And I know them well enough to know that they are hungry. I thought about the woman who cleans my house once a week, and the houses of several friends. I know that she is not literally hungry, but she is undernourished. Then I thought about the field workers called boias frias who work in agriculture throughout Brazil. Breakfast and lunch are always cold and by the time they get home, supper is usually cold.
Meals are much the same every day.
Rice, beans, a little meat, and a kind of cake made out of corn flower, sugar, and whatever else is around. Then, to bring matters a little closer to my home I thought about the refectory at the university where I teach. The food is plentiful, but it is bland, boring and consistently of low quality. Though there is much more variety than the street kids and the Boias Frias eat, in many ways it is the same. During my three years here I have driven through many parts of central Brazil.