Well, I am finally going to try and finish up explaining my boat trip about 2 weeks after it ended and about 1 day before I leave again for the South of Para and will not have internet for another 11 days. The end of my trip culminated in a rural homestay with a ribeirinhos family near Juruti. Living with this family was one of the most amazing experiences of my life...I spent the days searching for fruits and brazil nuts in the forest and learning how to fish with nets in the river. I had about 6 or 7 children crawling all over me at all times and I have numerous pages in my notebook of doodles that we spent hours doing. In the late afternoons, we would spend hours playing soccer and the moms would even join in. These are the kids in my homestay family: Sauri, Alberth, Tomi Ta, and Tomi Carlon.

 On Sunday, the four communities that live near each other have a soccer tournament, so we hosted another community at our soccer field for a pretty intense game. Right before the game, I went to look for fruit in the forest and ended up by the farinha huts where the boys outside decided to throw brazil nuts at each other. I was lucky enough to be standing in the way of a particularly well thrown one that hit me just above the temple and had a great time sporting a black eye and welt on my head for about 2 weeks after. I was taken by the children down to my host mother who took care of me while the entirety of the two communities watched resulting in probably the most embarrassing experience of my life. However, the soccer game was amazing and afterwards I hung out with some locals and practiced conversational Portuguese. My host mother was very involved in the community so I was able to go to meetings and church and really understand the inner workings of it. Everyone in the community feels like one family and they do all they can to look out for one another. Education is on the rise, though they do not have access to proper materials until they reach high school age. It seems that only 5 or 6 boys are able to move to Juruti for school and they return every weekend with goods for the town. Upon leaving, my host mother began to cry and I realized why Brazilians have the word saudade....leaving someone you're relatively sure you're never going to see again that have truly touched your life.

Beyond this, life in the city has been interesting but not very noteworthy. I was able to visit Boa Vista, a community just north of Belem where we were all bathed in herbs to attract positive energy and apparently boyfriends, something that Brazilians hold in the highest esteem. I also visited the bird conservatory here, which is absolutely beautiful and a lovely paradise in the middle of the city.

I am leaving tomorrow for the South of Para and should return around May 3rd, so hopefully by then I will have plenty of stories to tell