Another day

Ai ai... blog abandoned. It's not for lack of time... or interest... it's just.. I don't know. Maybe I just don't have anything exciting to share. Maybe I don't have an excuse.

Well, let's see... I'm finally starting to feel a bit better. Thanks second trimester. It's hard to believe the tiny human will be 14 weeks tomorrow. People always joke and are like "sooo are you ready?" And I'm like, uh no. But I have like 6 months to 'get ready' still so it's fine. I'm allowed to not be ready.

Maybe you've seen on the news, the entire country of Brazil is revolting in protests for better education, healthcare and less gov't corruption. It's fantastic. And it actually seems to be working. Did you know that a gov't deputy gets paid 26,000 reais a month (13,000 CAN$) and a teacher gets paid about 900 reais? (450 CAN$) Do you see why Brazilians are mad?

Or that you can go the store and buy something, and have no idea how much tax you are paying because the gov't is not obligated to put that on the receipt? (apparently they are changing that) You know how we have a set tax, 12% on most items? Well here any certain item you can buy might have up to like 5 different taxes you are paying (and much, much more than 12%), and no one knows what they go to. Well they do actually, gov't pockets. And yet with all the money going into the gov't, the roads are crappy, the education is crappy, the healthcare is crappy.

I'm so lucky I have insurance and can afford to go to a private hospital (and even there I feel nervous..). I had to get a flu shot this week, and unfortunately vaccinations are only offered in public clinics so we had to go to the one down the street. We walked into the doctor's "office", and I see that the vaccinations are stored in styrofoam coolers - you know the kind you keep fish in when you go fishing?- and duck-taped to the outside is a thermometer to register the temperature. To Deison this is all really normal and he doesn't "see" what I see. And I'm sure it's all just fine and whatever, but I am used to only the best hospitals, the best healthcare where everything is clean and new and nice. And to know that I do not have a better option, is really frustrating for me sometimes. And I feel like I'm going to just flip out. And sometimes I do.

Sometimes I feel like I just cannot stand to be here one more day. But then I wake up, the sun rises, the day passes, and life goes on.

And now, instead of cleaning the house I'm going to lie in bed and watch Friends. Because I can.