Kyle Berg

I met up late morning with Valeria after having a great night’s sleep. Before meeting Thiciane, we had some time to bum around and eat lunch. After our extravagant feast the day before, we split 10 of what were basically mini pizzas. During our lunch, we had a really nice conversation. I had noticed a big change in Valeria and it was especially apparent as we talked that afternoon. It was as though I was speaking with a different person in many ways. She was more down to earth and had gained a whole new perspective. We discussed Argentina and it was interesting to hear her view as an educator. Her friendships with middle and upper class people in Brazil had really given her the opportunity to examine how the members of her lower class family and many of her friends thought. Her family often made fun of her for trying to speak properly and for correcting their recurrent errors. They could not see the correlation between education and their economic situation or job opportunities. She talked about how, despite the free education available at the University of Buenos Aires, almost all her classmates were middle and upper class. It was the attitude and the manner in which people think, she concluded, not their economic status that determined their success. Ditto sister.

Thiciane took us to another of Curitiba’s beautiful parks. In such a peaceful setting, free of noise and traffic, I found it hard to believe we were in the city. The front featured a long, shallow pool with several small fountains shooting streams of water toward the center. From the balcony above we could look down on the lake on the other side of the park and appreciate all the green around us. We hung around the dock below and watched the man-made waterfall descend gracefully from the point where we had been. Valeria had a commitment at 7, so we journeyed around the lake, walked through the small cave opening in the rock, and returned to the car. (It was really nice that she had friends with cars).

Valeria had met an Argentine woman in Curitiba and they got to talking and somehow Valeria promised to attend the first communion of this woman’s daughter. The woman did not have family or many friends who were able to attend, so Valeria wanted to show her support by attending. So, she and I went to the first communion service, she in light pink casual pants and a white t-shirt and me in cargo shorts and a t-shirt. We arrived after the service had started and it was standing room only. People were watching from outside open doors on both sides and the rear. It looked like it was going to be a long service because, even after an hour, they had not began the actual communion ceremony, which was to take approximately another two hours. Mercifully, Valeria eventually found the woman, they got to talking, and the woman told us not to worry about it because her husband had arrived and she wouldn’t be alone for the service. She thanked us for coming and urged us to go do something else and enjoy the evening because it was going to be a long service and there was no room.

We walked around, took a bus, and walked some more to arrive to a nice, cheap restaurant Valeria knew. However, when we arrived it was already closed and Valeria wasn’t familiar with the area and had no plan B. Supper that night turned out to be a good memory as we went to the grocery store, bought wheat bread, deli turkey, a bottle of coke, and chocolate milk in the infamous South American bag. We bought the coke specifically for the bottle. So, we drank the coke, opened the bag of milk, and filled the Coke Bottle 2 or 3 times. (For whatever reason, the North American concept of milk cartons and bottles has not caught on down here. They are either unavailable or significantly more expensive, depending on the grocery store. And the biggest milk you will ever see is 2 liters). There, on the side of the grocery store, sitting on a taxi bench, we contentedly ate our turkey sandwiches and enjoyed our cold beverages. Yes, we were definitely living the high life.