Life

It’s blog time. Yeah, so this week was filled with danger. Like real danger. Luckily, it didn’t happen to me. Danger #1- Someone at the corner bar got robbed. Ironically the man doing the robbing was standing in the middle of the street and got hit by a car. Yep. Lots of robbing happens here. I think I mentioned in a past post the nail salon we go to got held up and everybody in their lost their purses. Someone also broke into the grocery store we go to by Valeria’s house and busted open the cash machine.  Anyways, this week the bakery we go to got robbed and last Monday someone robbed the apartment on the closest to the door on the 1^st floor of my complex. Broke the window which is crazy to me cuz apparently it happened at 11am.  We weren’t here tho.

The trippiest of all these events happened Tuesday. I left the house around a quarter to 9 to go to the gym.  I usually turn left down my street, but when I got to the sidewalk I saw like 4 people run past me from that direction. Two of these were old men in business suits and two were old ladies. I assumed that it was another armed robbery, though I thought it weird that one businessman would be chasing another as I assumed they both had jobs to be at.  In any case, due to my back-hand-sided upbringing, I decided to turn right and ask questions later. Turns out, I had witnessed the aftermath of a European bee attack. A swarm of bees entered a house with an elderly couple, 84 and 82, along with their two grandchildren and I guess a handyman. Apparently they swarmed the wife and the husband dumped a bucket of water on her and then they swarmed him. Everyone was sent to the hospital. The wife is still there; the husband didn’t make it.

Our landlord says that this type of bee lives in out in the fields but he’s never heard of them coming to the city. As it’s so dry nowadays though, they probably came looking for something to eat. If that’s true that might have something to do with why that particular house was swarmed (it’s next door to an ice cream store).  Unfortunately, everyone that was walking by became a target. I pray for those people and thank God for his favor and grace. Had I left the house 5 maybe ten mins earlier that woulda been me. My neighbor was nervous cause the windows here don’t have glass in them so if they decided to take a field trip further down the street it’da been a wrap. I insisted that Michol and I put screens on all the windows. All of the have them except the front because you can close it. Not gonna lie I still thought twice about eating an orange with the window open.

As far as the strike goes, the letras professors decided to teach strike or no strike starting September 3^rd. That week the Araguaína campus voted to end the strike and return to teaching on September 10th. Unfortunately the state syndicate did not feel the same way. In fact, it forbade Araguaína from teaching because it said that all 7 UFT campi need to be unified. In other words, they all need to pick a date to go back together. Where that leaves the students, I’m not sure. There was a meeting today to talk about it. Regardless, Michol and I start teaching classes for the natural science students (chemistry , math, biology, physics) next week. Should be informative for all of us.

Last but not least I met a really nice guy named Bernie. Michol met him when she went to the Amazon. He’s a recent doctoral grad spending 2 ½ months traveling Brazil. From Austria, he speaks German and English. No Portuguese. But he’s gotten by just fine. He says he can do all the things anyone else can just takes a little longer. He’s making his way through the Fulbright community crashing with many of us since we speak English and we’re free I guess. But he’s a great cook and super smart. He and Valeria hit it off well  talking about politics, culture, her time in Germany.

Anyways, that’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week hopefully with a less eventful post and maybe some pictures,lol. (Actually last week I hoped for more action and that is what I got so... I think I'ma leave the planning life thing up to God where it's supposed to be anyway and be thankful for the time that we get to be a part of it)

The Third Trimester

Well, we are officially in the final third of our grant. Exactly 90 days from today I will be boarding a plane for the good ole' U.S. of A. Not sure how I feel about that. I've thought about the journey home but now it's actually semi-relevant. At the end of third 1, I wrote about what I'd learned (and posted pics of my head). I think I'll do that again, because even though things are not physically as noticeable, a lot of learning happened over the summer (most specifically in the last month).

• Michol learned what the drawer at the top of our fridge is for. It's "extra-cold" for things like drinks you'd like really cold but not frozen.
• I learned what tapioca is. Deliciousness. I thought they were selling pudding,lol. I'd had it before and just not known the name. Now I'm on a quest to learn to cook it for myself.

(you can put stuff in it and eat it like a gyro)

• We found a costureira (seamstress). She altered 6 pieces of clothing for like $8.50. I now realize the joy of having clothes that are literally made for you and will be finding a seamstress when I get home).
• We found out where CASAI (House of Indigenous Health) is. I've spoken to the boss and may be able to volunteer there. It's the first time a foreigner has asked to volunteer so like with my cash advance at the bank, he's got to see what actually needs to be done.
• I took the van to Palmas so I got to see the city which is super spread out. Saw the old rodoviaria (bus station) and the new one and now I know how to get home when I travel from Brasilia in Oct.
• I made a new friend. Her name is Tenikey. She has a cutie daughter, Cecilia. It's been great befriending her. Michol and I have different friends now and it's nice to have that time apart sometimes.

(The night we met. I could name all these people but you won't know who they are anyway so I'll just say they're cool peoples)

On a more personal note...

• I lost my battle to kitty. They say you have to pick your battles and this one just wasn't worth it.  I realized most of why I'm so angry at her is not because of the stuff she does, but more specifically because I'm not getting what I want (i.e. her to stop doing it) and though her crying is annoying trying to reason with a cat only takes my sunshine away.
• I've decided to rededicate myself to God. I thought about a year again because concrete goals have always been my thing, but I think this time I'm gonna try day by day. I failed today so I think this one is a little more my speed,lol. But seriously, I'd like my readers to hold me accountable for my thoughts and my actions. So please don't be afraid to ask me what I did that day when you talk to me. Knowing I could be forced to speak my unfortunate thoughts/desires might help me stay on the straight and narrow. Well that's all for this week. Next week will be more action-filled.

Toodles