My Home

I had class today at the clinic at 10. We went Brazil's Political Structure and other related topics. They have a very similar bicameral legislative system like the US on the national level but with many more representatives. Also, keep in mind that their are about 30 political parties... I don't know how they get anything done! They have similar "coalition" governments like in Europe and apparently people switch parties very often. Since there are not strong party lines, politicians are more bipartisan and use their votes to secure future elections by voting for popular bills even though they might not be fiscally responsible. They also have three branches of government and the judicial branch has quite a lot of power. The state government depends on the state and some municipality governments can be as big as Maryland. We also talked about grant writing and I think I will do mine on Doctors without Borders so that I can learn more about the organization. I also have to make a grant for CADEC which will be hard since acquiring information across the language barrier will be challenging.


After class, we went to CADEC for our first real day of school, but the cook was sick so they canceled the afternoon classes. I thought about how this would never happen in a more developed country, but I guess you have to remember that this is a volunteer organization and not a school with paid teachers. The picture is of me and Andre who is now too old to come to CADEC. I met him the first day and since he was older than most the kids, he understood that he had to speak slowly to me.

We ate a quick lunch at CADEC and then boarded the bus for home... a short Monday! Once I got home, I worked on my Journal of Heredity Publication and then went to the beach to read my book. My sisters were not home since this is their first day after their summer vacation. Amanda came home and asked me to help her with an English class because if she is in the top 6 students then she will get to stay with a Canadian family for a semester for free. I told her that she didn't want to stay with a Canadian family because they don't speak real English anyways and she would learn incorrectly (just kidding Heather).

The following pictures are of my house. I am really starting to feel home here and I really want to buy some things to decorate my room. Currently, I feel like I am living in a prison cell because the walls are totally white. I guess if my Laurel's and my mom's packages ever get here then I'll decorate the walls with pictures. The first picture is of Lobo or "wolf" he's only two years old but huge. I really like him but they won't let me run with him because he would scare everyone on the beach. The other picture is Bobby and the blind cat Pandora. I don't like Bobby because he begs and I don't like small dogs in general. Pandora is really nice but its so funny when she runs straight into things. The third picture is of my house. We are in a three house enclosure and are the middle house. All things considered this house is amazingly nice for here. I am only 1 block from the beach! My family is very rich and blessed to have such a nice house.

So I just said that my family was rich, but that might not be true. Yesterday my mom was telling me to ask Daniel when the check for my room and board will come in. I feel that they got the short end of the stick by having to feed me rather than Nicole (I am now eating a lot because I am exercising and accustomed to the food). My mom told me that she was broke and needed to go to the market. I wanted to give her money but I figured this was an issue for Daniel. Today I told her that the check would be coming soon but she pulled money out of her bra and said that she didn't need it and "Thank God." I not really sure where she got the money but she did exercise with her niece today so maybe its a loan from her family. On the topic of money, my family's fridge is always empty but we always have pretty good meals (today I only had bread and butter for breakfast because she couldn't go to the store). However, I think that my family lives paycheck to paycheck and probably has very little savings. They do have health insurance at public hospitals through my dad's work (Banco do Brazil), but it is apparently very inadequate. I do know one way they waste a lot of money... Beer!

I took a short run around 6 and then went to the supermarket. I only took $20 Reals which was a mistake. I bought shampoo, a soft drink, and some Tabasco sauce and it cost $15. I couldn't even buy soy sauce. I am starting to get tired of the same beans and rice everyday, but these small condiments make the meal amazing. I could really use some Frank's Red Hot right now!