Playing House

SOMEHOW in the past week, I have become a real person.

I am currently living in an apartment with three other friends, we are shopping for and making all of our own food, doing laundry, cleaning, and pretty much pretending real adults. All of this is taking place in Ilhéus, a beautiful and safe city with a plentiful collection of gorgeous beaches and serious public health issues. Doesn't get much better than that!

This week, I will be starting my field research at various medical and mental health clinics around the city. My advisor is a nurse at the free clinic in the favela where I will be doing most of my interviews. Most of our advisors have some kind of involvement with this clinic and the public health system, and have also taken a serious liking to toting us around the city. 

Andrea (another advisor) has pretty much taken us on as her second children and has now kidnapped us for unannounced driving tours of the city and beaches, to her house for snack time, and to the grocery store to teach us how to buy bread and produce. Just for the record, we already new how to go grocery shopping and have been to the grocery store every day since moving in. We're trying to become regulars. 

Our house here in Ilhéus is perfect (with the exception of the army of mosquitos). We have two porches, beautiful views, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and running water. We also have lots of geckos (we started naming them, but it's getting confusing because five of them look the same), friendly neighbors with the loudest dog in Brazil, and arguably the best sunset spot in the city. 

jack jack (one of our pet geckos) who lives on the ceiling of the living room and eats large moths

the view from our back balcony 

our front balcony, complete with two hammocks and the perfect dinner location

So far we have broken the sink once, taken laundry out of the machine smelling worse than when we put it in, lost a spatula behind the gas stove (don't worry we found it after crawling around on the floor for a while), and mastered the art of making salsa out of whatever fruits and vegetables were cheapest at the store. Pretty successful for our first week being real grownups in a foreign country!

mango salsa

our living room 

our kitchen