Out On the Town-Fun.

Awesome teacher team

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When I looked up the city of Teresina before I left Montana, I had a hard time finding much information.  Upon arriving in Brazil, Tami and I would tell people where we were going and no one really knew anything about the city, the only thing they would say is that it was hot.  In fact, Tami heard a joke that in Teresina the birds are always flying in circles because they use one wing to fly, and the other to fan themselves.  During our orientation in Brasilia, we learned that the state of Piauí, of which Teresina is the capital, is the poorest state in Brazil, and also the safest.  The state of Piauí also has the largest percentage of illiterate students under age 8, almost 25%.  With this limited amount of information we boarded our plane from Brasilia to Teresina with anticipation and excitement.

Just crossing the road

Market

So far, we have not been disappointed.  Our host teacher (also a principal,) Alex, is a wonderful host.  He insures that we have everything we need and are well taken care of.  He also keeps us very busy because there is much more to the city of Teresina than we were led to believe by the lack of available information.  Teresina is a city of one million people.  As we were flying into the city my limited view from the plane showed only small terracotta tiled roofs, but there is large city skyline with tall condominiums, a thriving downtown, and two relatively new malls (one is enormous, even by American standards.)  There are lots of shiny cars (you can get them washed by the river on a Sunday afternoon) and there are also a few horse-drawn carts in the roads.

When Alex first picked us up at the airport he was describing the feeling of the city and told us a saying about the small town feel even though Teresina is a large city.  The saying goes, there are only three people in Teresina, you, me, and someone we both know.  Within the first fifteen minutes, we found that was true as Alex and I know the same teacher from Brasilia through another IREX program called International Leaders in Education Program, that had us laughing right away.  I love this saying and think it exemplifies the personal relationships found in this town.  Meeting the wonderful people of Teresina has been our favorite part of the trip so far.

Thursday and Friday we spent much of our time at schools, but over the weekend Alex, Alex Junior, and his friends took us around to really explore the city and we found there are many, many things to see and do. We first headed to a local market.  Even though the market was closing, a kind shop owner showed us the type of things in the area, and then gave us key chains as a souvenir.  Alex treated us to some fruit I had never heard of before called, ata in Portuguese (I just looked it up and it's a sugar-apple in English.)  It was really unusual but tasted very good, sweet and smooth.

Ata fruit

Yum!

Rivers

Imitating part of the legend

Confluence of the rivers, if you look closely you can see a line in the water between the light and dark water where the rivers meet.

Upon leaving the market, we went to the confluence of the two rivers in Teresina, the Parnaíba and Poty.  On our way there we learned about "love motels" these are motels all over Brazil where couples can go to hook up.  Since often there are many family members under one roof, there is little room for privacy and intimacy.  When couples who are dating, or even married, need some alone time, they can go to a love motel and rent a room, for a few hours, or a few days.  Quite an interesting urban development, I will try and take a picture of one next time we go by.  But back to the river... there is a floating restaurant where we had an amazingly delicious fish lunch.  We also learned a local legend about a boy doomed to life in the river because he could not eat seven virgins.  After lunch we stopped to check out some pottery made by a local artist, but while there we were given a tour of the entire process, including traveling around back to see the kiln shared by four families.  Of course I wanted to buy something to support their business so I picked out a ladybug which they were working on while we were there, and two owls as Alex told us they represent teachers (all for only 5Reais, the equivalent of $2.50.)  Before we left, we were given three more pieces of pottery as gifts for coming to their store, the people of Piauí are so generous and kind!

The people are also proud.  Monday, when visiting an English class, I asked the students what Americans should know about their city.  They replied that people in Teresina are very friendly (agreed!) and also very intelligent.  While other states of Brazil may have plentiful natural resources, the greatest resource in Teresina is its people.  While Piauí may have limited resources, the people do not let that hold them back and they overcome those obstacles with intelligence and education.  Now that is a community characteristic to be proud of.

showing us the potter's wheel

The Kiln

Painting the pottery is a family affair

Generous gifts

Teresina is hot and another local saying goes...there are two seasons in Teresina, hot and very hot.  But every once in awhile there is another season, hot as hell.

Our final touristic stop was the cable bridge tower.  You can ride up and have a 360 degree view of the city, it's beautiful.  On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Alex's cousin's house for a birthday celebration for his one-year-old son, Savio.  The party was in full swing, decked out in Festival of June decorations (more about that later) for the party.

Under the bridge

Over the bridge

View from the bridge tower

Birthday Party!

Birthday boy

Gems of Teresina underrated or overlooked by TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet:
*The new Pitycabana park area along the river is a thriving area for people and families to hang out, eat, exercise, play sports, etc.
*Confluence Park and the floating restaurant
*Cable Bridge Tower ride
*Cantinho do Jambo quail dinner
*Live music at Quintal do Rock, or many other places for that matter
*City squares after 3AM (I haven't tried this, but heard about it :)