Times In Brazil....: September 2006

I've been writing down interesting things here and there about Brasil in general. Thought I'd post 'em...so here they are.

1. Tchau is spelled tchau...not cioa or chow.
2. My feet get sudden internal itches of which no amount of scratching, slapping or rubbing can cure.
3. Underwear lines are inevitable considering the underwear females generally wear. (The lines go right across the middle of the cheek to creat "quad-butt effect"
4. 98% of the females have tiny wastes, bubbles butts, and amazing curly hair. What's that about?!
5. Bus drivers are in a race to no where.
6. Everyone is built even if they don't have a labor-intense job or workout regularly due to holding on for life using any form of public transportation.
7. Tank tops or topless.
8. Silence...none. If there isn't a vehicle or ramshack pirated-cd cart driving by, you can expect to hear dogs, goats, cows, donkey death calls hourly, gun shots, fireworks, the neighbors, or a television in the cardboard house next door that somehow has electricity (when it's not raining).
9. Even a black cotton shirt makes you squint your eyes because of the location of the sun. 7 degrees south of the equator.
10. Shade. Find it. It's about 20 degrees cooler.
11. Fans. Are. A. Neccessity. Go to your local fan store. Buy/trade new/used.
12. Portuguese has the most difficult pronounciation for "I". Eu (Ay-Ew).
13. Flip-flop tan. Inevitable. Black and white.
14. Get a refridgerator box and a camp matress and sleep on it for a few days prior to making your way here.
15. Soft anything does not exist.
16. Add "ão" (aoung) to the end of any French or Spanish word, make it sing a little, and you will speak Portuguese.

more to come.....

My address:
MCC Unit House
Rua Antonio Paes de Andrade, 95
Prado, Recife
50751-050

After the retreat last week for all MCC service workers here in brasil (wed.-fri.), I went to Casamia (sp?) with the Falk's. They've lived here for almost three years now..from Canada. It's a 4 hr drive from Recife. They live out in the country where lizards crawl on your walls and sometimes onto your bed, mosquitos are rare but other large insects can be found sometimes in swarms of a hundred but all dead by morning lying all over the floor, and the water runs out every time I decide to take a shower. The roof was interesting. When it rains it mists in the entire house. Didn't rain while I was there, but that's what they told me. There's what looks like a baby swimming pool held by a few pieces of wood above where you shower. It holds the water, obviously. The water ran out the first time, and he just had to pump some more from the systern. The second time, there wasn't any left at all. We sent the cleaning lady to go find the one man in town who drives to some place and fills all these things with water then brings them back to the house and fills the systern. Interesting. The water's brown. I spent last saturday - today there. I spent a lot of time swinging in their hammock or in the other swing thing. I read 110 pages outloud of this awesome book to Amy who's read it before but listened cuz she knows I'm too ADD to concentrate that long. Christina Falk is doing this project in the schools where she weighs all the kids in a certain age range and does some calculating to see how many are malnurished. It's a pretty cool project....there's a lot more to it. The healthcare system here sucks. Anyway, we went and weighed kids a few different days. The people here stare at you. It's different than in Mexico or Guatemala where they look at you, make a sound or jesture, then go on. People here sit right next to you and just stare....and stare. They don't know about peripheral vision. I don't mind it...it's just funny to think about what they're thinking. The people here could all make it as models in the U.S. Seriously, they're so freakin' pretty. Great skin, great body, perfectly curly hair, green eyes...ok..not everyone is like this. But there's a lot. I'm rethinking the whole two-piece thing!
We did lots of other stuff...but my hands are tired of typing.
Today we went to the market in Caroarou (that's fun to say: ka-dO-a-dO). OH...the market they go to is once a week and is the only time they can get the food they need for the next week. It's kinda fun. Caroarou is 2ish hrs away from their town. That's where they dropped me off to get on a bus to Recife today. But first we went to the market there. It's my favorite one so far. I bought a hammock! Love it. Picture time.