Brazil (Week 5)

The weekdays were pretty routine. Tuesday afternoon we went to a museum of afro-Brazilian culture. It has a lot of items related to candomble. This included a lot of beautiful wood carvings of the orixás, but my pictures of them didn't turn out very good because they were big and dark and the light wasn't very good. Here is one of the better ones:



We visited the Jorge Amado foundation, which was interesting as well. I'd like to read some of his novels. They had a cafe with covers of his books from all over the world:



We had a four day weekend. Most of my group went out of town. I took it easy and tried to get some work done. I did a lot of reading, and finally finished Stuffed and Starved on Saturday. Friday I went to the mall with Mike and Tiffany (two grad students here helping my program director do his research), Joanna from my program and Mike and Tiffany's Canadian neighbors (everyone just calls them "The Canadians"). Came back to Mike and Tiffany's apartment and hung out for a while and crashed there (I'd told my host mom that I might do that).

Sunday morning I woke up with a cold which I'm still getting over. My host mom and I cooked some of my favorite dishes: honey mustard garlic chicken, three bean salad, and mashed potatoes. Mike and Tiffany came over for lunch. We had a really good time. Then I went back with them and Cindy, one of the Canadians, cut my hair. That's her job back home. It's nice to have it trimmed up and I won't look like a shaggy mess when I meet people in Brasilia.

Brazil (Week 4)

Normal routine most of the week. Thursday we went to see Afro-Brazilian dance, which was amazing. There's a small world story there I'll write about sometime. Actually I've had several. Went out for a while that evening, but I headed home relatively early becasue we had to get up the next day.

Friday we had an-all day boat trip around the bay, stopping at two islands for two hours at each one to enjoy nice beaches. I'll eventually upload pictures. The weather was perfect for it.

Saturday morning we made up my graduate seminar, which had to be canceled at the last minute on Wednesday. Took it easy the rest of the day.

Sunday I helped my mom host mom cook lunch. This involved, among other things, putting shrimp in a blender. Family came over for lunch. My friend Katie called to see if I wanted to go to the beach so we did that. I had my first water from a coconut and tried this fruit called açai blended with cashew fruit, frozen with bananas and granola. So good. Then we went back to her apartment and helped her get her computer on the internet. All she needed to do was turn off the wireless card so it would use the ethernet cable. Chatted with her family for a while and then went home.

This week I need to write a couple papers (in Portuguese). I'm going to appreciate having my own computer when I get home.

Revolution Rock at Wendy's

I was eating lunch at the Wendy's in downtown Carrboro today (and, yes, I should know better) when The Clash's "Revolution Rock" came over their system. The absurdity struck me but also how few people would notice or care. It reminded me of this experience from earlier this year.

New Fair Trade Flavors!

Equal Exchange has three new kinds of fair trade tea (link). They look good. I need to ask my co-op to carry them.

Thanksgiving

Having dinner tonight at Katie's house. We'll have 14-15 people: her family (4), me, my friend Jan, four Turks, two other Middle Easterners (not sure where exactly), and probably Katie's friend Joy. So half the people there will be from abroad (Jan is Czech). My most international Thanksgiving ever (I guess the ones I've had abroad were international in a different way).

Jan and I are responsible for the sweet potatoes. He'll come over and we'll cook this recipe.

I listed a bunch of people for whom I'm thankful here. I'd add Katie and her family and the friends I've made in the past year. A year ago I owned neither a home nor a car and now I have both, so I'm very thankful for that. I'm of course also thankful (1) to be among the more privileged portion of the human population and (2) to have the opportunity to pursue justice for those left behind (the two go together).