Cachoeira

This week, we spent five days in Cachoeira, a small town about 2 hours inland from Salvador. The suburbs of Cachoeira are rural areas with an occasional "town center" including a bar, maybe a gas station or a school, and a couple organized trees. All of our host families for this short stay reside in compounds with the rest of their family (I am pretty sure that everyone within a 5 mile radius is somehow related). My host family followed this set up and lives an incredibly simple life. Every time I returned for a meal, I would ask them what they did during the day and each time the response was "eh not much, maybe watch tv, relax and cook a little for you". Safe to say that I got a little stir crazy after the third novela on the first night.

My host family in Cachoeira (this was the only time I saw my host mom smile and I promise those kids usually were not miserable...)

the most luxurious mosquito net I will ever use

The main point of this Cachoeira excursion was to experience health care in a rural setting (which is pretty bad). My placement within the health care system was at the mental health clinic called CAPS. Originally, I was under the impression that this CAPS location was for mental illnesses like depression or schizophrenia, but, much to my surprise, this location is prime real estate for addiction. All of the patients had a slew of addictions, as well as an occasional mix of developmental disorders. Because CAPS does not require sobriety, a majority of the patients would come and go, using a collection of drugs as they pleased. On our first day with CAPS, we participated in an art therapy session, and also went on a field trip to a cigar factory with the woman who runs CAPS as well as all of the patients who participated in art therapy that morning (I couldn't make this stuff up). The second day, we participated in a group therapy session with about 10 patients. This therapy included a mirror exercise, a surprisingly heated argument on religion, and a couple of small fights among the patients. Safe to say my time at CAPS was a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

cigar factory

view from the bridge on the way to the cigar factory

Because I was not home for much of this week, there were only a few treats. This one is by far the funniest so far and was delivered to me while I was doing my homework this afternoon. Ciara said it was a leftover from one of the parties she catered this weekend which was appropriately princess themed.