6 days away!

Wow time has flown.  Six days from now, I will be on a plane headed for Brazil.  I recently purchased a book on Brazil and thought I would share some of the interesting facts that I learned.

• Brazil is the fifth largest nation on the planet.  The total landmass is 3, 285, 618 square miles.  In comparison the US is 3.79 million square miles in size.
• The population is over 192 million people.  (The US is estimated to be over 312 million people.)
• Brazil was discovered in 1500 by Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral. 
• Salvador is the first capital city of Brazil, starting in approximately 1549.
• Rio de Janerio is made the capital city in 1763.
• Brazil achieves independence from Portugal in 1822.
• Brazil was the only Latin American county to take an active part in World War II.
• Brasilia was inaugurated as the capital of Brazil in 1960.
• Brazil contains 26 states and one federal district. 
• Roman Catholicism is the predomenient religion with ~75% of the population.
• Salvador is the third largest city in Brazil (behind Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) with approximately 2.7 million people.
• Poverty in Brazil is high.  According to this book that was written in 2000, about 20 million people (out of the 62 million economically active population) earn less than $70 US a month.  Approximately half the Brazilian population can not afford their children a decent upbringing.

I learned that my volunteer placement will be at Madre Teresa.  It is a place that has elderly women live there, who have been left by their families, and children ages 1-3 who come during the day (or stay overnight Monday-Friday) from the nearby favelas.  I will have the opportunity to do crafts with the elderly women, paint their nails, and give them massages.  And with the children, I have been told it is basically just giving them attention and being a referee to break up any fights.  It should be interesting.