Getting Settled In

Monday, April 1st, we moved out of the apartment and into our house for the next year. Thankfully it came furnished, most rentals in Brazil do not; not even appliances, some we looked at didn’t even have cabinets, and the renters are responsible for everything. Unlike America where the landlord usually pays for upkeep and maintenance, Brazilian renters are responsible for minor and major repairs but we were able to get wear and tear excluded. It is going to be so nice to be able to unpack our bags and start to feel at home.

After we dropped off our stuff at the house, we headed over to the ministry and I gave my testimony during devotional. We headed back to the house to unpack enough so we would have our toothbrushes in the bathroom and sheets on the beds, then we headed out to watch the kids at their music recital. They were phenomenal! The boys enjoyed it, especially the dueling cats song but poor ol’ Tuck could barely keep his eyes open. The recital was from 8-10pm and after four long days of camp and staying up late, he was beat.

Unfortunately, there is no rest for the weary, as the next morning was the start of three hours a day, three day a week Portuguese class. That afternoon, Trevor gave his testimony at devotional while I unpacked all our stuff and Tucker napped.

Mrs. Sonya, our tutor, is 75 years old and sharp as a tack. She has three dogs and this sweet 40 year old turtle. She plays piano, is taking English classes, recently learned to swim, and goes to the gym three times a week. Life goals. I want to be like her. Her husband, a psychologist who is still doing experiments by the way, prepares a snack for us each day. It’s so sweet. It also gives us an opportunity to try different snacks and drinks. Like cashew juice, which is extremely weird because when you swallow it, it has a good flavor, but it has just an awful smell that makes it difficult to drink (at least that was our consensus).

The following day, the boys gave their testimonies during devotional time, and I couldn’t be prouder.

The boys work with the kids, help with activities, serve lunch, and cleanup the kitchen. Trev and I split our time between that and working on the Moyo child sponsorship letters, gifts, photos, etc.

After such a busy week, we decided to treat the boys to something American, so we took them to McDonalds. My Big Mac was similar to the US. There’s no quarter pounders, but they do have Big Tastys and the boys seemed to like that.

That afternoon it was over 90 degrees and everyone was irritated by the time we left the warehouse-y store where we had stopped at to buy some household items, so we dropped the boys off at the house before heading back out to the grocery store. There is something about walking around a grocery store and it being so hot that you are pouring sweat down your back like you’re exercising. Neither of us could think with the heat in the store, and it was crazy busy, so we chickened out of ordering at the meat counter and made a quick trip of it and headed home.

We, also, made some plans for August, but I’ll wait until closer to time to reveal them.

You never know what you’ll see driving down the road. You have to keep your eyes open and always be alert.

Once the weekend hit we had our first full day off with nowhere to go and nowhere to be. So we just chilled at the pool and were lazy in the hammocks after our family walk around the community.

Sarah and Emily dropped by to deliver us some clothes hangers and David bought us some paper towels, which are expensive, so not popular here, as everyone just uses one set of clothes for dishes and one set for cleaning and floors; never to mix them. Which was super sweet and a good thing because while they were here, I was asking them about the cleaning supplies I bought (making sure it was the right things) and I was bragging about the awesome deal I got on the laundry detergent. Then they informed me that the big bottle I bought, that was sitting right next to the more expensive laundry detergent, was in fact a large bottle of dish soap. HA! I washed our clothes in dish soap all week. Good grief, I need to learn Portuguese fast. Normally, if Trev was with me I could use my translator app to help me but for some reason my Brazilian number doesn’t work like his number does. Vivo has been contacted multiple times and no one can figure out why his works and my doesn’t. So my phone is basically worthless without Wi-Fi. Anyway Sarah and Emily stayed for dinner. It was nice to have other Americans to talk to.

We decided to give our brains a break from Portuguese and stream our church online. Then we had to head for actual laundry detergent. This also meant filling up the car for the first time. You are not allowed to pump your own gas, which meant we needed to talk to the attendant. We did good. The only thing we didn’t know was that the gas tank required the ignition key to unlock the gas cap.

But some pointing and smiling worked to fill the language gap and, with a full tank, we headed to the store. We decided to try the bigger grocery store, Roldão, a little further away and closer to the city.

Several lessons were learned. 1) you have to take your produce to an employee to be weighted and a ticketed PRIOR to checking out- whoops 2) Sunday is a terrible day to go; super duper busy 3) Google translate is useless at translating the names of beef cuts 4) cheddar cheese is not available anywhere I’ve shopped so far 6) certain seasonings are proving to be a challenge (I’m looking at you cumin powder and chili powder) 7) I’m still not used to shopping for my milk on the shelf – very few are refrigerated and they’re almost twice the price 8) Tuck thinks the eggs tasty funny (they’re not refrigerated either 9) Brazilians don’t use ziplock bags; they use little bags that you tie at the  top instead 10) Brazilians are very understanding with gringos (that’s us Americans or really any foreigners) that don’t know the language and are usually very patient and kind. 

This trip took a long time as we were checking out what kind of products the store had, trying to read the Portuguese labels, converting reals to dollars, and metric to standard, it can become a little time consuming and mentally overwhelming but that’s all part of the learning process. It’s a good kind of stretched. 

Speaking of stretched, I finally braved the meat counter, but for cheese not meat. I asked in very simple Portuguese-do you have sliced cheese- você tem queijo? Mussarela fatiado? With the knowledge of a few Portuguese words and a very helpful employee who also used hand gestures like me, I realized I needed to go pick out the cheese I wanted from the refrigerator section and bring it to him and he would slice however much I wanted. I left with 1kg (about 2.2 lbs) of sliced cheese and a smile of satisfaction on my face. 

We had a crazy situation with the lady in front of us at the checkout who had a buggy full of beer, literally like 13 cases, 3 kgs of cheese, and a large package of thick sausages, who after several trips out of line with the employee to check prices, not having enough cash money for all of,  and a declined debit card for the rest, ends up leaving everything in the buggy and exiting the store empty handed. I bet it took her a good 20 minutes. No one in the line cared (verbally). They all just stood there and chit chatted and waited for their turn. 

We headed home, where I worked on laundry, made brownies, and chilled by the pool.

Roberto and Daniel stopped by for a visit. Daniel hopped in the pool with the boys while Trev and I talked with Roberto. 

And just like that, another week has come and gone. It’s just going by so fast.