Night of a thousand stars
Last night I traveled by bus for about 11 hours to get to my friends' house in the neighboring state. There's not a whole lot you can do on these nighttime journeys without disturbing your fellow passengers. After knitting for a little while, I turned off the light and looked out the window and could see a bazillion stars because we were already in the countryside. I have to preserve that thought for when I'm experiencing the aches and pains of being cramped up for so long. Eventually I tried to sleep, but I've never had great success sleeping in planes, buses and automobiles. When I arrived early this morning, I called my friends to come pick me up at the bus station. It was cool that I already had a phone card to use in the public phone, and I'm slowly coming to realize that a lot of problems I experience that I think are a consequence of me being a foreigner and not knowing how things work are actually pretty typical failures. For example, I had to try three different public phones before I could find one that completed the call successfully. After I got to my friends' house, we ate breakfast, I took a shower, and then we hopped in the car to visit the husband's family. Although I saw this family just a few months ago, it was different this time because this was my first time there after his father died. We spent the day there, eating, visiting with the family and eating more.
I'm writing this on Sunday, by the way, because word has it we're getting back in the car tomorrow to travel to a different town to visit somebody who will be moving out of the country. There are a couple of interesting things I'm noticing this trip to São Carlos. This is the first time that I've picked up on the local accent. Also, I'm looking at the smaller town with new, more appreciative eyes after living in a much more crowded, polluted city for a while. It's more fun to be with my friends' 21-month-old daughter now that she has quite an extensive vocabulary, and I can actually understand some of the things she's saying.
The national Methodist Church conference that my coordinators went to was actually more important than an Annual Conference because they set church policy for the next several years. Unfortunately, a more conservative group got the Methodist Church in Brazil to withdraw from ecumenical (non-denominational) activities, which has been one of its foremost characteristics.
Many Brazilians have asked me what people in the U.S. eat on a daily basis. It's hard to explain because I don't think there's a real standard other than people eat more at dinner than at lunch (the reverse is true here). I'm finding it challenging here to eat what I think is a balanced diet. The number and quality of fruits here is amazing. But the selection of vegetables leaves something to be desired. You see rice and beans nearly everywhere (the type of beans will vary depending on where you are within the country) and there are many starch choices--rice, potatoes, manioc, squash, yucca and other roots. You also see salad (usually lettuce and tomatoes), but not too many other vegetables on a regular basis.
As I'd mentioned a while ago, birthdays are very big here, and my friends and colleagues did a great job of recognizing mine last week. On the actual day, I awoke to a nice birthday note from my roommate; we had ice cream at one of the projects that afternoon; I talked to my parents for free on the Internet (if you don't know about Skype and similar programs, it's worth looking into); the next day we went to dinner at a restaurant with live music; and then there was a party on Thursday afternoon at the other project for me and Chris, another American volunteer whose birthday was Thursday. I got lots of phone calls and e-mails from here and the U.S., so that was really nice.
Both projects are on recess for a few weeks; last week the teachers had planning and organizing and this week we have vacation (which is why I can visit my friends, who are university professors and also are on vacation). Time to try to catch up on some sleep.
I'm writing this on Sunday, by the way, because word has it we're getting back in the car tomorrow to travel to a different town to visit somebody who will be moving out of the country. There are a couple of interesting things I'm noticing this trip to São Carlos. This is the first time that I've picked up on the local accent. Also, I'm looking at the smaller town with new, more appreciative eyes after living in a much more crowded, polluted city for a while. It's more fun to be with my friends' 21-month-old daughter now that she has quite an extensive vocabulary, and I can actually understand some of the things she's saying.
The national Methodist Church conference that my coordinators went to was actually more important than an Annual Conference because they set church policy for the next several years. Unfortunately, a more conservative group got the Methodist Church in Brazil to withdraw from ecumenical (non-denominational) activities, which has been one of its foremost characteristics.
Many Brazilians have asked me what people in the U.S. eat on a daily basis. It's hard to explain because I don't think there's a real standard other than people eat more at dinner than at lunch (the reverse is true here). I'm finding it challenging here to eat what I think is a balanced diet. The number and quality of fruits here is amazing. But the selection of vegetables leaves something to be desired. You see rice and beans nearly everywhere (the type of beans will vary depending on where you are within the country) and there are many starch choices--rice, potatoes, manioc, squash, yucca and other roots. You also see salad (usually lettuce and tomatoes), but not too many other vegetables on a regular basis.
As I'd mentioned a while ago, birthdays are very big here, and my friends and colleagues did a great job of recognizing mine last week. On the actual day, I awoke to a nice birthday note from my roommate; we had ice cream at one of the projects that afternoon; I talked to my parents for free on the Internet (if you don't know about Skype and similar programs, it's worth looking into); the next day we went to dinner at a restaurant with live music; and then there was a party on Thursday afternoon at the other project for me and Chris, another American volunteer whose birthday was Thursday. I got lots of phone calls and e-mails from here and the U.S., so that was really nice.
Both projects are on recess for a few weeks; last week the teachers had planning and organizing and this week we have vacation (which is why I can visit my friends, who are university professors and also are on vacation). Time to try to catch up on some sleep.
posted by Christine Piggee at
9:31 PM
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