RJ 04/01/1985 Friday
Last night I ended up staying at Zezé’s and didn’t read any books. I finished reading ‘A queda para o alto” (The fall upwards), and as there are no interesting books at Zezé’s I had nothing to read. It’s nearly 9:30 am. I’m not sure if I’ve told you, Maira’s baby is due on the 26th of February, so she’s 7 months and 9 days pregnant. Unfortunately I leave on the 20th (schools starts on the 25th) and I won’t see my cousin-nephew newborn. And maybe I won’t be here next year (I don’t feel like it). While my mum was here all she talked about was going to France, before I finish High School. No way! I won’t lose a year at school (I have to learn French) and I don’t want to leave Brasilia. Now she’s gone, Maira and Zezé keep bugging me: “Do you want to miss such an opportunity?” Why don’t they go? I don’t want to go. I’m quite happy to have lived in Mexico and I suffered a lot when I left there (I knew a lot of people). And now I’m going to suffer twice as much, leaving Brasilia and then leaving France. If I can go after finishing High school I might consider it (I can also finish the English course, 5 years).
But she wants me to go, just as I finish primary school, that means next year. No way!!
When I lived in Mexico, in a condo of 17 buildings, 5 storeys high each, I lived on Block 5, flat 502. Initially I used to play with a gang of little girls, Lulu, Pilar and even two Canadian girls. And then there was a gang of older people, who always picked on us. They used to throw eggs on people from the top of buildings, went in empty flats, etc. Roller skating was big then and all we ever did was roller skate. One day, Sue and Doris, two Equatorian girls moved in and we became friends. I joined the older gang. I was the second youngest, younger than me was Alessandra, Poro’s sister, my best friend. The gang was really close and we did lots crazy things.
The buildings had vertical ventilation tunnels, on the inside, all the way from the first to the last floor, where you could see all bathroom vents. These vents had steps running vertically all the way. Some buildings didn’t have locks to for vents on the top floor and we used to go all the way down. It was really dangerous but we didn’t care. It was GREAT. The condo had a security system and the security guards slept in special places. Where they slept there were a lot of trolleys for carrying shopping. One night Poro and I went to this place (it was always open) and I got in there and stole a trolley, it was real hard, as it was under ground level and there were steps. Worst of all there was a little wall (about 50cm tall). It was a nightmare to take the trolley out. We were soon playing in it and everyone wanted to have a go too. Then the security guards showed up and everyone disappeared. I stayed and held Poro by the arm telling her to leave it with me (I was shitting myself). The guards arrived screaming at us and I simply said I had found it and then I asked if I could get a ride to their place. I knew the guards because one night my mum went out and locked us out. I spent the night with guards waiting for my mum until she arrived at midnight.
Mexico city was very polluted and violent, overpopulated, there were about 14 million people living there. Once I got into trouble with an ex-friend’s mum and she just slapped me on the face. Another time I stole some sweets and the shop owner threw me out of the shop pulling me by the hair, I was so scared I peed on my pants. Later (when I was older) I started my own business with 200 pesos that I ‘borrowed’ from my mum, I bought a business from a boy and there a lot of other competitors near us. My friends or me went to the other competitors’ stalls and took their sweets and then sold them making a huge profit. In the end I got bored and gave sweets to everyone. I spent the money on comic magazines.
I hated school there: “The Kingdom of Jordan”, the teacher was a monster and the kids were bullies. I passed with really low grades (3rd year of primary school) as every day I used to make up an excuse, headache, nausea and I when I had no excuse and just pretended to go in but I used to meet people from school on their way there and they used to ask stupid questions. I remembered the name of the condo where I used to live: “Copilco 300”. I was the happiest person on school holidays. For a time everyone had a boyfriend or girlfriend. Poro went out with Ivan, Sue with Paco (Poro’s brother), Doris with Miguel (Ivan’s brother), Elizabeth with Daniel and me with Gabriel and so on. Gabriel was an idiot, really silly, I only went out with him to have something to do, but we hardly spoke. The favourite sports were roller blading, baseball and American football. Each season of the year a different sport. Or every day a different sport. Sometimes I miss it so much! I lived there from age 7 until 9.