Life so far...in Brazil!!

Hey everyone!! So sorry it has been so long!! This entry is long overdue!! But everything here in Salvador has been great! So, I have done some really awesome things in the past week!! First, I went to this concert in the Heart of Salvador, Pelorihno. Pelorinho is like the center of Afr0-Brazilian culture! Ther are so many cool shops, artists, musicians, museums and random things like that all related to the history of Brazil´s foundation and progession in relation to its African ancestry. At any rate, we went to this concert by a group called Olodum. They started in Bahia and are now really big here in Brazil and around the world!! They play drums while doing some very awesome choreography! That night was great!! Lots of dancing and getting to see the Brazilian love for music!!
The next big thing that I have done: i went to this place called Ilê Aiyê. It is a grass roots organization to help the poor children of Salvador. It´s main purpose is to help Afro- descendants learn to appreciate their heritage. It started in the home of a woman called Mãe Hilda and now has expanded to a 5 story building in the center of one of the poorest districts in Salvodor. As we toured the facility, the director gave us statistics and testimonies of some of the students that Ilê Aiyê has helped. They were amazing! For example, they offer cooking courses; it´s kind of like going to a mini-culinary school. Well, they offered one of the students to go to France for about 3 weeks to study cooking there. While in France, the culinary school this student visited loved him so much that they offered him a full scholarship to attend the school along with a job!! That is just one of the many amazing success stories we heard!! I am going to go back there and volunteer. I talked with the coordinator and he was very pleased to see how interested I was in the program. Some day, I hope God allows me to open something like Ilê Aiyê to help children.
So, for the past few days I was on vacation. Funny, isn´t it? You guys thought I already was on vacation!! Haha!! We went to this little island of the coast of Bahia called Morro de São Paulo. It was amazing!! The beaches were great and the people were lovely!! Oh, I bought a bikini...something I never thought I would ever do in my life but yeah, it happened. Oh well, it was my first time to go to the beach!! Ok, I have to go now. I hope everyone is doing great!!! Love ya!! Tchau!!!

Esther