Friday
September 21, 2012
Its noon on Friday and the whole world seems to have
disappeared on siesta break. I’m sitting
on a concrete manhole cover leaning against a wooden post, my face to the sun, the pungent
scent of raw sewage interfering with my latest thoughts:
I
took a walk alone with myself today,
And
it occurred to me
That
deep down, if I really ask and answer myself,
I
finally know who I am… who my “authentic self” is
And
it occurred to me in that same thought
That
if I told anyone about him
They
might not like him anymore
And
so
I
will continue working on him.
It’s a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say,
"Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Clearly I need to stop sitting on manholes.
Lunch was the requisite rice and beans but I managed
a scoop of beef stew, cauliflower and some omelette to go with my lettuce and carrot salad.
The funny thing is I have been looking for avocados since I got here and when I sat down on a bench and opened my abacate up, it was a massive avocado! They are the size of an extra large grapefruit but are actually one of 500 diffferent varieties of avocados.
My other discovery, or lack of discovery involves a quest for peanut butter for the past ten days. I bought what I thought was a container of peanut butter only to find out that it was a sickeningly sweet paste called, "Dolce de Leite Pastosos" which sounded like Peanut Butter to me.
So much for my Portuguese! Google translates it literally as "Sweet Milk Pasty". I have continued looking for the past week, adding a request for Kraft peanut butter to my nightly prayers, but tonight I ran into one of our interpreters in the "Super Mercado" and he broke the news to me that they don't have peanut butter down here... Pout!
The word is that we have nothing to do all weekend... Monday I have to take the plant orientation all day and then there is at least a two day gap while I apply for a pass based on all the training, my medical, my credentials, etc, etc. In the meantime, I have hopes of begging, borrowing, or buying a used bike so I can speed up and spread out my travels. Tomorrow I will walk the length of town just to get to the other side... :)
