World cup fever

World cup fever had swept across Brazil, their crazy for football (can’t call it soccer here, they look at you strange). I cannot believe work, schools, shops, everything closes to a stand still when Brazil played. When ever Brazil scored a goal the sky erupts with noisy fire works that scared the hell out of me, I especially didn’t like it when it was an early game 10:30 am. Very rude awakening. I think the whole country is watching the game, I’m not a big fan of watching sport on television (much rather play) but tried to watch a few games here and there. In the beginning I told everyone Australia will win the world cup, they just laughs at me. I don’t know what’s so funny about that! How cool was Octopus Paul!

The weather here in Rondonopolis is a predictable sunny 33 degrees every day. It’s the dry season and I have not seen rain for 3 months. Although we had a couple of weeks where it felt like a Melbourne winter. I was not prepared for the cold and only have one pair of tracky pants and one jumper. You can imagine how I smelt after a whole week of wearing the same clothes. I have been spoilt by this heat and I will be a big wimp when I return to a wintery Melbourne. In the dry season the nights are a cooler but the day is still to unbelievably hot to do anything outside. I don’t know how anyone works in this heat, so glad my job is looking after Jasmin.

I have been in Brazil for 9 months and got no where with the Portuguese language. Everyone in the family talk way to fast for me to try and understand and Andre’s step sister Luciene felt sorry for me not being able to communicate. She is a teacher for little 4 to 5 year olds and is teaching me Portuguese after hours and in return I am teaching her English. I have completed my alphabetization and slowly getting in to phrases. I enjoy my time with Luciene, it gets me out of the house and she is has such a big heart. Luciene is not a blood sister, she was adopted by Andre’s parents when she was fifteen.

Brazilians are very religious, 70% are catholics and every year in June and July they celebrate all the saints. They do this by throwing big country parties with traditional food, clothing and dancing. I went to a couple and the were very colorful events, loads of fire works and flags. The girls would wear short little dresses similar to Jasmin’s in all different colors and the men would dress up like farmers with patches on their shirts and pants. The food is fabulous as always and my favorite drink had to be the hot spiced wine, nothing quite like hot wine to warm you up on a cool night. Brazilians sure know how to party.

MOSQUITOES. No matter were you are in the world there is nothing more annoying then mosquitoes, here in Rondonopolis they come in the millions. I must admit I am grateful that it is the dry season, dengue mosquitoes are not out in high numbers as they are in the wet season. One thing that really annoys me about the mosquitoes here is they are silent unlike the ones I have encountered in Australia. The Australian mossies give you a warning that they are coming so you can prepare for battle. The Brazilian mossies are silent and sometimes deadly, you don’t even know you have been bitten until it’s to late.

I am the mossie assassin, I cannot sleep until every mossy in my room is dead. Andre thinks I look like a crazy person when I am hunting for mossies. I pull my bandana tight around my head like Rambo does, I arm myself with a pillow/towel what ever is near by (I stopped slapping walls with my hands a while back because I kept hurting myself) and I start running, chasing the mossies. Sometimes I get lucky and sneak up on them and POW, one deadly swipe with a pillow and his a gonner. I always try to use Andre’s pillows because I hate getting blood all over my pillows. I have lost count of the number of kills, maybe around 1,000 by now. If I were a Buddhist, I would be in for so much bad Karma.