For your amusement.

Am I on vacation? It sure seems like it. So far I have completed two sewing projects, made more than 6 dozen sugar cookies shaped like stars, made pizza twice, bread sticks, soups, created a ginger molasses chicken dish (to be eaten tomorrow, we'll see how that turns out), made Christmas ornaments for the tree with Ju, started beading some bead strings for the tree, gone to the beach, had a churrasco, gone to the mall on several occasions, gone sailing, lost my glasses in the ocean while sailing, got new glasses (Brand name is Detroit, who knew?), cleaned the floors several times, but have yet to do laundry. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I WILL do the laundry.

Sorry for the long absence. My MA course took over my life and I only recently escaped.

So news in the life in Brasil department in brief:

Was briefly sued for racism by one of the student's mothers because I asked her to talk to her daughter at home about not trying to take home toys from school in her backpack after one of my assistants caught her in the act of putting some of them in her backpack. After three weeks of limbo, the mother went back to the police station and stated she would not pursue the charge (under the threat of the father who said he would stop paying for the kids' school if she did), but has not gone back to sign any papers to that effect so the case remains open. I have since had a long talk with this mother and become somewhat of an ally (or maybe that's my misconception, I don't know) to her and am trying to help her family open up the lines of communication. I don't know why I end up with these irrational acting people as parents of my students. Our population seems to be over run with them.

Bought new washing machine because ours was filling the kitchen with water every time we ran it. Two weeks later canceled the order with Ricardo Electro because they failed to deliver it in the time they said they would (in 48 hours), and then bought the machine instead with Laser Electrico who we always buy from and we should get it on Monday. Ricardo tried to give us a different one (better) for the same price as we had been in and out of the store several times to inquire about why it had not been delivered, but we canceled anyway because we would rather not they get any money. About time since we have had no way to wash clothes for more than two weeks and Ju just got over this vomiting fever thing.

Everyone at school and here at home has had this fever thing, sometimes with vomiting, and sore throat. Ju's class had only half attendance the week before he got it because it seems to be so contagious. I have it now, it's not fun, but I prefer to have fevers and let my body do my thing if I can stand it.

One of my best friends in Brasil has moved back to Salvador, but isn't sure she is going to stay here. I am glad to have her back in my life though and have spent a lot of time with her over the last several weeks.

One of my other best friends in Brasil has returned from her semi-hiatus when she was too busy with work and we have gotten together to chat and hang out and it has been awesome. It's only now that I realize how much I missed having really real friends who are my friends because we have similar spirits and love each other rather than that we were thrown together because of circumstance or because we fell like we "should" be friends. Maybe this is why people outside of their culture often turn to religion and become so involved with people from their church. Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass.

School is almost over, just one more week before we have a whole month off of vacation. I am looking forward to catching up on my art work, playing with my sewing machine, and then having my mom visit in January, when I will finally get to go to Chapada.

Ju's kittens are growing fast and continue to be tolerant and take nearly everything he can dish out at them. They have recently gotten into the habit of unplugging my alarm clock and I hope they don't make me miss my transport to work in the last week of class. They also defy gravity, hang from the window nets, and steal everything, even lipstick from my purse, and turn it into a toy. They are like dogs and eat everything too, eggs, bread, fruit, juice; your plate is not safe anymore.

I have yet to do any Xmas shopping at all.

And this concludes another news brief.

Today, after more than 4 years of living in Brasil and swimming in some not so clean ocean waters, I was stung by a jellyfish. It made my whole arm hurt and left a line of welts in both places that it touched me. I have always been anxious about jellyfish, I suppose from having read somewhere that there are some that the venom can kill you. Now that I've gotten that hurtle out of the way, I suppose I can move onto bigger and better things like venomous snakes or something.

While giving Ju a shower the other night, he began making some really strange sounds that reminded me of his language about a year ago when he would sound a bit like he was speaking Japanese. He would make all kinds of phonemes from both English and Portuguese, having long "conversations" with his toys while he was playing, never sounding like he was speaking either language. When he suddenly began making these sounds again, I asked him

"What language is that? It doesn't sound like English and it doesn't sound like Portuguese. What language are you speaking?"

"I'm speaking 'ingrés'!"

"'Ingrés?"

"Uh huh, ingrés."

I suspect this may be something along the lines of "English spoken by friends at school who say things in a different way and call it ingrés" but I can't be sure. Some sore of weird 3 year old interlanguage.

"What's this for doing?"

One of the consequences of where I work is that we get to know some rather influential (i.e. rich and connected) people here in Bahia. For the most part the relationships aren't life changing, but once in a while you meet some really nice people who you wouldn't have rubbed elbows with otherwise and you remember that the rich are people too.

We spent the afternoon with some of these people, discussed politics (well, my husband did, I just sat there and listened), ate crab, and swam in the pool. This particular couple are very special people and genuinely nice, even if they do vote with the right.

Today part of the discussion turned to the French champagne we were drinking. Apparently it is impossible to buy in Brasil anymore because they bought the whole stock and the importer has not been able to get anymore into the country. Specifically, some of the conversation went something like this:

(bottle comes out and is poured for us at the table by the pool and another guest remarks)

"Oh, wow, where did you get this? Have you been saving this for Bob?" (Bob is another guest)

"Oh, no, there are only about five bottles left. It's a crisis, really. They haven't gotten anymore."

"Yes, you don't find this in Brasil anymore. What will we do with this crisis? It really is terrible."


I wasn't really paying that much attention to this conversation until the woman said something about "this crisis" and then I sort of perked up, thinking maybe she was referring to the global economic situation and feeling I could finally contribute to the conversation. I admit that sometimes when I really miss things from the States they are often edible, but I'm not sure I'd call a lack of French champagne a crisis. It really is a different world when you have enough money to create a certain level of lifestyle. I'm just happy if I can get Granny Smiths of decent quality and some nice mint chocolate.

Our next module of the MA has been postponed. Apparently the professor's passport with the Brasilian visa stamped in it has gone missing in the mail. Some how this had to happen to someone somewhere along the way in this process. It's such a typical story in this kind of situation, one that I myself experienced during my preparations to move down here. Documents getting lost in the mail. Se la vi! This is why I liked that extra chore of driving to Chicago back in the day. My paranoia got the better of me. I'm feeling rather indifferent to the fact that I have an extra two weeks to accomplish the homework and finish reading the last chapter of the book. Life goes on. It's just adding to my procrastination habit.

Ju singing this morning: "Down by the station really in the morning, see the puffy little engines all in a go. You can see the puffy little engines there all in a go."

"Mommy, do the nose!"

(I squeeze his nose hidden under a cloth he has over his face)

"and the mouth."

(I comply)

"and the eye"

(I comply)

"and the testa"

"The forehead?" (I say as I comply)

"No, it's not a forehead."

"The testa is a forehead." (I touch his forehead again)

"No, it's not a forehead. There's no four there."

About 3 years ago, I made a large flower out of wire for no apparent reason. It consists of a large hollow ball shaped out of colored wire and large petals in 2D. It has floated all over our house and finally found a nice home attached to a random nail in the upper corner of the window box area outside Ju's room in January of last year.

Today I noticed there was a bird right on the net first thing in the morning. Ju and watched if for a while until it flew away. We noticed it was stealing the grass of an old nest in the pitanga tree outside the window.

Just now I went to open the window to refresh the room before Ju goes to bed and a bird seemed to be confused, trapped in the upper area, trying to escape this surprise. I glanced out the window and saw this:

Said bird has decided this is a great place for a nest. It would be too, as long as Lela doesn't figure out whats up there. I think I may have discouraged the poor thing from coming back though, by scaring it so much opening the window like that "BANG." Let's cross our fingers that it comes back. It's a really great use for this previously useless flower.

Some other interesting Ju words:

"In-dentro" - a mix of English "in" and Portuguese for the same word "adentro"

"Oh-ni-buhs" - a mix of English "bus" and Portuguese for the same word "Onibus" (last u pronounced as a long oooo)

Play with Ju today, we built a "cake" out of the pillows on our bed. Then we had the following conversation. (for those who don't speak Portuguese: molhado is "wet" and melando is "dirtying")

(I am laying across all the pillows)

"Okay, mommy is going to take a nap now. Want to nap with me?"

"No, it's a cake. You are mollando."

"I'm getting molhado from the cake?"

"No, the cake is mollando you!"

"Oh, the cake is melando me?"

"Yes, the cake is mallando you! Get off the cake!"

"I'm stuck. I can't get off"

"I'm going to shave you off the cake." (Ju then proceeds to make a buzzing noise with his lips and "shave" me with his fist. I think he got this idea from the "shave the sheep" circle game that he did during the Mary had a Little Lamb unit. Eventually I get up off the pillows and the game is over.)

Too many things to do.

Is this for real?

Nope, it's not.

Ju:

(who left this cup on juice here to spill?, why are cars everywhere?)
"It didn was me!"

(it's time for bed, go sit down, put away that toy)
"No! I don't!"



Do all English speaking kids say these things, or is it a bilingual thing?

Ona-key passed away in the early hours of this morning.

There is playdough of various types all over my house. Little bits and pieces that Ju has used for all kinds of things - stamping cars in it, making it into "food" on his play stove... Now he has discovered that the nice wooden letter and number stamps make very clear marks in it when he squishes it onto the floor in front of the T.V.

"Mommy, look, they're sliding."

"Oh Ju, everything is going to get massinha all over it."

"It's alright mommy, we can wash it."


He is also trying to figure out death, since we watched "Thomasina" and the main character, a cat, dies and then comes back to life. It's hard to grasp this concept, since kids this age have to experience things to understand them. He has been making comments like "My mouth is dead. It won't eat." or "The spider is dead" (his hand is frequently a spider that gets into mischief all over) as his hand lays palm up on the table, motionless, and then "It's alive again!" as it moves. Many times in the past, he used to say something didn't have a "pila" (battery) when it wasn't working ("my mouth don't have a pila!") and these associations are now linked with death - something not moving means it's dead. From the perspective of a three year old, I'm not sure it can get much clearer than that. Maybe he will get the idea, finally, when we have to take Ona-key to the vet later this week, although she hardly moves now.

The Ona-key saga continues - she now has two open wounds on her left paw that have been open wounds for almost a month now, and today the other paw opened up. She now has a huge bandaged on each of her front feet. Today, while trying to wash her again (as she only sleeps in her own pee, it's become quite a frequent event), she bit me. It wasn't a malicious bite I am sure, just a reaction to being sprayed with the hose in the shower, which I am sure she doesn't like much. It's not very deep either and considering I was in the shower at the time and was able to wash it immediately, I doubt there is much risk of infection. When I came back down with my ring finger bandaged, I told Ju that Ona-key had bitten me, to which he replied "I'm angry with the Ona-key. She did a coisa fea!" and folded his arms to show his mood. I explained to him that she didn't mean to bite me, that it was because she feels sick and doesn't like to get wet, but he still insists he is angry with her. I'm surprised he didn't say she had to go into time out or something. I can't help but feel happy at his anger about an injustice done to mommy, despite the cat not deserving it. It is cute.

Ho hum, four of my students have come down with chicken pox so far. Poor things. I may have caused an epidemic, at least in my class it seems. This means mountains of paper work for our poor nurse and my superintendent is freaking out, not to mention my principal.

My mother had told me over the weekend that she thought I had shingles. This just goes to show me I should always listen to my mother when it comes to stuff with my health. She's generally on the ball, even if she is 4,000 miles away.