Stories Inspired by Life in Rural Brazil
Aren’t memories grand? Life is made of both the big milestones and the tiny pebbles under our feet.
One final reader’s favorite re-run while I finish up my classes in Belo Horizonte. While I published this oldy-but-goodie on April 24, 2012, this crônica was probably one of the very first that I wrote. It took a couple of tries to find an amenable sales representative. “Taking your cell phone to Brazil? Really? How …
I adore the jazzy sounds of Elza Soares. All except for one song: Two Tac. Over and over I found myself skipping that track in the album because it was too jarring and overwhelming to my ears (so is the video on my eyes, it turns out). But imagine my surprise to discover that this time …
Dear friends, for the next few weeks I’ll be off taking a class in our state capital of Belo Horizonte (if you want to sound like a local say: “Beh-Agha” — B.H.). Travel always gets my pen (cursor?) rolling, and I have no doubt that I’ll have lots of observations and crônicas to tell by …
I’ve recently joined an elite club: the sellers at the Saturday feira (market). After a few weeks, I have a few observations. It’s a secret society. The first rule of Feira Club is that you do not talk about Feira Club. Membership is as simple as having a bench or a cloth laid out to sell …
I have stumbled across a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy here at the farm. Case in point: I have cleared by hand over two acres of land, built a garden, pruned fruit trees, scraped the corral clean of manure, trimmed the shrubs by hand with a machete, repaired and laid water lines, cleaned the cistern …
Brazilian Portuguese has an odd linguistic confusion: the words to win, to earn, to receive are all the same. Ganhar. “Ganhei a loteria.” I won the lottery.“Ganhei um vidrio de geleia.” Someone gave me a jar of jelly. And my favorite: “Ganhei meu filho no ano pasado.” I had my son last year. This language charms and enchants me. This is a …
See those thorns the size of effing knitting needles? That’s a wild lemon tree, which grow all over our property. Good for caipirinhas at the end of a long day, not so good for those doing the yardwork. It seems everything has thorns here. Last year started counting thorny and stinging plant varieties as a way to …
Who knew I would miss it? Who knew that Brazil wouldn’t have it? They have all the other ingredients: the jellies, the sliced bread, the raw peanuts, but… no peanut butter. That quintessential slice of Americana, the PB& J sandwich, I miss it. So does my husband. So much so that on my last return …
I put on this “transparent” band-aid today and was amused that on my pasty-white skin it wasn’t transparent at all! I guess in Brazil the “flesh”-toned band-aids are of a different shade. Which makes sense. Even when I’m very tanned from lots of time outside working on the farm, I’m still whiter than most people …
