The Feira

Here again is a view of our home.  Here is a view of our street.

Monday through Saturday.

Here is the same street on any given Sunday:

Can you find the purple wonder?  I know it’s difficult.

Yes, this is the weekly feira which means = market.  Vendors come from the surrounding areas and set up a booth with their meat/produce/spices/grocery items or products for sale.  It so happens that Ben, Meg, Franca and Edite all live on one of the four streets used on this day.  What does this mean for us?  This means that we are in a great location for shopping.  It also means that we are woken up and KEPT up starting at around 4:00am every Sunday morning when the vendors are setting up.  Setting up must of course involve loud music (forro: pronounced foe-hoe) set on repeat and plenty of cachaça (brazilian rum).  We are slowly aclimating to this early Sunday morning  ritual that happens litterally outside the front door of our small home, though as you’d imagine it’s a bit irritating!  To give a visual, here’s our view outside on market Day:

There are a few grocery stores in town that carry dry goods, frozen meat and sad looking produce which I suppose you could get by on.  But generally speaking the feira offers the freshest stuff at the best prices.  So most all of the local friends, including us, do our food shopping for the week on Sunday morning at the feira.    It’s not just food that is sold however.  There is also everything from patio furniture, mattresses and clothing to tobacco, knives and little chicks dyed green and pink – don’t ask.  It’s sort of your classic scene where everyone is shouting at you to stop at their booth and you’re shouting back “how much per kilo for your_____”  After awhile though, you know which venders you like and trust and you get down a system.  I must humbly admit that with a little help in the beginning from Edite, Ben and I are well on our way to mastering the feira and we love it!  Here is a typical adventure:

An idea of how packed the streets get.

                     

Ben choosing cheese

Cheese getting weighed before final price is given

It smells as good in here as it looks.

Our egg lady

         

Our helper is never far...

A sister in our hall and her husband selling beans

People from the rurals pour in by truck or bus

Usually when we get home, it’s time to snack on chunks of fresh cheese and watermelon while we wash the produce, clean and chop the meat, pick through beans and get to cooking.  Here’s a standard meal:

Oh, and don’t forget the hot sauce :)