a little load of updates from meg =)

22 Feb


So we had a twinkly little carnaval in capao, and walked over to the farm with ran in the afternoon. On our way we bumped a bearded barefooted man and his dog pushing a wheelbarrow of veg so we asked about the farm and found out there was room, spent the rewst of the afternoon by the river until a huge billowing storm cloud rushed over the mountain at us really fast, so we hopped it with everyone else at the river (it`s even busy here at carnaval!)

just after we set off this teeny car pulled up and told us to get in, one last glance at this cloud was enough so 7 of us squeezed in and we slowly inched down this bumpy sort of `track` through a stream and everything, only getting out to push a couple of times... We were so grateful!

Stopped at some Venetius and Catarinas house to pick up the didgeridoo Venetius made for Ran- and lost Ran in a mindblowing didge sesh, he`s not coming to Campinas any more...

We`re starting to see the suck factor of this place- when you ask people how long they`ve been here and they look at you blankly before saying um... a couple of weeks? no... what`s the date? Oh! ok... maybe a month or 2?...

We had a fun walk back, a bit chilly, believe it or not, and had chai when we got back. Now Ash and Ran are asleep and it`s only 9! Apparently some more festivities at the circus I might head down there...


24Feb

Now we`re in Campinas!
When we got here Veronica gave us breakfast and sent us off with the girls Sara and Rosa, for a guided tour.

The farm`s amazing, I`ve never seen so many herbs! Herbs for absolutely evrything, from sugar to face paint (that was fun :) )
But the rest of the day we didn`t have to work at all apart from a tiny bit of veg chopping & pot washing, we just spent the afternoon with the girls - they love our glitter and fake flowers and ribbon and glitter glue!

We made some filtro do sonyo`s with crystals found in the garden, went for a dip in the river and now it`s a big storm with trovao and relampago! The river`s flooded so we couldn`t get out even if we wanted to.

So we`re sitting in the communal kitchen having a doodle.

26th...
It`s really good here!
Yesterday we did a load of hoeing in the aloe vera patch then weeding and spreading mulch to stop the soil washing away. We`ve seen some pretty exciting bugs and torn our hands to shreds- aloe vera is brutal! Luckily we also knocked off a leaf or two so we`ve got something to put on our tatters.
Our Chilean friend Auka (another kringlin- yay!!) turned up as we were doing it, gave us a hand for a while and when it got too hot we went for a swim in the river.
Last night was good too, me and Ash and Auka walked to Capao and found the circus with all its goings on. It was nice to see some people and lights! :)
The circus was brilliant, (they have some really good clowns!)
And no rules or political correctness apply to Brazilian... well anything really!
The lady on the silks was amazing, and the Israeli lady on the trapeze too, in her pyjamas and hloding a pillow the whole time :)
Berto was dressed (and painted!) like the ladies in white from Salvador who sell food and cakes, with a big fake bunda & boobs.
After the show we hopped on the back of a truck that was going in the direction of the farm and walked the rest of the way, getting home at um poco para um a manha.

Today we made some paths through the Citronella and Lemongrass patches (so we didn`t get bitten by mossies so much!) and then went to the herb room to strip piles and piles of Salvia and put it out to dry! (They use it as medicine here)
Then this other herb Carqueja which is for making tea, which apparently cures pretty much everything from worms to diabetes.
But when I got the last handful out of the box I had to squeak because there was a tarantula on the herbs! We both squeaked a bit more and got out the branches around it till it was sitting at the bottom of the box, then I took it outside, had a little look and left the box upside down on a bush.
After lunch and doing some washing, we went for a nadar in the nu with Sara and Auka, and painted each other like indians with reddy rocks from the river, and played hopscotch till we heard people coming, when we went back as we flt a bit silly.
Fun times! :)