The past month was marked by the preparation for transition. Transition from one culture to another, one language to another, away from some friends, closer to others, a new home, a new town and a new job. As I have been through this many times, I was able to recognize the emotional signs of preparation apart from the approaching end date of my time here in Brazil. The realization truly hit me was when I applied for my first job. I had been talking with a friend on the phone and I had asked her if her agency was hiring. She responded that she thought something just opened up. I went online to see which positions were available and discovered that the initial application was short, something that I could complete in five minutes. So, I did. Then, it hit me completely and fully that I would be leaving in two months. Up until this point I had just been compiling lists of possible jobs but unconsciously was putting off applying for them. The flood gates were now open and I no longer hesitated in further applications.
At the same time, I am constantly aware that while I am looking towards the future, I need to remain present. I don't want my last few months here to be disconnected and distracted, even though that has happened some already. It is a difficult balance to maintain but is something that I practice daily.
Strike
Among all this internal processing of change, there were external forces at work as well. The truckers of Brazil went on strike. As far as I understand it, the government made a change which based the price of gas in Brazil on the US Dollar. In my time here $1 USD has been roughly about $3.25 BRL. Recently, however, it jumped to $1 USD = $3.81 BRL. Although I'm not entirely sure how it works, the truckers must have to use some part of their salary to pay for the gas used in transportation because now they were earning much less than they were before. So, in protest, they went on strike. It was a very effective strike. Apart from necessities to hospitals and the like, basically all transportation stopped as the majority of good are moved by truck in Brazil. Friends told me that the supermarkets were out of eggs (I shop at the farmer's market and they had eggs), at church's General Synod, there were no limes to make caipirinha and the day I was preparing to make pizza with friends, my oven ran out of gas. I called several places to order a new canister but the phone just rang and rang. The one time someone did answer, I communicated that I needed gas and he answered that he did as well.
This was new for me in Brazil because the advantage of having a gas stove is that when the power has gone out here, I can still cook as long as I have a match. At first I thought, well it will be like camping or when Hurricane Irene hit a few summers ago and we had no power. Soon, I realized that it was not like that experience at all. First, I had no way to cook outside. Many Brazilian homes are equipped with barbecues (using wood or charcoal) on their balconies, garages or patios. My apartment is not. I had no equipment to cook in my patio, such as a container to make a fire. And then it dawned on me that the other huge difference between this situation and Hurricane Irene was that I still had power. Instead of experiencing the beautiful silence of electronics, the various appliances in my home and in others still hummed regularly . But, in realizing that, I remembered that did have a microwave, blender and a sandwich press. (Don't worry, this analysis took about a minute, I wasn't trying to figure this out over a span of a few days). For the week that I was without gas, I learned that the microwave and sandwich press are quite versitile. I grilled marinated vegetables on the press, made marinera sauce and pasta in the microwave and mixed breakfast smoothies in the blender. Clean up was much simpler as I only used one glass bowl in the microwave. Currently, the truckers and the government have reached an agreement, and I hope it works well.
Capoeira
In the past few months, my capoeira group as also undergone a bit of a transition. We have many new students two of which are women. So, in the first time of our group's history we formed an all women band. We play terribly, but each time we improve and are grateful that our group allows us to mess up with no shame and patiently listen to us plink, plunk and twang our ways through the songs as best we can.
