This week I started to discover mosaics in Brasilia! We went for a nice delicatessen shopping at the Mercado Municipal and by the fruit stall there is a mural with these lovely mosaics: My friend Alina, a Brasilian visual artist currently living in Brasilia, had the fantastic idea to google if there are any mosaic artists resident in Brasilia. And we found one! –  Cida Carvalho. On Tuesday we are meeting Cida in her studio. The studio is in one of the commercial streets which are placed in between every block of flats in the plano piloto. Brasilia was designed by city planer Lucio Costa, in the shape of an airplane and therefor some names refer to aviation.  The main construction was done only with in 5 years (between 1956 and 61). So the lay out is very regular and somehow artificial as it did not grow and develop with human chaos over time like most cities are. In between every  quadra (block) there is a commercial street in  which it was planned to have everything …

And taking the kids on a beach holiday for a week, receiving 322 boxes with our household goods, unpacking, arranging furniture, hanging pictures and lamps, going to Portuguese classes 3x a week & homework, cheering at kids football and basketball games, finding out which apple juice they like amongst 15 varieties, getting lost in the city with the car, meeting with new people, maybe potential new friends?, visiting some of the famous buildings in Brasilia designed by Oscar Niemeyer ….

This week it happened: An aquaintance of Martin from the German embassy gave us the contacts for Hans, a plumber from Germany who works in the Embassy as a security guard. I called him to install our washing machine. Of course I could have taken a local plumber – but how would I have talked to him! Whilst Hans and I are waiting that the dashing new washing machine finishes her trial run he offers me all sorts of services for connection with the worlds far away, phone and internet installation, German TV, but I wonder if he could help cutting that  tree trunk that lies around  in our garden and seems to be perfect to become a stand for the hardie! Hans knows the gardener Benno who also works in the embassy and comes from the community living in the south of Brasil  that emigrated to Brazil from the Hundsrück, a region with a  strong  German accent near Frankfurt/Main. So Hundsrück – German – speaking Benno arrives at our house at the weekend and …