Edilza's BD party continued
(…somewhat continued from last post) Ivanildo and I headed back to his apartment for Edilza’s birthday / fejoada party last Thursday, after first stopping at the most enormous supermarket in Salvador. Even by American standards it was huge. You could buy lingerie and a wide-screen TV in there, even though the focus was on food.
I asked him what should I bring in the form of a quasi-present and he directed me over to a bottle of cheap Merlot, which I put in the fridge when we got to the apartment and never saw it again (I guarantee it’s still there). For me I also bought some Argentinian maté tea, which if I’d bought in the States I’m sure would have had some sort of elaborate packaging emphasizing the ethnicity of the whole thing, but in this case it was wrapped just like a box of generic tea at home. That box, too, is now sitting on top of Ivanildo’s fridge and I doubt it’s going anywhere (including to me) anytime soon as well, since I forgot it when I left.
When we got there Ivanildo’s neices were sitting on the couch watching TV, and Edilza was at the kitchen table drinking a beer. I noticed that she and Ivanildo drank steadily throughout the afternoon and into the evening, and while he was clearly affected to the point of laying down on his back and going to sleep, Edilza’s demeanor didn’t change a whit as far as I could see. Later on she did lie on the couch with her head on Ivanildo’s neice Lara’s lap (Lara and her cousin live with Edilza while away from home in Central for school vacation), during which time she did smile and talk a little more. I think she’s at least a little sad, though, and lonely. All of she and her friends seem to want boyfriends but don’t have them as far as I can tell. I don’t understand why because Brazilian men are notoriously aggressive and these women are always going out dancing.
Most of the women have grown up either lower-middle-class or just plain poor, and my guess is that it’s tough to for them to find someone they’d consider husband material. But I should stop before I say something insensitive (if I haven’t already) because I really don’t know why.
No one made any sort of mention of it being Edilza’s birthday, to the point of me wondering if I’d understood right. But later on an older woman from the neighborhood came by and brought her a small steel dish (looked sort of like an ashtray but she doesn’t smoke) wrapped in green tissue paper.
When she finally got up to go I made a special point to wish Edilza a happy birthday (I probably didn’t even say it correctly) and she seemed surprised (in a good way) and smiled and blushed when I hugged her goodbye.
And since then, she’s gotten a little warmer to me although almost imperceptibly – she now says “Good Morning Matheus” (in Portuguese) every morning, which is a huge step in our relationship. I of course made sure to subvert the whole thing yesterday when I just happened to be reading The Onion online when she walked in and looked at my laptop screen. And hey, that’s no big deal, since I don’t get paid and plenty of people goof off here, with or without the internet. The only caveat was that at the top of The Onion page was a questionnaire / ad that said “Which Man-Thong is the Funniest” (or something like that) with a row of male crotches all wearing different colored thongs. I didn’t notice this until the door opened and I looked out of the corner of my eye at Edilza, who was in the process of doing the not-so-subtle turn to the left in disgust at the new volunteer who is now clearly extremely gay.
I asked him what should I bring in the form of a quasi-present and he directed me over to a bottle of cheap Merlot, which I put in the fridge when we got to the apartment and never saw it again (I guarantee it’s still there). For me I also bought some Argentinian maté tea, which if I’d bought in the States I’m sure would have had some sort of elaborate packaging emphasizing the ethnicity of the whole thing, but in this case it was wrapped just like a box of generic tea at home. That box, too, is now sitting on top of Ivanildo’s fridge and I doubt it’s going anywhere (including to me) anytime soon as well, since I forgot it when I left.
When we got there Ivanildo’s neices were sitting on the couch watching TV, and Edilza was at the kitchen table drinking a beer. I noticed that she and Ivanildo drank steadily throughout the afternoon and into the evening, and while he was clearly affected to the point of laying down on his back and going to sleep, Edilza’s demeanor didn’t change a whit as far as I could see. Later on she did lie on the couch with her head on Ivanildo’s neice Lara’s lap (Lara and her cousin live with Edilza while away from home in Central for school vacation), during which time she did smile and talk a little more. I think she’s at least a little sad, though, and lonely. All of she and her friends seem to want boyfriends but don’t have them as far as I can tell. I don’t understand why because Brazilian men are notoriously aggressive and these women are always going out dancing.
Most of the women have grown up either lower-middle-class or just plain poor, and my guess is that it’s tough to for them to find someone they’d consider husband material. But I should stop before I say something insensitive (if I haven’t already) because I really don’t know why.
No one made any sort of mention of it being Edilza’s birthday, to the point of me wondering if I’d understood right. But later on an older woman from the neighborhood came by and brought her a small steel dish (looked sort of like an ashtray but she doesn’t smoke) wrapped in green tissue paper.
When she finally got up to go I made a special point to wish Edilza a happy birthday (I probably didn’t even say it correctly) and she seemed surprised (in a good way) and smiled and blushed when I hugged her goodbye.
And since then, she’s gotten a little warmer to me although almost imperceptibly – she now says “Good Morning Matheus” (in Portuguese) every morning, which is a huge step in our relationship. I of course made sure to subvert the whole thing yesterday when I just happened to be reading The Onion online when she walked in and looked at my laptop screen. And hey, that’s no big deal, since I don’t get paid and plenty of people goof off here, with or without the internet. The only caveat was that at the top of The Onion page was a questionnaire / ad that said “Which Man-Thong is the Funniest” (or something like that) with a row of male crotches all wearing different colored thongs. I didn’t notice this until the door opened and I looked out of the corner of my eye at Edilza, who was in the process of doing the not-so-subtle turn to the left in disgust at the new volunteer who is now clearly extremely gay.
posted by n10471 at 9:48 AM
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