Yesterday was the first proper work day at Kaaysa, and I’m learning a few things. One is that I have to work intensely in the morning before the heat gets too much – it was 32C by the afternoon, and that’s the kind of temperature that my brain is almost completely non-functional for complex processes. Still, I had got up, and edited through 24 pages of my current work in progress before the strike happened.
The other thing is to expect the unexpected – and the unexpected usually involves swimming costumes. Just after I had finished I was invited for a dog walk to the river. Lourdina, who manages the residency, has two great big red dogs, Tutti and Frutti (I think I’m spelling it right – it has a slightly different sound in Portuguese so I might be getting it wrong). A group of us went down to the river that flows near the back of the centre. The dogs leapt happily in, as did the people, who’d all brought their swimming gear. I was actually glad not to have come with mine, as I had some cuts on my leg, and the idea of being in a Brazilian river in the early stages of my Hep A vaccination was a little scary.
Later on, I needed to go to the market, and another group offered a lift and some accompaniment. They were also going to the beach – so it turned out I was too. The picture above is from the beach at sunset. We stayed there a good long while, which was great, except – again – no swimming costume. So I wrote some notes instead in my journal which will go towards the site-specific flash collection I want to write after all this is done.
More on the unexpected theme – as we were driving down to the beach, traffic was backed up. It’s Carnival, and the streets were full of people in tutus and sparkly outfits (including the men). While we were jostling down the road in the car, a fight broke out between a couple – the woman being so angry she glassed the man, and blood ran down his arm. He then kicked her to the ground, and bystanders rushed in to separate them and stop the bleeding.
“Carnival”, said the other artists, by way of explanation. And I got to explain that in Scotland we have a word for hitting someone with a glass. Cultural exchange!
Otherwise Boiçucanga seems a safe place. It’s mostly families and groups of friends who visit. There are young coconuts sold from beach vendors, upbeat music played not obnoxiously loud on stereos, and folk standing on surfboards paddling about on the shimmering sea.
Every day in the afternoon there’s a torrential downpour (video here) and we were caught on it on the way to the supermarket. Time for an açaí break in a local cafe, listening to the rain falling and the lightning crashing about from a kinder vantage point than the day before. I tried the açaí ice cream with chopped bananas, and a sip of an açaí smoothie. The ice cream was stupendously sweet (and still pretty good) but the smoothie was delicious.
The supermarket brought new challenges – it was packed with holiday makers and unfamiliar goods that were, it turns out, at mostly UK-level prices. I grabbed a few things that looked reasonable (with the help of my guides) and entered The Queue (all caps). It was the slowest one ever – the cashiers had decided, at peak customer hour, to cash up the tills, which meant laboriously counting out the money and moving it out. Then when that was done, the man in front of us was using the supermarket to pay his bills, which is something you can do here. It meant a lot of scanning and receipt admin and more waiting. Finally it was done and we piled in another artist’s car to head for home in the rainy dark. On the street the mood was still bright – people hanging out in small bars, singing as the biked about or mingled, music everywhere.
I settle down today to get another chunk of work done, now with my swimming costume ready to go, for what ever comes.
Schietree 