So the city is shutting down...

Apparently everything is currently so flooded from the rain that the city is at a stand still.  So far today, I have heard that:

- some bridge fell or was completely covered by the river that it no longer exists, in Laurel de Freitas
- Bonoco (major road through the middle of the city) is shut down because of flooding, in Rio Vermelho
- Some other road in to Rio Vermelho is shut off, so there is basically no way to get in there there.
- Rivers across the city have crested and cars are under water
- the governer has declared a state of emergency and is asking for people to stay home until the rains have subsided and flooding has gone down (fat chance)


Despite all this, we did have power the whole day here, it didn't even flicker off!  I am impressed with Coelba's work this time.  As I type, everyone is trying to leave school early, taking advantage that the rain has subsided a bit to run down to the bus stop at the end of the road, or maybe swim to it as the end of the road is usually under water on days like this. 

Those poor people at the UN conference must be water logged by now.


*** evening update - the rain has stopped and it was sunny and somewhat warm this afternoon, but I did see on the way home that the bridge over the river on the Orla by Clube Bahia is collapsing.  I wonder if it will last much longer.

It's almost 6 a.m.

and I hear birds for the first time in days.  I wonder if this means today we will see some sun, after almost a week strait of rain without end.  I actually see sky out there. Amazing.

Is there power?

There is no website, there is no webmail.  Is there power?  We will only know tomorrow.

Rain day project

March was hugely overwhelming with activities.  I'm glad it's past and I can get some of this art in my head out into the real world.  There is something very satisfying about thinking about a project for so long and then having time to make it a reality.  Yesterday school was canceled because there was no power for the second day in a row (the first day we held class for the entire day without power, with all the doors open for a breeze, letting in the rain and wind - at least we had water!), so I spent some quality time with my sewing machine and playing with fabric dye.

I have a small collection of ankle length skirts that I want to turn into dresses.  One of them was a hugely ugly salmon color, a simply designed rayon thing with big pockets that I think my mom picked up at the goodwill or somewhere.  I don't have a picture of the original article because I only thought to share the project after I had finished, so I cheated and took photos of the scraps left over - gah, see how gross this color is?

Salmon looks great on me, but I really detest the color, and I couldn't just give it away - look at the detail on the skirt embroidery!  It had to become a casual house dress (i.e. something I would wear at home and to the beach, but probably not out to a restaurant), so I cut some arm holes down the sides, maintaining the elastic in the waistband to make the top stretchy just in case.

I cut out the pockets that were luckily made out of the same fabric, and cut them into strips to fake some bias tape to make the straps.

I pot-dyed it with brown and green, the combination of which has hidden most of the hideous salmon color, or at least muted it, which is fine. 

It was pretty easy to do this by trial and error copying another dress I have that fits about the same on the top (minus the elastic).  My one regret was to have used the white cotton thread.  It looked fine with the salmon color, but after dying it was pretty obvious how crooked my stitching is.  Also, the dress could be a little shorter, as the sack look only works so well with certain lengths, especially for short people like me. 

Art

I am plagued by too many ideas and not enough time.  Today I took a few hours to paint with fabric dye on my $5 Old Navy Ts, turning plain old ho-hum shirts into GREEN messages and something I am calling CAT OM that I was inspired to make after browsing Burda for a while.  CAT OM might go so far as to be recreated on some other articles because it is just kinda cool. 

ooooooooooom, meditate with felines......