On the road again

so sick of small town life and thrilled that I get to travel starting next week. The kids are on vacation and returning to Jacunda a week from Monday. Shara and I are going to meet up and get a much needed break!

I´ve started giving English lessons to some local kids to help earn money for the water/electricity bills...

Travel plans are below but first--
A few pointers for the city of Tocantinopolis
a) I´m an american. I do however have my own name which happens to be Sofia, not ´Americana´.
b) I´m an american. I am still a human being...2 legs, 2 arms, a brain... In other words, I´m not an alien, so stop staring.
PS. Yes, I´m white, but there are plenty of Brazilians who are even paler than me, including several here in Tocantinopolis.
c) I´m an american but you´re not going to see me drink. So stop singing that dumb pop song ´Americana que bebe´ (American who drinks)
d) Get a life. Stop talking about me. When I eat dinner with the kids, I don´t want to hear about how much weight I lifted at the gym* or who I talked to on the street earlier that day.

*I joined the gym about 10 days ago! This creates a whole new set of problems (ie - why am I the only one who sweats?) but the opportunity to get out of the house and exercise is keeping me sane.

Next Tuesday going to Imperatriz (1 hr away) to renew my visa ...fingers crossed.

Friday or Saturday the 16th I head up north to Sao Luis to meet up with Shara, Sister Sally and the nuns. Then 2 - 3 day bus ride (train?) down to Sao Paulo. We´ll be staying with the religious community O Caminho to do some other volunteer work but hopefully on the side we´ll get to relax and maybe even be tourists. Will return to Tocantinopolis about the 15 of Jan.

---Ana's biology teacher took us to a waterfall about 1 hr away...I didn't want to destroy my camera, but found some pictures of the place online.