We Found the People!!!

A lot has happened since the last time I blogged so I’m gonna try to do a “memory dump” and write a new post everyday for a week. Think she can do it??? I hope so too,lol. Btw, don’t sweat the new names in this post. Tomorrow’s post will be Introductions, Part 2. So working in reverse chronological order…

Today, Sunday, April 15th. Araguaina closes down on Sundays. I mean desert town tumbleweed status. My friend Rosy introduced Michol and I to Petit Gatou (brownie sundae) at Giraffas (the only "fast food" you'll find in Araguaina other than the Subway on Avenida Filedelfia). It's a popular dessert here and was pretty tasty. We'd been to Giraffas once before. It's more expensive than Mcdonalds but the burgers are way bigger so it's worth the money. Plus, they have real sit down food. I put fast in quotes because the food like everything here takes a while. It's not a problem though because like I said in my cleaning post everything closes between 11:30 and 2 so people have time during the day to go home, eat with the family, shower, and change clothes. Because of this the concepts of doggie bags and to-go cups don't seem to exist here. I mean where are you going that you can't finish your food? Everything's closed.

We also went to a grocery store a little further away than the one (Campelo) we usually go to. We saw maybe five people along the way and it was a long walk. There are three Campelos here. Esmeralda’s daughter owns a (Christian) book store/ice cream shop in a Campelo further away. They took us once for lunch (each Campelo has a cafeteria) and I bought a “RAÇA” magazine. It’s like a combination of “Black Hair” and “Essence” complete with ten page spread of Whitney *moment of silence*

I said all that to say that as my title suggests we figured out where the people are. Today we went to AABB. It’s like a country club and Elisa’s husband, Edson, is the president. This is with two of their four children Nina and Lucas.

Although it rained and we didn’t actually swim it was nice to see families and children playing. Child number three Eduardo’s friend had a 10th birthday party so Michol and I went. I actually had a good time watching the boys play and talking with the adults there. Plus the food was yummy. The hot dogs were cut up in the bun with corn and fry babies (my name). I’m not sure what they’re actually called but it’s the crunchy stuff you put on green bean casserole. I took a pic but my internet is slow and im tired(I take lots of pictures of food though cuz I like to eat so I'm thinking I'll just make an ode to food on here one day). And guarana the classic softdrink. It tastes like ginger ale and comes from a fruit. The two major brands here Antartica and Kuat are made by Pepsi and Coke, respectively.

One of my students invited me to Catholic mass at the church in the plaza shown here to hear her choir sing.

They say when you’re moving to a new place you say yes to everything (within reason of course). So glad we did. I usually go to First Baptist which is on my street. Little did I know that a block down in the plaza there’s a feria. Food, fun (including a mechanical bull which I didn’t ride because I wore a skirt to mass but totally hope to see next Sunday when I’m wearing pants), stuff to buy, but most importantly PEOPLE!!!

In other news, a roach just ran across my bedroom floor. This is the second or third one I've seen since we've moved in (depending on if one and two were the same roach and I think they were) which isn't bad considering I was told to be prepared to see them everyday. It's just not everyday they're in your bedroom. Trust in the midst of writing this post waiting for these pictures to load, I'm acting as inspector gadget and I will be mopping my floor, cleaning my dresser first thing in the morning and maybe changing my sheets.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Today's discovery definitely changes how my Sundays will be structured. Excited for the books to be read poolside, conversations to be had, and food to be eaten. Beijos.