First Week at Project Favela

The first week and weekend has been excellent so far in Rio. Visiting Christ the Redeemer and the Sugar Loaf Mountains were a lot of fun. I'm really starting to get my bearings around the Favela as I travel around the place. The last few days I have begin taking the Rio bus line and let me tell you these bus drivers scare the crap out of me. They drive on the wrong side of the roads at times and break the speed limit, it is quiet the thrill ride for the equivalent of $1.00. Now that I have google translated a lot of the food around here I'm getting used to the supermarket and I'm not eating just fruit and frozen chicken and pizza anymore. My cooking skills are somewhat of a toss up, but it is working itself out. Anyway working with the children has been going well. Quiet a few of the Brazilian school children speak pretty decent English and I've been truly impressed by one student who is excellent in math. At only 12 years old he has managed to master long form multiplication, division, and finding the area, perimeter, and volume. It is quiet impressive and especially since he knows all the terms in English as well.

Monday and Wednesday nights I am shadowing someone teaching surfers English lessons. In about a week myself and my Italian room mate will be leading the class once the teacher leaves. The surfers also speak English well and are eager to learn since they know it will help them when getting customers for surfing lessons.

Thats about all I have to update as of now the tour to Christ the Redeemer was excellent it was extremely windy and very crowded, but was awesome! So many people would literally drop on the floor and steps to take a picture with the statue, rather annoying, but it was an excellent view. The sugar loaf mountain was fun as well it was dark when we got there, we got to see an excellent view of Rio. The tour itself provided transportation to and from each location and entrance to each place for a total of only about 60$. Then came the beach on Sunday, Ipanema beach was amazing the sun was shining all day as I sat on the beach and enjoyed a coconut water then I went to the Ipanema hippie market where they have ton of smaller shops. It's been a great experience.