Day 11

I had a fun day today! In the morning, I went to the grocery story with Catherine and Secorro (who might cut my hair tomorrow =) she is the cook at Free Flight and cleans Joyce’s house once a week). Catherine and I both had to use the bathroom while we were there, but I wanted to wait because Catherine has informed me that finding toilet paper in a public washroom is a plus, not a guarantee, and toilet paper is still high on my list of priorities at this stage, so I was feeling unsure. Catherine was going though, so I went with her to scope it out, and we were both pleased to find lots of toilet paper! It was in a crate outside the washroom, on shelves above the stalls, and on shelves within the stalls. It was a veritable toilet paper bonanza.

Today I learned that toilet paper means more to me than a toilet seat. I got into the stall and realized the situation, and I considered my own situation, and I determined that at least they had toilet paper for me. And I also determined that in future I would prefer toilet paper if I can only have one or the other. Forget paper towel for drying your hands after you wash them, by the way; I have yet to see it in real life.

That was just part of my morning though, I also got to join a game of cards with some boys who were playing near the ice cream store. That was really fun – I enjoy cards so much, and it is such a simple way to spend time with people without getting exhausted trying to communicate. We chatted a little bit – one boy asked if my ear piercing hurt, which is always a good conversation piece (although the conversation is MUCH shorter in Portuguese, lol, boy: Did that hurt? me: A little. Conversation over). This card game resulted in my FIRST screaming at a bug :) I was dusting myself off from sitting on the concrete wall when I saw on the side of my hip a big, fuzzy, white hairy caterpillar on my jeans. I had time to realize that it couldn’t do anything to me through my jeans and it was not fast enough to do anything scary (like cockroaches can – they are awful), and yet I was scared to brush it off with my bare hand, and this shriek came out of my mouth. Everyone looked, and by this time I was laughing, and Frank knocked it off and I’d like to think we all bonded over it a little bit, but more likely they just thought I was a weird Canadian. They were really impressed when I shuffled the cards though – people shuffle really old school here.

This afternoon I was in the ice cream shop helping to make popsicles, and then later in the afternoon I read between batches. This is how there came to be a picture of Catherine mopping the floor and me sitting with my hair up reading a book in the background. I told Catherine the picture could only be better if she was fanning me. I felt like I contributed though, because me helping meant Catherine and Frank could be doing other work for their classes coming up that they haven’t been able to do because they’ve been making ice cream all the time, so that was great.

I just remembered this kind of sad story from today, although it is really nothing compared to tons of what happens here, but when Catherine and I were driving to Free Flight in the morning I saw a big black dog drinking water out of a pothole, and I thought it was too bad dogs have to drink muddy water, but as we drove by I kept looking, and I saw every bone in that dog’s spine, and each rib, and the points on its hips.

The dogs and horses here tend to be thin, and a lot of dogs especially don’t get fed well at all – to the point where they are terrible guard dogs because they are too tired to get up, much less bark or attack someone. But that is an expression of the poverty of the people here too, because they have to be concerned with feeding themselves. The mindset here is probably that dogs are dispensable, but children are not, so it is obviously right for them to eat first, and if that’s all there is then so be it. It was a sad moment though because it was a reminder of how difficult it can be to survive.