8:00 AM Saturday morning, enter the movers. Sort of out of the blue,
today was moving day...for both my host family and for me. My host
family has been waiting for their contractor to be ready to begin
renovating their home and today he was ready. Therefore, they had to
move everything out of their house and go to the apartment where they
are staying while the remodeling happens. For me, this became a good
time to move to the other house in which I will be staying while I am
here. But before I explain, I would like to introduce some of the cutest
dogs in the world--
My host family's three dogs:
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| This is Lalechou. He is the youngest (still a puppy) and so adorable! He is the son that Tiana and Carlos Roberto never had. But.... |
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| Lalechou is CRAZY! He chews everything...including shoes when they are still on your feet! |
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| This is Cleo. She (and the other two dogs also) gets a bath every Friday and gets these little pony tails in her hair which proceed to be messy for the rest of the week. She is less energetic than Lalechou and very jealous of him. |
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| This is Princesa :) She is an old dog and does not hear very well. She acts like she is in charge of the house and refuses to be told that she cannot sit on the couch. |
So, now that all of the family has been introduced, back to the move. After packing up all of our things in the Buenos' home, we waited for the movers to finish and for my ride to arrive for my other house. While we were waiting, we had a snack of jabuticaba (see below). It is a really tasty berry-like fruit that has a hard skin and a sweet, milky juice inside. You only eat the inside and there are hard seeds that you have to spit out. Karen and Thaynara fight over these berries because they are so good! I was lucky to have some, but since they have a Jabuticaba bush in their yard, we were all able to eat them.
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| Jubiticaba |
Once Professora Vera arrived to take me to my new home here, it was very hard to say goodbye to the Buenos. I loved living with them and cannot thank them enough for making me a part of their family! I will miss them dearly, but luckily I am still able to see them since I am in the same city (our houses are about fifteen minutes apart).
OBRIGADA POR TUDO! :)
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| Delicious!! |
Just in time
for lunch I arrived in my new home and again I was welcomed with open
arms by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Rochester, New York in Goiania.
The nuns were very happy to have a new person stay with them and
welcomed me heartily. Now there are three nuns that live here in this
house: Jeany, Joana, and Maria Jose. They work in public service, doing
many things in the community and advocating for the needs of the poor.
With them I will be doing a variety of things, but the overall goal is
to learn about the public health system here in Goiania and realize the
situation of those who use the hospitals in which I have observed and
worked so far (Maternidade Nascer Cidadao, Santa Casa, and Hospital das
Criancas). Now that I speak Portuguese well enough, language is not as big of an issue and communication is much easier. However, two of the sisters speak English very well, so they are able to explain when I need it. It has been decided though (for the better, I admit) that we will speak in Portuguese unless I need help with vocabulary or grammar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u28bLw_7HhU
Here is a link for a video tour of my new home! Recently the nuns were able to build a new house and this is a video of the finished product. It is even in English.
In the evening, I attended another festa Junina with the sisters. We went to Sister Joana's biological sister's home to celebrate the one month and ten month anniversaries of the births of Sister Joana's great niece and great nephew, respectively. They were so adorable! And, the food was excellent.
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| Sister Joana's family at their festa Junina |
