Grace Proclaimers: 2009

We have arrived in sunny and HOT Brazil!

I am very behind in my updating - I would like to give an account of our trip to England and Zambia but I don't want to keep getting further and further behind. So I have decided to start with the here and now and go back when I have updated about Brazil.

Our first leg of the journey was from Toronto to Sao Paulo - 10 1/2 hours overnight. Jessica slept most of the way in our arms since Air Canada does not have the infant cots that British Airways does. Although AC does provide infant meals, which BA does not, so that was a relief. We had a bit of trouble getting food for Jessica through s*ec*urty at Hea*th*rw on our way to Lusaka - but I'll elaborate on that another time.

Sao Paulo is an interesting city. It is very old and rundown in some places but in others very modern and well kept. You will see an eclectic mix of European and Indigenous architecture.

As I was sitting in the airport waiting for Richard to exchange some money, I was struck by the different people groups represented in one nation. Even I could be thought of as Brazilian despite my pale brown complexion. (Did you realize that everyone has brown skin? Try holding a piece of white paper next to your skin and decide for yourself if you are really "white" or a black piece of paper as the case may be). Watching the people go by made me think of the Tower of Babel. Disobedience to God's command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth resulted in a united human race with one language seperating into different family groups and languages which brings us the people groups we see today. Isolating genetic information has given us a wide range of skin tones (shades of brown from dark to light) hair colour, eye colour etc. But we are all "one blood" as the Bible says.

Our taxi ride from the airport to the hotel brought us right past the infamous "favellas" - where the desperately poor try to exist right next to immense wealth. However, Brazil is not a "third world" or "developing nation. You can purchase almost anything here that you could in Canada. Except Tim Horton's coffee which I am really wishing we had brought down with us.

After a day of sleeping, we had dinner in the hotel and watched an interesting program on tv while we were eating. (Hard not to since the tv was in the restaurant and right in front of us). Imagine a mix of America's Funniest Videos, American Idol and (for those who watched "In Living Color" in the 90's) the Fly Girls "dancing" (read: writhing) in the background. We are NOT getting a tv when we move into our house.

The next day we were up at 4am to catch our first of three flights for the day. One interesting thing I noted at every airport was the very few children present. I maybe counted 4 at the first 2 airports and none at the last one. Travel is very expensive here; most people travelling are on business, not vacation. But this also meant that once again, Jessica was a star attraction. In Brazil, by law if you are over 60, disabled, pregnant or have a small child, you must be bumped to the front of any line. So having Jessica saved us a lot of time!

Our final flight of the day was in a 10 seater plane. We sat right behind the pilots. It was like being in a speed boat - on very choppy water. But I enjoyed it. I wasn't even worried when the pilot took out a map and pasted it to the windscreen.

Well, he had forgotten his sunglasses and was using it to block out the bright sun.

We are settled nicely in our hotel room and Richard is back to work. There is a lovely pool at the hotel and the staff are extremly friendly. They are very helpful in teaching me Portugese. Having taken Spanish, I can read Portugese fairly well and understand some of what is said if the person speaks slowly. But to speak it myself is very difficult. One can try Spanish and most of the time can be understood. However, some words in Spanish are said the same in Portugese but have very different meanings. Richard was told of a young women who was visiting the church here that he has been attending. She was from one of the neighbouring Spanish speaking countries and was asked to stand since she was a visitor. She said she was too embarrassed to stand up which completely shocked the people there. The word for embarrass is said the same in both languages but in Portugese it means "pregnant" so they heard "I'm too pregnant to stand up".

I think I'll stick to gestures for now and skip the Spanish.

We are going to view our potential new home tonight. I visited a few stores yesterday with the wife of one of Richard's coworkers. She is Brazilian, from Sao Paulo, so having her with me was a big help. I'm not sure I could have coped with the sales staff. They were very friendly but followed us everywhere. I guess they work on commission and since my English speaking gave me away, knew that we would be purchasing several big ticket items. There's only one store to buy furniture and several of the people on this project have already moved into houses so the sales staff knew what we were there for!

We are looking forward to settling in to our new home and getting in to a routine, at least for a few months.

Pictures are coming - as soon as I find my card reader.