Hi everyone! Hope your all well. Thanks for the new messages and emails you have sent. Please keep sending - I love to hear what your all up too. I have now been on Cairu Island for two weeks - this is the first chance I have been able to get internet connection as Cairu itself doesnt have any - but I am on a nearby island that is much more touristy for the day so have been able to update! Having a wicked time on Cairu.The island itself is so beautiful! I think its paradise! Its so lush and green!We are staying on this gorgeous farm about 20 minuites from Cairu town. I have been really busy. Most days we are up at 7am and then we start work at about 8.30am. We either cycle twenty minutes in to Cairu town to help build a floating platform which is going to be used for students and academics to come and stay on for enviromental research. So I have become quite handy with a drill! Or we plant Pau Brazil trees - which are becoming really rare. Cairu is one of the last spots of primary atlantic rainforest which is why Amainan (the local charity we are working with) are trying to presereve it.We roughly plant 80 trees in a morning. It is quite hard work! I have also been setting up Engish Lessons each afternoon for some of the kids in the town - which is good fun and its helping our portuguese aswell! Each day at 5pm we do Capoeria! Which if you don't know is really big sport in Brazil. It is a kind of martial art!We have lessons and pair up with a local guy to help us learn -its really difficult! But I think we are all improving! The guys here are amazing at it. We have loads of interaction with the local guys - which is great. We work with them on our projects - especially Antonio, Danielho and Jose. They are really great guys who we all get on really well with. We then get on really well with all the Capoeria guys. It was Tania's birthday last week - so we had a big party for her -and it was a really good way to bond with everyone. The boys from Quest also did a lovely strip tease! We also had the biggest cake fight I have ever had! It was so much fun! We have also made friends with some of the girls - they are much harder to talk to but they are beginning to be much more chatty and we played football with them last week and some of them came to the party and one even made a cake for Tania. Sarah and I also had a day in the local medical centre to see what that was like - as Sarah is studying medicine at uni. I helped the nurse with all the vaccinations of the babies - and chatted to all the patients which was really nice. Sarah sat in on the doctors appointments and helped with diagnosing teh problem and got to listen to people's heartbeat! We then went and had lunch with the doctor and his family which was lovely. Also on a Saturday each week we have been going to the another island called Galeo to help out with the theatre group there - we are going to be in a play of theirs on Easter Sunday called trees and birds - and I am going to be a starring role - of a monkey!!! haha! The last quest group helped build them a boat to travel round the 28 islands that are nearby and perform to local kids - but unfortunately it is really badly broken - so I have decided to put the extra money everyone raised at my fundraiser towards the repairs - so thank you very much everyone who helped raised the money! Its gone to a really good cause. Its really nice seeing how Brazillians live day-to-day and great to feel like part of the community. Rudi - who is the director of Amanian and has been here living with us aswell - is one of the nicest people I have ever met - he gives so much and is so thoughtful. He really thinks about what would work for Cairu - all the projects which he as set up here are fantastic and I think are all going to work. I am really lucky to have met him. He is actually moving over to Cambridge in September for a few months - so hopefully some of the quest group can meet up with him. I now will not be able to email for another couple of weeks - but I hope your all really well. I am having a fantastic time on the Island - I dont want to leave! Lots of love Soph xxxx