We spent the first part of the summer of 2002 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where Barry studied Portuguese at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. As you can see in the map above, Belo Horizonte is located in between Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Belo is in the state of Minas Gerais, or "General Mines," named for the huge gold rush that took place there during the 1700s. As a result there are a lot of colonial mining towns nearby, which we were able to visit. Belo Horizonte ("Beautiful Horizon" in Portuguese) is a city of nearly 4 million people. Linnea and I lived with a host family, in order to be immersed in a Portuguese-speaking environment. We took weekend trips to various locations in the area during my program, after which we went to Cuiaba (also on the map above). Linnea's uncle Doug and Aunt Ruth and family live there, where they serve as missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We stayed with them for a week and a half before returning home.
To see PHOTOGRAPHS from our trip, click HERE. |
