Its funny how it worked out, but April and I have two rooms in our apartment that we have kind of designated “His Office” and “Her Office”, one will eventually become a guest room (or kids room…dare I say those words), but we haven’t spent the time to make one of them a guest room yet, so for now, its just April’s office. I took this picture today to show you our different “styles”, I think its funny how each rooms kinda reflects our personalities. (Hint: Click the picture to make it bigger)
A few nights ago April and I went to watch a movie at the theater and as we got ready to head into the movie April wanted some popcorn (she loves Brazilian movie popcorn…) so we went up and of course had the whole debate about who had to order it, but fortunately I won out (its an easy arguement when I can say, “Okay, I don’t really want any so we just won’t get any…” You marriage counselors out there would probably not approve of this ‘manipulation’, but the rest of you understand…hopefully). So April went up to order some popcorn and told the guy at register in perfect portuguese, “Eu gustaria de uma Coca e um pequeno bate papo.” Which sounds really great if you don’t speak portuguese, or if your using it as a pick up line, but doesn’t work so well when you are trying to order some popcorn. You see, even though “bate papo” may sound like “popcorn”, it actually means a “chat”. So I had to step in and swell my chest a little so the guy behind the counter didn’t think my wife was asking for “a Coke and a little chit chat”. Just one of our many portuguese woes we go through!
Just a side note, I went by the Correios, the Brazilian Post Office and bought some stamps today, but while I was paying for my stamps the man behind the counter seized the moment and asked me to translate an envelope he had recieved in the mail, he wanted to know what it said in the corner: “No Postage Neccessary If Mailed Within the United States”, I guess who ever mailed it didn’t read the corner either!
Last night April and I had nachos for dinner. Now ordinarily nachos for dinner would not be something to write home about (literally) but since we live no ordinary life, nachos are something worth writing about. Mainly because of the story of their origin…not the origin of nachos in general, but our specific nachos.
To begin this story we go to the far off land of São Paulo, a small fishing state on the shores of Brazil, to a little village known by the locals as Itú (this sentence should be read with a healthy dose of sarcasm). There in a local open air market we find a bag of foreign origin known in Mexico by the name of “Doritos”, except minus the customary fake powered cheese. If you ever find yourself in said village, look for a tour guide named Alaor, or known by the locals as simply, “The Milk” (sorry, you have to be a missionary to get that joke…which means that I barely get it myself…)
After acquiring the Doritos chips we travel to the land of São Fransico an exotic place on the other side of Niteroi in order purchase the imported product known as “Cheddar Ingles” which a far cry from the “cheeze-whiz” which passes for cheddar in Brazil and it taste so much like home its like getting a hug from your grandma.
Next comes the salsa which is constructed of various products found around town and based on a recipe from the Sawyer household in Canadian, TX (although I didn’t do it justice). Add to that a little Jalapeno flavored Tabasco sauce and we have a nacho dinner that almost taste like it was made in west Texas…almost. Well, this is what it takes to feel like home sometimes…
Well, the people have spoken and your voices have been heard, it is time for a video! Yesterday was my birthday so we had a Brazilian Churrasco at our apartment. I owe a special thank you to Sergio and Pedro (obrigado ao Sergio e Pedro) for their hard work. Sergio is an elder at the Victory Church in Rio and a good friend of mine from several years ago when I did a short internship with the Victory church. He and Pedro (his son) came over to Niteroi and showed us how to cook out Brazilian style! In the US a cookout means hot dogs and hamburgers, but here it means rice, faroffa (you’ll have to try it when you come, but suffice it to say, its a lot like saw dust) and lots and lots of meat! (chicken, sausage, beef and most importantly picanha) It was a great time and not a bad party for being our first try! Enjoy the video.
Well, since I left everybody hanging in suspense yesterday (and heard about from several people) I thought I should just say that April has an infection in one of her eye glands (the krause glands to be exact, and we both thought the doctors said “grass glands”, we just figured it didn’t translate right…). But she has some medicine for it and the doctor said it should be no problem, but keep her in your prayers! Thanks for the concern!
Yesterday April came home from language class saying that her eye hurt a little bit and that it was a little swollen. Well, after a couple hours it went from a little swollen to pretty swollen, but she decided the best option was to sleep it off…because that always works. Well, this morning it was no better (and a little worse) so we set out to accomplish our first Brazilian doctors visit. We made several phone calls and were able to find an eye doctor who spoke english so we went over to their office to schedule an appointment.
Just a side note, one nice thing about our health insurance here in Brazil is that you pay your monthly premiums and everything (EVERYTHING) else is covered under your insurance, so this visit was free.
Anyways, we got to the doctors office and started talking to the secretary and although it might be hard to believe, I think she knew we were foreigners, so she went to get somebody to help us. A nice lady returned and said, “Sprechen Sie Deutsch”…well, no, as a matter of fact, I do not speak German, and its not on my list of things to learn in the next couple of years! Well, aside from being mistaken for Germans, the rest of the appointment was pretty uneventful and we have successfully completed our first doctors visit in Brazil.
This post is a little late, but during Christmas time it is a Brazilian tradition to make Rabanada bread. This is a type of bread that they only make during Christmas time and it is prepared very similar to french bread, except its more deep-fried than pan-fried. Below is a picture of April and I making some rabanada under the watchful eye of our portuguese teacher.
Well, over the past couple of weeks I have been meaning to post several things on the blog, but I always forget when I get home, so this blog with review some of the things that have been going on. I’ll try to keep it short so that its not a newsletter, but here’s some random things going on…
Missionary Conference
During the first week of January we went to the Brazil Missionary Conference which was hosted by the team in Itu, a city outside of Sao Paulo. It was a good opportunity for us to spend time with other missionaries, learn from their experiences and play some basketball (which we’ve needed)! We heard some great messages from Don Mclaughlin from Atlanta, GA.
Alphabet
In a random note, beginning January 1, 2009 that Portuguese alphabet is adding three letters- K, W and Y. These letters have been used recently, but they are not natively used in the Portuguese language…but now they are official.
Apartment
We have some progress with our apartment. I believe last time we showed you our apartment it was empty and had all white walls. Well, over a long process we have made some upgrades. We recently got our cabinets installed in the kitchen and bathrooms, so we can now put our food somewhere besides on the kitchen table. We have also painted every room in the house- our living room is a light beige, our bedroom is a dark, dark blue (better for sleeping!), our guest room is a bright yellow (probably not so good for sleeping…sorry guests!) and our office is gray. Also, in an exciting development we received our closets 2 days ago, which means after only 4 months we can now take our clothes out of our suitcases and put them somewhere! Also, we’ve got some basic furniture, such as a couch and some night-stands, but we are still waiting on other things to be delivered.
Well, that’s all I can think about for now, but I’ll keep you updated…maybe we’ll make a video soon, its been a while…
