We are walking a lot more than we did when we had a car, but we walk pretty slowly. The sidewalks are incredibly uneven and irregular. I have taken pictures (that someday I´ll get posted) of the sidewalks. It is my most familiar sight in Porto Alegre and I spend much more time looking at sidewalks than the nice view from my apartment window. The homeowners or businesses seem to be responsible for the sidewalk in front of each place. Some sidewalks are cement squares, most are irregular flagstone, some are dirt paths. Then we step off the sidewalk over a carved, curved pink granite curbstone. The streets in Brazil were originally made of Paralelepipedos. Those are rectangular cube cobblestones hand hewn from pink granite. Millions of them. Even modern streets other than new contruction, are black top over the paralelepipedos. Many, many streets have no blacktop, and just the irregular, uneven stones which are difficult for me to walk on. (Street soccer players seem to have no problem!) I have not fallen, but twice I have come close. Both times I grabbed someone's arm as I was almost going down. One time it was a complete stranger standing near the bus stop as I was rushing to get to the stop on time for the bus. Like mother, I am really afraid of falling. I look down and watch where I am walking all the time. If it's not a tree root or loose flagstone, it´s dog poop you have to watch out for. I think more than half the people here own one or more dogs, and there are no pooper scooper laws. Some individuals (actually I think I have seen only one) pick up after their dogs, and poop is a real hazard. Then there are numerous wet tree flower blossoms that I have slipped on more than once. Beautiful but treacherous. Bob wears a back pack to carry his books, and other stuff, and I hang onto the strap under his arm, which has saved me a few times, and once saved him when he tripped. So we go slow, but I am enjoying the walking. It is very interesting to see what the next section of side walk will be. When I was a child, and went shopping downtown with my mother, I'd be very careful not to step on the cracks in the sidewalk. "Step on a crack--break your mother's back!" There is no way they could say that in Brazil--every mother would be in traction!
I told my sister Sue about the paralelepipedos, and she replied in an e-mail:
"Yvonne, I think those are what we call "cobblestones" and they were used late 1800's and first 30-40 years of the 1900's to pave the streets in Indianapolis, especially the streetcar track routes. Your dad brought these home to Bargersville (streets were being replaced, paved with bituminous) when we moved to Bargersville in 1950 and he used them to outline the driveway. They were definitely granite blocks, about 5 or 6 inches square on end, about 10 inches long (and heavy!). They were very pretty and very durable and "free" at the time your dad brought them home (recycling, even then). I see these pavers sometimes in Minneapolis where the asphalt has been worn away over them. They are practically indestructible! "
When I read Sue's e-mail I could see in my mind the blocks that lined our driveway, but I had no idea they were cobblestones!
The first time I heard the word paralelepipedos, I laughed! It took me a long time to learn to say it correctly, but when I casually threw it into a conversation, I impressed some Brazilians. Then they asked my if I could say their word for blender--liquidificador (lee-kee-dee-fee-kah-door!
I am having so many opportunities for learning humility. I read a quote from Mother Teresa that impressed me. She said we learn humility by accepting the things that make us feel humble. She said we should never let a chance to learn humility pass us by. She said it is so easy to be irritable, selfish, moody, sarcastic, critical--so easy. But we are meant for greater things.
It really hit me how easy it is to return a grouchy comment, or to take offense when I am corrected. I realize that I don't like to be wrong. I like to do things well. You could even say I take PRIDE (the opposite of humility) in being correct, knowing the right answer. (I can hear my children saying, Duh, ya think, Mom?) Well, here in Brazil, I am wrong a lot. There is so much I do not know and don't understand. I am excited about learning new things, and trying to my best. But right now my best is giving me many chances to learn humility.
So, on to greater things!
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I enjoy your posts so much! I love seeing you have an opportunity to see another part of the world. Two or three week vacations just don't do it, don't let one really learn about a country or a people. One needs to live there, for at least a year, to even begin to understand the people and their country. Even after two or three years of living in a place, one still does not know all there is to know about the place. I'm so glad you are having this experience of seeing how others do, different from how we do.
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