Update from Colatina, Brazil

Yesterday we packed our things, said goodbye to our host families in Vitoria, and headed out for one a few more activities in Vitoria before heading north to the city of Colatina.

Our first stop yesterday was CAJUN in the neighborhood of Nova Palestine. CAJUN is a community center for at-risk kids in the area, with a focus on arts education. Our team quickly became celebrities for the day. Our business cards with corresponding autographs were highly sought after. Towards the end of the morning, we were even signing arms, hands and legs. There was a health fair that day and we all had our blood pressure and blood sugar measured.

After CAJUN we headed north on a three hour drive to Colatina. The landscape was rural with picturesque mountain views. Our rendezvous with our families took place by the Rio Doce (Sweet River) which runs through the city. We had a few hours to get settled with our new families before dressing in our tackiest garb and heading to Festa Cafona. Cafona means tacky in English.

Festa Cafone is a huge annual event which draws more than 6,000 movers and shakers throughout Espirto Santo and the neighboring states in Brazil. We arrived at 10 p.m. and had a feast for the eyes as bell bottoms, crazy wigs and people in 80´s outfits sauntered by. We were lucky enough to be invited to share a VIP cabin with the local rotary group where we had a bird´s eye view of the festivities. To get a better idea of the experience, check out the video on our Facebook page. We thought we had stayed out quite late, but found out that 3:30 a.m. is a considered a very early time to leave a Cafona party. Boring Americans! Today we were lucky enough to sleep in and then were treated to a traditional Brazilian BBQ, known as a churrasco at Paul´s host families beautiful house. We were also treated to a live preformance of Brazilian music by our hosts.

Tomorrow we are booked from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. but are looking forward to seeing various aspects of the city like the coffee plant and firestation.