Sorry it’s taken me a while to update my blog. We’ve been quite busy since we arrived here last week, and I wanted to allow myself the time to get settled in and familiarise myself with life here before updating my blog. I also haven’t written a blog in 2 1/2 years now (since my trip to Ecuador in 2007) so I need used to writing again! Since a whole week has gone by since we arrived on Thursday 31st, I’ll just give you a brief overview of what we’ve been up to since we got here.
We arrived in Goiânia at about 9.30 am on the 31st, 25 hours after having left Gatwick airport – a long trip! Marildes and Onezio (David’s parents) and his cousin Denes picked us up from the airport. Onezio didn’t know we were arriving that day, so he was very surprised and pleased to see us – I think he almost cried. Both Onezio and Marildes looked much younger than I’d thought, and whilst Onezio is a quiet, gentle person, Marildes is loud and bubbly, and I took to them right away. They were both very happy to meet their ‘nora’ (they already consider me their daughter in law!). Denes drove us back to David’s granny’s house, Iolanda (referred to here as Vo Landa, granny Landa). She’s Marildes’s mum, is 84 years old and is about half David’s size! She’s very sweet, speaks very quietly and has already sung the Brazilian national hymn to me about 3 times. She also loves to show me her photo album, with a collection of photos dating back to when she was a little girl.
At Vo Landa’s house, we met some of David’s relatives: two aunts (Tia Sonia and Tia Vina, Marildes’s sisters), his uncle (Tio Edson, Marildes’s brother) and Edson’s ex-wife Maria, who still gets on with him, two of his cousins (Ricardo, Edson’s son, and Denes, Vina’s son, who picked us up from the airport and is the kindest person you can imagine) and David’s two other grandparents, Vo Cida and Vo Pedro (Onezio’s parents, who are divorced but still get on well). They were all very excited to see us and who kept on going on about how pretty I was, which was slightly embarassing! They’re all very VERY loud and talkative, which David first told was because they were excited to see us, but that I’ve actually come to realise that Brazilians are like that all the time!
We had lunch with the family, then David and I had a 2 hour snooze to refresh us after our long journey over here. We spent the afternoon chatting and catching up with David’s relatives, then Denes took Vo Cida, David and me to see David Filho (David’s son). On the way, we stopped off to see another of David’s uncles, Ozano (Onezio’s brother), who was just closing his bakery. His wife invited us back to their house for a quick chat, which ended up lasting over an hour since she fed us with fried banana and cinnamon (very yummy) and juice. We then moved on to David Filho’s house, by which time it was about 9 pm and already dark. He was quite shy to see us at first, but seemed to recognise David straight away and after David hugged him David Filho wouldn’t let go. We gave him his presents, which he loved, and met his mum Kely, her other 2-year-old daughter Nicoly and her mum (David Filho’s grandma). After about an hour or so, we left, promising to come back to see him as soon as possible.
We then headed on to Tia Suely’s house, David’s aunt and Onezio’s sister, in order to see more of David’s cousins, Suely’s sons. However, being New Years Eve and about 11pm, they’d all already gone out to celebrate (since David had kept it a secret that we were arriving that day so as to surprise everyone, they hadn’t known we’d be there for NYE so they’d all already gone out). Denes had also gone out to a party with his girlfriend. He´d invited us to go out with him, but entry cost £100 per person, which David and I were quite reluctant to pay, so we stayed at Tia Suely’s. We had dinner with her and Vo Cida, watched the fireworks on TV and outside at midnight, then headed straight to bed since I could hardly keep my eyes open any longer. Not the most eventful New Years Eve, but we were both excited to be there and were so tired after such a long day that we were happy to go to bed.
The following day, Onezio and Marildes joined us for a churrasco (Brazilian style BBQ) at Tia Suely’s house, where I met even more cousins of David’s: 2 of Suely’s 3 sons Harley and Alan, with Harley’s wife Cleonice and Alan’s girlfriend Raissa, and Rokslei’s (David’s uncle who lives in Germany and Onezio’s younger brother) 2 daughters, Jackeliny (with her boyfriend, also called Denes), and Stefanne. We spent all day enjoying the delicious BBQ’d meat and getting to know David’s many relatives. Harley and Cleonice drove us home later that evening, and Denes (who lives at Vo Landa’s house) kindly let us sleep in his comfortable bed that night so we could get a good night’s sleep.
The following day, Saturday, Ricardo had invited us to go on a trip to a nearby(ish) town, Pirenopolis, to visit a waterfall, with his girlfriend Flavia and her 9 yo son Rafael. They picked us up very early, at 6 am, to make the most of the day, and we stopped off at a ‘padaria’ (bakery) to have an early breakfast of ‘rosquinha’ (kind of like a doughnut) and coffee before setting off on the 1 1/2 hour drive to Pirenopolis. When we got there, we met up with a friend of Ricardo’s, Malcolm, and his girlfriend Juliane. David, Ricardo and Malcolm had brought their mountain bikes (Denes lent David his) to bike up the mountain to the waterfall where we were headed. We dropped them off at the bottom of this steep muddy track, then Flavia, Rafael and I, and Juliane in her car, drove off up the mountain ahead of them. It took them about 1 hour 4 mins to reach the top, which David said was challenging but good fun. We stopped to wait for them halfway up the mountain, then went ahead and waited for them at the waterfall. Pirenopolis and the waterfall are quite a popular touristic attraction (mainly for Brazilians though), and being a couple of days after NYE and a weekend, the place was full of people enjoying the lovely weather and cooling off by the waterfall. Despite the heat outside, the water was icy, but once we got in it was lovely and refreshing. We spent a while cooling off in the water, then we headed back to the car to descend the mountain. Back in Pirenopolis, we stopped off to have a sandwich for lunch, then we drove back to Goiânia, arriving back home at 6ish. Later that evening, David and I went out for dinner with Denes and his girlfriend Cinthya to a yummy pizzeria, before heading back home to bed after another long day. Since spending our first night at Tia Suely’s house, we’ve been staying at Vo Landa’s house, and apart from the previous night when Denes lent us his bed, we’ve been sleeping on an inflatable mattress in the small living room. It’s not the most comfortable of beds, but since I’m always so tired by the time we get to bed I actually sleep quite well on it.
On Sunday, we all went to Vo Pedro’s house, which is actually in a nearby town (which felt like the outskirts of Goiânia since it’s all joined together), to have a ‘pamonhada’ (where everyone gets together to make ‘pamonhas’, little bread/cake-like things made from maize pulp and salt or sugar and cooked inside maize leaves). There, I met Alex, Harley and Alan’s brother (Suely’s 3rd son) and his girlfriend Silmara, and Onezio, Marildes, Denes, Cinthya, Suely, Harley, Alan, Raissa and even Vo Landa joined us for the event. I learnt how to make the yummy pamonhas, we had another churrasco (BBQ) for lunch, and I spent the day relaxing in the hammock and trying not to suffer too much from the heat (Sunday was the hottest day yet, and I had a headache most of the day because of it).
On Monday, David and I drove into the city centre on Alex’s moped, which he’d lent us for the day, and met up with David’s parents to visit the Dojo (the centre for Sukyo Mahikari, which is their ´religion´) and to sort out some documents at the bank. That afternoon, we drove to Cida’s house, who is Kely’s sister (David Filho’s aunt) and a good friend of David’s, where I also met her son Cleyber. David Filho joined us there, and we spent the afternoon playing with him outside (Cida has a lovely garden with a swing and 2 parrots which David F. loved). He got more used to being round us then, and became less shy and more playful as time went by. He’s the cutest little boy ever, with soft blonde hair, blue eyes and a gorgeous face, and I fell in love with him straight away. He’s a little rascal, jumping around and rolling on the floor and pulling silly faces, making us all laugh. When David went indoors to chat with Cida and Cleyber, David F. wanted me to stay outside to continue playing with him, to push him on the swing and have competitions to see which of us could push the other one higher (he won of course). When I finally got him to quieten down a bit, he led me over the table, sat down next to me and told me a bedtime story about 3 little chicks which he’d learnt at school. He’s such a sweet kid, it’s hard not to love him, and I was really pleased to see that he felt comfortable around me even though it was only the second time he’d seen me. We left Cida’s at about 9 pm, said goodbye to David F., and David and I rode back to Vo Landa’s house for dinner and another good night’s sleep on the air mattress.
Tuesday morning, we rode to Vo Cida’s house, where Onezio and Marildes had spent the night. Vo Cida has a lovely little house in the outskirts of Goiânia, with a huge backyard full of fruit trees (mango, banana, tamarind, goiaba, avocado, cinnamon, eucalyptus…) and a pond. We had lunch together, then I fell asleep on the sofa. The heat here leaves me feeling tired and sluggish most of the time, so I always feel sleepy. Hopefully I’ll get used to it after a while. At about 4ish, we rode back to Vo Landa’s, stopping off on the way back to buy a SIM card for my mobile phone and to buy a plant for Vo Landa, since it was her 84th birthday that day and she LOVES flowers. That evening, we all gathered round the kitchen table to sing happy birthday for her and try some of the birthday cake.
The following morning, we went to visit the warehouse where Denes and his older brother Wender work (it’s Wender’s company), where they stock and sell cosmetics. Later that afternoon, Onezio, David and I got a lift into the city centre with Denes to go and have a look at cars, since Onezio and Marildes are thinking of buying one. We spent a couple of hours there, checking out different cars (I was horrified at how expensive cars are here compared to England – I don’t know how anyone can afford one!) before Denes picked us up again a couple of hours later and we headed back home.
Thursday (yesterday) we spent most of the day at home, sorting out our things (we’re living out of a suitcase at the moment, which we keep in Denes’s room, so it gets quite messy after a few days). At about 4 pm, Kely popped by with David F. and Nicoly, and Kely’s sister Raquel, for a quick visit. It was lovely to see David F. again, and Nicoly’s so cute! A chubby little girl with rosy cheeks and curly hair, who loves to imitate everything David F. does, so you can imagine the mischief they get up to together! They couldn’t stay for long, but it was nice to see them anyway. At 6, Michel (a friend of David’s who used to live in Brighton and who shared a room in Hove with David about 2 years ago, who then returned to Brazil last year) came by to see us. He took us out for a drive in his car, and we went to a huge shopping centre the other side of the city, where we met up with Pako and Angelika (another couple who also used to live in England, good friends of David’s and Michel’s). They have a cute 2 year old boy, but he’d stayed at home with Angelika’s mum. We then went for dinner at a ‘churrascaria’, a restaurant that has a buffet style layout, where waiters dressed up as ‘gauchos’ (cowboys) serve huge skewers of a whole variety of freshly BBQ’d meat to your table (very similar to a restaurant we’d been to in London, although more authentic and much cheaper). It was really nice to see Michel, Angelika and Pako again (Pako arrived back in Brazil on the same day we did, althoughnot on the same flight, so he was very excited to be back home again too). We all agreed to meet up again soon.
Today David and Onezio had to go back into town to view some more cars, but since they only had 1 moped to use, I couldn’t go with them so I’ve taken the day to finally update my blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it and will update it again in a few days’ time. Meanwhile, I’ve uploaded photos on to a website called Orkut (similar to Facebook), where you can check out my first album of photos taken over the past week.
