In the Gaia Project, you will work teaching children and learning with them about environment. How to care, how to protect and how much it is important to us. But have more: you will do this in a city in the middle of the biggest rain forest of the World, Amazon rain forest. You can teach about environment and visit the most beautiful natural places that you will see in your life. It's really incredible! Let's take a look at the video ?
 |
| Ilha do Amor – a beautiful beach that only exists 6 months a year. Photo: Creative Commons |
Here are some interesting facts you probably didn’t know about this hidden Brazilian gem:
1. The most famous beach of Alter do Chão is the Ilha do Amor, voted by the Guardian as the “best beach of Brazil” – although it only exists for 6 months of the year!
2. The reason for this is that the beach is actually a river beach, or more accurately a lagoon beach – it disappears as the waters rise in the rainy season.
3. The Ilha do Amor (Love Island), where the famous beach is located, is actually a sand spit rather than an island which almost encircles the Lagoa Verde (Green Lagoon) dividing it from from the river Tapajós.
4. Winter in the Amazon is different from winter elsewhere in Brazil and refers to the rainy season from December to May; summer is the rest of the year.
5. In dry season there are no mosquitoes and in winter there are far fewer than on the Amazon, due to the composition of the river Tapajós.
6. There are waves on the beaches, but no tide. The waters take over the island – this is because the level of the Tapajos river rises in the rainy season.
7. Waters are blue green in colour rather than the muddy brown of the Amazon river.
 |
| The ice cream man commeth |
8. The guy paddling knee-high in water up and down the beach pulling his cart behind him is the official ice cream salesman.
9. Fish dishes on the “island” are tasty and very good value – around £2.50GBP for Pirarucu na manteiga, a local fish with no bones cooked in butter with tomato onion sauce, and it comes accompanied with all the typical side dishes.
10. Everyone puts tables and chairs in the water whilst barefooted waiters run around bringing food and a constant supply of “stupidly cold” beer.
Source: 10 Interesting facts about Alter do Chão, Pará (Edited)
I am Gabriel
from Bielefeld in Germany. My last semester holidays I spent in Santarem in
Brazil. I did this, even I never really had the plan to go abroad, but it seems
to be the right for me at this time. And it was clear for me to only go abroad
with AIESEC, because AIESEC was the only reason, why I planned to do this.
Since last summer I am part of this organization and it became an important
part of my life. The mass of people I connected with there and the unique work atmosphere
make me want to take every opportunity it would give to me. And of course on of
the biggest opportunity you have in an organization sending students abroad is
to go abroad. It started out of curiosity but in the end, I went abroad because
I was way too convinced of AIESEC and what we are doing to not go.
So in the end it
was going abroad for the sake of going abroad and it took me a long time to
choose the country. The decision was mainly between Taiwan, India and Brazil.
Of course I can’t say how my story would have gone if I would have chose
another option but at least I can not imagine to go somewhere else than Brazil.
The decision was lastly a very spontaneous one, it wasn’t necessarily the most
interesting project or country but I was always a friend of Latin American
country and the Amazonas is of course a legendary place all over the world. What
I heard about the project and the Committee there seemed nice and so I said: Yeah, why
not. Sometimes it just feels right. And I couldn’t choose better with any
rational reasons.
I have to admit
that I had a huge lack of preparation when I came to Santarem. Due to my work
in AIESEC and that I (like I said) took every single opportunity this
organization offered me I was far too busy to think too much about my exchange.
As I came to Brazil I wasn’t ready for anything, neither mentally nor
physically. For example, one of the most popular jokes about me (despite my
non-german unpunctuality) was that I did not brought any shorts for a stay in a
tropical country. I maybe was realizing that I actually go on exchange not
before I left the plane in Santarem.
Santarem is not a huge city and not a huge Committee. As I am from a small Committee of AIESEC, this is exactly the way I like it. Familiar, flat hierarchies and all in all
work based on friendship. When I arrived we were about 10 trainees which is a
perfect amount, its enough to have cool intercultural exchanges and
nevertheless you still can know everyone. I experienced so much, it sometimes
was simple way too much. In the first days it was like a little kid going to
the movies for the first time and seeing a new world inside the old one.
Everything was different, the color, the smell, the noises and looking back to
it from now it feels like a dream. Its interesting to see myself under constant
challenge, how I deal with the changes everyday and also how awesome little
things like going to a bar with the other trainees can become under those right
circumstances. The last half year I was constantly working about those kinds of
experiences as I was working with AIESEC trainees. But seeing the impact of
this work and the feeling of those kind of experiences right in front of me was
totally different and something complete unbelievable.
In my daily job
I was working with children. Children of course do not speak English. As this
frustrated me in the beginning it became more and more super fun over the time.
Regular communication can be so boring if you once tried to communicate with
people who don’t understand a single word of you saying and have never thought
that there might be people who don’t understand their words. When people ask me
now how I communicated I can not answer them. But in fact: I did communicate.
Somehow. Its maybe something we can call an AIESEC-miracle. Same thing is for
me finding my home every time even if I got lost every single time I got out of
the door. (Also something that contributed to my legendary unpunctuality). But
I could see the excitement about meeting some foreigners for the first time in
de faces of the kids and after they realized that they could tell me everything
because I would not understand it anyway the stopped being shy and started
talking like a waterfall.
Hello guys! In this video, Laura Sanna (Uruguayan, 26), talks about her experience here, in Santarem, and describes how was her project, GiraMundoArts. Let's take a look?
Brazil was definitely not what I had expected. My name is Fenghua Jin, from Canada, Aiesec Queen's. Entering Brazil 19 years old, fortunately I had my 20th birthday there. The project I came to participate in is Gaia - environment. I was placed at the local Seara , with two other wonderful trainees from Mexico: Carlos and Andrea. Arriving to Santarém was long as there were a lot of connecting flights. However the people you will meet, I would say makes an big impact on your life. Working at Seara, i can say a lot of us faces challenges. It was hard to communicate because of the language barrier espeically to the kids. For the first few weeks it was unorganized and frustrating for all sides of the project, as no one really had a solid structure of plans for the whole summer camp. However after several meetings and discussions with planning, a few weeks in, we finally started teaching our classes for the kids. In my group we planned activities using recycled products and teaching kids about composting. Even playing sports and helping out around the school really gave a "feel good" impression. The kids were always energetic and open to all actives planned. Santarém was difficult for me to get around at first, but after meeting a few trainees we all found our way together. I feel as though, now we are old enough and have well matured in our years to be able to appreciate and be more open-minded. Which is why I can say, meeting people from all around the world was appreciating. Talking to new people and finding common interests and past experiences really makes you grateful to be in another part of the world to share it with them. My host family was shy but they were super open and friendly. They always took me out to experience different activities. Brazilian culture is definitely different than Canada. Their food took some time for me to get used too as in America breakfast is a huge part of the day and in Brazil I felt as though people didn't eat much expect during lunch! I also loved all their exotic fruits that I have never tried! At the end of the day I did not regret coming to Brazil, espeically Santarém because I feel as though no matter what you will leave with something special and a lasting presence. Before I came I wanted to focus on myself and develop my sep awareness in Brazil. Although I did have some success, I managed to even meet a special that that I now call my long-distance boyfriend. I couldn't be happier!
Maelle Ricobonni, a trainee from France, did her exchange here in Santarém during June/July of 2015, and took a lot of pics of persons: guys from Santarém, trainee...
Want to see? Lets's go!
Want to see? Lets's go!
