Should I stay or should I go now? or...the Art of Txiga-ing

"Bzot kre mais um ponche?" he offered, the strong sweet liquid already starting to pour into the glass. "Si!" Josh replied; "No obrigada, m ti ta toma feria" I said...I'm taking a vacation. From alchol, that is. And so we sat, Josh sipping his ponche, me trying desperately to hold Gus in my lap; he wouldn't stop freaking out over the chiuaua Simba who, although twice his age but only half his size, would not stop mounting him.

This continued for about 20 minutes, with sporadic bursts of conversation intertwined, mostly about work and the upcoming huge festa, San Joao. Our neighbor, Arlindo, who had invited us to "txiga" was telling us about his band that would be playing on Monday night, and how we should come. And how it would start around midnight. On Monday.

"Txiga" technically means "to arrive." As in "Nos txiga!" - We've arrived! But as with all languages, there are nuances and alternate meanings, and txiga also means to come over and sit and visit for a while. So when someone says "Txiga, txiga!" and motions for you to come towards them, it is an invitation to hang out for a while. It's sort of rude to turn them down, although as typical Americans we are generally hurrying to and fro...except it's not like there's really anywhere to go in a hurry. It's something we're learning to adapt to.

But we have yet to really master the art of the txiga. Maybe it's because I talk so much, or because in America we like regular streams of conversation, but I find it sort of akward. Here you are sitting in someones house, usually with the tv on, and no one is really talking or you talk in short bursts but not about anything in particular. Small talk...but really, really small talk. And lots of misunderstandings, or at least a degree of difficulty exactly understanding what each other is saying.

"When is your group playing?"
"Last Monday, in Paul."
"Oh, ok so when do they play in Port again?"
"Monday."
"So they played in Paul last Monday and in Port this Monday?"
"No no, just in Port for the festa."
"But the festa is next week..."
"Right, we start early and someone will play every night in the praca."
"Oh down here?"
"No, the other praca."
"Ahh, ok."
*end*

It got even more confusing last night because apparently, in our neighbors first floor, the Camara and some other NGO's have build a community/youth center, with one small room that has computers and chairs for classes, and another open space for youth. I tried to figure out who paid for it, who was involved, who would be doing programming, what sorts of stuff they would be doing, how he was involved, why it was built at his house...I think I got most of it...but I'm mostly confused by the following:

1. The project somehow involves the Camara.
2. The project somehow directly involves my Counterpart...you know, the one who never has work for me or time to work with me.
3. My Counterpart is apparently involved in setting up programs.
4. My Counterpart has never mentioned ANY of this to me.

*sigh*

But I digress, as this is about the txiga.

The artful portion of this for a foreigner is how to exit. At what point is it rude to stay? At what point is it rude to leave? How does one gage this, and how does one artfully rise and exit? They already think we're nuts because we eat dinner at 7pm...apparently 9pm is a better time to eat and they think it's funny when we get up to go make dinner when we're hanging out on the street outside...or txiga-ing. But when you are sitting around, akwardly in someones house that you really only know in passing, and the conversation is halting at best and for the most part you are watching Portuguese soap operas on tv...well...what happens next?

I don't know. I'm not sure I'll really ever know. It's like the whole toilet paper thing - if you aren't supposed to put the TP in the toilet, but there is no waste paper basket to throw the TP into, where do you put it? (the answers I've gotten were "on the floor behind the toilet" or "in the toilet anyway." Verdict is still out on that one.) So in our akward foreigner way, we said we should go so we could feed Gus and plus he was being a total wiggle worm. They also thought that was funny, that the dog had a feeding schedule.

Oh well.

Ti logu,
Dove

Happy Birthday to MEEEE! (well, almost...)

Sooo...Friday is my 30th birthday. Just thought I would remind everyone, which might prompt some of you to actually send us an email or comment on the blog (*cough* hint hint *cough*). Just sayin...

Also, I've had a couple of you lovely readers ask me what stuff we need on our little island. We're pretty set here, thanks to the bi-weekly spice-and-snack contributions of my mother, who apparently has nothing better to do with her money than spend it on me (of which I am eternally grateful). However, it's always fun getting "stuff" from folks, so here is a super short list:

1. Kool-Aid packets! Just plain ol' Kool-Aid, those $.20 packets, in most flavors except maybe apple and grape. Oh and Purplesaures Rex. Never did like that one. Nothing with sweetener, we add it here. I'm not a big fan of the uber sweet stuff we have here, plus you can make a mean cocktail with some Kool-Aid and sweetener.

2. Flax seed meal. As some of you have followed my expanding and then shrinking waistline (btw I'm down almost 25lbs now), I've started using flax seed meal a lot. I think Wegmans sells it in the Nature's Market for $5.

4. OH! Adding another! Unsweetened gelatin. So much you can make with that.

That's it, I think we have everything else we could possibly want.

A "for real" blog update coming your way soon...

Making progress (Josh)

The old soccer stadium

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of seeing a couple construction projects actually see an inauguration. Oh and how they love their inauguration parties. Especially when it's a soccer stadium. Nothing brings people together here like a game of soccer. So when the new beautiful stadium with artificial turf opened it was a big deal to say the least, and we were curious what it would be like. We were told to show up at 10 am and there would be a tour of the new stadium and so we did. Sure enough a fair number of people wandering around and checking out the new shiny stadium, but no real festa. We waited around in the heat for about 5 hours with nothing really going on but a steady growing buzz of activity. Then there was an announcement that everyone had to go outside for the ribbon cutting. We thought, great this is it! As everyone was piled around the flag poles that held oversized soccer flags trumping even the country flag, the ribbon was cut and we asked, "Ok, now what?" A youth soccer game of course, to come before the official game. Oh ... well since arriving, we've decided that soccer really isn't our thing, and to sit through two games, let alone one was a bit too much. So we decided to call it a day, a little disappointed that there wasn't more a party but glad to see a major construction project come to completion where so many languish. Oh and we came to find out later that we left at a good time, as we also missed a lengthy speech in between the soccer games that "officially" inaugurated the stadium; they like their speeches too. I guess some things are universal!
The new stadium

That brings me to our second construction project that was completed and inaugurated just two weeks later: The first paved road on our island. After our lengthy day of wandering the stadium and being underwhelmed by the activities, we decided to sit the actual inauguration of this one out, thinking the cool festa portion would take place later. This time the choice was not so well advised. It turned out that there was the mother of all parties at the end opposite end of the road, and by the time we decided to go, everyone was already there partying so getting there was out of the question. Ah well, that's life.


The new road

We've enjoyed the road since then. Just this past weekend I went with my counterpart and a group of others from the Camara to a "beach" (a place where the ocean meets land that isn't a cliff side). We had a cookout and just relaxed for the afternoon. Who knew that squid was such a grilling delicacy? Who knew I'd get so harassed about not having a "picania?" (ie a girlfriend on the side)

As far as my work goes at the Camara, that's making progress too. They have actually started to do some serious data entry in the program that I created for them after I gave them an update and opened their eyes to what the application could do. I love to see the excitement build as they roll ideas around in their head about what else it could. I've even taken the opportunity to publish some of the internationalization objects I've created for dealing with different currency formatting. (http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/1525/) It feels pretty good to be doing what I'm actually GOOD at while I'm here.