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| There is a mixture of stunningly beautiful architectural buildings with humble homes. Graffiti is normal despite what side of town you might be on. I am currently in a good part of the city. |
The past two days were spent in part with my host and his family. He lives alone, but his grandmother is less than a two minute walk from his apartment, which makes it easy to enjoy both a family life and personal space. Saturday, we met at a tapiocaria.
I have tried to make the thin tapioca pancakes since my last visit to Brazil to no avail. There is a special method to creating the perfect, thin tapioca pancake that I have yet to master. Tapioca pancakes begin as a flour, which is sifted into a pan and fried. You can eat the tapioca alone or with toppings in a pancake, which has a slightly gritty but chewy texture. They seem to generally be paired with savory toppings like cheese or chicken, but as the tapioca has little flavor, it would also pair nicely with something sweet. I ate it a lot when I had stomach problems during my last trip here. It's a safe food for me to eat, with no worries of ulcer agitation.
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| We didn't stop at tapioca. This dessert was made with banana, cinnamon (I think), cheese, some kind of bread, and Dulce de Leche. It reminded me of French toast, but better. |
I enjoyed the evening coffee and tapioca, attempting to keep up with the melodic Portuguese. Grandma has a very sweet and loving demeanor, with a joyful laugh and personality. Despite not knowing everything she said to me, I felt very welcomed by her. Grand Aunt spoke quietly and not as often, but still was pleasant. My host's mother was vivacious, excited to be able to talk with me again about shopping, nails and hair, and of course, my family. I have always felt that when I come here, I am like the daughter she never had, but would have loved to have had. She loves everything about being a woman, enjoying fashion and getting her nails painted, and I think she has always craved to have a mother-daughter relationship that she could share these things with. I love talking to her, because she doesn't mind that I am a little slow to pick up on her conversation, and she has a wonderful sense of humor about it. She joked that spending time with her would be like an intensive course in Portuguese, which I really have to agree with. She doesn't let it slow her down.
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| One of many gifts given to me by Sra. Terezinha. |
Yesterday was Mother's Day. Paulo, my host, and I met with his family at his grandmother's house, where I gave his mother the gifts I brought her from America. Together, Grandma, Grand Aunt, Aunt, Paulo's Mother, Paulo, and myself all went to a restaurant for lunch. They serve more communally here, which is something that confused me when I first came to Brazil. You don't order your own plate of food- you order several things which come out on plates, which are passed around for everyone to take from. We had a plate of steak, Macaxeira Frita (like french fries, but not potato.) rice and beans, and a vinaigrette, which is actually like a salsa with vinegar. We enjoyed the afternoon talking and eating, until we returned home for our second showers of the day and to rest before we went back out for Pizza Hut and shopping at the fair along the beach. The fair is actually more like an open-air market. There are several tents with merchants selling goods, which to me seem mostly cheaply priced. There are plenty of handmade goods, and goods that are unique to the area.
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| Paulo's Mother (Sra. Terezinha), Paulo's Aunt, and Grandma, all looking lovely for Mother's Day lunch |
When we finished up, we returned to his grandmother's home, where I showed them how to make coffee with the Vietnamese one-cup coffee maker I gifted to his mother. She had told me last time I visited that she wished she could make one cup of coffee more simply. I had bought one of these coffee makers at World Market previously, and thought it would be perfect for her. His grandmother shared some juice from her home-grown Acerola fruits, which resemble tiny red pumpkins, but taste nothing like pumpkin. They are tart, and have one of the highest natural amounts of Vitamin C of any fruit- just one satisfies the daily adult requirement of Vitamin C, and they are very tiny, about the size of a cherry tomato. The juice was delicious, and while I was feeling like I was getting sick from a sinus infection for the past two days, I feel much better today, which I am sure the fruit helped with.
His grandmother gifted me a lovely pair of earrings before I left. Gift-giving seems to happen very frequently here, and it seems as if people just have a very natural generosity. The gifts don't necessarily need to cost a lot, but it is the fact that they are thinking about you that is so special. Being surrounded by such loving people makes me feel warm and accepted. There are, of course, bad people everywhere. It is unavoidable. They exist no matter what country you live in... but I have personally experienced an overwhelming sense of positivity and goodwill here.
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| Lovely earrings from Grandma. |
It also disheartens me, however, as I have experienced moments in the USA where some people have been very unwelcoming. My own family has always been welcoming to Paulo, but while working retail, I had a few foul customers that could only remark negatively to those speaking another language around them. Often, those people speaking another language would then turn to me and speak perfect English. I have never felt like I was unwelcome here for not speaking Portuguese fluently, or talking to Paulo in English.
As an example of this acceptance, when Paulo and I went to get dinner the other night, one of our servers was excited by my English, and tried to learn some words from me. He said he learned some words from their chef, who was French, and that he enjoyed learning languages, always picking up words when he could. I think it would be a better world if everyone could think like this- that language is not something that separates you and me, but that language is a chance to learn, and an opportunity to experience another culture. It isn't you vs. me. It is us, together in this human experience, with knowledge to share that we can mutually benefit from.
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