Family and Friends

Togetherness. Much time spent in mamae´s (mom´s) kitchen either sitting around the large circular table or using my hands to help where I´m able to. I like to watch mamae go about her activities in the kitchen and I think I have learned a few new things from her. While watching Marlene (the younger sister of my sister-in-law, Marilda) last night preparing a salad for a party we were going to, I learned that ketchup goes quite well with fruit - if it´s mixed with `creme de leite`(cream of milk), that is. The fruits were pineapple and apple and the mixture was very good, I thought. Because of my surprise at adding ketchup to a fruit salad, I now joke with Marlene that it´s called `salada de ketchup`- and she cracks up laughing. I love to see her laugh. She´s surviving breast cancer right now after finishing up with her treatments earlier this year. She´s 46 years old and discovered her disease maybe about 2.5 - 3 years ago. A few days ago, she picked up her new Peuguot car - a small, cute, 4-door number with power-assisted (or just power, I´m not sure) steering, which her doctor recommended she drive instead of the usual - manual steering, which some of you may have experienced at some point in your life. And if you haven´t, well..., it can be pretty difficult when the vehicle is not moving or it is moving slowly. I was with her and I took a photo of her sitting in her new car just before she drove away from the dealership.
Last night, I and 4 of my 5 sisters-in-law went to a party at their cousin, Ana Maria´s (married to Manuel) house. That´s why Marlene made the `salada de ketchup`. The party was hosted by their beautiful daughter, Mariana, who I think is about 26 years old, and her German boyfriend, Lars. Lars is a musician and plays classical guitar, and many other style of guitar I think, and he performed for us briefly on his newly acquired, Spanish luthier-made, 8-string guitar. He played some beautiful music and the guitar sounded lovely - he told me he gave the guitar its debut. He also told me that he loves, loves, LOVES Brasilian music, except for the stuff that came out in the 80´s. As many of you might remember, there was not much good to come out in the 80´s music in the United States. Maybe the 80´s were just a dead time in general for music in many parts of the world? I understand that he lives in Frankfurt, Germany for 6 months at a time, playing music and composing, and then returns to Goiana, Brasil to be with Mariana. He and I exchanged email addresses and I intend on learning more from him about his classical guitar playing as maybe he is a candidate to recruit for a performance for the Minnesota Guitar Society. That would be cool for me to be able to arrange something like that.
This morning, I made note of an observation I made after reading an email message I received from a girlfriend in the United States. And that is, happy hours in the USA typically involve meeting friends and co-workers at a bar or restaurant and having an alcoholic beverage of some sort, and maybe a little bite of food, and sometimes even, dinner. Here in Anapolis, Brasil, in mamae´s family and friend circle, it consists of cafe´ and some baked goods, both sweet and salt ones, and lasts anywhere from an hour and up to 3 (which would be unusually long). These daily weekday casual get-togethers occur at someone´s house and begin anytime after 6:30 pm. Sometimes they are planned the day before or the morning of, and sometimes people just drop on in. All are welcome. Everyone talks with one another, sharing what they want, telling stories, with no radio or t.v. blaring in the background. Usually, there is much laughing, too. I like these times. It seems that everyone is really paying attention to and listening to one another.