Looking Ahead

We've been here over a year and a half and while we don't have a certain date or a plane ticket, we know our experience here in Brazil is coming to a close.  That knowledge has caused a certain switch in our thoughts as of late.

We've spent the past year and a half looking ahead...looking ahead to the vacations we planned to take in Brazil, to visits from our families, to our trip to visit home last summer, to the day we can order pizza over the phone without having to rehearse our Portuguese in advance, to the day we realize we're thinking in Portuguese, to the day our children are fluent, to the day we realize life here has become just as normal to us as life in the States had been.....and once we reached all those milestones, I guess that's when we had to start looking ahead in another direction.

Suddenly we find ourselves looking ahead to the day we repatriate, that is, move "home."  For most of our time here we've avoided a significant amount of discussion about our home and conveniences in the States.  Mostly for the sake of the children, we wanted to avoid bringing up memories that would make them homesick, or detract from their experience "living fully" in Brazil these 2 years.  Besides, comparing never seems to be a good idea, especially when comparing what you have with what you can't have at the moment. But now with our return on the horizon we've been bringing up more memories.  We have more conversations with the kids about our neighbors, about our home on the Big River, about some of the things we left behind.  We started talking about the school they'll attend in the States, and how it is an 8 hour school day.  We started making plans for trips and long term vacation ideas within the States.  We talk about food we remember and places we want to go.  Part of this is preparation for them (and us).  As odd as it may sound, although life in the States will certainly be more convenient and comfortable, it won't always be better.  As always, learning something new exists adds to and also detracts from the existence you knew before.  There is some truth in the grass is always greener. 

Besides, the little people have little memories.  Especially the girls don't have a lot to pull from.  There is a list of people M recalls from time to time, and with our discussions of home as of late she's been able to recall a fact about our home or a toy we left behind.  But she still has no idea what a dishwasher is.  H, of course, knows only what we told her.  She was 13 months old when we left the States.  But the beauty of little ones is they reflect what we express.  We were excited about coming to Brazil?  So were they.  We're happy to be going "home?" So are they.

And so, we look at pictures on the internet of their future school.  We make plans for those first few weeks back.  We've even perused an online grocery ad or two.

There are parts of us that will be sad to leave.  There are things we never got done, places we never made it to.  It's finally easy to live here.  We're adjusted, we speak the language, we have friends, we have things "figured out."  But we also know it's time.  Grandma is waiting for her sleepovers.  The kids need some things we cannot offer them here, culturally, educationally, socially.  The pregnant momma needs Mexican food.  Details like that.

So we made a list: What We Want To Do Before We Leave Brazil.  Some things are surprisingly simple...eat churrasco, go to a favorite park and pick and eat tangerines, donate our sheets and extra toys to the orphanage.  Some are more complex...a vacation in Rio.  But I think we'll be able to check it all off.  The list is posted on our easel. It reminds us that our time here is limited, that we still need to make the most of what we have left.  We're looking ahead to the day we're back on American soil, but we're not ready to rush it.  We really believe God gave us this opportunity to change us for the better, and we're not sure His work in us here is done yet. 


This is us in October 2011 beginning our adventure at the airport waiting on our flight to Brazil.

The Men in Our Lives

There are a lot of people here whose names we've never known, but for these 2 years they've had names within our four walls whenever we see them.

Horse-Cart Man: This guy drives all around town with his frighteningly skinny old mare and a 2 wheeled cart behind.  Usually he is collecting cardboard out of people's garbage, but sometimes it's empty 2 liter bottles. (Every day is garbage day here.)  The cardboard he takes to the favelas (or shanty towns) to be used as walls or roofs for extremely less fortunate persons in our area.  We've seen a lot of uses for the pop bottles, including a green house made entirely of cut off bottoms of 2 liter bottles, Christmas decorations, and so on.  More than likely he is turning them in for a tiny profit for plastic recycling.

Gremio Man: This guy delivers pizza from our favorite place, D'Forno.  He drives a motorcycle and always wants to practice his 3 or 4 English phrases with us.  From the beginning we have loved him for trying to speak English to us when we felt our Portuguese vocabulary was only about 3 or 4 phrases as well!  Often he tells us our amount due for the pizza in English.  He always chit chats a moment and when we happen to be dining in the restaurant, our kids run to hug him and say hello between his deliveries.  We call him Gremio Man beacsue he is a big fan of the soccer team Gremio, and almost always wears a team jersey.

The Juice Man: This is another one of those guys who immediately won a place in our hearts.  He started visiting us within our first few weeks selling produce and fresh made juice out of the back of his car.  It was like one of those things that the books and CDC travel advice tell you to avoid....but for some reason, new to the country, the whole experience, it just felt right to embrace it.  And we are so glad we did.  The juice is supreme and the fruit almost always amazing.  He also is the supplier of fresh juice to a number of restaurants in town.  He's made a lot of changes since we arrived here. Back then he was delivering juice bottled in washed out old 2 liter pop bottles.  Now he has a truck with a logo, he packages his juice in new bottles with sealed caps and labels with his logo.  He also doesn't come by as often as he used to.  I guess his corporate customers are growing.  But once he invited us (very impromptu) out to his house to see how he makes the juice.  He showed us around his home/garage business, the 13 deep freezers he stores juice in for the off months, the crates upon crates of oranges he bought or brought from his orchard in the country.  He squeezed us fresh juice in his machine and filled us each a glass and sent us home with bags of fruit.  He's a kind man.  We're glad he's part of our Brazil experience.

Motorcycle Man: This is a guy I could live without.  He drives all around town with a large speaker strapped to the back of his motorcycle blasting advertisements from all sorts of local vendors... appliance stores, grocery markets, restaurants or simply advertising special events.  He has this knack of driving by just as the little ones are about to drift off to nap, or right in the middle when they are going through that light sleep stage.  We've had more than one crabby over tired afternoon thanks to motorcycle man.

What Memories are Made Of

A few years ago we asked Grammy for this rather large "family gift" for Christmas because it is always more fun to draw and paint standing up.  It has a chalk board on one side and a dry erase board on the other.  It has a roll of paper and came with no spill paint cups and large, easy to handle brushes.  I think DaddyHealy thought I was crazy when I told him that without a doubt this large easel was coming with us in our very limited shipment of household goods to Brazil.  I have never regretted it.  In fact, here where we are homeschooling, we use it for spelling lessons, for practicing writing letters, for notes to student or teacher and of course for a variety of means of artistic expression.  There is no one in our family (big people included) who does not use our easel.

I am sure we could sell it for a good price when we leave, because things like this are hard to find here, but there is not a chance of me selling it.  There are too many memories tied up in it and I'm not willing to let them go.

What Would I Do Without Her

For a long time I've wanted to write about an amazing woman who has made my Brazil experience absolutely delightful. Loriane (pronounced Lo-ray-knee) has been our maid for just over a year now and I cannot imagine a harder worker or nicer person to be around. Both are important when you share your house with an employee 20 hours a week.

 

In addition to what you'd expect, like cleaning the bathrooms, (hand) mopping the floor (every single day), washing windows, and changing the sheets, she also collects and takes out the garbage daily, organizes closets, dusts and polishes furniture, cleans out the fridge, makes us beans and rice every Friday, waters the plants, washes, hangs out clothes and irons anything we let her (which in our case does not include underwear!), takes care of children as needed, gets a short napper back to sleep, brings us fruit, answers questions, helps me with my Portuguese, helps us with D's homework, scrubs the sidewalk and driveway weekly, picks up toys, and overall is the best conversation partner I could ask for.  Because if you know me, you know I cannot be in a house with someone for 4 hours a day and not talk their head off.  I am attributing a majority of my Portuguese fluency to daily conversations with her.  

 

Lorine has 3 grown kids (only one of whom is living locally) and is married to a John Deere employee.  While I don't know for sure, I assume he is a factory worker.  She doesn't talk a lot about herself.  We have a good time comparing household practices, recipes and habits between the US and Brazil.  She's a great resource to help with school costumes.  She always knows who I can call to get something fixed or where I can find a supply I need.  Once I showed her a sweater I had caught on a nail and it started to unravel.  She took it home and brought it back repaired.  When she started working for us we had an empty flower pot.  It now has 3 different plants thriving in it.  She's planted our garden with green onions, peppers, and squash.  She brings me produce from her own garden.  She knows when to cut a plant back so it will bloom again.  She has introduced us to more fruits than I knew existed, and all of them she picked at home or on her daily walk to our house.  She has babysat for us in the evening when needed.  Although she is kind to all of our kids, she and H have a special relationship.  H stays with her while I am at my Portuguese lessons 3 days a week.  They go for walks, pick me flowers, have a snack, usually some fruit Loraine brought.  They play a little game of chase or tickles every day.  She is not yet a grandma (and I can tell she's a little miffed about how long it's taking) but she's going to be a great one when the time comes.

 

I have to wonder what she thinks, we must be a strange crew for her to work for.  Half of the time we're speaking English, which she doesn't understand.  Even when we speak Portuguese, she must think us an unusual family (we don't want our underwear ironed).  I am sure she cannot fathom how we have come to own so many things...so many clothes, so many toys, so many pillows and blankets, so many books...and books...and books.  There is a lot about us that must seem unusual to a relatively simple person such as she.  But she is kind and gracious and loves to teach and share.

 

She works very hard.  She comes early and stays late just about every day.  She has never asked for a raise (though we try to pay her well).  She likes to leave things "just so" and Mondays are my absolute favorite day of the week.  After the weekend of a bit of chaos in our house, I love walking in after picking up the kids from school and noticing anew the windows clear of fingerprints and smudges, clean floor, clutter-free living room with the throw pillows all arranged just so.

 

I am really going to miss her when we move back.  I will miss the help in the house, for sure.  Not that I don't do any house work here, but let's just say I hope I remember how to clean a toilet.  But I will also miss the friendship.  Brazilians told me you need to be careful not to get too friendly with your household help.  They are a different class here, and are usually treated as such.  They are ignored unless there is something you need to tell them.  It's just not in my personality.  She's my friend, the Brazilian I have spent the most hours with while we've lived here.  I can't imagine my life here without her.....a messier, more frazzled life for certain, but a lonely one too.

Sisters

It seems sometimes that they fight endlessly.  But then sometimes the love between them flows like a river.  H adores her big sister, and sometimes I think M adores how much her little sister adores her....

M likes to play mommy, or teacher, or any other authority figure to her little sister and H is typically happy to oblige.  The two of them can make up the most in-depth and long sessions of make believe and have so much fun together.  I hope this is the part of their relationship that continues to grow. 

Our Music Man

We're not sure what sparked it, but recently DaddyHealy decided to take up the guitar.  One day in November he drove to a nearby larger town and came back with a guitar.  He's musical anyway, so this is not an enormous surprise.  He teaches himself mostly via the internet.  We've joked that he should take some lessons here in Brazil because he would likely learn more Portuguese from a non-English-speaking music teacher than he does from his English-speaking Portuguese teachers.  But time seems to be something we never have enough of, so even though we've both talked to a guitar teacher and we have a phone number, we've never set up any lessons.

 

Regardless, it's just another reason we are pretty sure we have the coolest Daddy in the Western Hemisphere.

Daddy's Bride

She wants to marry her Daddy.  I can't say that I blame her.  Lucky for me he's already taken, because dressed up like the princess that she is, she could easily steal his heart.

Churrasco-The Brazilian Barbeque

If you've never eaten at a Brazilian Barbeque or Churrascaria, I highly recommend it.  It's gaining popularity around the States and there are some very good (albeit expensive) chain churrascarias in the US.  Here in Brazil it is as common as hamburgers in the States.  If you are travelling, you will most likely stop at a churrascaria for lunch.  If you are hosting a get together at a restaurant or catered in your home, it is most likely going to be churrasco.  If you are having some friends over on the weekend, likely you will be preparing churrasco. What makes it different is the method of cooking.  Everything is cook on spits over an open fire.  The meat is coated with large amounts of coarse salt (that is later knocked off before serving).  Churrasco is a slow, easy going kind of meal.  You cook a little, eat a little, talk a little, probably drink a little beer (unless you are us), and eat a little more...and on and on for hours. 

Every house at least in this part of Brazil has a built in churrascaria, or place to make churrasco.  It's common to have it outside in a cabana, or in the garage, but ours is the more traditional Gaucho (cowboy) style, right in the house off the kitchen.  This makes it a nice bonus in the winter because the 2 hour process of cooking the meat also heats up the house nicely.  In the summer, however, we suffer from the excess heat.

Usually a churrasco is served with rice, maybe beans, potato salad and probably french bread.  That's it.  DaddyHealy took an interest in learning the Brazilian art of churrasco last winter, and it's been a blessing to me, a Sunday afternoon where he does a majority of the cooking and clean up (like an American family and the grill, churrasco is typically the man's department).

Our whole family likes it, which is convenient, as we eat it almost everywhere we go.  The cuts of meat are different here than in the US, but we have some favorites, namely the popular picanha, and filet, both beef.  But pork is also popular, along with ribs, occasionally chicken thighs, and sausages as well.  Luckily our daddy is an awesome cook, and we've had some great churrascos right in our home.  M is so fond of churrasco that when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she requested churrasco.  Unfortunately, a 2 hour dinner (cooked by Daddy) was not going to happen on a weeknight, so made up for it over the weekend.

These are some pictures Grammy snapped of a churrasco we made one lazy Sunday while they were visiting.

Hometown Pizza

This pizza flavor is called the Italiana, and comes with calabresa (a type of sausage), green peppers, onions  and peas--We order it without the peas.

Horizontina has about 3 restaurants.  Two of them are pizzerias.  If you don't like pizza, you're not going to eat out very often here.

While Grammy & Grandpapa were here, we thought it would be fun to take them to a pizza place.  We do not normally frequent these places, as they don't even open until 7 or 7:30.  If we are to have a pizza, we'll usually order one for delivery right when they open and have the kids bathed and in PJs before the pizza arrives so that by the time we're done eating they are ready for stories and prayers and bedtime.  But Granmy and Grandpapa's visit was a special occasion, so we went out..late night and all.

I have to admit, I think the pizza we have in this town is superior to any pizza at an average pizza place in the States.  The pizzas here are baked in a wood fired oven...one at a time.  The dough is homemade on site daily and tossed by hand.  The ingredients are fresh and nicely chopped.  The pizza is normally a display of artistry.  They never skimp on toppings.  I guess you could say it's more "gourmet."  The flavors are unique, and there are more than 50 on the menu, not including create your own.  Besides that, they are more than happy to put 2, 3 or even 4 flavors on one pie.  That makes it easy to please everyone.  In addition to all of that, delivery takes the cake.  We have never lived close enough to a pizza place to order a pizza for delivery in the States.  Delivery is a big bonus for me.  It's a lot of work to load up 3 kids and drive to a restaurant to pick up a pizza. I much prefer the nice guy who drives out on his little motorcycle with it's special pizza delivery box strapped on the back.  He's quick, he doesn't expect a tip, and he brings it to me.  Heaven.

All of that said, there are some things about American pizzas that I miss...peperoni, for one.  Italian sausage is another.  Neither exists in the same form here.  And there is something about a more mass-produced pizza like Papa Johns or Dominos that has it's own appeal on occasion, but I will definitely miss our Brazilian pizza places.

These few pictures are from our visit to Dom Pepe with Grammy & Grandpapa.  Notice the table cloth and placemats, cloth napkins too.  Pizza is not fast food or "kid friendly" as we think of it in the US.  H is sitting in a high chair, but we remove the tray, because it's actually not made for putting a plate on.  A Brazilian would still be fork feeding their 2 1/2 year old, so normally we have to ask for a plate and silverware for her.  There are no "kid plates" and no plastic cups.  She gets a dinner plate, fork and knife and a drinking glass just like everyone else (cringe!)  It takes a long time to get your food, so we try to bring coloring books to keep everyone entertained.  I've never seen a Brazilian family do something like this.  Usually their kids just roam the restaurant freely.  Otherwise they sit patiently until they can't any longer then the parents do anything they can to pacify them until the food arrives. 

We also had to adjust to not being able to order milk for our children at restaurants here.  It is never available.  In the States even at restaurants our children drank milk with meals.  Here we evaluate our options and normally end up with a juice (hopefully 100%, but not always available) and dilute it with water.

Just because I find it interesting, here are a few of the toppings we as Americans find "unusual" but are commonly available here:

broccoli
corn
peas
tuna
chicken hearts
chopped file of beef
smoked chicken
cream cheese
palm hearts
hard boiled egg
peach
fig
maraschino cherries
shoestring potatoes
and that's not including all the dessert pizza flavors, of which there are another 10 or 15 including ingredients like guava, sweetened condensed milk, flaked coconut...

And it's worth mentioning that Dom Pepe (yes, the pizzearia) has the best french fries in town.  Have you ever ordered a pizza and fries?  They go surprisingly well together.

Aya

An unexpected and very much enjoyed bonus to our trip to Florianopolis with my folks was a visit from our Japanese friend Aya.  When she heard Mom & Dad were planning to visit Brazil, she wanted to come too and visit all of us in a location she has never experienced.  It was crazy, short notice, short timing but she did it, and we are so glad.  She taught my kids Japanese (because their little brains aren't full enough of language!) and they asked her millions of questions.  She was most willing to listen, to answer, to play.  She brought them fun little souvenirs and treats from afar.

We also had plenty of late nights of adult visits, catching up on the past 4 or 5 years.  She lived with me in college, and accompanied me home for holidays, weekends, and became another surrogate daughter for my parents.  We've visited her several times in Japan and were happy to repay the favor as tour guide and translator to her.  We tried, in our limited time, to give her a Brazilian experience.  It was a bit difficult for us, because one of the benefits for our family while in a big city/tourist area like Florianopolis is that we have the opportunity to live a little American....there was McDonalds, Subway, Pizza Hut and a Mexican restaurant....there was a big extravagant shopping mall and a lot of conveniences that we do not experience in our daily life here in Horizontina.  But we did our best to show her this very tiny corner of Brazil, to feed her some Brazilian meals, load her up with tropical fruit and teach her a little about Brazil and Portuguese before all too soon putting her back on an airplane toward Tokyo. 

Curiously, though I thought I remembered no Japanese, Aya spoke to me almost exclusively in Japanese and I understood.  I responded almost totally in English.  My brain was really fried by the end of the week.  I am typically official family translator, so I spent the week listening in Japanese, English and Portuguese, and responding in English, Portuguese and occasionally Japanese.  Add to that there are a large number of tourists in Floripa from other South American countries, so many people speak Spanish, and when I speak Portuguese that isn't quite right (which is almost always) people there assumed I am a Spanish speaker, and then start talking to me in Spanish.  Whew.  When we got back to Horizontina I slipped up more than once mixing languages such as slipping a Japanese word in a Portuguese sentence.  It took a couple of weeks to get back on track. 

While I'm afraid a trip to Japan is not likely for our whole family, it was fun to share this little, but very important part of my past with them through Aya. 

Mini Mundo

In our very brief time in Gramado with Grammy and Grandpapa, we were able to visit the mini-park called Mini-Mundo (Little World).  It had dozens of miniature replicas of famous buildings around the world.  Apparently it all started as a pet project for a hotel owner's grandchildren, and grew from there.








The park has a mascot bear which H was immediately drawn to.  In fact, our timid-afraid-of -strangers H was so taken by the bear, she followed it around trying to get picked up again.  Perhaps a Disney vaca needs to be in our near future....

 

 

The park was not huge, but just right for our little attention spans and ended with a playground that took the cake.

Grandpa and D made at least 2 rounds, checking out D's favorite spots several times and noticing something new with each passing.

Our princess found herself a castle.

The detail was impressive.  You could look at a display for a long time because there was just so much to see.  We were told not to miss this attraction, and we are glad we made it.

Grandmas are for....

Grandmas are for making cookies....

and cupcakes....

and eating them before dinner.

Grandmas are for telling stories of the olden days...

and for making up new games, like front porch bowling.



Grandmas are for making super cool snacks like graham crackers with frosting and sprinkles...

 

for doing puzzles together...



 and bringing cool retro crafts (anyone remember shrinky dinks?)

We can't wait for more days like these.