My school surprised its older students with a last-minute weekend trip to a religious compound five hours away from Londrina. I am not religious, and the trip consisted of praying and worshiping god. The one thing that stuck out to me was that on the second day of the trip, we would hike through the wilderness and swim in a waterfall. I was sold. We loaded onto the bus with our luggage, and we were off. Brazilian buses are nothing like American buses; the seats are soft, comfortable and recline all the way back. The bus windows had curtains, and a door separated us from the bus driver. The drive was an easy five hours, I passed the time listening to music and watching the Brazilian countryside. Three hours in, we stopped at an odd gas station that made you take an electric ticket when you entered. The gas station was filled with what I'm told were traditional Brazilian items and snacks.

The first thing I saw when I entered was a canteen made from a goat's hoof. I almost bought it, but I didn't think I would be able to get it through customs. I settled for a bag of meringues that a friend recommended to Me. They tasted like the marshmallows you get in the Lucky Charms cereal. Two hours later, we arrived at the compound. The compound was amazing; it was a huge walled-in courtyard with trees, two paved football courts, two beach volleyball courts, three grass football courts, and one lonely basketball court. We all had the option of sleeping in a tent or dormitory. I obviously chose the tent. We had a little trouble setting up the tent; one of the poles had broken, and the elastic band that holds the pole together had snapped. We eventually decided that the best course of action was duct-taping it back together and hoping it would hold together.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the grounds. We found a rope swing on one of the trees and played football on one of the grassy fields. For dinner that night, we had hot dogs. Brazilian hot dogs are nothing like American ones. They put mashed potatoes, corn potato chips, and bacon bits on their hot dogs. They were excellent, but I stand by the fact that nothing beats a classic bratwurst from Wisconsin. After dinner, they gathered us all in what I will call the prayer room; they gave us two pieces of paper; we were tasked with writing about who we thought we were, and the second was to make a timeline of significant events in our lives. They then gave us a sticky note, and we all wrote down what we didn’t like about ourselves. They then took us outside, where they had prepared a fire. We stood in a circle around the fire and burned our sticky notes. At this point in the night, I was 40% sure I had joined a cult. I have to complain about the fire. The whole thing was idiotic; they started with a sloppy pile of logs and twigs underneath a tree canopy. It had no structure or form, and they only built the fire to burn the sticky notes. With all the fires in the Amazon and Pantanal, I was shocked that they thought building fires was a good idea. The fire was massive, and the flames were uncomfortably close to the tree branches. When we left, I kept an eye on it and watched them put it out. They dumped a large pot of water on it and called it good; they didn’t even bother to stir it around and make sure it was out. When I woke up the following day, smoke was still coming from the coals. They clearly didn't go to 4-H camp.

After the fire, I went to bed; everyone else stayed up to watch the dubbed version of Inside Out Two. While chilling in my tent, my friends burst in to tell me some important news. While I was in my tent, one of the older women running the event gathered all the girls to talk with them about modesty. She said our shorts were too short, and we weren’t allowed to wear shorts on our hike the next day. She then compared all of us to iPhones and told us that we wouldn’t use our iPhones without a case, so we all needed to put cases on our bodies. There was no way in hell I wasn't wearing shorts on an 80-degree hike. That morning went by quickly; we got ready in our matching t-shirts, and a few girls, including myself, wore shorts. For breakfast, we had ham and cheese sandwiches and fruit. The bus ride didn't take long. I met another group of people on the bus. Two Polish girls who had moved to Brazil when they were little, a boy who was the only one out of the group to wear a bright red long-sleeve and a brunette who seemed quiet. We chatted on our bus ride about Brazilian funk music and our excitement about swimming in the waterfall. The bus took us down a long dirt road; the side of the road was covered in scorch marks from fire. We got off the bus, and our guides patiently awaited us. They separated us into five groups, keeping the foreigners together. Everyone seemed pretty sad to be split up; we had all made friends and didn't want to leave them yet. Each group was assigned a teacher, and we were tasked with coming up with a catchy name. We were the cool kids; what kind of loser would come up with such a cheesy name? I would; I'm the loser. We all started walking down the dirt road opposite where we came from. The groups lasted all of ten seconds. Everybody was pretty set on finding their friends again. I met up with the girls in my tent and the people we met on the bus, and we walked in a clump together until the dirt road ended. We took a sharp left turn into the rainforest, and the path narrowed. Our group stayed together, walking in a silent line. I couldn't take my eyes off the wood; the trees were nothing like I had ever seen, and the plants were thick and weaving through the trees. At some point during our hike, a wild dog joined us; he was dirty, and it was clear he wanted to be cuddled. I gave him a scratch on the head, and he jumped up on me for more. He was a cutie. Ten minutes into our rainforest walk, we heard a commotion from the people ahead. We assumed that the waterfall was just up ahead; we were wrong. The path was washed out, and in its place ran a river; the guide stood in the middle of the river, helping everyone across. We all got our shoes wet. The other kids didn't seem too happy about it. I couldn't be happier! After the crossing, another stray dog joined us; this one was smaller and fatter.

We finally made it to the waterfall; it was massive and beautiful. We got as close as we could and started taking pictures. Some of the other kids were swimming, and they discovered a natural waterslide; when I slid down it, I quickly realized that it was full of divots and potholes. We left the waterfall after an hour; the rest of the hike went pretty similar to the first part, except we were exhausted this time. We hopped back on the bus and headed to the local Marista school for lunch, which served American food. They had mac and cheese, pancakes, chicken wings, and cheddar cheese. Most of it was amazing, but Brazil does not have good cheddar. We returned to the compound and spent the rest of the day hanging out. I spent my time scrubbing my white shoes in the bathroom sink; the soil in Brazil is full of iron, and when iron oxidizes, it turns red, by the end of the hike, my shoes looked like they had oxidised. After a dinner of stroganoff, my friends and I walked over to one of the soccer fields where a group of kids played soccer. we joined in and tried our best to have fun. I scored two goals before the boys who were playing started to hog the ball, and the girls were left standing around looking stupid. We didn't stay long after that. We went to bed in the rain.

When we woke up the following day, it was still raining. We ate a breakfast of fruit and bread and went to the prayer room for one last meeting. A few people passed the microphone and talked about what they got from the weekend. I had no idea what they were saying, so I made paper airplanes with the handouts they gave us. We sang a song, and everybody rubbed oil on each other's foreheads in the shape of a cross, and we were done. We tested our airplanes, took down our tent, and took the bus home.

I Joined a Cult

My Year In Brazil

I Joined a Cult

Out on The Town With a Flock of Foreigners

My Year In Brazil