Day 21 - Going Home

I'm going home today.  Hopefully we will get a chance to see the Christ the Redeemer statue.  I have to be out of the hotel by noon and our flight doesn't leave until 9 PM.  I'll be home tomorrow!  Can't wait.

Day 17 - Lutherans Don't Sit in the Front Row

Empty front row - very Lutheran.

I went to church today at a Brazilian Lutheran Church.  A few people spoke English, but the service was in Portuguese.  I was able to converse with a number of people.  It was mainly the older members who spoke English, which I thought was interesting.  It was a multi-national service, as we had people from Germany, the US (me) and all parts of Brazil.  And one thing I found out about Lutherans the world over - they don't like to sit in the first pew.

The church itself is small, we had about 15 last week, and maybe 30 this week.  I was told that it is one of two Lutheran churches in Niteroi, a city of 600,000 people.  The other Lutheran church is affiliated with the Missouri Synod.  This one is affiliated with the ELCA.  All the music was played by the pastor on her guitar.  Their hymnal is a tiny little book with thin pages that contains the entire Bible, the hymns, the settings and the catechism.  The hymns only had words - there were no notes.  That was ok though - I had a hard enough time reading Portuguese and trying to pronounce the words correctly.  Following the melody was easy in comparison.

The pastor at the pulpit.

Of course I didn't understand the sermon, so I didn't feel too bad about my mind wandering.  I got the gist of it, which was that God is our Father.  It was an appropriate topic since its Father's Day here in Brazil.  When we got to the Nicene creed, I followed along in English.  If you think remembering the new creed is hard, trying remembering it when everyone else is speaking a different language!  The Lord's Prayer was easier.  I have lots of practice saying the older one when people are using the newer one.  So I followed along, and the prayer had the same cadence in Portuguese, which was really cool.


It was a communion Sunday - which they once a month.  It was a very different experience.  This church is very progressive because they let children take communion.  It's a hot topic, one which was part of a talk we got last week after church.  There were slides and everything.  Anyway, in this church, everyone takes communion at the same time.  We went up to the alter and stood in a circle around it.  Then the bread gets passed around in a small bowl.  The person passing you the bowl says, "The body of Christ given for you."  (Though of course they say it in Portuguese.)  Then you take the bowl and a piece of bread (whole wheat) and pass it to the next person.  Then the pastor comes around with a common cup.  Or if you wanted grape juice, you could grab a double shot of that from the altar.  When we were done, we all held hands and prayed together before going back to our seats.  It was a much more intimate experience than what I'm used to, and definitely less of a personal one.  It was the kind of thing I would have expected at a youth retreat.

Communion. The woman in the wheelchair is receiving the host (bread) from the woman on her left holding the bowl of bread.  The girl to her right is holding grape juice.

After communion, the kids who had been in Sunday school until communion, told us what they had learned in Sunday school.  I was unsure if this was a common occurrence or not.  Since it was Father's Day, it may not have been.  Last week there were no kids because everyone was on winter break.  I was told that normally Sunday school is before church, but it was the end of winter break so no one got up early enough to do Sunday school before church.  Time is a very fluid thing here in Brazil.  The only part that I understood from their lesson was that they made their own grape juice.  You can't see it in the picture because the red headed boy is holding the cup with two hands.

After church it was time for coffee - and these cookies that are pure sugar.  I was told they're made like marshmallows.  The woman who made them was 82 years old.  She spoke English rather well and was telling me how she's struggling to learn the computer.  She said speaking German or English is easy because she's been doing it all her life, but learning how to use the computer is hard.  Everyone stood around drinking coffee and eating cookies.  The coffee in Brazil is very strong, and you drink it in tiny little teacups, like what you would see in a little girl's play tea set.  In fact my daughter has cups the right size for Brazilian coffee. :)  They also aren't ashamed to add sugar to it.  One of their sugar packets probably contains what would be in 2 or 3 of ours.

The guy taking pictures is a pastor from Germany who had been a pastor in the south of Brazil and he and his wife were in town visiting friends.   The lady in the green coat in the first picture was my translator.  She sat next to me during the service and kept up a running commentary on what was going on.  Last Sunday when we met she asked where I was from.  I told her Virginia.  She said, "Oh I'm going there in October to visit friends!"  I asked her where in Virginia, and she told me Charlottesville.  I told her, "That's where I work!"  It really is a small world.

Day 13 - Rain, rain go away.

Woke up.  Still raining.  I haven't seen the sun in three days.  Jesse fixed the TV.  Apparently the cable box only turns on if you use the remote.  They have four channels here called TeleCine.  They show movies all day long.  They are titled, Premium, Action, Light, Pipoca and Cult.  I've watched a lot of movies in the last week.  Transformers 2, The Transporter 2, Wild Child, some movie with John Candy as a con man, some movie with Reese Witherspoon as a Victorian nanny, Bloodsport, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, some movie about four black kids who become crack dealers in Boston, and a bunch of other random stuff.

Today though I spent the day figuring out how much longer we needed to be here so we could reschedule our tickets.  We're going to be leaving on the 12th of August.  I knew it was a possibility, and I thought I had grown accustomed to the idea, but I'm really bummed.  Everyone is going to be going to the Watermelon Festival and I'm going to miss it.  I'm also going to miss going to Sarah's play with Kristin.  This new job is kind of tearing all my personal plans to shreds.  It's a quite a downer.

I keep telling myself I'm in Brazil, but I could be in a hotel room anywhere in the world where I can't talk to anyone, the service sucks and the food is worse.

I found out at the end of the day that everything I've done for the past two days needs to be redone because my equipment was broken.  I can't tell you how excited I am about that.

I'm going to watch The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift on TeleCine Action.  I don't expect it to be good - just to get me out of here for two hours.

Day 12 - I'll trade you Internet for TV

Got up. Showered. Went back to sleep. Got up. Ate breakfast.  They had Pau De Queijo at breakfast.  Cheesy bread puffs.  Delicious.  Went back upstairs.  Started working.

Jesse came and asked if I'd checked my email this morning.  I hadn't.  I tried.  Internet was working!  I checked my mail.  Internet stopped working.  Called my boss to reply to email.  Spent the next 6 hours creating a report for the customer so they would hopefully allow us to purchase the last 20 phones we need so that we can come home!  Had to write the report on the bed, plugged into the wall because that was the only way to do the research I needed.  At least the Internet was working.

Computer ran out of power as I was finishing the report.  Came back into the living room to finish it.  Plugged the router back into the wall and went into the setup menu to try and re-configure it.  Changed the timezone to Brazil.  Suddenly it started working.  It was slow, but functional.  Yay!

Took a break when the maid came.  Made a ham sandwich and ate part of an avacado the size of my forearm.  Discovered that arugula is not my favorite lettuce replacement.  Tested a few more phones.  Tools that have been broken for days miraculously started working - but I have no idea why.

Went to dinner in the hotel dining room.  My sister called.  Talked to her for a few minutes.  That was nice.  We got a fried shrimp appetizer that cost $17.  Would've been better if we'd gotten it at Red Lobster.  I decided to try an Italian dish tonight.  Chicken, ham and peas in noddles with a "cream" sauce.  I was sadly disappointed, but not surprised.  I don't imagine there was any actual cream or even milk in that sauce.  Chef Boyardee could have done a better job.  I hate this hotel.

Came back from dinner.  Fixed some more stuff.  Worked some more.  When Jesse left at 8:30, decided to watch some TV while I worked.  Cable box was off, which was weird.  Had to fiddle with the jury-rigged power outlet to get it back on.  Nothing.  TV is now dead.  I'd try the one in my room, but the Wireless router is plugged into the power outlet reserved for the TV.  After a week with no Internet up here I'm not screwing with that router.

It drizzled all day.  First day it's been cold here.

Day 11 - It was a good day.

Woke up. Took a shower. Forgot to shave. Got a call from the Boys & Girls Club of Waynesboro. My kids are off the waiting list! It will cost me $20 per kid for after school care for the entire school year! I may not go bankrupt this year. Only problem: They need the admission forms filled ASAP. I won't be back until the 7th or possibly the 15th of August. My mom won't be back until the 22nd. I start calling people to see if someone can fill the forms out for me. Finally I get a hold of my neighbor. She does it for me. Best thing that's happened to me since before I left.

Went down to breakfast. It was the first time in over a week since I've been able to even eat breakfast. They took my plates away before I finished eating. I chugged some yogurt juice to finish it off. Jesse and I worked in the hotel room. One of our 6 test phones ran out of minutes. We checked the rest and they were all down to a couple of bucks left.

We went back to the mall. We ate at a fast food restaurant. I got a smoothie and a hamburger which turned out to be grade E flank steak covered in Russian salad dressing on a bun. Cost about $10. Luckily the smoothie was amazing.

Went to get the phones recharged at the same place as before. After we typed the phone numbers for all 6 phones (10 digits each) into a credit card keypad, they ran Jesse's credit card. It didn't work. So we had to re-enter all 6 numbers and we tried his card again. It still didn't work. So we entered them all again and tried my card. Surprise! It worked! Oh wait, no it didn't. :( So then we had to do each purchase separately.

While the cashier and Jesse are ringing up each purchase, I call VISA to see if this is a problem on their end. Nope. In fact, the purchase went through every time we tried. Three $170 purchases have registered on our cards. We request they deny those charges. Good thing I called.

We go to a nearby grocery store. I buy food because it's cheaper than using the crappy snacks in the hotel - and the fancy hotel restaurant is like eating at a cheap crappy diner that tries to look fancy and overcharges for your meals. The most expensive cut of steak I could find was $3.50 a pound. I do not have high hopes for it. I think the USA keeps all the good cuts of meat and these guys only get the leftovers. My credit card doesn't work again when we get to the register. The total? About $60. I pay cash. The guy doesn't give me my change. When I point this out, he sheepishly tries to get the register open, can't, and hands it to me. I realize he was trying to pocket it hoping I wouldn't notice. I'm not surprised - hardly anyone here ever gives you change.

Back to the hotel to work. Things go well. One of my tools stops working. I need an authorization code. Multiple trips down to the wireless router in the lobby (I'm on the top floor - 8), I have the information I need. I'm now sitting here downloading the files I need very slowly. I decide to write this.

Time to go do more work - then maybe cook something for dinner if I'm up for it. On the bright side I haven't been able to eat much lately. Hopefully I'm losing weight.