Ahhh, the beach!

No English classes today, but Drew picked me up at 7:30 to take me to Sueli's apartment so I could watch her make cuz cuz. This is a type of corn meal that is soaked and then steamed, and here one puts it on the plate and tops it with a fried egg. Not bad...pretty bland, but since I love to learn regional meals, I'll know how to make this for Terry when I get home. Sueli laughs at me with my camera, photographing every step of this process. It's not really hard at all, but hers is much better than Penha's, so of course I want to learn from the best! We have our breakfast and then go back to pick up Shalomir and Renan in order to meet Rosinha at one of the orphanages.
The first place we go has between 11 and 13 people (depending on who you talk to). Most of these are young mothers who have come here for refuge from abusive men - husbands or otherwise. They are very young and all have babies. My biggest disappointment is that Rosinha won't allow me to take pictures, lest someone somewhere discover where these women are. The home is well kept and nice, taking into account the poor standards. I meet each gal and her baby - one of the girls is now 18 and has been here since she was a baby. She has nowhere to go, so if she helps out at the home, they won't have to kick her out. When we meet, she has a big smile and kisses me on both cheeks, (the usual greeting) and I can tell she has a very sweet, helpful spirit.
On to the next orphanage, run entirely by the state of Paraiba. Lar da crianca Jesus de Nazare. Jesus of Nazareth Children's Home. Here the state forbids me to take any pictures as well because many of the kids have been removed from the home and they don't want the parents to find out where they are. One of my very favorite things to do is photograph children's faces, and I'm just itching to sneak out my camera. However, all the ladies who work there watch me as if I'm there to steal one of their babies! There is one who is just one month old, sleeping in a pram. He is one of the babies who has been "rescued" from being tossed in the garbage. Yes, you read it right. In fact, just today, another baby has been discovered on a garbage heap in Sao Paulo. Rosinha and Cidade Viva have started a campaign, going through the streets with loud speakers, and also passing out flyers for mothers who don't want their babies. "Please don't throw them on the garbage", urges the flyer and the recorded message...going on to say "adoption is an option." It probably doesn't rhyme that way in Portuguese, but the message is still the same. It's way beyond my comprehension how anyone can physically toss a human being onto a garbage heap. Then again, living in America, we've just "invented" more civilized ways of abusing people - either mentally or emotionally. I know, because I'm a survivor.

Jesus of Nazareth home has about 130 residents, many of them physically or mentally disabled adults who have been here all their lives, and obviously have no place to go. Several of them never even have any visitors, though family may live in the area. On the way out, we encounter the woman who runs the home as well as one of the mothers whose children live in this home for financial reasons. She has just birthed her 9th child (all from different fathers, of course) - some of them live with her, and some live in the orphanage. Can't imagine what one must feel, coming to an orphanage to visit one's children.

Since my time here is quickly winding down (it's Friday and I leave early Sunday morning), Shalomir wants to take me to downtown Joao Pessoa because there are several very old and beautiful churches. When the Portuguese first settled in Brazil, all the other cities were settled on rivers; Fortaleza, Recife, Olinda, and of course Rio de Janeiro. Joao Pessoa was the first and only city settled on the river and only later did people begin to move toward the ocean. We went into the oldest hotel in the city, Hotel Globo, which is now called the Spanish consulate. There may be a small office somewhere in the building; however, it's little more than a museum with a few artifacts from the original hotel. The views from this property are incredible and we spent quite a bit of time here, taking pictures and walking around. At one point, a guy stuck his head out of a window and said "Where are you guys from?" Turns out Alvares has been a tour guide to Orlando for 25 years, taking groups as large as 250 people. He knows Marta (as Shalomir says, "everyone knows Marta") and tells us that he's going to be 60 this year so he's thinking of retiring, but he misses going to Orlando with the tours!

The oldest church was next on our list of 'things to see while you're in Joao Pessoa'. Igresa St. Francisco. It's 500 years old and not in use any more, though others of the really old churches are still being used as wedding venues. Shalomir is an excellent tour guide...she has worked in the hotel business and teaches school children, also running the English department at Cidade Viva, so she's well versed on the history of the place and the buildings. She also knows all the good shortcuts through the center of the city!

After lunch at Marta's (for menu see 5 previous blogs...) Shalomir and I decide to get our nails done. I've done this with both Jaime and Hayley (Terry's daughters) and Mary Lynn, my daughter-in-love, and it's a fun "girlie" time together. Renan comes with us and charms all the other ladies in the salon. He's so outgoing and extremely well-behaved. I think I've seen him cry once and that was because he smashed his finger in a door! He chooses white polish for his mother and I get purple. I was so relaxed I nearly fell asleep. When I wake up so early, I'm pretty ready for a little nap by this time in the afternoon.
After going back home to pick up Drew, our next stop is the policia federale. His visa has run out and he is asking for an extension...which he does not get. He and Sueli want to get married, but they find out from the notary that it takes a very long time for permission because so many people are just marrying Brazilians in order to live here. Much discussion ensues, after which nothing is really resolved. (it's the Brazilian way) But the new police station is so close to the beach we decide to stop. This is a great wind-surfing beach and there are about 5 or 6 guys out there today. For once, the sun has remained out most of the day and it's absolutely gorgeous. I've immediately got my flipflops off and head for the water. It's very warm, though not too clear. Drew (again!) needs to get back home to receive a business email but Sha offers to drop him off and come back to pick me up. Being polite, I demure, but she insists. Well, if somebody just HAS to stay at the beach, I'll volunteer! Renan stays with me and we pre-arrange a place to meet...the turtles where we stopped the other day just to take a picture. She figures it'll take us about 45 minutes to walk there. Renan and I start walking and, surprise, surprise, he gets his shoes and socks wet. Oh well, he decides to take them off and roll up his pants. We discover crab holes, lots of sand dollars, a rainbow, and a "river" left by the ebbing tide. I'm pretty fluent in 7-year old Portuguese, so we can understand each other just fine. Along the way it seems expedient (in the mind of a 7-year old) just to go ahead and get all the way wet, so he splashes happily and I take pictures. I think Shalomir must have been speaking in "Brazilian" when she said a 45-minute walk, because we don't dawdle much at all and after 45 minutes, our meeting place still looks pretty far off. We begin encountering people who tell us that there's a lady waiting for us "back there". We look, and, sure enough, there she is, waving to us. Renan sets off at a run, but by now we're in the softer sand and it's like slogging through oatmeal up to our ankles...it still takes us about 15 minutes to reach her and by now it's getting dark. (Next time I'll have to remember it's about an hour and 5 minutes.)
We stop at home for a quick shower, then to Manacai Restaurant (it's an outdoor place) for sandwiches. I have a tapioca (no, not what you're thinking...it's dry tapioca put in a frying pan to coagulate and become a flat tortilla or soft taco) with shredded chicken. Renan has a pastel (again, no, more of what we would call an empanada) He drinks a huge glass of Acai (Ah sah EE), thick, like a milkshake. Mine is cupuacu, (ku pwa SUE) made from fruit only found in the Amazon, definitely an acquired taste. Off to the mall to drop off Acai juice and extra cups for Shalomir and Michael's milkshake shop (Tribo Milkshake e Yogurt - Milkshake and yogurt Tribe). I have to have the Creme de Papaya con Liquor de Cassis milkshake. I just have to. Then we're off to look at CDs. We've been listening to a CD by a young worship leader named Aline Barros - in Marta's car and I've really enjoyed it, so we'll see if we can find it here. Which we do, as well as DVDs, but I just get the CD. Shalomir chooses some kids' movies for Renan and her school children.

After our long walk on the beach, both Renan and I are really tired. His manifests as "squirrely" and talkative. Mine doesn't.
Michael is home when we get there but after a quick hello, I'm anxious for my bed.