last weekend in recife.

views from our apartment at night.

 We've been in Recife now 5 weeks & it's time to continue on our journey.

We will be traveling from here to salvador in bahia, fortaleza in ceara, manaus in the amazon & finally Sao Paulo. Our new adventure begins on Monday and we will miss Recife a ton but we are also so excited to visit new places. 

Here is a map to give you all an idea of where we will be in Brazil.

(the hearts indicate the city's location)

Highlights from our time here so far:

+the variety of fruits. I can't get enough fresh fruit juice.

+the beach as our backyard with the crystal, turquoise water & beautiful reef.

+the ocean breeze.

+acai bowls with banana, granola & leite condensado

+the portuguese style homes like in olinda.

+the rivers that run through the city.

+our church ward here in piedade.

+the water falls we went rappelling down.

+our school ABA & listening to wonderful lectures from our teacher :)

+the sunset over the city (not the ocean :P).

+our day visiting families in the sertao.

+seeing the prehistoric cave drawings.

+our fourth of july party at ABA.

+teaching sports at the American School.

+painting homes in the favela.

+painting CCJ.

+spending our 2 year anniversary here.

+going to carauaru the capitol of forro.

+porto de galinhas-the most amazing beach in the world in my opinion!

+riding the dune buggy through natal.

+attending festa junina party at CCJ.

+visiting the temple of recife.

+seeing the first synagogue in all of south america.

+visiting the most charming town I've ever seen, Olinda.

+visiting the ricardo brennand institute.

so grateful for our time here.

we love recife.

the first jewish synagogue

The first jewish synagogue in the Americas, or New World, is located in Recife, Brazil.

On Wednesday, we went down to the historic center of Recife & were able to take a tour of the synagogue.

It was such a neat experience to be able to learn about a religion that has so much history. I was so surprised when I found out the first synagogue was here, in Recife of all places. 

This synagogue is called the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue.

(meaning: rock of israel in hebrew)

It was established by immigrants from the Netherlands, and the "new christians" who were living in the colony. Many of these people had escaped Europe because of persecution and although Catholicism has always been the official religion of Brazil (and still is today), it was easier for them to practice their religion here.  The dutch invaded Brazil in 1630 and took over the northeast region.  When Mauricio de Nassau took control between 1637 & 1644 there was relative peace under the dutch control. Although the Dutch had taken over,  he had a lot of support from Brazilians and he really modernized Recife & cared about Brazil. He is the reason why there are so many bridges in Recife.  He had a tolerance for the jews, and many of them escaped from Europe and came to Brazil to avoid the persecution they were receiving there.   Mauricio de Nassau had to return to Holland in 1645 and it was after he governed that Brazil took back the area from the Dutch in 1654. Because of the Holland invasion in the northeast is the reason why we see so many african people with blue eyes. It is due of the mixing of the races here.

This synagogue functioned until the 20th century when it was torn down. After some archeological excavation it was reopened in 2001. 

There are currently 4 synagogues in Recife. 

All of the men in our group wore the Jewish Cap as a sign of respect.

stories of life in recife part I

Tonight we began hearing stories of life in Recife. 


Our friend, Manuel from the ward, told us stories about the poor in recife.  There are some places extremely poor in this area. He said there are people who will use water to cook some fish, use the same water to take a bath..and then if there is water left over they will use the same water to drink.
& that's life in recife.

He also said a little while ago there was so much rain and flooding that 1000 people died. He said that he saw a young girl, covered in trash with just her little face sticking out. He said that it was the only way to avoid the rain..to hide under the trash.

We also learned that the nordestinos love Lula-the last president of brazil. They are like a God to him because he helped the lower class so much. So do not say anything negative about Lula!!

Another thing we learned is that there is a lot of racism between states in brazil.

& so began the stories of life in recife.