Captain’s blog star date: 22.02.2011


I nice day at UFOP, after a trip downstairs to get a few things from the supermercado…  then a stop at the cell phone store to enjoy the confusion of getting me hooked up temporarily… then a great solitary ride on a lotação (I was the only one!) with a driver who remembered me… got to work, sat around for awhile, sent some emails… read up on how to do  certain things and it was time for me to go to Marger’s for lunch (she had made me promise that I would have lunch with Viana – her husband-  as Marger was traveling to one of the pólos for a formatura. Viana and Marger are angels and have been so loving and supportive… he’s a tiny little retired policeman who looks like Magoo and drives liek him too, and when I walked in to the house he was sitting watching rock videos… mind you he’s older than my father.  Last nite he drove me in his pickup with all our baggage, to Flomon all the time with Bob Marley’s “exodus” playing on his radio… which I found extremely appropriate. Back I went (both ways a nice walk and bus ride… along an nice road, with a cow that had the loveliest eyes, watching me intently either way. Got to my work space, and found the Jorge ( pronounced: almost like George... but with J that makes ja sound – never, ever say “Hor Hey” unless Horhey is from outside of Brasil), the math coordinator had been looking for me (that is how you  how people find you here, you leave for a moment). I ended up having a great afternoon, sitting with him and the other coordinators… CEAD uses all free ware… and they do amazing things with it! Looking at their work, and the quality of stuff I am about to learn how to use, you cannot see any difference between it and the MS stuff we pay thousands for… this is going to be enlightening! I was also shown a Brazilian-Chinese made Kindle clone that we are considering using in place of books… so after taking his whole afternoon, I left him and waited for a bus, one came it was packed… me, and all the maids and trabalhadores from Bauxita headed home… got off in downtown, and walked  home, meeting two or three people  who were happy I finally made it! Bought some pão frances at the padaria at the bottom of Rua Alvarenga, and came home just in time to hear thunder…  which portended rain… and a few minutes later… ahhhhh! My first pancada of 2011… so waited a bit and hooked up the computer and am listening to NPR via i-pod radio as I write... trying not to get crumbs on the keyboard.

Damn! I realized that I forgot to pack the peanut butter! Even with out the peanut butter, its good here!

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