minhas irmãs

minhas irmãs. my sisters.

i returned again to shopping barra today. i HATE malls in the traditional sense. no creativity. in brasil, i would say, malls have are more purposeful. shopping barra has a huge wing dedictated to the government. you have pharmacies. etc. i always (almost) go with a purpose. today i hoped to purchase so nail polish remover, cuticle pusher, watch, sunglasses, and jewelrymaking supplies. mission accompished. well, most of it.

upon returning to the hotel, erida informed me that S stopped by to invite me to lunch. i quickly dropped off my goods and ran back out to the streets to search for her. it´s pretty easy to find S because she is almost always at the beach watching her man. lol. i am always eager to hang out since i dont get too much time with people.

i didn´t expect to find her soooo easy, but she was literally right around the corner from the doll house talking on the payphone. good thing i like to stare at people. me and S met up with three other sistas and headed for a long walk to lunch. there was Raquel (pronounced ha-kell), an afro-brasilian who i think is a career student (linguistics, history, anthropology). Okezi, a black american currently getting her ph.d at g-town. and Rubella (pronounced hoo-bella) and naomi, a mother and daughter from good ole salvador.

we wondered around Barra aimlessly for about 30 minutes. of course we wanted to eat, but we were all so busy talking that we never really decided where to eat. finally i suggested my regular spot. i am ashamed to say i have eaten at picui 6 times this week. what a shame!!!

but its good and convenient.

anyway. we had a nice slow lunch of chicken, steak, salmon, rice, tacky beans, a brasilian salsa, pickled onions, and a malty beer (dark and sweet).

even more delicious than the meal was our conversation. we went around the table and formally introduced ourselves. S actually pointed out that yours truly is "probably the smartest woman at the table." sniff sniff. i dont know what would give her that idea. we talked a lot about afro-brasilian and african-american relations, ignorance, education, raising a non-profit, music... .

of course, the state of "black" relationships (my least favorite subject in the world) came up at the end of our date as we stood in the street waiting to go our seperate ways. sigh.

but definately a delightful afternoon indeed.