January Birthdays

Each of us is a year older now.

Nádya and I each got to mark the turning of the new year by also celebrating our birthdays. While it was my intent to get you told about each celebration separately, something came up, and I couldn't. Okay, that isn't really true; I forgot. Now I really do feel older.

There are a lot more photos at our photo web album, including pictures of the awesome guitar cake my mother-in-law made for me with help from my wonderful wife. And, of course, lots of pictures of both kids.

Hendrick celebrated four months on the 22nd

Hendrick turned four months on the 22nd. At his checkup a couple of days later, he was 9 kilograms, and 68 centimeters (19.8 lbs, 26.77 inches). When the nurse weighed him, she did a double-take, and ended up weighing him again. Yes, he is that big.

For comparison, Kylie was 7.5 kilograms at five months. See also, Kylie at Four Months.

Stay tuned for information about our return to the US. We think we are getting close, just want to be sure all the pieces are in place before the plane takes off.

Fortaleza Trip

Last Monday we went to Fortaleza to apply for Hendrick's Consular Report of Birth Abroad, and his US Passport. Monday night we got on a bus, but only after much anticipation from Kylie. She was more excited to be on the bus and going somewhere than anyone. After settling in for the eight to ten hour ride, though, she settled down and went to sleep.

More than a couple times when we have traveled, we have encountered taxi drivers that either don't know the part of town we are going to, or want to run up the meter. I decided that planning ahead and printing out a map with directions would be better. It was a great idea. The taxi driver took us right to the address on the map.

Except the address was wrong.

I am still not sure how that happened, but once we got it figured out the address was wrong, I went from my memory. The problem was, that this guy had no interest in what I remembered, and insisted on getting more phone credits and calling for directions (all while the meter was running, of course). He came back with the same information I remembered, and we were on our way.

We now have a new family rule: Don't get in taxis where the driver is really old.

At the Consular Agent, we submitted our paperwork and discovered that we would have to get new photos, since the ones we had were not the right size. So once we got those taken and submitted, we had the rest of the day to play, since our bus was scheduled to leave at 9:00 PM.

We had lunch at a great restaurant, which I can't remember the name of, then we were off to the beach. After a short stop at a mall. At the restaurant we had been told that the beach was "800 meters that way," it ended up feeling like 1600 meters. But what do I know?

The fun part was that Kylie was so excited about the beach that she forgot we were walking. By the time we got there she had just started wondering if we would ever get there. She loved the water. We played for a while, had some coconut water and ice cream, and then washed up and caught a taxi back to the bus station. This taxi ride was much less eventful.

At the bus station we had some time, still, so Kylie made some friends with other kids waiting there. Once we were on the bus, she was asleep. The four of us were sharing two seats, so one might imagine that the kids slept better than the parents.

The first thing Kylie said when she woke up? "Daddy, let's go to the beach!"

Hendrick's US Passport could take almost two months to get here, they said. That is when we plan to schedule our trip back to the States.

Moving To Brazil

Aside from the obvious lack of posting updates here, life has continued for us. We have had many joyous times as well as our share of sorrows here in the United States. The time has come for us to move back to Brazil.

The economic conditions in which we arrived here were not easy, and have continued to worsen. Though there is light at the end of the tunnel for the economy, it is still to far away for our family—also, that is not the only factor; Nádya is once again pregnant! She is finishing up her first trimester, and looking very much forward to not having morning sickness anymore. The baby is due in September.

This one factor has made it all the more difficult for us to tell family of our decision, as we know that they were looking forward to seeing the little one.

There is a longer version of events which would make this post far to long to read in one sitting, however I would like to say that this decision is made to keep our family relationship strong rather than a triage to prevent estrangement.

Our relationship is strong, but the continued and combined stresses of living on the fringe of poverty along with being far from family, friends and all things familiar has taken a large toll on Nádya's well-being. I am not placing blame here, as I remember to some degree how it felt. To the contrary, because I remember how it felt, and because I can see how this situation is taking its toll on all of us I can better understand how this will help all of us.

There are many challenges ahead. We don't have jobs in Teresina. We are leaving the 17th of March, and still have to figure out what we are doing with all our stuff (probably a moving sale of some sort...), and there are many other unknowns. This is without question a step of faith. Maybe it is even stupid.

As I post this we only came to a final decision last night, and the emotions are fresh, raw, and maybe a bit less guarded than they should be. I can only hope that, given the resources we have, we have come to the best conclusion we could. We see God's hand in this and continually seek to remain at the center of His will.

We are aware that goodbyes will need to be said, and maybe some will want to help in some way or another. We are not asking for money, just have notice that many people have offered to help in various ways. If you would like to help, call my voicemail using the link on this page (Where it says "Call Me!"), and leave a message. Don't worry about the time, as it goes straight to voicemail and does not ring my phone.

Two weeks is not a lot of time to tie things up here. We will surely not connect with all those we would like to, that does not mean you are not important to us. Please call or send an email if you would like to. Don't hesitate!

Rio de Janeiro In Retrospect

There were are few things that just did not fit in the previous posts about our trip to Rio de Janeiro, which I thought were important. So I have rounded them up in this post.

Rio de Janeiro is a lot larger than Teresina. More people, more cars, more money, more of most things. What surprised me about the culture, though, is that people were more polite. And not just a little.

The Public Transportation System

In Teresina the idea of getting in line for something does not exist (unless there is someone to enforce it). In order to get on the bus here, if there are more than three people at the bus stop, one must fight just to get to the door. No blood no foul.

In Rio de Janeiro people were orderly, and even polite, about getting in line.

I was also impressed that the equipment (the buses and subway trains) was in very good condition, and often had air conditioning. In Teresina the buses are generally pretty old—or at least get to looking that way in a very short time. Air conditioned buses would be a dream.

The bus / Metrô combination worked really well for us. If you don't know Portuguese it might not work as well for you, but a great many people there speak English, so I recommend trying it. Besides, the Metrô website is available in English, so almost anyone could get their route planned easily.

I like riding the bus around to get a feel for a new city. While it isn't always the best form of transportation it does help one familiarize oneself with the basic layout.

Feel

As I mentioned in the second paragraph, as a whole people were a lot more polite than here in Teresina. Many people said "Hi," as we passed on the sidewalk. And almost everyone we asked for help was happy to guide us on our way. It struck me as odd that in such a big city people would do that, while in Teresina people can be a lot more cold. Maybe it is the heat here.

For being so full of people, Rio really felt like a much smaller town most of the time—just sprawled over a lot of area. The geography of the city could have something to do with that. The city is built within the vales of these granite hills that rise from just above sea level to 2000 feet and fall back down to sea level, all within a couple of miles. There is a lot of getting around the mountains to be done.

Our expectation was that we would constantly be hearing "bolas perdidos" (stray bullets) flying around, in some ways. That is the sense of Rio de Janeiro that the national news portrays. I did not hear any. Though, the favelas are different where most of this takes place, and we had no reason or desire to go into any of them.

On a side note, I have found a couple of great blogs by some Americans living and working among the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

I never felt like we were in any immanent danger, but knowing that crime is a huge problem there kept us alert. We also avoided using English at all times, and I avoided speaking at all in buses and on the sidewalks. While my accent might not give me away, a) I don't trust that I don't have an accent, and b) A simple grammatical mistake would be a giveaway that I am a foreigner. Foreigners are often the target of choice for the local banditos, who generally just want to make off with some cash or nice jewelry.

Recommendations

The following are a few things that one might consider while planning a trip to Rio de Janeiro. It is not complete, but I think covers the major things.

• If you are planning a visit to this great city, then do not miss Sugar Loaf, or Christ the Redeemer. Each of these costs R$ 35.00 per person currently, but well worth the trip.


• Know the basic distance (in kilometers) between your various destinations if you are using a taxi, as well as how much it will likely cost. Taxi drivers pick up the little things that give you away as a foreigner very well, and will sometimes "take you for a ride."


• Museums seemed to be plentiful, but we never had time or energy to visit one. When we do return I would like to spend some time seeing the various memorials and museums around the city. Patrick and Nyna visited at least one that looked really interesting from the photos. Maybe Patrick can write a little more about that (hint, hint)?


• Maracanã [*] is one of the largest football stadiums in the world—soccer, if you are in the US. Patrick and Nyna took a tour. From the pictures I saw, I would say this is on the list of must-see things, though maybe toward the bottom.


• Follow basic travel-safety guidelines. Keep your wallet in your front pocket. If you are lost or scared (or both) do not act that way, it is the best way to become prey. Do not carry to much cash with you (and not in your shoe, as you could end up barefoot and broke!).

Closing

Though the primary purpose of our trip was to do Nádya's visa interview at the US Consulate, we did get to do some of the fun things there are to do in Rio de Janeiro. We noticed a big difference in the cultures of Rio and Teresina, and really enjoyed ourselves once the stress was over. If you are considering a trip to Rio de Janeiro, stop considering and go. By far, it is one of the most interesting cities I have visited.

I am open to questions or comments if anyone has something you want to know. Hope you enjoyed the series! (And if you did feel free to share it with others.)

This entry is the closing segment of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. If you liked the series, try subscribing to the RSS feed or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day Seven: Rest and Return

The photo above is very significant in our adventures of our last day in Rio de Janeiro. But it came late in the day, so I will first tell you the events that lead up to this dramatic ending.

Saturday Morning

The previous five days of carrying Kylie around the city had all but worn us out. She is over 20 pounds now, and at eight months she does not yet walk on her own. That leaves few options to parents far from home with no stroller near at hand, so carry her we did.

We decided that it would be good just to relax and take it easy as we prepared for our departure. We had our breakfast, did some wash, cleaned up around the apartment, and got our suitcases packed during the morning hours.

Lunch was an interesting mixture of cleaning out the fridge. We had purchased some groceries and done a lot of our own cooking to save money. Afterward we went to return a map we had borrowed to Mark and Helen's apartment just a short walk away.

The Last Meal

One of the very good ideas we had that day was to eat out for our last meal in Rio. We had eaten lunch at a place called "Otto" on Thursday. It is a very good German/Brazilian resturant on Rua Uruguai. The lunch had been so good that I was really ready to go back—what is more it was very economical.

The dinner prices were higher, which was a bit of a surprise, but the food was still excellent. We had oven baked chicken in gravy with mashed potatoes and an exquisite risotto. It cost about US $15 for the two of us, and there was enough left over for two more people to eat.

To the Airport

I am a visual learner, which is why I love to be able to schedule things on my computer's calendar; I can see where conflicts will arise, and re-arrange if need be. Since the laptop broke I have been using a desktop computer, and typically have had no regrets about that.

All day Nádya had been concerned that we were planning things to late, and wanted to get an early start to the airport. I kept saying, "Relax, we are fine." Our flight was at seven. It was six when it finally clicked in my head that we should already be at the airport. I didn't feel stupid, or even really panicked. Just late.

The taxi was backing up to the stairs so we could load our ready-packed bags at that very moment. We bundled into the taxi, and headed off. As we left I had a lingering wish that I had been able to plan the day in my normal way. "Oh well," I thought, "We will get there in time and everything will be fine."

Now, I do not understand completely how the fare system works in Rio de Janeiro, but it seems that there are two ways you can be charged. Either a flat rate from one neighborhood to another, or the meter. It seemed that when we chose the meter method the driver was a bit put off. We think he did some extra driving so that we would pay closer to the flat rate (we ended up paying only a couple of Reais less than that).

No problem, we were to the airport in time for our flight.

Or Not

As it turns out all our (the taxi driver's and mine) killing of time had added up, and we were a whole five minutes to late for the nice people at the check-in counter to help us. No huge deal, we can just catch another flight. Right?

Or not.

We bought the tickets on sale, we paid for the flight there, and the airline would take us home for free. Except when we missed our flight, the deal was off. So I found myself whipping out the plastic and paying for two seats on various planes to get us back to Teresina. I was pretty distraught, frustrated, and... Well, I felt very stupid. And poor.

The picture at the top of this post is a memorial to the R$ 1,950 we paid for plane tickets home, and quite possibly the to the last time I will ever be late to the airport.

Make the best of things, that was the goal of the photo.

The Ride Home

The plane ride home was without significant incident. No star sightings, or missed flights. Just a lingering sense of having a significantly lighter wallet—well, at least for me. We arrived in Teresina in the early hours of the morning and got a few hours of sleep, then unpacked our bags.

Ending

So end our adventures in Rio de Janeiro, but there are a few closing thoughts I would like to share in the next post.

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day Six: Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf)

Getting To Sugar Loaf Mountain

On Friday, the 28th of March we went to visit yet another highly significant landmark in Rio de Janeiro: Sugar Loaf (in Portuguese it is called Pão de Açúcar). After our experience with Cristo Redentor the previous day, we decided that maybe we would have better luck later in the day.

(One of the things we really missed in our apartment was some way of hearing or seeing the news, there were no TVs or radios there. By the same token it was really nice, though weather reports are sort of important in this type of adventuring.)

We found ourselves catching the bus after a nice lunch. Then the Metrô, and finally another bus. The first bus and the Metrô were not bad at all, but the last bus was overcrowded. I was holding Kylie, and the driver took one look at me and told me to enter through the back door. This happened a couple of times while in Rio. I think it is so we didn't have to deal with passing the turnstile and the crowded aisle. Nádya still had to go through the front and pay for us.

I was holding on for dear life while standing and holding Kylie near the back door, and Nádya had started a conversation with someone at the front. Soon she motioned for me to get off at the next stop. She had asked a student at the nearby university where to get off, and the student had a shortcut for us.

What our guide did not know is that we had a child with us who is over 9 kilos and does not yet walk. It was a bit longer than we expected. On the upside, we did walk by this very interesting tree:

Pão de Açúcar

Once we wandered around enough to find our way to the parking lot of Sugar Loaf Mountain (Hill? I have seen it both ways.) we were treated to this sight:

Our timing had been great. No clouds for miles. It was not even that hot in the afternoon sun (well, at least for those coming from Teresina). We really enjoyed our visit to Sugar Loaf, for me it was the best day of the trip by far. Very cool scenery, great weather, and wonderful company.

I took so many pictures that I want to talk about, but I think I will let them speak for themselves. If you have any questions or comments, though, do feel free to write them in the comment box on the individual photo in the gallery. I will reply as soon as I can.

Do be sure and look at the panoramas of Rio de Janeiro. There are three at the very end, probably my favorite photos from the day. There are full-size versions you can download if you wish (though only of the panoramas). Here is my favorite panorama from the day:

It is quite small as it appears here, but if you click on it to visit the larger version it is quite a treat, if I do say so myself. ;)

We also had a great view of Cristo Redentor, and took full advantage of that fact. I probably got better pictures of the statue from here than I did up there!

The Trip Home

This was a story in and of itself. Rio de Janeiro is a city of 11 million people. Cities half that size (and smaller) have traffic jams. At the very peak of rush hour we headed home. We had heard that Rio can become a very dangerous place at night, and so wanted to be home at, or around dark.

We caught our bus to the Metrô without any trouble, but when we got to the subway station there were all kinds of people. We crowded into a car and found only standing room left. Again I found myself hanging on for dear life with one hand, and trying to keep hold of Kylie with the other.

I did that for a couple of harrowing stops before a man graciously gave up his seat so I could sit down. That was good. I felt very fortunate—until I realized that Nádya was at the other side of the car, and we could not see each other. I even wondered if she knew where I had gone.

We had heard a story or two about the crowded subways, but I brushed them off as exaggerations of the truth after riding a couple times. It turns out the stories we heard were pretty mild.

The car got more and more full. I felt crowded even though I was seated. Having studied the map a bit, I knew that there was a transfer station shortly after the Centro (downtown) stop, and figured a great many people would disembark there.

Have you ever seen masses of people push so hard against other people that it looks like the waves of the ocean? Maybe a mosh pit (sans music)? That is what it was like at this stop. I was worried that Kylie and I would get carried away out the door, and onto the platform. That was the scariest thing that has happened to me for a very long time.

Nádya fared less well than we did. She had been standing between the doors because there was no other place to go. She nearly got piled out of the car and onto the platform by this mob of people exiting the train. Somehow she was fortunate enough to remain inside the car.

The rest of the journey home was much more peaceful, for which we were glad. I do wonder, though, how all the little old ladies I saw in that car fared. How do they even survive with all the jostling, and cajoling?

If you wish, you can view a slideshow of all the photos from our Pão de Açúcar trip. It may take a few moments to load, but it is full screen, and quite good quality. I recommend it.

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day Five: O Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer)

Cristo Redentor is more commonly known in English as Christ the Redeemer, or even "the Jesus statue." It has recently been voted one of the seven man-made wonders of the world, and is one of the many iconic tokens of the city of Rio de Janeiro. There is little bit of history on the making of the statue in several places on the internet. [*]

When I first realized that we would have to go to Rio de Janeiro as a part of Nádya's visa process, I was excited that we might get a chance to see this grand display of artisanship. We were glad to go somewhere other than on visa-related business by this time, and a fun day it was.

Every time it had rained since we arrived on Sunday, it had rained in the afternoon after a sunny morning. With that in mind, and given the high elevation (700 meters, around 1200 feet) of the statue clouds could be an issue, we planned to arrive mid-morning, and leave about lunch time.

There are several ways to get to the statue. If you have rented a car, or wish to take a taxi, there are roads that lead up to its foot. We took the Metrô, and then a bus to the Cosme Vehlo train station.

It was kind of strange to be among so many people in such a small space, all of whom seemed to speak different languages. It really felt like a tourist trap at this point, almost to the point of me wanting to call it off.

We had to wait for our turn on the train. When they sell you the ticket, it comes with a boarding time. The lines were long, and I think we had to wait for one more train before it was our turn, so we fed Kylie.

The nice part about getting that done was that we had a happy baby for the next couple of hours. We also had an alternative activity which distracted us from the savory smell of the espresso bar (who knows how much they charge there...).

Our train was scheduled for 11:00 AM, and about 10:50 AM it came rolling in. As we made our ascent I kept the camera on, and ready in case some beautiful vista of Rio came up. There were several, but the train was moving to quickly for the camera to focus fast enough. So none of them really turned out to be anything I am very proud of. I have put some in our album of the day anyway.

We arrived at the end of the line at about 11:20 AM, having been teased on and off by grand views of the city, then socked in by clouds. The higher we climbed the more clouds there were. I was worried that we had (in spite of my genius plan) chosen the wrong time to get there.

It was not a disaster, though. In fact, the clouds added to the uniqueness of the experience, which made it more enjoyable. I do wish we had a chance to see some better views of the city from there, though. Hopefully someday we will get a chance to return.

As the clouds broke away, the sun actually showed it's face for a few moments, and we got some of the standard shots:

It would have been nice to stay a bit longer, but our stomachs were telling us that it was time to go. So we headed down to the train station for the ride down.

I ended up getting into a conversation with a guy from Phoenix, Arizona about Brazil, and what it was like to live here. He told me something that shocked me: "You have an accent in English." Please don't tell my English students!

The next day we made plans to go to Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar).

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day Four: The Visa Interview

Transit

We awoke early, and to a rainy day in Rio de Janeiro. As I remember it, neither of us got a great night's sleep. The nerves and stress of the next day weighed heavily on our minds leaving only restless sleep to be followed by heavy eyelids the rest of the day.

The plan was to get around quickly and grab a bite to eat at a local bakery on the way to the subway. The plan was abandoned when we realized that we had spent to much time getting ready to be sure we would be early to the 7:45 AM appointment. So we skipped breakfast (opting instead to feed Kylie), and hoped for the best.

Mark and I had talked over the plan to use the subway, which was pretty simple, but we still asked around to make sure we were on track. We just hopped a bus to the closest Metrô station (Saens Peña) and got in one of the cars, then disembarked at the Cinelândia stop, and walked to the US Consulate.

On the way to the Consulate we stopped for breakfast because we had time, and we were starving. When we had finished we made our way the rest of the way to the Consulate.

The Interview

When we reached the consulate we were told to wait in a line next to the building. Since it was still raining I was grateful for the shelter we were under, as well as a waist-high wall where we could sit. Carrying a twenty-plus-pound baby all over the city is not easy.

There were two lines forming, and though ours was the smaller of them (and an earlier appointment time), we were being bypassed. At first we did not understand, but we eventually figured out that the other line was for tourist visas, and maybe work visas. We ended up waiting for almost an hour after our appointment time to even get inside the consulate.

Once inside we got checked for metals, weapons, etc, and got in the next line. Unfortunately that was the wrong line, and we had to go somewhere else to wait in line again.

We were directed to some stairs which led to a waiting room that was a lot smaller and quieter than the other waiting room had been. It was hard to tell how much time had passed because the only way we had with us to tell time (our cell phone) had been held at the security checkpoint. We were finally called to one of the small interview booths to submit papers.

The lady checked our forms, and had me fill in a couple of things that were still needed (the instructions were explicitly vague on those points). Once that was over we were given a number, and asked to wait again.

Kylie was bored. We were too, and so were most of the people in the waiting room. Fortunately for Kylie there was a small play-area that we made use of. The toys were—well, the were filthy. I almost did not let her play with them, but she was fussy, and there were no other alternatives that I could see.

After a bit a couple of other kids who were waiting with their parents came over to play. They were around six and eight years old, a boy and a girl. At first they just skirted around Kylie and I, but then warmed up to Kylie. They played with the cars, trains, and what was left (one arm, torso, and head) of the He-Man action figure.

They eventually started batting around a hair tie-back. You know, one of those elastic things that the ladies use to put their hair in a pony-tail. They were batting it back and forth with a plush stegosaurus and penguin. For some reason Kylie thought this was the best thing ever. I have never seen her laugh so hard!

At first I thought she was crying. Then I realized that this infectious laugh was being heard by everyone. Every time the hair-thing went flying through the air she laughed and giggled. I couldn't hold back a laugh or two myself when I heard it. Nobody could.

I still wonder what she saw in it that was so fun.

Eventually we were called into the interview booth. After taking an oath and answering a few basic questions about us the Consular Officer gave her response. The visa would be approved, but she could not approve it that day because there was some other proofs that needed to be submitted. Though she said that once we re-submitted some certain forms the visa would be approved, and sent to us via courier.

Kind of anti-climactic. No real interview. Just a few simple yes/no questions. No stamp of approval, or other tangible evidence that the visa had been approved.

Wasted Time and Money

Tuesday (the day before) we had gone to pay a fee at CitiBank for the interview. They were happy to sell us a voucher for the fee for a tourist visa interview, even though we had checked with the clerk that this was for an immigrant visa. So now we had wasted over US $100 on this voucher we did not need.

After going between the Consulate and the local CitiBank branch we figured out that we could sell the voucher to someone else as long as the bank put a new name and number with the voucher (something like that, anyway). We did not catch anyone in line without a voucher before lunch time, so we decided that we would feed Kylie, and get something for ourselves as well.

At some point here, while we were waiting at the consulate, we saw the woman pictured above in line at the Consulate. Susana Vieira has been a famous actress for a long time here in Brazil, and is currently playing one of the leading characters in the prime-time novela "Duas Caras" (Two Faces, or Two Sides).

Since we were not allowed to take a camera into the consulate we did not even bother to take it with us. Otherwise we would have at least snapped a picture or two of her.

Then we decided that the best place to wait was the bank. We ended up waiting about a half hour there before someone came in to purchase what we wanted to sell. We felt fortunate and grateful that it only took that long, but were tired and wanted to get back to the apartment and rest. Kylie had a lot of fun flirting with the security guards there, though.

The subway ride back was uneventful, but we somehow got a bus that went the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. Once we discovered and corrected that error we got home safely, if not more than a bit worn from carrying Kylie—not to mention the stress of the day.

We rested, and made plans to visit Cristo Redentor (the Christ the Redeemer statue) the next day.

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day Three: The Medical Exam

There really is not much to report about the actual medical exam. We took the same bus as the day before with the same long trip (number 415, if you want to know) from Tijuca to Leblon. Because we got there a bit early the blood test was not ready, but we went ahead with the exam anyway.

Once the exam was over we still had to wait for the blood test to arrive, and because the results must be sealed by the doctor when the interview is done, we did not know anything until the interview. So we did some extensive window shopping on the second level of the building we were in. Things that were really cool but not marked with price tags—which communicates that sense of "this is out of your price-range."

As I said in the last entry, we thought maybe we could hit the beach that day after the appointment. We had a couple of things against us, though: It was raining when we finally got out of there, and Mark and Helen had found a place we could stay, and we needed to get our stuff together to move it. (Besides those things, seeing and smelling the water flowing in the drainage from the city again while on the bus re-enforced the desire not to visit the beach.)

Above is a picture of the outside of the building where we rented the apartment. This particular apartment is used by a missions organization to house short-term mission teams. So, while some of the furnishings were a bit tattered and used, it was well furnished. I think there were something like 12 beds and about 5 couches in the places. It has three large bedrooms plus servant's quarters.

Mark and Helen had plans for the evening, and so we decided it would be best to try to get there as soon after Nádya's appointment as possible. I am not sure what time we got on the bus, but I know it was before 5:00 PM. That bus ride took forever.

It was after 7:00 PM when we got there. They drove us and our bags to the new place (probably a whole three city blocks), and showed us around inside. It was immense. And it had water heaters! (Water heaters are not very common in Teresina because the climate is so warm hot that a cold shower is relaxing. I have missed hot showers, though.)

Even though it was a bit dusty from being dormant for a while this was one of our favorite things about our trip to Rio de Janeiro. It was cool during the day (Though a bit dark: Even at noon one needed to turn on the lights to see anything.), and really nice to be able to come and go as need arose without worrying about disturbing anyone.

The next day was Nádya's visa interview at the US Consulate.

I will leave you with a picture of Kylie and Nádya by a tree right outside the apartment, and there are a couple more pictures in the album:

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day Two: Blood and The Beach

We ended up staying with a missionary couple Sunday and Monday nights. They are professors at the nearby seminary, and great people. Mark and Helen took us in on very short notice, and we are very grateful. It was no small thing they did. It was more like a series of big things in the end.

I think they would have put up with us for the entire time we were there if they did not already have other plans. They were very gracious, and really bent over backward to help us out in our time of need.

Blood

In order to get the immigrant visa, one must submit to a rigorous medical exam that includes a blood test (or several, really). We had scheduled the exam for Tuesday so that the blood test would be ready by then, but we still had to go get the blood drawn.

We were staying in a neighborhood called Tijuca, but the place we needed to go was all the way over in Leblon. As the eagle flies, they are not that far away from each other, but none of us are eagles (or mountain climbers) so we took the bus.

The appointment was at 9:45 AM, so we left good and early at 8 AM to get there. There is a bus line that goes through both neighborhoods, so that is the one we got on. The problem was traffic, and lots of it.

We were a bit late, but the people were quite happy to take our money (and subsequently Nádya's blood) anyway. Once we got that over with, we wondered what to do next.

The Beach

Nádya's sister, Nyna, had been through this process only a month before, and had given us some advice on where to go. Turns out the beach is only two blocks away from the doctor's office where we were.

We could tell Kylie was getting hungry as we got to the walkway by the beach, so we sat down and fed her some of the soup she has been eating around lunch time. It was quite balmy. One of those just-about-perfect days. Not to hot, and not to cold with a nice sea breeze thrown in.

But as Kylie was finishing threatening rain clouds were starting to form over the granite hills that loom over Rio de Janeiro. No beach for us. Not today. Time to hit the bus stop and head "home." We thought maybe we would try to visit the next day after the appointment.

The bus ride home was faster because it was not rush hour, but it still took about an hour and a half because the bus winds through all the important neighborhoods it can. It rained off and on the whole way. Which made me glad we had not gone for a dip in the water as I saw that the gutter water from the city runs directly into the ocean there.

By the time we got to our destination the sun was shining (where we were, anyway), and we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading back to the apartment of our hosts. We had advised them that we planned to be back around three, and it was still only a bit past one. So they were not expecting to feed us.

We spent the afternoon resting, and I took some pictures of the area from the high vantage-point of the apartment. Mark said that he calls the living room window "the zoo" because one can see so many different things going on in the other apartments.

It was interesting to watch, but I could not escape the feeling that someone was watching me watch others. That was a bit odd.

There are several more photos from the day in our web album, but unfortunately we could not take the camera to the beach because we were to nervous about getting mugged (it is a pretty bulky camera). There are even a couple of pictures of Kylie in there.

Here is a panoramic view from their window (click the image for a larger version):

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day One: Getting There

To the Airport

The alarm went off. I sprang out of bed and as my feet hit the floor I wondered why it had gone off. Then, as the fog of sleep cleared I realized that it was time to head to Rio de Janeiro. It was raining hard (even for Teresina). I wondered how wet we would get in the process of loading the car with our suitcases.

Nádya and I got around, then had breakfast while Kylie slept. While I got our bags downstairs and out to the car Nádya got Kylie. She must have realized this was very odd behavior for us, as she completely woke up, and remained awake until we were on the plane.

It is only about five minutes to the airport from our house by car. Maybe less. The rain had subsided by the time we got there, which made unpacking the bags from the car a little easier.

After checking in and waiting for a bit the screens at the airport started telling us that our flight was delayed. Not by much, but it was enough that they decided that we needed to get boarding passes for the next flight moved back to the following flight. Unfortunately they only decided this after we had passed the security checkpoint. So we had to go back to the desk, get our boarding passes, then go back through security.

To Fortaleza

While I have taken so many flights that I gave up keeping track years ago, for Nádya and Kylie this was flight number one. Nádya was a bit nervous, but after a few jitters she grew accustomed to it and even liked it. Kylie was going about the business of getting some more sleep.

We landed in Fortaleza and had to wait for a bit for our next plane. In the mean time a family visiting from Portugal came over and started visiting with us—well, to be honest, the came over to visit with Kylie. We just delude ourselves into thinking that people want to talk to us when all they want is to talk with Kylie.

Kylie had the time of her life (she loves to see other children, and actually has taken to jumping and kicking when she sees them). There are some more pictures in our album from the day.

To Rio de Janeiro

From Fortaleza we were headed to Rio de Janeiro. But somehow we had either missed the note that we were stopping in Salvador, or we were not told. Sitting on the ground in Salvador, our flights were all running late, and we were tired and bored. Ripe time for a distraction or two.

Next thing we know we saw Patrícia Werneck coming down the asile of our plane. She is an actress who recently played a rather large part in a novela (soap opera). I had watched bits and pieces of the novela, so I immediately recognized her.

I, however, had forgotten about the Kylie factor. I figured she was headed toward the back of the plane where we were seated for any host of reasons except to talk with us. I was wrong. She had heard Kylie laughing and screaming (not crying, the happy screams), and wanted to meet her.

She said that Kylie "Looks like a Johnson's baby!" Gerber is not as big in Brazil as Johnson & Johnson, so it is like someone saying that she looks like a Gerber baby.

Patrícia Werneck seemed like a delightful person, and even though Kylie was not to excited about interacting with her (it was nap time again) she obliged our request to get a photo of her.

She left, and after a few minutes we saw another person we recognized from the novelas:

Caio Blat ended up in the chair right behind us. He too was interested in Kylie, but by this time she was pretty grumpy. I overheard him telling the flight attendant that he was very tired and just wanted to sleep. That he did. The entire flight he was sacked out in the chairs behind us.

I guess the two actors had been in a presentation of the Passion of Christ in Floriano (?) where Caio Blat had played Pontius Pilate, and Patrícia Werneck had played Mary Magdalene.

Arrival in Rio de Janeiro

One of the things we did not know about our trip is where we would stay. We knew that trying to afford a hotel was out of the budget range (buying the plane tickets there was about two-month's worth of income while on sale for half-price).

We had a promise, though, from one of the leaders of the Baptist Convention that goes to our church that we would be able to find a place if we went to the same seminary where Patrick and Nyna stayed. "If not at the seminary, then someone will find you a place. I promise."

Of course, it was 11 o'clock Easter Sunday morning when we arrived at the seminary, and nobody who knew anything about our situation was around. There was a group there who were cooking lunch, though, and they helped us contact someone who would know what to do. They even fed us, and gave us water (the last real meal we had had was at home in Teresina).

Stay tuned to find out where we ended up staying.

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

Going To Rio de Janeiro

It is almost 9 PM here in Teresina, which is late if you are getting up at 2 AM to be at the airport by 3 AM for a 4 AM flight to Rio de Janeiro. We are excited about many things about the trip, and nervous about a few. But we know it is all in God's hands and that those are good hands for it to be in.

We will have adventures to tell, and pictures to show when we get back (and maybe I can do some catch-up posts as well). The visa interview is scheduled for 7:45 AM on the 26th (Wednesday), but Nádya has some medical exams for the visa on the previous two days.

I will try to post here when we know something, but don't have any guarantees when it comes to the internet access.

An Afternoon In The Park

Toward the end of 2007 we first came into contact with Tim and Joyce Keliher. I think it was back when I preached at an English service here in Teresina. They are missionaries who help facilitate on-campus Christian groups. They don't lead the groups, they are there for support of the student-leaders of the groups.

It was a great afternoon, and the park is a pretty interesting place even if it is filled with ravenous mosquitoes. There were two things that stuck out among the mountain of photos we took that afternoon. (And we would have taken more, but the camera's battery died.)

The Iridescent Lizard

As we were hiking around the part of the park that leads down to the river a lizard that had been sunning itself scampered across the path. It was so cool looking that we had to find it to get some pictures. Fortunately it was not far off the path (we did not have to even leave the path), and we got some pictures.

It was about a half meter long, and my guess is that it was a chameleon of some sort. I have not seen anything like it before, so iridescent, so blue and green. So cool.

There are three more pictures of it in our photo album from the afternoon.

If you know more about this lizard than I do please comment!

The Birds

The tropical bird trade is huge business here, and a lot of it is not legal. As we were traipsing back toward the front of the park we passed a police station. Nádya asked if they still had a zoo exhibit a little further on. It turns out that there was not, but they did have some birds whose owners had been caught without bird-owning licenses, and would we like to see them?

The one above is a crested cardinal, and pretty rare from what they told us. The birds were there because it was the weekend, and IBAMA (the agency which evaluates and frees the birds who can be returned to the wild) is closed on the weekend. Again, there are more photos in our photo album from the afternoon.

One intriguing fact they told us was that the cages are crushed when the birds are handed over to IBAMA. I guess that is to discourage investment in such things. It really is not that uncommon to see someone riding down the street on a bicycle with a bird-cage. They are usually caught for their songs, which can be very beautiful.

Money In Brazil

This chart shows from mid-2004 when I first visited Brazil until today. The value of the United States Dollar has basically fallen off a cliff—at least when compared to the Brazilian Real—since then.

Unfortunately it has not seemed to make a huge difference in the way day-to-day life is lived. In fact, the price of a lot of things has gone up (groceries comes to mind).

I suppose the people this effects most are those who are paid in US Dollars. Foreign workers like missionaries, and people whose company has assigned them to Brazil, but still pay in Dollars.

An up-to-date, and interactive chart like the one above can be found at Google Finance.

Update: Here is another look at money in Brazil.

Kylie: Seven Months

Our little princess turned seven months old on Saturday, so we had the usual party. There were not as many in attendance because of various activities, but those who were there enjoyed it thoroughly.

It has been fun to see people's reactions to Kylie change over the last month, or so. When she was first born people would say things like, "Oh, she looks exactly like her dad!" That has been changing recently with more and more people saying she looks exactly like Nádya. She is growing and changing so much!

We took her to the doctor for her monthly checkup on Friday, and the doctor said everything looks fine. She will start teething soon (Well, she has already started chewing on nearly anything she can get her hands on.), and she gained 300 grams (0.7 pounds), and grew one centimeter (0.4 inch) since we were there three weeks ago.

Kylie had a great time getting her picture taken. Incidentally, she hardly ever automatically smiles for the camera—we usually have to coax that out of her, but it is not terribly hard to do. She actually loved the cake, and wanted to be close to it. In the picture above I am holding her back from diving in.

Singing? Clapping hands? Kylie loves them both. I think I have mentioned that she likes to dance, as well.

We sing the birthday song every month, and last night was no different, except that Kylie was kind of humming along. She is beginning to form words, and really recognizes when mom is talking to dad. She is even beginning to catch on to the concept of waving goodbye!

Of course, at the end of the night she is ready to go to bed. Saturday she tuckered out pretty early, so we were glad that we started the party a bit earlier than usual.

The following is just for a technical verification. You may ignore it. Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Teresina's Striking Sunsets

There are some things I will miss about living in when we move to the United States. One of them is the sunsets. Here are three shots of two sunsets I have taken in the past week.

These are all taken in the same place: An upstairs window in our house.

Taxes And The Economy In Brazil

I read a few blogs of fellow expatriates who live in Brazil, and ran across an interesting tid-bit that I have wanted to write up for a while. In fact I have been thinking of writing something like this for a while, but have put it off until now. I read the following yesterday:

Everything is taxed in Brazil, but it ain’t easy to find out what the tax is nor how much it is. The Governments needs [sic] to work on its “transparency”.

[From Expat American Living in Brazil]

So true. One of the things that initially got my thinking about this entry started was an article in a magazine called "Veja," which is kind of comparable to Time Magazine. The article has some great graphics showing the percentage of taxes one pays for a particular product (Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to see the complete graphic.)[1]. These taxes are already included in the product at the time of purchase, so they are "hidden."

In fact, I have heard of the government telling people that it is better for Brazil if they buy the smaller packages at the store. Why? Because buying a smaller package costs more than buying in volume; thus the consumer pays more taxes and the government gets more.

The article that precipitated this entry [2] as well as the one quoted above is from the Wall Street Journal, and is about a tax that got shot down in the Brazilian Congress. In the article is a chart called "Growth and Taxes" which is worth a look in and of itself.

The death of any tax anywhere in the world is good economic news, but in a country like Brazil it's only slightly less amazing than the fall of the Berlin Wall was to Eastern Europe.

This was a huge deal here, and a big dissapointment for Lula and his party. I didn't follow the story heavily, but I do remember hearing about it. Here are some interesting statistics from the article:

Dissatisfaction with government is already running high because of a string of corruption scandals that have damaged not only Lula's Workers' Party but also the Social Democrats. Now, the public discussion about taxes is highlighting the fact that the government's propensity to gobble knows no limits. In 2007, the economy grew at 5% while federal tax collection jumped 11.1% in real terms. From 1988-2007, real GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.5% -- while taxes as a percentage of GDP grew at 4.8% and the tax burden per capita grew at 3.3%.

I wonder what they do with all that money? Here are a few things I have noticed after living here for a while:

• There is "free" healthcare here for everyone (which is also a major issue in the US Presidential elections), but anyone who can purchases insurance because the hospitals are so bad.


• Also (and the article refers to this as well) the government creates jobs with this complex tax code—and other policies as well—and these jobs are often given as political favors.


• The jobs mentioned above can be "vapor-jobs" (my term); Jobs where the employee only has to report to work once in a while, and then only to say, "I am not coming in for x days." They still get paid a decent salary, though it would be better if they actually went to work—but wouldn't it be great to have a perma-vacation?

My opinion is that Brazil would be much better off without such heavy taxes, and raising the minimum wage. Less taxes means that businesses could afford more equipment, and the poor could afford things other than the bare necessities. Higher minimum wage would mean that the poor would be able to buy more (thus paying more in taxes).

So does all this make your upcoming check to the IRS a little easier to write? Maybe not. But it could be worse.

A note for those leaving comments: This can be a volatile issue; it is fine if you wish to disagree with me, just do it politely and in good taste or your comment will be mercilessly deleted. Also, if you comment anonymously I will be much more inclined to delete your comment.

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[1] The related article is available here, and I have also linked to Google's English translation here.

[2] Unfortunately this link may not work for long as I cannot find a way to perma-link to the story.

Photos: An Update From Teresina, Brazil

From Kylie's 5th Month

There have been a number of events since Christmas that we took photos of, some of which have been posted in our photo album. The above is from a trip we took to the mall to see the Christmas display (It was interesting, but not as interesting as other years.).

Here are some of the highlights:



Kylie has begun to sit on her own, and loves looking around and exploring the new vistas in that way.



About the same time she started sitting, she started gleefully giggling at certain things we do. There are a couple more like this in the album.



While waiting at the mall before another event (which I will write about shortly), we ran into some friends from church. Their daughter is one month older than Kylie. They were fast friends.



Nádya's brother, Júnior, came from Parauapebas, Para to spend Christmas and to ring in the New Year with us. Kylie loved the extra attention. ;)



While no teeth are showing yet, Kylie is definitely getting ready to teethe. She loves chewing on this little thing, or another toy that looks like a foot—or her own foot for that matter.

Oh, and since this is the first post of 2008: Happy New Year!