Friday morning I had an opportunity to look at classes and pick a few to try out. The employees at Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) are on strike so we are only allowed to pick one class there and as many as we can handle at Universidade Cátolica da Salvador (UCSAL). Jefferson (the program’s resident director) told us that he doesn’t feel that the strike is justified, but they are paid enough though they aren’t working, so for them it’s a beautiful deal. Right now I’m planning on taking Portuguese, a course on class/race/gender, a social work class taught by the guest lecturer on gender roles from my Brazilian Contemporary Culture course, a service learning course on health education and prevention of anemia, and possibly a course on agrarian rights through the law school. My Portuguese class starts Tuesday, the classes with UCSAL the following week, and UFBA still hasn’t announced when classes will start (…if they start).

I spent the afternoon reading through e-mails until 4:30 when Sonia and I went for a run up and down the hill on our street. Afterwards we showered and met up for pizza at a restaurant near by. Sonia is leaving Monday so we are trying to do all of her favorite things one more time. The pizza was incredible. We got half with ham, eggs, green pepper, onions, and olives and the other half with corn and chicken. The food, the company, and the conversation were all top notch.

We spent the whole day at a beach that we saw on the way to the airport last week. We laid down beach towels on some rocks a little ways off shore and had the ocean to ourselves. We saw lots of crabs and fishies and came back with all sorts of treasures. Tonight we’re planning to watch Cidade de Deus and sit and admire our paintings for a while.

Faye, Kaye, Andrée, and Tara: If you are reading this, allow me to apologize that I haven’t gotten your birthday cards in the mail yet. I have a postcard for each of you sitting on my desk and I promise to get them on their way Monday. Happy (early) Birthday!