say goodbye to Salvador, pt. 1

I've been so busy these past couple weeks and I really haven't had time to update this, sorry y'all. Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in a town called Rio de Contas. We arrived here late last night/early this morning, it was about a 15 hour bus ride, so exhausting. But let me back track a little to last week.

Last weekend we went to this island called Ilha de Mare, which is a mostly poor mostly black community on an island not far from Salvador. It was a really intense experience, to be in a place where they don't have basic sanitation, but the people I met there we're really amazing. In Brazil, the right to health care is in the constitution, but it's a right that has been denied for the people living on the island. But the communities are organizing and demanding their rights, they're building a clinic, they have a radio station to broadcast news, they're working to improve their lives and their holding the government accountable for it's failure to serve it1s citizens just because they are poor and black. My host family was really kind to me, especially my host mom, she treated me like I was a part of the family.

We got back to Salvador for what was basically our last real week in the city. I put the deposit down on the apartment I'm going to be living in when I come back to Salvador for my ISP. I'm living with Kevin who is one of the coolest people ever. So we're sharing a 2 bedroom apartment and Jessie and Guimel are sharing one upstairs, we're all really excited for it. We're living in a neighborhood called Barra which is right by the beach, ahhh. Also, night before last there was a big party in my neighborhood for Criola's (Ashley's host mom) birthday. I wore my new little red dress and let me tell you, I was hott stuff (pictures are forthcoming in my next entry, finally!). I had such a great time, dancing, eating, drinking. It was also my host parent's wedding anniversary and Kid's day so the neighborhood was packed with people. It's crazy to think that on Wednesday I'm leaving my neighborhood in Salvador for an entirely new one in Fortaleza.

Unfortunately, I have to go now, but in my next update I'm going to write about my experiences here in Rio de Contas and also post some pictures (yes, I finally uploaded some).