While I was walking Willow to her ride to school, Sherman found $R100 in a pocket in a pair of shorts he hasn’t worn in a long time. We did the Happy Reais (Hay-ice) dance when I got home. I think I’m going to cry! I’ve made a silent pact with myself not to mention money in front of Willow. I’m gonna buy some beans, rice, FRUIT, vegetables, bread, FRUIT, local cheese and honey, o, and some FRUIT! Thanks to God!
Halloween helper
Witch's broom party favors
Festa da Halloween checklist:
40 Witch’s broom party favors= done (Includes party at home and for a school party where I tutor)
Willow’s witch costume= done (I converted a black skirt of mine into a dress for her- thank goodness for my travel sewing kit!) + one witch hat and last year’s green striped stockings from her Leprechaun costume)+ black mask from Bramama
Sherman’s “If I only had a brain” Scarecrow costume= waiting for patches to convert him to a smarty!
Decorations= almost done. Willow and I have been coloring in cutouts of spooky items and will string them up from the ceiling.
Aborbora= We have two pumpkins, which are flattened versions of the usual orange globe, so we’ll have to carve a very short face and also use for pumpkin muffins.
Muffin tin= arrived today from a school friend! I’m warming up the oven now for a test batch.
Halloween help needed= Gente, I do not have an electric mixer to make frosting, the coveted requirement for pumpkin muffins. Do I:
use a fork and whip it for an hour? or
use the jars of Fluff we received from Brent and make Fluff frosting? I’ve never tried Fluff frosting, and the recipe also calls for a double boiler.
You hostess types, you know who you are, what do I do about frosting in a faraway land???
Trying to keep cheery while we make do!
(not my photo) of a guy surfing at Joaquina Beach
So far in Brazil I have tried to keep low key. It is lovely and all here, but we traveled here to experience another culture and give Sherman a place to write his dissertation. I have been to the beach several times, and am impressed, as anyone who normally lives far from the beach and only ever experiences the lap-lap of the waves on the New Hampshire coast. But today was…. the beginning of something amazing!
Today I succeeded in getting Sherman out of the house, and to see Joaquina (Jwah-keena) Beach for the first time! (It is a 5 minute drive from our apartment). The waves are huge! The surf boarders are addicted to riding the waves in, before they crash against the granitic boulders just to the left of the beach. The restaurants put plastic tables and chairs on the beach, and serve food and drinks down in the sand. Women wear teeny tiny bikins no matter their shape or size, and men wear what looks like black underwear and no one notices. I think we got the award for wearing the most clothing on the beach.
The view is amazing from on top of the boulders, because you have a closeup view of the surfers as they wait for the next wave. One surfer doesn’t bother to swim out to the waves, but slips in side from the boulders. The water was cold, but we got used to it very quickly and the pull from the waves has muscle behind it. Willow just squeals and squeals while she jumps over the waves. There was a crowd on the beach today, because it was a perfectly sunny spring day. I didn’t bring my camera again, but we will be back.
Disclaimer: This post is PG-13. Don’t let Lia read this one! Eva, you can go ahead and read. 🙂
This evening I was waiting at a bus stop with Willow who had an English friend along for a play date. They kept their distance from me, and they were having a serious discussion. About Santa Claus. (Note to self….it’s not even Halloween yet!!!) The friend brought the subject up and said that last year, her order got switched and that her mom called Santa to change the order. This shocked Willow, to find out that one can call Santa Claus, but I have learned that she has entered the “Justification Phase” of belief, where she will say anything to make her magical world true, even if people try to deflate it. Next, the friend put forth the real dilemma: last year, when she sat on Santa’s lap here in Brazil, she spoke to him also in English, and he didn’t understand her. In Portuguese he explained that he will have to learn English by next year. How can it be, that Santa doesn’t speak all languages to all kids? Willow’s faith was brought to its knees. “Are you telling the truth?” she asked. “Maybe this Santa is one of Santa’s helpers, and they all dress up like him, but they all don’t know all languages.” “Maybe there are eight Santas.” The friend continued “Yeah, and the one from two years ago had a scar, and last year, Santa didn’t have a scar.” Willow calmed the flurry in her mind with “Perhaps Santa changes every year.” She sounded like she has to make this right and true.
It really is my worst fear come true. I hope that this isn’t the year she learns not to believe because she is around those who do not believe. I believed in Santa until age 10, when I cornered my grandmother with the “Reindeer don’t REALLY fly, DO they….” Heck, to think what 10 years olds do now. Boy, do I sound old. And gullible. Anyhoo, we have an innocent 7 year old who wants to believe. And this friend is the only one around here who even clings to the idea. Most of my Brazilian moms call Santa “Santa Claus Coca-Cola” referring to the commercialism of Christmas and don’t encourage the idea. They have a point, but the true spirit of Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ. The traditions of remembering your loved ones and sharing gifts of the heart, home, and hearth and bringing joy to children and helping those in need is pretty cool. I only hope that here in Brazil, some magic appears and Willow can prove that yes, there is a (Brazilian) Santa Claus.
This is a photo from the eruption in June in Chile.
For the first month after we moved to Brazil, I rode with Willow on the bus to her school in the morning and picked her up in the afternoon. This process takes about one hour and fifteen minutes each way, because you need to walk and wait for a bus. So now she rides to school with a friend after I walk her to a meeting point and I still get to pick her up from school. However, today, that family was not going to school, and I got to do my favorite thing in the world: take Willow to school. It is the best hour of my day! We walked (not ran) to the bus this morning, enjoying the low-hanging clouds and the mist on the mountain (the largest of the Lagoa Mountains rises behind our place). Apparently some volcanic ash has settled over the island, which gave me an unhealthy air quality feeling yesterday. A volcano in Chile erupted in June and the dust is still settling!
As we walked towards the ocean, I could see the deep, deep blue color emerge above the houses in the distance and thought that it would be a good day to take the family to try to see some whales while they are still here this month. I wonder if I can ever get Sherman to get away and see the churned up ocean and maybe a whale? The light burst through the clouds over the ocean. We commented on a dog with his tail literally between his legs. As we arrive at school, Willow happily shows me some chalk drawings that the kids have made. When I wait for the bus to take me home, I notice four cuckoo birds in the naked tree above my head hopping around and looking scruffy. They make all sorts of noises!
Willow told me yesterday that they drew a picture about San Francisco. I smiled and asked her to explain. She drew pretty tulip flowers from San Francisco. I knew that they were studying Saint Francis, so I told her that the stories are about a person, not a city in California! We looked up Saint Francis stories online and I read to her about St. Francis and the birds. Supercute. She’s trying!
Hi- this is Heather, who is standing by her man as he writes his dissertation. I get to say supportive things like: “Are you really going to write for how many more hours?” and “Can I have the computer yet?” and “Willow says she feels like she doesn’t have a father anymore.” and other warm and fuzzy things like that.
But today Sherman pressed the send button for his ILA-A, otherwise known as his Chapters 1 and 2 of his dissertation!!! (Happy dissertation dance music in the background). I have already marked October 18th on the calendar as a date to remember! Cha-cha-cha! Cha-cha-cha!
Who knew that today would be the day that he would dare to be done with a section? He started out by doing me a favor. He ended up being locked out of the apartment on the street and holding several plastic bags of fruit fresh from the market for an hour!
Three cheers to Sherman for typing the big one!
🙂
This week has been a festival of theatre all over the island of Santa Catarina with groups performing from all over Brazil. I have been excited about this coming to our doorstep! Since there were so many options, I wanted to figure out which shows to see and where they were located. It took until mid-week until I found a physical schedule and attempted to find where these things were happening! I found several things about theatre in Brazil:
1. Brazilians love clowns and circuses.
2. I do not love clowns.
3. Brazilians can only take theatre in 50 minute doses.
4. Since the festival was free, I am making an assumption that most Brazilians will not pay $40. per ticket to see a play. This is probably true in the US, too. But in NH, a lot folks love theatre.
5. Brazilians love comedy, and if it is not comedy, it is modern. No situational apartment comedies need apply.
Overall, Willow and I saw several shows downtown under tents and right down the street here in Lagoa, in the “House of Machines,” which is a CUTE yellow building that seats about 60 people with a little professionally lit stage. I am so proud to have a little CAST building (place for the arts) right where I live! We saw a modern one-woman dance piece where a man with a projector painted and spun his work on the projector so that it became her backdrop for dancing about Da Vinci. It was good and held our attention, but not what I call Neil Simon. At one point, she was an ant with a ponytail on top of her head, and she tried to carry a crumb. You get the idea. We tried to see a second show with friends, and were denied entrance because the show was full to capacity, and we banged on the door to let us in with several clowns wandering the area. They were very friendly, so friendly that the one clown dropped his beer all over the place. At least we got a few magic tricks out of the night! Finally, Willow and I were lucky enough to see a musical comedy called “Before the Cock Crows” It was the tropical forest version of Romeo and Juliet, and Romeo’s side were all birds and Juliet was a gato de mato (forest cat) along with other beasts of the forest. It was a mixture of Lion King comedic fun and Cats costuming. It was amazing- everyone in full cloth costumes, and all in full colorful facepaint. What a sweet story to watch a bird and a cat fall in love while a butterfly magically told the story and brought them together in the end!
To see a video clip of this show, click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4soUs1XoKa4
Next, Willow and I saw The Fable of the South Wind, a quest story that seemed a little Midsummer Night Dreamish, and a little like The Tempest. Sherman and I had an unexpected first date since we have moved here, as Willow had an overnight at a friend’s house, so we went to see a real dramatic showing of a story about a Brazilian poet in a real theatre downtown (seating for 600). All of this for free! To end the week, I went alone to a very modern, violent, meaningless drama about parents going crazy after their children died. I knew that it was going to be caustic, but I had to go and see what people waited in long lines for. It did leave an impression! So, all in all, theatre is here on the island. There is a variety!
A saw on TV an advertisement that the Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, was going to show on TV on Sunday afternoon. Willow and I happened to be waiting at a bus terminal in the city during that time, and we were sitting near one of the compact snack cafes. Willow was instantly drawn to the small TV at the cafe, so we listened in Portuguese as the song “Belle” began. I had rights, for sure, to stand behind my 7-year-old and watch, too? It was entertaining. We smiled at each other. But then, I realized that the bus driver next to me, in a blue uniform, was learning heavily over the curved glass of the snack counter and fully enjoying the cartoon. I noticed that the two guys behind the counter weren’t serving anyone at the time, and one had his toe tapping to the music and the other was watching out of the corner of his eye. In fact, I widened my gaze to include the whole area, and noticed that on the other side of me, in full Peru regalia (multi-colored sack across his shoulder, billowy pants, and fringed leather shoes), a man was eating his snack with his eyes glued to the TV. Old women sitting on the wooden benches further down the bus terminal were craning their necks to see Belle dancing down the street. The entire Florianopolis bus terminal was enjoying a little Disney. Did somebody turn up the volume? This scene was too cute. Too cute, indeed!
This week is spring break for Willow, so she doesn’t have school. It is also Children’s Day in Brazil on Wednesday, so everyone is celebrating kids all week. And it is a week-long theatre festival on the island from all over the country. Here are a few photos from our trip on Saturday to Centro, the big city. Most of the action centered around the main park, with the large 100 year old fig tree at the center see earlier post).
Capoeira demonstration (Afro-inspired Brazilian dance) I wish I could post the video!
It is a precise dance, usually with two dancers, who tumble over each other in pretend fight/dance
Willow next to a statue on the Praça 15 de novembro (why don't they capitalize months?)
Cute!
Willow is sitting on top of a bull (there is a local festival in Santa Catarina).
This boy sang like a goucho cowboy 30 years older than his years!
Traditional dancers- their costumes had the same look that our costumes did in the 1989 version of Oklahoma!
The guys did a lot of scuffling and stomping of their feet (a la Team Bashet and Jerry Morrison!)
This was part of a city health fair. Kids all over the world LOVE TO JUMP!
Who was having fun?
All of this, a balloon, and a sparkle meow, too?
This is a wandering band of clowns. I WILL blog sometime about the Brazilian obsession with clowns, and my quiet fear of them!
Sherman joined us for our first ride on Barca dos Livros (the Book Boat). Super cool!
Closeup! They take you to the middle of the Lagoa, and then tell you three stories. It is sponsored by the library, right at the dock! One was about a princess and told by a theatrical storyteller.
There are books on board you can browse while waiting for the stories to begin.
O yes, and there's music on board!
Not my photo- We ate traditional Bahian acaraje (fried manioc plus salad plus Brazilian cream cheese- ours minus the shrimp)
It was a good day!
The Grand Adventure 