July 25, 2009
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day to day
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My third trip to the college to get the document…I had gotten wise. I got the phone number, and called to make sure the right person was there. He was. So I went out—and waited. I think it was 20 minutes before the kombi came. I got there half an hour later to the people saying “oh, I am sorry, he just left.” Yeah. I almost cried. Laugh if you want—it seems so little—but wait until it happens to you.
My fourth trip to the college to get the document…i called, and they know me by now, and say “yes, yes, Rachel, come, come.” and so i do. and wait. for over an hour. the receptionist guy offered to marry me so i wouldn’t have to go through all this junk to get the documents. i blushed. why do i still blush at this? but now i have the document. on to the the next document.
I am living with my friends, Junior and Aninha, in Paudalho. They leave for work before 7, but I am still on vacation so I waved goodbye and climbed into the hammock. Yes, we have two. I felt like cooking, and since that doesn’t happen so often, I thought I’d better grab the chance. I walked down the street to the supermarket, and then across the other street to the produce place, and got a couple ingredients. First thing on the list: hummas. No one in Brasil has heard of it. The kind I like calls for peanut butter. But there is no peanut butter in Brasil. So I made the peanut butter. And they don’t have chick peas in a can. I had to cook them. That took awhile. And I burnt half of them. Don’t ask how, I just did. So I decided to make a tomato based hummas with the burnt chick peas. It actually ended up tasting better than the normal recipe. And I don’t think I can ever make it again…I forget what I put in it, and what makes it so good is the burntish taste. I also made gingerbread cookies, which Brasilians don’t have either. With a couple modifications. I really, really wanted pita bread, but got wheat flour, oil, and water and made some flat patties and fried them up. It was yummy.
About half-way through this, the water quit. Probably over the whole city, but all I knew was suddenly I turned on the water to wash my hands and nothing came out. It is a horrible sensation. And you never know when it is going to turn back on. i get all itchy and can feel the germs crawling on me and wonder WHY did i wait to take a shower–and now i will NEVER get a shower…
After lunch Aninha and I “fiz compras” which is doing the shopping for the month. “fazendo compras” is very exhausting, and I was only following Aninha down the isle with the cart. Then, at 4:30, while the sun is yawning and getting ready to think about setting (it sets around 5:30), I went jogging, and found a road that takes me right into a sugar cane field. The sugar cane fields are so huge that they have different roads (dirt roads) zig zagging around through them, and I zagged along with it. There is nothing like fresh wind through a sugar cane field where you can see nothing but the long, graceful stems around you and blue, blue sky with cotton clouds above you. I went further and further, but never reached the end…but managed to find my way back…I heard many sounds I’ve never heard before—insects and birds. I heard rusting that something big made, but I didn’t stop to find out what it was. And on my way back, I saw a cow. I don’t like the cows. They look at me like I am edible. I swear. And I haven’t eaten one in over a year. But this one was looking intently at the little boy, probably three years old, that was standing 5 feet in front of him, having a conversation…”gusto gatinhos?” the boy asked (do you like kittens?) and I wasn’t sure if he meant to pet or to eatJ. And I jogged on before I could hear the answer…happy with life and seeing and feeling new things.
