It's Monday again and I'm running out of time and getting a little anxious. We only have 7 more days in the office to finish our project and make sure that it's tidy enough to pass along and justify our presence for the last couple of weeks. We are taking this Wednesday off to visit the giant IBM site down here - Hortolandia. And then it turns out that the last 2 days of the week that we are in Brazil, next Thursday/Friday, are a national holiday and the offices close, so we have to have our package completed and present it next Wednesday.
I'm using Skype alot to call landlines, it's a heck of a deal. Most of the time if I call from my computer to someone's landline, it's only $0.02/minute. So, I just spoke to a really nice gentlemen in Iceland. There's like a little utopian place there called Solheimer, a community of people who are devoted to sustainability, so they farm their own food, create things to sell and the part of their program that I'm interested in, is that they have a population of disabled people who contribute greatly. Anyway, the website is entirely in Icelandic, so I couldn't figure it out, but the guy on the main phone line was really helpful.
Oh, I haven't told my stories about visiting and spending the night with my friend from the office. We left the office together and drove to her daughter's school. The girls are young, 5 and 6 years old, and it's common in the city to start them at a school when they are 1 year old. The school is beautiful, large gardens behind a wall. They have farm animals - the girls told me all of the names in english because they are learning english. We went to dinner at their neighborhood pizza restaurant, really good pizza. And since it's up the street from their home, and they eat there quite often, the girls know all of the staff and have a great time playing on the lawn and visiting the girl behind the counter and keeping busy. Then we went back to the house, a fantastically beautiful home, completely livable with 4 bedrooms and 4 baths, a roomy living area and a big back yard. It was already after dark, and the girls immediately began coloring their books in the dining room. Joice speaks pretty good english and the girls have a few words here and there. I was worried that since my portuguese is shaky at best, that I'd be putting Joice in a difficult position by forcing her to translate constantly. But I had a few questions that free Joice up and give me and the girls something to do. So, we looked through photo albums for a little bit and then they wanted to show me their bedroom (they share). That was fun, I was introduced to all of the stuffed animals and then the game began where they piled the stuffed animal on top of me. We put on some costumes that they had and then did all of the colors of every toy in english. The older girl knows all of her colors, animals and moods (happy, sad, angry) in english and really wanted to practice. Then their mom came in and announced bedtime and she read to them. Their dad is a pilot and was flying, so only girl's night. I'm not using their names or their photos just to keep them safe. Here's a picture of the restaurant with just Joice and our server. We ate outside underneath a beautiful giant tree.
I got to sleep in a guest room with it's own bathroom, so I was incredibly comfortable. The house is a ranch style, so only 1 story, but the roof is pitched. However, and I really like this. They have skylights throughout the house, but they are really high up, so like vaults upward. In my shower was a skylight and during the night it started to rain, so I could hear it and it was really nice. In the morning, Joice prepared a really elaborate meal, toast, cereal, fresh squeezed OJ, coffee, tea, yogurt, fruit. And then the girls got their shower. Just before we left for school and the office again, me and the girls had a really fun game going. From what I can determine, they were book salesgirls. They gave me a bundle of fake money and they'd bring up a book and point out all of the features, and read a little bit to me and then ask if I wanted to buy it. If yes, they'd run over to the curtain rods and call someone up and tell them, and then they'd come over to me and ask for the money. Who says that you need to speak a common language to communicate?
It was really fantastic, a never to be missed opportunity to see a family in Brazil. It's not so different from a busy family in the U.S.
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