Simple pleasures
I'm overjoyed to be able to report that today I was able to pick up my clean, ironed laundry from a lady in the neighborhood who does laundry for people, and unlike the last neighborhood person, she didn't try to rip me off. I also am the proud owner of a new hanging drying rack (more about that later) and can wash some easy things (underwear and socks) myself and hang them to dry inside the apartment in the laundry area.
I'm trying to memorize the street grid in my neighborhood because the street signs are often missing. I have also noticed in the process that no two maps here are alike, nor is any one 100% accurate.
January in Belo Horizonte was great because the city was empty--everybody that can goes out of town on vacation. Not only was traffic much lighter, but also lines everywhere were much shorter and the overall environment was much more pleasant. But, alas, it's February and they're all back as school is starting up again.
I've noted a few ironies with respect to the warm climate here. First of all, hot synthetic fabrics such as polyester and acrylic seem to be much more popular here than cotton. I've also been looking for cotton yarn in the many knitting/craft stores here, and the only cotton yarn I can really find is the very fine stuff used for crocheting doilies and the like. As I noticed my first time in Brazil 10 years ago, long hair is very popular for women here. Personally, I can hardly stand to wear my hair down on sunny days this time of year because of the river of sweat that so quickly forms on the back of my neck.
Today was an interesting return to the Shade and Fresh Water Project in Liberdade. In these first two weeks of the term (before Carnaval) we'll have special activities for the kids at the two projects. Today was just the welcome and a snack, but it was significantly more chaotic than usual because...
Well, last year, the town of Riberão das Neves rented one of the rooms at Liberdade and paid for administrative and cleaning staff to have one classroom of 5-year-olds housed at the project due to serious overcrowding in the city's schools. At the end of the year, the town approached my supervisors about increasing the number of students by 3- or 4-fold in 2007. There was no way they could take over all of the facilities because it wouldn't leave any room for the Shade and Fresh Water program. In the original discussions, the town said all or nothing--that they wanted to have all of the students there or none, so it seemed that the school was going elsewhere. However, a couple of weeks ago, they came back asking to just double the enrollment at Liberdade and use one more classroom. They wanted to do that plus rent an empty house in the neighborhood to house the other classroom and staff. When I arrived today, many things had been moved around (e.g. the library, which has now become the additional classroom), but there were many extra school employees around, and, I found when I went upstairs in the other building, a third classroom of schoolkids was meeting there because the house the city had rented wasn't ready yet.
I had kind of a blah weekend, but church was very uplifting last night, and the message about waiting was very timely as I had spent two hours that morning waiting for the handyman to arrive and three more hours for him to finish hooking up my gas stove, fixing the leak in the water valve, and installing the drying rack that hangs from the ceiling.
One other pick-me-up was briefly seeing my old roommate on Saturday morning and hearing that her daughter's precious two-year-old nephew, during his recent visit to her apartment, immediately went to my old room, looked around and asked where I went.
I've noticed that many trucks here have slogans painted on the back of them. They range from the expected "Keep your distance" to "Thanks--Hosanna--Lord!", "Everything with Jesus", "Enlighten me Lord!", and "Read the Bible." I'm not sure if people really feel that strongly about the religious slogans or if they're more talismans to ward off trouble. You also see religious slogans on all kinds of businesses here, too.
I'm really at my limit of listening to American rap music and young people yelling at each other as they're playing games at my local internet cafe.
Hopefully, if my laptop can be fixed, I can get internet in my apartment. Finally, I want to send an ALOHA shout-out to my parents, who are in Hawaii (and, I hope, having a good time).
I'm trying to memorize the street grid in my neighborhood because the street signs are often missing. I have also noticed in the process that no two maps here are alike, nor is any one 100% accurate.
January in Belo Horizonte was great because the city was empty--everybody that can goes out of town on vacation. Not only was traffic much lighter, but also lines everywhere were much shorter and the overall environment was much more pleasant. But, alas, it's February and they're all back as school is starting up again.
I've noted a few ironies with respect to the warm climate here. First of all, hot synthetic fabrics such as polyester and acrylic seem to be much more popular here than cotton. I've also been looking for cotton yarn in the many knitting/craft stores here, and the only cotton yarn I can really find is the very fine stuff used for crocheting doilies and the like. As I noticed my first time in Brazil 10 years ago, long hair is very popular for women here. Personally, I can hardly stand to wear my hair down on sunny days this time of year because of the river of sweat that so quickly forms on the back of my neck.
Today was an interesting return to the Shade and Fresh Water Project in Liberdade. In these first two weeks of the term (before Carnaval) we'll have special activities for the kids at the two projects. Today was just the welcome and a snack, but it was significantly more chaotic than usual because...
Well, last year, the town of Riberão das Neves rented one of the rooms at Liberdade and paid for administrative and cleaning staff to have one classroom of 5-year-olds housed at the project due to serious overcrowding in the city's schools. At the end of the year, the town approached my supervisors about increasing the number of students by 3- or 4-fold in 2007. There was no way they could take over all of the facilities because it wouldn't leave any room for the Shade and Fresh Water program. In the original discussions, the town said all or nothing--that they wanted to have all of the students there or none, so it seemed that the school was going elsewhere. However, a couple of weeks ago, they came back asking to just double the enrollment at Liberdade and use one more classroom. They wanted to do that plus rent an empty house in the neighborhood to house the other classroom and staff. When I arrived today, many things had been moved around (e.g. the library, which has now become the additional classroom), but there were many extra school employees around, and, I found when I went upstairs in the other building, a third classroom of schoolkids was meeting there because the house the city had rented wasn't ready yet.
I had kind of a blah weekend, but church was very uplifting last night, and the message about waiting was very timely as I had spent two hours that morning waiting for the handyman to arrive and three more hours for him to finish hooking up my gas stove, fixing the leak in the water valve, and installing the drying rack that hangs from the ceiling.
One other pick-me-up was briefly seeing my old roommate on Saturday morning and hearing that her daughter's precious two-year-old nephew, during his recent visit to her apartment, immediately went to my old room, looked around and asked where I went.
I've noticed that many trucks here have slogans painted on the back of them. They range from the expected "Keep your distance" to "Thanks--Hosanna--Lord!", "Everything with Jesus", "Enlighten me Lord!", and "Read the Bible." I'm not sure if people really feel that strongly about the religious slogans or if they're more talismans to ward off trouble. You also see religious slogans on all kinds of businesses here, too.
I'm really at my limit of listening to American rap music and young people yelling at each other as they're playing games at my local internet cafe.
Hopefully, if my laptop can be fixed, I can get internet in my apartment. Finally, I want to send an ALOHA shout-out to my parents, who are in Hawaii (and, I hope, having a good time).
posted by Christine Piggee at
4:10 PM
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