Week 9 in Brazil (Jonathon's Update)

Week 9 in Brazil:

What a whirlwind! Over the last two weeks, we got the RNA ready for sequencing, my in-laws came to visit us in Salvador, and we went to visit the Amazon. It feels like far more than a couple of weeks have gone by.

The beginning of Week 9 saw Emilio and me working hard to sequence DNA and extract and prep RNA samples for our project. We are still having a hard time getting high-quality DNA (dang sea sponges!), but the RNA looked great. We will now send the RNA to a company for sequencing, but the data will come in about a month, so the next few weeks will be dedicated to figuring out our DNA extraction issues.

On Wednesday, I was able to fix my immigration issues and pick up Sarah's parents from the airport. The federal police immigration department is at the airport, so I set up an appointment a couple of hours before they arrived to meet with them and finish my registration. I had registered in May, but they rejected my documentation because my parent's middle initials were used on my birth certificate and my visa, but their complete middle names were used on my old visa from when I was a missionary. Anyway, I have spent the last month talking to the Ministerio de Relações Exteriores, the Fulbright Commission, and the United States Consulate (luckily, they have an office in Salvador). I finally got a document stating that both names refer to the same person, and the police accepted it. Phew. I was slightly worried I would have to leave early…but it all worked out in the end.

Thursday and Friday were spent showing Larry and Tawana our favorite sites, foods, and activities in Salvador. We went to the Pelourinho, snorkeling at the beach (we saw the coolest Morey eel), and ate all of our favorite foods. Everyone got to choose their favorite meal, and we made or bought it with them. Christian chose Brazilian-style hot dogs, Andrew chose galinhada, Hyrum chose coxinhas and pão de queijo, Sarah chose tapiocas, and I chose pasteis. We also made sure to get churros and cake for dessert.

It was fun to see my family talk about the cool things they have experienced and learned here. Of course, we still miss some things about home, so it was a fun surprise when they brought us peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, cookie mix for chocolate chip cookies, American cereal, black pepper, and a football (the pointed kind). They also brought Christian an ACT prep book (less exciting) and a new kit for my sequencing project. I am hoping that this new kit might solve our problems!

Unfortunately, we will have to wait and see since we left on Saturday to visit Manaus. We had a transfer in Brasilia, so I have now been to at least one city in all five Brazilian regions: Porto Alegre (and others) in the South, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the Southeast, Salvador in the Northeast, Brasilia in the Central-West, and Manaus in the North. Pretty good for a country bigger than the continental US.