We stayed in the house of Esteva’o and Janda Casa Nova of Sa’o Lorenco do Oeste. They have a very nice chacara (small hobby farm) on the edge of town. It consists of their home, an indoor churrascaria, an outdoor churrascaria, a gazebo, and some out buildings for raising birds. Churrascarias are
basically barbeques where Brazilians cook their meat on spits over charcoal. In the region we toured, it was very common to see them in the houses, but Esteva’o’s were very unique. In the indoor one, he also had a full kitchen and recreation room. The outdoor BBQ was basically a plumbed picnic structure, and one was sited on the edge of a fast moving creek. The out buildings for the birds housed a nice collection of chickens, pigeons, ducks, and pheasants. There were even Chinese Ringneck pheasants mallard ducks.
I woke up about 7:30 AM, grabbed my book, and headed outside. I was going for the picnic shelter near the creek to read, but I ran into Esteva’o and Janda. They invited me to the indoor BBQ where Janda was preparing breakfast. We had a little juice, and Esteva’o and I went into town to pick up supplies for breakfast and lunch.
On the way to the bakery, we stopped in at Estevao’s driving school. In Brazil, you have to be eighteen and attend a special school to get a drivers license. Estevao’s school teaches driving for cars, motorcycles, and trucks. He was quite proud of his motorcycle training course, which was on an empty lot isolated from the street. It simulated the traffic signals and riding conditions people would encounter on the streets, though I believe nothing could prepare a person for driving in Brazil.
After returning from the bakery, Jon and I went down to the picnic shelter to play some cribbage. We were joined by Sideney and his wife. They had spent seven years in New Jersey working as managers for Dunkin’ Donuts. They are fluent in English, and it was nice to be able to have a conversation without translation.
For lunch we had a great home cooked meal. Estevao had a house full. Friends, Rotarians, and a hungry GSE team all filled their plate, and went outside to eat in the sun. One of our favorite dishes was the Stuffed Baked Cauliflower. Kyla got the recipe. You take a head of cauliflower, and stuff it with carrots, onions, ham, and red peppers. Then you pour real cream over it, top it with cheese, and bake for 30 minutes. I’m guessing 350 F would be a good temperature.
After lunch we went to Estevao’s favorite haun
t to learn how to play Bocha. It is similar to Bocci Ball, but they play on a special field constructed inside the bar. We played a game of doubles. A small object ball is rolled out, and teams alternate trying to throw their balls closest to the object ball. It scores similar to horseshoes, and is a fun game. Estevao has many trophies on display at his driving school.
After bocha, Jon, Greg and I went back to Estevao’s driving
school so they could see it. Then we went over to the mayor’s office so I could look at a bore log from a deep new well they drilled for the city. That was very interesting. The well is about 1800 meters deep, and it is drilled through mostly basalt. The water is in a thick sand lense, and under enough pressure so that the well is free flowing. A similar well we had seen in Maravilha produced 200,000 liters of water per hour. The temperature of the water coming from the well is about 109 degrees Fahrenheit. The interesting thing about it was the water is very clean. Deep wells in South Dakota produce famously hard water whereas the Guarani Aquifer water quality was very good, and after cooling is ready for drinking. If I understood correctly, the wells in Maravilha and Sao Lorenco do Oeste were the first to be drilled into the Guarani aquifer in Brazil.
We met up with the rest of the team at Alec’s language school. Kyla and I played a little ping pong while Greg worked on getting our blog posts up to date. The ping pong ball was about three times heavier than the ones I play with back home. You really have to swing to get that thing to bounce. The girls decided to go for a walk back at their chacara, Greg stayed with Alec, and Jon and I went with Estevao and Janda. On the way home we stopped to play a game of pool. Brazilians call it snooker, but we played eight ball on a snooker table. The table is big, and the pockets are tight so the game lasted about an hour. The tips on the pool cues were a hard black rubber, and added more challenge to the already difficult game. I couldn’t put any English on the cue ball. I call the little spin I was able to get with those strange cues Portuguese. After chasing the balls around for a long while it was time to get ready for my appearance on the soccer field. For the the highlight shot of the game was a single bank into the side.
Talking to Sideney earlier in the day I learned that men play Socidad Futbol. It’s basically men’s league for soccer. They play on a short field, and use six players instead of eleven. I’d
seen fields all over Santa Catarina, but I’d only seen a field in use in Joacaba. Sideney said it would be okay if I took the field for a little bit during their evening game. Estevao loaned me some shin pads and soccer socks. I wasn’t able to find cleats (Brazilian feet run on the small side) so I went out in my running shoes. It’d been seven years since I played soccer, and the Brazilian game is much different than how I’ve played in America. It is much faster, and with the short field and fewer players much more like basketball. I didn’t contribute much to my team, but I did touch the ball a couple times, and it was fun to see the game from the field. I played for about 20 minutes before the Brazilians decided it was time for a substitution. Anyway, it was time to suit up for the last presentation. I hit the shower, and put on my Rotary sport coat and tie for the last time in Brazil.
The Sao Lorenco do Oeste club is small. Our last presentation was to a crowd of maybe 25 people. We had our customary Portuguese welcome speech, delivered our presentation, and capped the evening off with a few draughts of the local firewater. With luck, my days as a stage performer singing such timeless classics as “This auld Flag”, “Take me out and Shoot me”, and “The Hokey Pokey” with body parts sung in Portuguese are over.
Sol