Pictures!

Ahhah! So here are some pictures - finally. At the advice of my fantastic poppa I reduced the size of the images and now can post them online. Woohoo. To the left we have some essentials - my portuguese grammar (impossible!) and some frozen foods. I hope Moinho de Pedra is open today so I can buy some more or I´ll have to resort to cooking for myself. Which in theory I love to do - but in practice.....to the right is the infamous bidet. People continue to tell me that it is fantastic. But look at those three knobs - what do you do? And in the middle is the wonderful belly of my beautiful and quite pregnant prima (cousin) Alessandra.

I don´t know that I can take photos of the children at Gotas de Flor com Amor but I´ll give it a try. The first week was amazing. I have no set schedule but each day I work for a little bit in the library and with some group of kids. They are divided into 6-7, 8-10, and 11-13. I assisted with the English class for 11-13. I taught parts of the body by playing head, shoulders, knees, and toes with them. Gotas has a basketball court and some soccer nets. The 11-13 year olds asked that I teach them a basketball lesson, I hope I get to do that. The 8-10 year olds are my favorite, I have spend the most time with them. These kids are definitely survivors. Many of them are quite frank about getting hit by their parents and have no shame in living in a favela - and nor should they. Nearly every day they draw me a new picture for me to put on my fridge. I´ll take a picture of their pictures.

Yesterday was Independence day and I was quite lazy. I sat around and watched soap operas (a great way to learn the language - really!) Translating Portuguese in my head is quite exhausting, so I took naps. I received my first letter and am inspired to correspond. I love the act of writing a letter. It is almost cathartic.

But now I must go to the hairdressers - I´ve resisted nearly 7 days, though being offered many times- and must get my legs waxed. It´s been a long time, and the pain will enormous. Wish me luck.