Property Tax

A new year brings all sorts of new and exciting things here, like rain and holidays... Like taxes. And there are lots of them here, (taxes, I mean) most of them being due at the end of January. This is our first time having to sort through the assortment of business and personal taxes that are due. Let's just say it is a learning curve. 

I assumed that like most of the country, our property tax would also be due at the end of January. I have already learned not to fully trust the postal system, so when January came and went, and we had not yet received our property tax bill, I thought I'd better investigate. Property taxes fall under the municipal jurisdiction. So I started with their website, which I discovered is under maintenance right now. 

So with a deep sigh, I put on pants (as compared to shorts, that is. Gotta wear pants when going to government buildings. Refer to THIS post for another pants - or lack thereof - story), reminded myself to be patient (It was 6 days after I thought the bill was due, so I was expecting huge lineups of other tardy folks like myself), and made sure I arrived at 8:15 (the offices open at 8:00, but government employees have a 15 minute grace period for showing up to work). 

I walked into the (blissfully) air conditioned building and was pleasantly surprised at the very short line and abundant number of employees working. 

When my turn came up, I began by explaining that my property tax bill had not yet shown up in the mail, blah, blah, blah. The lady helping me cut me off, informing me that in our municipality property taxes are due in July, not January. (Yay, I am not tardy after all!) She reassured me that I was not in fact late, and encouraged me not to worry about it for another 6 months... In fact, I shouldn't worry about it at all! This government employee proceeded to advise me that really, I shouldn't bother paying my property taxes until for some reason (like selling the property), someone checked up on us! The punctual, law-abiding, rule-following Canadian in me gasped in horror. Not pay taxes!?!? Who would do such a thing? The ever-growing Brazilian in me smiled and said, 'Nice! An extra couple hundred bucks in my pocket!'

The punctual, law-abiding, rule-following Canadian in me would like to think that for the most part people pay their bills and pay them in a timely manner. The experienced side of me knows this is not the case. For example, I know someone who had not paid their property taxes in 13 years. And here's the best part: NO ONE CARES! I also know someone who had literally THOUSANDS of dollars of unpaid phone bills. First, I was amazed they weren't just cut off. Second, the phone company will offer you all sorts of low-interest payment plans in a very kind, solicitous manner. But I guess that getting some money out of people is better than getting nothing. 

Every single day I manage to be amazed by the differences that exist between my own culture and the culture I am living in. Some of them I love, and I feel so privileged to be a Canadian living in Brazil. Some of them frustrate me. Some I just don't understand, so I shrug and move on. Some make me laugh. Some make me go 'hmmm'. And every now and then (if I am perfectly honest), some of those differences just seem wrong to me. 

My hope is that through all this, I am becoming a more well-rounded, culturally sensitive global citizen. My fear is that I am becoming cynical and judgmental. What I suspect is happening is that I am taking a little of where I come from, combining it with a little of where I am now, and the result will be a quirky person who doesn't quite fit in no matter where she goes. 

So will I pay my property taxes? Ask me in July! 

English Immersion - For The Very First Time

Last week we hosted our very first English Immersion event!

After all our months of renovations, preparations and trepidations we finally had a concrete goal to work toward and specific programming to plan. In the excitement of actually having something booked, we may have been a little overzealous, and quickly decided to do a few last minute renovations. (Just in case everything else wasn't stressful enough!) But it all worked out in the end and we now only have one bathroom left to renovate.

But I digress.

Over the last few months, Karl has spent countless hours banging down doors to language schools and private schools in the area, letting them know about us and what we do. One of the private schools showed an immediate interest and after a couple of meetings, decided they wanted us to organize an event for the teachers of their English Immersion school. Of course we jumped at the opportunity. This is one of the most prestigious schools in the area with over 7000 students attending their schools and college.

About 15 teachers ended up attending the event, and it was so much fun! I was absolutely blown away at how perfect their English is (I even got corrected once!) We did a variety of workshops, mostly on culture as well as idioms and slang. We played games - Scattergories was a huge hit, had baking workshops, scavenger hunts, and watched a movie. I think the biggest hit was doing a wiener roast over a campfire. No one had ever done anything like that before. Of course we followed it up with s'mores, which was an even bigger hit! Speaking of food, seeing that Karl and I both love cooking, and food is such a huge part of culture, we went all out with North American-style food. We did tacos with spanish rice and refried beans, pancakes, ham and scrambled eggs, and BBQ chicken (with homemade BBQ sauce), cornbread, pasta salad, and coleslaw. Brownies, cookies and tres-leites cake were our deserts. We also introduced them to strawberry lemonade, home brewed iced tea and iced caramel macchiatoes. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but the food was AMAZING! I was so excited to eat so many of my comfort foods, especially after months of living simply, eating mostly beans and rice. One of the teachers actually put on their comment card that we had too much good food. That's a critique I like to hear!

In the end, I think we had just as much fun as the group did! We are really hoping to continue formalizing relationships with this school. They were such a pleasure to work with, plus, like I said they have over 7000 students and I have no idea how many teachers. We also hope that other schools will follow their lead and give us a try.

We also had our first facility rental over New Year's. It was a group of about 18 people. We were a little nervous, partly because it was our first, well, anything, here. Partly because we weren't really what to expect in terms of partying, their expectations of us.... But it went SO well. They were a great group, and we suspect they might be passing through our doors again.

So to sum things up, this year has started off really well for us. With all the challenges 2012 brought us, and all the unforeseen bumps along the way, we have been so encouraged by the last few weeks. Don't get me wrong - there is still a ton of work to do. But it's so much easier to envision a successful business when the phone is ringing, bookings are being made and events are being pulled off with success.

January 2013 Newsletter

A Special Visitor

I've spent the last hour staring at the computer screen, trying to find inspiration to write our quarterly newsletter. I looked back at our calendar, I scrolled through pictures, and then I came to this conclusion: We have done a LOT since September. I don't even know where to begin! So to get my creative writing juices flowing, I thought I would blog about the most special time I experienced these last few months...

A visit from my MOM!

Anyone who knows my mother knows a few things: #1 - she is the hardest worker I have ever met. #2 - she never wants to be a bother, or trouble to anybody. #3 - she is probably the most encouraging person I know.


So when we were planning her time here, I heard over and over again, "I don't want to bother you guys. I just want to help you work around the yard." Which is all fine and good, but mom, do you REALLY think we would let you fly halfway around the world just to work?!? I don't think so.

In the end, we planned several special things to do with her, but we did leave her plenty of time to help us out with our endless projects as well.

We picked monster-sized mangoes with our neighbours (by monster-sized, I mean each one weighed over 2 pounds!)

We went grocery shopping 

 

We sewed curtains for our guest rooms

We installed curtains, hanger rods and a bunch of other stuff

A highlight for me was getting to go out on a schooner ride. We soaked up the rays as we took in the spectacular city sites. At the halfway point, we even took a dip (intentionally!) in the high seas. 

A local fisherman

Loving the breeze

I'm not entirely sure why they needed a bike on the raft, but it made me smile!

 

And of course, you can't visit us and NOT go on a dune buggy ride! 

Each time someone comes to visit us, we try to go to one place neither Karl nor I have been to before. We really want to know this area well, and, hey, we like having new experiences too! With my mom, we decided to head into the interior of the state. Setting out, we actually knew very little about our destination, except that there was a giant reservoir, which provides water to a large part of the state, as well as a rock shaped like a rooster. 

Reservoir

It really does look like a rooster, doesn't it?!? 

The landscape around Quixada was stunning. Our hotel happened to be a little ways outside of town... on it's very own mountain. We couldn't believe how quiet and dark it was up there at night. The hotel owner was really friendly, and apparently a bit of an astronomy nut, so one night he pulled out his telescope and we got to examine the moon as well as Venus and her moons from the southern hemisphere. 

Vista point just above the hotel

I realize this is a completely random photo, but these are typical cowboy hats in this area.

The resident parrot at our hotel. He LOVED having his photo taken.

What a great time!

Karl and I felt so privileged to be able to have this time together with my mom. She brought us so much encouragement and energy. In the end, we played lots, sweated lots, laughed lots, and even got a whole bunch of work done!

Turning Coconuts into Cash

Being a farm girl, I firmly believe in using the resources you have around you. I recently planted a vegetable and herb garden. (And my tomato seeds sprouted in just six days!) We will use the produce to feed the people we host here. I try really hard to collect the fruit produced by the trees on our yard. For example, mango season just finished, so I have a freezer full of mango jam, and Karl made a delicious mango chutney. 

We also have lots of coconut trees. (I do believe we have 17, to be exact.) Coconut trees actually inspired the name of this blog (Falling Coconuts). When we first moved here, we picked the occasional green one do sip on, or a dry one to make shredded, dried coconut, but most of them were just being wasted. Then our gardener, Daniel, told us that people actually buy them! Better yet, they come around every month or two and pick them themselves! Sign me up! Now those coconuts aren't going to waste PLUS it's about the closest thing to free money that I can think of. Yesterday I earned R$20 during my lunch break - sitting in my hammock, playing games on my iPad - while two guys went around and picked coconuts that we would have eventually had to remove ourselves, plus they did a decent job of doing some pruning while they were up there! 

How many coconuts did they pick? Yesterday it was 70, but this is the slowest time of year for coconuts. A month or two ago they picked around 140! That comes out to about R$0.30, or $0.15 Canadian per coconut. Not a bad deal for having done absolutely nothing!

If you are interested, here is a video clip of how they pick the coconuts. It's a job for two people, one long stick with a hook, and a gunny sack. Enjoy!

(Thanks to Karl for being kind enough to get out of his hammock and get this video for me!)

A colourful afternoon

I kinda wish more of my projects could have such colourful, aesthetically pleasing results! Now I just need to pick plants to put in them!

Rhythm of Life

These days, every time I think about Christmas approaching, I feel 'off kilter', or maybe a little confused. This morning it finally occurred to me why I feel this way. In my mind, it makes the most sense if I put it into musical terms: The underlying pulse, the rhythm of my life is changing. I would like to be able to say it has changed, but I don't think I would be feeling so 'off beat' if that were the case.

Here's what I mean.

In Canada, my life beat to the drum of the seasons. Winter, spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall. I come from a farming family, so maybe this rings truer to me than to most, but I know that when snow melts and spring starts to show her face, that the time of planting, has come, because deep within me, I know that all too soon, the snow will be on us again. I know that summer is the time to enjoy fresh food, to savour long evenings, to go to the beach, camp, or sit in the backyard with people you love. Fall is the time to harvest and store up, because we know what lies ahead. It's a time of canning, preserving, returning to routine. Winter is a time of rest. The short days and long nights tell us to slow down. Even the soil rests, and we hope that we produced enough to take us through. (ok, today we can go to the grocery store and get everything we need!)

This is the rhythm I have known my entire life.

In Brazil, especially where we live, there is no rhythm of seasons, because there are no seasons. So the rhythm of life is different. Here the rhythm beats to the day. People live each day unto itself because they know that tomorrow will most likely be the same as yesterday was. There is always fresh food. There is always warmth. Preserving is not necessary. Storing up is not necessary.

I'm not entirely sure how to reconcile this rhythm around me and the rhythm within me.

 I know that Christmas is just around the corner. The calendar tells me so. But I feel lost, not having gone through the motions of fall. Where is the snow? Where are the short days? My metronome, the signs I look for in nature are not here.

I can't help but wonder how these two rhythms are going to play together. Will I always feel the two distinct beats? Will they always be at odds, or can I learn to dance to them both, together? My hope is that they will eventually create a new and beautiful song.

But only time will tell.