It's Friday

A Torreja: Basically a fried pancake with melted cheese and plantain,
minus the syrup because that would be weird.
BEST. THING. EVER.

TGIF! In Bahia. This is what I did today:

           We woke up at the crack of dawn thanks to the roosters, and made sure to make it to breakfast at 8:30 because Doña Mariana expects to serve us at that time. We had bread, queso, and recently hard boiled eggs. Everyone was in pain cracking them because they were so hot. Then, we had our hour long spanish written exams. I did alright, and am finally getting the hang of the rules of accents on letters and being able to explain where they go and when. Taking French definitely helped me with preterite/imperfect, so that wasn't so bad. After an hour we began working on our translations of spanish stories and it was harder than I thought, but I like translating and trying to get the same senses out of one story and transplanting them into another language.

Working on shooting a story.

         For lunch we had soup and rice with some form of mystery sausage with rice and more plantains. Plantains have started to replace meat for us. We walked over to the museum for the cinema workshop, and in between we made an ice cream stop but I haven't tried it here because I'm so full after lunch. The workshop was pretty productive. We go to the basement of the museum (we haven't even seen the exhibits yet) and go to a classroom. At first I thought there were more local girls than boys, but today I was the only girl in a group with 3 guys. They are 'high schoolers' but they range from the ages of 14 to 28! They are bright and enthusiastic kids, and so far seem willing to learn and the soak up information like sponges. They already know about camera angles and the rule of thirds. I'm getting there. Today we had to shoot a story in 6 pictures, so we went for the classic 'stuck in an elevator' story, with the guard's help.

         After the shoot, I had a great conversation with 28-year-old David, who was the 'director' of our group. He has lived for a year and a half in Bahia. He talked about how he likes learning about all kinds of things, and how he enjoys playing guitar and writing music. This is his second year taking the cinema workshop. I found it surprising that some students have been doing this workshop in past years. He said it is sad that some kids have come expecting to be spoon fed, but that they become so badly behaved that they are dismissed from the group. He is interested in learning english and traveling, and I hope he achieves what he wants some day. I thought he was a pretty confident guy because you pretty much have to be if you are ten years older than most of your classmates. He didn't look older. Then another guy in my group asked me if I liked running, and then said he saw me running on the beach the morning before. This really IS a small town! After the class, the kids asked for our names to find us on facebook. Half of them already know where we live, I think. We went to the grocery store on our way to dinner and Maddie bought a soccer ball I just bought liquid soap. They don't use body wash here! Just bar soap!  How odd. Considering that water and power goes out here so often (today a 'transformer' exploded so we ran out of power for a while), I am not so picky about body wash. Plus, I'll be home to the U.S. and all of its comforts soon.
       Before dinner we wanted to go to the beach but couldn't because the tide was so high so we just took pictures in front of it and this creepy guy followed us. Then we helped paint a wall with black paint because it was for some eco-friendly youth program. I don't know, but over here you just go with it. At dinner, I was so happy because Doña was making torrejas (see photo above), and she sensed my excitement. I had asked her to make them more often and she listened! :D After dinner I washed the dishes with Crystal, but in a very efficient way. Here water is scarce so we filled up a pan with water, which we used to rinse the dishes. The way they save water here will make me guilty to go back to the U.S. and see how much we waste, but I definitely will be more resource-conscious. The people here don't waste things in general. They use old buckets for flower pots and you don't really see much garbage lying around. This town in a developing country is cleaner than Aix-en-Provence, in southern FRANCE. Mmhmm!
        After dinner we had the house to ourselves and played Wii sports. I played tennis against some of the girls while sitting down. I told them it's all in the flick of the wrist but I seem to have lost my touch over the years. Maybe next time I'll stand up. Before going home, we had to find Carolina, the dog that lives in the house and always begs at the dinner table. Shaun went to get her because she had found some other people near the beach, and he came back with her in his arms. She is just this little white skinny dog, and she seemed to enjoy herself. Even the dogs here are more chilled out! On our way home we passed several restaurants, and noticed that some don't even have signs. Just tables outside. I like how family owned everything is. There are no Mcdonalds or KFCs in sight. In Quito, the KFCs have kids playparks and they call them "Chicky parks". Tomorrow Doña wants us to have breakfast at 8 am, and afterward we are going to the beach. Even thought we are at the equator, sunny days are rare. Yesterday was the first sunny day in a week, but I hope tomorrow it's like that.
         Me gusta estar aqui. Hoy, me tomé mi examen afuera de la casa y cuando acabé, me sentía muy calmada. Hay un árbol en frente de la casa que tiene ojas verdes que son más oscuras que otras, y veía a la gente caminando por la calle en frente de la puerta del jardín. Las casas son bien pegaditas aquí como en México. Me siento mas relajada aquí porque me recuerda mucho de México...tomar jugos frescos, decir buenos días a la gente, y ver a los letreros en español. En ese momento, respiraba el aire que viene del mar y aunque estuviera nublado, me encantaba el lugar en donde estaba. La gente aqui se nutre de las cosas simples. Cada mañana, pasa el vendedor de leche, de agua, de frutas, y el comprador de chatarra. Pensé que algún día me regresaría a este lugar simple. Como el poeta Armando Tejada Gómez
dijo en su "Canción de las simples cosas":

"Uno vuelve siempre a los viejos sitios 

en que amó la vida, y entonces comprende como están 

de ausentes las cosas queridas"

Él dice también que "las cosas simples las devora el tiempo." ¿Qué pasa cuando vives en un lugar verdaderamente simple?