to pine after them and long for them to come back.  Remembering and reminiscing are great, but do you want to miss the rainbows that have yet to come by dwelling in the past instead of paying attention to the future?

9/11/12 The Fall of Tenochtitlan

One night as the Spaniard armies were close enough to the city to see the human sacrifices that the Aztecs were making with the captured Spaniards and their allies an interesting parallel pops up.

The Spaniards are saying this: "thank God they are not carrying me off to be sacrificed...we were not far away from them, yet we could render them no help, and could only pray to God to guard us from such a death.

On the other hand the Aztecs were circling about them declaring this, "Look, that is the way in which you will all have to die, for our gods have promised it to us many times" (Victors and Vanquised pp 207).

This chapter reminded me of this song from "Pocahontas", both sides see the other as savages, people who must be killed and defeated.  The captain for the Virginia Company says that since the Indians are not like them it means they must be evil.  I think that a lot of the bad feelings between the Aztecs and the Spaniards is a lack of understanding between the two cultures.

"In addition to this, when the Christians were exhausted from the war, God saw fit to send the Indians smallpox, and there was a great pestilence in the city because there were so many people there, especially women, and they had nothing more to eat" (Victors and Vanquished pp 198).

Both sides have their religion which is supporting them and sustaining them throughout the conflict.  It is interesting that religion would be something to spur people on to battle, yet we see it time after time throughout history.  We all feel like we know what is best for one another and that no one else is right.

A super important life lesson that we all need to learn is to try and see from another perspective, take a look through their eyes as this song says.  There is a quote that says, "Before you get mad at someone walk a mile in their shoes" and I think it is a good thing to do.  We are all quick to judge, it is human nature to make a first impression of someone.  However, it is then our choice whether we let that cloud our judgement or if we try and really get to know the real them. 

Obviously with the Spaniards and the Aztecs there were a lot of factors coming into play such as religion, conquest, gold and power.  It is sad to see what happened to an entire civilization because of these things.  It was basically destroyed



9/5/12 Identity Crisis

"The details of the image formed of us often vary with the spectator, but it is always an ambiguous if not contradictory image: we are insecure, and our repsonses, like our silences are unexpected and unpredictable.  Treachery, loyalty, crime and love hide out in the depths of our glance.  We attract and repel" (Paz pg 65).

" The modern worker lacks individuality.  The class is stronger than the individual and his personality dissolves in the generic" (Paz pg 67).

One of our favorite Disney characters goes through this very identity crisis.  When we look in the mirror, what do we see?  How does the rest of the world view us?  Should we conform to what they expect or should we be who we are on the inside?

Who are we?  How are we really defined?  Are we the product of the stereotypes of others?  Are we defined by society?  Or do our personalities get lost in the group?  Paz goes on here to describe that the Mexicans of today all started from the 'rape' of Dona Malinche and that it has negative connotations.  He describes women as objects and then reveres them.  Then what is a woman?  What am I?

This song reminds me of the heartfelt question, "Who am I?"  This really brings me back to Octavio Paz's musings on solitude.  That point in time when we realize that other people actually have their own lives, when they are not with us they are able to have fun, they laugh, they create inside jokes and life goes on. 

In their song "Super Trooper" the group ABBA has a line that says "Facing 20,000 of your fans, how can anyone be so lonely?" We often feel our most lonely when we are surrounded by people.  How is that even possible?  Yet, somehow, it is and somehow we let ourselves feel excluded.

Throughout this chapter Paz describes the Mexican people as the sons of Malinche, and yet in class we had a few people speak up and mention that this was not their background, they felt that they had not come from this history.  Also Professor Mack mentioned the one group of Mexicans that still refuse to acknowledge any kind of defeat and take their own control by blocking the water supplies.

 

From these people we learn that we make or own destiny.  Yes, the past is, and always will be, a part of us.  It defines our societies and certain aspects of our lives.  At the same time, we are the masters of our own destiny, we choose who we are so it is up to us to shape the future.  Let us all "dream the impossible dream...[and] reach the unreachable star" in our lives and in our desires. 

From Walt Disney we learn that anything is possible, after all Disney Land and the Disney empire all started with a dream and a mouse.

Labyrinth of Solitute and Encounters

It was really cool to be able to read  so many different accounts of when the Spaniards first came and the reaction that the Indians had to them.  It was good to be able to see it from different perspectives, through letters and entries.  "Moteuccoma did this because he took them for gods, considered them gods, worshipped them as gods" (pg 98, par 4). I've heard before that the Indians thought the Spaniards were the white god that had been prophesied to come, but in the last story it really shows that they did, indeed, think this to some extent.  I can see from both points of view, when the Indians did sacrifices and put blood on the food for Cortez and his men to eat, they honestly thought that they were respecting them and showing them their great status.  From the other point of view, the Spaniards had no idea why they were doing it, all they knew is that suddenly their delicious meal was covered in the fresh blood of some other person. "and [the emissaries] sprinkled blood in the food, they bloodied it, which made their stomachs turn and disgusted them, because of the great stench of the blood" (pg 98, par 3). That would definitely make me lose my appetite.
     The bit that we read from "Labyrinth of Solitute" was super interesting.  I was totally caught up in the first part of it talking about solitude and how we come to that state.  "Death and birth are solitary experiences.  we are born alone and we die alone" (pg. 196 par.2).  When you think about it, you do have people around you for those moments in your life, but ultimately you are passing through them alone.  Those people cannot feel your pain, your fear, your acceptance.  Your emotions are your own and you alone can bear the situation.  He also mentions the adolescent.  There is a definite difference in a child and a teenager.  It goes along with the changes in your body, graduating elementary school and moving to bigger schools, more student body and more things to worry about.  I definitely saw a lot of the solitude side of me when  I was in Jr. High and High School.  You just feel so lost, so alone in the world.  I feel like, for the most part, Octavio has a very good knowledge of human emotions and

Pink Dolphins!

The Amazon is amazing!  Today we all loaded up into a boat and went to one of the most boring places in the world.  So this place, it is out in the middle of nowhere and we ride up to these lame, floating houses.  There we all get off the boat, wade down into this water that made our skin look the color of an oompa loompa, and then we all yawned as these two guys used some fish to lure dolphins out of the water and, unfortunately, they made us touch them.  Can you think of anything lamer than that?  Well I sure hope so because it was the most amazing experience ever!  

So the dolphins here have a pink tone to them, I heard that it has something to do with their diet, kind of like flamingos.  They also look a little bit different than the cute little grey ones we are used to seeing.  Some might say that they are a little ugly, but those people are merely judging these beautiful creatures.  They do look a little funky, but I still got to swim with them, rub their bellies and touch them with my feet!  It was not quite like swimming with the dolphins at say, Seaworld, or something, because these dolphins are wild and the river is their home.  They are not the tame pets that will jump through hoops 

 and do tricks on command, they are aaallll natural.  It was kind of freaky at first, walking into the funky colored water with these weird looking dolphins, what if they attacked or something?  But then it was awesome!

 This lovely lady is Sofia, she is pregnant and was one of the pinkest dolphins that we were able to touch and swim with.  What a beauty!

When we finished swimming with the dolphins we got out and they gave everyone one of these necklaces.  They have a scale at the bottom that is from one of the biggest fish in the river...I don't remember what it is called but pretty cool.

For the record, he is wearing a speedo underneath his leaves...but I love shot because you sure can't tell can you?!

 We also got to go and visit an Indian tribe today, let's just say it was quite the cultural experience as apparently the women in that tribe don't wear tops...awkward!  But it is just part of the culture so what can one do?  It was really cool though seeing their dances to celebrate the harvest and good catches at sea, to take pictures with the chief and to learn about their culture.

Just a picture of us with the Chief, he was old, and really cool.  Michelle is my roommate currently and is in the shot with me, cute!

Before we left I went with Shawndeen and had the chief paint our faces.  I also bought this earring and the green necklace to support them-so fun!

Welcome to the Jungle

    

  Holy crow!!!  today was basically one of the best days of my life, for reals.  We are in the Amazon.  We flew out of Fortaleza yesterday, we had to get up before 3am in order to get there in time for our flight-super gag, but Manaus totally makes up for it.  We stayed one night in the actual city, went and had a tour of the theater, walked to the pier and looked through a bunch of booths at the fair they had set up.  

Then today we set out for the actual jungle experience and oh boy, has it been a doozey so far.  We got here by boat, it was about a 20 minute boat ride from the mainland and city to our isolated little hotel (which, by the way, was closed for about three months this summer because the water was so high that they were flooded out, luckily it was down and the hotel remodeled and fixed by the time we got here or I don't know what we would have done).  It is super cute, it is right off the river and by a swamp kind of thing that has at least two 

 caimen-that is what they call them here anyway, kind of like a small alligator-that lives in the swamp, and the houses you stay in are located around it.  You have to walk over a boardwalk type thing, the wooden walkways built over water, to get to our rooms.  The houses are built on stilts and so have water underneath them and they are just super cute.

 

They met us on the dock with a big glass of Brazilian juice and that just hit the spot and set the mood right there for the rest of our stay.

    Ok, now we are going to get into the really good stuff.  After having time to play in the pool and rest up a bit, we went out fishing for piranas, so exciting!  On our boat we had Vanessa and her kids-Marcello, Felipe, Danilo and Natalia, as well as Joe, Cristina and I.  Basically we had the coolest driver and guide ever.  The spot they took us to was hopping with fish, we caught around 30 fish all together, mostly piranas, but a few sardines.  I caught 6 all on my own, well one or two were sardines but it was still cool.  They gave us fishing poles that were made from bamboo and then a cup of raw meat, kind of 

  gross but perfect for what we were trying to catch.  At first Marcelo was like, the only one catching anything, and poor Joe only caught one the entire time, but Felipe ended up catching the biggest ones, Vanessa caught the most Sardines, and I myself caught 6 like I said.  Numbers 4 and 5 were a little bit sassy, one of them might have been a sardine, but the fact of the matter is that while I was trying to have my picture taken with them, they decided to jump of the hook and flop around my feet!  The funny part was that most of those fish I caught while I was not paying 

 attention.  I was super busy trying to take a picture of the amazing sunset, take a picture of Natalia with her catch or someone else, and that is when I would feel my pole start to take off!  Basically they thought they were pulling a fast one over on me but boy were they wrong.  It was amazing, the Amazon is just gorgeous and the place where we were fishing, it was beautiful.  It was definitely very relaxing to be in that location just lounging around fishing.  He put all of our fish on a line, it turned into a pretty cool looking necklace.  They are going to make a soup out of them that we will get to eat tomorrow, how amazing is that, I actually caught my own dinner...which was a pirana!

 

Once it started to get dark we gave up on fishing and went searching for Caimen.  Our guide had a light that he was scanning the vegetation with because when light hits their eyes they glow.  It was the coolest thing just cruising on a river, in the Amazon, in the dark scanning for these guys.  Our guide finally saw one so they slowly took the boat over, he leaned over the front, and just snagged it right out of the water!  It was super cool to see, our very own Caiman.  We named him Elmer, till the guide informed us that she was actually a girl, then I think Danilo renamed

 her Betty.  We all got to take turns holding her and getting our pictures taken-this place is phenomenal.  Our boat was awesome, I am pretty sure we caught the most fish out of anyone and we are the only ones that caught a caiman, so of course we kept him on the boat and showed him to all the others and let them take pictures, which was cool, but I am so glad I was on the boat that actually caught it because it was a lot of fun to see. 

     After we handed Betty over to another boat we started towards home, still searching for more.  And we found one.  When we found Betty, I didn't know what was going to happen exactly until they already had her on the boat, but with the next one I was prepared.  We had an awesome angle where you could actually see the eye glowing as we slowly road up to it.  It was legit, just this bright, glowing thing in the night.  Anyway, our guide went to try and catch it, but then jumped back-apparently it was over 2 meters long...however long that is, but it must have been too much for him to handle.  Anyway, all in all I was in the best boat and we had the absolute time of our lives!

When we got back to the hotel we found a frog in the bathroom, he was pretty big too.  Someone named him Tom, as in Peeping Tom, seeings how he was in the girls bathroom and all.  Then I got back to my room and Michelle was already here all upset because she could've sworn that she heard a plop in the toilet when she got back and was pretty sure she saw a little frogy and he was hiding in our toilet.  Well, what can you do?  She didn't want to flush him, but she needed to use the facilities and we couldn't find it anyway to prove if it really was there, so I flushed it, and out of the hole part in the front-I think it reduces water when you flush it, anyway, something shot out of that and then was flushed so poor Michelle lost her pet frog :(

    So that is the beginning of my trip to the Amazon, hope you enjoyed it even 1/16 of what I did because that would make you so happy.

Come Sail Away

So, last...Thursday maybe, or Wednesday we went on a daylong boat ride out to two different islands off the coast of Salvador and they were just beautiful.  The first one we were able to get in some good beach volleyball time.  My team was struggling and that might be the reason why, but I was actually not doing too poorly :) Then I got a little bit of time to swim and it was pretty cool because there were these little fish in the water that would come and nibble at your fingers and toes.  Apparently I am not the right flavor because there was only one little fish who tried to nibble on me, then he warned the rest to stay away because I tasted vile.  Everyone else got quite nibbled over.  Maybe I should try swimming with the sharks one day to see if I am appealing to them.  It is kind of disheartening to know that if I were to drown in the ocean I would not become fish food because they don't like me, I mean, how would that make you feel?  I feel just downright undesirable and plain now, they just shot my self confidence and self esteem right out the window.  It has taken years to get it to where it was, not I have to start all over again, oh bother.
    Well, if I come home all depressed and unhappy with life at least you know who to blame and you can remedy the situation by taking a fishing trip to Salvador and getting rid of all those dratted fish!

 This is the little band that was playing on our boat ride.  They were a lot of fun and played fun Portuguese songs, I didn't know any of the words, but I tried because he was leading us along and trying to get us to sing with him-it was a blast, that would be like the best job ever!

And we had an awesome sunset to finish off the day just as we were pulling back into Salvador.  We also saw some flying fish or something cool like that.  Michelle, Cristina and I sat up on the prow for the entire trip, there and back, we absolutely loved it out in the sun, feeling the wind in our hair.  It was glorious!