Update

Its raining and the mosquitoes are biting. I'm pretty used to both now. At any given time I have at least four bites on my body. Usually, my ass because when I get up to breastfeed Maddie, for her 3 AM snack, I think my butt sticks out of the mosquito netting. So, I haven't written in awhile. I've been working on integrating one of my first letters with a friend of mine's letter. Her name is Ophelia and she has moved to Cuba with her husband and two-year-old daughter, Lucy. We promised to write corresponding letters to each other, but it took them a bit longer to get into the "field" due to visa issues. She has finally written her first letter, which is amazing! So, I've been going back over my first letters and integrated them with hers, which is a fun exercise.

I realize that when I write, at times, it appears that I am down in the dumps, ready to take Prozac or some variety of pharmaceutical. This is not the case. Ever since I was a kid I can remember running to the bathroom with pen and paper, sitting on the pot, and writing like crazy about how pissed off I was at my brother or sister, how unfair life was and plots of great revenge. I wish I would have saved those reams of prose, but in fact, I threw them away right after writing them. So, writing for me is a release. I know life is ever shifting, ever changing, and that no matter how stressful the moment is; it is truly, only a moment in time—fleeting.


Turning now to life pre-Pascua (Easter). Since Brazil is about 90% catholic, Pascua is a huge deal here. It starts on Thursday, everything is closed through Sunday. People start to party on Thursday night, which goes until the wee hours of Friday morning. An evangelist church down the street is starting a prayer vigil that will go from Friday night through Sunday morning. The Catholic Church on the corner is reenacting Jesus' "walk", by gathering at 4AM on Sunday morning and walking down to the center of town and back for church services at 7:30. And Matthew's church, yes, he became fardado, celebrated last night. The service started at 6 PM and went until 7 AM. He told me all the hymns and prayers that they said, which I figured, amounted to more prayers than I have done in my entire life! They sung some 300 hymns which were punctuated, here and there, by Our Fathers, Hail Mary's, and fireworks (of course). We are planning on returning to my roots this year and attending the Catholic Church on the corner for Pascua mass. My mom sent the girls matching dresses, which really sends me back to childhood, when she dressed my sister and I alike.

Boa Pascua a todos!