January 21-22

Another couple of very interesting days. Once again, I have not had any time to download or sort my photos, so I will add them later.

Monday we went to a facility that incubates sea turtle eggs. The Sea Turtles were almost extinct. This facility has been able to get the support of the surrounding fishermen and community. Now anyone seeing a turtle laying eggs, notifies the facility. They collect the eggs and make sure that they hatch in safety. They then assist the young turtles to the sea if they need it. It has won many awards and has been very successful.

From there we went to the beach. Arlaine, Gwen, Sheila, and Marilyn had a great time playing in the surf. It took some photos of local kids surfing - they are very good. I teased the ladies that I was photographing them loosing their bikini tops in the surf and that I planned to post the photos on this blog.... Sorry - no such photos.

Next, we went to a shopping mall. With the exception of the food outlets (many of which serve Brazilian foods) it was almost exactly the same as a mall at home.

I had a wonderful visit with my host family Monday night. We listented to music, the kids sang, Paulo danced, and everyone had a good time.

Tuesday we all met at Big Paul0´s for a wonderful breakfast. There was enough food to feed an army. It was all wonderful and exotic. Paulo´s wife made all the food, and also presented us with some home made crafts. They have a wonderful home. It was fun meeting the rest of his family.

From there we had a "free" day. Carolina took Bill, Arlene, and I to the market. We were supposed to meet her at the Cathederal down town, but ended up getting lost. We went back to the market and were eventually found...

Carolina took us back to her house for lunch, and then took me on a tour of the school/Clinic that she runs for mentally disabled kids. It is in a very poor area. She is doing wonderful work there and helping a lot of people. Her school serves about 400 kids.

Back to my host family for a quick shower and then off to another group dinner.

We leave tomorrow night (actually early thrusday morning), so this may be my last post until I am back in Canada. I will try to fill in the photos/names/places once I am back.

Ted