September 2006
This is just a quick note to everybody to say
that I have arrived in Brazil! There was some adventure getting down here, in
that I was delayed at every stage of the journey, but me and my luggage arrived
in Brasilia at the same time, so all is good.
I have now been here for just under a week.
I
have successfully driven to the embassy and back (twice!), despite the lack of
street signs and the plethora of rotornos. Last weekend, I walked to the
commercial street near me and purchased shampoo, bread and tea, which made me
feel very successful. (Various commercial streets are known for having a whole
bunch of one thing. Mine is known for photographic stuff, but it also has a
bunch of bread stores.)
My apartment seems huge. I’m going to need to do
some shopping to make it seem more homey. I’m on the 4th floor of a 6-floor
building. I have 3 bedrooms, so guests are welcome (although, you'd probably
like it better if you wait until my stuff arrives, but whenever...). Much of my
furniture was trashed by previous owners, so I get to reupholster lots and try
to replace lots. This weekend I'm going to try to go buy plants.
I've already had a number of Brazilians
(including my taxi driver in Sao Paulo) ask if I was married and suggest that I
could marry somebody here. I have three work trips planned in the next 5 weeks,
plus all sorts of forays into Brazilian bureaucracy, so it looks like I'll be
fully occupied/employed.
October 2006
I just thought I'd send a note to say that I’ve
been in Brazil for five weeks, and I’m still alive and kicking.
Everybody is
telling me how lucky I have been with the Brazilian bureaucracy. It only took a
week to get my tax id number. Two and a half weeks after that, I had my
diplomatic credentials from the Brazilian government. A week later (this week),
I learned that the boat with my household effects docked in Rio. My air
shipment might get out of Customs next week, and I may have my household
effects in 4-6 weeks. I’m very excited about the possibility of having my stuff
soon!
I'll be traveling next week - to Sao Paulo and
two coastal cities in the northeast. I'll have to stay an extra day at the
beach though, because the flight back to Brasilia is full on the day when I
should return. It's a tough job, but I think I'm up to the challenge.
Things I have seen:
1) Little lizards in the Embassy courtyards
(cute)
2) Gigantic cicadas (not cute)
3) Black (or, very dark) hummingbirds (pretty)
4) Man jogging down the street in a speedo (not
pretty)
Notes on life:
1) My commercial street not only has fancy food
stores and camera shops, but it also has the one good cross-stitch/quilting
store in town.
2) You need good Portuguese to have a full life
in Brazil.
3) You can feel a little better about your
Portuguese skills if you figure out that the tv show you are watching is
actually in Spanish.
4) You can buy lots of pretty plants for a good
price if you go to the right place. I now have a gerbera daisy, three types of
orchids, a sphatifilium (don't know the english name), a palmito (fern), a type
of bignonia, and 2 other plants that I don’t know the name of.
5) Plants are cheap, but a plastic pitcher costs
$12. I have yet to find a household item where it is not cheaper for me to
order it on the internet to ship APO.
6) Brazilian satellite installation guys do not
understand you when you say that you don’t need a tv package that will give you
lots and lots of soccer games.
7) The temperature is always perfect in
Brasilia. Anything above or below perfect, and everybody starts complaining.
8) Traffic laws are an artificial construct
designed to inhibit the free expression of the people. We will not be
restrained in such a way! (...not too unlike D.C. in some ways...)
9) The green leaves (or whatever) of Brazilian
pineapple have little spikes all over them, giving new understanding to the
fact that a pineapple is a symbol of trouble/problems in Brazil.
10) Brazilian pineapple tastes very good, once
you get past the prickly things.
11) Brazilians take coffee very seriously. Beans
are ground on the spot, even at work.
12) There is always something blooming in
Brasilia.
13) Cicadas wake up before dawn.
14) If you have large trees right outside your
bedroom window, you will wake up when the cicadas wake up.
October 2006
If you hear me whining someday, just remind me
that I have the opportunity to go to conferences where I can drink fresh
pineapple juice by the pool, walk along a nearly empty beach each day, and
watch the waves crash against the shore from my hotel room balcony each
evening. (And yes, the ocean was warm - although I was only wading. There was a
red flag out every day I was there.)
Just a note on communications... Brasilia is
currently 1 hour ahead of D.C. Normally, we would have gone to "summer
hours" last Sunday, making us 2 hours ahead (until the U.S. goes back to
Standard time, when we will be 3 hours ahead). But they decided to wait for
summer hours until November 5, apparently because of the elections. Somewhat
odd, but there you have it. So today we're 1 hour different; in November it
will be 3 hours (with a brief period of 2 hours in between).
November 2006
Hi everybody! As you will see below, this has
been a month of settling in and beginning to create an actual life.
Last
week, I was in Porto Alegre, which has some lovely buildings. You can find good
bread and gelato within a block of the hotel that we stay in. I gave a
presentation (twice) in Portuguese (completely written out in advance), and
people seemed to understand me, which was encouraging. I’m going to Rio for 4
days immediately after Thanksgiving to help with a group that’s coming in. The
group comes in on Sunday, but I’m going on Friday to “get a feel for the
place”. What I won’t do for my country… :)
In other news, I’m going back to grad school.
I had finished everything but my Russian proficiency before. GWU says they’ll
accept my Portuguese test score, but I need to meet the new requirements of 4
more credits. I won’t be taking on any admin responsibilities at work until
next summer, so it seems like there is no better time to get this done. If
anybody has topic ideas for a 40-page paper in the area of international trade
policy analysis, let me know.
Notes on life (general):
1) Maids are a gift from God. Mine comes once
per week and cleans and straightens *everything*, does the laundry, irons, cuts
up fruit…
2) A third of the maniacal driving in Brasilia
can be attributed to swerving around potholes, horse-drawn carts, and anybody
who's in your way. Another third can be attributed to slamming on the brakes
right before you get caught by the traffic cameras.
3) When living in a tropical country where you
are surrounded by pretty flowers, make sure you don’t run out of your allergy
medication. (Thankfully, Allegra-D is sold over-the-counter here, but it's
really expensive.)
4) If you are at the beach and wearing anything
more than a bikini (e.g. tankini), they’ll ask you if you’re cold. (And nobody
believes that I already have a tan.)
Notes on activities in Brasilia:
1) The Saturday morning farmers’ market has
*everything*: fruits, vegetables, berries from the Amazon, cheeses, cashews and
peanuts, herbs, garlic, honey, flours, flowers, doce de leite, chicken eggs,
quail eggs, soy products… (There is also a wholesale chocolate store right next
to it, but I haven’t gone in yet.)
2) I finally went to the City Park which isn’t
far from my place. It’s slightly larger than NYC’s Central Park (nearly 1000
acres) and has a path that goes around the whole thing, complete with bike
lane. There are a few basketball courts, more than a few soccer courts, an
equestrian school, lots of playgrounds, an amphitheater, a fun park (ferris
wheel, etc), wave pool, bars/snack bars, and *lots* of green space.
3) I also finally went to the “hippie fair”
that’s at the tv tower every weekend. You can find furniture, jewelry, and
everything in between.
4) If you are more interested in outdoorsy
things than in the restaurant/bar/club scene, there is a lot to do around here.
However, I have not yet found a local hiking buddy, so if you come to visit, be
prepared to have me drag you out on various adventures near here or elsewhere
in the country!
Notes on food:
1) When buying juice at the store, you have to be
careful to get the “juice” and not the “nectar”. Juice is juice; nectar is
chemicals with some concentrate for flavoring.
2) In the States, Nestea is flavored with lemon.
In Brazil… passion fruit.
3) Chocolate isn’t chocolate unless it’s dark.
4) Dessert sushi. You’re familiar with cucumber
rolls. Replace cucumber with strawberry or mango. It’s actually pretty good.
5) I get giddy at the sight of rootbeer. (I hear
that this stage will fade around month 6.)
December 2006
Happy holiday season, everybody!
It's been 3 ½
months since I moved to Brazil. Many people have commented on how lucky I have
been. I have already traveled to Sao Paulo and Rio, among other places. And I
received all of my things on Thanksgiving Day, only 3 months after my arrival -
even though the ports are highly congested and some people have waited 6 months
before receiving their things. I am very happy to have my stuff. Everything
came in good shape. The only things that are broken were a result of me
dropping them on the granite floor after unwrapping them. So I really couldn't
ask for more. I've put almost everything away. Now I'm just dealing with trying
to get my car insured, made slightly more urgent by the fact that the
government goes on vacation next week.
I decorated for Christmas last week. My
Christmas decorating ritual has always involved hot chocolate and a sweater.
This is the first time it has involved me wearing shorts and trying not to turn
on the A/C. It feels a little weird. I've started playing Christmas music to
try to convince myself that it's December, but given my tendency to play
Christmas music at all times of the year, it's not really working.
I've been going to the International Baptist
church here. It has a good mix of people from the U.S., Brazil, Nigeria,
Zambia, Ghana, Cameroon, Guyana, Japan, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, etc. I
sang in the Thanksgiving choir, and it looks like I may sing in a small group
for Christmas. Within the next few weeks, I'll probably start singing and/or
playing my flute in the praise team, as well as teaching the children's Sunday
school.
I was in Rio for several days after
Thanksgiving. Rio is probably the most naturally blessed city I've ever seen -
water, mountains and green everywhere. It's really a shame that crime is so
high there. My Portuguese is now good enough to bargain a bit with the many
people trying to sell you things on the beach (who, of course, say that my
Portuguese is excellent). I'm not sure what was being sold by the guy who
started touching my feet, so I just said no. Cariocas (people from Rio) appear
to be masters of beach activities. They have beach soccer, beach ping-pong,
beach volleyball, a soccer version of beach volleyball (no hands)... I even saw
beach yoga. Then there are all of the people in the water jumping over the
waves, body surfing or wake boarding.
Note on food: There are a lot of juice places in
Rio where you can get fresh juice from every fruit imaginable. I was a bore and
got lemonade - but since I haven't seen it in more than 3 months, it was very
exciting!
Lesson learned: Sometimes it's worthwhile to pay
the extra to have somebody else deliver and assemble furniture, even if it
means waiting a month - especially if they start asking questions about how
able you are to move the boxes and what kind of car you have. It was big,
heavy, and time consuming - especially since half of the instructions (which
were in Portuguese) were missing. However, I think I have successfully put
together what I am declaring to be a little entertainment center. What remains
to be seen is whether the whole thing will come crashing down.
Question of the month: What temperature do you
set the oven at when the instructions indicate "the maximum
temperature"?
January 2007
Happy New Year!
1) I got the diplomatic plates for my car the
Friday before Christmas. After 4 months of driving a Ford Explorer, I felt like
I was sitting on the ground in my Honda Civic. But I'm very glad to have my
car. The only problem is that I can't see the kilometer markings on my
speedometer most of the time, so it's good I don't get speeding tickets.
2) The hood release broke off on Monday. I was
able to get it fixed that afternoon, which made me feel very successful. It's
the first time that I've paid more for a car part than for the labor. However,
the whole process utilizes a system that I previously had associated with
Russia… You go to one counter to tell them what part you need. They make sure
they have the part, and then send you to a second counter, where you pay for
the part. Then you go back to counter #1 to pick up the part. You then take the
part to a third person to begin the process of actually having the part
installed. After they take all of your info and you spend some time in the
little waiting area, they send you back to counter #2 to pay for the installation.
Then you take the "liberation" document back to person #3, who then
has you wait in the little waiting area again until they bring your car out.
The whole process is sort of fascinating.
3) I have finally found some hiking/camping
buddies! Now that I have my own car, I'm starting to plan outings - but not too
many, since I also need to write that paper for grad school…
4) I have had a number of migraines since coming
to Brasilia - including 3 in the week before Christmas. It appears that one of
my uncontrollable triggers is weather (i.e. sudden changes in barometric
pressure, combined with high heat and humidity - aka: Brasilia's rainy season).
I was sent to a neurologist who gave me one of those spiffy preventative drugs
(one that won't trigger the asthma), and the nurse at the Embassy gave me 800
mg of Motrin to take at the onset of a migraine. So we'll see how it goes.
5) Cooking at a high altitude (nearly 3500 feet)
is different. I've figured out that I need to subtract several minutes from the
cooking time for pasta and add several minutes for baking, but presentable
coconut macaroons are a mystery.
6) In Brazil, when you really want to be able
to drink hot chocolate or hot apple cider, 70 degrees and rainy totally works
as "cold".
7) When exercising, if you are wearing anything
that is not skin-tight or barely there, then you are probably a foreigner.
(This seems to apply mainly to women and can work for most activities in
Brazil.)
8) There seems to be a national obsession with
cheese. If you order a large cheese roll (which are everywhere), they ask
"only one?" Our Ag. Specialist kept saying that I wanted two, even
when I kept saying that I wanted one. I ended up with two.
9) I hear people setting off fireworks several
times a week. I don't know why. And I never see the fireworks. Christmas and
New Years were big days. But otherwise, it seems pretty random.
February 2007
Greetings from the land of rain! (...but it's
warm!)
The trip to Rio Grande do Sul was nice. In
some ways, I feel more comfortable there. Maybe it's the strong European/German
influence. I don't think it has anything to do with waking up to
Portuguese-singing polka music. One of our contacts in the south told me that I
should have been born in Monterey, California, because I'm so laid back. Nice
to know that I've got one person fooled.
I've decided that driving in Mato Grosso is like
a game of Frogger – driving along at high speeds, dodging gigantic potholes and
very large trucks. And there are *a lot* of trucks and potholes in Mato Grosso.
I also saw a few toucans flying around and several groups of wild emus eating
bugs in the cotton fields.
These trips have been encouraging with regard to
my Portuguese, as I was able to conduct a few meetings in Portuguese
(translating for the colleague that I was traveling with). They were somewhat
slow and laborious, but at least they were more exciting than "Cotton – up
or down?" On the flip side, when going into shops, instead of saying that
I'm just looking, I have a bad tendency of saying that I'm just hearing. I
obviously have a long way to go.
In other news... After one month with my car,
I had a car accident. A woman pulled out from a side street just as I was
driving by and hit the right side of my car. Several thousand dollars in
damage. (Three weeks later, and I may get my car back from the shop tomorrow.)
The blessing is that nobody was hurt, and the other people were quick to admit
they were at fault and to offer to pay for the damages. But the whole incident
was quite the production. I had to call the Marines, who sent the roving patrol
plus 2 of the security supervisors. And my boss and his wife came to the scene,
since they had just been leaving home. And then we had one of the guys from the
office come so that he could help me with translation. And then we had to go to
a police station to make a report. When you've been in an accident, there's
something very nice about hearing a Marine calmly tell you that he's trying to
help you, ma'am. All the same, it was one of those days when pineapple and
chocolate chips sounded just fine for dinner.
Now that I've gone more than a month without a migraine,
ants are the new bane of my existence. I appear to live on an ant metropolis,
and several of its major thoroughfares run around the edges of my kitchen. I'm
going through ziplock bags at a rather amazing rate. But in the big scheme of
things, it's only a minor irritant, and I have many things to be thankful for
here. (Not saying that I haven't made a request for the Embassy to come out and
spray for ants...)
The next three months will be filled with
writing 3 very large reports/papers and several little reports, plus whatever
else comes along (President of the U.S., President of U.S. Wheat Assoc...).
Carnaval is next week, and I have great plans for working on my grad school
paper. Yes, I am boring, but it's 5 straight days of no other demands on my
time! However, I have decided that I will be less bitter about working on my
paper if I take one day to go hiking.
March 2007
Greetings everybody!
I made a 2-day trip to
Alto Paraiso with Katie, Jenny and Athos (Jenny's husband). We intended to go
to Chapada dos Veadeiros (a big national park), but it was closed because of
all the rain. So we "settled" for the many places immediately around
the park. I saw a couple emus and lots of green parakeets in guava trees and a
toucan flying - but still no picture. Taking pictures inside the cavern was the
only way that I really saw the cavern. The entrance was well lit by the sun,
but the two branches were completely black. It's rather obvious that I'm not a
big cave person, because it never occurred to me that we would need a
flashlight. Okay, so I'm an idiot. But all we had was my little pocket
flashlight. And have I mentioned that I don't really like dark, enclosed
spaces? We girls saw a little bit of the interior of the cave by clinging to
each other while inching forward with my little tiny flashlight. We made it
several feet at least! (Athos decided to stand outside so that he wouldn't get
in the way of any bats that we disturbed.) The hiking was great fun, and the
waterfalls were gorgeous! The waterfall called Almecega 1 was like a dream. The
only down side was that I was unable to avoid one of the many, many potholes on
the road, and it caused a bit of damage to my car (a couple thousand dollars to
replace all the thingamajigs *or* $400 to straighten and align - guess which
one I chose!). So 5 days after I retrieved my car from a 3 1/2 week stay at the
mechanic's, my car went back in. Lesson learned - future adventures that
require driving should first involve queries as to the conditions of the
"roads" - especially during the rainy season.
I was in Sao Paulo a week and a half ago -
same time as the President, but I didn't get to see him. Not that spending a
couple days with a handful of U.S. wheat farmers isn't excitement in itself.
One incident in SP reinforced my hope that the moment when verbal understanding
clicks in will happen soon... We went to visit one of my wheat trading
contacts. He works for a company that owns 11 shopping malls in Brazil, plus a
bunch of other stuff, and as a hobby, is one of the biggest wheat buyers in the
country. After the meeting, he asked me if I liked something or other, which I
didn't catch but seemed to be related to what had happened while we were there,
so I nodded my head. And then Miguel asked how old "he" is, at which
point it became clear that I had just said I liked something in relation to
meeting the 32/33 year old President of the company.
April 2007
Olá gente!
I was duty officer for the week
that included Easter weekend (a 3-day weekend here). It means all of the
after-hours Embassy calls were forwarded to me. Reading the log book can be
somewhat interesting. Sometimes it's kind of funny, often it's routine/dull
(no, we won't roust out a bunch of people to give you a visa at 10 p.m.), and
sometimes it's just kind of freaky (e.g. man attacked by alligator). My first
day involved escorting the diplomatic pouches to and from the airport -
because, you know, I look very intimidating and will scare off anybody who
thinks they might want to run off with a large orange bag. I only received 3 phone
calls that week, and none of them woke me up or required me to trek into the
Embassy, so that was good.
I'm developing a bit of a food routine. I go to
the chicken guy about once a week to get my roasted chicken. (He's not just a
chicken guy, but that's the only reason I go there. He recognizes me now and
will tell me that he has a "beautiful little chicken" for me.) Every
second or third week, I make chicken broth from my roasted chicken. And about
twice a month I go to the farmers' market and stock up on vegetables and fruits
and whatever else catches my fancy. But the big food news of the month... After
almost 8 months, I have located (real) maple syrup! It costs about $17, but
it's soooo worth it.
You hear about how big plastic surgery and the
beauty business is here (somewhat understandable, given the lack of clothes),
but you have to see it to believe it. A magazine in the airport was called
"Plastic and Beauty" - all about liposuction and other ways to make
yourself "beautiful". According to the nurse practitioner at the
Embassy, the latest fad in Brazil is toe liposuction - so that you can fit your
toes into the pointy-toed stilettos that are so popular. (And, no, I'm not
having any plastic surgery done while I'm here.)
Three things I like about the medical system
in Brazil: 1) That when I go to the pharmacy and say I need this or that, if
it's not in their store, they call around to find it and offer to deliver it to
my home. 2) That the doctors (or at least the ones I go to) give you their
email address and phone numbers and say that you can contact them if you have
any questions or concerns. 3) The snacks and coffee and juice that are offered
after you get any amount of blood drawn. I like to go to a place that specializes
in children, because I figure they have to be nice. They give the kids little
"certificates of courage". Personally, I think I should get a
certificate of courage too, but they don't give me one.
May 2007
May has been up and down.
Yippee #1: May
began with me finally finishing my grad degree!
Just as I began to remember
what one does when one doesn't have to work on a paper all the time...
Bummer
#1: ...I got sick. That ate up about 2 weeks and involved me drinking lots of
acerola juice. [One little acerola (aka: Barbados cherry) has the vitamin C
equivalent of 3 oranges!]
Yippee #2: When I began to feel better, I started
guitar lessons. I've only had one lesson so far, so I won't be doing any
concerts for a long time. But I'm excited to learn how to play.
Bummer #2:
The day before I started guitar lessons, I got the news that my grandfather had
passed away, so I made a fast trip up to Florida for the funeral. The flight to
Florida was bad - with every flight delayed and every connection missed. But
things went smoothly once I got there, and it was good to see people.
[Weird
event at the airport - When I arrived in Sao Paulo, a woman was yelling (in
Portuguese) at the guys in border control, because they didn't say
"hello" or "welcome to Brazil". What does she expect at 6
a.m.? When I left, she was still there, refusing to enter Brazil until somebody
said "welcome to Brazil". Can you imagine being the embassy duty
officer to get the call that somebody was refusing to *enter* Brazil?]
Yippee
#3: On the plus side, my mom and I had two extra days in Florida, so we went to
Disney World. Neither of us had ever been. It was really cool.
The day after I got back, I went with a group
from church to a center for abandoned children that is nearby. They do
community outreach (teaching skills and such) to the really poor people nearby,
help to reintegrate children into (their) families, and they have an orphanage.
They're at a turning point right now, needing both funds and volunteers to expand
to what they have capacity for and to do much of what they have envisioned. I'm
trying to think through how I can help out there.
Funny occurrence: I have about 4 orchids of
different types. One of them has these big roots that go out and wrap around
things. One day, I walked into my tv nook to discover that my orchid had
wrapped a tentacle around the neck of a Russian rag doll that I have.
Observation of the month: When the dry season
comes, you think, "woohoo! No more rain! I can be outside all the
time!" Then the reality of 20% humidity sets in (sinus headaches, nose
bleeds, a really dirty car...), and you begin to remember that occasional rain
is a good thing.
July 2007
Oi, gente!
June began fairly well, struggled
a bit in the middle, picked up again, and then took a nose-dive. Just as I was
beginning to pull up from the depths of despair, I got sick. Adding a little
something to the joy is that my torn ligament or cracked rib from May has not
healed completely, and coughing did not help. (If I were a cat, the vet in our
office would have put me in a box and not allowed me to move. But I'm not a
cat.) As soon as I started getting better, I flew to Sao Paulo, where I am now.
I’ll be here for two weeks (leave this Friday), covering the office while our
guy here is on home leave and having lots of meetings.
At the beginning of June, I went with Jenny
and Athos to Salto de Corumba - a very nice waterfall about an hour out of
town. We were able to hike to the top and splash around in the little pools and
mini-waterfalls before *the* big waterfall. It was lovely.
I've started going to InPact, the "young
adults" group at church. (As I mentioned before, it is defined as up to
age 35, so I'm still allowed.) It's mostly Brazilians, plus people from the
U.S., Australia, Mozambique, Zambia, and Cameroon. It's nice to be starting to
get to know a group of people that I can hang out with. At the beginning of
June, we went to TGIFridays after group to celebrate a few birthdays. What I
did not know was that they intended to celebrate *all* of the June birthdays at
once - including mine! I haven't observed this in the U.S., but here,
celebrating your birthday at TGIFridays involves making you dance on your
chair. Thankfully, there were 4 of us, so attention was not focused on any one
person.
To end on an amusing note... I have become
used to seeing men jogging (or walking the dog) in a speedo and women jogging
in bikini tops (reportedly to get a tan). However, new under the category of
things I never expected to see: a man smoking a cigarette while riding a
bicycle.
September 2007
Hi everybody!
I have returned to Brazil after
4+ weeks of R&R, and everybody is commenting on how rested I look. It was
wonderful seeing so many of you! I loved being back in the U.S., spending time
with everybody, and eating lots and lots of cherries and berries and Thai food,
drinking decaf mochas and playing RummiKub. But it is good to be back and to
return to a routine. I also noticed a shift in my thinking about Brazil when,
towards the end of my R&R, I started talking about going “home”. I guess
that’s saying something… Not that I didn’t want to put some people in my
suitcase when I came back!
I returned to a reception in Sao Paulo (at the
new Consul General’s residence) on Tuesday and a mound of stuff on my desk in
Brasilia on Thursday. (I’m still trying to dig myself out from under the pile.
If the world would stop for a week to let me catch up, that would be helpful.)
Friday (the 7th) was Brazil’s Independence Day,
so I had a 3-day weekend. My brain apparently did not return to Brazil with me,
because I locked my keys in my car Friday night. All of my keys. And I didn’t
realize it until about midnight, when I was getting ready to leave a friend’s
house. After spending some time panicking, I called the marines, who woke up
the head of housing. A friend drove me to the Embassy, where I received the
spare set of keys to my apartment, and then drove me home. He picked me up
again the next morning (since I had not found my spare car key) and took me
back to the embassy, where I found the spare car key locked up in my desk (the
key to which had been in my apartment), and then took me to my car. So it all
turned out alright, thanks to the marines and some very gracious friends. And
now I triple-check to make sure I have my keys when I leave my car!
October 2007
Hello everybody!
When I returned from R&R, I was thinking about the last
year (+ a little bit) and noticed that there have been a few significant events
in my life. Within the last year...
1) I moved to Brazil (traveled to 8 states; joined
a new church (where I do the same things I did in DC); made new friends),
2) started a new job (and I just got promoted!
My job doesn’t change – just my rank.),
3) finished my Masters degree (in Intl Trade
Policy), and
4) passed the language qualification test in
Portuguese.
Here in Brasilia, La Nina is delaying the
start of the rainy season. From the end of April until October 1, Brasilia had
only 2 days with any rain. I don't think either of those rain clouds came
anywhere near my apartment. At one point in mid-September, humidity in Brasilia
got down to 9%. (According to my internet search, the average humidity in the
Sahara is 20-25%.) I actually welcomed the beginning of the cicadas this year,
because I knew it meant the rainy season was coming. (The joy in cicadas has
faded since then.) The night of October 1, we had thunder and lightening and a
torrential downpour. I've never been so happy to see rain in all of my life.
There was no more rain until last Saturday, but I have hopes that we'll have
more rain soon. (Current reports indicate the rain will really start in two
weeks. But they've been saying that for a month now.) What amazes me is that in
the midst of all of this dryness - red dust, brown grass, etc - there are still
trees and bushes in full bloom.
I went to Itiquira last Friday (a Brazilian
holiday) with Jenny and Athos. Itiquira is the 2nd tallest waterfall in Brazil.
There were a lot of people there, but it was nice to get a chance to see the
waterfall. It's beautiful. We were originally thinking about taking the hike up
to the top of the waterfall, but some indications that it isn't very safe
discouraged us. On the way back to Brasilia, we stopped at Athos' grandparents'
farm and chatted with them for a while. They were very nice. They showed me
their many different types of banana trees, the graviolas, mangos, cabbages,
orange-colored limes, cinnamon tree, clove tree, etc. It had never occurred to
me that cinnamon and cloves come from a tree! (I had never really given it much
thought before.) They gave us branches from the cinnamon tree and the clove
tree and a ton of mint, so I can make my own tea!
On Saturday, I visited one of the city parks
with Jenny. It was lovely. A fire swept through a section of the park recently,
but there are already signs that it is rejuvenating.
I'm going to Foz do
Iguaçu on Thursday for a wheat millers' conference, where I'll try to speak
Portuguese with a bunch of Brazilians with southern (Brazilian) accents. Maybe
this year I won't have to deal with Argentine traders asking me if I'm there
alone. There is a trip scheduled to see the waterfalls. It's better to go at
the end of the rainy season, but I'm still hopeful that there will be water.
One cute thing, and then I'll save the rest for
another month so that this doesn't become too long. The owls here are small,
cute, and sit around in the middle of the day. There is one that likes to sit
on a tiny mound of dirt in the middle of the Embassy's lawn. I'll leave work,
and he's just sitting there, looking around (except for yesterday, when he
looked around for a while and then hopped over to the shade of a nearby little
palm). The first time I saw him, I thought that it was a cute way to disguise a
security camera (with the head turning this way and that). But no. It's an owl.
He just likes to sit in the middle of the grass and watch everybody go by.
I’m serving on the Housing Board now, so I get
to go around and see all of the apartments and houses that the embassy is
considering renting. The cool part is that I get to see all of these gorgeous
houses with outdoor kitchens/grills and swimming pools and tons of rooms and
stuff. The bad part is that it can be really bad for my contentment levels (“if
I was married with 2 children, I would have a place like *this*”). But then I
remind myself that I have a very nice apartment with more than enough space for
me.
November 2007
I went to Foz do Iguacu last month. I got a
chance to see the waterfalls and to ride in a boat right up to one of the
(many) waterfalls. It was beautiful. The rainy season finally started last
week!! It seems like it delayed long enough to be bad for the cicadas, because
they were a lot quieter this year. I’m okay with that.
At church, I continue to teach the 5-7 year
olds. My class had 333% growth this year – I’ve gone from 3 kids to 10 kids. I
get a lot less done with 10 kids, but I think we’re surviving well. The young
adults group had a 1-day retreat a week ago that I helped plan. It went fairly
smoothly, and people seemed to really like it. (The very sad thing is that my camera
broke.) I think there might be hope for a second retreat in the future.
A few
days after the retreat, I got sick. I’ve been sick most of the week. Few things
make me feel as alone as being sick and needing to go to the grocery store. Why
oh why didn’t I make soup the last time I bought a chicken?? I finally got a
chicken on Saturday and made soup. Still haven’t gone to the grocery store. Do
you think wafer cookies have any restorative properties?
After nearly 15 months in Brazil, I still feel
silly doing the monthly radio check. You know… The whole “Mike 1. Mike 1. This
is Bravo 11. Radio check. Over.” I don’t talk like that! I still can’t bring
myself to say that I hear the Marine “lima charlie” (aka: loud and clear). I’m
tempted to tell him that I hear him a lot better when I turn the volume up.
I’ve managed to restrain myself so far.
I hope to take a day-trip to Pirenopolis
(nearby town) on Thursday (a Brazilian holiday) – just to do a little Christmas
shopping and visit a waterfall. I ordered a turkey through the commissary for
Thanksgiving. It’s 18 pounds. (I didn’t have a choice on size.) So I’ve invited
a few people over for dinner. I’m competing against work hours (since it’s not
a Brazilian holiday) and some big event at the Embassy of Suriname, but it
should be fun. I need to go through all of my recipes and see what American Thanksgiving
dishes I can make with ingredients that are available in Brazil. That will be
an adventure.
December 2007
Greetings all,
What to say about the last month…
The highlight of
November was Thanksgiving. I invited some of my Brazilian friends over, and we
ate a ton of turkey (w/ gravy), cranberry sauce (out of the can, unfortunately,
since I can’t get cranberries here), corn bread stuffing, apple sauce, green
beans, sweet potato soufflé, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. It all turned out
really well, despite the fact that only the pecan pie did not require an
ingredient substitution. Evaporated milk for the pumpkin pie was probably the
biggest saga. I couldn’t find it at my grocery store, but I was told that I
could definitely find it at this other store (one of two places in town where
you can get blueberries!). I went there, and they didn’t have any, so I went to
another store where I heard that they definitely have it (on the opposite side
of town). That store was closed for the week for maintenance. So I went to a
grocery store on my route home (on the other opposite side of town), and they
didn’t have it either. A friend checked at Extra (like WalMart). They didn’t
have it, but he was told it could be found at another place. So the following
day, I went to that place, WalMart and a gigantic Carrefour that claims that
you can find everything there. Well, you can’t. No evaporated milk. I have
heard that they make it seasonally here. (Apparently milk production drops
during the dry season, when the grass gets all brown.) So I learned how to
“make” evaporated milk using milk powder. It actually turned out well.
I had some friends over about a week ago to help
me decorate my place for Christmas. And as part of my annual Christmas
bake-a-thon, I have made 6 types of cookies/bars and some homemade fudge. Hot
spiced cider still tastes lovely, even if I do have to sit in front of a fan in
order to drink it.
While 1989 still ranks as the most difficult
year of my life to date, I think 2007 could make the top-5 list of most
difficult years, with November as the peak. I keep remembering how Esther’s
uncle told her that she may have been placed in her position for just such a
time as this. (Not that I face imminent annihilation, but you get the idea.)
Some of the fall-out of November is that I am now the chair of a 3-person
pastor search committee (me, a Brazilian lawyer and a Nigerian diplomat – a
motley crew if ever there was one), and in January I will begin meeting with a
girl from Mozambique. So, while 2008 will involve plenty of hard work, I have
hope that it will have purpose.
May you have a wonderful Christmas and a 2008
filled with joy.
January 2008
Happy 2008!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. My
mom came down for Christmas this year. It was wonderful to be able to show her
where I have been living. We went to Rio and saw the Christ the Redeemer statue
(one of the new 7 Wonders of the Modern World) and jumped in the waves at the
beach in Ipanema. We spent a quiet Christmas in Brasilia and then had a few
days in Sao Paulo - where we had the intention of visiting the Museum of Art
(considered the best art museum in South America), but it was closed due to a
robbery a week earlier. argh. But Sao Paulo was still nice. And I visited my
first Brazilian Starbucks, which was very exciting! A little taste of home...
:) New Years Eve was wonderful - spent with some dear friends, just hanging out
and talking and eating and joking around. It was also the last time that I saw
my pastor and his family before they moved to Manaus, so that was special. I
might see them again if I can convince some people to get their yellow fever
vaccinations and take a trip to the Amazon with me. (hint, hint)
It's funny how little things make you feel very
successful when living overseas. The first week I was in Brazil, I felt great
just by successfully buying shampoo. Last week, it was successfully getting a
tire changed! (For me, it’s a big success in the U.S. too…) Something that is
different from the U.S. – they just put the two old tires in the trunk of my
car (instead of taking them away and charging me for disposal). So now I have
to figure out what to do with the old tires.
Something I love about Brazil, and about my
church in particular – diversity. Some of us were playing a game once where we
all had to have our hands on the table. Every pair of hands on the table was a
different color. It was really beautiful.
Something that bugs me in Brazil - In the United
States, guys will at least pretend that personality is important in a girl. In
Brazil, the men (in general) just come right out and say that the #1 thing they
are looking for in a girl is that she is beautiful (read: looks like a model).
Maybe Brazilian men are just more honest about it. But it makes it less
surprising that Brazil has one of the highest rates of plastic surgery in the
world and that women won’t leave the house without their hair and make-up
perfectly done. It might also help explain the over-use of spandex, but I’m not
sure about that.
Something that is just different in Brazil –
poultry. In the U.S., the frozen turkey comes with all/most of the internal
organs in a neat little bag. My Thanksgiving turkey was not neat and tidy. And
there was more of a bloody stump of a neck than I’m used to seeing. I had to
saw off a few inches of neck with a butcher knife, because I just couldn’t
handle seeing it. I like a clear separation between the original animal and the
meat on the table. Along those lines… I bought a bag of frozen chicken breasts
for Christmas. I assumed that it would be like chicken breasts in the U.S. –
separate, off-the-bone hunks of breast meat. No. It was two chicken… chests
(for lack of a better word). You know – ribs, sternum, meat. So once again, I
got out the butcher knife, hacked through some bone (to separate the two
breasts) and ripped the meat off the bone. Someday, a lesson in deboning might
be useful.
March 2008
Hello everybody!
I’m sorry that it’s been so long since I wrote. It’s been a
busy 2 months.
The week after my last email was Carnaval. I stayed in
Brasilia and had a nice, quiet 5-day weekend. I was able to go to lunch or tea
or dinner with friends every day, so that was really good.
After Carnaval, I
had 1 week to put together the annual crop tour. I spent 4 days in Sao Paulo
(and went back to the Starbucks!) and then headed south – 2 days in Porto
Alegre, 1 day in Curitiba and 2 days driving across the state of Parana. It was
my first time in Parana (except for a couple days in Foz do Iguacu). They have
some funny looking pine trees down there. They kind of look upside down – the
skirt of the pines is facing upward.
While in Sao Paulo, I got the chance to
go to the Museum of Art of Sao Paulo – reportedly the best art museum in South
America. Honestly, after years of visiting the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, I wasn’t all that impressed. The exhibit wasn’t very large,
although there were pictures there that I had never seen before. On the other
hand, the Museum of the Portuguese Language was (surprisingly) fascinating.
They had a very creative way of presenting things. One example - there were old
drawers and armoires that you would open to see pictures or writings inside.
That was a difference between the U.S. and Brazil... In the U.S., if they put
out an old armoire, Americans wouldn’t think to open it up to see what was
inside unless they saw other people doing it or there was a little sign saying
“open me”. We all grew up hearing, “Look, but DON’T TOUCH!” But here, everybody
was touching everything.
I had 2 weeks back in Brasilia before going on
another trip – 1 day in Sao Paulo and 1 day in the state of Santa Catarina. My
hotel in Santa Catarina was across the street from the ocean and next door to
an ice cream parlor. It was lovely.
When I got back to Brasilia, I had a week
to write my biggest report of the year. Completion of my report was rewarded
with a 3-day weekend (aka: Easter weekend)! On Good Friday, a few of us got
together and watched “The Passion” – an excellent movie that I was always too
afraid to watch before. I only got through it this time by not watching a few
parts. But it was a very good thing to do on a Good Friday. Saturday was the
rehearsal for the Easter service. I sang in the choir, did one of the
narrations and played my flute (intro to 1 song). On Sunday I didn’t make any
glaring mistakes, so I consider it to be a huge success. After the service, we
had a potluck. I made a lime meringue pie – my Brazilian equivalent of a lemon
meringue pie, since it is very difficult to find lemons here. I tried to make
it 2 weeks ago, and the altitude messed with my consistency. This time, I added
a little bit more flour and corn starch, and it turned out just the way it’s
supposed to! So I am very excited to have figured out one more “taste of home”
that I can make here.
It seems that everybody is going through a
very difficult time right now. The least of these trials is that Brazilian
Customs in Rio is on strike again, so I’m not getting any mail – including some
of my tax documents and a user name to give me access to my retirement plan. In
my immediate circle of friends and family, I can think of the following off the
top of my head: lost job, sick parent, death of a pet, death of a friendship,
termination of an engagement, turmoil in ministry leadership, set backs in the
pastor search, and a witch trying to kill her grandson. On the flip side,
Easter went really well, I managed to carve out some time last weekend to read
and work on my cross-stitch (necessary for re-charging), I was able to go to
the gym a few times (necessary for working off stress), I finished a photo
album of Danielle and Samyr’s wedding and events surrounding the wedding (my
wedding gift to them), I’ve eaten lots of good ice cream, and I’ve been blessed
with wonderful friends.
Cultural note of the day: In the U.S., we can
find vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream everywhere we go. In Brazil,
it’s cream, coconut and pistachio. Flocos (the flaked equivalent of chocolate
chip) and pineapple are pretty common too.
September 2008
Hello everybody!
I’m sorry that it has been so long since I wrote anything.
A lot has been going on, not the least of which was taking my R&R in
August, which gave me the wonderful opportunity to see some of you, even if
only briefly!
A lot has happened since I last wrote! I’ll try to give you the
highlights…
Big Events:
• Many of you know that I got a cat 5 ½ months
ago. She’s great company. There's something very nice about having a little
living being greet you at the door with great joy, even if you've only been
gone for 2 hours. I became very glad that she's an indoor cat when she got
upset that I was crying about something, raced out of the room, and raced back
in to offer me her favorite mouse toy. What would I have received if she had
access to the outdoors?
• I went to an ‘80s party with Danielle and
Samyr. It was fun to see people – probably all of whom have no memory of the
‘80s – dressed up in various costumes. It was also interesting to be reminded
that the ‘80s didn’t only happen in the U.S., and to get a glimpse of what was
big in *Brazil* during that decade.
• I went to the Amazon with Candace! We saw the
Meeting of the Waters (where the dark waters of the Rio Negro meet the light
brown waters of the Rio Solimoes and run alongside each other for a while),
fished for piranhas, swam with pink fresh-water dolphins, looked for caimans at
night during a thunder storm, etc.
• At the beginning of August, I travelled with
the Ambassador to Mato Grosso. Probably the most interesting part of the trip
was when we visited an indigenous village. After hearing stories about them
capturing trespassers, stripping them naked and staking them out on the beach,
we (including an American former-Army Ranger who has been inducted into the
tribe) landed on the dirt airstrip outside the village. The chief’s sister gave
me a necklace. It was a once in a lifetime experience.
• Fun sightings around Brasilia: monkeys walking
along the back fence at church and toucans flying.
• I was on R&R in August. I didn’t schedule
much, because I was told that I might be asked to cut it short and return to
Brazil early. But I had a very nice, and restful, vacation.
Things I missed/noticed were different when I
was on R&R:
• At the beginning of my R&R, I frequently
had to pause before speaking to fast-food workers or people at a check-out
counter, because I had framed my response in Portuguese and I needed to switch
back to English.
• I missed the juice. In Brazil, there are
always many fresh juices to choose from (orange, mango, pineapple with mint,
graviola, acerola…). But when I was in the mood for juice during R&R, there
wasn’t any on the menu!
• While I’m still not a fan of stilettos, my
taste in shoes has changed since moving to Brazil.
• Brazilian balloons, while more difficult to
blow up than American balloons, are also harder for my cat to pop. (She *loves*
to play with balloons.)
As many of you know, last year was a very
difficult year here, with (among other things) a number of people that I care
about crashing and burning in spectacular ways, and a group of us left to hold
the pieces together by God’s grace. But it seems like things have turned a
corner. For one thing, my hair, which had apparently thinned out with all of
the stress, is growing back in (making hairstyling a bit interesting). I’ve
pulled out of things that I don’t need to hold onto and joined the new Bible
study. Next spring, I’ll have to start thinking about what position I want to
go back to (I have to apply for available slots within FAS) and where I’m going
to live. But for now, I can just enjoy my final year in Brazil – spending time
with friends, watching movies or going to get gelato, trying to wrap up the
pastor search,... And drinking lots of juice!
December 2008
Hello everybody!
Life has been pretty good the last few months. I’m keeping
busy here – primarily with normal stuff, but also with some more interesting
things.
After a period of very loud (and have I mentioned “very large”?)
cicadas, the rainy season has come to Brasilia. Here, my sense of the changing
seasons is related to when the rain starts or stops, when particular trees are
in bloom, and when the cacti outside the Mexican Embassy flower. There is one
tree I like that becomes covered in small red, orange or yellow flowers. One
that I really wanted to take a picture of is on my way to and from work. It
gets dark red flowers, and it’s about as wide as it is tall – very Savannah
looking. However, it’s right next to the Chinese Embassy and a police post.
Several weeks ago, I saw an Israeli security guy outside the Israeli embassy
watching with binoculars while a police car pulled up and 4 burly police
officers hopped out of the car with their bullet-proof vests to have a chat
with a guy who was hanging around across the street from the embassy wearing a
long black coat. Can you imagine what kind of list I would get put on if I
stopped my car by the Chinese Embassy and got out a camera? I decided I could
live without the picture of the pretty tree. But not after putting a lot of
thought into the possible ways it could be done without having to talk to any
police officers.
Recent Events:
* I went to the Marine Ball this year. After 2
years of not going, either due to lack of people to go with or lack of
interest, I decided that I was going, since this might be my last chance. I
took 3 of my friends with me, and we had a lovely girls’-night-out.
* In mid-November, the Secretary of
Agriculture came to Brazil. He only went to an international biofuels
conference (with bilateral meetings on the side) in Sao Paulo, so all of the
logistics were handled there. However, I was sent down to handle his schedule.
Everything went pretty smoothly.
* The following week (Thanksgiving week), we
moved from the temporary office space in the warehouse to our new renovated
space. I’m very happy about that!!! After a year in a cubicle in the warehouse,
it makes me very happy to have a good-sized office with a door and a window! I
have natural light! I can look out the window and into the distance over the
trees! I can close the door when I need to write a report and my other
coworkers start yelling back and forth from their cubicles. Aaaaaahhhhh. It
also made for a very relaxing week, because I only had to be in the office for
part of the day Monday-Wednesday (unpacking boxes and arranging things – I
didn’t have a computer or a phone), Thursday was Thanksgiving, and I took
Friday off. Very relaxing!
* Thanksgiving was very nice. I had a completely
different group over this year (compared to last year), which was fun. There
was another American, 2 Brazilians, 1 Australian and a Mozambican. I made an
18-lb turkey and gravy, cornbread stuffing, sautéed asparagus, homemade
applesauce, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Last year, my big drama was going all
over town in search of evaporated milk. This year, the big drama was that the
commissary didn’t get its shipment in. I was able to get most of what I needed
by going to 3 fancy/imported food stores around town. I tried using Brazilian
sweet potatoes for a sweet potato recipe that I have. However, Brazilian sweet
potatoes are quite different – drier and white. The dish didn’t look very
appetizing, so I decided that we had enough food without it. I was particularly
proud of my pumpkin pie, as it was the first time that I put little decorations
all around the edge of the crust.
* After Thanksgiving, I put up my Christmas
tree (and other decorations). Since this was my first year with a cat, I had an
elaborate plan to introduce the kitty to the Christmas tree. The plan was to
put up the 7-foot tree one day, teach her that climbing it is not an
appropriate pastime, and then put the decorations on another day, teaching her
that batting the dangling ornaments off the tree is also not appropriate. Since
I regularly thwart her efforts to reach her full potential as a great warrior kitty,
I anticipated a grand battle. Putting up the tree was clearly disruptive to her
world, resulting in her running back and forth across the apartment. But in the
end… The only thing that she can’t leave alone is the tree skirt. Go figure.
Observations:
* For all the complaining that Brazilians do
about U.S. visa/customs procedures, they think nothing of the daily security
efforts that they undertake in Sao Paulo and Rio – the high walls, barbed wire,
defensive plants, guards in bullet-proof vests, id numbers recorded and
pictures taken of every visitor to an office building…
* A sign of just how nominal this Catholic
country is – I saw a very large truck with a gigantic “JESUS” written across
the top of the front windshield… with an equally gigantic Playboy bunny right
below it. The “Jesus” is more of a charm – something to protect him from
danger. The Playboy bunny is more of an indication of who the driver really
is.
Public Service Announcement:
* For those of you
who have loved ones at APO addresses, you only have 1 week left to mail boxes
and have some hope of it getting to them before Christmas. (It's better to get
it out this week.) And the Post Office has lowered the cost of the flat rate
APO box by $2!
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday
season!
January 2009
Hello everybody!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.
I had a very nice Christmas this
year. My friends Danielle and Samyr (who are moving to Australia in a month –
happy for them; sad for me) and Lila came over to eat, hang out, watch movies,
eat some more... I mention all of the eating because we had A LOT of food - an
18-lb turkey with gravy, stuffing, sautéed vegetables, sweet potatoes, fruit
(grapes, cherries, kiwi, apricots, and lychee!), light sandwiches (for
lunch/snack), at least 7 different types of cookies/bars, fudge, a ton of
chocolate, and 2 pies (that we were too full to eat, so I had to send pieces
home with people). It was a lovely, and relaxing, time with friends that have
become like family.
The following week, Lila and I went to Buenos
Aires (my first time in Argentina!), where one of my colleagues kindly provided
us with a place to stay. It was really cool. The city has lots of cafes and
cool buildings and beautiful parks. We did a TON of walking and took about
1,000 pictures.
This month’s cat story: Besides the fact that my
cat has learned to open doors, she now loves to play fetch with earplugs. She
adores earplugs. Several times each day, we spend some time with me tossing the
earplug, her running after it, picking it up, bringing it back, and me tossing
it again. We always do it on her schedule though, so maybe it’s more that she
taught me to throw on command than that she is fetching.
Neat thing that I saw before Christmas: I was
looking out at the embassy courtyard as I walked to my office. I always like to
see the turtles, and there was one sitting on a rock. And next to it was an
egret! It was walking around in a circle and trying very hard to pick up a fish
that was way too big for it to swallow, or even hold for very long. It had to
give up eventually.
Funny thing about living overseas: the exchange
rate is vitally important to me. The dollar went from R$2.14 when I arrived in
August 2006 to 1.52 in August 2008. Beginning in August, it started going up,
getting as high as 2.5 (leading everybody to race to the ATM), and it’s now
hovering around 2.25/2.3. That’s very nice. On the other hand, the U.S.
government decided to eliminate the 10% differential I was getting, arguing
that my cost of living in Brazil is the same as living in DC. What they seem to
forget is that, if I was in DC, I would get a 23% COLA. So, because my cost of
living is the *same*, they pay me about $18,000 per year *less*. Go figure. In
all fairness, Congress was trying to correct this little imbalance a year ago,
but 1 senator blocked it. Thankfully, I don’t have to pay rent and utilities
overseas, which may be nearer the value of what they are not paying me. But I
really can't complain too much when my agency's budget is so tight that
management is considering an agency-wide furlough.
News that none of the guys care about: I got my
hair cut last weekend. It was the first time that I had been to that place
since my hair had started growing back in (after the stress of last year). The
stylist was really amazed at the difference. One more sign that things are much
better this year. The weird thing is that my hair has become curly. It’s kind
of odd.
I was thinking about how my circumstances now
are completely different than they were 12 months ago and about all of the big
changes that will occur in 2009. I got distracted a bit when I realized that I
am now 34 ½, which means that I’m awfully close to 35, which is on the downhill
slide to 40, and look at all of the things I haven’t done! Was I looking at all
of the things that I have had the opportunity to do that I never even
*imagined*? Of course not! And then I had to laugh at myself, as I remembered
the scene from “When Harry Met Sally”, when Sally was crying and said “And I’m
gonna be 40!” Harry asks her “When?”, and she says “Someday!” So I am trying to
focus on my many, many blessings and not borrow trouble for a future that I can
not control.
Final news of the month – My boss approved my
departure from Post for July 13, which will have me arriving in the U.S. on
July 14. I’ll have about 5 weeks vacation once I get back, which I hope is
enough time to start seeing everybody (including a trip out to Idaho and
Alaska), find a place to live, buy a car, etc. Then I’ll be back in the USDA
South Building doing I-don’t-know-what. (I’ll have to apply for positions in a
few months.) Hopefully it won’t take too long to get my stuff shipped back to
the U.S.
I hope you all have a blessed 2009!
June 2009
Hello all!
A lot has been happening in the
last 5 months, but I kept delaying writing until just after the next big event.
Now I’ve waited so long that this will be a long email, but it will also be my
last from Brazil – although I plan to do an overview later.
At the end of January/beginning of February,
we had our annual crop travel extravaganza. I went to Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso
and Bahia. The big adventure in Mato Grosso was being told that, despite an
agreement between Brazil and the U.S., in that particular state we had to get
an official translation of our drivers licenses in order to rent a car. It took
3 hours of running all over the place to get it done (complete with multiple
official stamps and signatures), and the only reason it happened at all was
because I finally got REALLY frustrated and called a contact in the Governor’s
office. Sad fact of life here, but who you know is frequently the biggest
difference between getting trapped in a never-ending morass of bureaucracy and
actually getting things done. For Bahia… We drove the office car from Brasilia.
There we met up with one of the largest farmers in western Bahia (he moved to
Bahia with a tractor 20 years ago and now has about 240,000 acres), and then
flew to a couple of his farms in the middle of nowhere (aka: MAPITO – the
border area between the 3 states of Maranhao, Piaui and Tocantins).
Soon after these travels, I went out to Siao,
the home for boys that my friends Danielle and Samyr ran for 2 years, and I
introduced everybody to s’mores. It was a bit difficult to try to explain what
a s’more is in Portuguese, so I went with “marshmallow sandwich”. They were a
big hit. I am now remembered only in conjunction with marshmallows. So much so,
that one of the boys called me “Tia Marshmallow” when I saw him a week later at
the airport. [“Tia” is “Aunt”.] We were at the airport to say goodbye to
Danielle and Samyr, who were leaving for Australia. I miss them tons, but I
also know that it was time for them to go. And I am already thinking about my
future trip to Australia (or maybe we could meet in New Zealand?)!
At the end of February, I went to Rio for the
Parade of Champions. I was thinking that it would be a shame to leave Brazil
never having seen anything of Carnaval, but I also wasn’t particularly
interested in the street parties and general nakedness/debauchery that
frequently goes along with Carnaval. The Parade of Champions is the weekend
after Carnaval (so Rio is a bit quieter), and it’s the top 6 schools from the 2
days of parades that happened during Carnaval. It was really amazing. Each
school was about 45 minutes of nonstop elaborate/colorful costumes, stunning
floats, and singing their theme song over and over again. They ran a bit long
(since they weren’t being judged this time, and they were just enjoying the
fact that they were in the Parade of Champions), so the last school - which got
1st place this year - did much of its parade at dawn. I missed most of the
first school, but I still got 7 hours of parades. I took tons of pictures. There probably would have been more if
my battery hadn’t started to die by the last two schools.
Skipping ahead to April… I celebrated my last
Easter in Brasilia – playing my flute and singing in the praise team and
bringing my traditional lemon meringue pie to the potluck. One of the girls
from Cote d’Ivoire made a watered down version of a ginger drink that they make
there. I took one sip and thought “hhhmmm. This is pretty tasty.” Then my eyes
popped open as I suddenly felt my sinuses clearing up completely. Ginger is
some pretty strong stuff! But it was a lot of fun trying the different things that
people made from their home countries.
The other big thing in April was Jenny and Athos
suddenly adopting a baby boy. And I do mean suddenly! They were just under #300
on the waiting list, but they got a call on a Monday and took Ethan home that
Saturday. I was able to go with them to the hospital to pick him up. It’s been
fun watching him grow and become so much more active and engaged in the last 2
months. I threw a baby shower for them the week after Easter (2 weeks after
they brought him home), which was a lot of fun.
May began with a hideously failed attempt to go
to Macchu Picchu. I had set everything up to arrive in Cusco on Friday, go to
Macchu Picchu on Saturday, and return to Brasilia on Sunday. [I was going to
try to give a quick overview here, but I clearly failed…] The plane from Sao
Paulo to Lima was canceled, and all of the other planes to Lima that day were
*completely* full (how often does that happen? Really?), so they planned to
send us to Santiago, connect to Lima, and arrive in Cusco a day late. The plane
to Santiago was delayed for “unscheduled maintenance”, such that we missed our
connection to Lima – or we would have, if that flight hadn’t also been
canceled. And nobody in Santiago knew we were coming. The hotel room I was
given in Santiago already had somebody in it taking a shower, so I had to go
back downstairs to get another room. The plane the following day was delayed,
and then delayed some more. Meanwhile, we’re all getting very upset by all of
the planes that are boarding for Lima that we are not on, because they are ALL
*completely* full. (REALLY???) I finally got a lady to talk to me, but she
didn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Spanish. So I spoke Portuguese and she
spoke Spanish. It kind of worked. I finally got her to admit that, because of
the 6 hour delay in this flight, I would not get to Cusco that day either,
causing me to miss the tour that I had just rescheduled the day before. So I
made them send me home. All of that to say that I left Brasilia Thursday
evening and returned to Brasilia just before midnight on Saturday, having been
nowhere except airports and airport hotels.
I was pretty fed up with
travelling at that point, never wanting to see another airport again. So it was
probably good that I had to go up to Natal for part of an international
conference a week later. The flights went smoothly, and while I was only there
for 24 hours, the conference was at a beach resort, which was beautiful. So
travelling has been somewhat redeemed in my mind.
The other big news of the last 6 months is the
end of my nearly 18 months as the chair of the pastor search committee. At the end
of January, the committee narrowed down the choices to a single candidate and
recommended him to the council. After reviewing all of the documentation and
spending a few weeks in prayer, the council unanimously agreed to enter into
more serious discussions with that candidate. He and his wife came for 10 days
in May. The vote at the end of May was in favor of calling Marc and Lydia Day
to pastor our church here. They are hoping to arrive at the beginning of August
– 2 years to the weekend from when things first started to explode here.
Which leads to the fact that I leave in less
than 4 weeks. It’s hard to believe that it is already that soon. I pack out on
July 6 and 7 – which means that my suitcases must be packed before then! – and
I depart on July 13th. I’ll then have 5 weeks of Home Leave and 2 weeks of
annual leave, which is just enough time to work on finding a place (the biggest
issue – I’d like to buy), get a car, get a cell phone and all those sorts of
things, get out to Idaho, take a cruise to Alaska, etc. Then I’ll start working
in the Monitoring & Enforcement Division of the Office of Negotiations and
Agreements.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I will write a retrospective
later. And that will be the end of these updates!
I look forward to seeing
many of you soon!
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