Sunday January 27, 2019
Wahoo! After church we came over to the office (trying not to set off any alarms getting in) and were able to Facetime with Jenny's crew as they rushed about getting ready for Stake conference and then Goggle Hangout visited with Glen and his group. Looks like after church here and before church there will work great. (we are three hours ahead of MO and four ahead of Utah)
Durk is enjoying having time to study scriptures without TV or internet or even phone calls.
Misc.: they save space by packaging toilet paper rolls smashed fairly flat. Bananas taste much more flavorful and are shorter, fatter, not as rounded, do not get overripe fast even in this heat (probably because no long shipping and chemical ripening) and are sold often in big bunches of over a dozen.
Tuesday. Wahoo! i sent some ideas to Evan and he found the missing phone! when we changed bags it got left in a hidden pocket in the carry-on we did not use. The Bohn's from MO are stopping by here in March and I think can bring it. An elder was AWOLfor a bit and the Houseman's had quite a time until his whereabouts were certain. There have been some pretty interesting experiences for the Housemans - it can be pretty rough on an elder not having access to his favorite pizza. We are REALLY thankful we are not a mission president and wife!
Wednesday evening our neighbors stopped by with a "pudin" - similar to flan but lighter, very yummy! We shared with missionaries last night, and office people today (Thursday) at lunch. Sis. Bell took me to RioMar, a huge five-level shopping mall, to get office supplies not available here (or better price). Sis. B also got candied cashews and there is "Organica" where I was able to get bay leaves, tahini, quinoa, red pepper flakes, and even black rice. I did spent too much probably. Distance is gauged by taxi fare, this is about a 20 Rais trip. The main road is starting to look familiar at least.
Thursday
Headed in a bit early to touch base with Sister Houseman who was headed about 2 1/2 hours out to direct the office elders and help haul furniture and apartment fixings up and down stairs in the heat. Sis. Bell and I went to RioMar (fancy five-level shopping center) for office supplies, (along with some candied cashews and a fortuitous stop at "Organica" where I found tahini and black rice and some other goodies. Gotta go back another day and see what else I can find).
After many days in the vinegar water that was supposed to be a couple of hours for germ-killing, we used cabbage in a stir-fry which turned out well. seems even the brown rice is parboiled, though it took as long as usual to cook anyway. Our frying pan isn't very big, next time I will just use the big pot, since I'm not really "frying" anyway and we want more leftovers so we can cook less often.
We got smart and started to take the dishpan in and fill with hot water from the shower. Now we just need another tub for rinsing.
Friday
I made a template for departure letters in Portuguese but every time I hit "Save" it changes it into English. Even though the program is meant for different language versions. Three tries.
We had our first dinner with all the senior missionaries, one brand-new temple couple who have served MLS (member-leader support) missions in other areas of Brazil previously. We taxied to the temple and met up, walked a fair ways to an "Italian" place. Half a dozen waiters were standing around but only one helped us and he took a lot of asking to get more than two menus for the eleven people. They thought the idea of veggies in pasta was quite odd, kept sending us to the salads. I did get a salad, it was chilled cooked potatoes, carrot chunks, green beans, peas and corn with some mozzarella bits all on top of lettuce and tomato slices. The tomatoes tasted good. It took ages and the original plan had been to continue to the big WalMart to shop while in the area but we gave that up.
Saturday - P-day (preparation day - which we feel we did, nice to be all shopped and cleaned up, though the laundry is still going, the washer takes a really good nap between every cycle and action)
Durk figured out the "whirly mop" for me and then I cleaned floors while he did the bathroom. Then off to the big WalMart where I found sweet chili sauce - now I have all the ingredients for pad thai, hooray! its one of our quick and easy stand-by's. I found powdered ginger but still no dried cilantro (maybe they had fresh, was hard to sort the greens and I didn't take time today) and they don't have garlic and onion powder so maybe I will have to learn to adapt for the garlic and onion "sauce" that seems they just liquefied it. Raisins were really expensive, we found soy milk but no almond. I'm hoping the open market will have bulk almonds and I brought a nut milk bag. Durk bought a new food to try - "pitumba". The flavor is actually pretty good but not the pit that you tend to taste because you have to sort of scrape the pulp off with your teeth. Durk can have my share. We did have some really good melon.
yes it looks kind of like an eyeball inside and the pit is quite large, the outer shell is fairly hard. We should have put in something for scale - they are like tiny baby potatoes in size (pit below)
Wahoo! After church we came over to the office (trying not to set off any alarms getting in) and were able to Facetime with Jenny's crew as they rushed about getting ready for Stake conference and then Goggle Hangout visited with Glen and his group. Looks like after church here and before church there will work great. (we are three hours ahead of MO and four ahead of Utah)
Durk is enjoying having time to study scriptures without TV or internet or even phone calls.
 |
| studying at the MTC |
Monday there was a great crash of thunder early and power was out when we got to the office. We never did get the church network up to do much of our computer work but had wifi. We presented Sister Houseman with her honorary medical degree from the school of hard knocks (or as close as I could get in Latin without saying the school hit her on the head, thanks to Bethany for assistance). I can't believe I never took a photo of it, I'll have to get one from her.
The shower heater burned out, actually it turned out the whole thing was broken and the amazing office elders replaced and fixed and now we have HOT water. Maybe we should wash dishes in there.
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| The walk to the office is typical of "sidewalks" here, you can't look at the scenery much if you don't want to break an ankle |
Parents! Just because missionaries can come at 18 does not mean they have to! IMHOP, many could use a semester or two away from home :)
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| These cool trees are one reason the walks are so broken up. I'll have to get some better pictures. |
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| This is the outer door to the elevator to out apartment. The paper was written on in ball-point "door painted" and stuck onto the tacky paint. You can see someone has tried to remove it, I assume eventually with water it will come off, gotta admit its an efficient way to put up a wet paint sign. |
Thursday
Headed in a bit early to touch base with Sister Houseman who was headed about 2 1/2 hours out to direct the office elders and help haul furniture and apartment fixings up and down stairs in the heat. Sis. Bell and I went to RioMar (fancy five-level shopping center) for office supplies, (along with some candied cashews and a fortuitous stop at "Organica" where I found tahini and black rice and some other goodies. Gotta go back another day and see what else I can find).
After many days in the vinegar water that was supposed to be a couple of hours for germ-killing, we used cabbage in a stir-fry which turned out well. seems even the brown rice is parboiled, though it took as long as usual to cook anyway. Our frying pan isn't very big, next time I will just use the big pot, since I'm not really "frying" anyway and we want more leftovers so we can cook less often.
We got smart and started to take the dishpan in and fill with hot water from the shower. Now we just need another tub for rinsing.
 |
| Bells got hidden at the back, on the left Sister Bell, Sister Chambers, me, Sister Haslam, Sister Hunter, hubbies across. |
I made a template for departure letters in Portuguese but every time I hit "Save" it changes it into English. Even though the program is meant for different language versions. Three tries.
We had our first dinner with all the senior missionaries, one brand-new temple couple who have served MLS (member-leader support) missions in other areas of Brazil previously. We taxied to the temple and met up, walked a fair ways to an "Italian" place. Half a dozen waiters were standing around but only one helped us and he took a lot of asking to get more than two menus for the eleven people. They thought the idea of veggies in pasta was quite odd, kept sending us to the salads. I did get a salad, it was chilled cooked potatoes, carrot chunks, green beans, peas and corn with some mozzarella bits all on top of lettuce and tomato slices. The tomatoes tasted good. It took ages and the original plan had been to continue to the big WalMart to shop while in the area but we gave that up.
 |
| We get tired of oatmeal occasionally, thanks to Sister Houseman we have some whole wheat flour and we made mango sauce to put on our weekend pancakes. |
Saturday - P-day (preparation day - which we feel we did, nice to be all shopped and cleaned up, though the laundry is still going, the washer takes a really good nap between every cycle and action)
Durk figured out the "whirly mop" for me and then I cleaned floors while he did the bathroom. Then off to the big WalMart where I found sweet chili sauce - now I have all the ingredients for pad thai, hooray! its one of our quick and easy stand-by's. I found powdered ginger but still no dried cilantro (maybe they had fresh, was hard to sort the greens and I didn't take time today) and they don't have garlic and onion powder so maybe I will have to learn to adapt for the garlic and onion "sauce" that seems they just liquefied it. Raisins were really expensive, we found soy milk but no almond. I'm hoping the open market will have bulk almonds and I brought a nut milk bag. Durk bought a new food to try - "pitumba". The flavor is actually pretty good but not the pit that you tend to taste because you have to sort of scrape the pulp off with your teeth. Durk can have my share. We did have some really good melon.
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