I realized another reason why this trip is so special. I have had the opportunity to learn so much about what Paul’s life was like when he lived here. The people he came to love, the streets he walked, the places he lived and the culture he admires. Paul’s two years here in Brazil was the only period of time in the past ten years that we were not in constant contact. I’m learning so much about the life he had when we were apart. It’s great!
Yesterday we slept in and then ran some errands. We went to an atm and to take our clothes to be washed. We ate lunch at a charrascaria, which was muito bom! This place walks around with the meat on platters rather than skewers. It was great. The picture with us and the guarana bottles is at this restaurant.
We had some things we brought from the states to give to Paul’s friend Zeni. Zeni lives with her sister and her mother. They make a living as seamstresses, with their business on the top level of their house. We visited and ate dessert. We scheduled to come back early the next day so that I could learn to make Brazilian food and we could eat lunch.
We went to Super Wal-Mart to try to find the ingredients to make enchiladas. Nada! The only thing they have is flower tortillas; no sause, not the right cheese and no cilantro. Paul wanted me to make green enchiladas with chicken and cilantro in the sauce the way I make it for him. I’m not sure this is going to work.
On our way home we went through a greek drive thru called Habib’s that everyone here is crazy for. Eh! It was alright. We had Kibes, which is falafel and these little pizza things. Kinda greesy.
Today, we got to Zeni, Lourdes and Dona Maria’s home at 10:00 for a cooking lesson. They taught me how to make lasagna, beans and rice (their way), farofa (a yucca root grain they put on top of beans), Mandioca (a fried yucca root), and three kinds of dessert. The dessert was my favorite part of course. They made maracuja (passion fruit) mousse, Pave (a cookie and custard trifle), and Maria Mole (a milky, flan-ish, Jello-ish thing) Holy freakin crap! This was a feast!
After this, they put Paul on the couch and told him he was going to take a nap while they fit me for a dress. A dress!! This is such a generous and loving thing to do. They said I needed to go home with a new Brazilian outfit. I was completely comfortable hanging out with them without Paul and talking to them. We had so much fun.
After lunch, it was so hard to get up the energy we needed to run the errands we had. We were so full!!! We ended up sleeping for two hours. I’m getting pretty homesick, so when we woke up I knew I needed to do something to keep me busy. We walked in the rain to the mall a few blocks away and bought some Brazilian perfume/cologne. Mine smells like cotton candy and Paul’s smells like chocolaty, woodsy wine. We started watching Batman in the movie theater, but left early because it was too long and intense for me and it was getting really late. We’re both tired and ready for bed. We’re excited for our plans with Miled tomorrow. Love everyone at home, and missing ya’ll bad!
1 comments:
Yeah! I finally figured it out! I was putting an "@" between egbert and blogspot, rather than a "."
I love your pictures and stories! I am beginning to understand why Paul loved that place so much. They clearly all love him. I bet they are all falling in love with you as well, my little girl!
Sophie-love is doing great. She was the only one of the four dogs who slept through the night. I looked at her this morning and realized that you guys are in for a shock when you get home. She is soooo much bigger!
I just came back from Kaiser. I stopped off at Aunt Lu's to try to find your blog. I am going home to work on designing my workshop. I brought a ton of resources home, so I will be busy. Then we will go out back for a few hours while I water and the "dogs do their thing."
I love you both so. Continue to experience all that you can, and to take good care of each other. We'll talk soon!
Always,
Your Mama
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