Week 11: Maragogi, Recife, Olinda

Day 71: Domingo (Sunday March 13th)

We woke up to take pictures of the sunrise and then went back to sleep. After breakfast we headed to the beach. We swam for a bit and found countless sand dollars stacked on top of each other in the ocean floor. After a relaxing beach morning we returned to the same cheap restaurant from the prior day. Then we showered and hung around the hostel. We did some laundry and watched one of the oceans 11 movies with some other hostel guests. We took a walk on the beach and had some great pictures of the sunset. We went back to the hostel and hung around with everyone in front of the tv drinking beer and eating snacks. Eventually Sarahi and I went out for burgers before heading to bed, once again without roommates. 

   
   

Day 72: Segunda-feira (Monday)

We had some great breakfast table conversations in a blend of English, Spanish, and Portuguese. We planned to catch a ride with Mateus and another hostel guest but ended up waiting a couple extra hours. It was raining most of the morning so we mostly relaxed around the hostel. We piled into the backseat of a rental car and took a truly beautiful ride to Recife. After a struggle to find our next hostel we were eventually dropped off at the front door. It was a great experience though we were a little sad saying goodbye to Mateus. We had heard Recife is a very dangerous city, especially at night. But we were hungry so we headed out to find dinner. We ended up stopping at an Italian restaurant inside a Brazilian Walmart called “Bom Preco”. We bought a few things and then walked the few blocks home. Our hostel room had six beds which were mostly full all three nights. Everyone had different sleep schedules and it made for a rough night sleep. But we enjoyed our time at the hostel a lot. We watched a couple of English movies before heading to bed. 

     
 
Day 73: Terça-feira (Tuesday)

We woke up to a lot of rain. We wanted to go to the beach but tried to wait out the rain. We ate breakfast, read, and enjoyed the fast internet. We walked amidst sky scrapers a few blocks to the ocean and walked on boa viagem (good voyage) beach. This beach is not protected by coral reefs so there’s a risk of shark attack. It’s the longest urban beach in Brazil, I think about 7 miles. There were maybe 20 different soccer, tennis, and basketball fields along the beach where we stayed. It’s a pretty nice city but it wasn’t our favorite. I told Sarahi a few times that it felt like Beijing because of the size and density among other things. We walked to McDonald’s for a late lunch and stopped by the grocery store on the way back. We picked up pizza and green beans, along with a couple of new fruits. One was acerola, which grows and looks like a crab apple but tastes more like a lemon. It has more vitamin c in one small bite than a whole orange but it’s a bit hard to eat. We also tried a fruit called pinha here and sugar apple in America. It’s really amazing, like a soft apple with seeds but segmented. It’s flavor is a cross between pineapple, banana, and mango but it almost tastes like custard it’s so sweet. We spent the evening relaxing and watching some tv. We met some travelers from Australia and Denmark and Mexico. We cooked our dinner and went to bed later in the night. 

   
   

Day 75: Quarta-feira (Wednesday)

After breakfast and despite the rainy weather we took a bus to downtown Recife. There are three rivers that cross through Recife and the city is built on several islands. One of these islands has a lot of old buildings and churches. While on our bus the someone stepped into the street and was run over. We had to get off the bus but were pretty close and walked down a commercial street. We spent some time on the old section island looking at old churches and walking around the street vendors of various things. I stepped in a two foot deep hole in the street but luckily only skinned my shin. We had a nice lunch and walked to another island. We walked around some new and some old buildings. We took a bus back to our hostel and then went to the beach. We stayed for sunset and took some great pictures. We had an oven pizza again for dinner and relaxed with hostel guests until bed. 

   
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Day 76: Cinco-feira (Thursday)

It was finally time to move to Olinda! We decided to take a bus and after some directions at the hostel we finally made it there for about $0.75 each. Olinda has a way of making it feel like you’re in a very small town, but it is deceptively bigger than you would think! That first day, we started wandering and then a guide started talking to us. We ended up eating at a wonderful restaurant at the top of the hill and were entertained by cats. We visited even older churches and walked the entirety of the historic section. Although we weren’t prepared for the cost (only $25 total = R$100) it was worth the few hours of history and city lessons. Our minds were filled with all of the information we had learned about the city and we decided to head back to our pousada and hung out. Several hours later we decided to head to dinner, but the door was locked!! We ended up having to eat cereal and snacks for our dinner.

   
  

   
    

  
  
Day 77: Sexta-feira (Friday) 

Sarahi was feeling sick most of the day. Luke hung around the room for awhile and we both went out for a walk in the middle of the day. Sarahi still wasn’t feeling well so I walked around the city for a couple hours and ate a $1 hot dog. We met up later and ate some soup and juice, watched the sunset. We then went to an observatory and looked at the moon and Jupiter through a telescope. Then we returned to the room and I watched some march madness on my phone. We went our later for some Mexican food! It was great and the first Mexican food we’ve had this year. We went to bed a little later. 

   
   
 
  

  
Day 78: Domingo (Saturday)

This was Sarahi’s birthday so I’ll let her write this:  

This was a pretty darn good day! After a great breakfast we wandered around the city and geeked out at a few different museums and churches (like the puppet museum shown below). After a very filling lunch, we spent the heat of the afternoon at the hotel and watched some Harry Potter (obviously another awesome geeky moment). Then, we watched the gorgeous sunset from the top of a building and tried a traditional Brazilian snack at the top of the historic center. After heading back to the pousada to freshen up, we went and had a spectacular dinner on a private patio with a view.  I had Gorgonzola covered steak and Luke had seafood pasta paired with a delicious red wine! Then we took another beautiful way back to the pousada and hit the hay after a great day!

   
  

   
    
 

Week 10: Alagoinhas, Aracaju, Maceio, Margogi 
Day 64: (March 6th, 2016) 

That morning we had no idea what we were doing. We all had breakfast together then were told that we were speaking at a church! It obviously took us by surprise but we were ready for it! I have never hugged, shook hands with, and prayed with so many people in my life. They created a line to meet all the Americans and receive prayer. It was a humbling experience to think that these people believe in our prayer. After that, we went to lunch at the hotel and then we prepared for that night. Turns out we were going to be split into two groups and all of us had to speak! The church Luke and I went to was amazing. They were a small church but had great singers and a lot of enthusiasm. There was one particular woman that shocked us a little but we found out after church that she was exactly like she worshipped – full of energy and completely open. It was awesome. Then we took even more pictures with everyone (we totally felt famous that week).That night, we had to say goodbye to some of our friends and then we went to bed.*

Day 65: 

This was the last morning that we would spend together so we ate breakfast, then went back up to our rooms to plan our week. Luke and I had a miscommunication which had me waiting in my room for him for two hours – which obviously didn’t make me super happy. After a great lunch, we spent more time apart. We had a hard time figuring out what we were going to do about the buses because it showed that there were no seats available. We took a chance and went to the bus station anyway to see if they had tickets anyway. We lucked out and ended up catching an earlier bus to Aracuja than we planned (if we couldn’t get that bus, we would have needed to either stay one more night or go back to Salvador and take an even longer bus to Maceio). After getting to this city, we went walking around to find some food. We found this acai restaurant that had some pretty good burgers and even some barbecue sauce! After that very filling meal, we went back to the hotel and crashed.*

 *written by Sarahi

Day 66:

After a solid hotel breakfast we walked around the beach for a little while. We walked back along the road and saw some cool statues and parks. We stopped at an aquarium type place for about an hour. We got to see some awesome turtles, sharks, fish, sea snakes, and more. We returned to our hotel and quickly showered and packed. We took a taxi to the bus station and barely made it in time to catch our bus onward. It was a beautiful 6 hour ride to maceio, a large coastal city with reef protected beaches. It was dark by the time our taxi dropped us off at our lodging for the night. It was simply an older couple who rented out a couple of spare bedrooms. We wandered around the road next to the beach and eventually settled on a restaurant. We ate some nice fish with shrimp sauce for only $10 for two people. We were exhausted by the time we returned to our room. 

   
    
 Day 67:

We woke up fairly early and stopped by the grocery store. We bought some milk and cereal and continued to the beach. Shockingly we were the only people eating cereal for breakfast on the beach that morning. We swam and relaxed for awhile and then Sarahi asked me to teach her accounting. I started explaining the basic principles of debits and credits and how every entry needed to balance to zero. Sarahi soon became frustrated and accused me/accounting of “making up numbers” in order to balance an entry. But I was determined to teach her and after another hour or two of sand drawn journal entries, balance sheets, and income statements, she admitted the numbers were not made up. It was now one o’clock and despite our newfound skills in teaching/understanding accounting, we were severely sunburned. We returned to our room and slathered on after sun lotion. We ate lunch and then returned to our slightly cool, but thankfully sunless, room and took a nap. We tried to go see the sunset but waited too long and had to turn around halfway. Once it was dark we took a taxi to the mall hoping to catch an action movie in English. The movie was cancelled and our next best option was Kung fu panda three in Portuguese. It was pretty good and we understand more now than we did earlier in the trip. We ate McDonald’s for dinner and returned to our room. We watched a little Netflix and went to sleep. 

   
 Day 68:

The next day our skin felt even worse. The woman of the house made us a great breakfast. We stayed out of the sun in the morning and checked out of our place at noon. We followed the map from booking.com and thought we only needed to walk a few blocks south for our new hotel. After wandering around for quite some time we flagged down a friendly taxi driver. He called the property and it turns out it was only one block north of our previous accommodations. This property had a pool in the middle and looked like an old motel in the States. We really liked it and used the kitchen that night to make a pizza and some green beans for dinner. We watched some Netflix and enjoyed the pool area before bed. 

  
Day 69:

After breakfast we packed our bags and left them at the front desk. We walked across town in the heat of the day to see the museums. Unfortunately most of them were closed and we were not impressed with the cultural scene of the town. We did succeed in checking out the museum of image and sound and taking a nice walk along the coast. We returned for a great lunch at our favorite restaurant that was cheap and delicious. Then we took a taxi to the bus station and boarded a bus headed for Recife. After a few hours the bus stopped on the side of the road and we hopped out in a small town called Maragogi. We walked through town and eventually found our hostel. It was my first time in a hostel but Sarahi is a big fan. The difference between a hostel and hotel is that hostels have shared rooms and bathrooms and are much cheaper. Our room had 2 bunk beds and we snagged the top bunks. One of our roommates was an English speaking guy from southern Brazil, and the other was a trilingual Argentinian. Sarahi and I headed out for burgers at a cheap restaurant on the coast. Our pousada was adjacent to the beach and from the front door to the ocean was only 100 feet or so. It only cost $8 per person per night and breakfast was included. Our room had no air conditioning and it was a rough night sleep but it was worth it. 

Day 70:

At breakfast our Brazilian roommate invited us to take a trip out to the natural pool. The pool is formed by coral reefs at low tide and we had been planning to go. We went to get on the boat with our roommate and another Brazilian from the hostel named Mateus, who spoke a bit less English but loved to learn it. The water was beautifully colored, warm and clear. We stopped in two spots and spent awhile swimming in the natural pool in the second spot. Finally, it was worth lugging around the snorkels and goggles in my backpack over the last couple months. We saw a lot of small beautiful fish, sea anemones, a conch, and a sea snake. We took some pictures on the ride back and had fun. The four of us went out to lunch and paid $3.50 each for a huge plate of steak or chicken, rice, beans, spaghetti, french fries, and salad. We returned to our hostel, our roommate left, Sarahi took a nap, and I talked with Matheus. The three of us went for a walk on the beach and then headed to the grocery store. We bought pasta, sauce, sausage, peppers and onions. We were caught in a rainstorm on the way back but eventually returned. We watched batman with some other guests and Sarahi made some great spaghetti for the three of us. Our Argentinian roommate left that night so we had the room to ourselves. We were soon fast asleep. 

      

   

 

Week 9: Salvador and Alagoinhas, Brazil

Day 57: (February 28th, 2016) 

We decided to take a day and relax, pray, and prepare for the crusade we were about to take part in. We relaxed after breakfast and eventually went for a decent lunch of steak accompanied by, as always, rice and beans. We spent the afternoon preparing for the week and later went to take pictures of the sunset. We arrived just in time to catch the final moments of the sunset. We spent some time talking on the phone to our parents. We headed to dinner but the restaurant was closed. We went to visit our friend the bartender. It was his birthday in a couple days so we stopped to tell him hi and sorry we couldn’t be there. Then we went to a by the kilo restaurant and had some good food. We were exhausted and went to bed. 

   
   
Day 58:

We woke up early for breakfast, packed our bags, and checked out of our hotel. We took a taxi to the bus station and then boarded a bus for Alagoinhas. We arrived around lunch and took a taxi to the hotel where we would meet Rubens Cunha. He is a Brazilian evangelist who lived in Tulsa for awhile and went to my church. When I was 18 my youth group took a missions trip to Brazil and worked with him. While I was there I saw incredible healings and miracles and saw many people delivered from demonic possession. I have always wanted to go back and the timing worked out well. It’s also the reason we went to Morro de São Paulo and spent some extra time in Salvador, which were both great. We weren’t sure if he had made reservations or not so after waiting a few hours and watching Netflix we stowed our bags at the hotel and walked around the city. We were looking for a skirt for Sarahi to wear to church events but could not find the right thing. We ate some burgers and returned to the hotel. Due to a miscommunication we were unable to meet up with Rubens who had to preach at a service. We finally met up with him around 10 pm and he was very apologetic for making us wait on the hotel couch all day. Looking back we should have just gotten our rooms and waited but it wasn’t too bad. It was great to talk for a little bit and we soon had our two rooms and went to bed. We got two rooms to be respectful to Rubens and the mission trip, but I won’t lie, it was amazing to have a whole queen size bed and room for each of us. 
Day 59: 

After breakfast we went on a shopping mission again to find skirts for Sarahi. After walking all over town we found two long skirts that were pretty cheap. We bought some snacks and went back to the hotel. I went to the pool for a little while and we met the rest of the team at lunch time. The team was Paul Tims, a wealthy business owner in his late 50’s who funded the crusade; Dave, another wealthy business owner around the same age and also from Tulsa; his very quiet 21 year old son Seth; and his middle aged employee Harold. We were joined by several of Rubens employees/volunteers, two of which could speak English well. We had an open schedule for the afternoon and at night went to a service for the crusade volunteers. Alagoinhas has around 180,000 people and about a thousand of them volunteered for the crusade. Most of these volunteers were church members so I never expected what happened that night. I also didn’t warn Sarahi who was a bit unhappy about it later. The message was about deliverance and many people were delivered from demonic possession. We were standing at the front of the room and praying for people as they began to have convulsions, drop to the ground, shake and cry. It might sound crazy and it definitely freaked out Sarahi, who comes from a baptist church. The only reason it didn’t bother me is that I’ve seen it before. It was a powerful night and we were thankful that God delivered people from oppression and demonic possession. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner afterwards before returning to the hotel for bed. 
Day 60:

We had breakfast as a group and then got on the bus and went to a few schools. It was an experience seeing these kids and sharing stories with them about life and Christianity. We were told that most schools have a few students drop out every year because of drugs. After that, we ate lunch at the hotel and got to know the team before that night. This night was a little easier for Sarahi since the sermon was about the Holy Spirit and salvation. There were a lot of people who wanted to rededicate themselves and who also became Christians that night. It was a powerful night of worship. We enjoyed the Portuguese worship songs a lot. After that, we had some amazing lasagna at the Italian restaurant from the night before and went to bed exhausted.
Day 61:

We did pretty much the same thing as the day before but a few of us got the courage to speak to the children that morning. We had a new team member join us and he ended up rooming with Luke the rest of the trip. His story of salvation was amazing and he really had a good influence on the kids. After that we had lunch at the hotel and prepared for that night. It was amazing to see the organization and the coordination of volunteers that night. They had systems for writing down the names of those who were going to give their lives to God, those who needed and received healing, and those who were possessed who needed to be carried to the tents. Sarahi was extremely impressed with the smooth event planning for the weekend. After that, we went to the Italian restaurant and then went to bed. 
Day 62:

After waking up and eating another amazing breakfast at the hotel, we changed our schedule and went to the slums of the city. There, we handed out food and prayed with the families there. It was humbling to see the families and the houses they lived in. Most of their prayer requests were for jobs. After a hot morning, we went back to our rooms to freshen up and then played a tournament of foosball – Luke and I lost epically which set off a discussion about our differences in competitiveness. After that, we went back and prepared for the night. We did have a lot of down time, but it was nice to read, write, exercise, and relax. That night was the crusade. I was shocked by the attendance and moved by the hunger there. It went pretty flawlessly. People were saved, healed, and freed that night. We worshipped and prayed together and Luke and I were ambushed by kids for a long while asking us if we had to fly there, if Americans all had red faces, and if we were married. We had a blast and were exhausted by the end of it. We were ordering chicken Parmesan at the restaurant that night, but never got it so we just ended up eating what was around us. Again, we went to bed completely exhausted. 

  
Day 63: 

That morning after breakfast, we went to a preacher’s prayer meeting where we found out that one of our members could sing very well! After a great worship, we spoke about the needs of the community and how important it is to follow up on those kids at the school and those people who were saved on the first day of the crusade. It was encouraging to see that the crusade wasn’t just an in-and-out mission, but it was focused on true results within the churches and the community. That afternoon, we chilled at the hotel and then prepared for the last night of the crusade. The crowd was probably double the size, which meant we had about 14,000 people all there to worship and learn about God. The crowd was powerful that night. There were even more healings, salvations, and demonic expulsions that night. We connected with the kids more and more and learned a whole lot of Portuguese. The night went really well and after that, we had dinner at the same restaurant. Then, we went to bed.

   
   

Week 8: Morro de São Paulo & Salvador
Day 50: February 21st 

Had a nice breakfast at our new place then I did some laundry while Sarahi went to the coffee shop to do a little work. After a walk on the beach I met her back in our room for a lunch of sandwiches. We went back to the coffee shop for the fast wifi and then walked to the west side of the island for the sunset. We headed back and took a nap before going to dinner at a nice Italian place. We spoke with the owner for a long time in English and got some good advice on where to travel. 

   
   
  

  

Day 51: 

After breakfast we went to the beach. I swam a bit will Sarahi read a book. We spent the afternoon relaxing by the beach and then had sandwiches for lunch. We returned to the west side of the island for the sunset and pictures. We found another path back that went through the native section of town. We had some awesome seafood pasta for dinner. I’ve never had octopus before but it was pretty good! 

   
 

Day 52: 

After breakfast we tried some snorkeling on a secluded beach. It was low tide so we didn’t see too much and tried not scrape ourselves on the coral. Then we returned to our hotel to check out. We started walking in the heat of the day with our backpacks. We stopped halfway for lunch and had some incredible shrimp moqueca (imagine tomatoes, coconut milk, and shrimp soup crossed with fajitas). Then we continued walking for another mile or two down the beach. We were the only people backpacking down the beach and got some weird looks. We found a nice spot with a big tree and dropped out stuff underneath. We set up a hammock and relaxed for awhile. We hid our bags and walked back for dinner as the sun set. We had pasta, Sarahi’s with cheese and mine with lobster which was quite disappointing. We returned to our campsite to find the ocean was at low tide and had retreated 200 yards out to sea. We were disappointed but glad that it hadn’t gone the other direction and flooded our campsite. We set up our hammocks, hid our bags under some palm branches, and fell asleep to the sound of distant waves. 

   
   
   
    
 

Day 53: 

We woke up to an ocean that had returned within twenty feet of our campsite before beginning its retreat. It wasn’t the best nights sleep of our life but it was a great experience. I went for an early swim and watched a cloudy sunrise. Soon it started raining and we scrambled to secure our rain tarps above our hammocks. The rain stopped after 30 minutes and the tide continued retreating. We ate a mango and granola for breakfast, did some yoga, and studied Portuguese. Eventually we packed our bags and headed off in search of food and lodging. We returned down the beach just as the clouds broke and the sun reached its hottest. We have a bad habit of making this mistake… We ran into a guy who tried to sell us on a room the night before. After some negotiation and searching we found a great room for under $40 with a/c breakfast and a balcony with ocean view. We were so happy to shower off the complete coating of sand on our bodies. We headed to lunch and had some delicious chicken Parmesan that was more expensive than I expected but oh well.  We took a nap and then walked around the beaches a bit. We were feeling a bit exhausted and only ate crepes  and a bowl of fruit for dinner. We were soon asleep and thankful for a bed with air conditioning and no sand. 

Day 54:

I woke up early and took some awesome pictures of the sunrise. We had a nice breakfast after walking on the beach for a while. We took another walk on the beach and then packed our bags and checked out of our room. We took the long hike back to the docks and attempted to buy tickets back to Salvador. We could not buy them without cash but the arm had been empty since the day we arrived. We were worried we would be stuck on the island forever. After arguing with some police who were gaurding a brokers arm we decided to have lunch. Luckily the arm had cash and was functioning by the time we returned and we were able to take the boat back that afternoon after all. It was choppy and we were happy to be back on land. We walked to our hotel which we really loved. We had a nice dinner and relaxed the rest of the night. 

   
   
  
Day 55: 

After a great breakfast we relaxed in our room for a bit and then headed to find some museums. Our hotel is in the heart of Pelourinho which is the historic center of Salvador. The architecture is incredible and there are many beautiful churches. The streets are made of stone and are closely lined by centuries old buildings. There are countless museums within a square mile or so from our hotel. We when to six museums before lunch. They included a museum about a famous author from Brazil, one full of old pictures of Brazil, one about all the governors of the state of Bahia and some history, one full of various art displays, and our favorite was the museum of misericordia. The museum is located inside the oldest hospital in Brazil, and maybe the Western Hemisphere. It was funded by rich Catholics and was free to all. It served many impoverished women and children. The chapel inside was incredible and there was a multicolor marble staircase inside. There are only three multicolor marble displays like this in the world, including the Taj Mahal. It was really cool and had a great view of the bay of Salvador. I was cranky and tired of museums and hungry by lunch. We returned to a burger place and had massive burgers topped with sausage. We had a food coma and relaxed for the afternoon. Our hotel room had a second door leading to a large balcony area with a great view of the bay. We hung out here and watched some Netflix because our hotel had fast internet. We were very happy. We took a nap at some point and woke up at 1 in the morning. It was too late to eat dinner so we went back to bed and woke up starving the next morning. 
Day 56: 

The next day we had breakfast and then went shopping on a street near Pelourinho. There are countless shops selling mostly clothing and we needed to buy a couple things for Sarahi’s wardrobe. After a painful couple of ours of shopping we successfully bought a romper and several shirts for Sarahi as well as a couple pairs of sunglasses for $5 each. Mine are “genuine” ray bans and Sarahi’s are Gucci. I bought a jiu jitsu tank top to make me look tough but passed up the naike, beebok, and buma brand shorts. We bought pasta and spaghetti sauce and cilantro and returned to our hotel to cook lunch in their kitchen. After lunch we went our separate ways for a few hours. Sarahi went to a museum about tiles and I got my haircut by an elderly Brazilian man. He used a straight razor to shave my neck and clean up my beard, while a groups of Brazilian drummers marched by playing on the street next to me. It was a great haircut and shave for only $6. We met back up at the hotel and watched some Netflix. After a long nap we walked across the street for a $6 pizza and liter of soda. Then we headed to bed.