GSE Brazil 2012: Team arrive in Manaus

After a fabulous and jam packed first five days in Belem, we arrived in Manaus at 10.30am Saturday morning. We were met at the airport and taken on the bus straight to meet a ballet school. The ballet school operates at the weekend, its charity based ran by the teachers of the school and open to all the children in the city, aged 5 - 17. The reception we got from the children was amazing, we were all really touched by it, everybody was so welcoming and excited to see us, it almost like we were celebrities - the children were actually calling Kat Adele, the singer. They performed a ballet routine for us which was brilliant and that we chatted to the children and had our pictures taken with them. I had a little sing song to Lady Ga Ga with two of the children, they really were little performers. Straight from there we were taken to fish farm place for our lunch. We had a huge buffet of fresh fish and meat and chatted with the new group. After lunch we were taken to a prison, which I was really interested in given Criminal Justice is my area of work. We were given a tour around the prison, it was nothing how you would imagine a Brazilian Prison to be - it was a new building with a new way of working with the prisoners, focusing on rehabilitation and social integration as opposed to just punishment. The governor gave us a guided tour which included taking us to the high risk sex offender unit, it was quite surreal, particularly for the other girls who had not been in a prison before. And what a complete contrast the the morning ballet with the school children! In the evening we met up with some of the Rotaract team and went to a lovely Brazilian Restaurant that specialized in soup, but not any ordinary soup, you could add anything to it, meat, cheese, pasta, It was really unique, I've not seen anything like that before, we even had chocolate soup for desert which was delicious! Seriously the food here is so good although worrying I will need a new wardrobe by the time we leave. Today we have been on a boat trip out on to the river to see where the river Negro and the river Solmoes meet. It was awesome to see the two different colours. We then went to a little gift store out on the river and we all had a go at fishing the biggest fresh fish in the world, it was really good fun, although lots of girly screams from me and Liz as we thought we were going to get pulled in the water. We then went over in the boat to see some animals and the team got to hold a baby sloth and Kat and Steve had a snake put around their neck..scary!! We then walked through the jungle and went to see the giant lily pads, before getting back on the boat and visiting the river communities. Its really hard to believe how much we have seen in the last 6 days. It really is an adventure of a lifetime and non of us have stopped smiling since we arrived (or eating).

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings, will keep you all posted!