AIPRAL Conference Part 2: Brazil and Stuff

So there's definitely much more to talk about with the AIPRAL conference than just bible studies and talks on economic justice. First and foremost, we had the opportunity to get to know about two dozen young Christians from all over South America: Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Colombia. They were mostly 18 – 25-ish, either in college or recently graduated. There were maybe 14 males and 8 or 9 females. And of course, because of the geographical diversity, Sean and I got to hear a great variety of Spanish accents. The Chilean Spanish was probably most difficult for us to understand (well, apart from the Portugese, hahaha). Luckily, the guys who came to the conference from Chile spoke a decent amount of English. More importantly, however, they also did a GREAT job of putting on “gringo” Spanish accents. They could speak Spanish with a PERFECT California/valley accent. It was actually easier (and a lot funnier!) to understand them when they spoke with their fake North American accents.

We also participated in the “southern cone” tradition of hot tea (“mate”) drinking. The participants in the conference from Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina were constantly drinking tea. They each had a thermos and matching mug. The mug is filled about halfway with some sort of plant/herb, and then either cold or hot (depending on the outside temperature) water is poured on top of it. Then they drink the tea through a metal straw that you’re apparently not supposed to move. The cool part is that even though everyone brought their own, they each took turns being the “tea provider” for the day. That is, one person would bring their mug/thermos, and then be constantly sharing/passing around. In this way, it’s a much more community/social activity.

The first time I tried it, I had no clue what it was. And being totally clueless, (not having even seen anyone else drink from it) the first thing I did was take the straw out (a no-no) and look at it. And because the bottom part was wide, flat and sort of curved (resembling a spoon), I made a motion to ask them if you were supposed to EAT it (it seemed like a possibility – I didn’t know!!). So of course everyone laughed and quickly made sure I didn’t eat it. Finally, my last faux-pas was just sipping really slowly – I would quickly learn that they basically drain the mug in one quick, long swig, and then it gets refilled for the next person.

The slow sipping may not have been a bad strategy – they all claimed that the tea didn’t have any stimulants, but there is no WAY that was true. After my first morning of participating in one of their tea-drinking social circles, I was WIRED for the rest of the day! I guess “mate” is their version of the regular North American’s addiction to coffee.

Unfortunately, Sean and I didn’t get to see too much of Brazil outside of just the hotel and the waterfalls. The conference activities went all the way from 8 in the morning to 8 at night. However, the national park in Foz de Iguazu where we saw the waterfalls was pretty awesome. To start with, everything just seemed so green, compared to Lima which is technically coastal desert. The climate reminded me a lot of home / the deep south – hot and humid.

Of course, the waterfalls were nothing short of spectacular. You can check out pictures in my picasa album. There was a path that sort of winded along through the trees, down the hillside next to the river, and around every turn there was ANOTHER set of spectacular falls. I thought it would just be one big waterfall, but there were at least 5 different sets (maybe more like 7 or 8). There were also bridges with platforms that went out over the river so we could get close enough to feel the mist. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to cross over to the Argentine side (the Iguazu river forms the border between Brazil and Argentina) where you can walk on a bridge that passes pretty much directly over the falls, but we still had an amazing time. There were masses of other tourists everywhere from all over the world. South America, Europe, Japan, and even a guy wearing a University of Georgia baseball cap.

Finally, after seeing the waterfalls, I went white water rafting down the river (down river, not up river from the falls…). I’ve been rafting a couple times in western North Carolina, so I knew what to expect, but it was still a little disconcerting that our guide only spoke Portugese! There were actually only two real rapids – but they were both a lot bigger and more intense than any rapid I had rafted through previously! After the second rapid, we basically all jumped out of the raft and just floated down the river for the rest of the day. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting when I was told it would be a 2 hour rafting trip, but I wasn’t going to complain – the water felt SO good in the Brazilian heat and humidity.

All in all it was a good trip. The only other thing I guess I could mention is that we crossed the border (the OTHER border) from Brazil into Paraguay on the last day to do some shopping. This really isn’t noteworthy at all, besides the fact that crossing the border was so quick, easy and painless. The shopping consisted of street venders and a couple shopping mall-type buildings that offered very little in the way of authentic Paraguayan crafts and mainly just electronics, clothes, music and movies for higher prices than we would pay in Peru.