There have been more deaths too... and now I've heard they're evacuating the zoo : ( Apparently the animals are being moved to higher ground around the zoo. The botanical gardens alongside are taking damage. The Tieté river has flooded its banks, as usual. My other student for tonight cancelled as her part of town is without electricity.
Another tree, this time about 100 meters away from the student's door, fell... well, fell is a bit of an understatement. It was ripped down. Waiting for the bus to come home took forever. When it did come, it was loaded with steaming humanity. The inside of the bus with all the windows closed was a sauna. I stood with a neighbour's umbrella dripping on my foot and on the other side, a raincoated man... it took him a good kilometre or so before he decided that removing his dripping raincoat would be a good idea. The gaúcho ('cowboy' from the south of Braz) sitting in front of me slept blissfully though, his felt hat dipped over his eyes. Stubble on his weathered cheeks and toothpick making a statement out of his mouth, he looked out of place, but comfortable.
I found this excellent sketch of a gaúcho online, but can't find the original artist (other than the signature)
Speaking of gaúchos, while I was looking for a pic, I found this: link here. Can you imagine donning a pair of goggles and visiting a place in virtual reality?
sur·re·al (sà r"ÆÃl, -r"lÆ), adj. 1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of surrealism; surrealistic. 2. having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal; fantastic: surreal complexities of the bureaucracy.
I got the link to this video in my mailbox. Surreal hardly describes it well enough. Beautiful is another word that comes to mind. Let's go scuba diving... in a meadow!
You may want to go to Vimeo to view the video, as it looks way better when larger.
Surreality in real life: See the second dictionary meaning above. Yes, I'm sure you can tell where this is going.
Friday started a little tensely. We were once again making our way to the Feds. This time, for Tat's documents. You see, because she is the daughter of a Brazilian (Jurgis will deny the latter with his dying breath), Tat has a right to a Brazilian citizenship. With this in mind, we went to Poupa Tempo some time back and were told she needs a lawyer if she wants to claim her citizenship, but, if she wanted to, she could get an RNE like mine, which is basically a permanent residency card. I suggested she opt for the RNE, as, even on a good day, most people find lawyers to be fairly expensive.
We got to the Feds.... we saw the Feds... we most certainly didn't conquer. Apparently, because she has a right to citizenship, she needs a lawyer... regardless of whether or not she wants an RNE or an RG (the local ID document). Uh... something doesn't make sense. So, as a total outsider, I can come into the country, fill out a few forms and provide a few Swiss Alps worth of paperwork and I'm in, but because she has a right to all that, she needs a lawyer???
So you can imagine the way our Friday went... downhill. Except for one thing...
On our way into the Feds, I got a call on my cell phone. "Corrianne? I'm from Mercedes-Chrysler. I have your 'carteira'." Now being a bit slow on the uptake, especially in Portuguese, I assumed she was talking about my business card and got happy. Ha! 'Carteira' is wallet. She had my wallet from when I taught there on Thursday. I must have sounded so dense. I spent a while swearing that it was impossible, that I had my wallet on me. Duh. In the end, I suggested she give the wallet to my student who could keep it until I got there. It was the least complicated solution I could come up with in Portuguese.
A part of me was ecstatic... wow... someone found my wallet and called me!! That is so very unusual. The other part of me (including the part that Jurgis kept reminding me of), was terrified. I had just drawn a pile of money because all the banks here went on strike and ATM's were closed. What if that money was gone? The money was intended to go towards the application fee we'd be facing with the Feds too.
When we'd finished at the Feds, for this run anyway, Jurgis went off to the offices that would handle the next step and Tat went with me to Mercedes, for moral support. My student gave me the wallet... intact... with every cent in place!! Yes, I plan to meet my rescuer in person and thank her. That was totally amazing! A missing wallet in this city usually only means one thing... missing... totally.
Yes... a surreal start to the weekend. As for the weekend, it has been very hot the past two days. Apparently, tomorrow will be the hottest day of this year. Yay. Then Tuesday, we go back into cold and wet. Surreal... that pretty much describes life in Brazil, I'd say.
Today is Friday and thus Picture Perfect, the theme being "Black and White". It is also the 6th and Dani's photo of the month, where we show a photo that represents the month gone by. To avoid multiple posts, I wanted to combine the two 'events'. I'll be breaking the rules for both events, though, as this blog will take more than just one photo, so bear with me.
This month has been a month of many changes and challenges or adventures in both work and our personal lives, which is why I have chosen the photo of the jackfruit or jaca to represent the month. The black and white version here looks somewhat otherworldly... Would you eat it?
To be fair, here is the colour version. Looks more fruity : )
A very strange fruit, right? The jackfruit pulp tastes like a mixture of banana and pineapple. When we first saw it here, I was put off by the consistency which is... uh... to be polite... unappetising. This month, one of the houses being sold, through the estate agency Tat was working for, had a jackfruit tree, so the agent picked the fruit and distributed it at work. These trees are enormous! Actually, the fruit is enormous. Apparently, the huge seeds can be roasted and taste like chestnuts.
The fruit is large and took a lot of effort to cut open. I thought it would be softer. I now suspect that our fruit was very unripe.
The big butcher's knife struggled through it. The fruit started oozing a very sticky substance, which set into a extraordinarily stubborn glue. No chemicals would remove it from the knife. The 'glue' was eventually scraped of the hard way. The fruit itself stuck to our fingers when we tried to touch it. We were sure this was not what it was meant to be like.
It definitely didn't look the way it looks when the street vendors sell it, soft and squishy. This photo of the vendor will give you an idea of the size of the fruit. The 'pods' inside are also visible here. Our fruit had no 'pods' and few seeds.
Let's just say that was one adventure which went a little awry. Will we try jackfruit again? I don't know. Would you?
That'll teach me for complaining. We had such a long period of super-dry. Now we have floods. Our house is on high ground, so it doesn't affect us, other than my very waterlogged flower pots.
This photo of a tiny portion of São Paulo wasn't taken by me. It is a Terra news photo:
It does give you a fairly good idea of what the city is like at the moment. I'd say its rather damp here, wouldn't you?
The photo at the top is mine though and is a photo of quebra pedra, a weed (or should that read 'volunteer plant'?) that I spent a very long time uprooting until one of the locals saw me and berated me for uprooting what is considered one of the 'sacred herbs'. 'Quebra pedra' translates literally to 'stone breaker' and is used as a remedy for kidney stones. The locals swear by it. It is a very pretty herb, the raindrops on its dainty leaves looking like tiny jewels.
This afternoon, we were meant to go into the village to enjoy the neighbourhood's 80'th birthday party. Vila Zelina is a Lithuanian community and was established in 1927. The celebration was to take place at the square. Pity it was a washout. This photo was taken at the square on a sunny day, the usual gathering of old (and not so old) men playing their dominoes. The dominoes table is always occupied, regardless of the time of day.
