I am feeling truly fortunate and thankful these days. Our daughter, Clementine, two weeks, caught the boys' cold. Everyone in Brasilia is sick, our boys, our daughter, me for a short while, our empregada and our gardener. It is the only place we know of where everyone gets sick between the change of seasons.
Yes, the dry season is approaching. Earlier than I remember. The occasion is a sad one. Last year, I looked forward to the dry season, believing it would bring great running weather. While it is cooler in June and July, by August and September, humidity dips down into the single digits and the temperature starts to climb again as spring returns. All I know is I see a return to lap swimming this dry season, because, though I can run in almost anything, running in the driest part of the dry season was pure hell on earth.
And, of course, I will miss the rain. No one should have to go 100 days without seeing a cloud or experiencing a rain shower.
But, thankfully, Clementine is on the mend. Her tiny coughs slowly dissapating, no small cause for concern when it is your two-week old doing the coughing.
We also recently learned that after having to say goodbye to Brazil (though I seriously doubt it is goodbye, but will be more like, see you later) we will be saying hello to India. What the what?! India!? It is all a little surreal. India? India!! India. It sounds far. It feels far. I see pictures on blogs and website and can't picture a place where cows and elephants sleep in the road on your morning commute. I can't wait.
I recently admitted my only reluctance to Elise. I had never lived anyplace where I wasn't sure I could just go outside and run with abandon. I knew when I took this job that, sooner or later, it might come to that...that we would be assigned to a large, busy, hot city with no parks or sidewalks, but I have not given up all hope that I will not be able to run in Chennai (there is a Chennai running club, so they have to run somewhere, right?). I don't think I am quite ready to become a slave to the treadmill. Though running on a treadmill is better than not running at all. I am cautiously optimistic that at 4:30 a.m. I might be able to beat the rickshaws and motos, cows and elephants, stifling heat and humidity, and packs of roving wild dogs to tear through India in the pre-dawn. We'll see.
That being said, I feel very blessed. Everything that we had read when bidding on Chennai and everything we have read since seems to corroborate our suspicions that it would be a great family post. Much like Brasilia.
We have already started thinking about India and planning our time in Washington. It is impossible not to. But I also need to remind myself to enjoy every last minute in Brazil, too. Which will be easy to do with Sam, Peter and Clementine keeping us attenuated to the present, the here and now. We bought corn ice cream yesterday, and I asked Elise to pick me up a Guarana when she ran into the store. She didn't, but did come back with banana-acai juice. These are the days when I will channel my inner Brazilian.
When playing on the playground at work after Sam's swim lesson this morning, Sam said, "I want to go to Chennai someday. Chennai sounds like a nice place."
It was ridiculous of me to think that he had not been listening in to all of our excited conversations. We haven't said anything to him yet. I'm not sure when we will. Surely, not before our second mini flag day flag arrives in the mail. But, of course, he's been listening to every word we've said.
1 comment:
I lived in Chennai for a brief time after college. My running situation was a bit different both because I'm a woman and because we lived on a very busy road under construction. I was desperate to run though and too anti-treadmill to join a gym so I ran up on the roof of my apartment building doing tiny, tiny little laps around the perimeter. The heat never bothered me, though I did feel a little uncomfortable when the washerwomen were putting up clothes to dry and there was this crazy lady running in circles on the roof. I guess what I mean to say is "where there is a will, there is always a way" though I think you will be able to run outdoors much more easily than me!
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