I must have gotten my days off-track a bit because I’ve been telling everyone my birthday is Saturday, when it’s actually tomorrow! Whoa! Anyway, about yesterday….
Yesterday Cesar’s sister took off work and the poor woman basically was dragged around as Cesar looked for a car and I followed taking care of Audrey. We only really went to two dealerships but, because his sister doesn’t have a car, we actually did a lot of walking, took several buses and waited a lot for some form of transportation. We’re now waiting to hear from a dealership to see if his sister was approved, because Cesar’s CPF (which is like a social, except that it expires if you don’t use it) expired and no longer exists—he has to fix that, but we need a car as we are planning to drive to his mom’s house and will need transportation while we’re there.
Now for the story of Cesar’s sister—
I really like her a lot! She’s had a tough life and you can tell that things don’t come easy for her, but she lives smiling and the family as a whole seems happy. The area she lives in is within the limits of a jockey club, and is the same place she lived with Cesar when Cesar lived in Brasilia and helped take care of the horses and almost became a jockey (he didn’t become a jockey in the end because the speeds at which the horses run are, in fact, very very dangerous and he didn’t feel up to that kind of risk). They used to live in one of the “houses” that I mentioned before were connected to the stables, but now she lives in the only house that is not part of the stables. At first I thought she shared half of the house, but in fact it is a quarter of the house. The size of the house is that of a small rancher without a basement. There are two shelters on either side of the house which I thought were storage, but which in fact are where other people live.
The whole land area that they live on is currently in the courts as some developers want to build apartments and maybe a hospital on that land, but the people living there are mostly dependent on the horses they take care of in that same area and would have difficulty relocating. It is very likely that they will someday soon be kicked out, but they continue life hoping that is not the case. However, because of the limbo they live in, a lot goes undone; they don’t want to build additional areas or even do any major maintenance if it may be torn down in a matter of months. Some people (though I don’t know who) have used a part of the area as their own personal garbage dump, and unfortunately it’s on the side of the main exit out of the (I can’t even really call it a neighborhood—there are about 8 sets of stables, each with a different family residing, though all are connected, and the house Cesar’s sister lives in).
Cesar’s sister and brother-in-law go to work by bike, and some of the kids I think hitch a ride to school with a guy who has a car or they catch one of the buses (I don’t know—I have yet to be awake when they go and haven’t been at the house when they come back). Marli (I figured it’s easier just to start using her name as Cesar has 4 sisters and it’s just easier that identifying her as Cesar’s sister every time) is in the process of trying to get her own salon running. She had been working for a salon, but was earning minimum wage and had the opportunity, together with another lady, to start their own salon. She cannot, however, travel because as of yet they are just getting started and have not been able to hire any additional employees. She hopes to be able to finally register the business (which costs about R$ 1,300) and hire employees, so that she can finally go to visit her family in Pará, hopefully before we leave there. It’s been about 5 years since she’s been able to go there, though her mom (my mother-in-law) came down once or twice in that time.
We will probably be leaving Brasilia soon after we get the car. While I would love to spend more time in the different places and see more sights, it’s time I get down to business. Cesar and I desperately need to sit down and organize this past month’s paperwork and get in a better pattern so that we can keep up with our business. I’m not sure what Tucuma has in its future, but it’s the only place we’ll be settled for the next few months, so it’s time.