Near relapse

Since my first discovery of lice a couple of weeks ago, I've been combing my hair twice a day with the fine-tooth comb and only finding a few tiny eggs. Just in case, I used another over-the-counter anti-lice lotion on last Tuesday or so. Imagine my dismay to find one huge louse in my hair on Thursday after returning from working with the kids at Liberdade. At least I was pretty sure that it came from one of the kids and that I got it before it had a chance to reproduce. When I talked to the other teachers about it on Friday, they had a pretty good idea that it came from one child known to frequently have lice, but she wasn't at the project on Friday. They mentioned something about sending out a note, but I don't think anything was ever done. When I saw that child on Sunday, I lifted her hair, and sure enough, underneath was completely full of nits (lice eggs). This is one of the children that loves to hug everybody, so what is one to do without constantly catching lice? As I mentioned before, it seems that the adults here (except for me) are immune. Somebody mentioned a prescription medicine that you can take to become immune, so I'll have to see if that's a feasibility. I felt bad because I know this child's mother, and, not coincidentally, she is rarely at home taking care of her kids. In one of my conversations with the mother when I first arrived here, she spoke about her desire to go to the U.S. to work and live, even if it meant leaving her six children behind.

On a brighter note, Sunday I went to the Methodist church in the neighboring town of Betim to help out with the Liberdade group as they performed their Easter cantata and played recorders during the Sunday school time. The group was fairly well-behaved, and it was great that the church went to collect the kids who live in a neighboring rural area from their own Shade and Fresh Water project, "To Live and to Grow," to watch the performance. Here are some pictures from Sunday.





Waiting for their pre- performance snack











Jesus, the disciples and the children











The crucifixion












The whole cast












Playing recorders












The children of "To Live and to Grow" project in Betim











This weekend I was thinking how grateful I am for the laptop that my church gave me and the digital camera that my parents gave me for my work here. When I first found out that Volunteers in Mission recommends that individual volunteers bring a laptop and a digital camera, I panicked because I owned neither at the time. I have used them both extensively and can't imagine what my life here would be like without them.

The high point of my weekend was when one of the discipline-challenged kids from Liberdade showed me on Sunday morning a wristband that he had knit and sewed all by himself. I asked him where he got needles, and he said that he used barbecue skewers. What creativity! And the worksmanship wasn't bad for someone who's only had a few knitting lessons.

Saturday, I went downtown to a craft store that had large quantities of knitting needles and would take credit cards to buy more knitting needles and yarn so I could give them to the kids in Liberdade to take home. They'd already been bugging me about taking the needles and yarn home to continue their work, and I'd promised that whoever wanted to continue with the knitting class would get their own needles and yarn. I was able to bargain the price down a bit, and I'm hoping that by returning with a photo of the kids and thank you notes from them that I might be able to get a donation from the store next time.

Over the past couple of weeks, the weather has changed and it's getting colder. The last weeks before the temperature shift, the jasmine trees were going out with a bang and blooming full force. Walking home at night from the bus stop was intoxicating.

I had an attack of consumerism this weekend, with a strong urge to go shopping either at the mega-store (similar to K-Mart) or at the Hippie Fair on Sunday. The only thing I succumbed to was to buy the knitting supplies on Saturday. It's only slightly easier to resist the temptation to go shopping when you don't have any money...

Friday night was another of the monthly meetings for English-speaking foreigners that I've been trying to organize here in Belo Horizonte. It's been an uphill battle trying to get a critical mass of people. They're here, but I don't know if we just chose an inconvenient time/day/place (the people who helped me set the time and location have never attended, for example) or if people aren't interested or what. This time, three people eventually showed up who were all from a local language school, and none of whom were native English speakers (two weren't foreigners). So we spoke Portuguese the whole time. Not what I'd been hoping for.

When discussing TV programs here, I'm finding it difficult to be honest about which programs are spin-offs of things from the U.S. without making it seem like everything is an imitation of American TV. I've tried to emphasize the uniquely Brazilian shows--the Brazilian soap opera, for example. Some of the U.S. reality TV shows are broadcast on free television here such as Trading Spouses, Big Brother, etc.

I started thinking about nursing homes now that I've seen a wheel-chair-bound, elderly neighbor across the street being pushed around the neighborhood by a nurse. Nursing homes exist here but are not nearly as prevalent as they are in the U.S., which I think is a good thing. Elders generally live with family until they die. Yet another positive thing to learn from Brazilian culture.