Rio de Janiero hotel

I made it! I was able to sleep on the flight some of the time, so I wasn't completely spacy when I arrived. Patricia picked me up at the airport and we came directly to the hotel in Copacabana. It's actually an efficiency apartment, with two rooms, a bathroom and kitchenette. Patricia's is similar, on the next floor up. So far we've eaten out, but we just talked about going to the grocery store so we can make a few of our own meals. 

The hotel is on a quiet street. Here's the view onto a little park out my window:

I took this early this morning, so nobody was out playing yet. 

And here's the first room:

To have electricity in the room, I have to put the key in a special port. Very smart--nobody leaves lights on in this place! The kitchen is to the left.

And the second room:

The bathroom is to the right. Yesterday I watched a little TV in Portuguese and then found the movie The Eighth Day in French. Soon I'll get back to work on some projects I brought with me, but it was nice to have a little break. 

It has been a little rainy today, pleasantly cool. Yesterday after I had a nap and a shower, we went out. Brazil has many small buffet restaurants where one pays by the kilo--that's what we did for lunch. We also had fresh-squeezed orange juice. Then we went to Copacabana and Ipanema beaches (not swimming, just walking). At Ipanema we had fresh coconut juice, then scooped out the insides. Yum! The water was incredibly blue green and despite it being a bit chilly, there were plenty of surfers to watch. Then back to the hotel for another nap (we walked--and talked--a lot) before heading out for a supper of pizza. We walked a little more, to an ice cream shop, where Patricia wisely chose the pineapple-mint frozen yogurt. Why do I think I might be writing a lot about food on this trip?! 

Next up, the botanical gardens. 

On my way!

Just a quick note  here to say that I'm really, truly on my way to Brazil. I'm sitting in the Kansas City airport, having scored a seat near an electrical outlet. Soon I'll board a plane for Dallas, then get on another for Miami, then go on to Rio. I arrive tomorrow morning. 

I rarely leave home for a full month. I'm sometimes on the road for big chunks of time, but I usually go home in between trips. Leaving for a longer period of time requires more forethought: have I paid all the bills ahead, is the house ready for the housesitter, did I turn off the mail and paper, have I packed appropriately, etc. 

On top of all that, I had to have a new sewer pipe put in this week. With an old house, nothing is straightforward--it took the plumber and his many helpers a longer time than expected to figure out all the anomalies. Who knew that there was once a toilet in the garage?! I now have three big filled-in holes in my yard, but I also have some peace of mind. My housesitter, a friend from Scotland, will not have to get the line snaked out. 

I think they're about to call my flight. I'd better post this. More later, from Brazil! This is going to be a great trip! 

Dragonfly residency

Today was the second day of the residency with 2nd graders (7-8 year olds), with sessions at four schools. 

To begin with, Trixie thought we were going to do something with flying dragons--she reached into the puppet bag for a dragon marionette (one of the goals was to introduce the students to various kinds of puppets). It took a while to convince Trixie that we were going to talk about dragonflies, not flying dragons and not dragon's flies.

Even the school therapy dog got in on the residency today. She got some good pats while I was talking. 

I asked the kids what they knew about Monarch butterflies, because another goal was to underline what they already knew and to compare butterflies with dragonflies, in preparation for their trip to the Baker Wetlands.

The students knew quite a bit about butterflies. Some of them mentioned metamorphosis, some talked about how the males have black spots on their wings, others brought up the fact that they're poisonous to birds. They knew the stages of the lifecycle and what happens in the chrysalis. 

From there, I brought out two of my dragonfly fingerpuppets and showed the lifecycle (another key concept) from egg to nymph to adult. The kids had made their own puppets and so we all practiced zipping, zooming and hovering. Oh, and eating mosquitoes from our other hands.

We played with having our puppets nod and shake their heads. We played with different voices and the importance of keeping in character. 

I showed the spider glove puppet and we sang "Poor little bug on the wall" together with different emotions so they'd get the idea of conveying various moods with their puppets. 

The sessions were extremely participatory, with lots of questions and answers. I'll meet with the 2nd graders again in November, after they visit the Wetlands and before they go to the Mermaid Puppet Theatre show of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." More on that when it happens!

Spiders

I know, you're wondering when this blog will get back to storytelling. Have patience and read on. I just had to post a couple of pictures of the spider on my neighbor's wall. It may be the largest arachnid I've ever seen.





I tell quite a few spider stories, some about the West African and Caribbean trickster Anansi, one about Robert the Bruce, and one my grandmother told me.

Gran always said that spiders were good luck. One day as she was walking out her back door, she noticed a spider's web across the doorway. She ducked down and to the side so she wouldn't break it. Just as she did that, a slate fell off the roof, narrowly missing her head. If she had not saved the spider's web, she would have been hit. Good luck, indeed.

My grandmother was proud that we are descendants of Robert the Bruce (as are thousands upon thousands of others). The great man had just escaped with his life after a fierce battle. He ran up into the hills. Hiding in a cave, he cursed the English, who had captured his dog and who would surely use it to track him down. He slept, waking only when the mornig sun hit his face. He saw a spider climb up the side of the entrance, jump across to the other side...and miss, falling to the ground. It crawled back up the side, jumped again...and missed again. He watched it climb six times. On the seventh, he said, "You'd better give up, spider. I tried and tried, like you, and look at me now, hiding in a cave. If you succeed in catching hold this next time, I'll take it as a sign that I should try again." He watched as the spider climbed up a seventh time, jumped across the gap, and caught. It began to spin its web. He ducked under it, went down from the cave and gathered his men. They then fought in the Battle of Bannockburn against the English, and won.

Whether this is in fact true is immaterial. It's a good story, and Granny understood the value of a good story. As do I.