os primero dias en brasil

brasi is a beautiful (linda) country, although i have only experienced a small portion thus far. i am living with a family of three; the husband, ricardo, wife, loja, and son, joao pedro. the nature of work is not nessesarily what i was expecting, but it is fun and rewarding none the less. i guess all the pot washing i achieved while working at the university greenhouses is going to come in handy! the first day i worked with loyva recycling glass bottles for use in juice bottling. huge tubs of water held hundereds of used glass bottles which we scrubbed until they were squeeky clean... for eight hours.

a little more about where i am staying... i am currently in picada cafe, a small city in the state of rio grande do sul, the southern most state of brazil. interestingly, the city is mostly composed of individuals of german desent (ww2 escapies??). when i first arrived it appeared that i had entered bavaria of the tropics. seriously, driving through the town center today we passed groups of young people standing by their cars blasting techno music, how very european!
there is some much green here it is unbelievable! a million different kinds of trees, including pines! there are many animals as well. living under the porch of the house is a three foot long iguana, which has been dwelling there for seven years, according to loja. there are also many, many birds (tocans!), monkeys and huge insects (my favorite are the beetles and butterflies).


yesterday, i washed and labled bottles of peach necter and accompanied ricardo to caxias do sul, the second largest city in rio grande do sul. there we went to a meeting of organic cooperatives from rio grande do sul. the only problem was that ricardo didn't tell me this until i was in the car, wearing a tee-shirt, shorts and sandals as i had been working all morning. the issue is, in brasil you do not go to a meeting dressed in this manner. all the women at the meeting were wearing blouses and high heels! i felt a bit out of place to say the least, not to mention i could only understand about 1/3 of what was transpiring. after the meeting i went with ricardo to a farm where he obtains pears and necterines to turn into to juices. the orchard was nothing like an orchard at all! it was more like a forest where pears happened to be growing. we ate pears picked from the trees and it was good. the whole understory of the pear orchard was covered in lilies! it was shady, cool and verdant.

i have yet to experience life in the cities of brasil, but country life is calm and domestic. i like it. everyday the entire family has their meals together (except perdo who is at school for lunch), ricardo comes home from work to eat! the meals are delicious and it's not difficult to be a vegitarian here. i have tried so many new foods! dulce de leche, tapioca bread, pan de queso, papya, a small melon like fruit, blackberry juice, necterine juice, peach juice, mango juice (juice, juice, juice!), crema de leche, melado, and... well that's alot! i am so thankful that the people of picada cafe love their coffee, it is included in almost every meal.


today we went to an area by the river where the most bizzare bird lives. this bird, called sargento, builds it's nest from human hair and hangs it from the smallest branch over the middle of the river. it is much like a bag where the birds crawl in and out of the top. ecological adaptations never cease to amaze me.

as far as the weather goes it has been great, even cool. it has rained 3 of the 4 days that i have been here and there has been thunder and lightning almost every night. i have had no trouble keeping a 10 p, (22:00) bedtime as i have been working hard every day. also, i have started thinking in portuguese and spanish!

until next time! i am off to the porch to soak up the rolling thunder and flashing lightning.

p.s. sorry i haven't quite figued out how to rotate the phots, so just turn your computer on it's side!