Barefoot Soccer and Atypical Rituals

Traveling can offer many unique learning opportunities and offer you the chance to have many fulfilling experiences. The feeling you get when exploring a foreign environment is something special. I have been blessed with opportunities to explore our world. As a young kid, I was fascinated by the  people and places I saw far from home. I'm going to share with you some highlights from a trip to Brazil I went on in 6th grade.

I remember wondering what it would be like. I had no idea what to expect. As soon as we crossed the Amazon River, I knew I was in for an adventure.

Seeing poverty as kid from middle-class America can be an eye-opening experience, and that's exactly what I saw within the first day of traveling.

One of the most fun things that I did was play soccer with the village kids. I learned that that way we play soccer here in the states is very different from the way they play down in Brazil. But there we were, playing barefoot 3 v. 3 soccer together and having a blast. Within the next couple of days our small-sided games turned into a massive ~50 person epic soccer battle.

I can remember being afraid of all the dogs that ran around on the streets. One time a huge guard dog came barreling towards our group from across the street. Just as it made it to our side of the road, the owner yelled at it and it stopped in its tracks. It turned around and moped back to its gate with a humiliated look on its face. The owner was a seven year old girl.

One of my favorite parts of going to Brazil was traveling to a reservation for indigenous people in the southern part of the Amazon. We walked around meeting people and buying hand-made crafts. I watched a man (pictured above) make a bow and arrows, which are now on display in my room. Also, we gave the tribe a bunch of clothes that I had outgrown, so there's probably some little boy running around with a "Wiscasset Recreational Soccer" T-shirt somewhere.

In the village we visited, there was a "spirit hut" where all of the tribe's equipment for rituals was stored (no photography was allowed near it so I don't have any pictures). In order to enter this hut you had to be a man. No women or children were allowed. If fact, if a woman was to enter, any man would be allowed to rape her according to tribal law. Luckily, I was declared a man by a tribesman, so I was given a tour of the hut. Receiving this honor felt really good, especially because I was only a young 6th grader.

This is a video of a ritual a native man performed for us. It is a rite of passage ritual where a comb made of dogfish teeth is scraped all over one's body. After about 30 seconds, blood starts to pour out of the skin. This was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.

I was also honored to meet these three children. They are the last surviving members of their tribe, so they were taken in by a neighboring tribe. I wonder how they are doing today.

When we crossed the river to get off the reservation and back to the mainland, we were told we could go for a swim if we wanted. The only warning was to shuffle your feet so you wouldn't step on sting-rays. It was hot, so naturally I went for a dip. Upon getting in the water, I was attacked by massive school of minnows. It tickled! 

When I got out of the river I casted a bamboo fishing rod into the river with raw cow heart as bait. Immediately, I got strong tugs left and right (in the very spot I had just swam). They forgot to mention the presence of piranhas.

This trip was not without hard work however! We helped turn this into an indoor soccer field by sanding and painting the walls and cleaning it up. Unfortunately, I didn't get to play on the final product.

Helping out at an orphanage was one of the most rewarding experiences of my trip. Basically I got to play with cute little kids all day! I can still remember teaching one how to use a camera...

To conclude, Brazil was a beautiful country and the people were amazing. I know I will visit it again one day because I took so much away from those two weeks. If there's one thing that I want you to take away from this post, it's to never turn down a chance to explore something new. Get out and see the world!