Brasil

 Rio De Janiero

In December, we were able to spend 11 beautiful days with Emily in Brasil.  We had such a wonderful trip with her and really enjoyed seeing a small part of this vast a beautiful country.  We loved being in her town of Matao and meeting her friends, visiting the school and spending time with her host family.  It was perfect! Goodbyes weren't easy but we are so proud of her and amazed at her ability to learn this beautiful language and do some really hard things for a 15 year old. She is remarkable!

The Girl from Ipanema!  There she was sitting on the beach of Ipanema and we were finally with her!! What a great reunion it was and fun meeting place!

 The brothers having a little fun ;)

 The humidity was not a friend of my hair...for the entire trip.  

I opted out of a lot of photos...

Wow - was it great to hug this girl!  

She has passed me up in a height...just by a bit ;)

 Each city has it's own design for sidewalk tile - this was in Rio.

Oh, the Favelas.  What an experience. To see such poverty and so much of it!  They have been trying to clean up this area in preparation of the World Cup and The Olympics.  They have built a big gondola over the many hills of the Favelas in Rio, in hopes that it will give the people an easy way down and out for work, etc.  We were amazed at vastness. Families will build a home and when they can afford it build on top of it - rent out the bottom and then repeat...   We are so very blessed.

• Population of Rio de Janeiro: 6,211,000
• About 1/3 of city’s population lives in favelas
• About 700 favela communities within Rio de Janeiro
• Growth rate of Rio is about 2.7% per year
• Growth rate of favelas in Rio is about 7.5% per year
• 75% of favela population is black or mulatto

 You can read more here.

 Water is a gift and a curse.  You can see the blue containers that sit on the top of the houses - that is their water supply.  With the high humidity it is so hard to get things dry and this causes all kinds of problems.

 

 Beautiful flowers and people...everywhere!

 

This is Patrick, is one of Camber's good friends from Logan High. He is doing a super senior year over there and is living and studying in Rio. We go to meet up with him and spend a night together.  He has fallen head over heels in love with Brasil and plans to come back and further his education there.

 
 As you can see from the weather - our time in Rio was very "black and white". We would have loved to have seen the sun on the beach and been able to ride up on top of Sugar Loaf...but it was sweet none the less.

 The beautiful rich and fertile soil of the farmlands near Ribeirao Preto. The color of the soil is beautiful and so are the endless veiws of the farmland!

 Ribeirão Preto: The 9th largest Municipaltiy in Brasil is about 2 hours or so from Emily's town. We flew there from Rio and the Spilla's picked us up and drove us to their home.





 The Spilla's took us the Mall - or The Shopping as they refer to it. McDonald's finds its way around, doesn't it? 








  They treated us to some really great ice cream - they know how to make amazing ice cream in Brasil!  We had our fair share, especially in Matao,  The fruity flavors are heavenly!

Oh the fresh juice!  Nothing like it!!!  Absolutely amazing.  Did you know the cashew nut has a fruit?  The nut is actually the stem of the fruit and Brasilians think we are silly that we eat the stem? Cazu juice - we thought it was one of the very few fruits we tasted that kinda had to grow on you.

 This is the trash pick up in front of nearly every home in Emily's town.

 Emily's mom (Mai as they say) was the sweetest host and an amazing cook! Her name is Mariza.

 I have already forgotten the name of this globe fruit - it is kind of like a gourd and it looks really neat to see them growing on trees!

 Meet the Calegher Family!  They have been a second family to Emily.  They are the sweetest people you will ever meet.

 We had lunch at Day By Day one afternoon.  It the establishment the Spilla's have lunch at nearly every single day ;)  It is a buffet type restaurant where you weigh your plate.  They have freshly BBQ meats similar to what you get at Rodizio's here.

 Downtown Matao. Note their tiled sidewalks. And people drive like crazy over there. Especially the motorcyles!  I will never forget the crazy guys that would speed down the middle of stalled traffic in Sao Paulo. Crazy!!

 The lake just a minutes walk from Emily's home.

 Meeting the girls that Emily goes to school with.  They are such beautiful girls. We so enjoyed our night with them!

 When they have the chance to dress up, they do!  They love it! And these girls also love their Brasilian shoes! Emily is becoming a collector.

 Sao Paulo Temple. Beautiful.  We attended Sacrament Meeting at the church right next door.  It was a sweet  meeting, you don't have understand the language to feel the spirit. And have I mentioned how sweet and beautiful the people of Brasil are?  :D

 

 Another lunch in the outside kitchen.

 Emily's Pai (dad) was diagnosed with cancer back in October. That kind of news is never fun to get. They had an impromptu Samba dance and it was really good to see him smiling and happy.

 This is Julio.  He is Emily's Samba instructor. Mark and I got take visit one of their classes and try it out. He is such a great instructor!  So great to meet him.

 Emily's church.  Everywhere you go so see fences and walls in front of homes and buildings.

Emily's Bishop.  He stopped by one day on his lunch break.  He apologized for not being shaved and in a tie.  Oh my.  He was a wonderful person! So laid-back, easy going and young!

SO many more photos and memories.  

It was a treat.  

Take care, sweet Emily.