to my English-speaking friends

I have been writing this blog in French but feel very sorry for my friends who struggle to make sense with it, and so at least for some time I will try to stick to English. First things first, here is a brief history of what happened since we came to Brazil.

We have been living in Ouro Preto for 5 months already and fortunately things have improved a lot since we arrived. The first 3 months were very hard for me (and therefore the whole family). It rained all the time (heavy tropical rain) and the house was very dark, leaked and was full of funghi, mold and mushroom. On top of that I really could not communicate as nobody here speaks English. Outside our house was indeed the bakery that Cristiano had mentioned, but also a steep street that I had to walk up with my growing belly and missy Leila on my shoulders.

Then we moved to the house where we stay now and it changed everything. This house has windows all over, so it is full of light, it is very well situated (I do not have to walk up steep to get groceries) and we have a wonderful view of the town. Leila feels a lot more comfortable here and so her behavior changed a lot. She is now a lot more independant. Just after we moved (and not before!) she started playing by herself. She loves drawing, cutting, gluing, which allows me to do other things in the house. Since the beginning of the month Leila also goes to school 4h a day and it feels like a time when I can breathe better.

At the beginning Cristiano had to do everything because I could not speak of course. He must have spent a month doing admin, fixing official documents and all the little details that we needed as we were settlers in a new country. I find that it did not take me too long to start having a conversion with people in shops, mostly because they are very helpful, they guess what I try to say and do not mind my poor grammar (they are keen to sell and we had nothing in terms of furniture, appliances, etc.). It was fun. I appreciate their kindness. I also take a Portuguese course once a week, which is not a lot but does help. As for Leila, she only spoke a few words after 4 months here, but after 2 weeks of school, she speaks a lot!

Cristiano and I both suffer from heavy nostalgia for the life that we left in SA, and I miss my friends a hell of a lot. I have not found a way to make friends here. I remember that it took some time before I managed in Stellenbosch too. Women here seem to be obsessed about keeping their houses clean, as I found out when trying to have a conversation with mums at Leila's school: I thought they were really shy because they hardly spoke but when one brought up the issue of cleaning the kitchen after their husbands cooked they became all excited and very chatty (I felt I wanted to cry a little).

Now is Carnival in the whole of Brazil, and the one in Ouro Preto is quite famous (so there is a lot of noise all over town at the moment). I am 7 days away from the due date, Natasha (our SA midwife) is arriving in 2 days and will stay for 2 weeks, I do not know the sex of the baby, but I know it is going to be born under the sign of Pisces and that makes me happy because I feel that it is coming soon and I am really looking forward to the birth now. This may be for the wrong reasons though: I would do with a few less kilos when I carry Leila around.