i arrived in sao paulo brasil on november 11th, 2010. that was one month and 2 days ago. since then, a lot of things have happened. i am still tess, but i feel different. i feel young and naive and wide-eyed. i feel as though i just got here...which i guess in the scheme of things, i did.
on the day that i arrived, i got off the plane at 9am and saw a mountain made of deep red earth. i had never seen such a color in such large quantity. we breezed through passport inspection and customs, because, after all, i am brasilian. i was so excited to hand over my passport and receive my very first stamp, but when the woman handed it back empty i was sad and confused. my uncle explained that you do not get a stamp for entering your own country. now i have two passports that say i have been nowhere. i guess i will have to go more places.
into the car we went. i sat in the front seat as to see the view of this new land. the next first thing i saw was on the side of the highway. a little horse tied to a single tree by a piece of rope. next to this horse was a little house made of rotten sheet wood and a rusted scrap metal roof. next to this house was a little family, a mother holding her son and an older child playing next to her. they were laughing as happy as could be. within a minute later we were passing a large neighborhood filled with houses that looked like this... a favela. a lively, color filled place where the less fortunate "survive."
we kept driving. passing through the city of sao paulo. it became more and more crazy, filled with more and more crazies. people everywhere, more than new york, for sure. sao paulo is literally 5 times the size of new york. unfortunately, there is no organization whatsoever. when the city was built there was no predetermination. what i think happened was the first street was created hundreds of years ago, with people's houses and little shops for things they needed. as more people settled, they just laid out streets in any given direction to make it easier for them to get there. and then, sao paulo city was created. the public transportation is the biggest joke of all. being that there is none. ok, ok, there is a public transit but it is horribly done and horribly smelly. and don't even think about using this method between the hours of 6am-1pm and 4pm-730pm, because you will be smushed and trampled and given some awful disease. aside from public transit, most people drive themselves around this concrete jungle. the most used method is motorcycle. well, maybe more like motor-bike. they zoom around as if they were the kings of the road, beheading side view mirrors as they pass. between 3 and 5 motor-bike drivers die each day in the city of sao paulo. there is no given lane for their vehicles and they are far too impatient to drive like normal people, so they have created a lane for themselves. this lane is located between the fast and middle lane of cars and trucks. they scoot between, weaving their way through the backed-up traffic. usually carrying a box on the back used for deliveries or a brasilian girl with spandex jeans and a tribal tattoo on the lower back. in rain, or sweltering heat, they ride.
we finally made it out of the city and into the suburb of interlogos. this is where both of my aunts live with their families. for the first month i stayed with my aunt ligia and her husband rangel. they have three children, fabi, duda, and claudia. all of them are grown and have professions. my grandmother, vovo, also is staying at the house due to a bad hip.
here i spent my days exploring the neighborhood, running errands with tio rangel and "bonding" with vovo. i say this because my 81 year old grandmother can not speak more than a given 10 words of english (and i the same in portuguese) and is the most stubborn person i have met to this day. she is very loving and protective but comes from a completely different era. when she found out i was vegan she merely had a heart attack. well, first i had to tell her what that meant and then she almost had a heart attack. in her days of youth a healthy meal consisted of large quantities of meat, potatoes, rice and beans. the beans were made with meat and the rice and potatoes were made large portions of dairy. now this would be an impossible meal for a vegan to eat. however, because i am human and know how to feed myself, i was able to create something very healthy. to her, these meals were unsustainable and i was going to die at any given moment. then came thanksgiving. this was the first thanksgiving in 23 years that i had spent alone, without the company of my american family. sadly, in brasil, they do not celebrate this holiday. so on this average thursday i woke up late, waded in the sun until lunch and when the time came i sat at the silent table for our afternoon meal. there was a strange salad that was unlike what val (the house maid) normally prepared, so i studied it asking what it was about. vovo managed to motion that she had made it for me. excited but still suspicious of it's texture i pressed further, mustering out all of the portuguese that i had learned thus far (most of it being food). i asked her if there was meat or fish in the salad. "naoooo" she replied. i leaned closer, smelling it... fishy i thought, so i asked again. "naooooooooo" she said. i picked a piece out that had such a confusing substance to be any kind of vegetable. once more i asked. "nao naoooo" she affirmed. i reluctantly took a small spoonful to my plate and took a tiny bite. she had, after all made a salad for me, and i felt bad not to try it... especially if she had gone so far to make it vegan for me. just as i swallowed my first bite, tio rangel walked in the door and said "oh! you're eating the fish salad!?" OH MY GOD was the emotion that took over my body. i grabbed my plate and ran into the kitchen, disposing of everything that was there. i paced around the island counter top, boiling. i could feel the blood steaming from my pores. breathing deeply as not to scream my grandmother to shreds i walked to her and very firmly said... in english... "VoVo! you do not have any right to Ever tell me what i should and should not eat." i turned around and ran out of the house, getting lost for 2 or more hours. i sobbed the entire way, feeling betrayed and lost in this foreign country. my family.. my Grandmother! had lied... 3 times! purposefully concocted a salad of fish disguised as veggies, and then lied about it. when i got home i went to my room and made a majicjack phone call to the united states. an hour long conversation with all 28 members of my, so far away, family, just as they were sitting down to enjoy one another's company and indulge in delicious cranberry sauce with mashed potatoes.
2 more weeks past while i stayed in ligia and rangel's house. things went back to normal with vovo, the sun was beginning to shine more and more like summer. when december rolled around i decided to move to tia angela's house, where i would spend my second month. her house is literally down the street from ligia's, just a 10 minute walk at most. angela lives with tio joao, and her two sons helio and dani. she also has a daughter, fe, but she moved to florida the same week i moved here. tia angela works for herself as an interior designer so she is mostly home and we go out to do things often. while tio joao and dani work all the time, helio has a job that is a bit more relaxed. thankfully for me, but not thankfully for his wallet, he is here to spend a lot of time with me as well. we go swimming and go for bike rides around the nearby sanctuary, watch soccer and root for a team that no one likes, we go to see friends and go out to parties. a very exciting life we lead.
i am, sadly, no longer vegan. that life style lasted right up to thanksgiving. that is when i realized how hard it was for myself and every one else around me. the food that i ate had become the main topic of discussion at every single meal. every one put their two cents in, i wish it was really cents because i would be a lot more wealthy than i am now. i also felt that because every one was feeding me, and feeding me for free, i should not be so picky and make it so hard for them. now it has become more about laziness. because i gave up on it pretty quickly, i have become used to accepting whatever it is that is handed my way.... non meat things of course. but i have decided that this week, starting this morning, i am going to eat purely fruits and veggies. i have been too lenient with my diet and it's beginning to show. days filled with brigadeiro, homemade jams on fresh baked rolls, stir fry palmito with veggies and rice stuffed inside a buttermilk crepe. my mouth saying thank you! but my stomach and thighs beginning to growl.
this weekend i was invited by my friend sandra, whom i met at peacefood just before i left, to go to her house in ubatuba for the weekend with her and her daughter naiara. this was simply magical and requires an entry entirely for itself. needless to say, my tan is now officially brasilian.
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